"Alright. What’s your report?" A middle-aged man asked. This middle-aged man had brought five other people, all very strong.
They followed Melody’s instructions and entered the mall from the top floor so that they could meet up with the group of new explorers to handle the situation.
Melody took out the device and showed them the position they could find from this place. "There are approximately eleven people guarding the hostages. We don’t know about their strength."
The middle-aged man thought for a moment. "Alright. We’ll take over from here."
His voice was strict as if he didn’t take a ’no’ for an answer. Most importantly, Melody and the others were civilians, so they shouldn’t participate in this risky mission.
However, Clovis raised his hand and said, "I believe that you have to split your force into two."
"Oi…" One of the men stepped forward, glaring at Clovis.
Clovis remained expressionless as if he had expected this rejection, but he still wished for his opinion to be heard.
It seemed that the government had placed the right person in the right position. He waved his hand, asking his subordinate to calm down. "What do you mean?"
"Currently, there are Tier 4 and Tier 3 explorers grabbing the enemy’s attention. And you should be able to hear them from here…" Clovis pointed to the side, specifically the source of the gunshots.
"Continue."
"As you might already know, the enemy is Tier 4, so to capture or even prevent a lot of damage to the building, I believe that the Tier 4 people here should eliminate those threats and leave the hostages to the rest of the people here."
"Hoh?" The middle-aged man looked at Clovis in amusement. His words weren’t necessarily wrong.
"Captain—" His team wanted to protest, but the middle-aged man stopped him again. "So, what do you propose?"
"I believe that we, weaklings, should be the bait."
"Your reasons?" The middle-aged man became even more interested in Clovis.
"Two reasons. We can pressure them a little bit to force them to show their trump card. And most likely, their members are hiding among those hostages. The moment they reveal their trump card, your team can sweep in. As for the second reason… it’s just my speculation, but there is a chance that they have prepared another bomb."
"Hmm…" The middle-aged man fell silent. The bomb was indeed annoying. Since they had exploded once, there was a possibility that the second bomb would be hidden among them.
At the same time, he couldn’t deny that there was a high chance that the terrorists would be hiding among the hostages to launch a sneak attack.
"What is your name?" He asked, not expecting that a young man like Clovis would be able to see the situation clearly. This was a quality that an explorer needed to be successful.
"Clovis."
"Alright, Clovis. I understand your concerns, but as much as I want to allow you to participate, civilians have to stay away from this."
"But…" Clovis didn’t expect that he would be rejected like this, even though the concern was valid and the plan would give them a huge advantage.
"Like the captain said, piss off, kids. This is not a play. It’s a matter of life and death." The guy, who had been stopped earlier, snorted.
But Clovis forgot about one thing. The middle-aged man said, "How unreliable of us if we have to rely on civilians to risk their lives for the sake of completing the mission."
"…" Clovis looked unwilling, but he didn’t utter any more words, as if he knew this middle-aged man was the one in charge.
"Still, we can actually reverse our roles." The captain patted Clovis’s shoulder.
"Huh?" The guy who snorted earlier widened his eyes in shock.
"We have a way to measure a human’s tier. And we have confirmed that there is no one above Tier 1 among those hostages. So, if there is indeed an enemy hidden among them, we can deal with them. However, you can stand by on the second floor and immediately take them down the moment they reveal themselves. What do you think?"
"Captain!" The guy wanted to object, but Clovis thought this was also reasonable.
Clovis nodded. "I understand."
"Good." The captain smiled and said, "If you want to stop being an explorer, you can join my team."
"Wha—" The guy wanted to continue, but his friend covered his mouth and dragged him to the side. "We need to be quiet. Come on."
"I’m thankful for your invitation, but I am still too young to give up being an explorer."
"Sure." The middle-aged man smiled before turning to his team. "We will split our team into two. Me and Johan will be ambushing their best people. The rest of you will take care of the hostages."
"Yes, sir."
All of them immediately prepared, leaving Clovis and the others alone. Although they allowed them to participate, the captain obviously planned to eliminate the terrorists without their help.
This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.
Clovis immediately came to Kanaria to get his temporary equipment. Meanwhile, Melody was asking them for their device so that they could link them and update the status of the terrorists.
Vina held a shield almost as big as her entire body, ready to block all kinds of bullets.
Kanaria, on the other hand, noticed Clovis’s eagerness and couldn’t help but ask, "Is the reason why you want to defeat those terrorists…" However, she actually stopped.
The reason was obvious. Clovis thought that the mall was attacked because of him, so Clovis wanted to set this straight personally.
Hence, Kanaria said, "I think this one is not your fault, Clovis. The patterns of their attacks are different."
If the terrorists had come for him, they would have encountered a lot of terrorists. So, Kanaria thought that the terrorists were planning to find someone else.
"Hu…" Clovis took a deep breath. It seemed that he had made Kanaria worry. "Mhmm… Let’s go, shall we?"
"Yep." Kanaria smiled.