"I can do this!"
Rex grabbed his plan draft and put on his shoes as he stood up to leave the room, he had no intentions to waste time or even rest.
Due to his Vampire Knight constitution, he could now stay even 3 days without getting a single sleep and he would be fine but the problem with this night was that he was just coming off of a great raid of the Gandalf Gang.
Apart from that, having been challenged by Snake Empress Cassandra, he was motivated as he gave his all and used his brain all through the night.
Using mental power was in the end more tiring than using physical power. Rex felt dizzy but he was adamant to fight it through sheer willpower.
He was going to show his plan draft to Aragorn and Elanor, and if possible, mobilize the Berserk Gang army to implement the plan immediately.
As soon as he stood up though, Rex missed his step, barely stabilizing himself as he suddenly noticed the lights all around him fading into black.
The ground before him started widening and elongating, the objects before him strangely started being farther than expected, it was like he was stuck in an optical illusion that was messing with his brain.
Rex laughed. "Who is using illusory powers on me so early in the morning?"
His next step answered him, he was the one using illusory powers on himself.
Taking the next step was what took him over the edge, all the lights faded to darkness and Rex was completely unaware as he passed out.
Thud!
He soon fell in an unnatural position but that was not enough to wake him up as he rode the momentum and dove into the sweet world of sleep.
He was soon snoring loudly.
…
Knock! Knock!
"My girlfriend can't be stronger than me…"
"My girlfriend is not stronger than me…"
"My girlfriend is not more talented than me…"
"My girlfriend…"
Aragorn, Elanor, and Ben looked down at their friend weirdly. "Rex?"
"Ahh!!! F*ck you girlfriend!" Rex was startled awake.
He grabbed Berserker as he jumped up and turned around like he was fighting a formidable enemy. Throughout all this, his 3 friends looked at him with an amused expression on their faces.
"Hey!" He finally greeted them as he also noticed the strangeness of the current situation, he blushed thinking of how he just yelled from his sleep.
"Were you just dreaming?" Elanor asked first as she barely held her laughter.
"Umm, kinda…"
"Muahahahaha!" Ben soon erupted into laughter. He was so caught in into the laugh that he even fell down and rolled on the floor.
When he finally stood up, the laugh was still stuck in his throat. "Get a girlfriend I always preached to you but you refused, now you're fantasizing about a girlfriend in your dreams, so pathetic".
Rex wanted to get angry at his friend but he ended up only blushing as he thought of her embarrassing his current situation was.
He decided not to succumb to them though but to rather act tough. "By the way, why are you 3 here? Aren't you supposed to be in your rooms?"
Aragorn gave Rex a look. "Check your time".
Rex glanced outside through the window and seeing the shadowy light of the moon disappearing which was a trademark of early morning, he asked. "Isn't it still morning?"
"Check your time". Aragorn stressed again.
Perplexed now, Rex gave the order and the electronic clock on the wall lit up. Instantly after the clock lit up, he felt lightheaded again and almost fell.
>6:34 PM<
Rex's eyes widened in shock, then he scratched his head in confusion. "From the looks of it, I seemed to have slept for a long time. Is this evening of today or the evening of another day?"
"…" All 3 of his friends palmed their faces. "Rex, you're drunk".
It took some lengthy explanation from his 3 friends before his lagging brain that still seemed asleep finally comprehended that this evening was of today.
Apparently, after passing out, he slept throughout the whole day and possibly could have kept on going if his 3 friends didn't check up on him.
"We already perfected some parts of the plan, come see it".
"Oh, I perfected some parts too, I'm coming".
Once his 3 friends left the room, Rex rushed to have a quick bath before coming out refreshed and energized.
Before leaving his room after picking up the draft though, Rex closed his eyes and gently touched the necklace that surrounded his neck.
-----
[Affection Necklace!]
[This necklace contains the affection of a daughter of the river of time.]
[Bonded Owner: Cassandra Putin & Rex Vector!]
[Current Grade: Myth Grade!]
Rarity: Extremely Rare
Requirement: The love of the giver.
----
On seeing that the bonded owners of the necklace where still the 2 of them, Rex literally felt like crying as his insecurity that lingered from his dream reduced.
"She still loves me". He consoled himself with this and left the room.
On returning to the strategy room, he saw Elanor and Ben already seated with Aragorn standing and manipulating the virtual screen that illustrated the plan. He sat and also listened to Aragorn's presentation.
Just a few minutes in, he was able to catch the changes that they made to the plan. The changes indeed increased the success rate.
Once Aragorn was done with his presentation, Rex smiled before also taking the stage. Then he also illustrated the changes that he made to the plan.
He didn't spend such an enormous amount of his brainpower for nothing, his changes increased the success rate of the plan by as much as 20%.
"The main aspect of focus is the propaganda".
"Before now, I already built a reputation for myself as a ruthless mystic warrior after I let Storm kill the previous owner of the gang during the takeover".
"That was the last high-profile act that I did among the gangs in the Red Zone despite spending more than 1 year here already apart from the recent raid that we all took part in to weaken the Gandalf Gang".
"The effects may not be much, but having not heard much about me in the past months, my impression in the minds of most warriors here has reduced".
"They no longer see me as that crazy, ruthless, and powerful mystic warrior".
"To achieve our objective of taking all these small gangs and organizations in and expanding our territory without a battle, I need that notorious reputation back. The raid on the Gandalf Gang increased the Berserk Gang's notoriety, not mine".
"To truly serve as an intimidation object, I need my notoriety back".
"That is the focus of my improvement to the plan and I already created an implementation strategy which I will start this night".
"This night, I will go out there, hunt and kill 3 gang leaders who are Advanced mystic warriors. I want to use this to restore my notoriety back".
"By morning, words of my ruthless actions would have spread widely across the Red Zone, adding this momentum to that of raiding the Gandalf Gang is what we need to achieve success".
Rex's plan was radical but it was a bullseye hit straight at the root of the problem, it covered for all major shortcomings of their intimidation tactic.
After illustrating his plan to them, Rex gave them room for their opinion. For 30 minutes, they gave opinions as they finetuned the plan even more until it was finally perfected in their opinion.
Once they all agreed on one plan, having thought about it for the past few minutes, Rex drew the attention of his friends as he told them about Cassandra.
Aragorn, Ben, and Elanor already graduated from being his friends, they were his sworn brothers and sister already and he trusted them completely.
Cassandra's message served as both motivation and help to him, but it also put him under a great deal of pressure and was why he told them.
On hearing that he finally got a girlfriend, Ben was shocked and ecstatic. "Come get a hug bro, you're finally prioritizing the really important things".
Elanor was also surprised but Aragorn's focus was on the more serious points of Cassandra's intrusion, he soon came to a conclusion.
"We must win and take over the Gandalf Gang!"
He turned to face his friends with a serious look on his face. "Unlike you guys, I know a lot about the Sad Flute Assassins. If we can get the help of these guys, we are set for domination in the Gundam Shelter".
"Our only hope of making it to the Snake Territory in one week is through the Gandalf Gang, we need to start accelerating our plans".
Instantly, they became busy. While the others started organizing the Berserk Gang Army for tomorrow, Rex returned to his room to prepare.
He meditated for 5 hours till it was 11 in the night, then he opened his eyes. In minutes, Rex donned his full war gear and left the Berserk Mansion.
Blood would flow and heads would roll that night.