First Mission

"So you successfully recruited the boy?"

A deep voice was heard as the man bowed in front of him.

"Yes sir."

"Good, good. His technology can help us advance ours by leaps and bounds. We cannot let him defect to another faction. Do anything you need to do to keep him in here. You can even let him take items from our treasury if need be."

"Alright, sir. But are you sure that he won't abuse our goodwill and use it to knock us off our feet senseless?"

"If that happens, we will take him out, no questions asked, even if he still has the technology we require."

The man bowed once more before exiting the room where the voice had spoken from.

**************************

Wade woke up from his bed in a daze. He had dreamed once more but instead of the familiar burning silhouette, there were three men. His vision was clear and not as blurry as it was before. One of the men was bald and was dressed in a white robe. He looked like an ancient monk. The second man wore a knight's armor from the medieval age but instead of the typical silver, it was white. He held a lance with a sword at his waist and a shield on his back. The third one looked like the second man but instead of wearing pure white armor, he wore black armor.

However, there was one small detail, Wade noticed. In between the two men, there was a slight wall at most being a centimeter apart. One side was silver and the other red. It was as if the wall symbolized the balance between the two men.

"Hmm. I have better things to do than ponder over a premonition or a dream."

He shoved the thought out of his mind as he took a shower and ate some breakfast before taking out a pen and a piece of paper.

"So. Let's see what we have to do today. We first have the Mercenary Association, then the new company, and finally improving and taking the designs of the market's guns."

He scribbled a few words before sliding it into his pocket. He walked to his machinery room before disassembling a Glock 19 and placing each part on the table.

'Each part holds a purpose in the gun. However, what if I change a certain part to be a bit more powerful than the other. Of course, the balance would be broken. I would have to strengthen each part individually' he thought as he replaced a few parts with modified parts that he had created with various metals.

As Wade pieced the parts together, it slowly started to form a pistol. However, he wasn't satisfied with the end result. He once again disassembled the parts before shortening and elongating a few different pieces until the result was satisfactory.

He stepped into the weapon room and shot 10 shots at a target about 30 meters away and as Wade checked the target sheet, he was quite surprised. The power and range had been drastically increased and he had even increased the magazine size in the process.

The moment Wade practiced a few shooting techniques, he started to realize how light it truly was for a modified pistol that would soon become a new pistol on its own. It was about the same weight as the Glock 19 albeit a bit heavier.

With brimming confidence, he decided to visit the Mercenary Association and discover what it was all about. Whenever he carried around a weapon, he felt a bond with it. As long as the item could be a weapon, he felt safe and confident. Wade hadn't come up with a name for his new pistol but that could be left to Hal later on but he named it the Seeker. Wade chose that name since he felt his bullets would be able to seek anyone out with his level of shooting expertise. It was a name worthy of the weapon.

'This pistol has the bond I feel. It has the potential to be a good weapon with its range and power. However, this feeling makes me more reckless than usual. But what can recklessness do against the face of absolute power?'

This was what Wade thought as he slid the pistol into his back pocket before grabbing a nearby leather jacket and heading out of the bunker once more.

*********************

As he arrived at the restaurant called Mercenary's Plate, he looked around in curiosity. It was quite an abandoned district with only a few buildings around and little to no cars around.

He steadied his hand and opened the door only to be greeted with shouts, cheers, and the clinking of glasses. Many people sat inside discussing various things seriously or drinking beer to their heart's content. It was quite the sight to see.

Wade navigated through the tables while tactfully avoiding beer spills on the floor and other liquids that he couldn't identify at a glance. He walked up to the waitress and as she looked up with annoyance, handed her the gold token that the man had given him before.

The waitress immediately changed her facial expressions as she led him through a door toward a stone staircase leading downward. As they reached the edge of the staircase, she bowed her head before leaving quietly.

Wade looked toward her departing back while glancing toward the dark staircase. He steadied himself for anything that appeared as he grabbed his pistol and slowly put his foot on the first step downward.

He quickly reached the bottom and he briefly saw a light before his eyes were blinded with flashing lights.

Wade immediately leaped backward as a sword appeared where his chest was before. He drew his pistol out and almost fired into the man's head before a voice stopped him.

"No need. We don't need to test a B-tier recruit with the invitation pass. He's already proven his worth when he killed Mr. Haltion and Mr. King."

A man in a suit stepped out and Wade switched his gun's target from the man who attacked him with a sword to the man in the suit.

"What'd you attack me for? A test? I've seen tests that are sicker but what's the point when you even gave me a damn invitation."

"Sorry. It's just standard protocol to test anybody for their ranking whether they have a pass or not. I've forgotten to tell our guard here about our new policy. People who get invitations don't need to be tested."

"I see. Well, are you going to show me your Association's missions?"

"Of course. However, we only post missions that are cleared by the government and the mercenaries posting them so you won't see them anywhere else."

Wade rolled his eyes as he felt like he was being treated like a child learning something new.

"I know."

"Here's our mission tablet. It automatically updates itself whenever new missions are posted and when missions are completed. Just message the poster of the mission and if he agrees to you doing his mission, then it will be considered as a half-completed mission and nobody else will be able to accept the same mission unless it has some sort of special requirement. Got it?"

"Easy peasy."

Wade was handed a sleek black tablet that had many missions in a lined paper format. He scrolled through the tablet before stopping at one.

[Assassinate Samantha King]

[Posted by Pedro Rift]

[Description = Dead or alive, bring her back to me, preferably dead. I don't care how you kill her as long as it gets the job done, I'll pay you.]

[Reward = 1,500,000 USD]

[Time Limit = 1 year]

[Accept/Decline]

He tapped [Accept] before receiving a register notification. He glanced at the man in the suit before looking back to the tablet.

"It's fine. We don't take personal information. We only require skill. Give us your preferred nickname and how we can contact you and that's all."

"Then that's fine."

Wade entered his in-game username in Second World Online as his nickname before adding in the phone number of the phone in his pocket. He registered before accepting the same mission again and this time, it worked flawlessly. It had sent a request to the poster of the mission, Pedro Rift.

A few minutes later, a reply came in. He was allowed to assassinate Samantha King now. Personally, Wade had chosen this mission because he knew Samantha's personality like the back of his hand as well as assassinating her father before.

Wade would be able to get rid of future revenge attempts from her as well as earn some money in the process. He would be knocking down two birds with one stone.

"You can keep the tablet by the way. It's quite useful when you're somewhere convenient to complete a mission if I do say so myself. I also remember offering you a free room. I'll show you the room personally before you leave."

The man in the suit offered him a black backpack with a new tablet inside. Wade grabbed the backpack before slinging it across his back.

"Show me my room please."

"Follow me."

The man in the suit led Wade further down the bright tunnel. As they reached the end, a few dirt roads appeared as well as 3 tall buildings connected to them.

"You may think these buildings may attract attention but they're the government's property. We secretly bought it from them so we could keep their protection as well as house our fellow mercenaries."

"I see."

"Cmon. I'll show you to your room."

Wade followed the man down the dirt road as he led him toward the nearest building. When they reached the building, the man asked the receptionist to mark a room for him and as she did that, Wade and the man rode the elevator to the 3rd floor.

"There are about 50 floors in each building. I'm not sure how many rooms are housed per building but it's certainly double the mercenaries we have here in our district."

"Good to know."

As their small talk advanced, they reached Wade's room. The man pulled out two keycards and handed one to Wade before unlocking his room with the other.

As Wade walked into his new room, he felt refreshed. Living in his bunker all the while was relaxing but not relaxing enough to keep him refreshed. Inside his room was the typical style of a hotel room but more exquisite. Instead of a single bed, it was as large as a double king size one, and the bathroom was almost the size of a regular bedroom by itself.

"This is one of our VIP B-class rooms. I hope you enjoy it."

"I certainly do. And thank you."

"It's not a problem. You help us by being our mercenary anyhow."

The man left while Wade sat down on his bed. It was certainly comfy as he sunk down a few inches when he sat down.

"This room certainly will be something I'll enjoy for the time being. At least while I'm here" murmured Wade as he thought up the next thing he would do.

"Hmm. I wonder how it would feel if I played some Second World Online with Hal instead of going solo all the time. Let's try it."

Wade took a shower and changed before spending another hour pondering his thoughts as he lied on his bed in a bathrobe. He decided to stop wasting time and tried to sleep as he stroked his necklace.

A few minutes later the crimson glow appeared once more and as it enveloped Wade, the tattoo on his back absorbed the crimson energy surrounding him. The necklace started pouring out large amounts of energy to fully cover Wade but the tattoo absorbed all that came onto it. It had been in hibernation for a couple of days since it had awakened but now it needed food. Energy. The necklace slowly won the battle as the tattoo had eaten its fill of the crimson energy. As the tattoo's light dimmed, the red glow once again surrounded Wade and pulled him in one more.

"Welcome to Second World Online."

The familiar female voice resounded in Wade's ears as he fell into the empty space.