Chapter 236 - Fishing (1)

"Can I pay less attention now?"

A man yawned deeply as he spoke. The woman walking beside him nodded, fiddling with something like a tablet.

"Sigma-nim is expected to arrive soon, and we have the new Guard. Although I'm not sure if he's trustworthy."

"They said he's definitely a rank C. With those stats, there's no reason not to trust him. And he's from Medsang."

"There's no reason for a healer guard with high-ranking abilities and a lot of money to insist on moving to another city. I heard he did something incomplete."

"I guess he wanted to be treated well. Medsang is a good place to live, but people say it's too egalitarian. Or socialist? Anyway, if he has something on his conscience, it's good that he has a weakness we can reach, so we should welcome him anyway."

"That's true."

They reached a fork in the hallway, and the woman stopped. Checking the time displayed on the tablet, she spoke up.

"We have about four hours until sunrise. I'm going to the accommodation, and you?"

"I have a shift monitoring Alpha in an hour. The advantage is huge, but exhausting. I'm going out for a smoke."

"You'll be caught by the monsters."

"What's the problem with that? The Defense Agency is full of high-ranking guards," the man separated from his companion and went off alone. The long hallway was quiet. As it led outward, there was little surveillance and few people passing by. The man pulled a cigarette made from plant-type monsters out of his inventory. As he put it in his mouth, he abruptly stopped walking.

"...Something feels off."

He looked around, but of course, he saw nothing. Amidst the silence, only the security camera moved slowly. He began walking again. Pausing, he grabbed a transparent thread hanging down.

And around the center of the hallway, as the security camera moved to the left, creating a blind spot...

Gulp-

I pulled the thread that seemed like a trap. The transparent rope tightened around the man's throat in an instant, and without giving him a moment to struggle, I hoisted him up towards the ceiling.

"Agh."

Using a sticky monster net, I secured the man's limbs to the ceiling. The security camera was angled downwards, so it couldn't see the ceiling. Covering the man's mouth while slightly loosening the rope around his neck, I whispered softly.

"Scream and you'll be dead."

The man nodded, his eyes searching for me. His attempts were futile; seeing through my hiding ability was impossible for a mere rank D. Removing my hand covering his mouth, I warned him again.

"As long as my identity isn't discovered, I don't need to kill you. So act wisely."

"...O-Okay."

"In the first place, give me all the keys from your inventory. And don't you dare lie. I've confirmed what keys you should have based on your rank and position."

"B-But... I've signed a contract that if I attempt to give the keys to others, my hands will be cut off."

"What's the rank of the contract?"

"It's... it's rank A."

Fortunately, if it was rank A, it could be handled with my reduced rank S curse resistance ability. And with the contract in his hands, even the reduced rank of the rank S ability would suffice.

"I'm putting in your hands an item of rank S curse resistance."

Cutting the coffee latte straw in half, I placed the pieces in each of the man's hands, wrapping them with my own hands.

"Is this really..."

"Having your hands cut off is better than dying. If you pick up your severed hands and go to a high-ranking healer, they might even be able to reattach them."

Although the man seemed apprehensive, he responded that he understood. He then closed his eyes tightly. A moment later, an access card appeared at the tips of his fingers.

"I-I think it's okay. Here you go. This is the access key to the main building of the Defense Agency."

He then took out a series of keys from his inventory. Not only did he obediently hand over the Defense Agency keys, but also the keys to his house and car.

"This access card is..."

"The key to the mana absorption room where they keep Alpha. But they replace it daily, so by tomorrow night, it'll be useless."

That would be seriously problematic. He told me that the elevator key that went down to the basement where the Mana Hall was located was also replaced once a week. Security was more thorough than I thought. Still, I had my hiding ability, so if I waited for people to pass, I could enter.

"I won't tell anyone about this. You can ask anything, and I'll tell you everything."

Perhaps because his hands were unharmed, the man chatted with a more relaxed expression. He even gave detailed explanations about the keys.

"That's because if I can't deliver the keys, I'll have to give up a promotion and take a pay cut, but is that more important than my life? I don't want to be in charge of supervising Alpha; it's uncomfortable as it is. I mean, why trust that monster to normal people? My life is extremely precious to me."

"Is that so? That's too bad."

"...What?"

"That you're already dead, that's what I mean."

Long ago. Perhaps even more than hundreds of years ago. Turning away from his expressionless and incomprehensible face, I ruthlessly pulled the loose rope. Almost noiselessly, the man passed out. After putting the thread in my inventory, I covered the guy's face and body with the remaining nets. As if a spider-type monster had suffocated him to keep him as prey.

I let myself fall, leaving behind the man who would soon suffocate. Among those connected to Yoohyun's footprint, I eliminated the rank D, which was the easiest mark. Now there were two rank S and two rank C left.

‘Should I deal with another rank C?’

Or should I check their reaction after the rank D's body was discovered? I studied the cards filling my inventory. It would take quite some time even to detect the rank D stuck to the ceiling. Few people would look at the ceiling indoors, especially in the hallways.

"Many of the keys have time restrictions."

Just as I was pondering over it, a message from the system appeared. It was a side mission.

[Know yourself, know your enemy, and know eternal victory.

Conduct a detailed search of the Akates Defense Agency. If you check more than a third of the Defense Agency's main building, the rest will be a bonus!

Rewards: Detailed map of the Akates Defense Agency.]

I had already had a hunch, but as I thought, Newbie must be observing my current situation. Anyway, thanks for the detailed map. But considering he was a newcomer, this seemed quite cunning.

I began to move in order to obtain the map. It seemed that the man on the roof had died silently, but perhaps because I hadn't attacked him by surprise and killed him immediately, the murder penalty window did not appear.

Mindiba, who was very drunk, probably wouldn't wake up easily, but still, it would be safer to return before sunrise. Waiting for someone else to pass by would be a waste of time, so I simply touched the access card to the guarded doors.

"…What's this?"

The rank A Guard tilted his head at the automatically opening door. Fortunately, I had been told that the access cards did not contain identification marks, except for the one to the Mana central building. So this wouldn't seem like an invisible corpse wandering around, but simply a machine error.

I diligently traversed the central region with complex surveillance, and soon after, the mission completion marker appeared.

[Detailed Map of the Akates Defense Agency]

The reward wasn't a paper map but a square cube. When I used the cube, a list of the names of each building appeared. I chose the central building among them, and a three-dimensional screen appeared. In addition to zooming in on each area in detail, it also showed me the shortest distances, security checkpoint marks, shift schedules, etc.

This was really cool. Was this a way of telling me to rob the place?

‘…Was Newbie always like this?’

I felt like it was backing me up, saying 'rob them blind and blow it all up!' But I thought it was relatively tame. Well, if it was helping, I didn't mind.

There was still quite some time until sunrise. As dawn approached, the atmosphere at the Defense Agency gradually seemed to relax. I put on a mask I had prepared in advance and took out my fake identification. Approaching an approaching rank A from the other direction, I placed my fake ID card in front of his eyes.

"I'm Nuraun, one of Alpha's supervisors."

"Oh, yes."

Blinking, the rank A squinted at the ID card and looked up. Our eyes met, but he showed no doubt. As a statistic A without any special ability, it seemed he had fully believed in the ID card.

"Could you tell me where my coworkers Moas and Hajibun are? I left my communicator behind."

"Yes, I'll try to find out."

The rank A called someone. In my world, a rank A being so courteous to a rank C would be rare, but here, position was more important than rank. As one of Alpha's supervisors, I was in a higher position than a combat-specialized rank A.

"I was told Moas is in the mana absorption room and Hajibun went to the second cafeteria."

Second cafeteria, huh? They said those who ate well before dying would look good even as ghosts. Although they were just data, I didn't know if they could become ghosts.

As I turned the corner, I used my stealth ability again. Just as I was about to enter the cafeteria, I saw someone leaving who had finished eating. I didn't recognize his face, but the name 'C-rank Hajibun' floated above their heads. Convenient.

The second one was also easy to approach. Just like with the rank D, I took them down and used the spider monster web I had bought at the Points Store to stick them to a corner of the ceiling, as if they had been struck by a monster.

"That's two."

Three remained. I needed to keep the lone remaining rank C alive. That way, I could easily lure the rank S.

I had removed my marks, but if I left things like this, there was a good chance people would suspect. Because only those who supervised Alpha (and also those related to his footprint) had died.

I also got rid of several more people, mainly those related to Alpha, in the same way. When I returned to the accommodation, Mindiba was still dead to the world. And there were no signs that anyone had entered.

"Mindiba-ssi, go to bed and sleep."

Kindly helping him up, I randomly tucked him into bed. Unable to sleep, I sat on the sofa and turned on the TV. I spent about three or four hours there, lying down, watching TV with half-closed, half-asleep eyes. Mindiba's communicator rang, and shortly after, someone knocked on the door and rang the doorbell.

"I'm coming."

With a long yawn, I opened the door.

"What can I do for you?"

"Mindiba-nim..."

"He's still sleeping. He drank too much yesterday."

A slight relief crossed the face of the Defense Agency employee. It seemed they had found the bodies.

"There are... um."

"It seems like an urgent matter; Go ahead."

The Defense Agency employee woke up Mindiba, who was still asleep. Mindiba looked around with a vacant expression.

"How...?"

"I think you drank too much yesterday; Do you remember drinking with me?"

"Oh, yes. I think so. Seems like I went too far."

"You emptied more than half the bottle."

"Oh, goodness. I'm sorry."

Mindiba apologized for drinking almost all of my expensive wine. When I told him it was okay, the employee intervened.

"Last night, the Defense Agency was..."

"Speak. It's okay."

The wine was effective, huh. Hesitating slightly, the employee opened his mouth.

"We were invaded by a spider monster."

"What?!"

I also made an expression of shock and fear along with him. Oh my god, was it really like that?

"The worst part is that it mainly attacked the people who were the main supervisors of Alpha. It seems it smelled the scent of a Rank SS Awakened person lingering on them and focused on hunting down the weaker opponents. The smarter ones start by attacking the weaker Guards in the combat team. It must have thought they were Alpha's team."

"That's... Have they caught the monster?"

"Not yet. The sun has already risen, so it might have escaped."

"If it's at the level where it can enter the Defense Agency, it will be at least Rank A, so how could it have escaped?"

The employee said orders had been given not to walk alone for a while and that Rank A guards and above were thoroughly searching the Defense Agency. When he heard that even Rank S Guards had been mobilized to find it by sunset, Mindiba let out a long sigh.

"We're giving them a bad performance. I apologize."

"No. Nowadays, in our world, this kind of accident can happen at any time. Rather, it's good that your response is so quick."

When Mindiba offered to give me a guard, I politely declined. That spider was me.

"Oh, and Sigma from Sollemnis contacted us to say he should arrive this afternoon."

...What? That was too fast. Unlike me, internally dismayed, Mindiba was delighted.

"Well, just in time. He'll be accompanied by his high-ranking guards, so there won't be any problem with the Defense Agency's security."

I had a lot of trouble with that. I thought everything would be fine today, but my plans had failed.

‘Should I meet with Sigma first and reason with him?’

Damn it, I didn't want to run into him again. He probably realized I had escaped with his items, didn't he? Had he guessed that I was also the one who detonated the bombs? ...Honestly, if I were Sigma, I would grab him by the neck as soon as I touched him.

Still, he was an imitation of Sung Hyunjae, so if I could attract his interest, he would probably help me.

"So I'll just stay quietly in my lodging. It will be fine if I don't leave my room, right?"

"Yes. It's built to be durable, and if the door or walls are forcibly broken, an emergency bell will ring immediately, and the guards will come running, so you don't have to worry. You can relax, and if you need anything, press the 0 button on the phone."

Mindiba apologized and left with the employee, and shortly after, another Defense Agency employee appeared alongside a Rank A guard to show me to my new rooms. I asked the Defense Agency employee when exactly Sigma was expected to arrive and where he had come from.

"We were told he left on a transport helicopter. They said it took off before midnight, so with the distance, if nothing happened... they should arrive at the helipad on the rooftop of the Defense Agency around three or four in the afternoon. Even if the monster goes after them, Sigma will be there, so it won't be a problem."

Normally, helicopters were noisy and hard to conceal, so they were dangerous and couldn't be used, the employee said with a smile. So this world also had helicopters. They would have flown straight and would have been at least twice as fast as an off-road vehicle, so would they have taken less than a day?

The employee and the guard left me alone in my room. Originally, I was planning to go out and make preparations to tie up the Rank S Guards, but Sigma now took priority. If that idiot got in my way, my efforts would be in vain.

'...Please, let him become more interested in me.'

If that idiot showed interest in my brother, it would be incredibly troublesome, but there was no way that the Rank SS Alpha suddenly turning wild wouldn't be intriguing. Had they also reported that there was a Guard with abilities that could calm Alpha? I could use this fact once again.

Time passed quickly as I sorted my things. After having lunch and saying I would take a nap afterward, I used my ability to hide and climbed onto the roof.

Some time passed. In the distance, a bulky transport helicopter appeared.