Fiona wouldn't stand a chance if she fought against Mark when she knew that her blessing wouldn't work against him!
"I heard from Mr. Grey that there was a need for a replacement since there was a small problem. Uhm… I'm Milicent with one L. It's a pleasure to meet you superhumans. Especially you, Mr. Mark Vanitas."
The woman who entered the room after Grey left finally spoke when she noticed that Fiona and Mark were no longer talking. She was a tall woman with modest assets and a slight athletic build. She wore a business suit with long black pants that hugged her legs beautifully and her entire demeanor gave off a very professional vibe! Fiona immediately recognized Milicent as one of the C-rank Superhumans who was a direct assistant to the president of the company!
Fiona raised a brow as Milicent failed to introduce herself properly, and she just decided not to say anything! Fiona was sure that the president was the one who sent Milicent here for a reason, and she would only sit back and watch what they were trying to do this time.
As Milicent spoke, she looked down at the table that was broken in the middle of the room, typed something into her phone, and made a call to someone outside the room. A few seconds later, a man entered the room with a new table over his shoulders. He dropped the table to the ground and carried the broken table away with him before closing the door. The man that just left was a superhuman handyman in charge of handling all the broken tools and equipment in the NSA, so carrying the table alone was easy for him!
Once he was gone, Milicent walked up to the side wall and spoke professionally.
"Now then, shall we begin?"
Mark nodded to Milicent, and she smiled and gestured to the ceiling with her hand. The light in the room dimmed, and Mark saw the wall glow before a large screen was projected on it from a small projector hidden in the ceiling. The first thing that showed up on the screen was a large map of the world before it slowly started to zoom into the continent of America and finally panned out until it was hovering over a single island close to City A.
"One year ago, some researchers that were trying to track the movement of Anima in and around America noticed a strange phenomenon occurring close to this island. Various heat signatures were congregating towards it, and we thought at first that these were humans. But further investigation showed us that these were not in fact humans. They were Anima heat signatures, and they were all moving towards the island as a single unit. There are no humans on the island as far as we know, so there was no sensible reason for the Anima to want to go there. We decided that we would wait longer and see what the reason for this migration could be.
"But this proved to be a mistake. As time went on, we started to notice signs of organized activity from the Anima that went to this island. They all started to build. But they weren't building over the ground; instead, they were digging tunnels that went deep into the island and started to create pathways underground for them to move through. It was as though they had become a part of a larger society, something like an ant colony. The NSA sent a small group of three A-rank and five B-rank superhumans to the island, hoping to find the reason behind this strange behavior. But even though the superhumans we sent had some of the strongest stealth-based blessings, they were immediately detected by the Anima and eliminated."
Mark narrowed his eyes as some images of the stealth team before and after the Anima found them were shown! They were completely torn apart by the Anima, but the Anima didn't seem to have eaten them at all, and they started to carry the torn human flesh into the tunnel underground! What in the world are they doing with those pieces? Mark immediately became worried that the Anima would do the same thing to Arit. Would they rip her apart like this?
But the only thing that calmed Mark's anxiety was the fact that his system mission was still active and it would not be active unless Arit was alive.
Mark shook this thought out of his head as he went back to listening to Milicent's explanation.
"After the failed expedition, we decided that we would set up a more elite team of Superhumans involving members from various guilds. The Artemis guild is one of the guilds that have offered to provide support, and in all, we have amassed a force of more than twenty A ranks and three S ranks along with many other B ranks. Based on recent emergencies, we estimate that there is more than one Country-Level Calamity on the island along with many other Disaster Class monsters. We already accounted for the Calamities by including Fiona and Tyler in the raid, but just to be sure we also added in three S ranks to prepare for any unpredictable occurrences.
"We believed that the Anima on that island were more interested in making their colony than they were in killing humans, so we didn't think we had to rush anything, but the recent attacks on City A have changed that thought, and we now know that something has to be done. We are likely going to start the operation very soon."
Mark listened to all this silently and through all of this, he couldn't help but wonder if they were wrong. How can they be sure that the monsters on that island won't be stronger than they predicted? They were only going to that island based on the assumption that the S ranks were stronger than any anima they could encounter,
"What would you do if the Superhumans you send are not strong enough to handle the monsters on that island? Shouldn't you involve other guilds and ask for their help?"
A sour look crossed over Milicent's face once she heard Mark say this. Mark didn't know if it was because of what he said regarding their research or if she was angry about him advising her to talk to other guilds. In the short time that he has been here, Mark could tell that the NSA did not play nice with other guilds. It seemed like they only tolerated their presence for some reason.
Mark waited to see what Milicent would say, and once she spoke, Mark realized that she was annoyed about everything that came out of his mouth.
"We have done extensive research regarding the possible monsters that would appear on the island. Researchers and superhumans died in order to bring us substantial information during their last trip, so I would appreciate it if you didn't undermine our work for the sake of your curiosity."
Mark shrugged at this and Milicent continued.
"And with regards to the other guilds. This mission was open for all guilds to accept. There were no restrictions placed on it, and we even sent out written letters to the heads of various guilds. The Athena guild was the only one that responded. According to the others, they required more financial compensation for the risk involved. We do not need such fools who are not aware of the dangers faced by the people of the city."
She has a very sharp tongue.
Mark chuckled as this thought filtered through his mind, and he could only nod along as Milicent continued to talk. Mark knew that the NSA had every right to be spiteful with regards to the other guilds not accepting to join the mission, but Mark just hoped that they weren't allowing their anger to cloud their sensibility.
If the superhumans go to that island and the monsters there turn out to be much stronger than initially estimated, then there is no way anyone would be coming back alive.