‘What to do,’ the thought was the focus of all his mental facilities as he stood far up the floor of the Layer, on the beams that lightly trembled each time a train passed. Darkness Melding had in instrumental in remaining hidden until now but how was he to complete the mission in this bright place?

Area equalling multiple sub-sectors, a massive space is opened in front of him. The usually tight and claustrophobic space was no more and in the center of that open space was a marvelous machine connected from floor to ceiling, a massive lift that allowed the travel between the different floors of the settlement, and made it happen within seconds. It mattered little whether it was one 1 kilogram or hundreds of thousands of kilograms, all it took to go from the ground Layer to the topmost layer was a few seconds.

The space was bustling with potent energy, cargo trains were constantly loaded and unloaded, which then took the goods to different parts of the settlement while the goods they unloaded were transported to their respective floors after going through the standard procedural checks. Then there were trains, constantly transporting people that only made the crowd dense as the people left for places they had been assigned to work at.

There was but one problem amidst all this hustling and bustling scene. This place was filled with light so bright that even the shadows were not allowed to exist. His target was already in this place according to the timetable he had been provided. He checked the time once again to confirm it, she would soon go to the place where he had decided to strike, the facility where all the supervisory staff performed their duties.

As he was thinking, a train came back, and a violent gust of wind stuck his body while the beams on which the track was spread out vibrated. Threads spread through every nook and cranny of the train but once again he found no place where he could hide. The inside of the train was filled with additional lights while there was no need to even consider its underside. He could not use this levitating train to smuggle themselves there, which left only the cargo train.

‘Can it be used?’ The tunnels were thoroughly dark so it would not effect his Melding but the problem was outside. The awareness provided by the Threads faded away, and his senses expanded making him aware of an area multiple times greater than the limit of the Threads. The people, the machines, everything was glowing with the Qi. The human bodies appeared like a complex, intricate, beautiful web of Qi as it flowed through the body while the machines, covered with layer upon layer of formations had their own beauty. In the center of this space was the lift, and as befitting the machine that could haul hundreds of tons up and down within seconds, it was too bright for him to clearly make out the formations.

His focus shifted toward the place where cargo trains were loaded and unloaded. It was a smaller facility near the massive building that housed the supervisory staff. He could make out the staff, their hands positioned as though they were carrying something, placing it on a machine that then delivered the items directly to the massive facility next to it.

He kept watching, making sure what he was seeing was true, watching as the workers repeatedly loaded objects onto the machine when they delivered the items while returning with more. Seeing the machine enter the facility multiple times, he decided what he was going to do.

***

“Heavier than it should be?” a worker said as he picked up the airtight box. The weight that was listed on the item along with other specifications was incorrect if what he had sensed was correct. He took the item to the scale but the result was the same as the list that had been attached to the box. His eyebrows furrowed. He had been doing this work for years so how could his estimate be wrong but as he picked it up again, suddenly the weight of the box was as it should be. “Should I go get myself checked?” the worker thought while placing the 1 square meter box where it would then be picked up by the system and placed on the cargo train that docked below.

The cargo trains were completely inaccessible to humans. The items would be loaded and unloaded by the system operated by the artificial spirits and the only reason it was not fully automated, replacing the humans was due to the cost and to some extent, because there were humans with nothing else to do. The funding it would require for the whole system to fully be automated was not something that the nobes would approve as it would eat away from the budgets that could otherwise be spent on the research. Research was the only thing protecting them from the dissatisfied members of the Mus-Draik family.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

The worker continued sorting the items, checking for any discrepancies, and then placing them as the procedures instructed. Eventually, the cargo was fully loaded after unloading certain packages sent to someone in this sub-sector. The cargo train offloaded, preparing to one again enter the main tunnel.

The cargo stopped at the exit of the sub-tunnel through which it would enter the main tunnel, its engine soundlessly building up power as it levitated in the tunnel. At once, the power that had been gathering erupted almost instantly accelerating it to the top speed the moment another cargo train passed by. It took but moments before both cargo trains entered the sub-tunnels leading to the elevator.

Just as fast was their speed, the system similarly unloaded and loaded the packages to the cargo train ahead while the one behind waited. Once it was done, it detached and went on to its other destinations.

Next cargo train docked and similar mechanical arms took out the parcels which had to be sent to different Layers, among them a container with an airtight seal. After unloading and loading the packages, this cargo was too detached and sped up for other destinations.

By itself, a single cargo train was small and its impact would have been questionable but once the number was increased, with their speed, what would have otherwise been a logistical nightmare was vanquished.

***

From the facility which loaded and unloaded the cargo trains, left a levitating machine, moving on the tracks which eventually led it to and then inside the massive facility housing the supervisory staff who were responsible for the lift operations of this layer. Whether it be the goods that arrived for delivery inside the current Layer or the goods that are to be transported to other Layers, everything had to undergo checks in this place before the transfer could proceed.

The track led the machine carrying cargo inside the facility where every item was picked and sorted according to the urgency of the delivery, which would then be checked by the supervisor. As the cargo machine carried onward, darkness and quietness returned to the storage.

Threads flooded out for the box which had wrapped in an airtight seal, and the awareness of the whole facility entered his mind. Inero-ie focused, comparing each and every person present in the facility with the information he had about his target. It took him not long to arrive at the conclusion that the target was no longer here.

‘What happened?’ Inero-ie thought as he checked the time and then the data he had been provided. ‘She should be inside in this span of time,’ but this was the current reality. The target was not here.

His awareness suddenly expanded as the Threads spread out even further. His brain started heating up from the massive load despite the cold that still existed inside the habitable zone. As he was filtering through the massive number of people that were present in this place, he suddenly trail of an aura he had sensed when he had visited the top Layer, he honed on it which led him to a guard he had seen outside the Grave Tower. This guard had come as an escort for one of the nobles.

Soon he was led to others, whom he quickly identified as the servants of his target. They were in a hurry, he noted, and then controlled his Qi which had been suppressing the brain of the woman before, forcing her to remain unconscious. She woke up, his eyes sharpening as she tried to attack him, resulting in failure.

“How long will it take for you to replace the target?” Inero-ie asked in his tonless voice with no emotions. A chill crawled up the woman’s neck which made her brain run even faster and soon the chill somewhat receded as she remembered her mission.

“A touch will be sufficient,” the woman replied.

“Be ready then,” as he uttered the last word, both of them were suddenly in another place. The woman, confused by the sudden change in the environment missed the adverse reaction Inero-ie’s body had upon jumping before he reasserted his control over his body through puppeteering.

“We will have just one shot, make sure not to miss,” Inero-ie said before he picked up the woman and rushed out. The path had already been planned in his mind, all that was left was to execute it before the system detected his aura. Despite reducing his aura to such an extent that even a specter would not be able to follow, he had not even a minute before both of them were locked on by the system.