Chapter 18: On the Radar

Inside a humid dark container, Bella watched as the small device in her hand crumbled into scrap metal.

This was a one-time use device connected to her family's private satellite, and it could bypass jamming signals to connect to both the GPS and phone service.

With the size of a standard rectangle music player, it was easy to hide in the folds of her bra.

"Did you call for help?" A mature voice came from the side. It was calm, feminine, and somewhat cold.

"I did, Mom," Bella answered, sighing as she leaned back into the metal wall. "All we need to do now is wait. Hopefully, it wouldn't take too long."

Her mother nodded her head. "I heard them talking about a helicopter. If I'm not wrong, they're planning to transport us together with the container somewhere hard to find."

As if to reinforce her words, they heard the loud voice of a helicopter buzzing in the sky.

Not even the thick, metal walls of the container could numb the noise from reaching their ears.

Bella's expression changed, and her mother asked calmly, "How long does it take for your help to arrive?"

Bella's face was a little pale as she whispered, "I don't know… It's an uncertainty…"

Her mother sighed, closed her eyes, and waited patiently. Since they wanted them as hostages to attack her husband, she was pretty sure their lives were safe.

…

Meanwhile, Hiro also noticed the helicopter that was approaching the container placed right outside the warehouse.

The container was surrounded on all sides by at least twenty armed soldiers, and by utilizing the skill {Divine Sense II} that was gifted to him from the sect, Hiro immediately spotted Bella and the other woman inside.

Hiro sighed. "This way of using spirituality to spread out one's perception is truly marvelous. Sadly, a sorcerer needs to invest the most of their spirituality to control the elemental energy, especially because they don't have a dantian where they could store it safely."

Using his divine sense to blind the optical perception of the people around him, Hiro made his way to the container while feeling like an immortal god.

Once he was close enough to the container and the close to 30 armed guards, Hiro began making hand seals and releasing his Spirit Qi to cast a magical spell.

A dense fog of ice-attributed energy exploded from Hiro's body, flooding the ground and air, the container and the helicopter, and obscuring the clear day sky.

"An attack!" Shouted someone.

"It's a smoke bomb!" Another quickly added, and then, everyone began to spray their fire randomly while pressing their backs against the hard steel walls of the container.

Bella and her mother heard the commotion, and while the former sprang to her feet in alarm, the latter creased her brows to listen carefully.

Inside the thick fog, Hiro raised his hand forward with an open palm, a translucent construct of thin ice energy reflecting the bullets with sharp, luminous sparks flitting around.

Hiro cocked his head to the side and spoke in a mysterious, grand voice.

His chanting filled the thick fog, and as he spoke, the temperature began to fall drastically as a crescent moon descended from above.

This was the faction's signature spell, {Lunar Descent II}.

As the rays of moonlight penetrated the fog, striking the armed men, they slowly realized that this was more than just a smoke bomb.

Click! Click! Click!

Their weapons frosted over, bullets stuck in their cold chambers. Then, their fingers turned pale blue with a purple sheen as their bodies began to shake uncontrollably.

…

Inside the container.

"Don't you think it's getting cold?" Bella spoke, breathing hot air from her lips as she hugged herself.

"You don't need to tell me," answered her mother while gesturing to the metal walls that were slowly freezing over.

However, the cold seemed to be confined within the metal, as its dark luster quickly turned a deep shade of blue. Then, it shattered like glass, sprinkles of glossy snowflakes drifting into the all-encompassing fog.

Bella's mother stood up, dusted her black formal dress, and stepped into the thick fog.

"Mom!" Bella called out in shock and horror as she hopped over. "It could be dangerous out there!"

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A powerful gust of wind blew the fog away as Hiro cancelled the magical skill. Bella and her mother barely caught a glimpse of the young man floating like a celestial with the crescent moon in his background.

A beautiful river of water flowed around his body, thin wisps of immortal fog clouding his figure. Nonetheless, they could see a pair of silver eyes on a blurry face, looking down at them.

The man nodded his head in satisfaction and like a mirage, his entire being dissolved away with the fleeting cold fog.

As the wind blew into Bella's face, she stood there with a dumbfounded expression.

Since when did such a master appear in our city?! Also, what kind of payment did Hiro promise him?!

Anxious, she dashed into the warehouse and searched all over the place for her phone. It was locked in a secure box, and the moment she brought it out, it exploded with text messages and missed calls.

Bella ignored all of it and opened the PARA app, searching the recent missing request threads in the city's suburban region.

As she expected, she found an anonymous post requesting help on a rescue mission.

The details of the mission and the location were all listed, as for the person who accepted the mission, there was only his username marking the thread.

"Weird, Hiro didn't even mention anything about rewards… Could it be that this person was passing by and thus accepted the rescue mission out of goodwill?"

Bella decided to give Hiro a call.

…

On the other end, Hiro just landed by the motel when his phone started ringing.

After turning off his location and starting a VPN, Hiro answered the call.

"We're already safe, thank you! Also, what did that expert ask for payment? I'll compensate you!"

Hiro blinked and responded, "Payment? He didn't mention anything about a payment so I didn't bring it up either… Erm, was it that dangerous to require a payment?"

Hiro was implying that since he didn't know the threat level, he couldn't have offered any payments upfront.

Bella went silent for a moment before she asked again, "Then, can you contact him?"

"Why would I contact him? Can't you do it yourself?" Hiro rolled his eyes.

"I can, but…" Bella was embarrassed, but after she thought about it, she decided to leave it to her father to deal with.

Hiro's eyes flashed. As expected, with enough clues, Bella was able to trace down his identity on the app PARA.

Well, she basically tracked down Babylon, and not Hiro.

It was easy to find him through the clues such as the location and timing of the incident.

Luckily, Hiro thought about this possibility on his way to the rescue. If not, how could he explain the sudden appearance of a helper if he didn't post a help request on PARA?

However, since the mission was there for the world to see, no one would associate him with Babylon for the foreseeable future.

Hiro and Bella had some small talk before he hung up the phone. Then, he asked the man at the reception to order a taxi for him, deciding to return to the school's dormitory to meet up with his future roommates.

I never thought that my first mission ever in the supernatural society of this world would be a self imposed mission, how sad and pitiful!

Hiro's eyes glazed over as he wallowed in self pity for a moment. Then, he shook his head and chuckled to himself.

At the very least, he was now on the radar of many powerful people. Since Bella could link the clues to find out about Babylon, it was safe to say that both her father and his enemies would connect the dots sooner or later.

He wouldn't be surprised if his Babylon account was invited into a couple private or public threads on PARA in the next few days.

"Oh well," Hiro smiled while leaning his head onto the backseat window. "Surprise me, I'm waiting!"