I looked around, in my new room, slowly taking it all in. Somehow, I managed to go from being a random thief to a government hit-man. I mean, don't get me wrong, it beats sleeping in a dungeon (especially because Lowee is a snowy wonderland, all cold and shit), but it's a pretty random promotion.

Bah, whatever. At least it will allow me to seize the perfect opportunity to steal the Sharicite... If one presents itself. Only downside is, I now have obligations.

"Are you ready yet, you slow poke?"

One of these obligations being, I need to keep an eye on kids. Well, they're not normal kids. Nevertheless, when Ram learnt that I was to become Lowee's first (and only) "ASIC hunter", she insisted loudly to accompany me on my journey. And since she "never does anything alone", she's bringing her twin with her.

I took a hold of my bag, now finally filled with some healing pods, before answering her that yes, I was indeed ready.

My money was pretty much gone, though. I spent it all on a winter coat because I can't survive in the weather - I don't know how I did it earlier.

I opened the door and entered the hallway where Ram was waiting for me, along with her sister. Ram was radiating excitement, as if it was the first time she was actually allowed outside; in comparison, her sister was more subdued. She probably didn't want to go, but came for her sister's sake.

"We'll have to do a short hop to the Guild, to get a general idea of where to go and for me to get some quick money with quests and stuff", I said to the twins. Rom nodded, but Ram just groaned.

"Come ooon," she whined, "if you do that we won't leave the city before tomorrow!"

I blinked, but didn't say anything, and started walking towards the teleporter that would bring me back to the main hall, all while Ram was pestering behind my back. I'm pretty sure I saw Rom smile for a second, too.

It didn't take much time before we arrived at the Guild. Somehow nobody stopped me on the way, so either I don't look like some kind of kidnapper or the twins' identities are not hidden and everyone figured I wasn't trying to harm them.

As we entered the building, I remembered that I needed to register before taking a quest, and so started heading towards the only available clerk to hopefully start with harder quests than the E ranks one. Don't get me wrong, I'd spam them if I could, they're easy and all, but I need the money that comes from harder quests.

Said clerk lazily raised his head to look at me, and then asked in a tired voice "Here to complete a quest? Or you need something else?"

I gave him my Guild card, then asked him to get my data from Lastation to hopefully gain access to the harder quests. He started scanning it, and then spent some time on his computer...

A very long time.

A very, very long time.

"What's the hold-up? Just take a quest and let's go, it's not hard you dummy!" asked Ram, who I definitely didn't see come to my right.

I shrugged, "I dunno, the clerk's taking his time updating my data I guess."

The clerk snarled, but gave me my card back. "You got promoted. Got access to C rank quests, now. Try not to die, I doubt you can actually deal with them."

I nodded, and took the first quest that came- hunting some Child Whales in a place called the Iris Field. I turned towards the twins, and with a smile, announced "Hope you're ready, because we're going now!"

It turned out that "now" meant an hour later, because all three of us were hungry.

Snow, cold, white everywhere - except now there's monsters crawling through every snow puffs this side of the road. Yup, the Iris Field was already at the top of my list for terrible, horrible dungeons.

We actually arrived quite easily. For some reasons, now the twins don't fear me as much as they did when we first met- at least, they don't clam up whenever I'm near. Still not enough to do small talk, but every little bit of progress is good to take.

Still, we finally arrived, and the Sun was directly in our eyes. Why did I chose a place west of the city? I dunno, I'm dumb I guess.

Shit, I'm the leader here. I need to tell them our plan of action... Need to improvise something real quick. "If there is an ASIC base near us, we should be able to see some members running around. I dunno if they'll be intelligent enough to disguise themselves, but in case they are, we'll need to watch for any sign of human presence near us. Let's try not to split up to much, too, we never know who might be watching."

The twins nodded at that, and both grabbed their staves a bit harder. And the hunt was on!

A snowy dogoo jumped to block our road. So the Hunt is on pause for a second there.

"Well that was a big waste of time." grumbled Ram, as she started kicking snow.

I sighed. "Now don't look at it like that. Of course we weren't going to find a base day one, that's not how these things work! We'll come back tomorrow and search further inside, and then next day we'll do it even further in... Sure that's boring, but at least it works! Well, if there's a base it does."

"Yeah well I hate it," Ram said with a pout. As I laughed, she playfully kicked a big pile of snow, before it started screaming in pain.

I blinked. "Wait, there's snow pile monsters around here?"

Rom started to hide behind her sister, before muttering "No... There's no monster like that."

I approached the newly discovered monster, and stuck my hand inside, quickly feeling something that was definitely not snow. I grabbed it, and started to try to pull it off, with the twins quickly helping me pull, before we finally managed to get the thing out. Said thing turned out to be a human.

A human that quickly took out a walkie-talkie to yell at it. "Guys it's the Candidates! I've been compromised! Guys, send back up! Please! I'm like a hundred meters south from the base PLEASE I BEG YOU!"

He then fainted on his own, and as I look at the twins, we echoed the same question, with, of course, less swearing coming from Rom.

"What the hell just happened?"

Back-up did, indeed, come out from the north. We knew, because we decided to hide- well, I decided to hide, and Rom agreed. Ram wanted to be there to "kick their asses", but I didn't want us to be overwhelmed - and I was sure we would be, because, well, that was supposed to be a massive alert, right? I mean, aren't they supposed to want to capture the Candidates?

So, as the reinforcements of one lone goon arrived, we waited a bit. And when we were sure no one else would come, we started to head towards the goon, from behind him.

As I prepared myself to clobber him with my lance, I could hear the last part of his conversation with the fainted dude. Namely, the goon berating his fellow goon for calling for back-up "for the third time today". As he fell to the ground, a loud "BONK" resonating in the field (courtesy of Ram, thanks for the sound effects), I turned to look at the twins, and with a smile, announced "The Hunt is back on!"

Ram cheered, and we started heading North, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly considering what we heard before.

Welp, that's going to be a bonus for my story's credibility!

True to the goon's words, the base was indeed a quick hundred meters north from our previous position. It was hidden by trees, and surrounded by hills, so it's no surprise we couldn't see it; it almost makes me want to buy an aircraft for our future missions.

Almost being the keyword, I just don't wanna spend my money.

From our position in the forest, we could see that the base looked like a laboratory of some kind. A giant N was glowing faintly above the door. Two goons were guarding the door, looking a bit bored.

I looked at the twins, and started whispering "Now, we can do this one of two ways. Either we infiltrate and sabotage their crap, or-"

"LET'S KICK THEIR ARSES!" screamed Ram, before running towards the guards. Said guards quickly stood to attention and raised their weapons, before a fireball went past me and blasted both of them off. Rom quickly came to my side, holding her staff close, while Ram was blasting the door with everything she had.

I sighed, before letting out a chuckle. "Or we can just rush them and try to blast them off, sure."

Between Rom's and Ram's magic, the door didn't stand a chance, and was quickly blasted off. Two guys came out wielding a sword and an axe, with a third holding a rocket launcher. Said rocket launcher user started yelling "Lady Magic said the N labo is more important than the Candidates well-being! So throw everything you have!"

"But sir!" screamed the sword holder. "Sir Trick told us-"

"NOTHING! Lady Magic's words are absolute, you dumbass! So get ready and fucking rush THEM!" his last word was accompanied by him shooting a rocket at us, so I went in front of the twins and, yelling "Twinkle Star", deflected the rocket, sending it towards our opponents. Said opponents were pushed aside by the blast, knocked out cold.

"Yay! You're not that useless, I guess!" shouted Ram, before running towards the lab. Rom quietly added a "sorry" before running behind her sister, and I myself could only follow them. But not without letting out a sigh.

The lab itself looked badly cared for. There was rust everywhere, mold growing on the walls, and a plethora of goons waiting for us inside.

Of course, numbers don't matter to a mage. That's a nice way of saying Ram sent an exploding fireball towards them, scattering them and putting some of them to sleep. Rom followed by protecting both her and her sister with a barrier, just in time because one of the untouched goons jumped to try and tackle Ram.

As he embraced the barrier with all his might, I followed by kicking his knee, and then as he fell down to the ground by kicking his stomach, which was enough to knock him out. Another goon decided this time to go for me, but I quickly managed to hit him with the butt of my spear, and then swinged at him to hit him in the face. As he fell down, I tried to locate another enemy, but to my surprise, there was no one still standing- except for us and the twins. Ram was looking quite smug, too.

"You should have used magic like us! It works best when we're surrounded!"

I grabbed my lance a bit tighter. "I haven't exactly learnt how to use magic, so I'm gonna keep head-butting shit and kicking punks."

Rom tilted her head, and quietly asked "but you used a skill back there, didn't you? Aren't skills supposed to be magic?"

I paused for a second, before shrugging. "Maybe, but we don't have time for that now-"

"Let's go at 'em!" yelled Ram, as more goons appeared.

The three of us were panting as we took a bit of rest in an unused room in the lab.

"There's too many, I don't think we can beat them all up."

"You want a medal for figuring that one chief?" I snarked at Ram. Sure, she and her sister did most of the job, but she was the one who kept on taking groups of ASIC soldiers.

Ram punched me on the arm. "Don't tell me you didn't enjoy beating the crap out of those meanies!"

I took a second to breathe (seriously I'm that out of shape? We've been resting here for like two minutes already!) before answering. "That may be true, but we should work on sabotaging them, not freely breaking their bones."

Rom then surprised us by throwing a fireball at a particularly moldy wall, before opening the door and sending more fireballs. Quickly, Ram followed her in her venture, all while I was looking, flabbergasted. Then I started running towards them. "Wait I think you didn't think this through!"

"We totally didn't think this through." said Ram, as we stood in the middle of an inferno.

I took a moment to breathe, before yelling "You think?"

Suddenly, from the flames, a figure appeared, before it revealed itself to us. And...

"Hey, isn't that the meanie you knocked out before? What's his name, Smurlum?"

The stranger laughed a bit, before walking towards us. As he approached, I noticed that it couldn't be Superu, because, for one, he looked far too dignified, and second of all, he was taller, broader, and way, way more handsome. Still, he was wearing the same black suit - it just looked way better on him.

"You're the one who decided to beat up my little brother then I take it? Suleimu was in our hospital for a whole day, poor boy... Sadly his superior wanted him in the field again, and what the boss wants, the boss gets." He then took out some kind of remote control, before stopping for a bit. "Ah, yes. You see, I don't believe I like those odds- three against one, with two of my opponents being CPU candidates? Oh no no no, that is too tragic. Therefore..."

He snapped his fingers, and suddenly, two tiny boxes fell on Rom and Ram, before they suddenly phased out of existence. The guy laughed again, but this time it sounded more sinister, before he continued "You got to love those eject buttons, they trully are a wonder. Now then, I believe all the conditions are met... Prepare for your doom!"

A barrier made out of light suddenly crashed around us, exactly like that time with Linda when we were against those supersoldiers of ASIC.

As I faintly recalled the words "Boss Event", words started to appear in front of us.

[BOSS FIGHT]

[ASIC LIEUTNANT: 'FAIL' OVER F10W]

Author's footnote

So yeah, mighty sorry for the wait. Life's a bitch, and then suddenly you're procrastinating. Still, I plan on finishing at least the first part of ReBirth 2, whatever it takes, and no matter the time it takes. Also, double sorry the chapter is shorter than my previous ones, but it was hard to get back into the flow. I posted that one as soon as it was finished too, and only took like a minute to fix the blatant mistakes. Hopefully, it's going to take less time for me to write chapter 12! One can always hope.

Anyway, remember that gimmick that happened in chapter 4 and that you never heard of again? Yeah, next chapter it'll be explained. There's a reason other than "rule of cool", I promise! (Edit from future me, it'll probably be explained come chapter 14-15.)

Also, fun fact: It was supposed to be MarvelousAQL that accompanied Gyone to the N Labo. But, um. I didn't manage to write her. Well I did, but the chapter was boring. I pushed on but it just didn't come. As a result I had to trash it and start all over again. I dunno, it was just smoother with Ram - and where Ram goes, Rom also goes, so both of them were needed, but with Ram I already managed well. Rom is much more shy, so it also checks out.

Review Time~

Ace-of-Weeb: In truth, when I'm writing this fic I'm always wondering "would it look good if adapted to a videogame format?" And after some thinking, I figured that every important Neptunia characters have their own weapons (sort of, looking at you, Chika). Since the OCs I'm using are based on people that exists in our real life/dimension/thing, I tried to make their weapons fit with what I knew them from.

And then I managed to somehow mix up their weapons. Go me!

And yes, Lowee's start (and probably the whole arc) will work way better for Gyone than Lastation, because, well, he doesn't have Linda or Warechu to twist his mind.

Guest: Yeah but in the end it's gonna be "the greatesterestest heist" as the last one, and now that one wouldn't look decent. Probably. Also, yes, all the confrontations are gonna be... awkward is a good word, yeah.

Chapter 11.2 - ASIC's reach

The boss is a bitch.

Don't get me wrong, I'mma respect her for all she's worth. She's good at fighting, she's good at planning, and her devotion to the leaders is exemplary. I can totally understand why she sent us to infiltrate as much shit as we could, too. If we can interfere with the quests, then nobody's going to go and, I dunno, try to break into our facilities. The Basilicom is where the candidates live and where the shares thingy are processed, and all that jazz. Really, am not against the idea.

What I am against is sticking my butt in a chair for twelve hours a day to watch hopeful brats take up quests to kill our monsters and gather more shares thingy. They all talking 'bout "stopping ASIC" and that shit. Pah! Worthless dumbasses. Killing our fodder is only annoying at worst.

And here comes another trash adventurer, probably here to rub it in that "oooh look at meee I can kill stuff". Tss, pathetic.

But still, am not an ASIC member here. Just a lowly clerk in some washed-up monster parts' collector office. So I just try my best to look full of energy, and ask him what he wanted. He just gave me his card and asked me to update it with whatever they got at Lastation.

So that's what I do. I start to look at the data in the database, and...

Oh. "Wanted", huh? This dumbass probably doesn't know he's got a price on his head, hehe... I could grab me a bonus, money's tight lately.

Oooor... Fuck, that's the boss' boytoy. And worse is, I can't even go around and get him arrested either way, 'cause the leaders want to see if he can cause more chaos. I can kiss the money goodbye.

Ugh, I'll just have to delete the warrant for his arrest... But really, I don't think the leaders know what they're doing. He's still with the Guild, no matter that they put a bounty on his head.

Well... Some would argue that raiding a Basilicom alone is no small task, no matter how much their security was weakened... Heh, I guess I got an idea.