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.

due to some external factor, or even a minor miscalculation, the whole plan could crumble

I had a plan B, it wouldn't hurt

brow, I

figure something

"...Okay."

"Good."

attention back towards the panel, I double-checked the values to make

'Everything looks correct.'

the values seemed out

goes the second

sure that there were no errors, I pressed

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

beacon, leaning back on

damage will the second beacon's loss do to

first beacon's deactivation

the second beacon would have

then proceeded to

in front of me and I took

***

time, in

beacon is

scream echoed the hymn of despair in

in

were standing below and witnessed the scene firsthand had horrified looks on their faces

"It's the second beacon!"

what in the world is

Crack! Crack! Crack-

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

the cracks slowly started expanding all over the barrier's

BANG-! BANG-!

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

BANG-！

behind the barrier, it looked as though the attacks were working as the earth shook and the blasts were no longer getting dispersed

"Over here."

the edge of the barrier, Hein glanced behind him and

forming over here!

"Got it."

replied and took out a communication device

Smallsnake and Ryan taking care of the logistics, they had asked her and the others to report to them

head right, towards Newton, she ordered,

*Twiit*

Newton flapped its wings and flew in the

couple of seconds, it was already high up in the air, searching for any possible

"Good boy."

sent a message to Smallsnake and

in the location that I'm currently in. So far, the crack looks small. but it appears as though it is increasing in size, although very slowly. I've sent

Click-

the communication device, Ava

site. Let's go

"Okay."

Hein left the area

***

with just

to weaken that much, just from two of its beacons not working, it seemed like my previous thoughts were

plan had to be

of weakening from the fourth beacon's

by just losing two beacons, something had gone terribly wrong with my plans and they needed to

much, but I now needed to operate

"This is fucking annoying."

was of course annoyed by the development. I couldn't

"What happened?"

from

scratched the back of my head

like we have less time than I

you mean

narrowing

"I mean that we are going to start

didn't you say that

but

originally going to span a month's period, just

out a small communication device, I sat back

removed, I could now freely