Dead of night. Total silence.
The library of the Royal Military Academy was like a prehistoric behemoth crouching in the darkness, cold and majestic.
I moved like a ghost, sticking to the shadows at the base of the walls.
The temporary access clearance I'd snagged during the day was my key to sneaking in here. Thanks to those noble brats I'd scared out of their minds in the "Darwin Jungle"; to suck up to me, they'd willingly "shared" their high-level access routes.
Idiots. They thought it was a peace offering; to me, it was just the first step in prying open their secrets.
I avoided all the standard surveillance eyes. To me, they were just stupid red dots blinking in the dark, their movement patterns laughably predictable.
Finally, I stood before that door.
A heavy alloy blast door leading to the "Forbidden Zone," thick enough to make you despair.
It was thicker than any bank vault door I'd ever seen, its surface smooth as a mirror, without a single electronic keyhole or keypad. Just cold metal, giving off a dead "Keep Out" vibe.
Good. The more it looked like this, the more it meant something important was hidden inside.
I crouched down and pulled my tool kit from a hidden pocket in my tattered overalls. It didn't contain any high-tech decoders—just some wrenches, screwdrivers, and a few long, thin metal probes I'd filed down myself.
The junkyard is full of physical locks like this. Sometimes, the older something is, the more effective it is.
My "Engineer's Eye" penetrated the heavy alloy plating.
I "saw" its internal structure.
A complex set of mechanical gears, interlocking like some perversely precise clockwork. There were also three independent electromagnetic locks buried in different locations, powered by a separate line I couldn't see.
Heh, interesting.
These pampered elites actually knew how to use such old-school but reliable stuff.I gently inserted the thinnest probe into a nearly imperceptible maintenance slit at the base of the gate.
My fingertips could feel the faintest vibrations traveling from the other end of the probe.
The first gear... unlocked.
The second...
I kept my breathing light, my heartbeat as steady as a precision chronometer. Focus—absolute focus. This was an instinct I had honed in the junkyards while dismantling scrapped energy cores that could explode at any moment.
The third electromagnetic lock... just need to use the micro-pulser in my kit to apply a 0.3-second overload right here...
Right then, an icy chill swept over me from behind without warning!
Every hair on my body stood on end!
I whipped my head around, my heart seizing as if gripped by a frigid hand!
A woman.
A tall woman stood silently less than three meters behind me, like a ghost emerging from the shadows.
She wore an academy uniform pressed so perfectly there wasn't a single wrinkle, her expression as cold as ice. Her gaze was colder than any alloy I had ever seen, fixed intently on me and the toolkit by my feet.
In her hand, she held a black device that looked like a remote control. My "Engineer's Eye" instantly identified it: a portable, high-intensity EMP pulser.
If she pressed that button, every unshielded electronic device on me, including my personal terminal, would turn into a pile of scrap in an instant.
"Junkyard rat," she said, her voice as cold and lifeless as her gaze. "What are you trying to steal from this temple of knowledge?"
My mind raced.
No alarms had gone off. She wasn't part of the academy's official security.
How did she find me? And who was she?I didn't answer her question. Instead, I slowly stood up to face her, my hand still resting on my tool kit, ready to whip out my favorite wrench at a moment's notice.
"I just got lost, Ma'am," I said, forcing a smile that was utterly devoid of sincerity.
She wasn't buying it for a second. The corner of her mouth curled into a sneer of pure disdain.
"Lost? Lost all the way to the entrance of the Forbidden Zone? With a full set of lock-picking tools, no less?" She took a step forward, her presence becoming even more oppressive. "You lowlifes who worm your way in here through filthy means... you can never shake that thieving instinct deep in your bones."
I understood now.
Another self-righteous elite. A zealot for the academy's order.
The anonymous intel had mentioned a society within the academy called the "Guardians of Knowledge"—a group of upperclassmen who saw themselves as the protectors of the academy's traditions and secrets. They wielded significant power, enough to even bypass the official security systems.
It looked like I was facing one of them right now.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I continued, playing dumb while my eyes remained locked on the EMP device in her hand. At the same time, I quickly scanned my surroundings.
A surveillance camera sat in the corner of the ceiling at her three o'clock. Even though I had bypassed its primary field of vision, it was still operational.
I'd only get one shot.
"Is that so?" she sneered, raising the EMP device and aiming it at me. "Then let me help you wipe that filthy mind of yours—and your terminal."
Now!
Instead of backing away, I snatched an object from my tool kit and hurled it with all my might at the camera behind her.
It was a miniature signal jammer I'd modified myself.
*Crack!*
The jammer struck the camera with pinpoint accuracy, instantly erupting into a small burst of electrical sparks.
"Beep—! Beep—! Warning! Surveillance anomaly in Sector 7!"
The shrill blare of the system alarm instantly shattered the silence of the corridor.
The woman's expression shifted instantly.Her first instinct wasn't to attack me; instead, she whipped around in shock to look at the sparking camera.
To an order-obsessed zealot like her, any system anomaly was far more intolerable than letting a "little rat" like me escape.
This was the moment!
Seizing that half-second of distraction!
Like a coiled leopard, I lunged at the heavy blast door.
There was no time for finesse with the final lock.
I jammed my thickest alloy crowbar into the gap and poured every ounce of my strength, all my anger and resolve, into my arms.
*Open, damn you!* I roared inwardly.
*Creeeeeak!*
The alloy crowbar groaned under the immense pressure, nearly snapping in two. Inside the door, the electromagnetic lock let out a piercing crack, overwhelmed by the pulse overload and my brute force.
I pried the heavy alloy door open just wide enough for a person to squeeze through sideways.
"How dare you—!"
The woman's scream, a mix of shock and fury, erupted behind me.
I could feel her snapping out of it; that lethal EMP pulse was seconds from firing.
But I couldn't worry about that now.
With a final burst of effort, I threw myself through the icy gap.
*BOOM!*
The moment I cleared the threshold, the unsupported alloy door slammed shut behind me. The heavy impact made my eardrums ring.
The world went silent.
I leaned back against the cold metal, gasping for air, my heart hammering against my ribs as if trying to burst from my throat.
From the other side of the door, I could hear her livid growls and the muffled thuds of her fists pounding against the alloy.
"You won't escape, you rat!"
I smiled.I wiped the cold sweat from my forehead, turned around, and stared into the pitch-black corridor that stretched toward an unknown abyss.
The air was thick with an ancient smell, a mixture of dust and ozone that had been sealed away for countless years.
And then there was that... "ghostly echo," growing clearer by the second.
Me? Run?
No, Ma'am.
I didn't come here to run.
I've come home.