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.

the whole plan could crumble at any time. And that, I couldn't afford to

plan B, it wouldn't hurt to come up

of my brow, I

him be for now. I'll figure

"...Okay."

"Good."

panel, I double-checked the values to make sure that nothing was

'Everything looks correct.'

values seemed

goes the second

there were no errors, I pressed onto the

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

of the second beacon, leaning back on my chair, I closed

the second beacon's loss do

deactivation weakened the barrier

beacon would have a similar effect, if not

my eyes, I then proceeded to

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

***

the same time,

beacon is

of despair in the hearts of all

words faded, one of the lights in the

below and witnessed the scene firsthand had horrified looks on their faces as they vividly watched the

"It's the second beacon!"

what in the world is

Crack! Crack! Crack-

get any worse, enormous cracks started to appear on the

slowly started expanding all

BANG-! BANG-!

on the other side of the barrier, the demons attacked with greater ferocity. As they attacked, they had bloodthirsty, savage

BANG-！

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

"Over here."

at the edge of the barrier, Hein glanced behind him and pointed towards a small crack forming

a crack forming over here! Quickly report

"Got it."

and took out a communication device from

Ryan taking care of the logistics, they had asked her and the others

head right, towards Newton, she ordered, "Newton, go check if there are any

*Twiit*

flapped its wings and flew in the

up in

"Good boy."

Ava quickly sent a message to Smallsnake and

currently in. So far, the crack looks small. but it appears as though it is increasing in size, although very slowly. I've sent you the coordinates already. Check it out when you have

Click-

off the communication device,

site. Let's go

"Okay."

left the area with

***

with just the

its beacons not working, it seemed like my

had to

had expected this type of weakening from the fourth beacon's deactivation, not

beacons, something had gone terribly wrong with my plans and they needed

needed

"This is fucking annoying."

annoyed by the development. I couldn't help but

"What happened?"

from

at her, I scratched the back of my head

looks like we have less time

do you mean

asked, narrowing her

in an exasperated tone, "I mean that we are going to start moving

didn't you say

but

period, just the right time to set everything

device, I sat back on my chair and texted

could now freely text whomever I