Chapter 8: Riddles Lead to Uncontrollable Associations

It was fortunate that Outcast's message did not contain any distress codes and included proof of identity. Otherwise, Kal'tsit would have suspected that Outcast's squad and Misery's squad had already met with disaster.

— "The content is fine. It's just a delay in returning to the island. That's understandable. Aren't ACE and SCOUT always wasting time with their pointless competitions? Let them go to the docks and receive Outcast."

After some thought, Kal'tsit decided it was best to be cautious. She assigned the two available elite operators to the lower docks to escort Outcast's team back. If something was truly wrong, ACE and SCOUT had more than enough capability to hold off any threat and send a warning.

She wasn't at all worried about the possibility of enemies infiltrating Rhodes Island. With S.W.E.E.P. stationed inside, any intruder wouldn't even realize what kind of nightmare they had walked into before it was too late.

Meanwhile, ACE and SCOUT, who had been lounging around in the hall, exchanged glances as their eyes gleamed with intrigue upon receiving Kal'tsit's orders.

If it was just a simple retrieval of returning operators, sending two engineering staff to oversee the opening and closing of the passage would have sufficed.

But they were being sent instead.

That meant something was wrong.

Kal'tsit wasn't sure exactly what, which was why she had dispatched them to verify the situation.

— "What mission was Misery on again?"

— "If I remember correctly, just a routine scouting operation. I checked the intelligence department's logs earlier—they sent a message not long ago saying they were delaying their return by half a day due to 'uncontrollable factors.'"

— "Hssss…"

— "Relax. With Outcast and Misery's skills, even if the Witch King himself showed up, they wouldn't go down without a fight. Since it's not a distress signal, it's probably just a mechanical breakdown or something mundane. Kal'tsit's just being overly cautious…"

— "Let's hope so."

As they chatted, the two led their freshly assembled squad to the underground passage connecting Rhodes Island to the outside world, swiftly setting up a defensive perimeter.

Even if Kal'tsit was being overly paranoid, as professional operators, they would never let their guard down.

At midnight sharp, a message came in:

Outcast's squad will be arriving at your checkpoint in thirty minutes.

The operators, who had been scattered around, immediately took their designated positions.

With a deep rumbling noise, the massive gates connecting Rhodes Island to the outside world slowly began to open.

The black void beyond the entrance stretched out like an abyss, threatening to swallow anything that entered.

A tense silence filled the air.

Then, a loud honk shattered the stillness.

The glow of headlights pierced the darkness as four vehicles neatly rolled through the passage, their engines humming steadily.

From the frontmost vehicle, a window rolled down, revealing Misery's grinning face.

— "Yo, ACE! SCOUT! What did you two do to piss off Kal'tsit? Seriously, pulling guard duty at midnight? That's rough."

Seeing Misery's laid-back attitude, ACE and SCOUT subtly relaxed.

This wasn't the demeanor of someone who had just barely survived a catastrophe.

Misery, meanwhile, glanced at the security measures around the area.

He wasn't surprised.

With Kal'tsit being the ever-paranoid control freak she was, this kind of reception was almost expected.

Honestly? He couldn't even blame her.