Vrrrr! The cargo bay trembled as the plane flew through a cumulous cloud. In his black Infiltrator, Suzuki ignored the tremors, instead fixing his gaze on his teammates. "Final drop, everyone. Let's make this count." With those words, he pushed a button on the wall, causing the bay doors to fall open. The cabin's pressure quickly dropped as trapped air violently rushed outside, pulling all they could with them.

Kachak! Everyone engaged their magboots (magnetic boots) to resist the pull. Aside from the first time when Suzuki teased them, every deployment used the rear bay door. They were more than used to the routine.

"Alright. In order of deployment. Jade, you're up first."

"Got it." Jade reduced the magnetic pull in her boots and then stepped forward. "Count me down."

Suzuki nodded, appreciative of Jade's confident gait. There was a stark difference between the girl here and the one two days ago. Jade was living proof that there was no more prominent confidence builder than constant, relentless practice. A brief flash in his HUD alerted Suzuki of their proximity to the first drop zone. He glanced at Jade. "All checks complete?"

Jade nodded as she patted the large RDK unit strapped to her back. "Just ran a third diagnostic check. There are no problems."

"Alright then. Power down."

Jade nodded, and the lights on her suit instantly turned off. Similarly, her magboots turned off, but she had already grabbed the wall for support.

"Drop in Three.... Two.... One.... Go!"

"See you on the flip side!" Jade shouted as she ran and then jumped out of the plane. Naturally, she would not hear any replies since her radio was switched off, but Suzuki's microphone picked up her voice.

"See you soon," reciprocated Suzuki before calling the rest forward. "We're next. Dropping in two. All checks complete?"

"All checks complete," they chorused in unison.

"Alright. Let's finish this."

***

While the rest prepared for their descent, Jade gulped as she plummeted through the clouds. The young woman's fear only surfaced momentarily before her brows furrowed with determination. She had done this many times already. There was nothing to be scared of.

Jade tucked her arms to her side, increasing her descent speed as she pierced through the clouds. Within seconds, she cut through the clouds and saw a mountain range lit by a structure with multiple satellites.

"Bingo." Jade widened her arms and legs to increase her wind resistance and slowed her rate of descent. While falling, she read the bioluminescent altimeter on her wrist. Once she reached an appropriate altitude, she pushed a button and wound a dial on the RDK. Compressed air from the RDK shot out of her suits, the pressure slowing her speed. But not all at once, else she could suffer internal injuries.

Still looking at her watch, Jade slowly increased the dial as she neared a mountain peak. The increasing pressure continuously arrested her speed until she reached equilibrium with the earth's gravity when she was only two meters off the ground. The floating Jade grinned triumphantly and then reduced the RDK's output, allowing her to right her stance as she fell like a leaf.

"Successful drop." Jade happily pronounced once her feet touched the ground. She detached the RDK and then said, "Power on." A familiar HUD inundated her sight as the Gladiator came online and completed its diagnostics checks.

"Diagnostics complete. All Systems Online."

"Thanks, Suzy." Jade thanked the suits in-built AI and then charged up the hill toward the communications base at the highest peak. For the practice session, Suzuki did not populate the base. He surmised practising the infiltration with their respective teams would be better.

Jade could not complain. She quickly went to the communications base and then waited for five minutes. She did not put much stock in the current base layout because Akiyo sent her a message saying they had gotten their hands on the actual base's blueprint. The current one was only a placeholder.

Fortunately, Jade did not have to wait much longer. She received a call from the extraction team.

"Operative Yuhi. We will be making a pass at 2230 hours. Can you make it in time?"

"I will be there. Keep your speed at 230."

"Roger, ma'am. Godspeed."

Jade quickly stood up, having confirmed the call and then started sprinting west at breakneck speed. According to her and Suzuki's estimations, the base's guards would chase the communication sabotage once they completed their mission. So, Jade and Suzuki timed the extraction to account for a full sprint.

Vwoosh! Jade dashed across the mountain range at nearly 70 km/h, which was remarkable, considering she was running, not zooming on wheels. The Gladiator suit played a massive role in her speed, but Jade's physique could not be understated. The average human's muscles would tear to pieces if forced to endure the stress of such exertion. However, not only did Jade feel comfortable, she believed she could go even faster if it weren't for the suit's limitation!

"Grandfather, what are you doing?" Jade whispered her unease. She could not understand why Genaco was mass-producing super soldiers. More importantly, what was her grandfather's role in all this?

"Operative Yuhi. Thirty seconds to extraction."

"Roger." Jade glanced at an 'On Track' notification on her HUD. "No changes on my end. See you in thirty." The inbuilt AI rapidly calculated Jade's current speed and cross-referenced it against the proposed extraction point. It would recalculate if Jade could not reach the meeting point for any reason.

Thirty seconds later, Jade reached a cliff that peaked above the clouds. Without hesitation, she leapt off the edge and fell through the clouds below, blocking her line of sight to any would-be pursuers. The young woman fearlessly dropped down the cliff face after breaking out of the clouds.

Moments later, a small VTOL craft vertically flew next to her, matching its speed with hers. Jade activated her magboots, gluing her to the craft's roof. Having confirmed her entrance, the VTOL cut a sharp curve and then flew toward the south. Shortly after the ship levelled, Jade jumped into an open VTOL roof latch.

"Good work, Operative Yuhi," a soldier praised as he handed her a water bottle.

"Yeah, thanks." Jade's removed her helmet and gratefully quenched her thirst. She glanced at the soldier, who returned to the cockpit to direct the pilots. It was weird. The 'people' in this simulation did not feel as natural as Live No Evil's. They were both AIs, but why did these feel more like NPCs?

"Approaching the next extraction point." The soldier called. "Operative Yuhi, please use the harness."

Yuhi, already practised, nodded and strapped herself to one of many harnesses on the VTOL's walls. In keeping with the rules of treating this like an actual operation, she put on her helmet and readied herself for possible combat.

Dozens of seconds later, the floor slid open, revealing a dense forest below. The woods quickly gave way to a rare field of green, where Yuhi saw five fleeing Gladiators. The Gladiators raised their arms as they looked up at the VTOL, which hadn't slowed down much.

Vwoosh! Claws attached to wires shot out of each Gladiator, accurately passing through the open latch, and then struck the VTOL's roof. The claw's magnetic field activated on impact, sticking firmly to the ceiling.

"All five anchors accounted for," confirmed the soldier in charge. "Fly!"

The VTOL's engines roared to life, and it charged into the clouds at breakneck speeds, dragging along its dangling passengers. Fortunately, Suzuki and company quickly reeled themselves into the ship within moments.

The soldier confirmed the five hanging Gladiators and ordered the pilots to close the hatch. After the hatch closed, Suzuki and the rest deactivated the claw's magnetic field and dropped to the floor.

"Heh, heh. Mission Success," praised Jade as she released the harness. She removed her helmet and greeted the others with a grin. "My landing and extraction was a piece of cake. Did y'all have any trouble?"

Suzuki removed his helmet and sat down. "None on our end," he revealed. The young man took a moment to catch his breath and stood up. "This marks the end of our infiltration and extraction training. Good work, everyone."

PA! Taiga, in a silver Lightbringer, slapped Suzuki's back so hard he nearly toppled over. "Congrats! We couldn't have done it without our wise teacher." Snickering, he wrapped his arm around Suzuki's shoulder and pulled him close. "Such a teacher deserves the best reward. We all thought for a long time and finally decided on the best reward."

Seemingly sensing danger, Suzuki frowned and pushed out of Taiga's embrace. Unfortunately, it was far too late.

Psha! The Crazy heads leapt up and magnetically stuck the ceiling while the VTOL's floor shot open again. Suzuki was caught off guard, could not leap like the others and quickly began falling. Unfortunately, the young man's reflexes were too quick to satisfy his teammates' vengeance.

Suzuki shot his grappler onto the ceiling, preventing his descent. But, before he could reel himself, his eyes widened with apparent shock as Usman's sword sliced the metal cord.

"Sorry, boss," said Usman as Suzuki fell out of the ship. "How about you fall and die once for the team."

Not one to take a loss lying down, Suzuki reached for his sidearm, intent on blasting the ship out of the sky. Unfortunately, he received several warnings from his suit about dozens of lock-on just as he reached for the sidearm. That brought Suzuki's attention to the silver Lightbringer waving at him with a shit-eating grin.

Although a lot happened, barely a second had passed from when the latch opened to Suzuki getting locked on. "Fine. I lost," conceded Suzuki as he lost his relative velocity, allowing the VTOL to disappear from view quickly.

Within the VTOL, Jade chuckled as everyone sat down to appraise their performance. "Serves him right. He'll think twice about pranking us now."

"Somehow, I doubt that." Opposite Jade, Ayumi, in a black berserker, smiled as she fixed her hair. "Suzuki's the competitive type; he'll think of a way to get back at us. More importantly, the other team leaders contacted me earlier. They've also completed their infil/exfil training. Next, we'll break into our mission teams for planning and practice until D-day. I've sent everyone links to the instances for their first meetings at noon today."

"Virtual. I like it." Jade hummed satisfactorily, glad she would not need to leave her room.

Saeko, meanwhile, sulked as she ran her metallic finger along her sword's edge. "You guys are lucky. It's unfair that the higher-ups disqualified us just because we're slightly stronger."

"Little bit?" Taiga burst out laughing. "There's no game mechanics to hold us back IRL. We're more like the secret ending final boss here."

Enlightenment flashed in Ayumi's eyes after Taiga's declaration. "I think I might know how you can help us, even without joining the final battle."

"Oh? Please tell."

"If you're as strong as you say, you should be able to stand in for the enemy general. We need someone who can overwhelm most of us with sheer might and expertise to understand our mission's difficulty."

"I can do you one better," Saeko said with a devilish smile. "Aside from the general, Taiga can control multiple gladiators simultaneously. We can rotate him around the teams to provide everyone with tough resistance. As for me, I can simulate a battle against a Centurion Battle Mech. While it's not the exact model, it's pretty close to what you guys will have to face if you fail to sabotage the general's mech."

Jade's hair stood on end as she stared at the blond swordswoman in disbelief. "You have access to Centurion specs?"

"Yeah," Saeko admitted with a nod. "But unfortunately, it's a dummy model. The performance is the same as a real Centurion. But everything inside, from the wiring to the battery and cores, is fake." Flashing a knowing smile, she said, "Sorry, Jade, but you can't reverse-engineer anything from the model."

"Pfft. I definitely wasn't thinking about doing that," spluttered Jade with an embarrassed wince. She quickly changed the subject to hide her shame. "By the way, where's Suzuki? He should have died and respawned by now, right?"

Usman frowned, seemingly considering a terrifying possibility. "You don't think he already logged out, right? He wouldn't want to get his vengeance that quickly, right?"

Everyone paused. They pictured Suzuki's stoic but aggressive personality and married it with Kashi's opportunistic personality. As far as they knew, Kashi was the type to seize any opportunity to destroy his enemies. He never showed patience for some long-term strategy. After all, this man willingly got himself captured because it would bring him closer to his enemy's base.

If Suzuki was anything like Kashi~

"Shit! Logout! Quickly!"

Jade, along with everyone else, logged out expeditiously. Upon awakening, she quickly removed her helmet to see Suzuki smashing a baseball bat toward her head. "I'M SORRY!" Jade yelped in fright as she curled up and raised her hands to protect her head.

Unfortunately, Suzuki did not seem to care. The bat crashed into Jade and then.... Nothing.

Nothing happened.

Jade peeked through her hands and then stared, incredulously confused, when 'Suzuki' shattered into numerous light particles.

Realizing the trick, Jade spun around to glare at the youth who stood in the kitchen, silently cutting some vegetables. She, along with the rest of the Crazy Heads, glared daggers at the young man as if hoping it would pierce his flesh.

Suzuki looked up at the group. His face remained stoic, but these people had known him for a while. They could see the slight mocking in his eyes. Pointing at the veggies, he asked, "Anyone hungry?"

"SUZUKI!"