Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 194: The Mission

Stanley met up with Sheila for a bit while he had his dinner and was soon called over by the director to meet him at the top of the hub.

He entered the director’s room and sat down on the couch, waiting for the director to start speaking. He looked around at the place again at the various things the lined the walls and everything else in the small room.

He noted the name ’Hobb’ once more, curiously why everyone just called him ’director’ and not ’director Hobb’. Surely people would want to address him by his name, right?

The director spent a few minutes dealing with some reports that were made to him and finally closed them before looking at Stanley.

"Are you done with your training?" the man asked.

"Yes, director," Stanley said quickly. "I’m sorry I had to make you delay this mission by 2 weeks."

"That’s fine," the director said. "As long as you’ve improved even a little bit, that is more than enough for me."

"Then I have no wasted my time," Stanley said.

"I sure hope so," the director said. "In between your trainings. You have not gone to the city or anything, right? You have stuck to not being seen."

"Oh yes," Stanley said. "I have taken extra care to not be seen anywhere. I promise you there is not a footage of me out there that you can find."

"Good," the director said. "That is what we expected of you. Get comfortable, this is going to take some time."

The director started clicking through some things and brought out a map of the world.

"You know this map right?" the director asked. "You recognize it."

"Yes," Stanley said. "I’m familiar with it. Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," the director said. "As far as I’m aware, you have only been to these parts of the world, have you not?"

The director pointed to Eyland, Franoss, Starhall, and Barson.

"Uhh... I suppose," Stanley said. "Truthfully, I wouldn’t say I have been to anywhere really. Anywhere I go, I am stuck to a room with nowhere else to go."

"The only place that I’ve really visited is the Starhall city, and that too Gray was with me at all times, making sure I didn’t run away."

The director sighed. "I’m sorry we didn’t allow you more freedom, but that is what comes with the cost of being a Nova these days," he said. "On top of that, given the current situation of the world, we had to force you to not show your face in any other location. Do you know why that is?"

Stanley shook his head. "You mentioned it was for a mission, rigiht? What mission is this?" he asked.

The director flicked something the hologram and a picture opened up.

"David?" Stanley asked, seeing the picture of the arms dealer.

"Do you remember when this mission nearly went wrong?" the director asked.

Stanley nodded. How could he not remember something the mission that he would’ve fumbled had he not been with Gray.

"I remember that," Stanley said. "Gray came in clutch at the last moment, or he would’ve gotten away."

"Do you know why he it nearly failed?" the director asked.

"It was because we had the wrong information about David’s powers," Stanley said.

"No, you had the right information about his powers," the director said, showing an image of David using his powers to create small puppets out of dirt that were clearly just a clump of dirt.

"But—"

"You have the right information, but it was outdated," the director said. "In the time between his last record of use of power and the time when he showed up again, his powers had evolved."

"Evolved?" Stanley’s eyes narrowed. "He was a Nova?"

"No," the director said. "He was not a Nova. But... he had evolved his powers somehow. And..."

The director clicked something and suddenly a whole lot of more images popped up.

"He’s not the only one."

Stanley stared in the screen as dozens of people appeared in a split image where on the left they used on power, and on the right, they used the same power, but a stronger version of it.

"I... I don’t understand," Stanley said.

"There is someone out there that is capable of improving a person’s power. That is the mission that I am going to send you on. Your job is to find this person, and if capture him, with killing as a possible option," the director said. "He has done enough harm to everyone that killing is allowed as well."

Stanley stared at the screen for a moment and frowned. "This... this seems troublesome," he said. "This seems way too big to be given to a novice like me, isn’t it? Wouldn’t Gray or one of the 5 be a better fit for this?"

"They would," the director said. "Trust me, if it was possible at all, I would use Gray here every single time."

"However, it is not possible for a single reason," the director said. "The enemy is too good at hiding themselves."

Stanley gave a confused look. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"What I mean is that we have no idea who the enemy is at all," the director said. "They hold an excellent hacker that is capable of deleting any and all records from the internet."

"In the same way, I am afraid they are also capable of finding any and all articles that exist in the internet," the director said. "Every single one of the people in this association have once been a criminal, and have been declared death the moment they were accepted."

"You are the only one that we didn’t have to kill to accept, and as a result a death certificate of yours does not exist on the internet," the director said.

"That is why we have been telling you to not go show yourself in any city. Because you are the only one we have that is capable of going anywhere close to this association, and not being caught because of it."