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.

factor, or even a minor miscalculation, the whole

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

middle of my brow, I spoke

for now. I'll figure something out while I'm

"...Okay."

"Good."

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

'Everything looks correct.'

values

the

checked and made sure that there were no errors,

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

keyboard and initiated the deactivation of the second beacon, leaning back on my chair, I closed my eyes for a brief

how much damage will the second beacon's loss do to the

beacon's deactivation weakened the

second beacon would have a similar

I then proceeded to tap

me and I took a look at the

***

the same time, in

second beacon is

the hymn of despair in the

lights in

horrified looks on their faces as they vividly watched

"It's the second beacon!"

the world is

Crack! Crack! Crack-

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

the cracks slowly started expanding all over

BANG-! BANG-!

attacked

BANG-！

working as the earth shook and the blasts were no longer

"Over here."

at the very bottom, right at the edge of the barrier, Hein glanced behind

a crack forming over here! Quickly report

"Got it."

replied and took out a communication device

the others to report to them whenever they saw a crack form on the

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

*Twiit*

Newton flapped its wings and

it was already high up in the air, searching for any possible cracks

"Good boy."

off her shoulder, Ava quickly sent a message to Smallsnake and told

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-

turning off the

with this site. Let's go

"Okay."

left the area

***

damage with just

of its beacons not working, it seemed like my previous

had to be

I had expected this type of weakening from the

this much by just losing two beacons, something had gone

but I now needed to

"This is fucking annoying."

the development. I couldn't help

"What happened?"

from

glance at her, I scratched

it looks like we have less

you mean

narrowing her

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

didn't you say that you needed a

right, but things

originally going to span a month's period, just the right time to set everything up,

out a small communication device, I sat back on my chair and

could now freely text whomever I