The Museum Raid Operation

I checked the information that had come through on my phone while eating. A few images and a couple of short lines of text. I checked the images first. Perhaps because they had been extracted in a hurry, the files were corrupted, showing blurry spots and strangely distorted sections. But one thing was absolutely certain: every single photo featured the museum.

I swiped through the images while chewing on the pork cutlet in my mouth. The savory, crispy breading crumbled delightfully, and the delicious, tender meat inside wrapped softly around my tongue.

"Jeff. Is it good?"

"Yeah."

I answered Shine's question without ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠taking my eyes off my phone. Because the images were blurry, I couldn't make out the surroundings in detail, but most of them had been taken from a similar angle. I let out a small sigh.

"Maybe we should head to the museum first..."

As I muttered weakly, Rain handed over her own large piece of pork cutlet. I was deeply touched by her thoughtfulness.

"This is..."

"You look tired, and you love pork cutlets, Jeff."

"Thanks!"

I quickly popped the cutlet Rain gave me into my mouth. As I happily munched away, chewing on the food, I felt an intense gaze from right next to me. Turning my head slightly, I saw Shine staring at me, a large piece of her own pork cutlet skewered on her fork.

"Jeff."

"Mmph..."

The fork in Shine's hand thrust toward my face. The pork cutlet swayed slowly, as if telling me to take a bite. I hurriedly swallowed the remaining food in my mouth and opened up. In an instant, Shine's cutlet was shoved inside. It was way too big. Stuffed to the brim, my mouth stretched to its absolute limit, making my jaw ache.

"Mmph... mgh..."

But I couldn't spit it out. I couldn't bear to disappoint Shine, who looked so utterly satisfied watching me eat what she fed me. Chewing with great effort, I managed to swallow the entire thing.

After finishing our satisfying meal, we headed straight home on the bus. Throughout the ride back, I kept tapping away at my phone. Those few lines of text that had come with the images—a string of random English letters and numbers—gave me absolutely no clue as to what they meant. Searching them on the internet yielded nothing. I guess I didn't get any real information after all. Letting out a disappointed sigh, we got off the bus and walked straight into the house.

"Victor?"

"Oh, you kids back from playing?"

Victor was sitting on the sofa in the first-floor living room. I quickly checked the time. It was just past 2:00 PM. Normally, Victor should have been asleep at this hour.

"We weren't playing. We were out gathering information."

Victor let out a short chuckle at my response.

"Sure. Did you work hard?"

I replied proudly.

"Of course! I gathered some incredible information."

I immediately pulled out my phone and showed him the image files I had obtained from the publishing house. Victor frowned as he looked at the photos.

"What is this? What kind of photo is this?"

"It's a photo of the museum."

"You're really terrible at taking photos."

"Excuse me?"

Dumbfounded, I could only gape at him, unable to find my words. So, did Victor actually think I had taken the photos I was showing him? I mean, what kind of person would take photos like this? Frowning, I retorted,

"I didn't take these, you know."

"Right. Then did Rain take them?"

This time, the arrow flew toward Rain. Having just returned home, Rain had immediately sprawled out on the long sofa, but at the mention of her name, her ears perked up and she lifted her head.

"Me?"

Victor shook his head at her reaction.

"Is there anything uncomfortable?"

It was a sudden question. Tilting my head at his unexpected inquiry, I replied,

"Uncomfortable? All of a sudden?"

"Well, you kids have never lived in a place like this before. Just wondered if there was anything bothering you."

He turned his head slightly as he spoke. The way he avoided my gaze made it seem like he was embarrassed by his own words.

"Nothing is really uncomfortable. Except for the fact that we get to spend less time with Amy."

"Glad to hear it. If anything bothers you, tell me or Amy."

"Okay."

Pat. Victor's large hand landed on top of my head. Startled, I looked up at him, but his hand was already pulling away.

"Ahem. I'm going to sleep."

Getting up from his seat, Victor headed straight upstairs to his room. As I blankly watched him leave, Shine approached and began to vigorously ruffle my hair. Startled by her sudden action, I turned to look at her.

"What are you doing?"

"Erasing the traces."

Erasing the traces? What a bizarre thing to say. I gave a vague nod, grabbed my laptop, and sat on the sofa. Leaning back against the plush cushions, I placed my bag on my lap and set the laptop on top of it.

"I'm going to work now."

I looked at Shine, silently conveying the message: I'm busy, so don't disturb me. She simply nodded without a word and sat down right next to me. Drawing my eyes away from her, I began to focus on the laptop.

The first thing I checked was the terrain around the museum. Using a map website's street view feature, I examined the museum's surroundings. I pulled up the photos from my phone and adjusted the screen to match the exact same composition. Although the images from the publishing house showed nothing but the museum itself, aligning the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠camera to the same angle revealed the surrounding environment.

It seemed the person who took the photos had been standing on the active roadway. The road connected directly to the museum's warehouse. On the screen, a low wire fence blocking unauthorized vehicles from entering the area came into view. I began to study the vicinity. Is this where the museum's exhibits are brought in? Judging by how neatly maintained it was, it meant things were still occasionally being transported into the museum through this entrance.

I jotted down everything I had discovered in my notebook. I would show it to Amy when she got home. For now, I had extracted everything possible from the photos. It was a shame about the corrupted parts, but since I couldn't restore the files myself, this was my limit. All that remained was this mysterious number.

Since the first three characters were corrupted, finding anything with just the remaining digits was next to impossible. I stroked my chin, lost in thought. Should I try putting random characters in front? But searching with randomly selected words yielded absolutely nothing. It was incredibly frustrating.

"Whew."

Letting out a long sigh, I set my hands in motion once more. My small fingers tapped rapidly against the keyboard. *Clack, clack, clack.* The familiar sound echoed in my ears. At that moment, a strange sense of déjà vu washed over me.

"Jeff. It's almost time for the field boss."

"Huh? Already?"

Shine's voice snapped me out of my reverie. I immediately checked the time and jumped up from my seat. 3:00 PM. The spawn time for the online game's field boss was fast approaching.

Although I didn't play as passionately as Shine did, I had also reached the maximum level on my character, which I had nicknamed [Shine]. Whenever Shine spent money on the game, I would casually match her purchases, which ended up boosting my character's stats to an absurd degree. The two of us alone were powerful enough to wipe out two or three ordinary parties at once.

Following Shine as she tugged at my hand, we went up to the second floor, powered on our computers, and logged into the game. Shine had come to understand the game a bit better now. Though it was in a rather bizarre way—she no longer threw massive tantrums when her character died repeatedly like before. Instead, she simply used instant resurrection scrolls like water. And that was exactly what she was doing right now.

Shine had made enemies of almost every single guild on the server. Since I always ran around with her, my relationship with the other guilds was just as terrible. Naturally, when we showed up to hunt the field boss, other players immediately launched preemptive attacks on us. But Shine simply chugged every single pay-to-win potion available in the cash shop and began wiping out the enemies all by herself.

In the field boss spawn zone, players had to use a special type of resurrection scroll. They were so expensive that most players could only afford to use them once or twice a month. Of course, that restriction didn't apply to Shine and me. As our area-of-effect skills rained down on the field, the chat window exploded. All kinds of profanity cluttered the screen. But Shine completely ignored the chat, relentlessly pouring out her skills.

Shine steamrolled them with her overwhelming stats, while my character supported her from the side. However, fragile archer and mage characters couldn't survive for long. We died repeatedly after casting only one or two skills. Taking advantage of the two-second invincibility window granted upon resurrection, we continuously spammed our skills.

In the end, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Shine and I secured the highest contribution score for the field boss, and we also claimed the most expensive item dropped by the monster. When a massive server-wide announcement flashed across the screen, an even greater torrent of messages began to flood the chat. Shine smiled with deep satisfaction at the sight.

Shine and I played the game until the sky turned dark, then headed down to the first floor just in time for Amy's return from work. Having repeated this routine for the past week, our timing was impeccable. Shine, Rain, and I stood right in front of the door, waiting for Amy to open it and walk in.

One, two, three.

Click-clack, click-clack.

As I counted the numbers in my head, the sound of Amy's heels echoed from just outside. Soon, the footsteps stopped, and the door swung open.

"Amy!"

I immediately lunged toward her. As if she had expected it, Amy smiled warmly and caught me in her arms. She lifted me high into the air and spun me around. I laughed out loud, wrapping my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠arms tightly around her.

"Welcome back!"

"Yes, sweetie. Have you all been playing nicely?"

"We weren't just playing. We were working!"

"Oh, really?"

After our brief exchange, she set me down and gave Rain and Shine the exact same warm embrace. Rain was absolutely thrilled. The bright smile on her face showed no signs of fading.

"Rain, you watched over the kids well today too, right?"

"Of course! They were so well-behaved. We even went out and had pork cutlets today."

"Pork cutlets?"

"Yeah, Jeff's favorite. I even shared my portion with Jeff, you know?"

Rain boasted proudly, nudging her head toward Amy as if begging for praise. *Hurry, hurry!* her blue eyes urged. Amy chuckled softly at Rain's antics and gently stroked her hair.

"Should I play with you guys tomorrow too?"

At Amy's unexpected suggestion, I blinked in surprise and asked,

"But tomorrow isn't the weekend?"

"I decided to take tomorrow off."

"All of a sudden?"

"Something came up. Victor will probably be resting too."

Amy's words made me think of Victor. He had been awake past 2:00 PM today, which was highly unusual. Only then did it all make sense, and I nodded.

"Awesome!"

The thought of spending the entire day with Amy tomorrow filled me with uncontrollable excitement.