Chapter 26
Chapter 26
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 26
Chapter Title: Assassins at the Warehouse
-----------------------------------------------------------------
- Proof Post) Here's my bottled water pic for authentication...jpg
- New bed I got, total shit?.jpg
- No clue if it's day or night here.jpg
“This is all because of what, exactly?”
Frederick scowled as he looked over the posts that Isaac Duke had brought him.
Wasn't this just one of Judak's shitposts?
Complete with a .jpg attached, like he was trying to pull aggro despite being who he was.
But Isaac remained relaxed.
He beckoned toward the back, and one of the assassins dragged in a trembling man.
“Who's that?”
“The head of the Glaine Merchant House.”
“Ah, I know him. The merchant house that sold rations to the Kelton Kingdom once, right?”
They had been paraded out front as proof of diplomatic ties when relations with the Kelton Kingdom were established.
Of course, that was ancient history now.
The Kelton Kingdom no longer existed.
“Look at the photos in this post.”
Title: New bed I got, total shit?.jpg
Author: Judak☆
(An image boasting about a bartered bed)
lol, my back hurt from the stone floor, solid
Can't go out anyway, gotta make lying down comfortable at least, right?
- wtf pink what lol
ㄴ And it's got a canopy
ㄴ You admitting Judak's a cute half-elf babe?
- Why's it so pitch black?;
ㄴ Darker than my backyard shed
ㄴ Judak, get some sunlight and live outside!
ㄴ Judak☆) Kinda crowded outside with peepers, no way;;
“You can see crates of rations stacked up in the back. And every single one bears the Glaine Merchant House emblem.”
“And?”
“The stone floor and not knowing day from night suggest it's an underground warehouse.”
“Hmm.”
Frederick rested his chin on his hand.
“So that means it's in the Kelton Kingdom?”
“The Glaine Merchant House was created solely for trade with the Kelton Kingdom. And our Empire doesn't make much use of underground warehouses.”
With that, Isaac Duke unrolled a map.
Drawn with the Kelton Kingdom's capital as the center, it was marked with countless circles.
“This marks the locations of all underground warehouses.”
And most of the circles had X's over them, leaving only a few.
“That means...!”
“...Yes.”
A dark smile crept across Isaac Duke's lips.
“I'll go kill Judak.”
All the pieces were in place to eliminate Adrian Empire's thorn in the side, Judak.
*
“Oong?”
Swipe, swipe.
There wasn't much to do in the warehouse.
That led to dabbling in all sorts of things, one of which was his pet lava rift.
Tinkering with the rift to kill time had revealed one thing.
“What is this, teleportation?”
It was a portal connected somewhere.
He'd deliberately shoved the holy sword in and out of the rift repeatedly, but it came out unscathed.
No damage or breaks anywhere.
“If I stuck my head in and posted a proof pic, it'd be instant upvote city.”
Judak was a gallery denizen at heart.
The impulse hit him for a second, but he wasn't dumb enough to risk exposing his face.
He just acknowledged it was some kind of passage and got back to gallery browsing.
But there wasn't much to do.
His unpaid pure elf slave had finally shaken off her newbie status and started handling her share of gallery management.
With two part-timers working hard, he didn't need to grind moderation like before.
“Might as well browse the old logs?”
And so the gallery log dive began.
The gallery log was like a library compiling every post from the gallery's history.
He had a hobby of digging through his old posts now and then to check the comments.
While browsing, he noticed something odd.
“What's this? Why's the view count up?”
- New bed I got, total shit?.jpg
- No clue if it's day or night here.jpg
Shitposts that had bombed on aggro.
Yet the views were climbing?
Not just single digits—double, even triple digits.
No new comments, though.
“Tch, what gives? Feels creepy.”
Someone had gone through his gallery log, scrutinizing posts with just a single photo.
Like they were investigating something.
- Judak, watch your back
- Plenty of shady gallery users gunning for you
- Be careful with pics that could pinpoint your location
- If you go down, gallery's done!
- Please stay safe
Come to think of it, back when he first joined the inner circle, the users had left tons of worried comments.
“Now I watch every photo I post...”
But early on, he'd snapped and uploaded everything out of sheer novelty.
Caution set in.
“Time for a move?”
Too long holed up in this warehouse.
He needed to beef up security or scout a second hideout.
Starting tomorrow, of course.
“Seriously, tomorrow for real. Gotta do it.”
Not laziness or anything.
He slipped under the covers and slowly closed his eyes.
After a decent nap, right as he was about to ponder the move again.
Rattle, clunk.
“...?”
A faint noise, one you'd only hear in utter silence.
Clunk, clunk.
He opened his eyes and turned toward the source—near the entrance.
Creeping closer like a cat, he figured out what it was.
“Isn't that someone picking the lock?”
The sound of someone prying open the warehouse door.
Then getting blocked by the pile of materials he'd stacked like a mountain, making it stick and unstick repeatedly.
*
The Empire's elite assassins.
Once they locked onto a target, failure wasn't an option.
They were in the midst of their latest mission—finding Judak—picking another warehouse when...
Clunk.
“Something's off.”
“He's in there.”
Door's picked, but it won't open.
Blocked from inside.
The assassins gathered near the entrance, one hand glowing with magic, the other gripping a dagger.
“No delivery ordered!”
A loud voice from within.
Some stranger's voice.
Couldn't confirm Judak, but it didn't matter.
“Kill 'em, then watch if Judak's active or not.”
Just like the dozen or so innocents they'd already offed.
No guilt.
As they melted the wooden door with corrosion magic...
“Freeze! I can shoot!”
Gallery-exclusive absolute magic: Freeze.
The assassins froze for a split second, but pressed on, dissolving the door.
They spotted someone inside.
“Found you.”
Grins of malice spread across their faces.
Clumsy movements, amateur reactions.
Nothing easier than killing a hesitating foe.
As the assassins smirked and moved to enter...
Bang!
A spark flashed from the darkness.
“Gah!”
The assassin leader flew back.
“L-Leader?”
“He's dead?”
Their top assassin, dead in a blink.
Sprawled on the stairs, bleeding out—the others gulped.
“Not just any mark, huh.”
“Magic barriers up and advance.”
The vice-leader—now leader—spoke, and they shrouded themselves in barriers before pushing forward.
Whoosh!
An unfamiliar metal object flew in.
“It's that weapon!”
They instantly knew what it was.
The bizarre explosive that pierced bone dragon scales.
One assassin sliced the incoming grenade midair with his dagger.
Peak assassin speed!
Boom!
But the grenade detonated just as fast.
“Arghhh!”
“Crazy bastard! That's not the explosive one!”
This wasn't a high-explosive grenade.
A frag grenade.
Shrapnel flew at everything nearby—one of the worst modern weapons.
“Ughhh...”
“Y-You monster!”
They'd never felt this dread facing high mages.
What the hell were these attacks?
No more probing.
The survivors, drenched in comrades' blood, charged over the debris.
Click!
A chilling sound rang out.
“Stop stop hands up or I shoot.”
Judak emerged from cover, clutching a vicious black monstrosity.
The K2 rifle, tears of Korean soldiers.
“Hwarang?”
“Shut it!”
The assassins didn't know the code phrase, so it meant nothing.
Never planned to spare them anyway—Judak shouldered the rifle and took aim.
“Pro marksman here. Assassins? Problem.”
Right as he was about to turn them into history!
Click, click.
“Fuck.”
Jammed.
The round from the previous shot had caused a malfunction.
“Dammit! Shoulda gone shotgun!!!”
Why pick the familiar K2?
Forgot familiarity came with breakdowns.
His life flashed before his eyes.
Then he remembered the forgotten Rabbit Hole Ticket.
An assassin snarled venomously.
“You won't dodge my dagger by luck!”
“Thanks!”
Judak barely dodged the dagger, fleeing to the corner.
Barricades slowed pursuit.
In that time, he grabbed the Rabbit Hole Ticket stashed in the corner.
“Tear this, right?”
His absolute last-resort escape button.
It'd dump him in the rabbit beastkin village hunting him.
Escape from there? Unknown.
Better than dying now.
“Die!”
As the assassins closed in.
Judak held the ticket with both hands!
“But rabbit beastkin village is a pass.”
And dove into the rift.