The Magician of Sound

The next morning, 

Kai slowly opened his eyes after having a good sleep. What his teacher said yesterday kept him awake until midnight, and it even haunted him in his sleep. In the end, he just got some light sleep and would wake up the moment he heard something unnatural. 

Luckily, nothing happened at night, and Kai could wake up without lacking sleep. This mission might even last for a week, so if he didn't have a good condition even on the very first day, he would certainly have it worse in the next few days.

After waking up, Kai took a look at his device to see the time and jumped from his bed when he saw it was already seven in the morning. 

Although the operation would only start at eleven, he thought he still woke up a bit sooner to do some preparations. 

He quickly fixed his bed hair and left his bed before noticing Ayaka standing beside the door. 

"Ayaka?" Kai was just sorting out his thoughts while preparing himself, but he realized that Ayaka was standing on the corner. 

"You have a good sleep?" Ayaka crossed her arms, leaned on the wall, and asked. "Looking at your expression earlier, are you occupied with something?"

"..." Kai's eyebrows twitched. It would seem that her perception became a bit stronger since she usually would ask only the first question and wouldn't think about the second question unless he mentioned it.

"Yes. I have a good sleep." Kai nodded.

"How about the second question? You look a bit off since yesterday." Ayaka asked calmly, hoping he would answer.

"I… No, it shouldn't be a problem. I have confirmed there is nothing wrong for the past few days." A gentle smile appeared on Kai's face. He grabbed some clothes from his bag, planning to change. 

"If you have any problem, just consult it with us." Ayaka closed her eyes and said before opening the door. "I will be waiting outside," said Ayaka and left the room.

Kai stared at the closing door for a few seconds before shaking his head helplessly and changing his clothes. He took a deep breath, walked to the door, and opened it. 

Ayaka glanced at him, but she raised her hand and pointed to the corridor with her thumb, asking him to walk instead of questioning him.

Kai nodded and walked with her, thanking her inwardly from not asking for more.

"By the way, how is everyone? I don't really have much time to talk with you guys." Kai changed the topic to prevent awkwardness.

"We are fine. Most of the time, we are just getting accustomed to how the army does their job. Just some signal that we can learn to ensure we don't have miscommunication." Ayaka shrugged. "Our job is nothing like you who needs to use your brain all the time."

"Haha… Anyway, we are going to enter the nest after a few hours. Theoretically speaking, the battle will be stabilized in one or two hours. At that time, we are going to move along the Attacker Team… possibly with Michelle's teacher, Mano Yuki." Kai gave a hint of his plan.

"Alright. That's right, Teacher Sanae is moving together with us, right?" Ayaka asked. 

"Yes. The teachers are going to move with their own students to ensure that the students don't do something foolish. Although we are from the top 100 groups, we don't have many experiences with the army. They use the teachers who should have experiences to observe them."

Ayaka fell into silence for a few seconds and nodded her head. She could relate to it since Ayaka was one of the worst examples. She might have potential and pretty good strength, but it was shattered when she met Kai. If not because of him, she… Ayaka shook her head, throwing the thought of her mind.

She couldn't have a depressing thought before the battle to make sure she could fight with her best performance. 

"Anyway, the place itself is going to let us fight fifty thousand magical beasts with our six thousand. If this was on the surface, we might need twice that number at the very least." Kai sighed.

"I can relate that, especially when I heard about the battle in Cuba. I'm sorry that I couldn't participate."

"It's fine. Everything is alright now. Besides, Teacher said…" Kai paused for a moment and shook his head. "I shouldn't trigger a flag here." 

He was planning to say that the medicine was ready but felt like it was triggering the death flag. In the end, he would tell it after this ended to give a nice bonus.

"What is it?" Ayaka furrowed her eyebrows, curious. "Is Professor Ria here?"

"Yeah. She is going to watch over this operation…" Kai nodded. 

"I see. Then we shouldn't make a terrible performance if we don't want to get lectured." Ayaka smirked.

"Nah. Unless it's an official training from her, she wouldn't pick it up. Of course, she still gives some warning later." Kai shrugged. "By the way, where is everyone?" 

"They should be outside, not having anything to do or talking with the soldiers?" 

Kai took out his communication device and informed them to meet him right in front of the building. 

They waited for a while, and the Lion group finally assembled.

"Yo, little boss." Sanae was the last one to come and immediately teased him. She called Kai' Little Boss' because he looked like one in the past few days. 

"Teacher, don't call me that way." Kai shrugged. 

"Haha, aren't you one? You are the strategist of this mission and not with us these few days… only sleeping when you came back." 

"I have so much to do, so I'm sorry." Kai apologized, feeling bad. He feared that they would overthink and let the army control his schedule. 

"It's fine. Just ignore her teasing if you are bothered." Michelle stopped him and crossed her arms. "Besides, you will be moving with us in this mission, right?"

"Yes." Kai nodded. "We can go to headquarters first to prepare a few things." 

"Sure enough." Michelle nodded. On the side, Tasha didn't say anything and just watched them converse. She looked down and fell into deep thought, remembering the message Kai gave yesterday. Although it wasn't confirmed yet, the fact that Ria Ross went to the frontline herself uninvited was enough to increase the probability by twenty to thirty percent. 

Kai gave her a few tasks and asked her to keep it a secret. In this base, only three people knew about the possibility of SS rank magical beasts. Whether there would be the fourth person depended on Ria, and the candidate for the fourth person was none other than Nathan Graham. 

"By the way, do I need to go with the group?" Evan asked as he would usually work with the medics on the surface.

"Yes and no." Kai thought for a moment and said.

"Hmm? I will be working with my magic, but go with you first?" It only took Evan an instant to realize Kai's answer.

"Yeah. You are going with us and become a healer if we reach an anchor point. We will set up a few points, so you are going to move constantly." Kai nodded.

"Geh, I should watch out then." Evan let out a long sigh.

"Yes. Although we are moving with the attacker team with Vanguard watching our front and the Support Team will protect our back, we still need to be careful." Kai nodded. 

"Don't worry. I might not have powerful strength, but I'm confident in my running skill if I'm prepared." Evan Young nodded.

"Anyway, we should go."

Everyone nodded their head and followed him to the headquarters. Because it was only for authorized personnel, Michelle and the others were staying outside the tent.

Everyone was already standing by inside the tent, including Nathan, Ria, Via, and Sherwin. Their focus was on Kai as soon as he entered the tent and nodded their heads, seeing nothing wrong with his attitude. After all, he was still a student. Having him help with the strategy and map alone was already shameful, so there was no way they would be complaining.

"Since all of us here, we will begin our last briefing." Nathan glanced at the clock. "We have two hours before the operation starts. Sherwin."

He nodded and walked to the front. "I'm sorry that I didn't attend the meeting yesterday, but you don't need to worry as I have memorized everything about the plan. We have checked the size of the tunnel and its number. Hence, we can have five hundred people coming at once and quickly spread out.

"At the same time, we need to worry about our speed and timing. Just like how Kai suggested it yesterday, we will deal with it by using a timer. We would assume that everyone has admirably succeeded in their task within that time and move to the next phase.

"All commanders will stand by in their own army to lead them. Although most of you won't be able to see them anymore after entering, it's enough to boost our morale. This plan is only possible because we have Kai's extraordinary hearing to check everyone's condition, so don't worry, the help will come if you are in a perilous situation." Sherwin finished his explanation and stepped down.

"Then, how about the brain of this plan? Do you have anything to say, Kai?" Nathan glanced at Kai, followed by others.

"I am entering the nest after a few hours as planned. Even if I'm not here, I will still check all of your conditions. I can ask my sist… Tasha Carter to relay the message." Kai added his circumstances.

"Then, let's win this battle." Nathan nodded and closed their speech.