August 2024, Utopia
The sound from the television was pretty loud. In the history of Panthoria's army, this would be the worst time and place to sneak into the enemy's base.
The two men in the room were lying side by side on the long sofa. Their legs were intertwined.
The gazes of the men shifted nervously, while the gazes of the women seemed to be fixed on it. The two men in the room didn't notice them since they were so into what they were watching and their atmosphere around the two. It was also partly due to the sleath power used to hide them by one of the men in the group.
As planned, the sound in the room was cut off with the Luca's wind barrier, and the connection was jammed by another man.
When the two men realized that they had no oxygen for them to breathe, they began to panic. It was impossible to make a sound without air. They tried to find the culprit but they couldn't see anyone in the room.
Even when they tried to tell someone that there's an intruder, their watches used for connecting with others were not working.
After a short time, their body functions slowly ceased working as a result of the lack of air. Both of them would have a slight chance of survival if they had wind power, unlike the fire ability they have that can't be used without oxygen. Under Luca's watch, the men wouldn't dare to allow it to happen, so it was a one-in-a-trillion chance to live. In fact, using teleportation power would be useless due to one of the men's powers.
After the two men lost their lives, all the people in the group appeared. Ryker told Luca that the radar didn't indicate that anyone was coming at the moment so they decided to go with Plan B, sending an invisible scout with a teleporter. They set the current room as their temporary place before they have a clear location of the people they have to rescue.
Before they leave, the scout and the teleporter salute their second in command General Luca. Luca simply nodded in response.
Although the teleporter of the army was powerful, he still had limits as to how far the distance was and how many times he could teleport. To carry so many people, he needed quite a bit of power. After ensuring the safety of the scientists, Luca planned to just destroy everything that came in their way without a care about how the enemy base would turn out.
No matter how many lives he had to take, he didn't care. He wanted to finish the mission perfectly and get approval from his best friend. Who cares about the enemies anyway? They were all the same, people fighting for their country, people who have already killed many.
It had been an hour since the scout had responded, and a few minutes later, the connection to the scout was lost.
"What is happening?" Luca asked the person responsible for connections.
---
August 2024, Earth
"Why don't we have a little test before we start this system?" the chairman said, looking at Charlotte.
Is this a test for your grandson?" she asked back.
"You're right. Since you are the one who wants to confirm if my grandson is truly fit for this or not, we can decide by having you as the judge I believe"
Charlotte was sure now that the old man was deliberately trying to put her into this mess. She decided to accept the chairman's words and nodded her head as she accepted the chairman's words for the sake of her stock.
"But…" the old man's voice continued.
"To make it a bit more intense, why don't Miss Huan and my grandson compete with each other? The old man wore a sinister smile at the end of his speech.
Everyone in the room whispered to each other after his words.
"It's the perfect setup for his grandson to make a big debut"
"Do you think Miss Huan will be brave enough to accept?"
"Why would she be afraid of some grandson of the chairman?"
"Yeah, all of his grandsons are failures and that's why the chairman still can't retire."
Within a blink of an eye, several chats took place.
Charlotte and the chairman ignored all the chatter and instead stared at each other. After a while, she sighed, gave up, and decided to give in to his demands.
'Let's think of it as another investment for stocks.'
"May I know what kind of competition?" A business smile spread across her face as she asked.
"Ahahaha! Yes yes of course I will tell you!" the old man answered along with his chuckles.
"The project and the position are about the entertainment section of Gu Crop so… a competition about searching and raising a talent, someone who has never been in the entertainment world before! Someone N-E-W! Both my grandson, Gu Wei, and Miss Huan's artist who have the most popularity at the end of September will be the winner, how does that sound?"
"And if my grandson fails on making one, I will cover the damage of funds used for his artist but if he succeeds you have to approve his talent whether he wins or not."
It appears Charlotte was uninterested in the competition, which was likely a cheat for his grandson prepared by his grandfather.
But the chairman knows what to make her interested. He put both his hands on the black cane, put it between his knees, and carried on his words seriously, "The winner will get the prize of 5% of my share in Gu Crop."
Charlotte's lips curled into a pleased smile.
'That's more like it.'