62+ miles to reach Elizabeth's coffee & food shop with another few to reach back to the Agora. Julius remembered it lasted a minute at most in his flight speed to reach the spot. With a few extra miles on the clock and an entire load of a pickup truck, Solomon’s demonstration took half a minute to reach and was already hovering over the agora’s central park.
Julius jolted his head out of the window. “Solomon, let me take over!” he ordered, opening his door.
“Can you lift?”
Julius insisted. “I sure can. Let me.”
Solomon forced the drag to slow down as Julius glided out of the truck. He held a grip at the bottom of the tailgate like a deadlift. With one jerk back, the truck came to a complete stop. Julius eyed around the scene and David’s building was right ahead of him. To not attract attention early, he flew in a quick descent passing by the uniform houses in the area.
Using his legs like a bird’s tail, he articulated his lower half and feet upwards, and the truck rapidly descended giving a rough landing on the intersection.
Oh shit. Lu Yi nearly tipped off from the truck bed upon the suspension reacting to the concrete. He hovered his left hand right below her, nudging her back in.
“You alright?”
“I’m fine, thanks…got a little off balance.”
She has some faint traces of qi, which might be a good sign. Same with Ritter too. Their qi isn’t easily sensed at blank notice due to quantity still significantly low. Better than nothing.
Julius went back to the driver’s seat and drove it right to the front door. He exited, looking back up at the building. Last time, he didn’t pay attention to the number of floors it had but glancing at it today, it’s fairly tall. However, the uniformity of the color white made it bland. The windows didn’t help either. For what he remembered, David’s place of residence was on the top floor. A penthouse that doesn’t feel like one.
“I’m not sure if we are being watched from inside the entrance, so I think we should just fly up. Then we barged in through the windows.”
Solomon raised his head up high. “Not bad…Let me get this straight, he lives inside that building, oversees suspicious payloads worth billions of thalers, and he said he was an engineer. Am I missing anything else?”
“That’s it. Luckily that fraudster didn’t ruin my damn brain. I guess I lucked out really much.”
“Well, are we ready then? I want to break his skull.”
Celeste and Sally left the truck, and both glared up at the building.
Julius smirked. “Only if he has nothing left.” He then turned to Ritter and Lu Yi, “You guys stay here. We’ll be back in a bit.”
Lu Yi nodded. “Okay, we’ll sit tight.”
--
Confront David
Rewards:
General Class Meter ↑
--
Julius leaped into the air and went right on the wall of the building and went up gradually like a crawling insect. The building’s layout was simple to decipher, and the windows were structured to identify as a separate floor. When Julius landed and gripped the wall, there was one row of windows above. Hence, he ordered others to stay in place as he climbed up, peeking over.
Viewing the entire row of the living space, he saw nobody within the living space. Unless he could be any story below the penthouse, it’s not even sunset at this point. Left-to-right appeared to be nobody. One check after another revealed no traces of activity. No sense of qi either from this floor. Nor Victoria’s either.
“Do you guys’ sense anything around?”
“I did, two below,” Celeste said.
“How many rows down?”
“At first it was six. Now it’s five as I speak.”
The Elevator. Julius realized they were going up. “They’re on the elevator, heading up here.” His mouthplate closed up as he unleashed a thrust right onto the window, shattering it into pieces. The moment triggered a blaring alarm throughout the floor. He quickly leaped inside, thumping on the couch.
Solomon went for an aggressive headbutt crashing inside like a ferocious bull and rammed into the dining table.
While quickly gesturing Sally and Celeste up, Julius sensed Victoria’s qi quickly coming up and saw the indicator at the elevator brightening the upper arrow. He grabbed both and lifted them through the penthouse right in the direction leading to the hallway he remembered getting Skoltor. Solomon sprinted along, and with his fists, he punched through the vault door revealing the big warehouse-like room.
Celeste and Sally leaped off from Julius’s grip as he slid on the floor, generating a scratchy noise from the friction of his boots.
Before he could ease off, he went back to the entryway and lifted the vault door, hammering it right at the opening. Shit, there’s still open space above. Around him were the tall racks filled with closed crates. Julius, with a chaotic idea, ran up to one of the upright columns and gave a tight grip.
Ding!
“Screw it!” Julius yelled, thrusting his grip downward like a swift removal of the tablecloth from a dinner table. The upright column immediately bent. He rolled away as he heard the sliding of screeching wood platforms, holding the crates up high. One boost from his palm jolted Julius away from the collapsing rack. He along with the other three watched as the potential valuables were being recklessly destroyed. It was heavy enough to rumble the entire floor and the bangs of metal as it slammed the surface. That was partially deafening.
“Hurts me a bit watching all the possible treasures being wrecked like that,” Celeste muttered.
“It’s David’s content. No harm done and it is a perfect barrier to the entrance.”
Bang!
Julius’s tongue clicked. “I stand corrected…Celeste, your barrier!”
Celeste held her right arm and pointed straight ahead, firing a cubic blast at the rubble. A barrier that was much different than prior with the silver color and a polygon shape towering over the site, leaving no open spaces to cross through.
Julius sighed and went along the place to find any valuable information. Based on the time frame here, it hasn’t been that long since he left the place and already a load of batches filled with racks of crates were organized around the entire warehouse space. Sally, alone, saw the reclining chair. Which was the exact one he lied on.
This time he went with Celeste, and both went into one of the five aisles. The distance to the end was quite a walk. Fortunately, they didn’t need to walk quite far as each of the crates stacked on the racks were imprinted with names and markings on the wood surface.
“Ain’t that the number of the gold bars?” she asked, pointing at one of the crates.
Julius went through the virtual inventory.
--
Deploy (1) Gold bar?
Yes ←
--
A gold bar summoned, prompting his hand to instinctively grip it. He turned right at the crates while reading the number that was indented onto the gold bar. All the exact same except the last two letters after the dash. “I’m taking this crate down,” Julius said, dismissing the gold bar back to his inventory.
One lift and brought it down in a forklift manner. As Julius lowered it to the floor, he heard rattling from inside, hitting the wooden frame of the crate. It was loose.
“Open it!” he told Celeste.
She yanked the lid off, revealing another pile of gold. Or was it really gold? Solomon must have heard or something as he sped from his aisle right up to the crate.
“Why are there darker shades?” Solomon pointed out the impurities.
Julius grimaced followed by a shake of disappointment. “Looks tarnished…we got lucky from back there at Buhne’s office. This ain’t worth that much anymore—”
“No, I could use it for crafting items that are worth more rather than wasting it.”
Ah, I forgot. The blacksmith skill Solomon has. “Good point; In that case, you gauge how much you need,” Julius said, returning to his virtual inventory.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
--
Slots remaining: 97/100
…
Gold Bar (2)
Quantity max: 100
--
Ok, good to go then. Julius saw Solomon taking out fifteen gold bars already out of the crate. He was going to put in his S.F. backpack when Julius quickly suggested, letting him handle the matter.
“You don’t have your backpack,” Solomon said.
Julius took one from the crate.
--
Put in inventory?
Yes ←
--
The tarnished gold bar disappeared from his hands, withering away like dust with a trace blueish light dispersed.
--
Tarnished Gold Bar (1)
Quantity max: 100
Slots remaining: 96/100
--
“Nice,” Julius muttered.
“What did you do with it?” Solomon asked with an expression of distraught.
Julius pointed at his head. “Skoltor. The reboot update gave me a virtual inventory that can fit up to a hundred gold bars at once per slot.”
“And how many slots do you have?”
“Currently…a hundred.”
Solomon stood silent before peeking into the crate, counting how many more tarnished gold bars remained inside. “There’s forty more. Are you—”
“I knew you were gonna risk taking it all. Uhm no, I’ll take half from the crate along with the ones that are already out of the crate. Other than that, it is no deal.”
Celeste barged in with her suggestion. “How about we take all of this and don’t add any further requests until all the tarnished gold is cleared from his inventory?”
“Tsk…I don’t have a choice, do I?”
“Nope. For the sake of us carrying other stuff instead of you, this is it,” Celeste responded in a firm and direct tone.
“Then bring it all out together,” Julius said. He took a step back and waited for them to complete.
By the time they finished, he checked inside the crate before everyone was clear from the spot and kicked the crate out of the way. All better now. He felt a relief from his shoulders and chest after the kick. Solomon called out unnecessarily, and Julius, partially kneeling on the floor, ignored his comment and hovered his hand right on top of the stack. Then a touch around his palm triggered the menu, counting the amount of tarnished gold bars.
--
Counting…
↓
Tarnished Gold Bar (65)
Add into inventory?
Yes ←
--
The entire stack vanished in an instant followed by Skoltor’s confirmation. Now that’s over with. Julius took a breath and stood once more, only to realize Solomon wasn’t done with exploring his aisle. “Are you finished with your aisle?”
“Uhh…no.”
“Then go! You want to take David into a pulp, right?”
“Ok, ok!” Solomon reassured him and headed off back to his aisle.
Julius went off separately from Celeste, going to the other side. Observing anything else useful or worthwhile for the travels until he reached the end with nothing more in hand. He turned around and began heading off. As he walked past a couple racks, Licht became alert, prompting Julius to come to an abrupt stop.
< When did you start making piercing noises?! That hurt my head you know! >
<< I can’t help it because I recognize the faint smell, back up >>
Julius took one step back slowly. < How far? >
<< Keep going. >>
He continued until Licht made a noise as if he was clearing his throat. Strange sword. Like a human. Julius turned right at the spot, finding an ordinary crate. < I don’t see anything odd with this one. Are you sure it’s something suspicious worth looking at or you are just randomly seeking some random attention? >
<< For somebody who is very attentive to things, I’m surprised that you didn’t notice the bottom of the crate. Look. >>
Julius zoomed around the crate, finding the silver painting along the entire bottom perimeter as he glanced at both sides. < It’s just the painting. Nothing worth looking at. >
<< Promise me, just lift that down and open it. >>
The crate, despite being the same size, was much lighter than expected. Almost as comparable to holding a book. With one hand, he thrust it off the rack and dropped it gently onto the floor. This better be worth it.
He hand-chopped the wood paneling off in a touch. What was in the crate took Julius a minute to realize. This actually smells. How the heck. He wondered how Licht was able to deceive it while flicking the wood dust off and grabbed a tube of silverish liquid filled up to three-fourths. The scent only became prominent when he had the crate opened.
He moved it around in an articulating motion, finding the silverish liquid to be slowly reacting to the change of direction. Such high viscosity. < What’s this about? >
<< You don’t remember. That’s the shit that gave you Skoltor! >>
< What?! >
Julius checked the contents of the substance again, doubting it was what it was. < That’s not possible…you are telling me there’s more!! >
Hovering his head to view the inside, his heart almost dropped. < Good Yinhai! You are not shitting me. > Another observational check. Visual interpretation came back with the same outcome. Not some illusion trick.
<< I didn’t count but how many you saw in there? >> Licht asked.
< It was six. Only six in the crate, including the one I’m holding. >
<< Should you let them know? >>Licht wondered, referencing the three.
< I don’t know if I should. But what am I gonna do with this? The fact that you found this crate could potentially mean more somewhere in these racks. >
<< Should we just take all of them six? What about giving it to them? Maybe Ritter and Lu Yi can receive it too, leaving with one extra in your grasp. >>
The potential of what Skoltor has under my league. What about if they controlled their own form of Skoltor? Julius thought while glancing over the remaining five inside and looked up with Celeste already existing in the aisle. When she turned back about to call him, he hurriedly popped back down thrust his grip, and took all of it out.
--
?? Mainframe Liquid Substance (6) added!
Remaining Inventory Slots: 95/100
--
Leaping up into the air, he slammed the crate frame apart and ran out, catching up to Celeste.
“I’ve finished, nothing else for me to take,” Celeste reported.
“Alright, I’m done with mine. But what about Solomon? Is he done?” Julius asked, urgently looking around.
“He’s still in there…Julius, what happened? You look like you’re sweating.”
Shatter!
Celeste turned, finding her barrier broken. Julius, in a swift, nudged her out of the way. David hopped in like a frog with a weapon in his hand. < Licht! >
The greatsword was summoned at Julius’s command and in one swirl, he launched an uplift attack bringing the waves of qi into direct contact with David.
Boom! Break!
Light engulfed David in midair, and he immediately fell flat onto the floor, cracking the concrete from his back.
Such control of resources but also a fraud fighter. Julius walked up only to be deterred by a shallow blast. Glaring at the direction of the blast’s origin, he saw Victoria at the spot. Feeling the boiling urge, he lifted the greatsword in the air.
“Don’t!” Sally yelled from afar, running up to his side and missile him away to detract the slash, missing Victoria by a couple feet. Julius regained footing, demanding to know why she did that.
“I hope you can understand my point. I heard her talking in a fight with David over what to proceed—”
“Celeste’s barrier was soundproof, so how can you justify that being the case? Out of the way!”
Sally remained on her ground, not permitting him to cross.
“Why are you protecting a traitor?!” Julius yelled.
“You didn’t let me finish!”
A voice of groaning in the distance stopped the argument.
“Do it, you must…” David choked in his own blood while giving a voice of desperation in an attempt to lure Victoria. “Remember what me and Thora taught you…”
Victoria appeared visibly distraught, gaining the understanding that she could almost have gotten caught under the slash attack that would likely have wounded her to oblivion. She breathed harshly with her eyes widened as she gripped the hilt of her short sword.
“I ordered you to…blah!”
Solomon punched his wounded gut, ending his soul.
<< Good job. Now you traumatized her. >>
< Are you trying to intentionally mock me in a condemning manner? > Julius fumed at Licht.
<< Hey! I’m just commenting. But you now understand, right? Look at her and what David was trying to do. She still has that of hers remaining trying to prevent her from going with the blade. Sally was right if that was what she was trying to tell you. >>
< Ok, that’s enough babbling. I get it. >
Julius went past Sally, putting his greatsword away. He went and stood next to David’s decapitated body. Looking at the site, Solomon’s punch was enough to cut through like a knife’s blade on paper. Ignoring the bloody mess, the line was clean. “What a shame, I had one question that I wanted to ask from the aisle…oh well.”
--
Mission completed (1): Confront David
Rewards:
General Class Meter ↑
General Class (LV.2) Meter: [1.5%] → [5%]
--
“What question?” Solomon asked.
Julius summoned one tube of the substance. “This. I found it in one of the crates. There’s enough for all of you to receive a system like Skoltor.”
A flight of expressions came across everyone around him after hearing ‘like Skoltor’ leave his lips.