Universal Power System
Chapter 56 Operation Jailbird

It had now been the next day, and Mako and Bill were back home. They had spent the whole night at the Dark Raven base discussing the rest of the details and they couldn't be happier with the results.

They were now undercover members of the Dark Raven who had access to their resources and their only mission was to befriend and protect Leon at the military camp, but they didn't have to worry about that for the next two weeks when the military representative was going to visit the school and explain this year's trials.

Right now, Mako and Bill were more interested in the part of the deal that they had proposed themselves. Bill wanted to take revenge for Albert and the only way he knew how was to make his dream come true by freeing all the prisoners at the warehouses that El-Diablo owned.

Paul had been meaning to raid them himself for quite a while but the tension between the two gangs was high and he could not risk doing such a thing that could result in an all-out gang war. However, now that Mako had proposed that he and Bill be the ones to take them out, he happily obliged and even went ahead and gave them all the information he had on the warehouses.

There were a total of 5 warehouses in Emerald City, including the one that Bill escaped from. Each contains anywhere from 30-50 guards and more than 200 prisoners. These "workplaces" were designed so that El-Diablo could punish those who had crossed him by enslaving them and gaining a lot of profit from the products that these places produced.

The number of guards was sure to be high considering the episode that had occurred in Bill's prison warehouse and each guard was a minimum level 2 Ability user.

Mako had a total of 32 people available to him which included himself, Bill, Bill's high school friends that had agreed to help take down these warehouses as this was the plan that was discussed with them that night, and some of the men from the Dark Raven that paul had spared for the operation.

The main priority for all of them was to make sure that under no circumstance does the enemy replace out that the attack was backed by the Dark Raven or it will be a total disaster.

The two boys spent the entire day coming up with a plan to make sure that such a big operation was executed right. The information on all the warehouses included guard info, blueprints, and more which really helped them devise the plan. Mako couldn't even imagine how was he even going to tackle this quest without the help that he currently had, and it cemented the fact that it was important to make relations that can always help you out in a pinch.

*************

The plan was coming in great, the people will be divided into 4 teams, each consisting of 8 people. Of course, 8 people aren't enough to take down a whole army of guards which is why they didn't want to go in guns blazing, rather this would be an infiltration mission.

Mako had actually purchased pocket-sized explosives from Paul which were strong enough to blow through several inches of solid steel. All the warehouses had a similar layout with two entry points which also doubles as exit points. There was no other access point in the entire warehouse that include a backdoor or windows.

This was a blessing in disguise as not only did it mean that they had only two points of entry, but the guards also only had two modes of exit which would come in handy as one massive skill would be capable of knocking out a couple of guards in one go.

According to the information provided by Paul, the guards shifted between warehouses each week on Friday and new guards took their place. The prisoners within these warehouses were not that important nor high level since they were either captured during gang fights or had some sort of debt to El-Diablo so it didn't take a lot of guards to manage them, and so the guards also that high of a level.

Paul had provided them with 8 uniforms that El-Diablo's gang members wear so that they could easily infiltrate the warehouses the uniform was black in color which was ideal for sneaking around but it also came with a facemask that would come in real handy in hiding their identity, especially Bill who was known within the gang.

2 members from each team had to infiltrate the building and plant the charges in such a way that one of the exits get blocked by debris while the other is blasted open. Using the element of surprise and the darkness of the night to their advantage, the rest of the team will try to take out as many guards as possible while the two infiltrators help the prisoners escape.

All 4 attacks had to be done simultaneously so that reinforcements would take longer to arrive because of the confusion and will be stretched thin between each warehouse calling for help. They only got one chance at this since they won't get another chance to redo this as the enemy would be on guard from then onwards.

************

With the plan finalized, it was down to splitting the 32 people into teams, assigning them a captain, and assigning them one of the four warehouses. When it came to assigning teams, one has to keep in mind the versatility of the team which is dependent on the team members selected. If all 8 of the people in one team have defensive-style abilities and skills, then they won't be able to deal significant offensive damage which is also crucial.

Mako had to carefully place each person in a specific team so that all parameters of each team are met and that they won't face a major issue when carrying out the mission.

The teams were finalized with Mako leading one of the four teams, the second team led by Bill, and the remaining two teams led by two members of the Dark Raven. It is also important to note that all the members that were taking part in this mission were those who wanted to end their life of crime and Paul had given them one last mission to complete.

These people had all lost someone to El Diablo's gang or were locked up in one of these prisons so they were quite passionate to take part in this mission.

With everything done and dusted, they now only had to wait till Friday on which the attack will commence.

***********

Mako was sitting at the kitchen table and he had a book in his hand that he was pretending to try and understand. The book in his hand was a skill book and this was gifted to him and Bill by Paul as they were about to leave the base.

Mako couldn't use instant learning on it and equip the skill immediately since Bill was still around and he couldn't reveal this mind-breaking skill to anyone so he had been acting to learn the skill with him for the past half an hour while continuously ignoring the instant learn the message that kept popping up in his notification bar.

After what seemed like forever, Bill excused himself to use the bathroom, and Mako utilized his skill immediately. There was a glow of light and the book disappeared as an exclamation mark appeared on the Skills tab.

New skill: [(E-Tier) Silent Steps] ⓘ (LEVEL 1)

[A utility skill that allows the user to use a basic skill that makes it so that the user doesn't emit any sound as long as he is walking at a speed less than 4 mph.]

[Requirements: 20 Fortitude, 15 Intelligence, 10 Stamina]

[Cost: 10 Energy/minute]

An excellent skill that can come in real handy during infiltration and stealth-type missions, and now both Bill and Mako had access to this skill. Their goal for the next few days would be to level up this skill as much as possible so that its utility is even greater.

Mako was about to close the interface and head over to the refrigerator to see what was available to cook for dinner when all of a sudden a notification popped up in front of his eyes.

*DING!*

[Quest Complete]

[Become victorious in the tournament hosted by the Dark Raven]

[Reward: Instant Level up, +10 attribute points, random skill]

[Penalty: -2 Levels, -5 to all attributes]

[ERROR!]

[User has not met the conditions for either the reward or the penalty]

[Recalibrating Rewards]

[No Reward Available]

Mako had a look of disappointment on his face because he had been cheated out of great rewards because he technically didn't win or lose in the tournament. It probably took some time for the system to realize that Mako had walked an alternative path than what was intended for which no rewards were given.

Bill returned back to the kitchen to replace Mako standing in the middle of the room and wandering into space. He slowly approached him and shook him a bit which knocked him out of his daze.

"Dude, What are you thinking about?" Bill asked.

"Huh? Oh nothing, just thinking about the mission on friday." Mako made up a lie on the go to which Bill just let out an understanding giggle.

"It is alright to be nervous, I mean it is a pretty big job after all, but I trust you and your plan. It's time we bring the pain to those bastards." Bill said while flexing his bicep.

"Yeah, Operation Jailbird is going to be our most dangerous mission yet," Mako said.

The smile instantly vanished from Bill's face. He couldn't help himself but just facepalm in front of Mako.

"You know I still hate this nerd side of you," Bill said ridiculing Mako's immature habit of still naming things to make them sound cool.

Mako let out a nervous chuckle while rubbing the back of his head as if this would help dissipate the situation.

*DING!*

[New Quest Received!]

[Successfully execute operation jailbird and destroy the four warehouses (0/4)]

[Rewards: ???]

[Penalty: ???]

'Damn...' Mako thought while going over the description of the quest.