I Possess the SSS Skill: Future Sight-Chapter 44: Surveillance

Somewhere... unknown.

Far from the glass skyscrapers of the Golden Sector, and far from the sludge of the Lower Sector, at a point that could not be pinpointed on any tactical map of Elysium City.

A room drowned in pitch-black darkness, sticky and heavy like cold tar.

The only thing illuminating that suffocating gloom was a pale, sickly blue glow emanating from advanced computer screens arranged like tombstones, and a small laptop placed on a cold metal table.

The air in the room was thick with the smell of burnt ozone, stale spoiled coffee, and another faint scent resembling formaldehyde used to preserve corpses.

In front of the small laptop sat a person whose features could not be seen. Just a silhouette swallowed by the darkness.

On the laptop screen was a live broadcast, high-definition, encrypted with layers of digital Aetra.

The broadcast was not of a dirty alley, but of the luxurious "Blood Orchid" restaurant!

The camera was extremely small, perhaps the size of a pinhead, planted with diabolical ingenuity in the decoration of the wooden table where the "Alpha" squad had been sitting days ago.

A hand covered in a black leather glove extended from the darkness. The index finger clicked the wired mouse.

Click.

The image zoomed in very slowly, bypassing the luxurious meat dishes and blood wine glasses, settling directly on the face of the silver-haired girl, "Valisera."

Through advanced headphones, Valisera’s voice echoed clearly in the dark room as she spoke the words that made Aiden drop his fork:

"We’re going on a pleasant visit... to Saint Hilarious Hospital."

The unknown person’s hand stopped moving. Absolute silence filled the room, broken only by the hum of cooling fans in the massive computers.

"So they’ve discovered it..."

The unknown person whispered in a deliberately distorted electronic voice, devoid of any human tone, like a machine breathing.

Click.

Another press of the mouse shifted the image toward the thin young man sitting beside Eva.

"Kyle Valtier." The new Rank G recruit.

"Saint Hilarious Hospital..." the unknown voice whispered again, now carrying a weight of astonishment and danger.

"This is more than ordinary knowledge. This is a zero-level security breach. How did they know? Is it that girl? Valisera... she seems to know more than her age allows. Kaiser Dravion is letting his young hunting hound bark in the wrong places."

The unknown silhouette leaned back in its chair, crossing its arms in the darkness.

Its mind, functioning like a demonic quantum processor, began analyzing probabilities.

Saint Hilarious Hospital was not just a building. It was a fortress.

A mask of white marble hiding beneath it the most horrific sins of humanity.

"Even if..." the unknown figure muttered.

"Even if they manage to sacrifice everything... even if they surround the hospital with an intelligence army, uncover the secret entrances concealed by spatial magic, and somehow bypass all the high-ranking mercenary guards... they won’t be able to go any further."

A low, mocking, sick laugh echoed from the darkness.

The laugh of someone who knew exactly what lurked at the bottom of those basements.

"They won’t get past what’s prepared there. The entities sleeping in the lower floors... the experiments that have never seen the light... will tear Alpha Squad apart and turn them into organic fertilizer in seconds. But..."

The unknown person fell silent, and statistical charts appeared on the screen displaying thousands of names.

Names of patients, doctors, and live experiments.

"Moving everything out of the hospital now is difficult... nearly impossible. The volume of capsules, living flesh, and aethral wiring is far too massive to relocate without attracting the attention of the Guild Council. Abandoning the hospital means losing decades of research." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The distorted voice paused, then added in a cold tone dripping with pure death:

"Unless..."

---

— Kyle Valtier’s POV —

[ Four days later – FBI Headquarters – Alpha Squad Preparation Hall ]

The air in the preparation hall was heavy like a block of wet cement.

The smell of weapon oil, concentrated Aetra, and the cold sweat of nervous tension suffocated the lungs.

Four days had passed since the "Blood Orchid" dinner.

Four days of training hell and psychological preparation for Alpha Squad.

We were preparing to storm a slaughterhouse disguised as an angelic hospital.

I stood in my corner, wearing a light black tactical armor—armor that wouldn’t even protect me from an Ash Dog’s bite, but better than nothing—and loading a standard pistol given to me as a "recruit."

My hand trembled slightly as I pretended to be nervous.

In truth, I didn’t need to pretend much.

The idea of entering the lair of the Voliders—or whoever funded them—terrified me to the core.

I looked around.

Eva Blackwood was cleaning the lens of her heavy anti-armor sniper rifle with a silk cloth, her face pale and focused with lethal intensity.

Sia was strapping her twin daggers around her thighs, quietly reciting defensive enhancement incantations.

Aiden was examining a tablet displaying three-dimensional maps of Saint Hilarious Hospital—maps of the surface only, because the lower floors did not exist in official records.

And Damian... Damian stood before the weapons locker, wearing heavy armor covering his chest completely. His arm had been freed from the magical cast, fully healed thanks to intensive recovery doses.

He was loading his aethral machine gun with a face devoid of hesitation. Wolves preparing to leap into fire.

The only one not here... was Zack.

I had insisted to Valisera repeatedly over the past four days, but her condition had been as sharp as a blade:

"Zack will not enter intelligence, nor participate in this mission, until we succeed in it. If we return alive, I’ll review his file. Until then, he is just an unknown civilian."

A lump formed in my throat.

Perhaps this was Zack’s good fortune—because what we were about to face might not leave any of us alive to tell the story.

"Is everyone ready?" Damian asked in a strong voice, breaking the silence.

Aiden and Sia nodded, while Eva simply inserted her sniper magazine with a sharp click.

Suddenly, the heavy automatic doors of the preparation hall slid open.

Valisera entered.

Damian immediately raised his head, forming a confident smile and lifting his hand to greet her.

"Welcome, Commander! We’re rea—"

But... the words froze in Damian’s throat, and his smile died before it formed.

Valisera’s steps were not calm and provocative as usual.

They struck the ground forcefully, as if trying to shatter the marble tiles.

Her silver hair was slightly disheveled, and her crimson eyes... my God! Her eyes were blazing with pure, blind, destructive rage!

An aura of black and silver Aetra leaked from her pores, making the surrounding air tremble like a desert mirage.

She looked like a demon freshly cast out of hell, seeking revenge against the entire universe.

Eva stepped forward, confusion written across her face.

"Ma’am? What’s wrong? We’re rea—"

Before Eva could finish, Valisera cut her off with a voice like the roar of a caged lion, a sound that made the bulletproof glass windows tremble.

"They refused!"cm