Stacking My Abilities

Streams of water flowed down the small glass overhang. Hitting the ground, the streams made splashing sounds against the cement ground.

Jeff tapped his umbrella against the floor. A shower of water droplets fell to the ground.

The door was shoved open. Two drunk-looking fellas walked out.

"Whatcha lo- Oh. Hey, Mr. Mission Machine." A fella quickly put on a polite smile.

"Uh. Welcome back sir." The other guy froze up. "Uh. Have a good day. Sir."

"Yep." Jeff smiled and nodded back. "You too."

"Uh. Thank you sir." Leaving that, the two quickly got out of Jeff's way. Like kids facing their principal, the two nervously hurried off.

Looking at this, Jeff lightly shook his head. In theory, they were equals as hunters. But in reality, after the New Year's incident, everyone saw Jeff as the boss of the hunters now. Once again, this result was unelected... Without asking for Jeff's opinion...

What could Jeff say?

'Eh. What can you do about it.'

Fixing his business suit a little, Jeff headed down the stairs.

Pulling open the door, it's a familiar warm breeze that smelled like alcohol. Loud chattering, cheers, and laughter as usual. At the front desk, the receptionist lady was minding her own business.

Jeff picked up a tablet. No hooligans around anymore.

Signing in...

Target eliminated, check.

Another mission completed. 'Nice.'

Looking at his 100% mission success rate, Jeff faintly smiled.

Putting down the tablet, Jeff was ready to leave.

"Yoh. Jeff. Not staying for a bite?"

Jeff looked in that direction. It was Liam holding a mug of beer at him.

"I'd prefer to get my food at home. But I guess I could use a drink." Jeff shrugged.

Looked like there was business.

Grabbing a lager of the day, walking to an exit, tapping a locked door open, Jeff and Liam entered a stairwell.

"You feeling alright man?" Liam's voice echoed.

"Ah. Yeah. The Smite team paid me a visit." Jeff replied.

Tapping the second-floor door open, the two entered a conference room.

This room was brightly lit up with fluorescent lights. A large oval table in the middle. Sits about 20 people. Got a table for drinks and snacks by the wall. There was nobody else inside though.

At the corner of this room, there was also a purple-colored armor. It's an old-styled Smite team armor.

"They paid you a visit? What for?" A smile gradually appeared on Liam's face.

"Apparently, they wanted to take my glow-tier dagger." Jeff raised his brows.

"I seriously can't understand what these guys are thinking." Taking a seat, Jeff lightly shook his head.

"And you gave it to them?" Liam asked.

"No. What? Why would I do that?" Jeff looked at Liam with a raised brow. "But I did give them a wakeup call."

"Oooof..." Liam replied with a big smile. "You just made their day even worse. I thought you were the nice S-rank."

Hearing this, Jeff shrugged. "Or maybe the other S-ranks are just assholes."

"Well. Looks like the last operation of the Smite Squad is a fail." Liam sipped on his beer. He looked rather pleased at the smite members' misfortune.

A totally normal reaction to be honest. Other than Atlas and the Smite Squad, nobody else liked the Smite Squad, not even the task force members.

However, what's this 'last mission' supposed to mean?

Jeff looked at Liam with a questioning gaze.

Liam's expression gradually turned serious. This young fella grabbed a briefcase off a chair. Putting this briefcase onto the table, Liam pulled out a stack of documents.

"Unfortunately, a high-status member of the sanctuary made a critical mistake." Liam squinted with a faint smile. "I need to keep my promise, so I cannot tell you who this person is."

"However, you can figure it out yourself." Liam pushed over the inch-thick documents.

Jeff flipped over these papers in seconds. On the outside, it may seem like Jeff was just flipping over pages. But in reality... Umm... He only flipped over the not-so-important pages. Nevertheless, Jeff still got a good grasp of the situation.

Atlas had been colluding with a group of thugs. And those thugs probably happened to be the group that robbed Jeff.

Jeff's gaze turned cold. His smile faded away.

Taking a deep breath, Jeff stared at Liam. "You guys knew all along?"

"Yes and no." Liam lightly shook his head. "Those guys disguised themselves as a group of mercenaries. They are supposed to be an outer branch of the Sanctuary Task Force."

"However, upon recent internal investigations, we discovered that these guys are actually a cultist criminal organization... with some rather disturbing and ambitious plans. Their dirty business crossed our line." Liam explained.

Jeff raised a brow at Liam. He wasn't sure if he could believe Liam's words.

Really now. They'd just found out. Totally oblivious before. Really...

'Also...' Jeff rolled his eyes in his mind. 'Those priorities... If these guys aren't so ambitious, are you going to fucking keep this a secret from me forever?'

'Fucking politicians.' Jeff ranted in his mind.

'Oh. We are sorry, but it's for the greater good they say.'

'Sanctuary officials work for the sanctuary. So sanctuary first, they say.'

Jeff's gaze towards Liam became complicated.

"Erhm..." Liam ignored Jeff's dissatisfied expression.

"As you have read." Liam continued.

"We saw them as tools. But they saw us as wealthy idiots. They have infiltrated us. And more importantly, they've gotten into the task force now." Liam tapped on the oval table.

In this instance, this intellectual-type dude emitted a serious killing intent.

Jeff looked at Liam with a surprised gaze. 'Never seen him like this before...'

"Even though we've caught them early, this is still a serious situation Jeff. Using our resources, they have grown in size. Now, these guys pose a lethal security threat to the Sanctuary."

"In terms of destruction potential, their threat level is even higher than Lord Trample."

"Uh huh... Now you need me." Putting on a long face, Jeff stared at Liam.

"Look Jeff. You wanted revenge right? This is your chance."

"And Atlas?" Jeff asked.

Hearing this reply, Liam faintly smiled. "Well, to the public, this is the story."

"The New Year's incident was a warning bell to the sanctuary. As a result, we'll need to restructure our force deployment."

"Some... unfit task force members will not appear in the new teams."

"There will be 7 smite squads led by those 7 S-ranks. They will be under the command of commander Magni."

"And yes. Magni will take over the sanctuary task forces."

"And Atlas." Liam looked like he wanted to laugh out loud.

"He is the new head of the Sanctuary Security Agents. Which is at the same level as his prior position."

"Hmm..." Jeff nodded. Hearing the news of this punishment, Jeff's dissatisfaction vented out a bit.

Yep. Punishment. Or rather, a heavy demotion. Even though the positions were at the same level, the power held in these two roles were night-and-day.

Head of the Sanctuary Security Agents. Sounded fancy.

But who's the actual person in charge of the sanctuary defenses? Yep. The Keyholder.

In other words, now, Atlas was just a strong security guard confined to sanctuary territories 24/7.

Nobody would say it. But everyone knew that this was the case. After this incident, Atlas would stay in this role for a long long time.

Whereas Magni... As long as he completed the sanctuary missions, he was free to do whatever he pleased. Dozens of elite squads were under his personal command.

And Jeff. He still could do whatever he wanted. No restrictions. No responsibilities. Especially no loads of office work.

But after that incident, he did get a hidden boost though. Pay raise. Royalty fees. Equipment perks. Also, Jeff kind of became the head of all the hunters. Good stuff...

Jeff thought for a moment. "Alright. Let's hear your plan."