Chapter 168: Robbing in Broad Daylight |
The guard escorted A Piao to the maintenance room on the first basement level, finally managing to slip away from this grim reaper.
A Piao opened the access panel and tinkered with it for a few minutes, putting on a convincing act.
Once the footsteps outside faded away, it immediately tossed the tools aside, leaned comfortably against the wall, and smiled at the security camera. "Sorry about that. Are you mad?"
'Oh, come on, you were obviously the one who was mad!'
Before the people in the Central Control Room could notice, Shi Rang hastily pulled the surveillance footage of the recent maintenance and looped it over the live feed, praying it would fool them for a while.
Processing data so frequently made him dizzy. If he had been physically present, he definitely would have been panting with exhaustion.
"I have disabled all the access controls, and the cameras are on a loop. You are free to move around. I will lure the guards away," Shi Rang informed A Piao through the speaker beneath the camera. His voice came through as the system's built-in synthesized tone. "Please, just treat it as a game. How about we work together on a stealth mission?"
"You mean you just want me to quietly take the Directional Reconstructor and call it a day?"
"There are many tool-type Subjects here, but they are not very useful. Maybe you could take the Classified Data, or..."
"But...
"
Shi Rang was still unfamiliar with this kind of full-dive remote control, and he was equally unacquainted with the site's layout and personnel distribution.
If A Piao refused to follow his instructions and they could not coordinate, it would be impossible for Shi Rang to help it complete the mission while keeping everyone else completely in the dark.
Obviously, as a Head of the Ascension Society, A Piao would not take orders from him.
If any accidents occurred along the way, it would turn into a massacre.
Frustrated and overwhelmed, Shi Rang suddenly had an idea.
"How about this? I will tell you the routes and the situation, and help you quietly empty this place. But can you... please not charge around recklessly? I will redirect them away." He tried his hardest to convey a pleading tone through the synthesized voice.
"Since you put it that way..." A Piao pinched a copper wire, slowly wrapping it around its finger. "Tell you what. I will follow your lead. You help buy me enough time to rob this place clean before the alarms go off. How does that sound? If I had brought people with me to breach this place, the Mobile Task Force would arrive in less than ten minutes. Since it is just me right now, you need to buy me half an hour."
"It is a deal."
"Speak then. What do you want me to do?"
"It is currently six thirty-five. Keep working until exactly six fifty, and then prepare to move. I will loop the camera feed over itself, but the current recording is not long enough yet."
"Uh-huh," A Piao casually replied, climbing up the ladder to start the repairs.
Only then did Shi Rang relax a great deal.
First, he returned to his physical body.
The office was pitch-black due to the sudden change in the weather earlier. The buildings outside the floor-to-ceiling windows were draped in a dark brown layer from the ash-laced rain. He fumbled for the switch, turning the office lights back on. After sending a message to Jing Zi, he hid his communication device and sat back down at his computer. He randomly pulled up a game, just in case someone suddenly dropped by, curious as to why he was leaving so late today.
Locking the door would be too suspicious. The corridors outside the office were eerily quiet; if anyone approached, he would hear them immediately.
Technically, he was off the clock, but there was no rule saying he could not stay in the office to play games.
Having taken care of all that, Shi Rang curled up in his spacious chair and returned to his home turf.
Eight guards, two clerks, and one site director.
He needed to get rid of all of them.
Shi Rang's first target was the site director, Doctor Kelvin. He checked the man's punch-card records and discovered that even though it was past quitting time, the doctor was actually still diligently processing emails and paperwork.
Judging from the records, Doctor Kelvin really loved volunteering for overtime.
The location of the director's office was terrible. There was a glass window on the door, and looking straight out, it directly faced the archives room. A Piao would definitely pass by there several times.
Shi Rang decided to punish this voluntary overtime behavior.
He took over the computer and started aggressively helping the director. For every few words the man typed, Shi Rang deleted them. If the director hit undo, Shi Rang hit redo. When the director moved the mouse, Shi Rang sent the cursor flying wildly across the screen, creating the illusion that the equipment was lagging severely.
Kelvin had originally intended to put up with it just long enough to finish the task at hand. That was until his disobedient mouse accidentally clicked "Do Not Save" on his document, and he finally exploded.
"This piece of junk! They promised me a new computer. Fobbing me off with a secondhand one is bad enough, but it does not even work!"
Cursing under his breath, he raised his communication device and fired off a complaint to the engineering department over at Facility 009, demanding they replace it with a "one hundred percent brand-new" computer.
Shi Rang watched as the man regrettably clocked out for the day.
One down.
He did not need to worry about the two guards in the Central Control Room; their shift did not end until the early hours of the morning. The two guards at the surface sentry post were also fine, as they would not come down. Among the remaining four guards was Wu Nian. Their evening duties consisted of routine patrols. Shi Rang noticed that their punch-card records were very orderly; outside of their shifts, they mostly stayed holed up in the break room.
He could direct A Piao to avoid them.
After upgrading from D to C, the speed of Shi Rang's conscious operations had increased significantly, and the time discrepancy with reality had almost vanished. Still, after all that manipulation, A Piao was already prepared to move out.
He grabbed the recording of A Piao working just now, layered it over the camera feed, and returned to the scene of the action.
A Piao had just left the maintenance room and stood still in the long corridor. The door at the end of the corridor on its left let out a beep and slid open. It glanced up at the camera near the ceiling and walked through the door. In the distance, even more doors opened for it, guiding it toward the containment units.
Inside the first containment unit sat a large iron box, plastered with a "Transportation and Storage Notice" like a mail package. A Piao lowered its head to read it, shook its head, and muttered, "No value here," before proceeding to the next room.
"It can grab objects from a distance, which is somewhat useful... Since I can touch it directly, I will gladly help myself."
"I cannot carry all these building blocks. Find me a bag? After all—ah, thank you."
"A whole basket of guns just piled up like this. Only the Management Authority would do something like this."
"Oh? This cassette tape is not bad. Even though it can only accelerate plant growth, it could be combined with other..."
""
A Piao's figure moved in and out of the adjacent Containment Rooms along the corridor, strolling from one end to the other. As a Reality Bender, its presence occasionally caused some equipment to throw errors and lights to flicker. However, with Shi Rang manning the backend, none of these error messages ever reached the Central Control Room.
Thus, it strolled casually the entire time, while the clinking cloth sack slung over its shoulder grew increasingly bloated.
Shi Rang followed behind, conveniently closing the doors for it and overwriting the camera feeds to pretend that the containment apparatuses were still intact.
After finishing with the containment area, A Piao entered another corridor to "purchase" the sealed metal crates inside those rooms.
During this time, one of the guards inexplicably deviated from his patrol route and headed straight for the room A Piao was in. Shi Rang instantly took control of the access panel, making it emit an error chime and delaying its response by a few seconds. Under his direction, A Piao ducked into the adjacent room.
The ventilation system in this storage site was quite loud, perfectly masking the noises made by the "goods" slung over A Piao's shoulder.
As soon as the guard grabbed his forgotten jacket and left, A Piao emerged right on his heels, hefting a bag that was now a size larger, and pressed forward.
Given that they knew everyone's exact movements and shift schedules, and possessed full control over the site's systems, this operation was hardly more difficult than taking a walk.
Shi Rang felt that using the word "robbery" to describe this scene was entirely inappropriate. This was clearly just grocery shopping.
The first basement level was quickly picked clean. A Piao took the elevator down, effortlessly carrying the bulging sack. It stepped out onto the second basement level and stopped by the wall, curiously reading the Employee Handbook.
The guards on this floor were currently in the break room, so Shi Rang turned his attention to the two clerks who were also on this level.
One was inspecting the containment measures. The other... where was he?
"Wait a moment, I cannot find the other person."
Shi Rang pivoted to cross-reference the recent motion sensor logs. After a quick scan, he finally located the missing employee.
It turned out he was in the restroom.
He had been in there for half an hour already. It looked like he was having a rough time.
He switched to a nearby camera and observed the restroom door, which currently displayed "Occupied", taking a moment to marvel once again at the facility's level of smart automation.
Almost every piece of equipment in this washroom could be controlled electronically.
After confirming that the clerk had not brought a communication device into the stall, Shi Rang did something rather wicked: he completely disabled the electronic toilet paper dispenser.
My friend, for the sake of your own life, you better squat in there for a little while longer.
Immediately after, he sent a signal to A Piao.
"Hold off on that final Containment Room for now; there is someone inside. Head over to the archives room first. It would be best if you could clear out the items in there."
A Piao gripped the mouth of the sack and effortlessly hoisted the near-bursting bag in front of its face. "Are you sure the Directional Reconstructor is here?"
"It has to be in one of the remaining rooms. First, you should—"
Just as Shi Rang said this, his physical body heard a knock on the door.
He had wanted to warn A Piao one more time, but it was too late.
The person knocking actually pushed the door open and walked right in!
Shi Rang violently snapped back to his physical body. Almost sliding off his chair, he instantly sat up straight, craned his neck, and peered over the array of computer monitors at the doorway.
A stranger stood there, tapping a finger against the open wooden door.
"I would like to have a chat with you, Director Shi. I am from the Ethics Committee."