Aside from the rustling of trees, there was no other sound in the forest.

  Rayn, Haarun, and Sa’ut were still shocked — because they never imagined that the two presidents of their school would also be Bloodfang members. On the other side, Nazar and Riyy also froze for a moment when they heard the word “president.”

  After a brief silence, Rayn quickly removed his hood and mask. Right after him, Haarun and Sa’ut did the same. Seeing their faces, Riyy exclaimed in surprise:— “You three?!”

  Right after saying that, both Nazar and Riyy removed their own hoods and masks. Riyy spoke again in a shocked voice:— “You guys are Bloodfang too?!”

  Haarun replied in a straightforward tone:— “Actually, that’s the question we should be asking.”

  Just then, Nazar spoke calmly:— “This is not the time to be surprised or ask questions. Everyone — focus on the mission.”

  Understanding Nazar’s words, everyone fell silent and started thinking about the mission. While thinking, Riyy spoke in a confused tone:— “I still don’t get it… What kind of mission is this? And why do we need so many people?”

  In response, Rayn answered in a calm voice:— “The reason so many of us are needed is because the destruction has to be as minimal as possible. This is a forest — damage here has a much bigger impact.”

  Then Rayn paused for a few seconds and said more seriously:— “And as for what the mission actually is… I don’t know either.”

  As soon as Rayn finished speaking, Nazar said in a firm, serious voice:— “We’ll find out what kind of mission this is — and why — once we get there. First, we have to locate the enemy base.”

  After finishing his words, Nazar stayed silent for a few seconds. Then, in a calm voice, he said:— “Rayn and Riyy will go one way and search for the base, Haarun and Sa’ut will go another way. I’ll head in a different direction. If anyone finds a clue, report immediately.”

  Hearing Nazar’s instruction, everyone looked at each other for a moment, then split into three different directions.

  Haarun and Sa’ut were running through the forest at high speed. Haarun was sometimes leaping from one tree branch to another, sometimes suddenly dropping to the ground and sprinting ahead.

  From time to time, Haarun examined the soil and tree trunks — Whenever he spotted anything suspicious, he sliced it cleanly into two pieces in an instant.

  On the other side, Sa’ut had deployed his drones all around. He was monitoring all the live footage on a floating hologram screen.

  Some drones were flying high above the treetops, others were weaving through branches at low altitude.

  And standing on top of two drones, Sa’ut himself was floating through the air — moving forward as if carried by the wind.

  While searching, the two of them eventually arrived at the bank of a small, wide river.

  The river water flowed quietly — there was no sound of water at all, because the cold breeze brushing against the leaves created a soft rustling sound, completely drowning the sound of the flowing river.

  Haarun searched along the riverbank, but didn’t find anything unusual at first. However, he noticed something — there was a spot in the river where the water wasn’t flowing properly, as if something was blocking it.

  Suspicious, he stepped down into the river and moved a little closer. And then — Suddenly, one after another, human bodies began floating up from beneath the water.

  Seeing so many corpses appear at once, Haarun instantly went on alert. From inside the water, he jumped high into the air — and while still mid-air, he caught the scent of fresh blood.

  The moment he landed, he contacted the others and spoke urgently:— “This is Haarun… I’ve found multiple dead bodies drifting near the river. Everyone, stay alert.”

  Right after he finished speaking, Sa’ut replied in a serious voice:— “Haarun… look straight ahead.”

  Haarun slowly turned his gaze forward — and saw a dark figure emerging from the shadows on the other side of the river. No footsteps, no breathing, no sound at all — only a heavy presence… and a cold feeling of danger.

  With a calm but cautious tone, Haarun informed the others:— “I think… a very powerful enemy is standing right in front of me.”

  A little while earlier, on the other side — Rayn and Riyy were searching for an entry point. Riyy kept walking deeper into the forest while searching. Suddenly, out of irritation, he punched a massive tree in front of him.

  The punch was so powerful that a shockwave burst out — trees around him trembled, and leaves rained down from above.

  The huge tree bent sideways and snapped — dragging a few nearby smaller trees down with it as it fell. But even there, he didn’t find any clue, so Riyy changed direction and continued moving.

  Anything that seemed suspicious — he punched and shattered it. Sometimes it was a tree, sometimes the ground itself cracked open under his fist.

  While using his raw physical strength over and over, he muttered under his breath:— “Good thing no ordinary people come here… otherwise I’d have to hold back my power.”

  Just then, Rayn appeared behind him and spoke in a calm voice:— “Riyy, found anything yet?”

  Riyy replied bluntly:— “No, nothing so far. But some of the trees I broke… even though they were big, they felt strangely light from the inside.”

  Hearing that, Rayn slowly looked around, then closed his eyes and started thinking.

  It seemed like he was recognizing a pattern. Riyy watched Rayn stand still like a statue, a little confused, but didn’t interrupt.

  After a few seconds of silence, Rayn opened his eyes and spoke in a calm tone:— “Once, Haarun, Sa’ut and I went on a mission inside an abandoned underground metro station…”

  He paused for a moment, then continued:— “There were lots of hidden codes and secured structures there. My guess is — this forest might have something similar hidden underneath.”

  As soon as Rayn finished speaking, silence fell over the forest again. The only sounds were — the rustling of leaves swaying in the cold breeze, and the distant hooting of an owl sitting on a branch.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The silence stayed for a while. Then Rayn walked back to the trees that Riyy had broken. He started tapping on the tree trunks — one by one — checking each side carefully.

  Riyy stood still in one place, just watching Rayn. There was curiosity on his face, but he didn’t say anything. Once Rayn finished inspecting the trees, Riyy finally asked in a calm voice:— “Did you figure out something?”

  Rayn slowly lifted his head, then replied in a thoughtful, steady tone:— “The trees aren’t completely hollow… Only certain parts inside have been emptied.

  Which means — they didn’t become hollow naturally. Someone intentionally carved them out from the inside.”

  Hearing Rayn’s words, Riyy said in a straightforward tone:— “So that means this could be a clue leading to the base.”

  Rayn replied calmly:— “You’re right. Now we’ll have to use our speed and tap every part of the trees around here to find more hollow spots.”

  The moment he said that, both of them started moving at incredible speed — tapping different parts of tree after tree.

  Their movements were so fast that no ordinary person could have seen them with the naked eye. Their speed was so intense that it created a strange gust of wind inside the forest.

  The leaves on the trees shook violently, as if the forest itself could sense something unusual was happening.

  After a while of continuous tapping, suddenly Riyy called out. Hearing his voice, Rayn rushed over to him. When he arrived, he saw Riyy tapping a section of a tree — and a hollow sound was coming from it, as if the inside was completely empty.

  Rayn began tapping around different parts of the same tree, but no other spot made the same hollow sound.

  He stayed silent for a few seconds, then looked toward the direction where the hollow section was found.

  Without saying anything, Rayn began walking in that direction, and Riyy followed right behind him. When they reached the next tree, Rayn began tapping different areas again.

  To their surprise, this tree also had a hollow section — and directly in front of it stood another tree in perfect alignment.

  Rayn walked up to that tree again and started tapping on it. Just like before — there was a hollow sound at one spot, and right in front of him stood another tree in the same straight line.

  In this way, the two of them kept checking tree after tree, and they found the same pattern in several of them.

  While checking, they finally reached a thick bush — but this time, there were no more trees ahead. In a cold voice, Rayn said:— “Which means… there’s a high chance the base is right behind this.”

  Saying that, the two of them started clearing the bushes. After removing them, what they saw made both of them freeze — there was a long stretch of a huge bamboo forest in front of them. Seeing that, Riyy frowned and said:— “How can there be such a huge bamboo forest here?”

  Rayn calmly replied:— “This could be made to mislead us… or to make finding the base even harder. Meaning, this still isn’t over.”

  Saying that, Rayn looked up at the sky. Then he said:— “Riyy, look up.”

  Riyy looked up and saw — every bamboo top had been cut to the same exact height, so that if seen from above, the whole area would look completely flat. Rayn gave a faint smile:— “Which means the base is here.”

  Then the two of them slowly started walking through the bamboo forest. After going some distance, they found a large underground gate hidden in the ground — completely sealed, with a separate password system attached outside. Seeing the gate, Rayn said in a low voice:— “Just as I thought… it’s built exactly like an underground metro base.”

  Riyy looked at the gate and said confidently:— “I’ll finish this gate’s work.”

  Saying that, he struck the gate with a tremendously powerful punch, and the blow sent a huge shockwave rippling out.

  The shockwave was so intense that the surrounding bamboo trees toppled to one side — yet when the shockwave died down, the gate itself didn’t even have a scratch.

  Seeing that, Riyy was stunned, but without stopping he began punching again and again with even greater force.

  Watching Riyy keep striking, Rayn came up from behind, grabbed his arm to stop him, and said in a calm voice:— “You made a big mistake. Now the enemies might have noticed.”

  Having said that, Rayn crouched down and inspected the gate; after thoroughly feeling it over, he said in a steady voice:— “I thought so… this gate is made from one of the strongest metals in the world.”

  Then Rayn stood up, looked at Riyy, and said slowly:— “This metal is one of those found after World War 3. In simple terms — it’s an S-rank metal.”

  Hearing Rayn, Riyy asked quietly:— “So what do we do now?”

  Rayn closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then, still calm but cool, said:— “The password is here somewhere.”

  After a few seconds of silence, Rayn continued:— “Because all the clues we found were meant for newcomers. Old members don’t need those; they wouldn’t leave special secret clues just for us.”

  Riyy was silent for a few seconds after Rayn’s words, then said in a slightly puzzled tone:— “That may be true, but how do we search here? We have to get the password before the enemy arrives.”

  Rayn stared at the ground for a moment, thinking, then spoke in a calm, cool voice:— “We’ve been checking the trees by knocking on them from the start… So maybe the same rule applies here too. Maybe we need to knock on the internodes of these bamboo stalks.”

  He looked toward Riyy and added:— “I’m not a hundred percent sure — I could be wrong… but it’s worth checking once.”

  Hearing that, Riyy stayed silent for a moment, then slowly nodded. The moment he nodded, both of them suddenly burst into extreme motion, knocking on every internode at unbelievable speed.

  They moved so fast that it felt like the task would be done before someone could even blink. Their afterimages looked as if they would finish the entire mission before a normal person could even process what was happening.

  Their running and leaping created a sharp, slicing sound that echoed through the gaps between the bamboo.

  Their feet were no longer on the ground — sometimes they landed on bamboo, sometimes against the trunk of a nearby tree, moving like wind made solid.

  In just a short amount of time, they finished checking every bamboo stalk and dropped back to the ground. The moment they landed, Rayn spoke quickly:— “I think… we’ve just found the password.”

  Riyy, now excited, replied:— “Yeah, I’m thinking the same. Maybe we should inform Nazar right now.”

  Hearing that, Rayn immediately contacted Nazar and said in an excited tone:— “Hello Nazar… we’ve found the entry gate of the base.”

  Nazar was deep inside the forest, standing on top of a tall tree. After hearing Rayn, he replied in a calm voice:— “Good. Tell me your exact location, I’m on my way.”

  Rayn quickly described the location, and Nazar began moving at incredible speed, jumping from tree to tree like a blur of wind. Within moments, Nazar appeared, cutting through the air and landing beside Rayn and Riyy.

  Without wasting time, Nazar asked directly about the gate. Rayn didn’t say anything, just led him straight to it. The moment Nazar saw the gate, he spoke in a straightforward tone:— “This is made of S-rank metal. Do you know the password?”

  Rayn answered calmly:— “Based on my calculations, the password is either 95672 or 27659.”

  Nazar raised an eyebrow:— “How can you be so sure?”

  Rayn paused for a moment, then replied in a quiet voice:— “I’m not completely sure… but I might be right. Because the password came from those bamboo trees.”

  He pointed toward the bamboo. Nazar looked in that direction, surprised at first — but it didn’t take him long to understand.

  All the bamboo stalks were the exact same height, and each one had nine internodes — larger than normal. Nazar asked, still in a calm tone:— “So how did you get the password from that?”

  Rayn began explaining with a slight excitement, as if the logic itself was fun to him:— “We found five bamboo stalks where one internode was not hollow.

  We counted them once from the top and once from the bottom. That gave us two possible number sequences.”

  Listening to that, Nazar smiled slightly:— “Interesting… I’m impressed. Smart work.”

  Right after that, Nazar walked up to the panel and entered the first number. The gate opened immediately.

  Just as Nazar was about to step inside, Haarun suddenly contacted all of them at once, speaking in a hurried voice:— “This is Haarun… I’ve found multiple dead bodies drifting near the river. Everyone, stay alert.”

  A few seconds passed. Then Haarun spoke again, quieter — but far more tense:— “I think… a very powerful enemy is standing right in front of me.”

  Hearing Haarun’s words, Nazar quickly said:— “One of us is coming to your location right now, so you—”

  But before Nazar could finish, Haarun cut in with a cold voice:— “Don’t worry. The two of us can handle him.”

  With that, Haarun ended the connection. The moment the line went dead, Nazar let out a long breath and said quietly:— “Then we have no choice… we have to win.”

  Right after Nazar spoke, Riyy replied in a confident tone:— “You two go inside. I think someone is already on their way to meet us. I don’t want to waste any more time.”

  Nazar simply nodded. Then he and Rayn began walking into the base, while Riyy stayed right where he was.

  The moment the two of them disappeared inside, the surroundings fell completely silent.

  And in that stillness— from behind the bamboo grove, something suddenly started rushing forward at incredible speed…