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.

or even a minor miscalculation, the whole plan could crumble at any time. And that, I couldn't afford to

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

the middle of my brow, I spoke

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

"...Okay."

"Good."

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

'Everything looks correct.'

of the values

the second

made sure that there were no errors, I pressed onto the final

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

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

will the second beacon's loss do to the city

first beacon's deactivation weakened

have a similar effect, if not

my eyes, I then proceeded

in front of me and I took

***

same time,

beacon

echoed the hymn of despair in

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

firsthand had horrified looks on their faces as they vividly watched

"It's the second beacon!"

in the world is happening

Crack! Crack! Crack-

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

started expanding

BANG-! BANG-!

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

BANG-！

though the attacks were working as the earth shook and the blasts were no longer getting dispersed like they used to before.

"Over here."

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

here!

"Got it."

out a communication device from her

the others to report to them

towards Newton, she ordered, "Newton, go

*Twiit*

Newton flapped its wings and

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

"Good boy."

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

the crack looks small. but it appears as though it is increasing in size, although very slowly.

Click-

the communication device, Ava looked

done with this site. Let's go look

"Okay."

left the area

***

with just the

of its beacons not

had to be

this type of weakening from the

two beacons, something had gone terribly wrong with

I now needed to

"This is fucking annoying."

annoyed by the development.

"What happened?"

from the

her, I scratched

looks like we have less time than I had

you mean

narrowing her

an exasperated tone, "I mean

didn't you say

right, but things

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

sat back on my chair and

removed, I could now freely text whomever