NOVPUB“What the hell? Why is no one here?”
The suppression team that stormed into Vault 2 couldn’t hide their confusion as they stared at the completely empty interior.
The instructions coming down through the crystal ball had clearly stated that thieves were inside, busily looting valuables.
But what did their eyes tell them?
No one.
Not a single soul.
Even the stored items were untouched, completely intact.
Thinking the thieves might be hiding somewhere, they searched the place thoroughly — but it was the same result.
Old Guard, feeling something was off, picked up the crystal ball.
“This is Old Guard. Security Room, can you hear me?”
[What’s going on?]
“We've just entered Vault 2. But there’s a problem. The thieves are nowhere to be seen.”
[What? Nowhere to be seen? What the hell are you talking about?]
“Exactly what it sounds like. There’s no sign of the thieves. Are you sure there were intruders at all?”
[Well, uh...]
[Move! Out of the way!]
With a rough shout, Ivan Luk, their employer, snatched the crystal ball himself.
[What the hell do you mean they’re nowhere to be seen!?]
“D-Director? It's just as I said. Vault 2 is spotless, no sign of any intrusion.”
[What? What the hell are you saying!? I’m looking at those damn thieves robbing the vault right now!]
“Excuse me? You’re saying they’re robbing it? But we don’t see anything here.”
[Then what the hell am I looking at!?]
Ivan gritted his teeth as he stared at the scene in front of him.
Through the artifact’s screen, he could still see the thieves busily hauling items through the breached wall.
And yet, there wasn’t a single Black Guard — who were supposed to have stormed the vault — visible anywhere on the screen.
“Are you sure °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° you went to the right place? You didn’t confuse it with somewhere else?”
[No, sir. We’re definitely inside Vault 2.]
“Then why the hell...”
The view from here and the view from the scene — they were completely different.
At this point, even Ivan Luk sensed something was seriously wrong.
“Uh, uh!? Director! Look at that!”
One of his subordinates, panicked, pointed at the screen.
The footage showing the thieves looting Vault 2 started to distort with a harsh buzzing sound — then suddenly vanished.
What reappeared was the image of the Black Guards standing inside the vault, looking utterly baffled.
Ivan’s mind froze.
“What the hell...? Then what the hell were we just seeing?”
Was the footage they had been watching all along fake?
No, but how? The view had matched the inside of the vault perfectly. How could someone replicate it so exactly? No, more importantly, what about the artifact...
“Gu-Guards. What’s the situation inside?”
[Not a single item is missing. Everything’s intact. It must have been some kind of mistake...]
“That’s not the point!”
[Then... what should we do? We’ve already sent the items from Vault 3 to a secure location following the manual. Should we bring them back?]
“That...”
Ivan hesitated, then made a decision.
“No. Just in case, continue handling the Vault 3 items according to the manual.”
[Understood. We just finished loading the items onto the elevator with the transport guards.]
“Alright. Got it.”
The communication ended.
Ivan and the security guards still felt like they were dreaming.
They couldn’t easily wrap their heads around what had just happened.
“Don’t tell me... we were tricked by a fake video?”
Someone cautiously voiced their suspicion.
“What?”
“I mean, isn’t that artifact supposed to show a live feed of the scene inside the vault?”
“...Go on.”
“So, someone might’ve interfered during the transmission.”
“Interfered?”
“Yes. During the process of transferring the artifact’s footage to the screen, someone tampered with it to show something completely different. Like pre-recorded footage.”
“No way.”
“I’m guessing they built a replica of Vault 2 ahead of time and filmed the scene of looting.”
“...But why? Even if they did that, they couldn’t actually steal anything. They’d get caught immediately.”
It didn’t matter how exactly the culprits had replicated the inside of Vault 2 so perfectly.
The real question was this:
What the hell was their true objective?
Were they just trying to mess with them by pretending to steal things?
“T-That... I don’t know either...”
Ivan clicked his tongue in frustration as he stared at the sweating guard.
At that moment, the aide who had been racking his brain beside him suddenly shouted as if something had struck him.
“Wait!”
“What now?”
“Vault 3! Director! It’s Vault 3!”
“What? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Their target was Vault 3 from the beginning! Looting Vault 2 was just a distraction! They took advantage of us following the manual and moving the items out!”
“What!? Th-Then...”
Ivan’s face turned pale.
And their worst fears became reality.
[Security Room! Security Room! Do you read!?]
A transmission came from the Black Guards stationed underground.
“What’s happening!?”
[A-A disaster! The elevator to the surface—!]
The devastating news crackled through the crystal ball.
* * *
About 10 minutes earlier.
Descending underground via the elevator, Alex and Phantos cautiously checked the hallway of the underground storage.
“Hmm. Looks like no one's here. Maybe they’re somewhere else?”
“Let’s find out.”
“How?”
Instead of answering, Phantos closed his eyes and released his energy.
Though there was no wind, his white hair stirred and fluttered.
Alex calmly watched Phantos’s actions with sharp eyes.
‘So this is the "Spirit" power the beastkin are said to use.’
It was slightly different from the aura that knights wielded or the mana that mages used.
While all those forces tapped into the world’s natural energies, mana and aura were refined by the user to fit their own bodies, whereas Spirit power was drawn directly from nature without filtering.
Alex felt the subtle pulse radiating from Phantos sweep over his own body.
And he realized what it was.
‘Detection using Spirit power. Reading the tiniest vibrations in the air to find others’ positions. No wonder beastkin are called born hunters.’
Eventually, Phantos opened his eyes, having finished his search.
“There are people. A total of eight. They’re scattered in different areas.”
“Any spots with only one or two?”
“Follow me.”
Phantos took the lead. His steps were sure, but made no sound at all.
It was an instinctive concealment of presence, the kind that surfaced when hunters began their hunt.
Before long, they arrived at the entrance to a small storage room.
Inside, they could hear faint conversation — sounded like guards passing time while hiding. 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘱𝘶𝑏.𝑐𝘰𝑚
Phantos opened the door and stepped inside.
Two guards, lounging with their helmets off, jolted up in shock at the sudden appearance of Alex and Phantos.
“W-What the hell? Who are you guys?”
“It’s not time for the shift change yet...”
But even as they spoke, they instinctively grabbed the weapons nearby — a mark of their professionalism.
Too bad their opponents were way out of their league.
Thud!
One of the guards, about as burly as Phantos, got punched in the face before he could even react — and collapsed backward.
“D-Damn it!”
The other guard, the one who had been chatting, scrambled back, trying to ready himself.
But Alex, who had quietly closed the distance, lightly hooked his foot under the man’s ankle.
“Wha—!?”
The guard barely avoided falling flat but left a critical opening.
Thud!
Phantos struck him as well, sending the man flying into the air before crashing down hard.
Since he wasn’t wearing a helmet, he couldn't even absorb the impact.
"Good. Let’s get ready."
"Mm."
The two of them immediately stripped the guards of their armor and put it on themselves.
Phantos, being large in stature, managed to fit into the armor because one of the guards had been a hefty man himself.
Still, the black armor felt a little tight on him, and Phantos twisted his body awkwardly, adjusting.
"Hey, just bear with it. It’s not like it'll take long," Alex said.
And he was right.
Before long, an alarm sounded, summoning all available personnel.
"What the hell! What’s going on!"
"Everyone, gather up!"
Alex and Phantos put on their helmets and blended naturally into the group of Black Guards.
Soon after, the reinforcement team arrived by elevator from the surface.
Among them were Hans and Arfa, who had been pretending to guard the entrance.
"The suppression team will head to Vault 2. You transport team, move the items from Vault 3."
Old Guard quickly assembled the special team he had brought and marched off proudly toward Vault 2.
"Shit. Look at him, trying to hog all the credit again by only taking his cronies."
"What can you do? It's a rare chance to show off."
Grumbling, the guards left behind still followed Old Guard’s orders, diligently loading Vault 3's valuables onto carts.
After loading the valuables and boarding the elevator—
Phantos and Alex, who had sneaked in disguised, sprang into action.
"W-What the hell—urk!"
"Argh!"
A sudden ambush. Short cries of surprise echoed, and the unsuspecting guards fell without even putting up meaningful resistance.
Hans, watching the scene unfold, shivered at the overwhelming force Alex and Phantos displayed.
'What the hell? They’re dropping like flies!'
He already knew Phantos was strong, but Alex, who had seemed like a flimsy gigolo, was showing skills that were anything but flimsy.
While Phantos crushed enemies with brute strength, Alex took them down with impossible finesse.
'That movement... that’s not something a normal guy can do. He’s at least knight-level.'
Who knew what shady past Alex had — but one thing was certain: behind his lighthearted attitude, the man had serious skills.
'Wait, does that mean... I'm the weakest one here?'
Even Arfa, who had seemed harmless, had shown surprising strength by toppling a huge opponent. Hans couldn’t help but feel a twinge of inferiority.
Of course, he was the information gatherer, not a fighter, so comparing physical strength wasn’t exactly fair.
'Still... am I gonna get pushed out of my spot at this rate?'
The worst part was, these people weren’t just strong — they were good at everything else too.
When Hans had been working with Ludger, he hadn’t felt it as much. But moving with a new team like this made him realize his own shortcomings sharply.
The elevator reached the surface, and the door opened.
The four of them hauled both the stolen valuables and the unconscious guards out into the hallway.
"Alright. Final phase."
Alex raised a spear and drove it deep into the core mechanism inside the elevator.
Crunch!
Being a finely tuned machine, damaging its core was utterly fatal.
Thunk!
The elevator crashed down into the underground shaft.
BOOM──!!!
* * *
"The elevator... is broken? So you can’t bring it back up...?"
Hearing the news, Ivan Luk looked like his soul was about to escape his body.
"D-Director, what should we do now?"
"A-Are there no more people outside!? Other guards!"
"Th-There are, but most of the Black Guards were sent underground..."
Never in his worst nightmares had Ivan thought they’d destroy the elevator to isolate the guards underground.
He realized his critical mistake — relying on a single access point to the underground.
"Should we notify the guests? Or contact the Rederbelk Police?"
"N-No! If we do that, the whole auction will be ruined!"
"Then what do we do?"
"I-I don’t know! I don’t know either!"
Ivan could only scream in panic.
He was completely incapable of making rational decisions anymore.
'Where... where did it all go wrong?'
When he was so confident that their security was unbreachable?
When he tried to discreetly handle internal issues without alarming the guests?
Or maybe earlier — how had they figured out the exact status inside the vaults? How did they manage to hack the artifact’s transmission so precisely?
"I-I'm screwed. If Father finds out about this..."
Seeing that Ivan was spiraling, his aide quickly gave orders instead.
"Move! Gather all security personnel! We’ll have to stop them ourselves!"
"Yes, sir!"
The guards in the security room jumped up and rushed toward the door—
"Uh, uh? The door’s not opening!"
"What!? What the hell are you talking about!?"
Clang, clang!
The guard tried forcing the door open, but it wouldn’t budge.
No matter how much they twisted the handle, something was blocking the door from the outside.
"Goddamn it! What the hell is this now!"
As the screams echoed inside the security room—
Outside in the corridor, Seridan was giggling to herself.
She proudly admired the thick metal braces she had installed across the door.
"Idiots. Trapping themselves inside like that — it’s like they’re begging me to lock them up."
Snorting, Seridan walked down the corridor.
'Judging by how panicked they are inside, looks like the plan worked perfectly. And my invention worked just fine, too.'
It was a communications hacking device.
Specifically, an invention Ludger had ordered her to create.
He had pinpointed the transmission link between the surveillance cameras and the displays — and told her one thing:
'Switch the video mid-transmission to show completely different footage.'
To make that happen, Alex had personally sneaked underground and memorized the entire internal structure by eye.
Something no ordinary plan could have pulled off.
Hans, who had procured the blueprints and scouted the internal state.
Alex, who memorized and recreated the visuals flawlessly.
And Ludger, who had orchestrated the whole plan.
'As expected of my lord.'
Meeting him at that underground mining town in the Kingdom of Delica had probably been the greatest turning point of her life.
No — she was sure of it.
"Ah, Lord. Can you hear me? This is <Wells>."
Emerging into a wide hall, Seridan sent a transmission while surveying the increasingly chaotic auction house.
Her eyes spotted four figures clad in black armor, moving the valuables.
"Operation complete."
[Good. Understood. Good work, everyone.]
* * *
Ending the transmission, Ludger casually glanced toward the back of the auction hall.
The two heavy-built men assigned to monitor him suddenly received a message and rushed off in panic.
Word must have reached them that the vault had been looted.
"Hans. You there?"
[Yeah, boss. What's up?]
"The goods?"
[Got 'em all. Not a single one left behind.]
"And the one I mentioned?"
[Had a feeling you’d ask. Set it aside already. Give me a minute to change clothes and I’ll bring it.]
"Alright. No point staying connected. Let’s talk in person."
Click.
The portable communicator cut off cleanly, just as its time limit ran out.
It was almost uncanny how perfect the timing was.
Ludger rose from his seat.
There was no longer any reason for him to stay in the auction hall.
Nothing good would come from lingering.
At that moment—
BOOM───!!!
A massive explosion ripped through one side of the auction house, sending debris flying.
Dust clouded the air, and the auctioneer, who had been leading the event, was caught in the blast and went down.
Ludger frowned.
'What the hell now?'
