From the pilot's memories, whose name was Omar, Jake knew that the standard procedure for returning pilots was to hover motionlessly in place so the helicopter could be scanned for any potential threats.

So he brought the helicopter to a motionless hover, all the while aimed at by numerous turrets. He watched them carefully, fully expecting them to open fire at any moment. Skullface should be aware of the morphus's exact position, so he must know that his enemy was in the helicopter.

To his surprise, the turrets stayed silent and didn't open fire right away. Not yet, anyway. Perhaps he would actually be permitted to enter the base after all.

A few seconds later, a beeping sound chimed, indicating an incoming call. Jake pressed the button to answer, and immediately, a female voice crackled through the static, clear and authoritative.

"You are good to proceed, Omar."

With that, Jake continued his descent down the shaft.

As he neared the bottom of the chasm, the floor, which had been made to resemble a natural rocky ground, split into four sections that slid apart, revealing a vast man-made area beneath.

Jake saw a platform that looked like a landing pad slide right beneath his aircraft, lifting up toward him. As soon as he landed the helicopter on the pad, it began to descend to floor level.

While it did so, Jake looked up to see the four sections of the ceiling come back together once again, concealing the vast room, which actually turned out to be an enormous futuristic-looking and well-lit hangar.

Jake then glanced around to see a few more helicopters parked on helipads at their designated spots throughout the hangar. There were only a handful of helicopters present, though, while most of the helipads were empty.

The helipad beneath him finally reached the floor and began to glide toward its designated position. After a minute or so, it finally settled into place.

Jake saw several armed humans approach his helicopter. They formed a semicircle in front of the bubble canopy, pointing their assault rifles at him.

It wasn't entirely surprising. Skullface must have informed them that, according to the scanner, the morphus was inside the helicopter, so he had clearly dispatched this team to intercept him. Still, something didn't add up. The team was quite small and didn't have any mechs with them. Everyone knew how dangerous the morphus was, so why would Skullface deploy such a limited force to confront him? It didn't make sense.

He could just use Mind Reader on some of them to learn what they were up to, but just as he thought that, one of the humans, who held a sidearm instead of an assault rifle like the rest, waved her free hand at him, clearly signaling for him to exit the helicopter.

Jake rose from the pilot's seat and made his way to the exit. After stepping out of the helicopter, he was approached by the female bandit who had waved him out moments before. In her hand, he could now see that what he had assumed was a handgun was actually a handheld scanner.

He also noticed that while some of her men kept their weapons trained on the helicopter, the others shifted their aim toward him.

"Stay still, Omar," the woman instructed. "I need to scan you."

This was definitely new. From Omar's memories, Jake recognized that this wasn't part of the usual protocol. It was obviously an extra security measure that had been put in place recently.

The woman and the others looked surprisingly calm for people who might expect to find the morphus onboard. Jake was beginning to suspect that they might not even be aware that the morphus was nearby.

The woman pointed her handheld scanner at him and pressed a button, emitting a bluish beam. Jake knew that one of the upgrades for Morph Disguise made it impossible for any measures, technological or magical, to see through his disguise, so he was confident the woman wouldn't be able to detect who he really was.

He also recalled that everyone who had ever learned about his disguising ability had been killed by him, so the humans were currently unaware that he could assume a human form.

Taking a moment, he accessed the woman's most recent memories and discovered that the device she was using on him was designed to simply detect anything suspicious. However, she had no knowledge that he, the morphus, could take on a human form.

So she wasn't scanning him out of suspicion that he was the morphus. Instead, it was simply an additional precautionary security measure, just as he had thought before.

He also learned that Skullface had never informed her that the morphus was onboard. This was strange. It suggested that Skullface himself wasn't aware of the morphus's location for some reason. Perhaps he hadn't been paying attention to the morphus's movements lately?

While the woman was scanning him, some of her men moved to the helicopter to inspect the interior. After a short while, they returned, and one of them caught the woman's eye and shook his head. Once she finished scanning Jake, she put her device away.

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"Sorry for that, Omar," she said. "We were instructed to conduct thorough checks on every pilot returning to the base. But it looks like you're in the clear. Not that I expected anything different. It's just a precautionary measure. You see, something has changed while you were away. The boss, Skullface, is expecting the morphus to make a move at the base at any moment. However, Skullface is no longer able to track the morphus's movements, as the System has withdrawn its mission to hunt the freak down, probably because it was well past the deadline."

That explained everything. Skullface could no longer track Jake's movements, which was great. He obviously had no idea that his greatest enemy had just infiltrated his main base. Jake intended to take full advantage of that.

"So that's why we've tightened security," the woman continued. "We've been constantly patrolling the facility and thoroughly checking every returning pilot. It's Skullface's orders. He doesn't know how the morphus might infiltrate the base, so we were told to double-check everything. Anyway, welcome back, Omar."

By the way the woman treated him, Jake had the impression that Omar and she had been friends. He nodded at her. By explaining things to him, she eliminated the need for him to examine her memories in a thorough manner. He intended to do that anyway, as it only took just a few seconds to view several weeks' worth of a person's memories.

However, before he could use Mind Reader on her, the sound of approaching footsteps prompted the woman to glance over her shoulder. Jake, too, shifted his gaze from her to the new person approaching them.

The man was sharply dressed and carried an air of authority.

"Boss is here," the woman whispered to Jake. She then looked at the newcomer and announced, "Hey, Qadir, look who's back. Omar returned. He's not dead, as we thought after all."

Qadir shot her a piercing look.

"You are to call me 'sir' when you address me," he snapped at her.

The woman rolled her eyes but replied, "Yes, sir."

Qadir then fixed his gaze on Jake for a moment before instructing, "Follow me, rookie."

Without waiting for a reply, Qadir spun around and strode across the hangar, heading for what looked like an elevator door on the far side of the area. Jake followed closely behind.

They took the elevator one level down and entered a corridor. As they made their way through the maze of passageways, Jake took in his surroundings. Everything looked brand-new, a stark contrast to the post-apocalyptic ruins of the city he had come from. The air was thick with the scent of polished metal, and the distant hum of some contraptions sounded like a well-oiled machine.

He scanned Qadir's memories to learn more about the place. He discovered that the floor they were on was called Level A, which served as the main level of the base. Beneath it were several floors of the mines.

Level A was where Skullface resided. This level also contained the Store, a powerful device capable of creating everything from ammunition to combat helicopters, provided you had enough mana, which was used as currency.

Additionally, Level A housed the Tech Lab, where Skullface experimented on captured survivors, attempting to turn them into cybernetic monstrosities

Qadir entered a spartan-like room and waited for Jake to follow. After a quick look around and noticing nothing out of the ordinary, Jake shifted his attention back to the human.

"So, rookie," Qadir said, his gaze both piercing and calculating. "Explain where you have been all this time. Why didn't you return to the base with the rest of the pilots when Skullface issued such an order?"

This place had a military-like atmosphere, and his "boss" spoke like a drill sergeant addressing a new recruit. Jake had to make an effort to keep his expression neutral. These people were trying hard to present themselves as military, but in reality, they were nothing more than a ragtag bunch of thugs.

Jake pointed at his wounded throat and then handed Qadir Omar's PDA with the message he had written earlier.

After reading it, Qadir glanced back at Jake's throat once more before saying, "So you can't speak anymore? Sucks to be you. Well, at least you managed to escape with your life and, more importantly, return the helicopter to the base. Considering the morphus is tearing our organization apart, we are short on heavy equipment right now."

Jake nodded, keeping his face serious and somber, as though he were deeply affected by the news.

"Alright, listen," Qadir said. "I heard Moira filled you in on what has been happening here while you were gone, so there's no need to go over it again. You have the basic idea of the situation. We're expecting the morphus to pay us a visit at any moment, but we don't know exactly when or how the freak will try to break into our base. The key point is that we have to be ready for it. Every available person needs to be on guard. Since all the secondary bases have been destroyed, there's no point in sending our pilots into the city anymore. We can rebuild them later, but our immediate priority is to deal with the morphus once and for all."

Jake continued to listen to the human. Sure, he could kill him right then and there, but since everyone believed he was Omar, he decided to take advantage of that and learn more about the base before making his move.

"Because of that, you, just like the rest of the pilots, have to conduct patrol duty," his "boss" continued. "Considering you just arrived, you can take the rest of the day off. I also need to add you to the staff rotation schedule first before you can get to work." He pointed to a large whiteboard filled with names and times, organized with military precision, on the wall behind him. "Once that's finalized, you'll start your duties tomorrow. I expect you to know the layout and protocols inside and out by then. Familiarizing yourself with your surroundings can mean the difference between life and death when the morphus finally shows up."

Jake nodded, trying hard to look as serious as possible instead of letting out a chuckle, which he desperately wanted to do. Those thugs posing as military personnel were utterly pathetic.

"Good," Qadir replied, nodding approvingly. "Check the armory, the tech lab, and each entrance. I want you to know by heart where everything is. That's it for now, rookie. Dismissed."

Jake nodded once more, then turned around and exited the room. Once the door closed behind him, he checked for any nearby cameras before allowing himself a faint smile.

Those idiots worked so hard to prevent their worst enemy from infiltrating the base, but it was all in vain. Despite their best efforts, he was in the heart of the main base, and they were none the wiser.

He looked around once again, searching for a direction to take. It was time to explore the facility.

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