Nexus

He checked the starting time of both and noticed that the first one started in 3 days and lasted 15 days while the second one needed to be completed within 20 days.

Maximus eventually chose the first option, there was a chance he might get free money if no one attacked after all, well, that was the only point.

If he sat down and thought about everything, he was pretty sure that both sides would have more or less equal points which would waste his time. Comparatively, the earlier point he thought of was enough for him to choose this mission. Men were simple people.

When he chose the mission, the tab extended, displaying an additional tab of 'accept?' which he unhurriedly chose.

Immediately after, the tabs collapsed. On the screen now was a single sentence followed by a dash.

[Please put in your username]

He thought for a bit but eventually settled upon a one word name.

[Nexus]

The screen collapsed once more like before, with a row of sentences appearing now.

[Mission: Protect Secretary of the Nature's club in Nevada

Mission Participant: Nexus

Mission Information:

Overview: Your mission is to provide protection to the Secretary of the Nature's Club, who is based in Nevada. Your role is vital in ensuring the safety of this essential figure who advocates for environmental awareness and conservation among the many who wish to harm him.

Location: Nevada, United States

Responsibilities:

Vigilant Surveillance: Maintain a continuous watch over the Secretary's activities within the state of Nevada, identifying any signs of potential threats or unusual behavior.

Local Threat Assessment: Utilize your unique skill set to assess both mundane and supernatural risks that may arise in the diverse landscapes of Nevada.

Covert Intervention: Employ your abilities to discreetly redirect potential dangers away from the Secretary, only if the overt protective measures from his team of bodyguards or private army fail.

Anonymity and Discretion: Maintain a low profile while fulfilling your mission, allowing the Secretary to carry out their work without drawing attention.

Assistance provided: Traveling to and fro the meeting place. Enter the traveling code provided and location in the phone to avail the services.

Time limit: From 10th to 25th March.

Mission Rewards: 100k USD + any personal tip from secretary

Mission failure: Discontinuation of monthly 50k USD]

'Wow. Does that mean I'll get an additional 100k USD on top of the continuous 50k USD provided by the Gardeners? And failure only brings discontinuation of the said 50k USD? That's almost too good to be true.'

Immediately after he thought that, a sense of calm washed over him as he thought, 'Yes, that's too good to be true. What could be the catch here? Could it be that other supernatural beings could be targeting the Secretary? Hmm, no use thinking so much.'

Immediately after, he closed the phone and put it in the utility belt. Preparing to return for the night.

*THUMP*

*THUMP*

A couple footsteps rang as he was about to leave the isolated dark corner of the building. From the corner of his eyes, he peeked out and noticed it was simply some drunkards wobbling their way into the dark, likely about to pass out.

As a precaution, he himself knocked them out in case they tried anything to report to anyone then moved out. He could never be too careful in this world.

Immediately after, he navigated his way towards the safe house nearest to the Golden Gate of San Francisco. It was a prominent symbol and famous tourist attraction of this city, not a literal golden gate.

It was about half an hour later that he found the safe house after cross checking through the map given by Seraphina.

He noticed three figures already inside in his ability range but immediately let down his guard after looking at the familiar suits.

"You're late even after I chose the nearest safehouse." Seraphina spoke out as soon as he came.

'Ah yes, I was choosing my missions. Did she plant a tracker in my phone though? Ugh, no wonder she could choose the nearest one to me, else it would've needed me to take some mode of transport to reach the other ones.'

He swiftly made up a reason, not willing to linger on the topic nor apologize. He didn't do it on purpose. Nor did he think that she, according to her personality, would care. Indeed, she didn't pursue the topic but laid out protocols to follow during today's mission, which was simply to get a general idea of the Gardeners situation.

In the end, they were a group of people who worked independently, completing their goals even outside of the one given by Gardeners. If they didn't inform them about the situation, they would find it themselves.

They immediately set out, each of them taking out modified bicycles from the safehouse and approaching the location individually using different but close routes.

Maximus noticed he was once again heading towards the south, 'Are the wilderness between cities not fully explored?'

But he put a half to his thought as the place to disembark drew near. It was nearly five hundred meters away from the location where they decided to switch to moving on legs. He noticed that, although not as powerful as Adrian, both women were sufficiently athletic and had strong bodies, allowing them to jump from heights a little higher than the average human.

They made use of trees as a cover and steadily approached when something hit them out of nowhere. They had always been safe due to a large range of Seraphina's passive ability but today for some reason it didn't work.

Eluding both Seraphina's range and Adrian's extremely high reaction speed, an air blade slashed out of a seemingly nowhere, cutting a deep gash across Adrian's abnormally resilient chest, which was nigh impenetrable through means used for normal humans.

A fraction of a second later, Adrian growled in a low voice, his left hand already on his chest, trying to stop the unusually high flow of blood. Having a gauge of everyone's capabilities after fighting with them, he immediately knew they couldn't face this new person.

"Leave! Run!"