The room had no source of light. Only after the door opened did things come into sight.

On the left side, there were camping equipment and digging tools. On the right were containers and stacks of paper.

The containers had various types of rock pieces stored, maybe as samples. Anom got closer and saw that the papers had patterns and designs related to the ruins, drawn on them.

He looked around the room and saw a door in the back wall.

The room was dimly lit, and in addition to the door being made of the same material as the wall, it was hard to notice.

Anom walked up to the door and pushed it open. It wasn't locked.

'How careless.'

Inside the room were three containers of different sizes. The boxes were locked, but using his blade, Anom made short work of them.

He walked towards the left, where the largest box was. It was around the height of his waist, with four feet on both sides. He opened the lid and explored the contents.

The box was filled with cleanly arranged tiles and pieces of broken walls, which contained various carvings and patterns similar to those found on the island. The sheets must have been drawn using these as a reference.

Anom moved toward the second box on the right.

It was the second largest, with a height of two feet and three feet on both sides. He opened it to find…

"Breasts!? What the… Oh.." Anom almost scolded the pervert who placed his personal "doll" here. Only after scanning the entire box did he realize that it was a broken statue. A broken statue of a woman, split into three pieces.

The first piece was the one that made Anom exclaim—it was the torso piece from above the waist and missing its head. A dress that looked more like it was worn than sculpted failed to hide the anomaly contained within it. The breasts on this thing were huge … Unusually huge, considering its proportions.

The second piece was the head; its features were not clear due to the damage. The hair carved on the head was flowing towards the back and was gathered at one spot, which was damaged at the end part. As the statue was missing beautiful, flowing hair carvings like many other statues of women, then there must have been a ponytail at the back. It must have been damaged like the rest of the missing pieces.

'Who had the time to carve a pony-tail? What a pain it must have been.' Anom thought as he looked at the third piece.

The last piece was an arm, so beautifully carved that if it had not been made out of white rock, it would've looked just like the real thing.

He moved toward the third container.

The final box was only a six-inch cube. As soon as he opened it, he exclaimed in his mind, 'Haha, mission accomplished. Now I can go back.'

He had been feeling uneasy ever since he had stepped onto this island. Now that the job was finished, he had to think about how to escape.

He got up and got out of the room. He stopped after reaching the room outside and walked towards the side where the various tools were placed. He picked up one that looked like a scraper. It was the size of a finger and quite sharp. He put it against the side of his neck and made a large but shallow cut. It was enough for a lot of blood to leak out. Then he pressed the wound with his palm and let it heal by itself.

He walked towards the wall and crouched, put one hand on the wall, and acted like he was struggling to stand up.

In a few moments, there was the sound of footsteps coming closer.

Thud!

With a heavy step, a burly man entered the room.

Unlike the other guards, his face was not covered. His sharp eyes scanned the room until they fell on the opened back door.

Only then did his emotionless face change slightly. He ran inside and checked the three boxes, only to find the smallest one empty.

He walked out of the room and asked in a harsh tone, "What happened here!?"

Anom, who was 'struggling' to stand up, pointed in the direction of the camp and said, stammering, "He… the..thief… ther-" Before he finished, his body wobbled as he fell forward toward the man.

'Now catch me, put me down slowly, and get lost; I have to get out of here.' Anom thought as he was falling.

Who knew? The man simply dodged and sprinted out of the room.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Thwadk!

'Bastard!' Anom cursed as he moaned silently while lying on the floor.

"What happened, Vice Leader?" Someone outside asked the man who got outside.

"I don't have time to waste. Jeno, hurry and take the one inside to the medic in the camp. And tell the others not to let anyone leave the camp area." The man ordered.

He was actually their vice leader.

"Yes, sir."

Seeing the vice leader hurrying towards the camp, the man named Jeno walked inside the storage.

He saw one of his teammates lying on the floor. His neck was bleeding, and he seemed to be unconscious.

'This poison is quite strong.' Jeno thought as he walked towards Anom.

He carefully picked up his body and placed it on his shoulder. He started walking towards the camp while thinking how heavy his friend was.

Just as he was about to exit the door, Anom, who was on his shoulder, opened his eyes. His face got tense as he remembered something. He made a mistake while fooling that vice leader.

Just as Jeno put his foot outside the room, Anom grabbed the side of the door and applied force.

Jeno stumbled, and as he was caught unprepared, he fell towards the back. Grabbing the chance, Anom slid off his shoulder and rolled on the floor before getting back up.

Jeno stabilized his balance, but before he could react, Anom shot toward him and grabbed his neck in a lock with his right hand. At the same moment, his left hand, which was holding his blade, made its way towards the poor man's shoulder.

"AHH!" Jeno screamed, but due to his neck being strangled, he couldn't force his voice out.

'I'm glad that you didn't hold me in a princess carry." Anom told him while maintaining his grip.

The struggle lasted a few moments before he stopped his movements and fainted.

Huff! Anom breathed a sigh of relief as he put down the guard on the floor.

He quickly got up and ran outside. He looked around and saw that the guard at the door had already been carried away.

Not wasting any more time, he ran towards the center of the camp.

Before, his plan was to get carried back to the camp and escape from there. Most likely, that plan would not work anymore. He could only change the plan.

…

The vice leader was running towards the camp. He was regretting not having made the security even tighter. Their team had accompanied the first batch of researchers here when there was not much known about this island. Their team leader was on the way back, bringing their elite squad here.

He was the one in charge in the leader's absence. So he would have to take the blame if something went wrong.

'I want to see who has such guts to steal from us.' He thought angrily as he moved even faster.

Just as he was about to reach the camp, he suddenly stopped. He thought back to what had happened before and replayed it in his mind.

He remembered how he saw the empty box. How he then saw the subordinate who fell unconscious after telling him about the thief. How he even ignored his junior and ran outside in a hurry. How loud the sound of falling was when his junior fell on the floor, unconscious. The sound was really… weird.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that something was not right about the sound.

Amidst the sound of the body hitting the ground, there were sounds of solid objects impacting the floor. It may have been due to the gun or the flashlight that everyone carried in their pouch. But there was a sound that was different from all that.

It sounded like something more solid; it was like a rock hitting the floor, a…

"… Stone! Damn it!" The vice leader exclaimed as he turned around and ran back towards the center.

……

Anom ran for a few minutes as he came before the guard post, which was a few hundred feet from the entrance to the ruins.

Two sentries were standing there looking at him. He stopped a few steps away from them, bending over, putting his hands on his knees, and starting to pant in an exaggerated manner.

One of the guards came forward, looked at him curiously, and asked, "What happened back there? Did you guys blow something up for fun? You should have invited us."

Anom stared at the idiot in front of him, who was treating his work as a game.

"No…hah…a thief broke into storage…hah…the vice leader has ordered one of you to go and help him." Anom panted and talked at the same time.

"Well, let's go. Let me see the thief who dared to steal under our noses." The guy in front was quite excited to catch the thief as he started walking toward the camp.

Anom stepped aside and started to turn around as if to follow him back.

The guard in the back watched as they started to go out. He had just relaxed his guard when Anom turned back, sprinted in front of him, and before he could react, punched him in the face.

"AAH!"

The guard walking in front heard the scream and turned around, only to find his partner holding his bleeding nose. The guy who came to ask for help was running toward him with his arms raised in the air.

The guard reacted quickly and started pointing his gun forward. But before he could take any action, Anom was already in front of him. He grabbed his arm and pushed it sideways while also punching his nose with his other hand.

The guard lost his bearings due to the pain, dropping his gun. Anom grabbed the gun and moved to the back of the guard. With a swing, he smacked the back of the guard's head with the gun. Eyes wide open, the guard gave a silent scream. But before he could fall on the ground, Anom pushed him hard, hurling him toward the other guard.

By the time all this happened, the guard at the back came to his senses. He pointed his gun and looked ahead. He shouted out loud as he saw the body of his partner falling towards him.

Thud! Not able to dodge in time, the head of his partner hit him hard in the face. The new pain and the old one combined made him shout again.

Anom didn't waste the chance; after getting behind the guard, he slashed with his blade. A wound was made at the back of the guard's neck. Anom didn't stop, and he kicked the poor guard. The guard stumbled and fell over his friend, who was also unconscious.

Anom put his blade back and looked toward the camp. Then he turned around and started running towards the entrance to the ruins.

A few moments later, footsteps sounded as the vice leader came running. Along with him were another two guards, who were alerted by the commotion and came along.

They didn't stop and kept chasing.

…

Anom could see the entrance now. But instead of going faster, he slowed down a little. As a thief who has been around the world, he has entered ruins before. The thing that made him wary was that such ruins were the proof of civilizations having reached their peaks. Even modern-day archaeologists and grave robbers had trouble dealing with the traps designed in ancient times.

He turned around and looked ahead. As the path from here to the guard post was almost straight, he could see three men charging towards him. One of them was that vice leader guy.

Anom took a deep breath and made up his mind. He turned toward the entrance, walking inside without looking back.