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

it wouldn't hurt to come up with

the middle of my brow, I spoke up

be for now. I'll figure

"...Okay."

"Good."

my attention back towards the panel, I double-checked the

'Everything looks correct.'

of the values seemed out of

the second

were

Di. Ding-

"Haa…. Done."

on the keyboard and initiated the deactivation of the second beacon, leaning back on

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

first beacon's deactivation weakened the

the second beacon would have a similar

eyes, I then proceeded to tap on

front of me and I took

***

time,

second beacon

scream echoed the hymn of despair in

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

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

"It's the second beacon!"

the world is happening

Crack! Crack! Crack-

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

the cracks slowly started expanding all

BANG-! BANG-!

on the other side of the barrier, the demons attacked with

BANG-！

blasts were no longer getting dispersed like they used to before. Even the barrier seemed to shake in the face of such an

"Over here."

Hein glanced behind

over here! Quickly

"Got it."

solemnly replied and took out a

the logistics, they had asked her and the others to report to them whenever they saw

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

*Twiit*

flapped its wings and flew in

seconds, it was already high up in the air,

"Good boy."

Ava quickly sent a message to Smallsnake

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

Click-

everything, turning off the communication device, Ava looked

site. Let's go look for more

"Okay."

left the

***

with just

its beacons

had to

had expected this type of weakening from the fourth

it to be damaged this much by just losing two beacons, something had gone terribly wrong with my plans and they needed to

much, but I now needed to operate at a

"This is fucking annoying."

annoyed by the development. I couldn't help but

"What happened?"

asked from the

scratched the back of my

it looks like we have

you mean by

asked, narrowing her

exasperated tone, "I mean that we are going to

say that you needed a

right, but things have

period, just the right time to set everything up, but it looked

sat back on my chair and texted Waylan and

removed, I could now