A foreigner's journey

In the cool night breeze, there were only two people standing on the huge top platform.

Heather stood at the top of the stairs, narrowing her eyes slightly and looking at the man standing in the center of the platform.

It was a well-proportioned young man. He is about 23 to 24 years old. He is wearing a double-breasted white coat. His blond hair is combed into a side part. He has a handsome appearance and a calm temperament.

Seeing Heather stepping onto the top platform, he smiled slightly: "I knew those special forces couldn't stop you, Heather."

"It's such an honor that the vice president of Shinra Company actually knows my name."

Heather put her hands in her pockets, her tone mocking.

The young man's smile remained unchanged: "[Monster of Seventh Street], [Underground Emperor], [Bone-breaking Heather], there are many legends about you circulating in Midgar over the years. I thought I would still waste my time doing this." A self-introduction seems unnecessary now. As expected, you have your own intelligence channel."

Heather interrupted him impatiently: "Just save yourself from complimenting each other, Rufus Shinra. You just appeared in front of me so openly, aren't you afraid that I will kill you directly?"

The person in front of him was Rufus Shinra, the illegitimate son of the president of Shinra Corporation. With his superb methods, he continued to climb up and squeezed out his two nominal brothers, Lazard and Ivan, and became the vice president of Shinra Company, who is more powerful than one person and more than ten thousand people. This man was born with great ambition and wanted to overthrow his father and become the new president of Shinra Corporation, and secretly gathered a large group of loyal men within the company.

President Shinra naturally knew the danger of his son. Out of concern for Rufus, President Shinra sent Rufus out to handle the affairs of Shinra company branches all year round, constantly downplaying Rufus' influence within the company. Due to his power, in recent years few non-HRE senior people know the name of Rufus.

Heather has played the game and naturally knows what a proud and ambitious guy Rufus is. What is he doing on the top floor of the steel pillar at this time?

"No, no, no, you won't kill me."

Rufus snapped his fingers with a smile on his face, and the screen behind the platform suddenly lit up. A man with long black hair and a mole between his eyebrows appeared on it. He was none other than Tucker's supervisor [Zeng].

"Zeng, have you found it?" Rufus asked without looking back.

[Tax has found Alice's trace. Unfortunately, she has been captured by the science department first. 】On the screen, Zeng bowed slightly and replied respectfully.

Rufus looked at Heather, the smile on his face unchanged: "Didn't you notice that your precious apprentice is missing? What an irresponsible master."

Alice? Heather risked being struck by the will of the planet and fully deployed [Circle] and [Seeing Color], but found no trace of Alice.

"Blonde hair, you like nonsense. You are very similar to a disgusting guy I met before. I guess you don't want to know his final ending." Heather narrowed her eyes and naturally lowered her hands to her sides.

Rufus was not frightened by Heather's surging murderous aura. He said with an extremely sincere tone without changing his face: "I'm not here to be your enemy, Heather. On the contrary, I want to do it with absolute sincerity." Cooperate with you.”

"Catch my apprentice and then talk to me about your sincerity? I think it would be more sincere to go to Mr. President with your head."

Heather showed her white teeth slightly, and her hand was already pinching the glasses on the bridge of her nose.

Rufus spread his hands to show that he had no weapons or hostility at all: "I didn't bring any subordinates or guards, nor did I bring any weapons. I just wanted to have a good talk with you face to face. Why can't you give me one minute to explain? What? If you are still not satisfied by then, it will not be too late to kill me."

As soon as he finished speaking, Rufus noticed that Heather's figure disappeared in the distance. Immediately afterwards, there was severe pain in the joints of his limbs and a series of dense dull sounds, and all his joints were detached.

Heather, who was wearing glasses, appeared behind Rufus. Looking at Rufas who fell heavily to the ground, she said in a solemn tone: "Interesting, I'll give you a minute. But I don't like your condescending attitude, so I'll just lie down." Talk to me on the ground.”

【Lord Rufus! Heather, you...] Zeng on the screen was furious.

"It's okay. As long as you are willing to talk, that's a good start." Rufus's forehead was slightly sweaty from the pain, but he still stopped Zeng with a calm tone, and then reluctantly raised his head to look at Heather:

"It's not us who want to capture Alice. In fact, all the Tuckers are secretly loyal to me. After the [Pillar Seven Collapse Plan] started, I ordered them not to capture Alice. Instead, I sent Renault and Lu De went to protect her, but was misunderstood by Alice and her bodyguards."

"……continue."

"The order to capture Alice was personally issued by my father. A large part of the reason for this was that Hojo from the science department was behind my father's back. They wanted to find the legendary [Promised Land] through Alice. , that is a place of infinite happiness that only the awakened ancient species knows."

Rufus took a hard breath and continued:

"The Mako near Midgar has been over-extracted, and this land is on the verge of death. My father wants to build a new Midgar in the [Promised Land] with endless energy, which is why he will not hesitate. Approval of the Pillar 7 collapse plan, because in his view the cities and civilians here are completely 'useless' that can be discarded."

"To get to the point, what's going on with Alice?" Heather was a little impatient.

"Hojo doesn't trust Tuckers. Ordinary special forces and soldiers are no match for you and that bodyguard, so he used a secret force code-named [Abyss]. I don't know much about this force, I only know that they It's the trump card in Hojo's hand. Tuckers can't openly resist Shinra Company, so I sent Tuckers to follow the Abyss troops all the way and try to find Alice in advance and protect her. But unfortunately, the other party has already taken advantage of you With the bodyguard not around, I had the perfect opportunity to catch Alice first.”

The Abyss Force... This is the villain force that appears in another FF7 spin-off game "Dirge of Cerberus". It is the secret combat force of the Shinra Company. They come and go without a trace, and their fighting style is weird and powerful. If Alice was really kidnapped by them, it would be difficult for her to find their traces in a short time. Moreover, Tuckers did not appear during the entire No. 7 Pillar blasting operation, which is completely inconsistent with the situation in the game.

Thinking of this, Heather stretched out her foot and kicked Rufas a few times. With a few cracking sounds, Rufus felt like he could move again.

"...So, what can you help me with?"

Heather looked at Rufus getting up gracefully and asked indifferently.

Rufus took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from the pain on his forehead, with a smile on his face: "Even you can't go into Shinra Company alone to rescue Alice. The internal structure of Shinra Company is intricate and complicated. It's a mechanism and an alarm. Once triggered, what will be waiting for you will be the elite troops of Shinra rushing out. Especially deep in the science department, which has been turned into a terrifying monster lair by Hojo. Cooperate, Heather, I can help you."

"For example?"

"I can help you and your companions sneak into the Shinra Company, and send professionals to assist you secretly until you rescue Alice."

"Sounds good, so...what reward do you want?" Heather looked at Rufus playfully.

"In exchange, I hope you will allow my father to step down from his position as president of Shinra Corporation."

Rufus smiled very reservedly:

"...in a more respectable way."