Chapter 88

As the cherry blossoms danced in the wind, Chen turned his head to follow the mutterings of Chen, who seemed slightly out of breath, and saw a massive eight-lane road. The road, which was expected to handle hundreds of vehicles, was now littered with all sorts of broken structures and cracked asphalt. A huge fissure running across the center lane gave a hint of the outcome.

And at the center of that fissure, dozens of freelancers stood in front of a massive sinkhole in the middle of the eight-lane road, swallowing their saliva with tense expressions.

"According to the location data, this should be the right place..."

"Damn, isn't it too deep?"

"Who knows what's inside."

As the freelancers began to waver at the sight of the deep, bottomless hole, Chen looked around and quickly said, "Because of the current situation, we should go inside instead."

"What?"

"Just one shot from Cheisha's artillery sent hundreds of organization members flying out. How many do you think are left inside?"

"......"

Hearing Chen's words, the freelancers quietly looked at each other.

"......Yeah."

"Come to think of it, there were plenty of guys without magic power among those we faced at the temporary base."

"Did we get too scared by the term 'terrorist organization'?"

As if waiting for that response, Chen pointed at Renok and said, "Besides, there's a mage here. A mage who's over level 5. Don't you get what that means?"

Seeing the freelancers' eyes light up with excitement, Chen smiled.

"Do you understand? Just close your eyes and lead the way. If you do, the money from five jobs will be in your hands all at once."

Renok nodded inwardly at Chen's words. Instead of boosting morale with pointless perseverance or emphasizing mental strength, Chen provided a plausible opinion, reminding everyone once again that this operation had a clear chance of success. His words were also aimed at the fact that some of the 1st and 2nd squads gathered here had participated in the temporary base raid with them.

It was a flawless persuasion.

Renok's job was to add visible trust to Chen's fluent speech.

"Chen is right."

At his calm voice, everyone turned to look at Renok. He calmly met their gazes and took the cigarette out of his mouth.

Ting!

The cigarette, flicked by his finger, spun through the air and fell into the fissure below.

[Ignite]

[Plus Red]

Whoosh...!!

The ember on the cigarette grew explosively into a fierce flame, swelling like a balloon into a house-sized sphere of fire.

Boom!!

A moment of silence followed, and then a massive pillar of fire shot up, rising over ten meters high.

[Aaaah!!]

[I-It's an attack...!!]

Hearing the agonized screams from below, everyone stared dumbfounded at the fissure. Renok took a new cigarette from his pocket, put it in his mouth, and smiled.

"Let's get it over with quickly."

Hearing Renok's words, Chen smiled and was the first to dive into the fissure beyond the pillar of fire. The other freelancers followed, as if hypnotized, jumping into the fissure.