The Author's POV

339 Setting the pieces in motion (3]

"...That took way too long."

I muttered wearily, taking my eyes away from the panel in front of me.

It has been about a week ever since I infiltrated the place, and so far, everything was progressing smoothly.

Well, sort of.

The deactivation of the second beacon took a lot longer than my initial expectations.

Compared to the first beacon, the process was a lot different.

The whole process was coded in a completely different manner compared to the first beacon, making it almost impossible for me to complete it quickly.

Any wrong step and I would end up locking the whole system.

Furthermore, the panel I was currently using was less advanced than the one I previously used when deactivating the first beacon.

With those factors added together, the whole process took a lot longer than originally anticipated.

Fortunately, using the excuse that Jomnuk's memories were too jumbled up and that I needed to reorganize them properly, I managed to placate some of the impatient elders.

It wasn't easy, but given my previous performance, they let it slide.

It had to be noted that they were all individuals whose minds were corrupted by demonic energy, so the fact that I managed to calm them down was a miracle in itself.

"Are you done?"

A cold voice reached my ears. It was Angelica.

"Yeah, I'm pretty much done."

Before I knew it, Angelica was standing next to me, looking at the panel in confusion.

Seeing the confusion on her face as she looked at the panel, I shook my head at her.

"Don't bother trying to understand it, even I don't know what I did. I won't be able to explain even if you asked."

I only did what the instructions told me to do.

I had no real idea of what I was doing.

Had I known what I was doing, then perhaps I would've completed it at a much faster pace.

"I see..."

Relaxing her brows, Angelica proceeded to move towards where Tomnuk was.

Standing next to him, she put her hand on the helmet and asked, "What should we do with him?"

"Him?… Good question."

Turning around and staring at Karl, I frowned.

"Also, don't touch that. I don't know what that thing does."

It was a fact that I couldn't kill him.

If he died, then everyone would know that I wasn't the real Karl. After all, the demon that he was contracted with would definitely report back.

That was part of why I didn't want Angelica to touch the helmet. If something happened to Karl, then everything would come crashing down.

"Okay."

Fortunately, Angelica understood that. She removed her hand from the helmet.

"Thanks."

Thanking Angelica, I turned my attention back towards Karl.

'Could I use him to my advantage?" I pondered.

So far, the plan that I set up was perfect. At least, that's how it seemed to me.

But I knew better than anyone else that no plan was ever perfect.

Even if there were no apparent flaws in a plan, anything could ruin it at any time. There were too many unknown variables to account for, especially in my situation.

miscalculation, the whole plan could crumble at

had a plan B, it wouldn't hurt to come up

my brow, I

I'll figure something out while I'm

"...Okay."

"Good."

my attention back towards the panel, I double-checked the values to make sure that nothing

'Everything looks correct.'

of the values seemed out of

the second

were no errors,

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

the keyboard and initiated the deactivation of the second beacon,

wonder… Just how much damage will the second beacon's loss do to the city

deactivation

second beacon would have a

I then proceeded

video images appeared in front of me and I took a look at the

***

the same time, in

beacon is

scream echoed the hymn of despair in the hearts

as those words faded, one of the lights in the sky started to fade

looks on their faces as they vividly watched the barrier

"It's the second beacon!"

the world

Crack! Crack! Crack-

like things couldn't get any worse, enormous cracks started to appear

the cracks slowly started expanding all over

BANG-! BANG-!

barrier, the demons attacked with greater ferocity. As they attacked, they had bloodthirsty,

BANG-！

were working as the earth shook and the blasts were no longer getting dispersed like they used to before. Even the barrier seemed to shake in

"Over here."

right at the edge of the barrier, Hein glanced

a crack forming over here! Quickly

"Got it."

out a communication device from

of the logistics, they had asked her and the others

her communication device, turning her head right, towards Newton, she ordered, "Newton, go check if

*Twiit*

Newton flapped its wings and flew in

high up in the

"Good boy."

her shoulder, Ava quickly sent a message to Smallsnake

is a crack in the location that I'm currently in. So far, the crack looks small. but it appears as though it

Click-

she reported everything, turning off the communication device, Ava looked at

done with this site. Let's go look for

"Okay."

the

***

much damage with just the

its beacons not working,

plan had

had expected this type of weakening from the fourth beacon's

just losing two beacons, something had gone terribly wrong with

by much, but I now needed to operate

"This is fucking annoying."

development. I couldn't

"What happened?"

from the

I scratched the back

have less time than

you

narrowing her

replied in an exasperated tone, "I mean that we

didn't you say that

right, but

plan was originally going to span a month's period, just the right time to set everything up, but it looked

communication device, I sat back

removed, I could now freely text whomever I