I smiled but said nothing. Letting them talk worked better than any speech.
Before they could recover, ten more jackets ca off almost in sync.
Black and green plating caught the light. Clean lines. Smooth joints.
Each suit hugged its wearer perfectly, emphasizing how sexy my girls looked. They all had the proportions of supermodels.
Flashes went wild.
"No—no way..." soone whispered, voice shaking. "Not just one... but eleven?"
A dry swallow followed.
"Eleven nano suits. That’s eleven billion."
They couldn’t believe how much I poured into this expedition.
Outfitting the S-Rankers made sense. Anyone could understand that. But seven other A-Ranks were wearing state-of-the-art technology too.
This wasn’t throwing money anymore.
It was burning it to the ground, then scattering the ashes into the ocean.
Many of them doubted I could recover the cost, even if the expedition succeeded.
Most raids on Floors Fifteen to Twenty only generated five to ten billion in profit. That was assuming every piece of loot was sold and counted before taxes took their cut.
By that logic, this mission wasn’t an investnt. It was a loss written in advance.
My thinking ran in a different direction though.
Once my guild’s popularity exploded, every credit spent here would co back many tis over. Just going public would be enough.
That was just a part of my genius plan.
There was another side of the coin.
Ace rcer would stand in the light as a legitimate Guild Master. That role would let work with governnt institutions, the Association, and every group that cared about rules and appearances.
Master Cheng would move in the shadows. He would handle the filth no one else dared to touch and carry the hatred that followed it. To the governnt, he would beco an enemy.
If the world needed a hero, Ace rcer would answer.
If it needed a monster, Master Cheng would take the bla.
And no matter which side won, I would still be standing at the center of it all.
My team began lining up. Anyone with eyes could tell this wasn’t a random group thrown together for show.
One of the sharper reporters frowned and started counting.
"Wait... one, two..." His voice slowed. "There are only a hundred. But the limit is one hundred fifty!"
Others noticed the rest of the personnel wearing different uniforms. No combat gear. No weapons. Support roles only.
A reporter raised his voice. "Mr. Chase, are you really entering the Fifteenth Floor with only one hundred people?"
"Yes. We’re not using the full limit."
"Why?" he pressed. "Isn’t that reckless?"
"Because this lineup is more than enough. Quality over quantity."
My answer stirred another wave of confusion.
Before they could push further, I raised my hand.
"The interview is over. Team Move!"
The whole expedition group marched at once.
Trailing us were Association staff, wearing their signature black coats. Their presence sent a clear ssage—no interference would be tolerated during the raid.
Further back ca another group. White hazmat suits. The Cleaners and scavengers.
Judging by their faces, they were probably thinking that it would be another failure.
I ignored them and we moved toward the Teleportation Gate. A mont later, we were sent straight to the 15th Floor.
This area was a wild jungle of massive trees. Branches twisted high above, forming a dense canopy that blocked out most of the sunlight.
Vines and roots tangled across the ground, and webs hung everywhere, stretching between trunks, snaring anything that wandered too close.
The main predators here were the White Spider Monkeys. Small but deadly, each one had six arms and six gleaming eyes.
Only about two feet tall, they weren’t physically strong—but they were lightning fast, darting from branch to branch with ease.
From there mouth, they could spit webs which was a nightmare during large scale fight.
We resud our march, moving carefully through the dense forest and tangled webs.
"Enemies at 12 o’clock!" One of our scouts shouted.
A pack of Spider Monkeys leapt from the trees, claws glinting, mouths spitting sticky webs.
"I got this." Rhea snapped her fingers, and hundreds of tennis-balls–sized blue flas shot out in every direction, incinerating incoming webs before they could reach us.
The heat sizzled through the air, a wall of fire that left the monsters disoriented and burning.
"Neutralized them!" Commanded By Alexa.
The others moved instantly, each using their own abilities to hunt down and destroy any beast that got too close.
It all happened so fast that even the Association staff watching froze in shock.
Not even the Phoenix or Nebula Guild—both famous for decades of experience—were this attuned. My team moved like a single unit, their abilities flowing without interfering with one another.
For instance, anyone using high temperature attacks made sure their target areas didn’t overlap with elent that counters them.
If they did, the clashing temperatures would reduce the effectiveness of both attacks.
Not everyone acted at once either; only those whose abilities would make a aningful impact stepped forward.
I nodded, satisfied with their performance.
All those hours of training, the personal pep talks in cramped rooms, the constant drilling—it hadn’t been wasted.
Well... most of that pep talk was extre brainwashing, designed to boost their battle IQ artificially in combat.
Here’s how I did it: I planted a seed in their minds that kept them calm, even in monts like this.
That calmness alone sharpened their instincts, improving their reaction speed and decision-making by at least twenty percent.
Second, I made sure to raise their sense of assurance. Each of them trusted their team leader and believed their teammates would cover their blind spots.
After cleaning up the last skirmish, we pushed forward toward the entrance of the Fifteenth-Floor boss.
The gate looked familiar, following the sa design as the others—but this one was embedded into the side of a mountain, massive and imposing.
A counter near the entrance blinked: 0.
"We’ll set up the periter first," one of the Association staff spoke up. It was standard protocol, ant to ensure that no accidents occurred.
Only a hundred people were allowed to enter as per my request.
The rule wasn’t arbitrary. Exceed that number by even one, and the boss gained an imdiate 15% boost to both its physical resistance and energy attack resistance.
It didn’t stop there. Every person above 101 added 1% more to its resistances, stacking quickly. With a full 150-man team, that would total 64%.
On top of that, each S-Rank in the team could boost the boss’s attack power or attack speed by 10%.
Just running the numbers in my head made the previous bosses I killed feel like child’s play in comparison.
This was exactly why most guilds stopped climbing the tower after a certain point.
We spent the next few minutes expanding the periter and double-checking the setup. Mistakes here would be fatal.
I moved from team to team, checking in with the other leaders.
"Rember the plan," I said firmly. "No deviations. Follow orders exactly. No improvisation unless absolutely necessary."
They nodded, faces serious. I could see the tension in their eyes, but also the trust they’d developed under my guidance.
This ti, I couldn’t rely on the old tactics. The strategies that worked before would get too many people killed here. There was no room for half asures.
"LET’S GO!"
After about twenty minutes of walking, the chamber opened before us.
Massive pillars rose like the bones of so ancient creature, their surfaces crawling with thick roots . Shadows danced across the walls, distorted by the faint glow of the chamber’s eerie light.
At the very center, the boss hung like a spider. Its multiple eyes glowed with a cold, calculating intelligence, tracking our every move as we approached.
Every muscle in its body twitched, waiting, —ready to strike.
BOOOOM!
A thunderous explosion shook the chamber as my spear slamd into the boss’s chest. The impact reverberated through the massive pillars, sending shards of stone and debris falling down.
I quickly resummoned my weapon and teleported to the ceiling, positioning myself right in front of the still disoriented monster.
"Wind Shadow Expanded!" I roared.
The spear scread through the air, the force so intense it ripped at the surrounding pillars. It was an attack that could destroy my guild building in one attempt.
To my surprise, it blocked with its axe. The resistance was tough, but the impact still sent it flying downward, crashing into the chamber floor with a ground-shaking thud.
My mbers didn’t let the opportunity slip.
Lian took the lead. She raised her hand, and a swirl of freezing air erupted from her palm, coating the floor in ice. She already reached S-Rank, though we kept that fact hidden until now.
The boss slipped and tumbled, losing its balance.
Rhea and the others didn’t hesitate. Flas, lightning, and other elental attacks rained down on the boss. They focused on hitting the head, while Lian and the others with freezing abilities targeted the legs and joints, locking them in place.
However, its resistance was extrely high.
Even with the combined force of their long-ranged attacks, the boss barely took damaged.
Lian notice this, so she focused on making the floor even more slippery, spreading a thin, unyielding layer of ice that made every step unstable.
"RAWWR!" It slamd its foot into the icy ground, shattering the surface beneath it and creating solid footholds.
With the renewed stability, it charged toward the main group.
Before it could reach them, I teleported and drove my spear down toward its head.
My weapon collided with the boss’s axe, the force erupting into an explosion that shook the chamber again.
"You’ll have to go through first if you want to touch them." I declared.
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