8  MINUTES EARLIER.

Inside a house located 3 blocks away from the Lecture Hall, two figures could be seen sitting around a table.

One was a male with green eyes and jet black hair that reached his shoulders, while the other one was a female with golden eyes and long blonde hair that reached her ankles.

Both of them had their eyes narrowed in concentration, as if they were busy on something extremely important.

"Vera, what is the status of Noelle?" The black-haired male said as he looked at the blonde girl. "Is she inside the Conference Lecture Hall?"

"Ray, you know what Noelle can do. For her to be in that Conference Lecture Hall is just a piece of cake for her." Vera, the golden blonde girl replied as she looked at Ray, the black-haired guy. "This is already our 4th world, and yet you still doubt her skills?"

Ray only smiled at the seemingly aggrieved look on Vera's face as he shook his head. "You know that even with her skills, Noelle is still very childish. I mean, do you remember what happened in the third world?"

"Yeah…." Vera grimaced, as she seemed to have remembered an extremely bad memory. "Didn't Noelle dump water to the head of the Stone King? The Stone King was definitely pissed by that."

"That is the exact reason why I am worried here." Ray replied as he let out a sigh. "At that time, I only wanted Noelle to weaken the Stone King. But why did she have to make him wet? That doesn't even work at all!

"Yeah, Noelle is definitely wrong there." Vera said in a relenting voice "But for today, she only has to do stay in the conference hall and monitor our targets, right? I think Noelle can manage that."

"She better do." Ray said as he placed his hands under his chin. "If she doesn't, sigh…. "

"Well-" Before Vera could say more words to Ray, she suddenly stiffened, as if she received some kind of stimulus.

"Ray, Noelle is telling me that one of our targets had shown themselves already." Vera said as her eyes narrowed in concentration.

"Who was it? Was it the Queen Hoarder, or was it the Apprentice?" Ray asked, with anticipation and boredom present on his voice.

"It's the Queen Hoarder." Vera replied as she massaged her temples. "According to Noelle, there are two people accompanying Queen Hoarder right now. One was her butler Eris, while the other one was the Symbolist that dated Queen Hoarder yesterday."

"Okay, okay." Ray replied as he rubbed his hands excitedly. "Now that Queen Hoarder is inside the Conference Hall, there is no more escape for her! No matter where she sits, she will always die!"

"Ray, you don't need to always say that line..." Vera said as she let out another sigh. "I already know that your bombs do their jobs properly…"

"Don't call them bombs! Call them Single Use, Area of Effect Implements!" Ray yelled at Vera, looking irritated as he did so. "Calling them bombs is just wrong! You know that my Single Use, Area of Effects Implements have a wide range of effects! Not any bombs can be like that!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know." Vera replied as she waved her hands dismissively. "But the name that you have is just too long. Calling them bombs is way easier."

"…."

"Ok, so what 'bomb' will you use here?" Vera asked, ignoring the groan of irritation from Ray. "Will you use a Nano-Storm, a Dimension Shredder, a Quantum Tunneler, or a Time Warper?"

"Vera, for me to prepare those, I have to use a lot of my power." Ray said as he shook his head. "And when I said a lot, I mean A LOT of it. Do you still remember when I used a Nano-Storm on that snake charmer guy? I almost died there! And now, you want me to risk my life to kill our two targets today? That's not worth it!"

"What will you use then?" Vera asked as a vein appeared on her forehead. "You know that Queen Hoarder and the Apprentice are both extremely talented. You can't just any normal bombs on them!"

"I know about that, so I used the best one that I can make right now." Ray said as he gave Vera a smirk. "What placed inside that lecture hall were multiple 'Sun-Birthers'!"

"Multiple 'Sun-Birthers'? Are you serious?" Vera hissed as she started to glare at Ray. "Do you know what could happen if you mess this up?"

"Of course I know." Ray replied confidently. "This whole city will be engulfed in flames, and many innocents might die here. If we did that, our Mission Grade will surely be reduced."

"Exactly!" Vera said as she attempted to to pull Ray by his collar, but in the end, she pulled back while letting out another sigh. "…I know that I can't stop you anymore, so just be careful!"

"Yes, Ma'm." Ray replied lazily as he closed his eyes.

"…."

"…."

After staying for a minute, Vera's body tensed once more. There's no doubt that she was communicating with Noelle again.

"Ray, the Apprentice had arrived too." Vera said as Ray hastily opened his eyes. "And right now, the Apprentice is starting the conference already."

"Good, good." Ray said as he cracked his knuckles. "So, where exactly are the Apprentice and Queen Hoarder now? I need to know their exact locations so that my Sun-Birthers can hit them on the spot."

"Well, the Apprentice is at the stage, while Queen Hoarder was at a private room, located at the other end of the lecture hall." Vera replied.

"Yosh, time for some explosions then~" But before Ray could start doing whatever he had planned to do, Vera suddenly raised her hands, as if she wanted to stop him.

"Wait Ray, Noelle's saying that there had been some developments…" Vera then continued raising her hands, as she looked busy on communicating with Noelle.

1 minute later, and Vera lowered her hands as she said,

"The Apprentice seems to have made a deal with Queen Hoarder, and right now, he's inside Queen Hoarder's private room."

"Oh, now that is better…" Ray said as an excited smile appeared on her face. "Since they're in the same place, I just have to use one Sun-Birther! Now, this is what I call a good catch!"

"Wait. Noelle told me that we should wait for 3 minutes before you activate the bomb." Vera said as she gave Ray a warning look. "Noelle said that it was what her instincts were telling her to do…"

"Tsk, 3 minutes then." Ray replied with an unwilling expression on his face. "Her instincts better be good. Even if it worked before, there's still a chance that it might not work here…"

"Geez Ray, have some faith in Noelle. She will end up crying again if she hears what you say."

"…"

"…"

Both of them then went awkwardly quiet, as they seemed to decide to stop talking at that time.

The only thing that they did was to wait until they were allowed to make their move.

"…."

"…."

Once the 3 minute-time was used up, Ray immediately looked at Vera as he asked her,

"Can I use it now?"

"Yes, Noelle says that it's all clear now." Vera replied quickly.

"Hahahaha! Here I go then!" As Ray said these words, his right hand started to glow red like magma, with his left hand adapting a snapping motion.

"Snap!"

A second after Ray snapped with his left hand, they heard the tumultuous sound of explosion coming from the direction of the Lecture Hall.

"Hahaha! Take that, you little s**ts!" Ray cackled as he started pounding the table in excitement. "My Sun-Birther can reach the temperatures as hot as the sun's surface! There's nothing that your paltry defenses can do against that!

"Ray, stop using that laugh. It is very embarrassing." Vera said as she glared at Ray angrily. "When will you stop being this childish?"

"I'm not being childish." Ray shot back as he began to look embarrassed. "I was just … celebrating, you know."

"Celebrate my ass." Vera muttered as she leaned back in her chair with much force that it almost broke. "For killing the Queen Hoarder and the Apprentice, our client will only pay us with a small sum. Do you really think that this is a cause for celebration?"

"Vera, you know that we should not worry about the money at all." Ray said as he let out a satisfied sigh. "We only do this so that once our Main Mission starts, there will be lesser enemies that we have to face. Now that Queen Hoarder and the Apprentice are both killed by my Sun-Birther, we have lesser people to worry about later!"

"You say that you want to reduce our enemies, yet we only managed to kill one Traveler Team, and that happened only yesterday." Vera said as she stared at Ray directly. "If we really want to reduce the difficulty of our Main Mission, shouldn't we just kill as many enemy Travelers as possible? We still have some time to look for the other teams! We don't need to do any of these assassination jobs at all!"

"Vera, you know that we only managed to kill that Traveler Team yesterday by fluke." Ray replied as he shook his head. "They were the one hunting other Traveler Teams, and they were just unlucky to activate my traps yesterday…"

"…"

"You want us to look for other Traveler Teams, but even with Noelle's skillset, it will still be extremely difficult for us to look for them!" Ray said as he shrugged his shoulders. "So, instead of looking for some enemy that we might not even find, it will be better for us to eliminate the enemies that we can already see."

Ray then started to pat Vera's shoulders as he continued talking. "Besides, if we continue doing this, we will be able to establish a good stronghold with our client. Isn't that a good way to start our Main Mission?"

"Well, I suppose you're right, but…" Vera looked extremely frustrated as she floundered in her words, and Ray watched this in amusement as he started to rock his chair back and forth.

"Vera, you don't need to explain yourself anymore." Ray said as he placed his index finger on Vera's lips. "What you just need to know is that we succeeded today, and we will continue on succeeding on the following days. So, all that you have to do is just relax."

After hearing these words from Ray, Vera looked like she was about to relax, but before she could lower her tense shoulders, she suddenly stiffened, with her eyes widening from what looked like to be surprise and anger.

"Ray!" Vera shouted as she looked at Ray. "Noelle just inspected the area affected by your explosion, and according to her, there is a high chance that our targets have escaped!"

"What did you say?" Ray's ecstatic facial expression fell as Vera's words rang on his ears. "How could Noelle determine that?"

"According to Noelle, she saw a deep hole in the center of the room, and from the size of that hole, it can fit around four people in it." Vera said as she gritted her teeth. "And Noelle also noticed wind flowing out of that hole, which meant that it was connected to the outside! If you put those two facts together, the possibility of our targets escaping is high!"

"M**********ng coconuts!" Ray bellowed in rage, with his eyes looking like they were smoldering in fire. "Nobody just takes a blast from me and leave unscathed from it!"

The enraged Ray then stood up as he kicked the door of their house open.

"Vera, tell Noelle to meet up with us at the plaza" Ray said as he cricked his neck. "Since some rats had escaped me, what else should we do? Of course we will chase them down until they're dead!"