Chapter 20: Force of Reinforcements

There were still over twenty soldiers hanging around, and from the noise outside, it sounded like they were bringing in more reinforcements. They were going to overwhelm us with sheer numbers eventually.

Even the energy shield generator could only take so much punishment before it overloaded and flickered off. Before then, it was possible that the soldiers would do a kamikaze charge and pass right through the barrier. The only reason why they hadn't was because they hadn't figured out that they could pass through it and none of them was suicidal enough to throw themselves at a barrier capable of disintegrating projectiles.

Fortunately, they didn't know that they could pass through as long as they traveled less than 15 meters per second. As to why the shield was designed that way, it was the limits of technology. Also, that would cause the poor Titan to sink through the ground because it would disintegrate from the energy shield, thus make it impractical because of the footing becoming impossible. Not to mention, it was also meant to allow allies into the umbrella of protective energies or pick up stationary objects while keeping the shield on.

"Given the ruckus they are causing, I'm sure someone will have overheard by now and contacted the police. I hope."

"I hope so too, but I wouldn't put too much hope on that." I ejected a spent power cell from my plasma torch and slotted in another. "But if they went to the extent of jamming phone signals, it is possible that they have already considered that eventuality and taken measures to prevent the authorities from coming."

"Damn it…then what should we do?"

"Fight bitterly to the end."

"That's your solution?!"

"You got a better idea?"

William paused and thought for a while. He fired off another stream of plasma to discourage a trio of charging soldiers. One of them disappeared in the superheated flash of bluish-white energy and the other two dove desperately for cover. Lowering his makeshift weapon, he glanced at me.

"Maybe Lily Ling will come save you." He took aim again, but didn't fire off recklessly because he knew it was important to conserve ammunition. "She'll come with her Shadow Guard or whatever, and get us out of this spot."

"Huh?" I gaped at him. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I mean, you're the male main character and she's the female lead. In these CEO stories, isn't it the job of the female lead to save the main character whenever he's in a pinch? That's how the trope works, right? No matter how competent the main character, the author must nerf her so that the male lead will come save her…so that it will be romantic and justify her falling for him. I know the genders are reversed in this reality, but since you're the main character, it's now the female lead's job to save you!"

"What the fuck are you rambling about?" I stared at William as if he had gone crazy. Did the combat stress get to his head or something?

���But…but isn't that always the case!?"

"If you want to rant about CEO stories and male leads saving the female main characters all the time, then you might as well believe we have plot armor and that there's nothing these morons can do to kill us."

"You're the one with the plot armor because you're the main character! I'm just a side character! Unlike you, I don't have plot armor!"

I gave up and stopped arguing with him. This guy had gone mad…probably from the trauma of combat. Nothing he said made any sense.

Shaking my head, I returned my attention to a charging soldier, who was yelling as he fired from the hip. I took his head off with a plasma burst before he could come within range of the energy shield. His headless body crumpled onto the floor, his weapon sliding from the momentum.

Fortunately, I had taken that into account and eliminated him before either his body or weapon could skid toward the barrier from the momentum and pass through it. It would be dire if the remaining soldiers noticed that something from the outside could pass through the barrier in one piece (relatively, I meant).

There were about fifteen soldiers left…and more were flooding in through the door.

"You've got to be kidding me!" William exclaimed, frustrated. I nodded, swearing under my breath. Just when we had finally thinned out the enemy, they decided to double their numbers.

And we didn't have many power cells left.

"Whoa!"

One of the soldiers collapsed, blood staining his armor and black clothing. Another five were killed outright, not knowing what hit them, before the twenty-four or so soldiers spun around.

Caught between the Shen Industries' two-man team and the new assailants who were approaching from behind, the enemy was dispatched easily. The black-garbed soldiers fell, their bodies riddled with bullets or cauterized craters punched into them by precise laser beams. A new group rushed in, but this time they were dressed in the familiar camouflage fatigues that the military used for urban operations.

"Now that's the real military," I muttered.

"They saved us!" William blinked in surprise, lowering his plasma torch. "The army came to save us!"

The new platoon swooped into the warehouse, bringing their rifles up and sweeping the place for any sign of survivors on the foes' side, but found none. They established their perimeter and one of them approached me. Judging from his epaulets, I knew he was a colonel.

"Colonel." I saluted. He looked a little stunned, and then waved my salute away.

"Are you all right, sir?"

"Yeah." I realized the energy shield generator was still on, which was why the colonel was keeping a respectful distance. I switched it off and approached him. I stopped a couple of meters away and bowed politely. "Thank you for saving us."

"Yeah," William agreed, looking around. "You really pulled us out of the fire."

"I hope we weren't too late." The colonel looked sheepish. ��We only just received information that your office was under attack and had to scramble a platoon to rescue you. It took some time."

I shook my head. "No, you came just in time. Thank you, Colonel."

"I'm Colonel Carl Chan." the commanding officer stretched a hand out and I accepted it, shaking his hand. His grip was firm, as befitting a soldier. "I'm really glad we made it, sir."

He glanced at the shield generator, frowning.

"I think these guys were after your latest toy."

"Do you know who they are?" William asked, approaching one of the corpses. The soldiers were standing guard over the fallen foe, still vigilant, and a few of them were inspecting the warriors in black.

"Not yet, but we'll find out." Colonel Chan scowled grimly and nodded toward his soldiers. William knelt by one of them and picked up the carbine he was holding.

"Manufactured by Han Industries," he growled. He studied the body further, moving an arm. "The armor too. All of it is made by Han Industries. I guess we have a suspect."

"Doesn't necessarily mean anything." I had joined him in kneeling and inspecting the corpses. "The military also uses weapons manufactured by Shen Industries. This is just circumstantial evidence, it's not enough to prove their guilt or involvement."

As much as I disliked Justin Han, I wasn't the type to fling about accusations carelessly. Not until I had solid evidence backing up my claims.

"We'll definitely investigate and find out who it is. If it's Han Industries, then we'll bring them to justice."

Even though I wanted to believe Colonel Chan, I doubted it was that simple. Han Industries was a major supplier and manufacturer for the military, producing the Astra exosuits for them among other things. If they were involved, even the top brass of the military, such as the generals, might not be able to take action.

Not without incurring major losses for themselves.

Unless I replaced Han Industries as a supplier and create a superior series of exosuits. I doubted that would be possible until very much later, when I expanded my company beyond just two people and gained more contracts and employees. For now, I had to focus on surviving. Not just my life, but also in a business sense.

Obviously I couldn't do business while my life was being threatened. And on top of being kicked out of the warehouse I had rented for over a year, it had been invaded and assaulted.

"What are the chances that Bo Corporation hired these soldiers?" I asked, suddenly remembering who bought the warehouse and forced us out despite it being against the law.

"Ah, right! Benjamin Bo is another prime suspect!" William growled. Then he frowned and shook his head. "But that makes no sense. Benjamin Bo wouldn't use mercenary soldiers, would he? He will be using gangsters and his connections to the underworld instead."

"But if he does that, it'll be too obvious that he's behind all this…then again, that hasn't stopped him from using underground gangs and secret societies in the past, so you're right. It's not his modus operandi."

"Not only that." William raised a finger. "His actions don't make sense. Why would he bother to buy out this warehouse and kick us off the place when he was going to send in a platoon of mercenaries to kill us tonight?"

My secretary had a point. If Benjamin Bo meant to kill us with mercenaries, his actions this morning – buying out the warehouse and forcefully evicting us – were completely unnecessary. No, it was completely contradictory. If he wanted to hire mercenaries to murder us both, it would benefit him more to allow us to stay within the warehouse so that we would still be in there when the attack happened, not to kick us out of it and missing the opportunity to kill us when the mercenaries raided the place.

"Sir."

Colonel Chan had been speaking to the coms earlier – his men had located the jamming device and destroyed it, thus opening up communications once again – and now he had apparently received new orders.

"In the light of this attack, General Goh wishes to offer you a place for you to conduct your research and production of the energy shield generator. He asks if you wouldn't mind working inside a military camp. It's also a lot safer there, with more security."

William and I exchanged glances and I nodded.

"Thank you, Colonel. We appreciate it. Which military camp is General Goh suggesting?"

"The one in District Xi. We'll send over a tonner truck tomorrow and a platoon of soldiers to help you move everything into the camp."

"Thanks. That will be a great help."

"Well," William said as Colonel Chan turned away to bark orders at his men. "That solves our problem regarding finding a new office and new place."