CHAPTER 395: ALL THE FUN.

"... He says it’s probably another power suit." Dante said."Made by Black Shield..."

Power suits were one of the most common weapon types, and their development went hand in hand with bionic enhancements. Most militaries in the world have a dedicated division for them, and Orvakia was no different. In fact, when it came to power suits, Orvakian made are the ones to go for no matter the application.

With that being the case, it shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise to hear about a gang with money to spare getting themselves one of those. Power suits were versatile and well-suited for urban warfare, too, so they were the second-best choice after high-grade bionics.

’Power suits, huh?...’ Dante thought while searching for info on Black Shield. ’Guess I will have to be extra careful not to break them...’

When he read Viktor’s message, Dante almost lost all interest in the matter. He doubted any modern corpos could produce anything that could rival Volcan’s armors, so even if he ended up fighting some of them, it was unlikely to be a challenge. Because of that, he immediately turned his attention to what he could gain from them.

[I might need to work on my Diving capabilities, if that is the case.] Volcan said. [Recent events have brought to my attention the chances of more effective countermeasures being developed.]

From the look of it, Volcan was a little salty about his Diving attempts being blocked the last few times. Failing twice in a single day was too much, especially with both situations having a potentially deadly outcome.

Nothing can be done about people shutting down their devices and implants to avoid being hacked, but being bested by a teenager and his homemade AI? Inexcusable.

"Power suits..." Rose muttered. "This might be troublesome..."

"Well, not like we’re gonna face them head-on." Finn glanced in Dante’s direction, adding a silent "Right?"

"I think we veered way off topic," Dante said. "The Daggers got new weapons and have been using them to take down Black Skull. We weren’t expecting this development to happen so soon, especially after what happened in that restaurant."

"Yeah, I’ve been thinking..." Finn said. "Maybe they thought we were working for Black Skull all along?"

"Maybe," Dante said.

If the Level 4 Cyborg had recognized him back then, the likelihood of him becoming the main suspect behind the Diving incident rose exponentially, and since they were at war with the Black Skull, it was only natural that they would suspect him of working with them.

Of course, that’s only assuming the two gangs hadn’t communicated since the start of this latest conflict. Going by how things were playing out, Dante didn’t think they had already done so, or they did and still went on with the fighting despite having already figured out that there was a third party messing around with them.

"Either way," Dante said. "I think we should figure out the reason before deciding what to do next."

"Sorry, darling, but I disagree." Said Rose.

"... And why’s that?"

"It’s simple." She rotated her hand, gently swirling the drink in her glass. "We should take this chance to ramp up the pressure on Black Skull."

"... I see..." Holding his chin, Dante gave the suggestion some thought. "We can do that and let the Daggers take the blame, but..."

"But what?"

"I don’t know... I just have a bad feeling about this..."

"Oh, so now you’re choosing caution?" Rose smiled.

"Obviously." Dante frowned. "I really don’t want to mess up again."

"Again is the keyword." Raising her glass, she placed it against her purple laced lips and let the honey colored liquid seep into her mouth. "Dante, do you know what I think?"

The look she gave him differed from the usual, and so did her tone. The purple-haired woman had not been this serious even when she argued against his participation in the heist. Dante realized that on a subconscious level, and so he braced himself for what she had to say next.

"You have been too focused on the Daggers." She said. "I don’t blame you for that. They are your main objective, after all." Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she pierced him with her gaze. "But you have to remember, some of us have a different target."

It sounded so obvious at first, but as he flipped her words in his mind a few times, Dante began to notice the mistake he made, and why Rose felt the need to remind him.

Though he claimed he was in it for the money, the real reason he was going after the Dagger was because of Finn. From the start, Black Skull hadn’t been an enemy to take out, but a tool they could use to bring down their target. It didn’t help that the way they split their roles had him handling the Daggers most of the time, while their purple-haired accomplice kept an eye on Black Skull.

"Alright, I get it." Dante sighed, "You have names, right? Which bastard do you want us to go after next?"

Rose must not have expected that reply, hence why her eyes went wide. Though her usual smile had yet to return, her mood seemed to have improved, even if by a little. She sent him an email and went on with the explanation as he opened it.

"Kareem Warda. Another one of the sergeants." She said. "We need to squeeze some info out of him, so we must bring him in with his head in its place."

Scenes of a pudgy man having things inserted into him flashed in Dante’s mind, causing him to grimace.

’Maybe I will sit out the torture this time...’

"Didn’t you get everything you needed from that pig?" He asked.

"I got everything he could give me," Rose said. "Some of it is hard to confirm. That’s why I need this one."

"So it’s just to cross-reference your intel?"

"And to check if the higher-ups have made any changes since we captured Jeremy." Finishing her drink, Rose put the glass down and stood up. "Besides, I don’t want the Dagger to have all the fun."