Book 2: Chapter 494
When the sun set completely, Lukas got to his feet.
The rented room was quietly shrouded in darkness.
“You’re going out?”
Yang In-hyun, who was meditating in front of the window that overlooked the outside, spoke up.
“This is the best time to move.”
“Something is watching us.”
“I know.”
“It’s not a living thing-”
“Of course, I know. It doesn’t matter if we leave them alone.”
“You’re going to pretend that you didn’t notice.”
Lukas neither confirmed nor denied it.
But just as he grabbed the door handle, he realised that there was someone standing outside. Nevertheless, there was no need to be cautious. When he opened the door, he found Dok Go-yun standing there with a slightly surprised expression.
“Ah… where are you going?”
“A late night walk. You returned earlier than I expected.”
“So that’s what it is.”
Dok Go-yun scratched his head.
“Any results?”
“There were quite a few.”
He seemed confident…
Lukas glanced at Pale, who had fallen asleep with b.u.t.terfly, before saying in a quiet voice.
“Have you eaten?”
“No. Not yet…”
“Then let’s go out and talk.”
Dok Go-yun nodded and followed without a word, and for some reason, Yang In-hyun, who was sitting, stood up.
The three men headed to the restaurant on the first floor of the hotel. There were a few people in the restaurant, and some could be seen eating quietly.
After taking as much as they wanted to eat, they sat at a table in a corner.
When the meal had progressed enough to fill their hunger, Dok Go-yun wiped his mouth with a napkin before speaking.
“First of all, it’s safe to say that this city belongs to the Great Galactic Alliance. There were several invasions by foreign powers in the past, and each time, the air force from the Next Stage would stop them… No, it would be better to say they annihilated them.”
“Annihilated?”
“Yes. Literally that. Those who were designated as enemies were completely burnt without leaving even hair behind.”
If it was that much, then as Dok Go-yun reported, Manjuria could be considered as a part of the Great Galactic Alliance.
“In order to go to the Next Stage, three conditions must be met.”
“Three conditions.”
“Yes. The first is money. To be exact, $100,000 USD. Of course, that is the price per person. In our case, we would need a total of $500,000.”
Although Yang In-hyun, who didn’t know the exact value of the currency, quietly ate caviar with a disinterested expression, Lukas became speechless.
$500,000.
These days.
It was an amount that would not be considered small anywhere in the world.
“Of course, I can prepare this much cash.”
“…I’ll owe you again.”
“It’s okay. It’s not like I earned it anyway.”
Dok Go-yun smiled and said.
Spending the former Heavenly Demon’s hard earned money was also one of his ways to get revenge on the dead son of a b.i.t.c.h.
“The second is the appointed date. I heard that only once a month, an elevator that leads to the Next Stage comes down from the artificial island. It is actually the only way to enter the Next Stage apart from planes, fighter jets, or portals.”
“When is it?”
“The 9th of every month.”
Lukas nodded.
“Five days from now.”
“Yes. The day before the general review meeting.”
“Indeed. Perhaps that’s why they set the date for the general review meeting.”
“It’s very likely. I’m sure the VIPs aren’t the only people entering the Great Galactic Alliance.”
There was one more piece of information that Lukas could distinguish from that.
Lukas looked out the gla.s.s wall. Even though the sun had fully set, the night streets only became more lively.
“VIP members from other areas might be somewhere in this city right now.”
“Yes.”
Dok Go-yun quenched his thirst with wine before saying.
“Of course, regardless of the dangers that lurk, they wouldn’t pose a threat to the two of you.”
“…”
Well. About that.
It wasn’t that he lacked confidence, but that there were without a doubt many variables in this collection of universes that experienced the Great Fusion.
“What is the final condition?”
The previous two conditions were not much of a problem. Instead, it could even be said that they were already achieved.
Nevertheless, there had to be a reason why Dok Go-yun explained the three conditions. As expected, as he opened his mouth, Dok Go-yun had a different expression from before.
“…it is said that you need to be personally granted a medal from the Great Galactic Alliance or verification from a field grade officer in the form of a badge.”
“A medal or a badge?”
“Yes.”
“How can we get that?”
An ordinary person would not have investigated how to obtain it, but he asked because he was certain that Dok Go-yun had done so.
Indeed, Dok Go-yun didn’t betray Lukas’ expectations.
“There are two ways. The first is to make a great contribution to the Great Galactic Alliance in some way and receive it directly. A typical example would be in a war.”
“I don’t think that can be done in six days.”
“It is as you said. That’s why we’ll choose option 2.”
Puk, just in time, Yang In-hyun’s fork stabbed into the steak.
“Stealing badges from field grade officers.”
* * *
For her, pain was like a sister that had been born at the same time.
It always felt ‘normal’ for her because she never didn’t feel pain.
She was used to all kinds of pain, and while most things were bearable, there was something that wasn’t.
Hunger.
The bitter taste of gastric fluids filled her throat. No matter how much time pa.s.sed, it was something that she couldn’t get used to.
The sensation of slowly feeling cold from her fingertips while her stomach was hot. Pain that felt like lava raging in her stomach…
She’d known ever since she was a baby.
It was a pain she’d never be able to escape from.
Forever.
* * *
When she opened her eyes, Pale felt warmth. Not hotness, not pain, warmth.
It was the warmth of holding someone in her arms that she had long forgotten and thought that she would never feel again.
b.u.t.terfly tossed slightly, but she didn’t wake up. The red skinned girl slept very well. To an extent, she was similar to Pale. That was why Pale couldn’t ignore her.
She was a girl like her, with the same original sin.
The two of them were the only ones in the room. But this didn’t come as a surprise. She’d felt them leaving while she was asleep.
She looked out through the window.
There, she could see the night streets lit by artificial lights.
In this small city alone, there were thousands, tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of living beings.
It was a world where all kinds of chaos existed. Therefore, there were all kinds of unpredictable possibilities.
However, it was a world that held no good memories for Pale.
She’d never thought about coming back.
Then, what did she feel now?
“…I dun know.”
Pale shook her head as she murmured, and headed back to bed. Then, after hugging b.u.t.terfly again, she closed her eyes again.
While thinking that she just wanted to feel the warmth for now.
* * *
“It’s said that the badges don’t have any codes or markings. In other words, no matter how you obtain a badge, you can use it for the elevator. The inspection isn’t too stringent.”
“Does that mean they wouldn’t care if we use a stolen badge? It feels like they’re taking it too lightly.”
Dok Go-yun nodded.
“I felt the same way, so I looked into it a bit more, but there is no need to worry about it.”
“On what grounds?”
“It’s said that if they lose their badge, they will be reprimanded by the Great Galactic Alliance. The punishment is also harsher than would be expected.”
Yang In-hyun nodded.
“So they’re not in a position where they’d speak up about losing it.”
“That is probably the intention of the Alliance. The more severely they punished those that lost them, the more vigilant those that have them would be.”
It was a bit strange.
How to say, it was a barbaric system that didn’t match a force that used advanced technology.
“We’ll need three badges.”
Dok Go-yun spread out three fingers as he continued to explain.
It seemed that if someone in a party had a badge, they would be able to enter the Next Stage with one other companion.
Without b.u.t.terfly, they would have only needed two badges, but it couldn’t be helped. They all realised that Pale had taken a real liking to the girl.
‘We can’t just leave b.u.t.terfly alone in the Omega.’
In that case, Pale might insist that she won’t accompany them.
“And right now, there are only three people in Manjuri who definitely have badges.”
Dok Go-yun glanced around. As the night deepened, the restaurant gradually became deserted. Nevertheless, he expanded his senses and checked the surroundings one more time before retrieving a map from his pocket.
“Is this a map of the city? You managed to obtain it.”
“Well, it wasn’t that difficult.”
Dok Go-yun scratched his cheek sheepishly before withdrawing a pen and circling a few spots on the map.
“The Mayor of Manjuri City [Gao Lin], the Head of the city’s only army, the Gra.s.sland Mounted Division, [Baljinnyam], and finally, [Lieutenant Colonel Bistrong], a commissioned officer of the Great Galactic Alliance who is staying in the city for a while.”
“The difficulty?”
“To put it simply, Gao Lin would be 2 stars, Baljinnyam would be 3 stars, and Lieutenant Colonel Bistrong would be 5 stars.”
Lukas nodded.
“I’ll take care of Lieutenant Colonel Bistrong.”
He had always wanted to meet someone from the Great Galactic Alliance.
“Then I’ll take care of the one called Baljinnyam.”
“In that case, I’ll take care of Gao Lin.”
—This was the conversation from 30 minutes ago.
The three men had already decided to scout their targets and had parted ways. In all honesty, taking the badge before the end of the night wouldn’t be that much of an issue, but there was still time until the deadline.
Since the elevator would be coming down on the 9th, it would be best to take the badges early in the morning then head straight for the Next Stage.
‘And for the time being, it is better to move cautiously.’
As mentioned before, members of VIP were likely to be gathered in the city by now. If possible, he didn’t want them to notice the commotion.
According to Dok Go-yun’s information, Lieutenant Colonel Bistrong seemed to have booked the top floor of a luxury hotel.
Every night, the powerful people in the city and dozens of women would go there, so it wasn’t difficult to imagine what they were doing.
The hotel was heavily guarded from the very first floor. Lukas realised that it would be more efficient to infiltrate from above. After ascending far into the sky, he slowly began to descend into the darkness. Then, after landing, he scanned the area.
‘There are guards here too.’
In addition, they seemed to be of an even higher level than those on the first floor.
This was a reasonable arrangement.
The height of this building was at least 100 metres. Anyone who could jump this high and infiltrate from the roof would be a formidable opponent, so it was right to deploy more talented people here.
Lukas moved into a blindspot in their senses. After a while, he was able to infiltrate the hotel without any difficulty.
A hall of marble stretched out before him.
Similarly, there was strict security here.
“…”
If he were to remove his presence, he would be able to stroll right past them without them realising.
Therefore, the only problem would be the cameras that were looking around without any openings. Destroying them would only make things worse, and temporarily disabling them would be unnatural.
Of course, a Wizard could come up with a better solution than those.
Shuk.
Using the Blink spell, he directly entered a room.
To be precise, he entered the bathroom because it was a place where there were no presences.
Although it was a bathroom, it didn’t feel dirty. Instead, it was cleaner and more well decorated with an expensive interior than most rooms. There was even cla.s.sical music playing softly.
Laughter could be heard from outside the bathroom.
Lukas looked at the scene outside the door. There, he saw a disgusting sight that made it hard for him to keep looking at it, but he couldn’t remove his eyes before finding the target.
That was when Lukas realised something strange.
‘Lieutenant Colonel Bistrong isn’t here.’
The owner of this room was definitely Bistrong. So where was the owner?
Lukas narrowed his eyes. Then, he began to search the large rooms one by one before he managed to find Bistrong.
Bistrong was in a hidden s.p.a.ce between the hotel proper and the roof.
Shuk-
Lukas openly appeared in the room, but Bistrong didn’t notice.
The room was not very s.p.a.cious, but it had all of the necessities like a bed and table.
Scattered bottles of alcohol, cold food and clothes that were taken off roughly were strewn around. The meaning was simple.
‘This is where Bistrong lives.’
Then, was the banquet downstairs a trick?
Why?
Lukas’ question disappeared in the next moment.
This was because Bistrong, who was in front of a monitor with a headset on, spoke.
“October 5th, 1:21am, Lieutenant Colonel Bistrong. Beginning my report.”
A deep voice.
“A total of five members are currently in the city, and the identified information has been attached.”
Before long, a person’s personal information began to pa.s.s over the monitor.
When the Heavenly Demon’s face appeared on the screen, Lukas realised that by ‘members’, Bistrong was referring to VIP.
‘There’s no harm memorising it.’
It could be considered as an unexpected side income. Just as he was imprinting the faces and information into his head.
The monitor revealed the face of the last person.
“…”
Unconsciously, Lukas clenched his fists tightly. This act almost revealed his presence.
“This man is the most important.”
Bistrong’s voice rang in his ears.
“This is the first time he will appear in the general review meeting, no, in any of the VIP’s gatherings.”
It was a face he’d seen once and could never forget.
“Yes. We have confirmed that the Great Mage Lukas Trowman has set foot in this city.”
The face of the [Lukas Trowman] that was currently active in this world.