Rem changed her appearance back to the girl version of her human form. In the distance, she could sense a familiar presence.
"Yukio???" Rem saw Yukio unconscious on the ground.
A few other people were unconscious on the ground too.
'They're not hurt... That's good.' Rem thought.
"Yukio! Wake up!!!" Rem shook Yukio.
Yukio opened his eyes open. He was sweating and ice was everywhere. A bunch of questions stacked up inside Rem.
'Was there a fight here? Did he have a nightmare? Just what happened and where's Yukino?' Rem wondered.
"Yukino!!!" Yukio stood up in a panic.
"What happened?" Rem asked.
"Yukino! She was taken by a group of men in black and red clothes!" Yukio said, looking around his surroundings.
'Men in black and red clothes..?'
"Do you know where she was taken to?"
Yukio shook his head from left to right.
"I see..."
"What should I do..? What if Yukino gets hurt?" Yukio was devastated.
"I'm sure they wouldn't kill her. They only captured her, right? That means they're not assassins. For now, we know she's not dead." Rem said.
"You're right but I can't help but worry. Why am I so weak? I couldn't do anything! Just like last time..." Yukio sounded hurt.
"We'll save her somehow." Rem said.
'Those men... Are they from the organization?' Rem wondered.
'003, find Yukino's whereabouts.'
{Understood.}
A blue screen appeared in front of Rem. Rem looked at the map. On the map, there was a white dot at the Southside of the city.
'Yukino's not too far from here.'
"I'll get your sister back. Just stay here. Don't follow me." Rem said, running towards where Yukino is.
Yukio nodded, wondering how Rem knew where his sister's whereabouts were. He walked back to his dorm room, worried about Yukino.
Just as Rem was about to leave the city, a man suddenly appeared in front of Rem out of the shadows.
"Hello again! Long time no see!" Nor said cheerfully.
"What are you doing here for?" Rem asked impatiently.
"How rude! I wanted to greet you.. You didn't even say hi back!" Nor complained.
"If you have nothing important to say, I'll be leaving now." Rem said sternly.
"Urgh, fine. You're no fun. Anyways, you have a new mission."
"I can't accept that mission. At least not right now. I have someone to save."
"Hmm... Alright. It's not like you have to do this mission right this moment. I guess you can delay this mission for a day. After that, you would have no choice but to accept it." Nor said seriously.
"Understood. Bye." Rem ran past Nor, continuing toward where Yukino is.
Nor looked at Rem, amused. He then disappeared into the shadows.
...
Rem summoned Karasu.
"Yes?" Karasu asked, flying in front of Rem.
"Karasu, go search this area and see if you can find anything," Rem ordered.
"Got it." Karasu flew off, following Rem's order.
'Yukino should be around here somewhere. It says that she's here. I don't see her though... Is the map broken?'
{No. The system is never wrong!}
'Okay, okay. If the map's not wrong, Yukino should be here.'
...
"Master! I found something carved into the ground here. It looks like a magic circle." Karasu said, guiding Rem to it.
"Great work, Karasu. Guard this area. Tell me if there is anyone nearby." Rem ordered.
"Understood," Karasu replied, guarding the area.
'003, do you know what this is?' Rem asked, looking at the abnormally large magic circle.
{It's an ancient magic circle used a long time ago. You can say it's a magic circle used to hide a certain area. Based on how large this magic circle is, the area it's covering is quite large.}
'I just have to break this magic circle, right?'
{Since this is an ancient magic circle that nobody uses anymore, only a few people in this world know of this magic circle's existence. Breaking this magic circle without knowing how to disable it is dangerous.}
'Then do you know how to correctly disable this magic circle?'
{I suppose I do. With your current powers, it'll be a little challenging.}
'That means I can disable the magic circle, yes?'
{You are correct. However-}
'Alright. Tell me how to.'
{Fine. You have to trace the outline of the magic circle using your shadow magic. You have to do it in the right order or else it will explode on you and alert the enemies.}
'Got it. Tell me what to do.'
...
It took Rem an hour to disable the magic circle. When she finally did, her surroundings suddenly changed. Instead of a forest, there was a large building with guards everywhere. Surrounding that area were electric fences.
'What is this? Maybe it's a facility...' Rem thought, activating her stealth.
Rem walked towards the building, being extra cautious.
'Yukino is definitely in there.'
Jumping over the fence then landing quietly, Rem quickly hides behind a few large boxes so she wouldn't be seen by the guards.
'Why are there so many guards??! They're all around levels 60-70!'
Rem brought Cynric out and the small blade shifted to a larger one that's around the size of a dagger. Rem already thought of a plan. She was ready to attack. Sneaking towards the guards, Rem was being very careful. She controlled her killing intent and instantly grabbed the guard who was by himself, behind the boxes.
"Wha-"
Before the man could say a word, Rem used her shadow magic to bind the man, allowing him to be unable to move or speak. The man looked at Rem horrified. With no hesitation, Rem slit the man's throat using Cynric, killing him instantly.
'One down. I'll kill the men out here first.'
...
After ten minutes of killing, Rem finally killed all the guards that were guarding the outer area.
'This place is huge. I think I've killed more than 20 people.'
Entering the building, the first thing Rem spotted was a device near the ceiling.
'Is that a... Camera??? How is that in this world? Urgh, right now is not the time to think about that. 003, shift into the system's computer. I need to do some hacking.'
{Okay... Done.}
A digital, blue computer appeared in front of Rem.
'Ohhh! The system's computer looks more like the computer from the world I was in during my past life. It has a 3D keyboard, mouse, and even the screen of a computer!'
{Yes. This is a function of the system's upgrade.}
'Cool.' Rem thought, beginning to hack.
After around 10 minutes, Rem had successfully hacked every camera and opened all the doors in the building.
'This took longer than I expected.' Rem sighed.
She entered the building, using the map to locate Yukino and everyone else in the building.
'There are three floors in this building. The map only shows where Yukino is but not the exact location. Let's check floor by floor starting at the first floor.'
...
Rem cleared out the first and second floors. It took her an hour to do that. She found out that the first and second floors were filled with boxes.
'Yukino has to be on the third floor.' Rem thought.
Arriving on the third floor, Rem could see more rooms. The third floor's layout was the same as the first and second ones except it has an area where they do research. Through the glass to the research area on the third floor, Rem spotted Yukino, who was unconscious, lying on the floor. Rem entered the research area. There wasn't anywhere to hide so she was immediately seen.
"How did you get here??!" The man next to Yukino asked.
He was wearing clothes an adventurer would wear.
"You don't need to know." Rem replied.
"You're right. It doesn't matter since you'll be dead before you can escape!" The man said.
'As if you can kill me.' Rem thought.
"Guards!!! Capture her!!!" The man yelled to a device.
Sixteen men surrounded Rem. They wore similar clothes the man wore.
'Looks like this man is the boss here.'
"Where are the others??!" The man yelled.
"I'm not sure, sir." One of the men surrounding Rem replied.
"Tch. Whatever! Just capture her!!!" The man demanded.
"Yes, sir!" The men said at the same time.
The men were each holding a sword. Instead of attacking Rem all at once, they did the opposite.
'Their swordsmanship skills are horrible. How did they even capture Yukino? Yukio should be able to defeat them without any problems.' Rem thought, slicing the man's head who attacked Rem first off.
Seeing what Rem did, the men became scared.
"What are you doing??? Attack her at the same time, you idiots! She's just a little girl!!!" The man yelled, clearly frustrated.
The men did what the man told them to. They charged at Rem like idiots who didn't know anything.
'Is this what you call all talk and no skill?' Rem wondered.
The panicked man who was all by himself grabbed Yukino, putting a knife next to her throat.
"Don't move or else I'll slice her throat!" The man threatened.
"Are you serious?" Rem asked in a menacing tone.
Rem released her killing intent, making the man tremble.
"Do. You. Want. To. Die?" Rem tilted her head.
"No..." The man whispered, still trembling.
"Too bad. You're dying either way." Rem controlled her shadow magic and whacked the man's knife out of his hand.
After that, Rem used her shadow magic to grab the man by his neck.
"Urk!" The man was struggling to get free.
After a few minutes, the man died. Rem choked him to death. She walked towards Yukino, carrying her. Just as Rem was about to leave, five men in black and red clothes appeared in front of Rem.
'It's them... Again.'
"Hand her over." One of the men wearing the black and red robe said in a low voice.
Without replying, Rem threw a few shadow daggers towards the men. While the men were busy dodging the daggers, Rem teleported past them, hiding in a room.
She was using stealth and invisibility on herself and Yukino.
'My mana's low. I can sense that they're super strong. They're not like the men I've met before. They're way stronger than them...'
"Did you find them?" The man who talked to Rem asked.
"I didn't."
"Neither did I."
"Nope."
"No, they're not here..." The man who checked the room Rem and Yukino was in said.
"I couldn't find them... Dang, it! The men we hired were all useless! They couldn't do anything I ordered them to do properly!!! We shouldn't have wasted our money on them..!" The first man said, enraged.
"Although we couldn't bring the white-haired girl back or capture the intruder, we still succeeded. Good thing we did what our boss told us to do before we hired those men." Another man said, sighing in relief.
"Now let's go back to tell the boss we succeeded in this mission. I can't wait for the results!" The first man said happily.
"You're too excited. If we failed, the boss would have had our heads and feed us to his dogs."
"Alright. Let's get going." A man suggested.
They nodded and used a teleportation scroll to teleport away.
'Phew. They're gone. I should probably call Roy here to bring me back. He should know where I am.' Rem thought.
'Roy!!!'
『Yes, Master?』
'Come to where I am and bring me back.'
『Sure.』
...
A quarter of an hour passed. Roy arrived in his dragon form.
"Wow, Roy. When did you get so large?" Rem was amazed.
Roy was now the size of a car.
"Kiiiii!!!"
"Alright, let's go back. Carry both of us back to the city." Rem ordered, getting on Roy's back.
"Kiii!" Roy flew off towards the city, carrying Rem and Yukino.