The Martial Unity

Rui’s eyes widened at his words as he pondered about them. It didn’t seem implausible given what Kane described, but it didn’t match his earlier deductions. The research facility was absolutely researching something related to Martial Art. Rui was quite certain about that. Either Martial Art techniques or trainings or something like that, or something that was a threat to Martial Art fundamentally.

(‘Human enhancement isn’t exactly that much of a threat to Martial Art directly.’) Rui mused. This was especially true because there already were extremely rare and high-grade esoteric resources that could be used to create a permanent enhancement potion. This was a generally a field that the Martial Union would not involve itself in, this was more the Royal Family’s business.

So, what exactly did all the mass experimentation on humans that Kane saw have to with Martial Art?

Rui sighed, shaking his head. He had far too little information. Furthermore, he was just trying to satisfy his curiosity to some extent, knowing the purpose of the research facility was not something that was necessary for the completion of the mission.

“Tell us more about the security floor.” Rui told him.

“Right.” Kane nodded as he began explaining his observations.

The security floor served as the gateway to the actual research facility, the only way down was through an elevator stand. As Rui had suspected, there was indeed a communication terminal on that floor through which verification messages for shipments were sent.

“When I entered the security floor initially after the hatch was open, the comms guy operated it to send a message after the documents were verified.” Kane explained.

“Hm.” Rui nodded. “Then we cannot begin our operation until after the shipment verification message is sent. However, as soon as it is sent. The device needs to be destroyed by you, Kane. Which means that you’ll need to be at the security floor when we launch our ambush.”

“What about the communications of the research facility down below? Kane cannot be two places at once.” Hever told him.

“Hmmm…” This was indeed a problem.

He turned to Kane. “Does sound from the security floor reach the research facility easily? Could they hear a commotion from all the way down below?”

“No way.” Kane shook his head. “There’s too much of a distance of pure solid ground between the security floor and the research facility.”

“Good.” Rui nodded. “Then we’ll have you wait in the security floor when the ambush happens.”

Rui explained the plan of hijacking the shipment supplies and launching an ambush after the documents were verified to Kane.

“I see, so you want to wait for the message to be sent to launch the attack so that no suspicion will be raised.” Kane nodded. “That means I have to destroy the communication terminal and the operators immediately after the message is sent?”

“That’s right.” Rui replied. “We’ll hijack the shipment convoy, show them the documents that the shipment convoy original had once we arrive, as soon as the verification is done and the verification confirmation message is sent by the operator, you need to destroy them and then we launch an ambush immediately. We cannot launch an ambush before they send the confirmation message because if the confirmation message is not sent, an investigation will be launched at some point. It’s too risky.”

“Got it. That’s a pretty solid plan. What happens after the message is sent and we launch the ambush and successfully take the security floor?” Kane asked.

“You said that no commotion on the security floor could be detected from the research facility directly.” Rui reminded. “That means even if we slaughter the security floor, the research facility would not immediately learn of it on the spot at that very moment. Which means we can straightforwardly take the elevator down and conduct a second ambush. The fact that the security floor and the research facility are this isolated was a design decision that will ultimately bite them in the ass.”

“So after we ambush and take the security floor, we just straightforwardly take the elevator down?” Kane asked, scratching his head.

“Do you know of any other entrance?”

“No.” Kane admitted. “It just seemed like a pretty simple plan.”

“Simplest plans have the highest likelihood of succeeding.” Rui told him.

“Ok, so what happens when we take the elevator down and actually reach the research facility?” Fae asked.

“After that the plan is straightforward.” Rui admitted. “We just take out as many people as possible as fast as possible. Though Kane, you need to disable communications and kill the leaders. Once you do that, their inability to call for help and the chaos will work in our favour.”

“What about the Martial Apprentices?” Fae asked.

“You, Hever and Nel will take down the three Martial Apprentices who will run into us. We know that their grade isn’t particularly high so the three you of should be able to win handily, in the worst-case scenario, I’ll come to help though that almost certainly won’t happen.” Rui reassured.

“And the grade-ten Martial Artist?” Kane asked.

“I’ll take him on for sure.” Rui nodded. “In which case, you keep an eye on the other fights. Cleaning up comms and a few ordinary humans won’t take much time with your speed. In the worst case, you might need to back me up if the grade-ten Martial Artist is too much for me.”

None of them believed that Rui would need help, but Rui wanted to be sure anyway. Just a single mistake could be the difference between life and death.

They began fleshing the plan out. Considering different possibilities and outcomes, creating contingencies while optimizing the plan to suit all of the information that Kane had managed to gather from his reconnaissance infiltration into the research facility. Thankfully, the Void Step technique was perfect for reconnaissance and Kane had managed thoroughly gather all the information that was needed thanks to it. Thus, they were able to create the best plan they possibly could.

Soon, only the execution of the assault was left.