Chapter 674 - The Hunt Begins!
Most mercenaries and soldiers in the base didn't watch the trial or the news related to it in the past month since they were all busy dealing with the invasion.
No one had the free time to entertain himself with videos of other mercenaries when they were in a state of war.
If it wasn't for so, some of them would have recognized Felix before he even took a step inside the floor.
Now that they found out about his identity, they wasted no time to search information about him.
What came up was his trials highlights, mercenary rank, the accepted mission, and the squad he created.
The moment some of the mercenaries saw that he was all alone in his squad, they completely forgot about their fear.
'My contract with my squad is over already. I can ditch them and join Sir Lance's squad.'
'A new squad led by an Origin Bloodliner! This is big! If I joined early, he can make me an executive!'
'Should I migrate my entire squad and join him? We are ten elites with long years of partnership, I doubt he will reject us.'
The mercenaries thought process had completely shifted to wanting to join Felix's squad!
They knew that it was a lifetime opportunity since every Origin Bloodliner in the guild was part of the five big squads.
Those squads already had an intense competition between the mercenaries to climb the ladder.
Meanwhile, Felix's squad was still fresh and without a ladder! Anyone who joined would be one of the founders of the squad!
Without a second wasted, some mercenaries bolted towards the elevator!
They had already found out about Felix's room number and were heading towards it.
Unfortunately for them, Felix didn't return to his room nor did he plan on doing so for the next couple of months.
Right now, he was already driving an armored hover vehicle outside the base.
Since the planet lacked oxygen, Felix was wearing a pitch-black thin space suit made out of nanobots.
'Queen, give me the current state in Malaria Zone.' Felix requested as he drove ten meters above the crimson hellish desert.
'There are one hundred and twenty active squads that are spread throughout a 3000 km radius. More than fifty squads had already perished or retreated back to the base. On the other hand, a thousand void creatures had been eliminated successfully.'
'It's that bad, huh?'
Felix shook his head at the results, not liking them one bit.
Fifty A/S ranked squads perished or retreated? That's way too many fatalities, especially when those squads were led by veteran hunters.
The worst part, only one thousand void creatures got killed? Based on Felix's intel, the Malaria Zone was infested with three big ass minor cells. Each cell should have more than two thousand void creatures merged.
So, all that efforts and fatalities, yet the results were merely taking care of half a cell?
'If it's this bad in this zone, I don't want to think about the other zones.' Felix smiled bitterly as he thought, 'This planet might be really doomed after all.'
Felix stopped thinking about disheartening matters and focused on his journey.
Right now, he was still traveling in the green area that was around the base.
The green area simply represents the maximum range of the defensive weapons on the base.
Any void creature getting close would get blasted from the face of the planet.
...
While Felix was driving the vehicle at its fastest speed towards the Malaria Zone, The Fang and his children were gathered in front of another base that was situated on the other side of the planet.
"Ronan, I want you to lead your crew in Egunt Zone. We are slowly losing control of it." The Fang ordered.
"Consider it done father." Ronan nodded his head firmly and moved right away.
"Little Fay, I want you to handle Malaria Zone. Take Wolverine with you." The Fang commanded as he looked at his sole daughter and youngest child.
"Got..."
"I don't need a babysitter father!" Before Fay could respond, Wolverine interrupted with a displeased look.
"Silence." The Fang frowned his eyebrows at him and said, "This is your first mission and I will be a fool if I let you lead a team in it."
"You don't have to worry about me!" Wolverine retorted, "You saw my performance in the trials!"
"I am not worried about you." The Fang glared at him, "I am worried that you will get our people killed by your incompetence."
"So let me roll solo! Isn't that showoff Lance doing the same right now?" Wolverine barked, still admitted at hunting alone.
He had been waiting for this day for so long, and he didn't want it to be ruined by his sister taking all the credit.
He was this eager to show what he got for one reason.
He didn't like it one bit that Felix had stolen the show in the trials, making him almost invisible just like the other recruits.
When he finished the trials after hunting five void packs, he assumed that he would be greeted by congratulations and cheers in the pub.
After all, he was the first 'A' ranked new recruit in the guild.
Sadly, the situation didn't go as he fantasized due to Felix's previous performance. The worst part, even his father didn't pay him much attention after he passed the trials.
All he spoke about was recruiting Felix at all cost and even assigned his daughter to seduce him if possible.
That's why he sent her to Malaria Zone since he wanted them to meet each other.
"Just let me try fath.."
Smack!
Unfortunately for Wolverine, Fay didn't have the same patience as their father.
She slapped him in the back of his neck out of nowhere, making him pass out in an instant before he could argue for himself.
Then, she carried him on her shoulder and nodded her head at The Fang, "Be at ease, I will keep a close eye on this troublemaker."
"Good, and don't forget your mission." The Fang nodded his head at her.
"I will try my best." Fay said firmly but in her mind, she was cursing, 'This old geezer even want to use me as a honeypot trap. He is really far gone in his agendas.'
'Whatever, I will put the minimum effort in interacting with that man. old geezer can't blame me if that man doesn't show interest in me.' Fay smirked faintly as she walked away while carrying Wolverine.
"As for the rest of you." The Fang looked at his oldest three sons, the pillars of his family, and said, "You know what to do."
....
Three hours later...
Felix could be seen standing above his armored vehicle while surveying below him with his void eye.
He had just crossed over the Malaria Zone, and he had already met two void packs hiding deep underneath the soil.
Unfortunately, they were at least ten kilometers underground, making Felix doubtful if they could even notice him.
'Turn right.' Felix requested from the Queen after seeing that the two packs had gone to separate ways.
He decided to chase the one with the three elite void creatures on the lead unlike the other that had only one elite.
'Queen, lower the altitude to the bare minimum.' Felix asked while crouching on the vehicle's roof.
Unfortunately, even after the vehicle was hovering only one meter above the ground, the void pack still didn't pay any attention to Felix and continued on its journey.
'Hmm, it must be attracted to something.' Felix reasoned.
To make sure of it, he lifted his bandana and activated quantum vision. Then, he zoomed in the direction of the void pack.
'No wonder.'
Before long, Felix managed to spot a small camp made out of five giant tents and seven hover vehicles parked at the side.
Inside the camp, he saw more than fifteen red humanoid auras with his infrared vision.
They seemed to be discussing something as they sat in a circle inside the biggest tent.
'Must be two squads.' Felix requested, 'Queen, inform me of the squads' names and their details.'
The Queen obliged and showed him two holographic screens, each one filled with details of a squad.
"The Sinners and The Rejected." Felix murmured the squad's names while checking on their members, achievements, clearance rate, and other information.
This was possible since every squad had signed the army contract, making them treat each other as allies within the planet even if they were their worst enemies outside.
Since they were allies, it was only normal to have the ability to locate and contact each other quite easily to offer back up.
Though, the moment someone nearby asked for another squad location, that said squad would be notified by the Queen.
That's why Felix avoided using the Queen's GPS system and relied on his vision.
'Such a massive void pack should be easily noticeable by device or a mercenary with good detection ability.' Felix decided with a faint smile, 'So they won't die from the ambush.. There is no need to waste such a good bait.'