Chapter 41: Time to escape.

Adam’s POV:

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“I will not let them take you away.”

Lora’s voice was low, dangerous, her eyes locked onto the door with an intensity that sent a chill down my spine. Her entire body radiated an aura of death, like she was standing on the edge of a massacre waiting to happen.

“I will kill them a—”

Thwap.

I didn’t let her finish. A swift karate chop to the back of her neck, and her body went limp.

“…Brothe—” Her last words came out in a weak groan before her consciousness slipped away.

I caught her before she collapsed, carefully lowering her into my arms so she wouldn’t slam face-first onto the cold stone floor.

“That was a bit cold, don’t you think, Adam?” Nove’s voice echoed in my head, laced with mild disapproval.

I let out a sigh. “To think she’d go into that mode again…”

I had seen this before—more times than I cared to count. Lora wasn’t someone you could just talk down when she reached that point. I had lived with her long enough to know that once the switch flipped, reason no longer existed.

For convenience’s sake, I started calling it her Demon Mode.

None of our other brothers or sisters had ever seen it—or at least, they never spoke about it. But I knew.

Lora didn’t just snap.

She became something else.

When she was pushed into an extreme emotional state, she stopped listening, stopped thinking. Her entire being locked onto one thing: Kill.

I still vividly remember the first time I saw it.

Back in the early days of my career, I was on a solo mission and had made a mistake which got me captured by my targets. The comms team just presumed I was going to die and told my team I was KIA, even I thought I was going to die in a day or two after they were done torturing me.

… What I didn’t thought was that I’d get rescued… just four hours after my capture.

The door to the room burst open—Lora stood there, drenched in blood from head to toe.

“I’ll kill them all…” She said, holding a dagger in one hand and a pistol in the other. Seventy-eight people died that day. All of them by her hands.

Apparently, She had snuck out of our base alone after receiving my death report.

No one stopped her. No one could stop her.

We barely managed to cover it up, barely managed to escape before the authorities could react. And even then, the only reason we got away from the authorities was because Lora had strapped twenty pounds of explosives onto her body, like a crazy suicide bomber.

All went well cause I used those exact explosives onto the building’s foundation and blew it to hell.

I shook my head, looking down at her unconscious form.

No matter how much time passed, no matter what world we were in…

Some things never changed.

And when Lora reached this point, there was only one solution.

Put her down before she put down everyone else.

I shook my head, pushing aside any distractions as I slung Lora over my shoulders. Since she was so much smaller now, she barely weighed anything.

This carry position—the fireman’s carry—was perfect. With one arm securing her in place, my other hand remained free for whatever came next.

Practical. Efficient. Functional.

"Alright, let’s see what else this bastard left for us to loot."

“…I get that this carry is functional, but please don’t treat your sister like a sack of potatoes,” Nove sighed in my head.

“Meh, I’ll buy her some ice cream later. She’ll be fine.”

“I thought she was twenty-five? Isn’t she too old to enjoy icecream.”

A glint of amusement flashed in my eye. "No one can resist good ice cream, Nove."

I made my way toward the room where Dix had seen Lora being teleported. The door was locked.

“Nov—”

Before I could even ask, a key materialized in my hand.

"It was in the nobleman’s pocket," Nove informed me.

"Huh," I muttered, turning the key between my fingers. "I figured he’d keep it in his inventory."

"Maybe he put it there because he was constantly going in and out of the room?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that’s probably it."

Slotting the key into the lock, I twisted it open and stepped inside.

Just like in Dix’s footage, the floor was carved with glowing runes, the magical mirror loomed ominously in the corner, but—

Something else caught my eye.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Books.

A lot of books.

Stacks of them, tucked away in the shadows near the door—probably why Dix hadn’t noticed them in the footage.

Well, well, well.

Jackpot.

“Nove, how much more can we fit in the inventory?”

Fufu~ The sound of pride practically echoed in my head.

"Since my evolution, our storage capacity has increased by 20%! That means we’ve barely even filled 40% of it. We can take everything in here, and it won’t even make a dent!"

Well, someone’s proud.

Fufu~ she repeated, and in my mind, I pictured her standing with her arms crossed, looking down at me with an air of superiority.

"H-How did you know what pose I was doing!?"

"Fufu~ I have experience," she said smugly.

"I… see."

I glanced around, scanning for anything else worth taking—then my eyes landed on the mirror. The same one the nobleman used to talk to that fake goddess.

"Adam, when I said we could take everything, I meant the mirror too," Nove chimed in, her voice laced with amusement.

A grin crept onto my face. Well, only one thing left to do.

"Yoink," I muttered as the mirror, along with every other valuable object in the room, vanished into my inventory.

I thought it would be instant, but apparently, it wasn’t that simple. It took Nove a minute or two to crack its encryption before she could store it.

As I waited, my gaze drifted downward—right onto the runes carved into the floor. That’s when an idea struck me. A brilliantly petty idea.

"I'm on it!" Nove said before I even voiced my plan.

Seconds later, the stone beneath my feet began to twist and contort. Nove was using metal weaving to warp the runes—completely erasing their function.

By the time she was done, the once intricate and ancient-looking carvings were nothing but jagged, meaningless scrapes on the ground.

"Alright, that should do it," I said, already thinking about my next move.

I wanted to get as much information about these guys as I could, since not only they tried to hook me to join them also hooked my sister in, and were about to do God knows what to her. Her younger age is already a big example.

Wait… may they’re a group of pedo… Actually, you know what, I’m not gonna entertain that idea.

As much as I wanted to interrogate the nobleman before to get all the information, the priority in a hostage situation was always the hostage. I still wasn’t entirely familiar with the kinds of abilities people in this world possessed. And when I saw his hand glowing earlier…

Anything could’ve happened.

Maybe he was about to regenerate his arm.

Maybe he was about to cast some overpowered spell.

Or worse—maybe he was about to self-destruct.

Yeah. Killing him first was definitely the right call.

I’ve seen my fair share of targets who would rather die than be captured.

But then again… maybe this guy kept a journal or some kind of record?

Nah. If he did, it would definitely be stored in his inventory.

"I’ve been trying to crack the encryption on his nexus core since the moment I grabbed him," Nove chimed in. "It’ll take some time, but I should have access pretty soon. I can’t give you an exact completion time, though."

Alright! Nove, you’re the best!

“Fufu~ I sure am!”

With that settled, I adjusted my sister’s weight on my shoulders and made my way back to where the other kids were locked up.

As I approached, I spotted Dix standing in the middle of the group—surrounded by about twelve kids he had managed to rescue.

I did a quick headcount. Twelve.

Also, I kept calling them kids, but they were more like teenagers—ranging from about ten to sixteen years old.

…Basically, around Alper’s age. Or around my age.

Which meant they were all around my height.

Dix’s ears twitched as he looked at me. "Nya? What happened to your little sister?"

"She was exhausted," I lied smoothly, not missing a beat.

"I see, nya. Well, what’s the plan? Do we escape now, or do you want to do something else first?" Dix asked, his tail flicking behind him.

The rescued kids exchanged glances, surprisingly calm and collected. Did Dix actually manage to keep them all in check?

I thought for a second. Since we’re already here, we could raid this bastard’s mansion. We barely touched the place, and there’s bound to be more valuable stuff lying around. But…

"Let’s wait for Dara’s signal first. Once she gives the go-ahead, we can—"

"Yeah, about that, nya…" Dix suddenly cut in, avoiding my gaze as he scratched the back of his head.

My eyes narrowed. "Dix… what did you do?"

"Nya!? I didn’t do anything!" he yelped, tail fluffing up. "It’s just that… I think the earphones ran out of battery."

…

Huh. That would explain why I haven’t heard anyone in the last ten minutes.

"And you chose to tell me this now?"

"Nyahaha!" Dix laughed nervously, scratching his head. "You finally reunited with your sister, nya! I figured you wouldn’t want anyone bothering you in a moment like that!"

I sighed. This damn cat…

“I can recharge the earphones for you. Just let me borrow them for a second.”

Before I could respond, the earphone vanished from my ear.

Nove, my favorite NPC—

“I’m not an NPC, I’m your Nexus Core,” Nove corrected, her tone flat.

Oops. That thought slipped out because I was just a little pissed at Dix.

A second later, the earphone reappeared in my ear, and the moment it did, Dara’s frantic voice came through.

“Dix! Adam! Where are you?! Please respond already!”

I winced. “Dara, we’re here. Our earphones ran out of battery, so we couldn’t respond.”

“Oh, thank god.” I heard a sharp inhale—was she sniffling?

Wait… was she crying?

Did she think we got captured?

Before I could ask, she continued in a rushed, urgent tone. “Listen, Adam, there’s been a change of plans. The Lord of House Luminari, along with two of his elites, are headed your way right now to find the fugitive. We don’t know their exact strength, but whatever happens, you need to get out of there, now.”

The Lord of House Luminari?

As in… the leader of the clan?

“Adam,” Nove’s voice cut in, calm and informative. “The Lord of the clan is Alper’s father, Lord Alaric. I assume he’s bringing his two most powerful aides—Erza and Lyra. Lyra is the real threat here. Her Nexus Core specializes in information gathering and revelation. If they catch you, I don’t know if she’ll be able to determine whether you’re actually Alper or Adam.”

I swallowed. “Okay, but… how strong are we talking?”

“Right now, I just reached Evolution Level 3. Your father, Lord Alaric, has his Nexus Core at Evolution Level 7. His base stats, before core node enhancements, average around 60 points.”

I deadpanned.

The flipping final boss is already here.

Okay. Maybe I could just reveal myself. They wouldn’t harm me if they knew who I was, right?

“You could,” Nove mused, “but then you’d probably never see your sister again. They won’t take someone unknown at face value, and if you claim she’s your sister, they’ll investigate harder.”

…

Yeah, nope.

I took a breath. “Okay, you’re right. We need to get out of here— now.”

I glanced over my shoulder. Lora was still asleep, her face twisting every now and then—like she was trapped in a nightmare.

It also meant one thing: I can’t use my armor unless I drop her off somewhere…

“What did she say, nya?” Dix’s voice snapped me back to reality.

I turned toward him, then at the kids behind him—dressed in rags, their expressions filled with uncertainty and fear. Meanwhile, outside, the House Luminari soldiers were closing in. The second their elites joined them, they’d breach the security.

At most, I had a minute to come up with a plan.

“Dix, the House Luminari are going to break in any second now…” I muttered, my mind racing as I studied the kids.

There were only two real options.

Option one: I ditch them all and leave. Dix can buy me enough time to retreat with Lora. House Luminari will most definitely safeguard the kids once they breach the place.

The most logical choice. The safest.

But… how do I convince them to stay when they’ve been kidnapped here for who knows how long?

Option two: Stay behind. Blend in with the kids, But there’s a 90% chance of getting caught.

I clenched my jaw.

There has to be another way…

“Adam! Marcus and his people are ready! Just like we planned, you need to get out within the next minute!” Dara’s voice rang through my earphone, urgency laced in every word.

My mind whirred. Is there really no other way?

“Oi, Adam, my team is waiting on you.” Marcus’s voice followed.

“I’m on standby in case anything goes sideways,” Pao added.

…Wait a minute.

“Pao, Marcus—how many people do you have with you?”

“We’re three in total, including me,” Marcus replied.

“I’ve got twelve on my end,” Pao said. “But they’re not combat-worthy. All under fifteen.”

I grinned.

Perfect.

I can use them.