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

had a plan B, it wouldn't hurt

of my brow,

I'll figure something

"...Okay."

"Good."

panel, I double-checked the values to

'Everything looks correct.'

the values seemed

goes the

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

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

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

damage will the second beacon's loss do

deactivation weakened

the second beacon would have a similar effect, if not

my eyes, I then proceeded

me and I

***

time, in

second beacon is

panicked scream echoed the hymn of despair in the hearts of all

faded, one of the lights in the sky started to fade

the scene firsthand had horrified looks on their faces as they

"It's the second beacon!"

the world is

Crack! Crack! Crack-

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-!

the other side of the barrier, the demons attacked with greater ferocity. As

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

forming over here! Quickly report

"Got it."

out a communication device from

her and the others to report to them whenever

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

*Twiit*

Newton flapped its wings and flew in

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

"Good boy."

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

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

Click-

everything, turning off the

Let's go

"Okay."

left the area with

***

with just

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

plan had to be

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

for it to be damaged this much by just losing two beacons, something had

much, but I now needed to operate at a faster

"This is fucking annoying."

the development.

"What happened?"

asked from the

scratched the back of my head and

it looks like we have

you

asked, narrowing

I replied in an exasperated tone, "I mean that we are going

you say that you

right, but things

plan was originally going to span a month's period, just the right time to set

back on my chair and texted Waylan

dampener removed, I could now freely