Chapter 406 - Arthur Gives Up

The Supreme Exoskeletons changed the method of their attack based on the directions of Shakstress.

Shakstress was a Top-Tier. Their techs and how their mind have been altered allowed her to make accurate decisions that could combat the constant plans of Arthur. Her mind was closer to a computer that could calculate and predict things.

Her experience in the wars of the Aragarians allowed her to fight back and outsmart her enemies constantly. Whatever techs that were presented to her, she could quickly figure out the weakness.

"Hmp. It's laughable that after all those battles, I would fall here on Earth. I am a Conqueror!" She sneered as she began to search for the rats in her ship.

A quick review allowed her to immediately find where the enemy could enter and at what moment. Next, she began to look at the video feeds and quickly identified the possible people engulfed in the smoke, and all walked out.

"So that enemy was really one of them." It didn't take long for her to figure out that one of the Planteds survived and escaped from the explosions when Hermes attacked to resurface as Richie eventually.

"So all of these people are potential enemies." Shakstress easily identified all the first people that Arthur and his team replaced.

"But that Eagle Man was a diversion, so these people will be harder to locate." She smiled.

"I guess it'll take me three whole minutes, so find them. Oh well." Shakstress sighed. It was too long, but she had no choice.

Meanwhile, back in the Minuscule realm...

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Several sound shields were being made, but strangely enough, just like the first attack, the shield didn't appear on the locations where Richie deployed them.

Richie tried to cover his entire body with this armor, but it didn't create sound armor on those locations. As such, he got wounded from the attacks.

Richie tried to evade more and more of the attacks, but he still would get grazed and wounded.

The attacks no longer used laser energy but bullets.

Shakstress had discovered that the way Richie was moving was based on sound tech. A strange sonar power made Richie capable of sensing and moving in this realm where sight was distorted.

To combat that, Shakstress altered the dimensions as she curled up the space and changed the expansion and compression of every layer. 

And so, Richie's ability to sense and see in the dimension changed.

The means of attacking also changed. As the entire Minuscule World now had the presence of sound through Richie, the bullets that created immense vibration became the downfall of Richie.

The drastic change of environment was so vast that even a genius like Richie could not keep up and figure out the world he was in.

Richie kept moving and tried to evade, but even the sound of the gunshots was distorted. Some sound occurred several seconds before the bullet passed by. Some of the gunshots occurred after. And there were even cases where the same gunshot was heard twice.

As space was curled up, the sound and vibration were circling him.

"Tsk. I can't evade, and when I try to create a shield, it won't even appear where I want it to!" Richie began to move with great speed, but he couldn't move from his location for some reason.

"Oh my. The Presider is moving this Miniscule World. My what a pickle." Richie shook his head.

The entire Minuscule World was spinning and shifting itself by a few centimeters from its position in the real world. This small shift created a bizarre alteration in the physical dimensions in which the abstract-like appearance began to change.

Sammy saw it from afar and couldn't help but worry. He had expected the enemies to have abilities that could only be considered gods' but didn't expect it to be like this.

"This is too much! This goes beyond whatever presumptions we have of their application! Or is it that this Presider is just too strong!" Sammy cursed.

He pretended to act like one of the confused and fear-stricken Planted but noticed that the people around him were already doing specific tasks. 

Sammy frowned. His hearing had dropped drastically. He could not hear anything beyond a certain point. He knew that this would drastically change the Planted and Pioneer in the ship. The science that the Presider applied somehow distorts how sound traveled was something that Sammy believed was applied to the entire ship. 

But the issue was that the Planteds were as organized as ever. He hadn't heard any form of broadcast as to what orders were announced. But even then, the Planteds were so organized in their movements.

"These Planteds are something else. And I've already injected the wolf serum to four people..., And even though wolves are attacking, these guys still move to perform their specific missions. So the Presider is drawing out those who are acting suspiciously." Sammy was shadowing the movements of several Planted. 

With such organized movements, it was easy to draw out the traitors and spies on the ship.

"So our plan to hide in the chaos is bound to fail, huh? I wonder what I should do?"

Sammy thought for a while and finally decided.

One of the Planteds he just turned into werewolves began to attack him.

He allowed the werewolf to attack him just in time for other Planteds to approach nearby.

The group blasted the werewolf with a laser rifle shooter, which burned the werewolf.

"No! Don't shoot! Don't kill me!" Sammy shouted.

The Planted looked at Sammy and aimed.

"...At least with a gun. I don't want to get burned..." Sammy sighed.

The Planted with the gun nodded and brought out a small handgun, and shot Sammy.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Sammy's body fell on the floor as the Planteds moved on.

But suddenly...

BOOM!

A strange green explosion occurred and destroyed everything nearby, including the scanners and video feeds.

Sammy stood up and was unaffected as he was now holding on to the Planted that shot him. Unlike the rest, which was devoured by the desolation, this soldier was protected as the sound armor protected him.

Sammy had sent a sound shockwave and killed the Planted without damaging the suit.

The suit suddenly unrobed by itself, and Sammy wore it with the help of his sound.

Suddenly, he could hear again. The power of desolation somehow distorted the place and allowed him to hear.

But what he heard frightened him.

"I've found all traitors. Search for those with the heat signatures displayed on your screen. It could drop or increase, and they could be among you. I will be displaying the data and the possible numbers of all spies with the following number. Beginning in Compartment V-28, look for the numbers..."

Sammy turned and found Compartment V-28. His uniform number was also called out.

"Damn it. I feel for the trap. Because I used Meng's Desolation, this Presider still had the tech to find the energy fluctuation of the Dragon's Horn..." Sammy deduced. The moment he was forced to use the weaponized Path of Meng to hide his existence by blowing up the entire area, it allowed the Presider to record the energy and find it.

"Her ability to shrink and expand space ought to have something to do with this... Now what?" Sammy sighed.

Sammy didn't know that within that short time frame, the organized movements of all Planteds forced the rest to use one of the Dragon's Horn, a bomb containing Meng's desolation. The only ones that didn't use these techs were Chris and Grace Carlean.

In another part of the ship, Chase Brender turned to Arthur.

"Damn it! With all of our plans... We were still found out!"

"Yes. I gave up." Arthur answered.

"What do you mean, you give up?"

"I wanted to see how far I could go. But it seems that her techs are just too strong for my calculations to work. Even while I am smarter and can somewhat predict the future, her techs and power can render any and all of my plans to dust. So I gave up and made you use the Dragon's Horn. The rest should have also used their Horns to throw away attention."

"What?! You are giving up?! What are you thinking?!"

"Relax. I didn't mean to give up to die. The Desolation that exploded out would stabilize sound once more. Whatever Shakstress is doing to sop the sound should be costly. She stopped using it. That's why we heard those broadcasts that are calling attention to us."

The ID numbers of the uniforms all the Unlock assumed were being broadcasted.

Arthur's number, Sammy's, and Chase were already mentioned. But suddenly, the broadcast stopped midway.

"As expected. She went with our numbers because she was certain we were spies. But for Chris, Grace, and Madison's team, she was planning to announce it later. But too bad. By the looks of it, she shouldn't be able to broadcast anymore."

"Why?" Chase was confused.

"When I said, I give up. I meant that I stopped trying to contest this Presider in a battle of wits. So since I gave up, I asked for help." Arthur raised his right arm, which had a small transmitter. Red lights were flickering to it.

"That's the comm device that Boss Richie has!" Chase identified the tech.

"Yes. I was able to last and protect our team with my many plans for the minimum amount of time I had set. I challenged Shakstress in this. If we could last ten minutes in outmaneuvering or evade her until we were found out, we have a huge chance of living. But as you can see, it was very difficult that I barely succeeded in reaching the time trial."

"Whose helping us?" Chase asked. The broadcast of Shakstress never continued.

Meanwhile... In the Command center, the Pioneers were shouting at their Presider, but Shakstress wasn't responding. It was as if she was in a trance.

"Presider Shakstress! A weapon of mass destruction is approaching! Should we attack it!" The Pioneers asked once more.

Shakstress was stunned at what she saw. A figure of what looked like an old man had appeared in front of her.

They were in a strange place. It was outside of the three dimensions, but this was a place that her body couldn't move to. Her apparations allowed her to travel into dreams. And it was through that that she met the mysterious woman. But this time, it was as if her soul was plucked out of her body and dragged to the great heavens so far away. She couldn't understand why the Pioneers were unable to see him.

Next to the old man were three distorted figures. Their forms were even more strange as she could only barely make out the outlines of the three. While Shakstress couldn't see the faces, she could make out that one was a woman and two were men. One stood only slightly taller than the woman, and the other man was so tall that he was a head taller than the old man and the other man.

"Presider Shakstress. Hello. Sorry for ganging up on you. But there are just too many Top-Tier on Earth. It'll be difficult for the four of us to accomplish our plans." The old man laughed.

"Who are you?"

One of the three distorted figures stepped forward.

"We are Principal Yuri."

"Yuri? Who is Yuri?!" Shakstress frowned. She didn't know of any Principal Yuri.

"Yuri Tarded." Seeker laughed.

"Very mature." Meryl shook her head.

"No school like old school. Haven't heard of that joke in a long time since we came here to Earth." Lynd laughed at the side.

"Presider! A WGP weapon of mass destruction is approaching! And another unidentified object is approaching our ship with great speed!" The Pioneer reported, which jolted Shasktress awake.

The four figures vanished, and Shakstress immediately watched the scans to see the two objects. Then, she turned her attention to the weapons of mass destruction that were approaching from the sky.

"Where was this rocket launched?" Shakstress asked.

"From the World Governing Trading Hub!"