Fairy 001 noticed that the town soldiers were relentlessly pursuing them and decided to take action. She rummaged through her leather purse, a common accessory among travelers of the Middle Ages. After a moment, she tossed out clips containing rubber bullets that melted on contact, each labeled with a biodegradable symbol.

  The soldiers groaned on the ground from the onslaught of rubber bullets, while the horses had a harder time with their legs buckling due to pain the had projectiles inflicted. Some of the miserable mounts had their eyes rolled back in their head while they foamed in their mouths.

  Usually, a bandit group would fight to the death or engage them to plunder their gold, armor or even their underwear, but instead, there were no casualties. The mysterious figures in black, who the soldiers had thought were bandits, had even tossed a bag that seemed to contain a generous amount of gold coins, incomparable to the wage of even their captain.

  “Will that skirmish just now have any repercussions for our mission objectives?” Axel turned to Fairy 001 after a brief hesitation.

  He, a soldier dedicated to carrying out his duties down to the very last detail, found himself struggling to comprehend the situation. He had been briefed not to interact much with the local people of this era, but he was eager to understand how this might impact on their mission.

  “Yes, it does have implications. However, there’s no need to worry.” Fairy 001 replied in a reassuring tone, seeing the worry in his eyes.

  “The gold, the information they have about us, the injuries they’ve sustained and the stories they might share were all calculated by one of my personal devices. In the worst-case scenario, we might just get a shoutout from one of the town criers in that area. The second worst-case scenario would be that we’d be talked about in the pubs for a week. While these possibilities are concerning, I’d say they are still well within the tolerable threshold for our missions.”

  While the spacetime operatives departed, leaving only a cloud of dust in their wake, the captain of the guards looked at the pouch of gold coin discarded by the operatives. Cautious and unaware of what might be inside, he hesitantly used the tip of his sword to probe it, confirming that it was indeed gold, enough to cover a month's salary for his entire squad.

  Feeling relieved, he focused on the bag of coins, there he saw a note attached to it, it even had a unique insignia meaning these people had some status. Curious, he read what was inside and he couldn’t help feeling blessed by what he saw.

  ‘We purged the demons in the shadows, slayed the nightmares that hide from prying eyes, and grant no rest to the wicked.’ It read.

  As a devout believer of the church, the captain was moved by the message. Thinking it thoroughly, these brave men that he encountered might be protecting their identity, so he refrained from showing the note to his soldiers, recognizing that these were not mere bandits but rather individuals who purged evil from their lands without asking for anything in return.

  “Men, I don’t want to hear a single word about what happened today! You all hear?! If I hear a word getting out in the streets, I’ll have you hang on the gallows! Understood?!” The captain of the town guards said, making the soldiers nod to him with obedience.

  Ashamed of having labeled Axel and his group otherwise, he reaffirmed his stance to keep their true nature to himself. He then distributed the gold among his men and watched the operatives vanish into the distance, his eyes filled with awe and reverence. He even contemplated the possibility of joining such a noble cause one day.

  Meanwhile, back with the spacetime operatives, Alex was still grappling with the fluidity of military operations as he responded to Fairy 001's reassurances.

  “Copy that, Fairy 001. I may not be familiar with such operations, so you’ll have to excuse my rigidity.”

  He couldn’t help but sigh in his heart. He felt a sense of inadequacy weighing him down. He had considered confronting Fairy 001 about her actions, but then he recalled that she had more than three centuries of experience and had completed numerous operations. It was clear to him that she was a seasoned veteran in this line of work, and he resolved to trust her judgment as they navigated the complexities of their mission.

  Sensing his anxiety, Fairy 001 couldn’t help but chuckle softly.

  “This is your first mission, so there’s no need to be so distraught about it. It’s not really that bad. However…”

  As she spoke, her expression shifted to one of solemnity. She activated a specialized one-to-one communication channel through their consciousness, a network only they could understand. It sounded like multiple voices overlapping with various static noises, making it difficult to hear what the speaker was saying. But if you focused closely on the voice you sought, you would be able to find it. The air around them felt charged as their minds connected, creating an intimate bubble of shared thoughts.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Let me tell you something, in our line of work, there is a corresponding stage for every mission. Our current mission, being an infant stage, is the easiest to complete. While after, there would be the Apprentice Stage, Journeyman Stage, Warrior Stage, Champion Stage, Conqueror Stage, Sage Stage, Transcendent Stage, Immortal Stage, God Stage, Infinity Stage and Paradoxical Stage.” Fairy 001 said, wanting to sound him out if he could be a worthy ally.

  Hearing this, Axel, who wasn’t briefed about such details, was stunned. He couldn’t believe his ears as he even through hell to get here. Now hearing there were harder missions, the fire in his eyes grew more intense as he vowed to himself to end all the missions and kill whoever dared to block the path of humanities progress. Seeing this Fairy 001 couldn’t help but laugh, she then continued.

  “Now within those stages, there are eleven types of difficulty, it has a scale from one to EX. Your mission is currently level one, it could be said to be the easiest to do on all of them but don’t be deceived, it was made that way because only the best of the best in the world in a specific timeline is chosen to execute the mission, meaning you are equivalent to at least a thousand ordinary men when it comes to your skills and judgement.” She paused, making sure he absorbed every piece of knowledge she provided.

  “Individuals at the level of EX cannot make any errors in judgment, cannot be late by even a second, and are unable to call for reinforcements in desperate situations, as their communication is permanently disabled throughout the whole duration of their mission, even mission control does not know their existence. They will only receive three words in their mission briefing, which may even appear as a small vandal in the subway, a misprinted instruction at the back of a bag of chips, even a thrown-out scribble of a child is used as briefing for these individuals. Additionally, they will remain in this era until the end of their mortal lives but will be returned to their original timeline after death, with all their memories and completed missions fully intact.”

  Hearing this, Axel was taken aback by the absurdity and severity of the conditions. It hard to believe that someone could be placed in such an extreme and isolated position. He couldn’t fathom how such individuals could survive harsh situations. Seeing him ponder for a moment, Fairy 001 let the man process his thoughts.

  As they traversed the green plains of France, they gazed up at the expanse of twinkling stars that mirrored the uncertainties they faced. She continued, however, her attention drawn to a flickering light on the horizon.

  “Usually, these operatives on level EX do not finish the mission but leave it open. The fire in your eyes is commendable, however finishing these missions would be the wrong conclusion, specifically missions that are closely linked to Earth. Consider this analogy, imagine we are building a skyscraper, the foundation could only support it so high, let’s say we magically switch its materials from a wooden foundation to a steel foundation, that would make the skyscraper higher. Wouldn’t you agree?” She said, letting him know why these missions could not simply end.

  Upon hearing this, clarity flashed through his eyes. He couldn’t help re-evaluating his thinking about how these missions aren’t the same from the military, but more like those of the role-playing games he used to play in his early years. Seeing him able to comprehend her explanation, Fairy 01 continued.

  “Some missions will see you integrated into hundreds of teams due to high casualties or a lack of operatives in the field. Others may involve trillions or quadrillions of beings, spanning from various timelines within our human race, even including our allies of various races within the sea of stars in their own timelines. These are called Front Lines.” She said, sharing her experience with him.

  “Do you remember the Campaign Sprayer One that mentioned to you through the communication? Those operations involve major assaults on the Front Lines spanning thousands to tens of thousands of galaxies. It can either be a huge success or a massive failure. A success may lead a budding civilization on the space age to prosper to attain Tier Two on the Kardashev scale in just a mere thousand Earth years, while a failure may lead galactic clusters to damnation, dragging millions of civilizations to ruin.” Her voice grew more serious, driven by memories of her own trials.

  Alex’s eyes widened as he imagined the vast armies, the chaotic battlefield stretching beyond comprehension. He could almost hear the distant echoes of combat, the cries and the chaos, and a chill ran down his spine.

  “The first time I joined a Front Line, it broke me,” she confessed, her voice heavy with emotion. “For almost a decade, I went without a single night of sleep. I joined new faces day after day, and then the next thing I knew, they were all gone. I always wished I had died with them in that chaos.”

  In his mind, she saw Fairy 001 standing amidst the destruction, eyes wide with fear and desperation, a battleground littered with fallen comrades around her.

  “I even thought of surrendering, becoming a breeding material for the lizards, it would be way easier to just spread my legs and lay eggs, would it?” she admitted, her voice a blend of pain and determination.

  “Nonetheless, I pushed through. By gathering crucial information that was vital for our success, I was able to retrieve a certain record of galactic charts. It wasn’t something grand, with the intel I provided, other operatives managed to clear a mission, gaining us multiple star clusters in the process.” She said, making Axel confused if the missions are to stay or not. Seeing this Fairy 001 didn’t leave the man hanging.

  “These missions are not the foundation type I said earlier, treat it more like an exploration or frontier. For example, imagine that in the future, we cannot conquer a certain star cluster because it is inhabited by the huechromixix or chrysalica. However, I have intel from the past indicating the exact availability of that cluster before these annoying beasts arrived. Wouldn't that mean we effectively occupy those star clusters instead? Wouldn’t it be best to plant a bomb and then blow them up as we corner them in that specific area?” she said to Axel with a strange gleam in her eyes.

  “I’m a demolitions expert and this is the first time I heard such a tactic, if that’s the case, that sounded more like my style! I’m in!” Axel said grinning at her while he looked her in the eye.

  While the two of them shared such an intimate space. A man on one side couldn’t help but chew his All Cloak, feeling the captain was collecting all the flowers left and right. On the other side, a young lady kept staring daggers at the said captain, with a pouting lip mixed with jealousy and indignation.