Chapter 117 October 13, 2022
Chapter 117 – Magic, Science, and Tricks (2)
“What? Why is there nothing here?”
The suppression team that had stormed into vault number two couldn’t hide their confusion as they saw the calm interior.
The command coming down through the crystal ball obviously said that there were thieves inside who were robbing the valuables.
However, the spectacle in their eyes was different.
There was nothing…
Moreover, the stored items were intact without a single thing missing.
They tried to search thoroughly while thinking that the thieves might be hiding somewhere, but the result was the same.
The old guard, who felt something weird, picked up the crystal ball.
“Can you hear me, security office?”
[What’s the matter?]
“We just entered vault number two, but there’s a problem. We can’t see the thieves.”
[What? You can’t see the thieves? What do you mean?]
“It’s just like that. There are no thieves. Are you really sure there are intruders?”
[So…]
[Hey! Get out of the way!]
Along with a rough scream, Ivan Luke, his employer, picked up the crystal ball instead.
[What do you mean?! You can’t see any thieves?!]
“D-Director? Well, it’s just as I said. Vault number two is neat without any trace of intrusion.”
[What? What are you talking about?! Right now those thieves are brazenly robbing the vault!]
“Pardon? They’re robbing the vault? But we can’t see anything.”
[Then what am I seeing right now?!]
Ivan gritted his teeth while looking at the scene in front of his eyes.
The spectacle shown through the artifact screen displayed the thieves carrying the items through the penetrated wall.
Moreover, there was no sight of the Black Guard entering the scene.
“Are you sure you entered the right vault? Aren’t you mistaking it with another place?”
[Pardon? No. We are certain that we are in vault number two.]
“Then why the hell…?”
What was seen on the screen and what was seen by those on the site were different.
Ivan Luke had a gut feeling that the situation was flowing strangely.
“Oh, ooh? D-Director! Look at that!”
At that moment, his subordinate was surprised and pointed at the screen.
The screen showing thieves busily robbing vault number two blurred along with a buzzing sound before they disappeared.
—And what was shown was the confused Black Guards who’d entered vault number two.
Ivan’s brain didn’t work properly for a moment due to the spectacle.
“Wh-what’s this? Why the hell? Then what we saw just now…”
The screen that they saw until then was fake?
Well, but how? It was obviously the same vault. How could they create the same one? No, rather than that, how come the artifact…?
“G-guards. How’s the situation inside?”
[All of the items are intact and not a single thing has been robbed. I think there must be some kind of mistake…]
“That’s not the problem now!”
[Rather than that, what should we do? We ordered the convoy team to move the items in vault number three to a safe place, should we put them back?]
“That…”
Ivan was agonizing before he made a decision.
“Well… You should take care of the items in vault number three according to the manuals, just to be safe.”
[Yes. Understood. The convoy team guards are getting into the elevator right now anyway.]
“Yeah. Got it.”
The communication cut off.
Ivan and the guards in the security office felt like they were still dreaming.
It was hard to judge what had just happened.
“No way. Were we being deceived by a fake video just now?”
Someone carefully raised a question.
“What?”
“I-isn’t that so? The screen in this artifact is supposed to display the scenery filmed from the artifact in that place, right?”
“…Go on.”
“So someone probably interfered in the middle of it and interrupted the display.”
“Interrupted?”
“Yes. Like… someone interfered in the process of moving the scenery filmed from the artifact to this screen and showed a whole different scenery on the screen. Perhaps they were showing what they had filmed beforehand instead.”
“No way.”
“Anyway, I think that, maybe, someone deliberately made a filming site akin to vault number two beforehand and performed a scene of them robbing the items.”
“…But why the hell? Even if they did, they can’t steal the items and will be caught soon.”
The important thing wasn’t about how those guys who did it could precisely imitate the interior of vault number two.
The most important was…
Why had they done it?
Was it purely because they wanted to play a trick while pretending to steal the items?
“I-I also don’t know…”
Ivan clicked his tongue while looking at the security, who answered while sweating hard.
At that time, Ivan’s aide, who was watching the screens along with them, shouted as he thought of something.
“No way!”
“What? What’s the matter?”
“Vault number three! Director! It’s vault number three!”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Those guys have been aiming for vault number three since the start! The robbery of vault number two is only trickery, and they’re aiming for the gap when we transfer the items to another place according to the manual…!”
“What? Th-then…”
Ivan’s complexion paled.
—And their anxious vision became reality.
[S-security office! Security office! Can you hear me?!]
There was a call from the Black Guards who’d gone down the basement.
“What’s the matter?!”
[Th-there’s a big problem! The elevator that goes up to the floor above…!]
News that seemed like a bolt from the blue was heard through the crystal ball.
* * *
About 10 minutes prior…
Alex and Pantos, who’d gone down the basement through the elevator, carefully checked the underground storage room corridor.
“Hmm. I don’t think anyone else is here yet. Are they somewhere else?”
“Let’s find out.”
“How?”
Pantos closed his eyes and raised his spirit instead of answering.
Even though there wasn’t any blowing wind, his white hair blew gently and swayed.
Alex stared at Pantos’s behavior with a calm gaze.
‘In the end. Is this the strength of spirit that the beastpeople deal with?’
It was a bit different in strength from the aura used by Knights or the mana used by wizards.
It was equivalent to the strength of the world itself, but if mana and aura were refined according to the user, spirit was possessed and used without such procedures.
Alex realized that the odd wavelength that spread around Pantos scanned his body and passed through him.
And he noticed what it was…
‘Is he scouting by using spirit? I can’t believe there’s a technique that lets someone use wavelengths flowing through the air to sense others. The beastpeople aren’t called excellent hunters for no reason.’
Soon, Pantos opened his eyes as he finished with scouting.
“There are people. There are eight in total, and they’re scattered around.”
“Is there a place where there are only two people together?”
“Follow me.”
Pantos walked in the front. His footsteps were unhindered, but the sounds of his footsteps on the floor couldn’t be heard at all.
It was the instinctive presence coverage of a hunter who had begun their hunt.
Soon, the two people arrived at a small entrance to the storage cabinet.
Knowing that there were voices of conversation exchanged from inside, it seemed that they had been killing some time while hiding.
Pantos opened the door and entered.
The two guards, who took off their helmets while chattering inside the supply closet, were perplexed at the sudden entrance of Alex and Pantos.
“Wh-what? Who are you guys?”
“There’s still some time until rotation…”
However, knowing that they grabbed the weapons by their side and prepared to fight at the same time, it proved that they were truly professionals.
Nevertheless, their opponents were too wicked.
Baam!
The guard who had similar build with Pantos got punched in the face and fell backward before he could even respond properly.
“Da-damn it!”
The other guard stepped back and tried to prepare for a fight, but Alex had already tapped his foot, and he lost his balance.
“O-ooh?”
He only barely looked like he was falling, but the gap that happened in such a brief moment was fatal.
Baam!
After being hit by Pantos, the guard floated in the air before falling onto the ground.
Since his unprotected face had gotten hit, he couldn’t cope with the shock.
“Good. Now let’s get ready.”
“Hm.”
The two men soon took off the guards’ armor and put them on themselves.
Pantos had a huge body, but one of the guards there was also a man who had an extremely huge body, so he could wear the armor.
Still, as he felt too tight in the Black Armor, Pantos stumbled here and there.
“Hey. Hold it on for a bit. This is going to end soon anyway.”
It was just according to what Alex said.
It wasn’t long before the security shouted for backup.
“What?! What happened?!”
“Just gather for now!”
Alex and Pantos put on their helmets and joined the other Black Guards naturally.
Soon, the reinforcements from the floor above came down the elevator.
Hans and Arpa, who were pretending to guard the entrance, were mixed among them.
“Suppression team, you should enter vault number two, and the convoy team, you should move the items in vault number three.”
The Old Guard commanded his exclusive team that he led and headed to vault number two.
“Ah, shit. Look at him only carrying away his aides again in order to get all the credits.”
“They have no choice. It’s a chance for them to be active after a long time, anyway.”
The rest of the guards grumbled while following the old guard’s command to take the items in vault number three and steadily load and move them to the prepared cart.
After they entered the elevator while carrying the important goods…
Pantos and Alex, who had been hiding in disguise, moved.
“Wh-what?! Urgh!”
“Aaaargh!”
A sudden ambush. They shouted shortly before falling down without being able to resist.
Hans, who watched the scene, felt his body tremble at the frightening power which Alex and Pantos showed.
‘What kind of Knight could even do this?’
He had recognized that Pantos was strong, but it was totally unexpected for him that even Alex, who looked like a dandy, showed extreme ability as well.
Because, unlike Pantos, who overpowered others simply with his strength, Alex dominated the other guards using unbelievable techniques.
‘That movement, I bet it’s not an ordinary one. Isn’t that person at least in Knight class?’
He didn’t know what on earth Alex had done in the past, but he was certain that Alex was an awesomely talented person compared to his light-hearted manner.
‘What? Then am I the only weak one here?’
Knowing that even Arpa, who looked insignificant, had unexpected skills that enabled him to knock down huge guys, he felt an inferiority complex for some reason.
Of course, he was in charge of collecting information and didn’t know how to fight, so it wasn’t true to say that he was powerless.
‘If it’s like this, it’s not like my position is being threatened, right?’
The problem was that those guys were not only good at fighting.
They had fighting skills as the basics and showed extraordinary abilities in other fields as well.
He couldn’t really feel it when he was with Ludger, but he felt inadequate as he moved with other people like that.
The elevator door reached the floor above and opened, and the four people pulled the fainted guards along with the items to the corridor.
“Now, this is the last step.”
Alex raised the spear and stabbed it at the core mechanical device inside the elevator.
Griiit!
As it was an elaborate machine, there was nothing more fatal to it than getting its core parts damaged.
Bam!
The elevator plunged down to the basement.
Booom—!!!
* * *
“The elevator is broken, you said? So it can’t go up…?”
As he heard the news, Ivan Luke felt like his soul had flown out through his mouth.
“D-Director, what should we do now?”
“Outside, there aren’t any more people outside? Other people! Other security guards!”
“Th-there are, but most of the Black Guards were sent to the basement, so…”
He couldn’t have even imagined that the elevator would be broken and that the guards in the basement would be isolated.
It was a failure that was created because there was only one basement entrance.
“Shall we tell the guests about this first and call the National Police Agency of Leathevelk?”
“N-no way! If we do that, this auction will be ruined!”
“Then what should we do?”
“I-I don’t know! I don’t know either!”
Ivan could only shout like that.
He couldn’t make any right decision on what he should do to deal with the situation.
‘Wh-where the hell did everything go wrong?’
He’d been so certain that no one would penetrate the security of the place.
How should he take care of the internal problem carefully so that the guests wouldn’t know about it?
Rather than that, how would he take care of the situation within the vault? And how were they able to skillfully steal the artifacts when they were getting transported?
“I-I’m doomed. If my father finds out about this…”
Ivan’s aide, who had decided that Ivan’s condition was not good, gave the command instead of him.
“You guys move! Rake in all the security guards! We should step up and block the thieves!”
“Yes!”
When the security office’s guards stood up from their seats and were about to go out…
“O-ooh? The door won’t open!”
“What? What are you saying all of a sudden?!”
Clack clack!
The guards used their strength to push the door, but the door in the security room didn’t open.
No matter how they grabbed and spun the doorknob, the door didn’t open, it was as if something blocked it.
“Damn! What the hell is going on?!”
Sheridan snickered as she heard the shouts coming from the security office.
She looked at the various door hinges that had solid metal hanging onto them with a proud face from near the door.
“Since all of you went into the room like fools, it’s like you’re saying, ‘lock me up~’.”
Sheridan walked through the corridor with a snort.
‘Seeing that they’re so frantic, I guess the plan was a success. It seems that the invention that I made is working properly as well.’
Communication hacking equipment…
To be exact, it was the invention that Ludger had commanded her to create.
Ludger had laid out the details on the parts that were transmitted in the display from the underground surveillance camera and had ordered only one thing from her.
‘I didn’t expect him to ask me to change the video to show a whole different spectacle to the display.’
In order to do that, Alex had hidden his identity and gone down to the basement in person before memorizing the interior structure with his own eyes.
It was something that could never be done with an ordinary group.
Whether it was Hans, who sought out the design and took care of the situation, or Alex, who remembered everything he saw with his eyes…
And even Ludger, who’d designed the entire thing.
‘As expected, His Honor is superb.’
The fact that she’d met him in the underground mine of Kingdom of Delica was probably the big turning point in her life as well.
No, she was certain of it.
“Aah. Your Honor. Do you hear me? This is ‘Wells’.”
As she went out to the wide hall, she looked at the scene of the auction house as it fell into a more chaotic state than before while sending the communication.
She could see four men moving precious items while wearing Black Armor.
“The plan succeeded.”
[I see. Alright. Good work, everyone.]
* * *
As he ended the communication, Ludger glanced slightly at the back side of the auction house.
The two big guys who had been on standby to watch over him suddenly received some kind of call and hurriedly left the spot.
They must have been pressing for time since they heard the news that the items had been robbed.
“Hans. Do you hear me?”
[Yes, what’s the matter?]
“The items?”
[We brought all of them without leaving a single thing behind.]
“What about the thing that I told you?”
[I omitted it earlier because I knew you’d ask me. Please wait. I will change my clothes and bring them to you.]
“Of course. Since this communication device has reached its limit as well, let’s talk about the rest when we meet.”
Beep.
It seemed that the portable communicator had reached the end of its usage period, as the sound was cut off. It was perfect timing.
Ludger stood up from his seat, as he felt that he didn’t need to be in the auction house any longer.
Because there would be nothing good if he stayed there for too long.
It was at that moment…
Boooooom—!!!
There was a huge explosion on one side of the auction house that swept away the surrounding area.
There was white dust, and the host, who had been proceeding with the auction, was swept away in it and collapsed.
Ludger frowned.
‘What is this all of a sudden?’
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