"Even private armies have limited funding."
With [Sphere Boundary], Aleph effectively hid his traces from any kind of detection method. He could even briefly turn transparent with it.
"The humvees could be dealt with. The jeeps… they're bomb proof."
Just like his vehicle, the jeeps are all bomb proof.
Despite throwing two grenades underneath, it only managed to flip the jeep over.
"Hm."
A seven to three ratio line appeared on the flipped jeep. The [Knight Killer] in his hands gleamed a terrifying blood light before it easily tore through the Jeep's reinforced metal.
Through the crack, Aleph saw several unconscious men. There are some that managed to stay awake.
A total of eleven men were found inside the jeep.
"Hello and… goodnight."
The fifth grenade was thrown inside the crack.
Aleph ran without looking back. The next moment, a huge explosion occurred not far away from him.
"I have six more…"
Along the way, Aleph picked up more grenades from the dead military personnel that served as his convoy. They were stored on a belt which he took from their corpse.
He looked at the approaching vehicles as well as the nearby sound of rotors from above.
"They reacted quickly. How should I do this..?"
Sou-!
Much to his surprise, the Hind Chopper started lowering its altitude. It stopped descending when it was less than twelve meters above the surface.
"Two… no, three people."
Aleph narrowed his eyes. A total of three people in full black outfit came out. The results from his [Danger Sense] were lower compared to Mobius'.
"Are they planning to capture me? But the rocket from earlier…"
He didn't know that it was purely an accident. If the rocket struck them, Aleph doesn't know whether his body could withstand it or not.
After all, the tests he did were mostly practical. He couldn't go as far as try to tank an RPG head-on. It was also the reason why he opted for a combat suit—to complement his body with an unknown upper limit.
Soon, the three suspicious men landed on the ground. The remaining enemy convoys took the initiative to come to their positions.
As they did so, Aleph operated his [Sphere Boundary] in its maximum capacity. There was still a bit of dust clouds and smoke from the battlefield. It made it so that he didn't even exist in the eyes of others.
[Cursed Energy (Converted): 510/930]
Looking at his remaining cursed energy, he decided to settle everything in one go.
His body, which was enhanced by it, traversed more than three hundred meters in under twelve seconds.
Using the momentum from the run, he then leaped forward, reaching the height of the Hind Chopper in one go.
Aleph removed the pin from one of the grenades before throwing the entire belt with it.
"Four seconds..!"
With the previous acceleration during his descent, Aleph ran more than a hundred or so meters before a huge explosion occurred once again.
BOOM-!
The Hind Chopper turned into a wreck of flames and burnt metal. It made its descent into the ground. Its close proximity with the other vehicles, especially the humvee, triggered another set of explosions.
Instantly, the three suspicious men turned into charcoal. The same went for the remaining humvee that followed.
One of the two jeeps were directly smashed by the Hind Chopper that fell from the sky. In the end, only one jeep was left barely intact.
"Huff… Huff…"
Aleph could feel his pulse strongly beating under his ears. He broke the world record from his "past life" and shortened it to less than half. Traversing four hundred meters in less than fifteen seconds is a terrifying feat beyond the capabilities of humans.
His eyes stared at the mess not far away from him.
Without a word, he grasped the handle of [Knight Killer] and slowly approached the remaining jeep.
When he came close, he saw the burnt marks all over the jeep. Its engine was completely scrapped with all the white smoke coming from its hood.
Aleph shattered the tempered and bulletproof glass with the red dagger.
Shatter-!
He pulled out the car door next and threw it not far away. Inside, he saw more than ten armed men in various conditions.
"So many people died. If this is your determination…"
"Hey, look! Who's this—?"
The final grenade on Aleph's pocket was taken out and thrown inside the jeep.
Some of the conscious men took the rifles in their hands and pointed at him. However, he was long gone by the time they did so.
One of the men saw the dark round object that hit his foot.
"Gre—"
BOOM-!
[Achievement Unlocked: One…]
With that, the sudden ambush ended.
*****
Like a stone thrown into a pond, the sudden ambush caused huge impacts.
"...I see..."
Beep-!
Aleph did not have the time to ask when Mei ended the call. Judging from her cold tone, someone will be held accountable to the attack.
It was not just her. In a short hour, a dozen calls reached out to him.
After the ambush, the surviving bodyguards regained consciousness and called for backup. The entire situation was settled in less than twelve hours.
"More than half died. Whoever chose to target me like this…"
Nearly seventy percent of his convoy died. It was the first time Aleph felt this kind of anger towards someone else.
"The learning process of artificial intelligence should be sped up. If only I had the one in Nagazora…"
From his dreams, Aleph knew about the existence of his helper in his time at Nagazora City. The artificial intelligence there had already finished its early-phase learning. It was advanced enough to be used as his virtual assistant inside the nuclear-powered suit.
Unfortunately, its black box was in Nagazora. Its state was unknown, but it was most likely destroyed.
Aleph could only write a new artificial intelligence from scratch. Now, it has been in a learning state for more than three weeks.
"I need to crack down on those damned bastards."
Speaking of it, Aleph recalled someone whom he had contacted before. Due to her unpredictability—akin to Mobius—he chose to stay out of her radar.
Now, it was different. His prior impression on Mobius was far from what he saw during their month or so of cooperation. She was still human in the most literal sense.
It dawned on him that he tends to overcomplicate things sometimes.
"I have their addresses and identities. If I have a helper…"
Nobody knew what kind of monster they awakened.