The Magician of Sound

After reaching their house, Kai had no other thing to do other than working on his homework, especially the one that came from Ria Ross. It turned out that he still lacked a few things, so he quickly reinforced his current plan. Only, he didn't ask Tasha for help even though the latter had been asking him continuously.

She had been more energetic ever since doing it with Kai. It looked like a dream come true for her because she never knew the reason why Kai rejected her this whole time. When she first knew that the reason was about genetics, she was wondering what kind of burden that Kai carried this whole time.

She even thought that Kai wasn't a straight guy at first, and the guilty feeling began rising in her heart. She could only help him with this kind of thing, but the latter declined her offer.

Kai looked at Tasha, who had nothing to do, wrote a few things, and asked her to remember every single thing. He wanted to cram everything to Tasha because her space magic would surely help in this mission.

After giving her some tasks, Kai went back to his room and holed up for a whole week. He only came out of his room to take a shower, eat, and school. Even in the school, Kai didn't talk much to think up more plans. 

Michelle and the others respected that and let him busy with his own things.

The mission of the Raid Mission was already officialized when Kai visited Ria Ross. However, Evan was the only one in the room, so he took the official document and handed it to Kai.

Inside the paper was only about the official order and basic information. The top 100 groups always got this every year, so they weren't surprised. Kai read the information and incorporated the idea into his plan. 

One week quickly passed by, and the time for the battle finally came.

Kai opened his eyes after a long night's sleep. He rubbed his fuzzy eyes and rose from the bed. On the top corner of his table laid a few documents that he had been working this entire week.

He changed his clothes and washed his face before grabbing the document with him. In the first front page was written:

Raid Mission (Underground Nest)

Mission Reward: Unknown (Depending on the difficulty)

Description: A full clearance of the complicated underground nest. The place is filled with bugs, mostly ants, so proceed with caution.

Kai ate his breakfast with his family and had a bit more time with them in the morning, knowing he couldn't go back for a few days to weeks. 

After that, Kai and Tasha teleported right inside room 420. Only Shirotsuka Sanae had yet to come. All of them wore their usual battle uniform. It was a white school uniform coupled with long white pants. The white color was there, so people could differentiate any color easier. 

Poison, colored-liquids, and so on. However, they unusually wore a thick long sleeves uniform this time. At first, Kai thought it was to help them from the cold, but he noticed it was for something else. Remembering that their enemies were insects this time, he could somehow understand their worry.

Not saying anything about their attire, Kai opened his communication device, checking if there was a message. Just as he was about to look at it, someone's footsteps echoed through the corridor in front of his room. 

*Bang!*

That person suddenly slammed the door open and entered with another person.

"Sir Nathan." Kai recognized the first person and greeted him, but he furrowed his eyebrows upon seeing the second person. It was a middle-aged man with wavy blue hair and deep blue crystal eyes. He wore a light green military uniform with a warm coat. "And…"

The strict expression of this man suddenly turned into a warm smile. He looked at Kai with a gentle expression and said. "Hello. I'm Sherwin, the deputy of General Nathan for this Raid Mission. Because he might be busy, I will probably be with you for most of the time, Mr. Strategist."

Sherwin walked toward him and stretched his hand forward, looking for a handshake.

Kai nodded and shook his head. "I'm in your care, Sir Sherwin." 

"Oi oi. Do you forget about me?" Nathan complained. However, when Kai and Sherwin turned around, they found Nathan sitting on a couch. Both of them couldn't help but twitch their eyebrows.

Before they could say anything about him, Nathan opened his mouth again. "Joke aside. I'm sure you already know the deal about this Raid Mission, right? We are going to that place right now with me. There are several commanders standing by in our encampment. As for your teacher, she has gone with the other teachers." 

Nathan's expression turned serious, making Kai hesitate. Sherwin patted Kai's shoulder and nodded his head, telling him it was the plan. 

Kai sighed and looked at the girls and Evan. "Let's go." 

"Good." Nathan abruptly rose from his seat and vanished. The next thing they knew, he had reached the door.

Kai and the others followed him to the backyard, where a slightly bigger military chopper was standing by for them. No one was waiting in front of the helicopter, except for the pilot. 

Nathan nonchalantly hopped inside and waved his hand to Kai, telling him to get in. 

As soon as all of them boarded inside the helicopter, they set off toward Canada. It was a long four-hour journey, but Nathan didn't ask a single thing about the plan in this journey. Instead, he was asking about his daily activities and such.

Finally, an abandoned city came into sight. It was the nearest city from the Underground Nest, which only took five minutes toward the Underground Nest.

It was a small city, but they somehow set up buildings as barracks to hold more than six thousand people. Kai could see and hear them from the sky before closing his eyes.

The last time he had a mission in the open like this was in United Asia when the incident happened. He let out a sigh, thinking how bad his memories were. After all, it was like the eve of chaos, especially the part where he found George's corpse. 

Kai shook his head. 

There was another thing that disturbed him, but he kept it as a secret for now. He didn't want to make the others worry for the time being, especially his group.

They landed in the city, and a soldier came, opening their door and greeting them. 

"Sir!" She saluted before stretching her hands to the side, asking him to go politely. 

"Thank you." Nathan nodded with a smile and walked toward their base. Kai and the others followed him because they didn't know a single thing about this temporary base.

"Sherwin, you can tell them about this base and show their room. I will bring this guy to acquire the most important thing in this mission." Nathan said before dragging Kai somewhere else.

Michelle and the others already knew about Kai's role in this operation, so they nodded and followed Sherwin without making a fuss about it.

On the other hand, Nathan brought Kai to an empty room. Before entering the room, he took off his shoes and said. "Take off your shoes first."

Kai didn't know why he wanted to do that but still followed his order. Both of them entered the room, and Kai was startled upon seeing the room. It was quite a big room, but unlike the base that had many rubles around, this room was plain white.

The white color from this place didn't come from paint or whatsoever. Instead, it was covered with a huge paper, enveloping the whole room without leaving a single spot. 

When Kai was still in amazement, Nathan called someone, asking that person to come.

Kai didn't know who it was, but he knew about his job. It should be the person who could fix his drawing.

"Alright. We will wait for someone. In the meantime, I want you to tell me about the Underground Nest condition, such as their number and how big the place is." Nathan said. 

"If you are going for an absolute detail, I need one or two days," Kai said before closing his eyes, getting the rough estimate. "This might be a bit troublesome… I have underestimated the number."

"What do you mean?" Nathan narrowed his eyes.

"I have noticed this when we are in the sky, but this place is still linked to the Underground Nest, specifically right beneath the place we descended earlier. If we make a hole around fifteen meters deep, we will get inside the nest." Kai explained, still closing his eyes to get more focus.

"The shape of the nest itself is close to a circle… around three kilometers in diameter… We are already above their territories, and I could somehow listen to their creeping around. If I can have some loud sound banging the ground, I could trace the area clearly, but I believe that is impossible." Kai sighed. 

"Yeah. If we truly make that loud sound, we will surely alarm the enemy too much and possibly get swarmed by them. It's better to raid their turf because we can control them more easily." Nathan nodded. 

Kai nodded before making a weird expression. "Well, I don't know if this is good or bad, but we are actually close to the center of this nest. I will show you on the map later."

"Sure." Nathan was a bit surprised but still nodded his head like nothing happened. 

"As for their numb-" Before Kai finished, the door was opened, and a black-haired girl came in. "Excuse me!"