Chapter 199: Smooth (1)

Michelle watched the city from the balcony of the sunset resort with a bored expression. There was no one in the suite that she could talk to with an open mind. She had woken half of an hour ago and found Byul had not arrived last night along with Wrik and Anton. Tanya left a few days ago, while Byul sneaked out, not telling anyone else—not even her. Only Jacob and Kevin were with her inside the suite, and like her, they were also clueless about where everyone else was and what they were doing.

Recalling that she had to leave in some days, her mood turned even worse. She thought she had finally found some dear friends after being grounded in her house since childhood, but like the stray clouds in the sky, the friends, the relationship she had made, were straying away.

She knew it was not anyone's fault. After all, she could not blame them for something they could not share, as she was holding something like that as well. 

Then she heard a knocking at her door. She called to find it was Jacob who was telling Evan and his two companions to come. She put on an overcoat over her loose gown before opening the door. The ignorant face of Jacob greeted her, and she thought he was the only one who seemed to be the most normal in the group. The one with the least worry and secrets.

"You look bad," Jacob said to her, gazing at her face. "Were you crying?"

"Shut up," she snorted and moved to the couch where the three guests were waiting. Evan seemed to be the same the first time she had seen him, while the other two have changed through nothing drastic from outside. They come to them once in a while to spend time or if they have some news to deliver.

Today seemed to be a day that they came bearing another news.

"Wrik and others are not here," Evan started. "Do you know when they will return?"

"Not until the evening, I reckon," she said. "though they might even come back today. They seemed to be busy with something else."

"Well, the news we brought is nothing urgent," Evan continued, bringing out a envelope letter. "A couple of days we came across the maiden of the Mah'shai clan. They told me to deliver this to Wrik, they said they would like to meet with him and the others in sometimes."

"I see," Michelle said and took the letter to the others. "I will give it to them when they come back."

They conversed a little more off-topic about anything while enjoying the tea, but the conversation did not go for long as the three guests were to leave.

"By the way, where are you guys staying?" Jacob asked as he recalled he did not know that nor the others.

"We do not stay in Gala, but come in occasionally for anything in need," Evan said with a smile. "We stay in the testing region. The site was broad, but there were many safe places to stay there. Event the Maiden of the Mah'shai clan stay there as well, though they were far more secretive than us."

"If you want to visit, you can come along anytime you want," Lillian added with a cheery smile.

"That sounds interesting," Michelle said. "What do you say, Jake? Wanna visit after clearing the floor today?"

"I'm okay with anything," the archer said, and looked towards Kevin's room. "Let me see if the big guy agrees or not."

So, they agreed on the very morning and left together. Their goal was to climb another floor before visiting the place Evan mentioned.

.. .

A shadowy figure moved in the smog of the industrial region gala. even without the advantage of the smog, anyone would have a hard time locating the figure. His run was not how usual people or mahasayer run, but something else entirely. With each step he took, his figure disappeared and appeared about ten metres away. Anyone with a good eyesight would even have a problem just noticing him in broad daylight. 

The figure moved like that for a long time, gazing all over as if wanting to find something. He was searching mostly the surrounding areas of the Rudyard family's mining site. In the end, the figure shook his head and left in an alleyway, finding nothing. 

Another figure appeared in the alleyway and, with an exchange of glances, they moved parallel to each other in different alleyways. the other figure was not as lanky as the one in a black suit. He was in a similar black cloak as tall with good weight on his body. It was none other than the mercenary man, Laman. 

He gestured with sign language to the other person that he had found nothing. The other person gestured something as well and indicated to continue the search for a little while more before leaving.

.. .

Wrik felt how boring it was to play dead. That was not all. He couldn't even breathe properly. With the medicine that he took before the operation, he only needed to take a couple of slow breathing to stay alive. With the high temperate being close to the burner and the face mask he wore, his face was itching as well as other parts of his body. Though it was overwhelmingly difficult and more than just uncomfortable, he was laid like that in the storage room adjacent to the burner.

It was the room where the fuel was stored for the burner. Well, considering he was dead, he was fuel to the flame as well. A couple of men would burn him to the burner considering he was dead after the family to original Pilt see him.

That would have happened if he was truly dead, and that would not be the case today.

Abruptly, he felt a few taps on his forehead, and it was in the rhythmic order that he knew. That meant it was safe to wake up now. Wrik took a deep breath and sat upright and saw a figure in a white full bodysuit. The person opened the facemask and the elderly face of Balat the keeper greeted his sight.

That was not all. There was a wall surrounding them, hiding them from the surveillance. The recording device only sensed the usual storage room with an extra dead body there, with the image played on the barrier Balat put up. He could not do it alone with his ability, but with the help of a decent hologram device, it was super easy. 

"Everything's going just along with the plan," Balat said and gave a spatial pouch to him.

"Good to hear," Wrik said and brought everything from the pouch. Everything that came out was just important for their task.

The thing that caught the most attention was the copse on the ground with other stuff. The face of the corpse indicated it was none other than the Original PIlt, the person he was impersonating. This person was meant to die in a few years, or at least a couple of years in the slightest. But he made a deal with Ryat and killed himself for a better life for his family.

Wrik shook his head and tore the face mask off his face. The other items on the floor were the artefacts: the unknowingly otherworldly Bracelet, the swift book and an unknown white armour set. There was another thing, it was another full-body suit that cancelled any radiation in the region.

Without exchanging words, Wrik stripped down the worker clothing he had worn before and changed into the white armour set with the bracelet. He swirls mana inside his system and refreshes himself from all the effects of the drug he had taken. With the help from the bracelet, it did not take more than a dozen seconds before he found the usual clarity of his mind.

After preparing everything, he wore the full-body suit which had the mark of someone called, Rudal Inside—a supervisor of the site. He worked the suit above the armour and now none could distinguish his presence from outside.

[You have enabled the Omeganet system ghosting.]

And after he enabled the ghosting ability that came from the level-4 encryption, he would not even be detected by the system of the tower. This was the reason why he was meant to be the person to do the final work of stealing the item. If it was anyone else without lower order encryption, they very well be found if a higher-order council member tries everything to find him, but that was not the same for the level-4 encryption.

According to Lucas, it was the highest order encryption and was created when the system was created ten thousand years ago. Clearly, the designers of the system left some backdoor if anything went wrong. And here today he was using such technology for stealing, though there was underlying meaning to it.

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