Grim Reaper in the Apocalypse: Reaping Immortals

Atlan had a smile on his face as he walked towards the Operator building. He garnered a lot of weird looks from the blue battle-suited Saviors, but he didn't care. He just experienced the best day of his life.

The fact that he was merely an hour away from going on a mission that could destroy the entire City couldn't bring him down. If he died today, he would be happy that he experienced that at least once.

"Excuse me, what are you doing here?"

A few overzealous Operators stopped Atlan in his tracks just as he was about to enter the production building reserved for high-level Operators. Even lowly Saviors like them weren't allowed inside, much less a young Vanguard like Atlan.

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They didn't recognize him because the world between Vanguards and Operators was extremely different. There was no overlap. So, the news about the current most talented Vanguard porter in the City did not reach the general public of Operators.

This was also true for the news inside the Operator circles. Atlan never heard a peep about any of their current happenings.

"I was invited here," said Atlan.

The two Operators looked at each other, then back at Atlan's epaulet with doubt painted on their faces.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"I think you're in the wrong building. The Student-realm Operators are on the other side of the street. This is only reserved for Specialist Operators."

If the 3rd stage Student was here for a mission, then he surely wouldn't be asking for any of the Specialist Operators.

They stopped Atlan because they didn't want him disturbing the whole production building. They'll be the ones getting scolded for letting a Vanguard wander into there.

They even heard that Carmine was working on a very high-stakes production and must not be disturbed under any circumstances.

"No, I'm sure it's here. Carmine told me so."

The Operators turned even more skeptical, to the point that they almost laughed at Atlan in his face.

But then, the door suddenly opened, letting the heat and banging noise from the inside leak out towards them.

Their jaws slowly dropped as they looked at the orange-haired man slowly coming out of the door behind Atlan. They immediately shut up and held their breaths.

They were definitely getting scolded. He looked annoyed. Even his usually neat and tidy slicked-back hair was now messy and full of black grease.

Carmine glared at the Operators blocking his door, then towards the young black battle suited youth in front of him.

"Oh, Porter. You arrived just in time. Come in."

The Specialist Operator welcomed the unfamiliar Vanguard and ignored his fellow Operators. This left them completely shocked to their core.

Atlan waved at them goodbye, but they were still processing what they saw. So, he left them behind and entered the building with Carmine.

"Who is that kid? Why is he allowed inside their building?"

"How does he know Carmine?!"

###

Atlan entered the production building and saw big moving structures of metal. They clamped onto strangely shaped materials on a conveyor belt that slowly led to a fiery opening similar to a furnace.

And if saw them right, he saw giant objects made completely out of chitin. They were stacked in a tower, with one of the forklifts slowly transferring them one by one to a giant vat filled with bubbling acid.

Are those Canzer corpses?!

He heard Carmine and the others talk about using Canzer materials to construct high-level equipment, but he didn't think they meant materials straight out of their corpses!

But he didn't have any time to assess the Canzer carcasses around him. Carmine kept on walking through the factory floor and left him behind. He had to follow closely so that he didn't get trapped within the maze of tall boxes that littered the floor.

"I saw you getting blocked by those Operators. Don't be surprised if that happens again in the future. They don't like 'Knives' intruding on their spaces. But don't mind them. Come follow me, my office is this way."

And as he followed behind Carmine, he noticed the heat prickling his skin.

The air from the building itself was almost suffocating. He started to sweat! This meant that the temperature inside this building was almost the same as the Heat Wave back in the Masamune district!

But instead of getting third-degree burns, the Operators worked the giant cranes and forklifts normally without even skipping a beat.

"I hope you don't mind how hot it is. It takes a lot of energy to melt down high-quality materials from Canzers. Don't worry, my office is air-conditioned. Maybe you'll be a lot more comfortable there."

"I'm fine, but how are you and the others okay with the heat? I thought Operators weren't that strong?"

Carmine looked back at Atlan and chuckled. "You severely underestimate Specialists, kid. Yes, compared to our counterparts, we can be considered to be quite weak physically. But compared to Students like you, our strengths are like the difference between heaven and earth.

And you forget that Operators like us use technology to our advantage. Our blue battle suits are equipped to withstand higher temperatures than this. Sometimes, we even have to get inside the very furnace itself."

This only showed Atlan's complete lack of knowledge about Operators. But it wasn't his fault. He had been living in the bubble of Vanguards with barely any interaction with the other faction of Saviors. The fact that they didn't share information was a major reason why there had been so much hate between them. It all stemmed from ignorance.

"Is my new battle suit like that?" he asked Carmine.

To which, Carmine laughed again. "It does more than that, kid. If you knew how much materials and resources we used on it, then you wouldn't be asking that question. Instead, you would have asked: what can't it do?"

Atlan and Carmine went up a flight of stairs leading to his main office.

The moment he opened the door, Atlan felt a cold breeze hit him in the face.

He looked around and couldn't believe what he saw.