Chapter 983: Countercheck!
Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
Why is waiting also a form of attack? Because the other side was a loose bunch of guys after all. They lacked the kind of strong organisational force that bound a group of people with common interests together.
They would be fine if there were plenty of time. But because they weren't organized and distrustful of each other, and with the 36-hour deadline swiftly approaching, they were under great pressure!
Sheyan truly felt that the mastermind had done an amazing job. He was able to gather these loose bunch of contestants together as well as to get them to buy in by suppressing their desires and willingly hide themselves. But it would take a God, not a mortal, to calm these contestants down when they were on the verge of failing their mission and having all their base attributes deducted.
So Sheyan chose to wait and let the precious time pass by. At this point, it was a war of patience. The greatest advantage possessed by Sheyan's side was that they would emerge victorious if the status quo remained until the end.
In other words, they completely held the upper hand.
To be honest, Sheyan was extremely wary of that mastermind behind the scenes. His mysterious way of attacking was indeed difficult to guard against. If Party Ace made any rash actions and lost the initiative in this battle, resulting in them being ambushed, Sheyan was not sure if he could protect Mogensha or Sanzi's life.
Similarly, the enemy's loose organisational structure ensured that they could not withstand a sudden assault by Ace Party too. It would easily collapse the morale and core that they had so painstakingly built!
And so, a stalemate had become the main theme of this battle.
Whoever revealed a flaw first, would lose!
As time went by, even Sheyan's teammates were showing some anxiety. Instead, the other contestants who had received the "Protect Sarah Connor" mission had been keeping themselves busy, as was evident from their appearance in news footages on TV from time to time.
The official news channels became an important method for Sheyan and the rest to get information on the outside world. They were mostly interested in anything out of the ordinary, such as a gas explosion that occurred at a certain research institute. Military-grade gas tanks like those used in the institute would never blow up that easily. Some technology inside must had been stolen.
Another example was a gun fight between some drug traffickers and the police. It must be the work of those bastards, either to gain reputation with certain factions or to achieve some milestones.
Even the Cyberdyne Systems company, which would produce Skynet, had been harassed. Note that it was just harassment and not an assault. The hapless perpetrator seemed to have bitten off more than he could chew. In the end, sadly, he was carried out covered with a white cloth on a stretcher.
"Those people sure are calm." Reef clutched a cup of water and paced back and forth restlessly. If he gripped the cup any tighter, it would surely crack.
They were now on the rooftop of a thirty-storey building, where a rusty galvanized iron shack had been built by the building manager to earn a little extra cash for himself. The rusty iron rattled as the wind blew. Whoever stayed here would feel an oppressive feeling.
This place may look like a tough spot with nowhere to run if the situation got dangerous, but there were actually three buildings around it that were lower in height, and the gaps to those buildings were all less than 20 meters in width. It would not be hard for a contestant to jump to the opposite side.
Moreover, Sheyan was confident in the team he built from scratch. In this world, it would be hard to find any side that could force them to run away in panic in a direct confrontation.
If they did not have to protect the corpse of the female lead in the previous battle, Sheyan and Reef could just rush into the midst of the enemies. With Zi and Mogensha's help, the ones to flee would have been the enemies instead!
Another important point was, if the mastermind really did have the confidence of dealing with Party Ace, why would he bother with so much set-up and schemes?
Sheyan knew well that the most sure-fire way of obtaining victory was not with schemes, but to crush the opponent with an overwhelming superiority!
Faced with Reef's doubts, Sheyan just smiled and said, "They will lose their cool sooner or later. In fact, now that half the time has passed, I can already guess where they're hiding."
Mogensha's spirit was instantly lifted when he heard that. "Where's that?" he asked.
The only peculiarity Sheyan could detect on the metal nut before entering this world was the SOS distress signal engraved on its thread - but the it was only visible under a high power microscope.
While in the nightmare realm, even someone as sharp as Sheyan found it hard-pressed to glean any more information from the existing clues. However, after entering this world, the nut began to show some more information:
"Workshop No.7, Knox Factory."
Since a location was given, there was no doubt that any stories that would develop later would start from there. Together with the SOS clue, the time, the location and the event could be fully deduced.
If the mastermind behind the scenes truly had something to do with the Stockholm party as Sheyan had speculated, he would know this place too. Now that Sheyan had vanished from public view, the only ambush point they could set up was right there.
Sheyan looked serious as he told them, "Although I know the enemies must be around that place, we still have to wait. It's now a battle to see which side will lose their patience first. Our disadvantage is that we entered this world almost a whole week later than they did, so we don't know if they've prepared anything in secret. The good news is that it's almost impossible for them to find us as long as we hole up here. Whoever move first will show their flaw first! And don't forget, the status quo is beneficial to us. So why not wait?
*********
Party Ace's main mission slowly approached the time limit.
An hour left....
30 minutes left....
10 minutes left....
Sheyan's face darkened. One of Sanzi's summoned creature was a very strange plant familiar which could be used for surveillance. Sanzi could plant the plant familiar in the body of a homing pigeon to turn it into a moving surveillance camera.
The homing pigeon was currently perching on a building next to the Knox factory.
So far, there had been no movement in the factory.
This had completely strayed from Sheyan's judgment. In Sheyan's estimation, internal strife and chaos should have broken out among the opposing contestants, who were nothing more than a rabble, as the time limit counted down to 10 hours!
Now, the time limit was already within 10 minutes, but the place was still so quiet!
Sheyan felt the situation slipping out of his control, which was a frightening thought. His throat felt dry. Zi thoughtfully handed him a glass of water, which he gulped down.
"How could this be?" Sheyan couldn't help muttering to himself. "There's definitely no mistake in my judgement."
[ Mission completion countdown begins: 10, 9, 8, ..... 1, 0! ]
[Silver party Ace have completed the main mission: "Save"]
[ Main mission: Save ]
[ Mission details: Even though Sarah Connor and her boyfriend did not survive the intense assassination attempt, but their child, the future leader of the Resistance, John Connor managed to survive the ordeal. His life will no doubt change dramatically, but Skynet's goal was not achieved. ]
[ Mission evaluation: D - Extremely bad! Ladies and gentlemen, for a time, you put Mr. John Connor's life in a very precarious position. More importantly, the death of his mother will inevitably change the future. It would have been great if you could keep Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor alive! ]
[ Mission reward: 3000 utility points and 2 achievement points (legend level +1). You are not qualified to receive free attribute points. ]
The low evaluation score of the main mission was within Sheyan's expectation. His attention was still focused on the Knox factory's side. The factory had remained oddly calm without anything unusual happening at all.
Sheyan waited for another hour after that. The whole time was spent in anxiety. His dark eyebrows were furrowed deep as he paced restlessly back and forth in the iron shack like a trapped animal. Reef and the others were silent in fear of disturbing him.
Suddenly, Sheyan grabbed a piece of iron that protruded from the wall and tore it off as he yelled, "I understand now! That bastard!!! I've underestimated his cruelty and his resolve! Let's go to the Knox factory! "
**********
It took less than twenty minutes for Party Ace to arrive outside the factory. From how heavily-guarded the place was, there was no doubt that the factory was a key military facility. However, for their group, it was not too difficult if they just wanted to infiltrate the outer area and not the core area. The guards wouldn't be able to detect their presence.
Next, Sanzi used his ability to control ten odd rats to survey the area.
The rats soon found a suspicious location inside the Knox factory.
It was a place that used to be an hall, but was now an abandoned warehouse.
This place was suspicious because....even a rat could not get in.
The party soon reached the entrance of the warehouse with Sheyan and Reef in the lead. They forced open the door with violent means.
The door looked old and broken, but it was actually very strong.
Looking inside, Sheyan had a very ominous feeling because the moment the door had opened, he could already detect the pungent smell of blood.....