Chapter 129. Ashen Wastelands
Aiden wore his military uniform and walked out of his room. He followed the navigation on his military watch and arrived at the western district of the base. Very soon, he stood in front of the captain’s office.
He knocked on the door.
"Come in," a voice echoed from inside.
Aiden opened the door and walked into the office. Captain Peterson was sitting behind a large metallic desk. He looked up from his computer screen. When he saw Aiden, he revealed a professional smile.
"Private Aiden Vhorn. Welcome to Base C322," Captain Peterson said, standing up. "I have been reviewing your profile. Your performance and abilities as a warrior before your enrolment is highly praised. Because of your great potential, the higher-ups want to see what you can truly do."
Aiden’s eyes bore calm indifference. He simply nodded with a polite indifferent smile. The captain didn’t take offense.
Captain Peterson tapped his desk, and a holographic file projected into the air between them.
"Normally, new recruits are assigned to divisions in existing units. They are sent on normal and medium difficulty missions with their divisions till their track record proves they can handle high and hell difficulty missions. But you are a special genius," Captain Peterson said, his eyes narrowing slightly. "There is an active high-tier mission on the board that needs immediate attention. It is a deep-cleansing deployment into the Ashen Wastelands of Sector 3. There are ten sectors at the Frontlines. Each sector contains ten bases. Base C322 is one of the bases of sector 3."
Aiden looked at the holographic file. The mission difficulty was clearly marked in light red: High difficulty.
"The Ashen Wastelands are a massive, ruined territory stretching across our frontline sector," Captain Peterson explained. "It is a permanent breeding ground for extremely dangerous beasts. Right now, the beast population out there is nearing an overflow point. The environment is covered in thick volcanic smog, the terrain is treacherous, and there is severe energetic interference that cuts off all communications with the bases of sector 3. Your mission is to thin down the beasts in the Ashen Wastelands so that they don’t reach an overflow point and spread across sector 3.
Usually, we have to send multiple veteran squads to contain it."
The captain added, "But considering your unique capabilities, you are being assigned this mission . Do you have any objections, Private Vhorn?"
Aiden looked at the holographic file for a moment. He knew exactly why this captain was sending him to a suicide zone on his very first day. He already knew that Admiral DeepSea ordered this mission. It was a legitimate, textbook method to kill him without connecting anything back to him.
Aiden remained calm.
"No objections, Captain," Aiden replied politely.
Captain Peterson was slightly surprised by Aiden’s calm response, but he nodded quickly. "Good. The mission details and navigation coordinates have been sent to your military watch. You are dismissed."
Aiden saluted, turned around, and walked out of the office. Once he was outside in the hallway, a glint flashed through his eyes. DeepSea and the emperor thought they were sending him to his grave, but to him, a massive wasteland filled with chaotic beasts was nothing more than a perfect, isolated banquet. He could slaughter numerous chaotic beasts and absorb massive amounts of blood essence.
"About time I start increasing my strength," Aiden thought to himself as he walked toward the elevator.
****
Aiden applied some face altering cream on his face. His face changed into that of an average looking person. He knew assassins would be waiting for him the moment he was outside the base area of sector 3. He needed to be covert. He had to lose them.
Aiden left base c322. Following the Ashen Wastelands coordinates on his military watch, he passed through a normal looking forest. During this period, Aiden was very alert. Just because he had altered his face did not mean he would let his guard down. There was no way the industries that wanted him dead and the Order would send stupid assassins after him. He was scanning across the place for any hidden threats. However, there were no assassins in the forest.
He blitzed through the terrain with unnatural physical speed. Aiden did not manipulate his blood to form wings to hasten his speed. The purpose of the mask was to lose any assassins lurking in the shadows for him to appear. If he used his blood affinity now, they would identify him. If the assassins were rank 2 assassins, Aiden could handle them. But if they were rank 3 assassins and he exposed himself to them, he would be in big trouble.
Eventually, he arrived in mountainous terrain. The terrain was completely covered in snow. Blizzards swept across the place, causing his hair to sway and billow. It was currently night time. Aiden decided to scan across the terrain before he proceeded further.
This was when he saw a group of assassins lurking ahead in some valleys in the mountains.
"When is the target coming? Intel suddenly leaked that he’s headed through this route," someone said.
"We need to ensure that we split the share. The only reason why we are working with you guys is because Aiden Vhorn is too dangerous to take on alone. Who knows, he may not even be a rank 2 warrior anymore. He’s unpredictable."
"Same for us. But did you hear the rumor?"
"What rumor?"
"It’s circulating across the Assassin Organisations. Some high ranked assassin was sent after him. Aiden Vhorn extracted some useful information about the organization that sent the assassin and the industry that placed the bounty on him from the assassin. After that he killed him!"
"Really? We are all trained to withstand torture. What did he do to the fellow for him to crack and spill out the secrets of his organisation?"
"Sigh... this explains why we’ve all been fed detonative implants. The moment we decide to spill any secrets about who sent us or who placed the bounties on us, we will explode!"
"Yeah that’s why! This Aiden is just too troublesome. Seriously, if not for the fact that I needed a large amount of money to peacefully retire, I wouldn’t have taken on this job."
Aiden listened to their conversation carefully.
"Looks like the industries and assassin organizations are taking precautions. I can no longer interrogate any assassins I kill for Intel on who sent them. The moment they try to spill out secrets, their detonative implants will explode and they will die," Aiden mused quietly. "That’s not a problem. I will just assume all the conglomerates that sent me offers want to kill me. All the assassin organizations too are assumed active bounty hunters."
Since it had come to this, Aiden planned to absorb the blood essence of all the memvers of the assassin organizations and industries across the empire that sent him offers recently in the future.
"Those assassins hiding over there are beginner rank 3 assassins. I can’t take them on," Aiden covertly passed a different route.