Of the 6 members of the team, Talia and Tyla escaped first.

They didn’t stay behind to personally hack into the bank accounts that were tied to Earl Joe. Instead, having prepared ahead of time, they powered a miniaturized supercomputer with their ability, Firewall Bypass.

They did it in a way that even while they were not there, the supercomputer would execute the set of instructions that were given to it.

And this is how immediately after the assassination, the miniaturized supercomputer started doing the hacking on their behalf.

As for them, they already left the hotel suite like ghosts.

Madam Ophelia’s guards and entourage didn’t know, the hotel staff didn’t know either. Through Lt. Colonel Umar’s foresight and preparation, they simply changed their faces with the CH Masks and carrying the 3 girls along, they escaped out of the city on a cruise plane on a supposed underground tourist trip.

And since it was a cruise plane carrying other nobles who were going on the same tourist trip, they didn’t go through a stringent security check at the border.

And well, that was their escape route.

They used the very system of the Megacity that was biased against nobles against them to escape after orchestrating an assassination of a high-ranking noble.

That was just after the assassination, before Bourdillon Hotel or even Dante knew that anything was wrong and the Megacity was still normal, before the curfew was put in place.

Nothing stopped them.

Before Neo Solace realized what was wrong, they were already far away from the city. They escaped successfully after completing a heist of over 800 million Neo Credits!

As for Leon’s team...

That was the harder part.

...

Outside the massive city walls of the Megacity...

4 men dressed in brown camouflage, radar-absorvent gear abandoned a truck as they swiftly moved into the wilderness beyond. Each of them was carrying at least 1 miniaturized crate; Leon carried 2.

The driver of the truck that drove them out of the Megacity was already knocked unconscious.

The poor guy never knew that he carried assassins.

Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq already arranged this driver and his truck since 5 days earlier, and already paid him in advance.

All the man had to do at the specified time was to drive them out of the city through a smuggling route.

Immediately after Dante detected and stopped the hack on Earl Joe’s bank accounts, Leon, Daren, and Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq abandoned the hotel where they met Brick already waiting for them in the truck.

The truck driver without asking questions drove off immediately, afterall he was paid a whopping 100,000 Neo Credits just for this one ride!

And just before Dante arrived at the hotel to escalate things, they managed to escape the city through the smuggling route.

Barely a few minutes after they left the city, Neo Solace erupted!

Loud siren sounds started blaring as army trucks went after every single truck and train that left the city within the last 10 minutes while also tracking every plane that left the city. At the same time, all exit and entry points into the city was blocked, now manned by heavily armed soldiers.

The moment the sirens started sounding, Lt. Colonel Umar Farouq who was sitting beside the driver at the front knocked him out with a single punch.

After that, they abandoned the truck, picked the crates, and continued their journey on foot.

They moved swiftly through the deserted wasteland, indistinguishable from the earth due to their camouflage attire.

They were like moving dust.

But of course, they had no hope of outrunning trucks. Sooner or later, the pursuing Federation Army was going to find the deserted truck and its unconscious driver, and they were going to come after them and try to track them.

But the truck was not the only layer of their escape plan.

Leon was the kind of person who would seek advice from 10 different wise men, and in the end would combine and tweak all their advice to his preference before taking action.

For Operation Killing Joe, he was advised before the mission not to bring his Zerphyr-7 Stealth Reconnaissance UAV to Neo Solace, and he listened.

But this did not mean that he left the stealth aircraft out of the mission completely. Afterall, this was one of his most advanced constructs.

Unlike Talia and Tyla whose escape plan was executed earlier, their own escape route was a bit shaky because they spent time waiting within the Megacity to maximize their gains from Earl Joe’s bank accounts.

This was a risk that they took willingly.

If they were unlucky and the Megacity realized the assassination too swiftly, they would be trapped before they could make it out of the Megacity.

But thankfully, by keeping Joe’s heart beating after his death, they were able to beat this timeline. They escaped the Megacity just before the curfew was put in place and all entry and exit points into the city were blocked.

Having miniaturized all 5 crates where his weapons were a few hours earlier, Leon realized that he didn’t even have to use them. But he didn’t complain, he preferred this than a battle to the death in enemy territory.

With Umar, Brick, and Daren’s help, after knocking the driver of their escape truck out, they carried the miniaturized crates and together, they snuck out!

They were like dust in the wasteland.

Shortly after they escaped from the deserted truck, they could already hear the sound of aggressive Federation Army trucks scouring the immediate vicinity of the city wall.

During this time, they already covered dozens of meters past the city wall.

And finally, Leon called on it.

WHOOSH!

Immediately, they heard a sound of something sharp cutting through the air in their direction...

...it was the Zerphyr-7!

This was their final escape route.

Leon didn’t dare take the stealth aircraft into the Federation Megacity, but he kept it waiting outside for them for days.

The Zerphyr-7 Stealth Reconnaissance UAV have been hovering at an altitude of over 20,000 feet in the sky, away from the detection of the Omnicore Eye with its advanced stealth technology.

And now, it was time to rescue them.

It dove from the sky like a bird of prey.

But just after the descending stealth aircraft broke through an altitude of 10,000 feet where it previously was in the air, the Omnicore Eye now operating at triple its usual efficiency caught snippets of the unusual aircraft’s energy signature!

"...!"

The moment the Omnicore Eye operating at maximum efficiency detected its energy signatures, the Zerphyr-7’s advanced surveillance systems noticed and Leon knew, but it didn’t stop.

It continued descending.

But unlike what Leon expected, just 3 seconds after the Omnicore Eye detected snippets of the stealth aircraft’s energy signatures, over 50 fighter jets surged out of the Megacity!

WHOOSH... WHOOSH... WHOOSH...!

They blocked the night sky with their blue engine passage!

All of a sudden, the bioluminescent sky was painted with hues of deep blue.

"...!" Seeing 50 Federation fighter jets fly past them and towards the descending stealth aircraft, Leon felt his eyes widen in horror.

No matter how advanced technologically the Zerphyr-7 was, there was no way it was taking on 50 Federation fighter jets and surviving it.

Heck, the vessel wasn’t even a fighter jet in the first place!

’The escape window is already closed’. Leon realized in horror.

But he didn’t let his terror cloud his mind or his thoughts, his mind was still his greatest weapon when under pressure. And now without hesitation, he gave the aircraft the only order that he could give.

’LEAVE!’

The Zerphyr-7 didn’t hesitate. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The sleek aircraft did a sharp turn mid-air, curved, and dove back into the skies as its engines burned on overdrive!

BOOM...!

The 50 Federation jets also went on overdrive as they went hot in pursuit, but they couldn’t catch up.

At least not immediately, but it didn’t matter because they unleashed fire.

Afterall, unlike the stealth vessel, these were fighter jets.

Tututututututututututututu...!

The night sky that was filled with neon bioluminescence became illuminated by an explosion of bright red, blue, and violent orange as bullets crisscrossed through the air like a video game.

The Zerphyr-7 Stealth Reconnaissance UAV was at the center of this storm.

But the stealth aircraft didn’t falter. Before the enemy fighter jets unleashed hell on it, its advanced surveillance system already detected the spiking enemy signatures of the enemy fighter jets. It tracked every single gun aimed at it.

And just as they unleashed hell, it reacted.

WHOOSH...!

The Zerphyr-7 Stealth Reconnaissance UAV flexed its perfect aerodynamic construction as it went on a wild pirouette in mid-air!

It danced, it swerved, it made quick turns, dodging bullets and missile payloads in real time and in mid-air!

A few bullets caught its wings and frame, cutting through it and dealing damage but never too much damage as it was always one step ahead of 50 attacking Federation fighter jets!

Even Leon who was its engineer marveled at the sight.

As he and the crew stared at the blooming sky where the aircrafts fought and pursued while still escaping on foot, they saw the Zerphyr-7 ascend higher into the sky, higher and higher still, and then it crossed 20,000 meters.

And instantly, the aircraft disappeared!

It disappeared from all radar, thermal, and acoustic tracking systems.

It turned into a ghost in the night sky.