Bertram finally walked up to Jack.
Seeing that he still had a bit of breath left, Bertram gave him a final blow to make sure he wouldn't come back to life.
"Our grudge is settled now," Bertram said as he finished Jack off, then disappeared into the darkness like he was never there.
The man vanished, leaving only blood and death behind.
In reality, Bertram could've handled this cop way more easily. One sneak attack with his sword energy or using the Seven-Star Phantom Death Butterfly would've ended it right away.
But Bertram was still just a regular student who hadn't seen much blood. He had picked this fight to be his first kill.
Since it was his first blood, he wanted to experience the moment up close and personal.
The officer was just a small threat. Even if things went wrong, Bertram still had it under control.
He went back to the school's training room, pretending like he had been there the whole time, then headed back to his dorm.
No one at the school knew that the guy who had been "training" had just sneaked out to kill a cop.
"Bertram, you've been super dedicated to training lately!" a dorm mate said.
"No choice. I want to survive," Bertram shrugged.
His dorm mates gave dry smiles. Who didn't want to survive? But was it really as easy as just training more?
Bertram lay on his bed, feeling the weight of what he'd done.
"Taking out the officer didn't change anything. That means the Jackson Family already knows I was the one who called the cops. Now let's see what the Olson Family does."
That battlefield was already beyond his reach.
---
East Zone 9, Underground Coal Plant.
After the apocalypse, coal had become a super important energy source for survivors. To avoid extradimensional creatures, the coal plant had been built underground.
Over time, the underground coal plant in East Zone 9 had been abandoned. Now, it was just a temporary base for troops passing through.
But no one would've guessed that this "temporary" base was hiding a serious force: one B-level, three C-level, and fourteen D-level fighters.
"All this just to guard one girl?" a C-level fighter yawned, sounding bored.
"This dump doesn't even have a single hot woman. It's so lame out here."
"This is a big family issue. Stop whining and stay alert. Once this period's over, our job's done," said the B-level fighter next to him with a frown.
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. But this place is so hidden, how would the Olson Family even find it? And even if they did, could they beat us with this many fighters here?"
"By the time they realize something's wrong and get their people together, we'll already be gone."
"What, you think they can predict the future and send an army instantly or something?"
Just as the C-level guy finished talking, a surge of energy swept down from above like a wave. In a second, the whole underground coal plant turned into a world of white mist.
Everything went quiet.
Sight and sound vanished completely.
"What the hell? Ryder's here? No, wait, whose power is this?!"
The guards all looked shocked.
How could someone use Ryder's power in a place like this?
In an instant, everyone felt like they'd been cut off from the world.
The white mist twisted into snake-like fog, coiling around the D-level guards' necks.
They grabbed their throats, looking like they were about to snap, their faces turning purple as they suffocated.
The C-level guard who was just bragging suddenly turned and threw a punch in a certain direction, but it was blocked by an ice shield.
"Who's there?!" he yelled, trying to hide his panic.
Then, a flash of a blue mask appeared right in front of him. A cold, chilling force spread from his arm to his whole body, freezing his blood and energy.
His terrified eyes locked onto the unique mark of the blue mask.
"The Doomsday Squad?!"
"How could the Doomsday Squad just show up like this? This place is supposed to be one of humanity's strongholds against the extradimensional monsters!"
The other two C-level guards met the same fate.
One was ambushed by a ghost-like shadow, and the other had a laser gun aimed right at his head.
"Taken care of!"
"Taken care of!"
The squad's communication channel buzzed with constant status updates.
Meanwhile, bodies were dropping one after another in the mist.
Deep inside the fog, a B-rank warrior rushed toward the imprisoned girl from the Olson Family, Vanessa.
He had only one goal: to get her out of there as fast as possible.
But the ground suddenly trembled, and a huge figure appeared in his path. His arms were like solid rock, wrapped in white cloth.
A yellow mask covered his face.
"You're from the Doomsday Squad. How can you move without the Lord's permission?" the B-rank warrior asked, his heart sinking.
Even though the guy in front of him was also B-rank, every member of the Doomsday Squad was a total monster, top-tier elites who were practically unbeatable among people at their level.
"If you're dead, no one will know we acted without permission," the man in the yellow mask replied coldly, his voice firm and commanding.
It was clearly the same voice from Whitney's phone call.
"Captain, how's it going?" someone asked through the comms.
"Handled!" the yellow-masked man answered.
The B-rank warrior froze, confused.
The next second, the man's fist slammed into his chest. Starting from his sternum, all the bones in his body shattered in an instant.
"I was asking about my sister!" Whitney's icy voice came through the communicator.
"Oh..." The man in the yellow mask turned around to glance at the building behind him. A pale, scared face could be seen lying on a pile of straw, it looked like she was asleep.
"She's here. The prophecy ability you found was real!"
"Damn, we hit the jackpot!" an excited male voice echoed through the squad chat.
"Pack up and head back, Whitney. Don't lose the one you were supposed to find," the man in the yellow mask instructed.
Meanwhile, Bertram was casually napping in his dorm, keeping up the harmless act.
Suddenly, he got a message from the Infinite Life Simulation.
[Reforge Destiny: In the face of a giant like the Jackson Family, you disguised yourself as a prophetic ability user and earned the trust of the Doomsday Squad. This majorly changed your fate, meeting the requirements to reforge your destiny. Your past life experiences and martial arts insights will now merge with your current self.]