To this man, the masked figure who had suddenly appeared before him seemed difficult to deal with. At the very least, that series of movements—kicking away the iron plate, leaping out, taking down four men in midair, and landing lightly—had caught him completely off guard.
Putting himself in the other man's shoes, he did not think he could move as cleanly and decisively as this Masked Man. It was not something that could be accomplished through physical ability and skill alone. Kicking open the plate and immediately jumping out, locating the enemies at once and taking them down—without extensive combat experience, such a thing was impossible. It was enough to show that this Masked Man had been through plenty of battles.
The man now understood that the two grenades thrown out earlier had never been meant to kill those surrounding the front. They had merely been a test to see whether he was the same kind of person—and to attack him precisely when he had just landed, his old momentum spent and his new strength not yet gathered.
Now that the other party had shown himself to be stronger, and with the unrestricted conditions of Main Mission One preventing him from truly using his personal mecha in battle, the man did not dare act rashly when he could not determine the other's limits. Instead, he chose to achieve his objective through negotiation.
Of course, there was a high chance they would fail to reach an agreement. That depended on whether their missions directly conflicted. With Main Mission One still incomplete, it would be utterly foolish for two participants to fight each other to the death over some minor conflict.
Even if a conflict in the Main Mission caused one side to fail, as long as they survived, failure merely meant