The S.I.N HQ war chamber lit with a soft amber glow as Shin stood before the central table. A map of the continent hovered above the obsidian surface—marked with dozens of red points: slums, forgotten towns, war-torn ruins, orphan camps.
Places where hope had long gone silent.
Behind him stood Agents L, Y, F, V, E, S, G, and M.
Each elite.
Each capable of ending a battle before it began.
But not everywhere.
Not fast enough.
Not yet.
"Our enemies build castles," Shin said quietly. "We build networks."
He waved a hand across the map.
Small white lights bloomed beside the red ones.
"Not all wars are fought with blades.
So starting today—we begin recruiting Operations Specialists."
— INTRODUCING: S.I.N OpsNet Tier II Personnel —
Role: Civilian-aligned, trained agents focused on support, logistics, surveillance, relief, communication, sabotage, and underground protection.
Rank: Below Agents | Above Standard Citizens
Code Designation: O.S. (Operations Specialist)
Operations Specialist Categories:
O.S. Whisperers
— Street-level intel gatherers, informants, and rumor-brokers.
O.S. Runners
— Secure couriers for black coin communications, documents, and safe routes.
O.S. Veilbinders
— Illusion and cloaking experts used to hide safehouses and extract civilians quietly.
O.S. Medicae
— Trauma-trained medics guided by Agent M, able to handle low-level magic injuries and post-rescue healing.
O.S. Engineers
— Support crafters trained by Forgehound to deploy field repairs, rune disruptors, and micro-forges.
Training would be decentralized.
Equipment modular.
Command structure: clean.
And most importantly:
"Every O.S. will carry a coin," Shin said. "Not to show rank… but to remind them that someone chose to protect them first.
Now, it's their turn to pass that protection forward."
— SYSTEM NOTIFICATION —
[ Organization Expansion: S.I.N OpsNet Activated ]
Operations Specialists Recruited: 31
Deployment Sectors: 5 (Outer Districts, Refugee Cities, Border Slums, Trade Hubs, Smuggler Ports)
Bonus: Coin Signal Network Active – Agents may now respond to hidden S.O.S. signals across cities
Passive Skill Gained: Echo of the Coin – Agents gain minor aura reinforcement when in proximity to three or more Operations Specialists
Later that week, the first wave of recruits arrived.
Some were former street urchins.
Some were ex-scribes.
One was a blind apothecary who memorized the sound of every soul who ever entered his shop.
Another was a dismissed palace servant who had seen too much.
None of them wore armor.
But every single one had a purpose.
Agent V looked at the list and whistled.
"Feels like we just added an army without firing a shot."
Shin nodded.
"That's the idea. Change doesn't begin with the strong. It begins when the forgotten decide they won't be silent anymore."
In the dimly lit lower wing of S.I.N HQ—beneath even the forge and the infirmary—an entire floor had been cleared and rebuilt. No light crystals. No windows. Just narrow corridors, pressure-sensitive floors, and walls treated with mana-dampening stone.
At the center stood Shin, arms behind his back, watching six new figures kneeling in silence.
Not Agents.
Not Operations Specialists.
Something else.
"They call us radicals," Shin said softly.
"They call us phantoms. Symbols. Terrorists."
He stepped forward.
"So we'll give them something to fear in the dark."
— INTRODUCING: S.I.N Black Tier Division —
Codename: The Shadows
An elite sub-division trained in:
Infiltration
Urban extraction
Anti-mage concealment
Rescue of civilians and operatives
Real-time O.S. protection across hostile zones
— SHADOW TRAINING FOCUS —
Zero-Signature Movement
Pulse Disruption Knives – cancel small-scale magic fields on contact
Internal Coin Relay Tech – silent communication network
Adaptive Cloaks – hide visual, heat, and aura presence for 90 seconds
Rope-line wall-shift movement for fast high-angle traversal
Stealth-based counter-subdual techniques (silent takedowns, body-stabilizing grips, non-lethal aural nerve locks)
Each Shadow received a mask with no markings.
No symbols.
Only a thin, horizontal slit for their eyes—glowing faint gray-blue.
Each cloak was treated in reactive fibers that shimmered and dissolved into their surroundings when activated.
Their oaths were spoken only once:
"We exist only when the agents cannot.
We fight only to protect the voices carrying the coin.
We do not speak. We act."
Shin nodded, satisfied.
"You will follow no command structure.
No ranks. No recognition.
Only the signal of a coin… and the need of the helpless."
— SYSTEM NOTIFICATION —
[ Black Tier Division: SHADOWS – Activated ]
Shadow Units Formed: 6
Deployment Protocol: Passive, Stealth, Silent Override
Role: Rapid Response, O.S. Guardian, Urban Extraction
Perk Gained: Veil Line – S.I.N may now deploy covert teams without leaving traceable footprints
Passive Effect: All O.S. within a 5-mile radius of a Shadow gain increased escape probability and mental fortitude under pressure
As Shin walked between the kneeling figures, he paused and looked toward a nearby screen showing O.S. deployments.
"Every time an Operations Specialist falls, a network collapses.
A rumor dies. A child isn't warned. A city burns a little faster."
He looked back.
"You are the hand that never hesitates.
The blade that never boasts.
The reason someone lives to tell the truth."
He poured tea into a cup and set it on the table in the center of the room—one for each Shadow to sip from in silence.
"No name. No rank. No light.
You are mine.
You are S.I.N."
The border village of Thess Hollow was barely a dot on any royal map—mud walls, broken wards, and three dozen demi-human families living under the threat of warbands and tax-mercenaries. No standing militia. No noble house claim.
The perfect target.
A corrupt baron from the neighboring province declared the village "non-compliant with noble census law" and dispatched a force of twenty armed enforcers to reclaim the land and "relocate" the people.
What they didn't expect…
Was resistance.
From five unarmed civilians.
— DEPLOYED TEAM: S.I.N OPERATIONS SPECIALISTS —
O.S. Whisperer Rali: Street-born illusionist and rumor-weaver
O.S. Veilbinder Nyen: Former circus escape artist turned cloakfield expert
O.S. Runner Tiva: Courier and map-savant
O.S. Medicae Hollen: Refugee doctor with a memory of every herb and toxin
O.S. Engineer Krell: One-armed gadgeteer with a grudge against nobility
The villagers gathered in the community hut, terrified.
"They're coming at dawn," a mother said. "We don't have warriors."
Rali smiled as he unrolled a black coin from a hidden pouch.
"Good. We don't need warriors."
— PHASE I: Illusion & Disinformation
That night, Rali painted phantom blood across the trees using a local plant and illusion glyphs, making it appear as though beasts had devoured patrol scouts.
He enchanted lanterns to flicker between light and shadow in rhythmic pulses—mimicking the S.I.N "Shadow Arrival" signal used during fear ops.
Meanwhile, Veilbinder Nyen set up refraction wards around the village's outer perimeter.
By sunrise, the village seemed like a ghost town haunted by an elite death squad.
— PHASE II: Sabotage & Deception
Krell installed false traps—tripwires connected to echo canisters that exploded in loud sonic bursts when triggered. No damage. All panic.
Tiva mapped the landscape and rerouted the only entry road, cutting the mercenary force's travel time by hours and exhausting them by the time they arrived.
Meanwhile, Hollen brewed "smoke rot" gas—an herb blend that caused temporary blindness and burning eyes, delivered via small pop-bombs hidden in flower baskets.
— SYSTEM NOTIFICATION —
[ Operation: "Ghost Coin" – Active Defense Mission ]
Agent Assistance: 0
Combat Ability: Minimal
Tactical Advantage: Psychological
Objective: Prevent occupation, civilian death, and coin loss
The Assault
When the mercenaries finally reached the village, exhausted and short on rations:
Their scouts vanished into "beast-haunted trees" (never realizing they were illusion traps).
Their boots melted through the "mud path," rerouted over marshland.
Explosions rang in the dark—S.I.N style.
Whispered voices echoed from nowhere: "They're already inside."
They fled before even stepping past the first house.
Later that night, as the villagers lit lanterns in relief, Rali spoke softly while tossing a coin into the fire.
"You don't need weapons to win a war."
"You just need to convince your enemy they've already lost."
— SYSTEM NOTIFICATION —
[ Mission Success: "Ghost Coin" ]
Civilian Deaths: 0
Enemies Routed Without Contact
Psychological Warfare Rating: S
Passive Buff Gained: Border Village Resistance
Coin Influence Increased: 2 S.I.N Candidates Recruited (from villagers)
Back at HQ, Shin reviewed the mission summary with one hand on his tea and a faint smile on his lips.
"Five civilians.
No weapons.
No agents.
And still…"
He looked to the map and tapped a glowing white light over Thess Hollow.
"That village won't fall again."