“I didn’t know you were a smoker,” Rob called out as the small group squeezed through the dark and narrow service passages of the mall.

“I’m not, though?” Leo replied, turning his head and giving his younger brother a slightly startled look.

Rob squinted his eyes only to then look down to a plastic bag in which he held a total of five sets of twenty packs of smuggled smokes.

“What do you need cigarettes for, then?” Rob continued to dig.

“Wait a sec,” Leo raised his hand and stopped their attempt at sneaking through the narrow corridors.

With all the pallets full of merchandise blocking their path, they couldn’t move much faster than they did back in the crowd. And while this wasn’t really allowed…

There was hardly a chance anyone would care even if someone spotted them.

“It’s for the exact same reason for why I asked you to get a bag of some expensive coffee,” Leo explained, taking a moment to look around to orient himself in the maze of the mall’s service roads.

“And that is?” Millie joined in.

In her now much more modest outfit and with huge, material bags stuffed with all sorts of produce hanging off her shoulders, she looked almost comical.

Thankfully, not even the stress of squeezing through the mob managed to bring her mood down. The deep sense of cheerfulness, albeit hidden behind the awkwardness of six years and Millie’s introverted tendencies, was still there, deep at the bottom of her big, trusting eyes.

“In short, magic,” Leo revealed right as he waved his hand and picked up the pace only to turn left on the second chance he got.

“I’m going to use them to hack into this world’s mythos and anchor the…” Leo spoke out without a second of thought, only stopping when he glanced over and realized he was losing the girl.

“Basically, it’s an advanced level of magic theorem. As for what I’m going to do in general…” Leo spoke only to take a moment as he lowered his eyes and rubbed his chin, focusing on the query in his mind.

Leo raised his chin and looked up to Millie’s face.

“Starting with what I can do with the things we have on hand, I plan to craft a few dozen crystals, rooted in the mythos of this…” Leo cut his sentence for the second time as he realized his explanation had grown beyond the level of what his companions could understand.

‘It took me forty years to really grasp the essence of the basic magic theorem but I’ve never managed to fully master the advanced one. I need to simplify it even further…’

Leo closed his eyes and took a deep breath before taking a right, left, and finally right turn, finally leading the group out of the maze of the service alleys of the mall and into the side of the parking lot.

“I’m going to prepare things that will sell for many times more than their weight in gold,” Leo replied, keeping a casual and relaxed tone, even though his eyes darted all over the place, scanning for all possible threats and dangers.

“There’s a limit to what I can do here, so once I’m done, we will head to a portal to finalize the production of the crystals. What’s more, when at the portal, I will take some time to brew proper medicines imbued with mana.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Leo reached the corner of the mall and stopped, carefully taking a peek at the other side of the lot.

‘There’s quite a lot of people there…’

Thankfully, there was no commotion of a scale enough for Leo to notice anywhere around where they left Tina’s car. And while it was still possible that the car was already gone…

‘Let’s not dwell on negative guesses.’

“Okay, medicine I can understand, especially if it reaches a magical level,” Rob argued, quickly following up when Leo breached the corner and started to move towards Tina’s car in the distance. “But what are those crystals for? What they are worth for you to care that much?” he asked, tilting his head.

“I mean, I can tell from their name that they have some sort of importance, but…” Rob looked up and, with the most innocent expression a man his age could make, gazed right into Leo’s eyes.

“To be honest, I’m not really sure how exactly those crystals will work with this alien circuit or something. I have yet to really sit down and try to decipher the ins and outs of how it works,” Leo explained as plainly as he could. “But it’s like farming materials in an RPG game. Even if you don’t know what some items are for, it can be obvious if they are valuable or not.”

As they came closer and closer to the car, the crowd around started to thicken up.

Soon, the three of them nearly had to resort to holding each other by hand just to stay together, a feat much more challenging when they were packed like mules with all the things they bought.

In the end, though, the group managed to reach the car without any additional adventure.

Despite the uncomfortable situation and the squeeze of the crowd, no further incident barred them from putting all of their purchases into the back of the car, closing the doors and even starting the engine up to drive away.

“I might be wrong, but I believe those crystals will either give you additional abilities, improve the abilities you already have, or directly raise your stats,” Leo revealed his guess.

“Oh,” Rob muttered, lowering his eyes to his knees and his chin to his right hand.

Then, he froze.

“Wait, what…?”

*Screeeing!*

*Screeeing!*

*Screeeing!*

Everyone’s phone, once again, rang out the brain-piercing alert sound.

Glancing down at the screen of the phone he borrowed from Carol, Leo gulped his saliva down.

‘Yeah, that’s more like the pace of events I’m used to…’ he thought, taking a deep breath and raising his eyes to brace himself against the first, major change after the first alert.

[To all the citizens. The government authorized the use of the military to oversee the unknown anomaly spreading throughout the area. It is confirmed this anomaly appeared all over the country and, most likely, the world.

As such, by the power vested upon me by the citizens of our glorious province, I have mobilized the third armored corps garrisoned at the outskirts of the capital to help control and manage the anomaly.

Stay inside as much as you can. Evacuate areas in direct proximity to the anomaly. Cooperate with the military as it deploys safety measures to ensure the well-being of all citizens.

Everyone, our history tested every generation of our ancestors. No matter the age, they had to face great obstacles, great dangers, and great oppression. We all thought, in this age, the real estate prices would be the enemy we would fight with. But no.

We are under attack.

But just like our ancestors did in their times,

We!

Will!

Prevail!

Signed,

Mayor Homer.]

Leo’s eyes scanned the entirety of the message, coldly dissecting the actual information of the change and the new restrictions from the propaganda and a silly attempt at raising everyone’s spirits by referring to their shared past.

‘Well, in times of a big test like that, every tiny bit of morale helps,’ Leo thought before shaking his head and closing his eyes.

“Wait, isn’t this bad?” Rob asked, leaning over as he glared right at Leo’s face.

“What’s actually happening?” Millie muttered in a confused tone as she stared at the message, struggling to get the actual meaning of the news.

“The military is moving in and blocking all the portals,” Leo complied with the simplest possible answer he could for his friend.

“That’s what I’m saying, isn’t it bad?” Rob continued. “Didn’t you just say we needed to enter portals to do something…?!”

“Yeah, I did,” Leo admitted without even an ounce of shame, staring at his brother with fake confusion. He then shook his head and laughed out lightly. “There is no need to worry about it. Either we will get Tina to set us up on a date with a portal or I will get this done myself.”

Leo shrugged his shoulders.

“What do you think the military would be able to do?” Leo quickly asked before laughing, “Stop me?”