Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: Something Seems to Be Going Wrong (6)
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While I was organizing the plan in my head, gauging the right moment to start.
Sabrina, who had been striding somewhere, suddenly whipped her head around to look at me.
“You… what’s your name? Oh, right, you can’t talk, can you?”
“…”
“Then I’ll just call you Fox. Since you’re wearing a fox mask. Is that okay?”
“…!”
I don’t mind being called Fox.
I nodded as if to say just that.
Did the meaning get through? Sabrina put on a prim expression, then furrowed her thick eyebrows cutely and spoke.
“Fox. I’ll take you following me like this as a sign you’re going to help. But if it looks dangerous, you ditch me and run immediately. Got it?”
“…”
“Answer me! Oh, right.”
Didn’t I just tell you I can’t?
As I watched her silently with a look that said, *what are you even doing*, Sabrina seemed embarrassed, her round ears twitching as she cleared her throat.
“Ahem, anyway! Don’t think I’ll let you off if you drag me down.”
“…!”
“Are you saying not to worry? Geez, you look so frail, but you’re full of confidence.”
She chuckled at my nod, then, as if it never happened, her gaze turned serious as she looked ahead.
It wasn’t strange.
If someone found us here, it would go beyond a simple scolding and could even affect David’s plan. She must have decided this was no time for idle chatter.
Sabrina glanced around and said.
“My brother’s data said this passage is no longer in use. A space abandoned when the hotel was remodeled.”
We had entered a desolate corridor with a fairly high ceiling.
This place was one of the so-called ‘back of house’ areas for hotel staff.
It was an abandoned passageway, naturally created as the structure changed over multiple renovations. With no CCTV and no foot traffic, there was no reason for people like us, up to no good, not to use it.
Hehe, this is fun. I feel like a ninja.
As I thought this, trailing behind Sabrina, a question suddenly occurred to me.
Come to think of it… what’s Sabrina’s plan for moving forward?
“Why are you staring? You want to know the plan?”
“…!”
“Ah… right. I guess you need to know, too. Alright, then I’ll first explain my fool brother’s great plan!”
No, I already know all that.
Letting the gushing words of the runaway sister-complex go in one ear and out the other, I recalled David’s plan in my head.
His plan, in summary, was as follows:
First, create a major disturbance in the hotel to make an opening, then break through by force to secure Reine.
Then, escape with Reine using pre-arranged transportation, shake off any pursuers, and that’s it.
Of course, the ‘major disturbance’ involved causing a hotel-wide blackout and spreading sleeping gas.
And the targets to ‘break through by force’ were Nemesis’s prized combat robot corps and the Triple-Number Fixer, Lexi.
Plus, even if the plan succeeded and they escaped, the problem was that the pursuers they had to shake off were the police, who held immense power and authority in this city…
From the sound of it, it seemed Sabrina’s scheme was to get ahead of David, who was busy hiding gas emitters throughout the hotel, and wait for him where he would pass to join up.
‘Hmm… that’s not a very good idea.’
To be precise, it was an idea worth about 5 points out of 100.
On a scale of 1 to 10, it was a trash-tier plan that wouldn’t even score a 1.
Let’s think about it. The key points of David’s plan were its startling boldness and its faster-than-expected pace.
Who in their right mind would cause a blackout in an entire building and burn a year’s worth of an office worker’s salary in sleeping gas just to rescue one person? It would be stranger to anticipate something like that.
But what if two useless burdens were to insert themselves into this?
That would be like throwing a wrench into David’s sharp plan.
Therefore, I pretended to ponder deeply with my arms crossed, then shook my head firmly as if to say it was a bad idea.
“What is it, Fox? Got a complaint? Or are you scared? Then go back!”
“…”
“It’s not like you have a better idea anyway!”
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
Did she see me as some kind of group project villain who shoots down ideas without offering any of his own?
I confidently opened my mouth to give the clueless Sabrina the right answer… only to quietly squeeze my eyes shut at the cold reality that no voice would come out.
Who knew it would be this inconvenient not to be able to persuade someone with words!
Faced with a now thoroughly annoyed Sabrina, all I could do was scratch my head.
*Thud!*
Just then, the sound of something falling echoed from not too far away.
Wait, didn’t she say no one used this passage?
Sabrina’s eyes widened as if she wanted to say just that.
‘Well… Nemesis isn’t stupid. There’s no way they wouldn’t have noticed such a troublesome space.’
But it was to be expected.
If an outside hacker like David could find out about it through investigation, how could Nemesis possibly not know?
Especially today, a special occasion with VIPs who needed to be treated with the utmost care.
They were just as worried, eyes peeled for any potential trouble.
Besides, this scene was in the original story, so it wasn't particularly surprising to me.
“…Ugh! A r-robot…!”
A large, spider-shaped robot revealed itself in the distance.
An autonomous exploration robot made of steel and machinery, with eight legs.
Startled, Sabrina clenched her fists, preparing to fight the spider robot, but I quickly grabbed her shoulder to stop her.
If David’s plan had already started, it would be one thing, but touching that thing now would be like ruining the whole operation before it even began.
“W-what am I supposed to do then! We can’t just run…!”
“…”
Shh.
I brought a finger to her clearly panicked lips.
This gesture had two meanings.
One was to be quiet, as making a scene now would be troublesome.
And the other was not to tell anyone what she was about to see.
“W-wha-?!”
Using psychokinesis, I pressed firmly on the back of Sabrina’s knees, breaking her posture, and as she started to fall, I swept her up into a princess carry.
Then, with psychokinesis, I launched us upwards, leaping right over the spider robot crawling on the floor.
…Of course, Sabrina and I were about the same height, and if anything, I had a leaner build, so it must have looked a bit strange.
But any lack of strength and balance could be compensated for with psychokinesis, so there were no issues with the process itself.
“Aahhh…!”
“…!”
Squeezing her eyes shut, Sabrina let out a pitiful scream and clung tightly to my neck.
An alarming moment! If I hadn't been reinforcing myself with psychokinesis, my neck might have snapped!
Breaking into a cold sweat internally, I landed softly on the floor without a sound.
And as the spider robot creaked forward and disappeared from view, a bewildered Sabrina looked up at me from my arms and spoke.
“You, you! That just now, was that magic…?”
“…”
I don’t know. I’m not telling you. Not that I could speak anyway.
I nonchalantly shrugged my shoulders, brazenly feigning ignorance.
Huh? What about using psychokinesis so openly?
Well… so what! Given her personality, it’s not like she’d tell anyone, and even if she did, who would believe her?
And short of knocking Sabrina out and dragging her along, there was no way to hide the existence of my psychokinesis from her. My plan was impossible without it, after all.
In that case, there was no reason to go through the trouble of hiding it.
This was all the result of a perfectly rational judgment.
“…Hmph! I-I’m not going to thank you!”
While I was organizing my thoughts, I wonder what change of heart she had.
Sabrina’s face flushed as she hastily scrambled out of my arms.
Uh… was she embarrassed about being helped by me, someone who looked so much weaker?
I brushed off my borrowed suit, checking for dust, and then looked at her silently.
It was a silent gaze that meant, *I have a better idea, what do you think?*
“…Do you have another way? Something better than my clumsy plan to join my brother.”
“…!”
“Then… let’s go with your plan. What are you thinking?”
It worked?
I nodded confidently at Sabrina’s cautious question.
Your plan? 5 out of 100.
But my plan? 120 out of 100. No, 150!
However, time was a bit tight.
There were still variables to consider.
‘We should probably hurry a little.’
I held out my hand to Sabrina, as if telling her to take it.
She hesitated for a moment before cautiously taking my hand.
Hehehe, gotcha.
The moment Sabrina took my hand, I toppled her over again and held her tight in my arms.
Then, using psychokinesis, I stuck myself upside down to the ceiling and dashed forward.
“Hee, hee-eek! I-I knew it! I told you I’m scared of this stuff!”
Letting her whining go in one ear and out the other, I moved through the small space between the ceiling and the floor as if swimming.
Soon enough, we reached the elevator shaft, the passage where the elevators moved up and down.
“Haa, haa… I-is it over now?”
No, this part will be even scarier.
As if giving her a preemptive shot, I gently stroked the head of the utterly drained Sabrina once, then threw myself without hesitation into the vertical shaft that was hollowed out all the way to the basement.
Was she too exhausted to even scream at this point? Sabrina just opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish.
Whatever. Enjoying the feeling of my insides dropping as if on an amusement park ride, I used my psychokinesis as a foothold to shoot rapidly upward.
How far up did we go?
The moment my intuition told me we had reached the target floor, I dodged a descending elevator at terrifying speed with a sideways roll, slipping into the space between the ceiling and the floor.
Ah, how should I describe this feeling?
It was like I had been crouched down for a long time and finally gone for a light sprint after ages.
A perfect blend of fatigue and refreshment. A smile naturally formed on my lips.
“Ughhh… sis… bro…”
Oh, stop being a baby.
I gently set down the whimpering, soul-drained Sabrina and lightly glanced around.
This space was filled with all sorts of wires, devices, and dust.
Well, it was the space above the ceiling, so of course.
We were almost done now that we were here.
Moving carefully so as not to make a sound, I found a spot on the ceiling that looked right, carefully undid the fixture with psychokinesis, and peeked down below.
‘Not here. Then here? Not here either. In that case…’
Unfasten and open, close and fasten again. Unfasten and open, close and fasten again.
After repeating this about four times, I finally found my target location.
“Ugh, Fox. What are you doing now? Why are you suddenly… ah, that’s…!”
Sabrina, who had recovered in the meantime, came up beside me, her eyes wide with shock.
Well, it was understandable.
Below the ceiling panel I had just opened stood dozens of combat robots that looked deadly just at a glance.
If I recall the original story correctly, there were exactly twenty of them.
Faced with such overwhelming numbers, Sabrina’s expression turned grim.
“If those things are roaming around… even my fool brother…”
Right.
Calling them combat robots was an understatement; they were practically slaughter machines.
Bullets would be lucky to leave a scratch, and even shells, unless they were special rounds, would have a hard time even denting their tough armor.
And their offensive capabilities included guns and missiles as standard, and I’m pretty sure they were also equipped with unblockable monomolecular cutters.
They were a terrible match for my low-output psychokinesis. I might handle one, but against two or more, running away was the best option.
‘But, if they’re just sleeping peacefully like this, that’s a different story.’
However, that was only when these robots were fully operational.
Right now, they were in a hangar, waiting for the activation signal.
For me, there was no ingredient easier to cook.
‘If I concentrate, my psychokinesis can interfere with internal mechanisms!’
From above the ceiling, out of the CCTV’s line of sight, I reached a hand toward a combat robot.
Then, from my palm, I drew out my psychokinesis like a thin thread and penetrated deep inside the robot.
It seems to be waterproof, dustproof, and even has some anti-magic properties.
But I guess you didn’t think to prepare for psychic powers, did you?
After concentrating for about four minutes, I felt my psychokinesis infiltrate the robot’s interior.
‘Break!’
Fixing things is hard, but breaking them is always easy.
I simply crushed the circuits inside the robot’s head as if crudely squeezing them.
Alright, that’s one down.
Now it was time to take care of the other nineteen.
‘Time is… tight, but it should be enough.’
Perhaps because I was getting the hang of how to save time the more I did it.
I managed to disable all the combat robots in forty minutes, feeling a sense of accomplishment as if I had overcome a great mountain.
Now, if I can just deal with Lexi, there will be nothing left to obstruct David.
Just as I let out a long breath in relief, the lights all around us suddenly flickered and went out.
Sabrina, who had been quietly watching me, jumped in surprise and looked around.
But I knew instantly that this was David’s doing.
The Nemesis terror incident was finally beginning in earnest.