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Chapter 98 – Unbridled Rage

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“Where are the items?!”

Xiao Ming’s eyes became bloodshot as he looked at the people in front of him. This was the first time his father entrusted an event to him after he pleaded for a long time.

“Where is all of it?! Where?! Tell me!”

“They were just here! I’m sure! I saw all of them a few minutes ago when I went down!”

Even the emotionless Awakened almost panicked. This wasn’t his fault. He came here a moment ago and saw all of it still here.

Xue doesn’t know what to say to his boss, because it disappeared like smoke. Xue didn’t think that it was someone like him who did this as even the strongest one he had encountered can never make all of the items here disappear.

Xue was convinced that the robbers used the vent to get out since it’s connected to every part of the building. Though, it wasn’t connected outside; it was connected to the roofs and the hallway where they can access the fire exit.

There’s a lot of ways to do this if there were numerous, which was what he believed happened.

“Where is it then! It all disappeared?”

“And what about you all!? Did I pay you to be this useless!?”

The guards looked down, knowing they messed up and everything they say won’t reach the ears of Xiao Ming.

There’s no point in explaining their side. Xiao Ming’s words also didn’t reach their ears as they all already decided to report straight to his father, who was more logical and experienced.

“Useless! Get out of my face!”

Xiao Ming then looked at the two guards that were stationed in the dim room. The two of them were different from the rest. They work directly for Xiao Ming.

“Boss, we didn’t let anyone in like what you commanded us to.”

The one on the right slowly said with his deep voice. That was true. Their only role was not to let anyone in. They aren’t responsible for guarding what’s inside. They solely need to defend the door against anyone forcing their way in.

“Are you telling me that you didn’t let anyone else in?! Where did they come from then, huh?!”

Xiao Ming gritted his teeth as his face contorted into an ugly expression. Before he was able to say something more, the guard on the left spoke,

“Boss, there is a message written at the wall.”

“What? Let me see!”

Xiao Ming threaded slowly as he was guided by the two. What he saw made him outraged.

[*We, Shadow Thieves, will rest in this city for now.

Whoever owns this place, you have good foresight to welcome us.

We appreciate your offerings.

– Shadow Thieves, we will be where the shadows are!*]

 

*Blaargh*

Xiao Ming spat a mouthful of blood. His chest struck with pain, not being able to take all this news. His face was burned in anger as he turned to Xue.

“Find them! NOW!”

“Even just one of them! I will give them hell!”

Xiao Ming’s face was totally twisted. He could only think about how fucked he was if his father finds out at the same time, thinking of how expensive all the items here were and how much they were going to pay if they weren’t able to find it.

Xiao Ming couldn’t believe that he was this unlucky, asking why does this have to happen to him. He badly wanted to tear the skin those people who were responsible for this. That was the only way for him to forget this.

Xiao Ming thoroughly deserved all of this. Max never did anything to him, but he chose to send someone to teach him a lesson. He offended someone out of his league, obviously having a death wish.

Max wasn’t going to stop until he hit rock bottom. This is just one of the first plans Max had for him.

When Xiao Ming thought this was the end, another one came up to annoy him, hearing someone’s heels coming closer.

“Where’s the next item? Why is it taking so long?”

The woman was the host of the event. They had been waiting for the next item but there still no one coming. She came to check when the crowd was getting impatient, urging her to stop wasting time.

“What happened here?”

Her eyes landed on xiao ming, hidden deep inside it was disgust, but it got away quickly replaced by confusion when she saw their surroundings.

“What’s this?”

“Where are the items? What did you do now?”

She turned back to Xiao Ming. Seeing him in this condition, a different feeling came to her. She felt pity, pity for Xiao Ming, knowing that he was going to be in trouble.

“You deal with this. You’re responsible for this event. I’m just the host.”

“B*tch!”

“You’re lucky now. I’ll get you back. Just you wait.”

Xiao Ming stared daggers at her when she turned around, wanting to jump on her and teach her a lesson. But he first had to deal with all of this. It was him who asked his father to handle this event.

He needs to come up with an explanation, or he would be screwed. Xiao Ming could only rely on Xue this time to catch one of them.

…

[Hehehe!]

 

“What do you think is Xiao Ming’s face right now?”

“He must be crying already.”

[Hahaha! It’s you who made him like that!]

 

“It’s so late now.”

Max was in a quiet neighborhood. He can only hear the trees rustling from the wind. Only the big full moon gave him the vision to know where he was going.

Max can hear his every footstep as he took a turn. Little Dou was the only one who made him feel that he’s not alone, and also the crickets singing.

[Yeah! And Yu’er will give you a lecture when you get home!]

 

“No way! I’m strong! I have a lot of escape skills and items!”

[You should give her some of the jewelry and gems that you got! That one diamond was good!]

 

“Can I? Won’t that be traced when people see it and think she stole it?”

[Hmm. I don’t know!]

 

“Then, can I sell it to the Store?”

[That isn’t possible!]

 

“Well, I’ll store it in the Inventory for now. In the future, maybe we can find a good use for it or recycle it into something else entirely.”

Suddenly, Max stopped. A few meters in front of him was the Awakened. For a second, Max got spooked when he suddenly appeared there.

‘F*ck! Does he know?’

Max acted like he was nervous, backing up one step. Inside, he was confused. Many questions came up his mind every second.

[…]

 

‘Wait a minute. Does he know? There’s no way right?’

Even though Max was baffled as to why the Awakened was here, he was never scared of him. He was only a Rank 1 Early Phase Awakened.

On the contrary, Max looked down on him. He was despising the Awakened’s stupid decision.

‘You’ve just made a mistake.’

When Max was acting nervous, he looked at his surroundings. Confirming that the Awakened was alone, further intensified his contempt for him.

His external appearance slowly turned scared. If possible, Max wanted to know why the Awakened was here.

“W-Who are you?”

“…”

“D-Do we know each other?”

“…”

“I-I’m going now.”

Max wanted to test how the Awakened would react with his action to see if he was hostile against him, or he has other plans.

When his shoe took a step forward, the Awakened, kicked the floor hard, shooting forward towards him. Max stopped the time as soon as he saw it.

“Hmph! Too weak!”

Max got close to the Awakened that froze midway toward him. Max took out a thick rope from his Inventory and tied his arms and legs together.

Max circled his body with the rope to make sure he won’t be able to use much of his strength to break it.

*thud*

Max punched the Awakened on his cheeks as hard as he can. Max wanted to knock him out and bring him home for answers.

“Little Dou, help me with this. How do you knock him out?”

“Take this!*

*Thud*

[Like this! Hyah!]

 

“Ow. That will surely be painful.”

Little Dou punched both of the Awakened’s eyes. She also hit him in his neck, sometimes adding in a kick.

Slap!

[…]

 

“I just slapped him.”

“That ought to make him unconscious, right?”

Slap!

Slap! Slap!

“Is that enough?”

“Last one!”

Max gave the guy a fierce kick, targeting the middle of his legs. Once he did it, Max felt chills on his lower body as he stepped back.

“…”

“He can’t have babies anymore. I’m sure of it.”

“Uhh.”

When the time stop ended, the Awakened directly fell unconscious. Not before Max catch him on with his arms.

“Idiot. You don’t just come here and try to fight me.”

Max once again checked his surroundings with his Status Checker, making sure there wasn’t anyone who saw it. It was only Little Dou, Max, and the Moon that witnessed it.

“Let’s get home fast! Someone might see.”

Max ran as fast as he can on the shadows of the dark and cold night with Little Dou settled steadily on his head.

 

 

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Chapter 97 – Smooth Escape

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As soon as they heard the door closing, Max gave Little Dou a signal. He wanted to open the vault first.

It was the most useful of all the things that were in this room. Most of the items here would only stay in his inventory. Max couldn’t use them as they might be traced somewhere.

But money can never be used everywhere. No one would be able to trace it if Max doesn’t give others a chance to find him.

Another reason was he felt that he was starting to forget the numbers he memorized. Max hurried with Little Dou, going straight to their stations.

Both of them concentrated on unlocking the complex circular door. One at a time, they continued, slowly but surely.

The circular door has multiple locks that were connected to each other. If one lock failed to unlock, the door wouldn’t budge.

On its exterior, there were multiple looks, each having its different way of opening it. But in reality, it was only one lock. It’s either they can unlock everything, or they won’t unlock it.

Max felt what Little Dou went through at Xiao Ming’s room. It was the pressure and nervousness weighing down on their shoulders.

After a few moments of quietness with them doing their own work, both of them backed out, looked at each other, and sighed in relief.

Max took a step forward, reached out for the handle as he turned it clockwise. Metal scrapping sounded out as he turned it.

“Huuu.”

Max sweated on the metal wheel as he held it securely with his hand then pulled hard on it.

*creakkk*

“Hahaha! Little Dou we are now professional thieves!”

[Yeah! But I did a lot more!]

 

Little Dou laughed as her eyes shined. She was happy about them reaching this point and couldn’t wait to take all of this for themselves.

“Hahaha! We’re the only ones here, so all of this is ours!”

Everything around him was valuable. Max saw the treasures spread on the table to the money on the vault. He was only thinking about one thing: all of it will be theirs. Xiao Ming will deal with the rest.

“This is so heavy.”

“Hyah. Pull!”

“This is fine already.”

*Tock*

“No air? Is this pure steel? How was this made?”

“This vault is good stuff!”

“Hey, Little Dou should we also get this?”

“Actually no, no, we can’t. If we did, they would know that it was an Awakened if this thing disappears. We’re not Awakeneds, just professional thieves.

“Woohooo”

Max jumped on the stacks of money as he threw a handful of them to the air. The smell of money around him was incredible.

“We’re really rich now! I can’t get used to this!”

“Don’t worry. This is only the beginning. Our first goal was to have this city for ourselves. We’re going to dominate this city!”

“We’re taking over the entire underground world of this city to be the underground king!”

“Or maybe the school first? Whatever. I’ll definitely do it! I will run around the city more!”

“We can steal more of their businesses too! But we’ll take it one at a time.”

[That’s right! Dominate this city! Then we can move to some other place to find more women and get stronger a lot faster!]

 

Little Dou raised her fist, cheering for Max. It will be a long road to the top, and Little Dou knows that they have to try harder than how they were doing now.

*poof*

A large amount of money disappeared every time Max touched them. It was like his hands were erasing them from existence. Inventory is really convenient.

…

“This is the last one! Bye!”

*poof*

“Xiao Ming you’re in trouble now! Hahaha!”

The vault was left with nothing. Max thoroughly swept everything, leaving nothing inside. Max can visualize the contents of his Inventory, and the amount of money in there was unbelievable.

But Max wasn’t contented with just this. He remembered that he came here to make trouble for Xiao Ming and he would make the best out of it.

“Come Little Dou. We still have a lot of cleaning to do!”

[I will take the shiny stuff!]

 

Little Dou flew to the diamonds that she had been eyeing as Max went to the heavier ones. With one touch, the items disappeared.

Little Dou flew back with different gems on her arms. All of it disappeared to Max’s Inventory.

…

The warehouse was now empty except for the tables and the vault. Max and Little Dou looked satisfied. Their faces glowed with happiness. This night was eventful for them, gaining a lot of things in one go.

“Let’s write our name on the wall!”

“No not our real names! Our thieves group! Haha, in the future, I want influential people to shiver in fear when they hear this name!”

“Let’s take this chance to let them know who we are and who they will be dealing with in the future!”

[Un! A second identity? Let’s do it!]

 

[You can be Max in the morning and someone else at night!]

 

Little Dou liked the idea of having a second identity. Max can use it to fight enemies in another identity and also maybe socialize with other Awakeneds if he ever came across one.

“What name should we use?”

“Hmm. Shadow?”

“Shadow thieves. What do you think?”

[Shadow thieves! They will be everywhere!]

 

“Yes! They will be everywhere! We will be everywhere!”

Max got a random antique paintbrush from his Inventory and wrote those words on the wall. Max can already imagine what their faces would look like when they read it.

“There!”

“We have to leave now before the cart comes back.”

“We need to be far away when they get here!”

Max stopped his hand from reaching the door to ask Little Dou that was on his head about something.

“If we pull this door open, the guards would notice us? Also, wasn’t this door locked from the outside?”

[…]

 

“…”

[…]

 

“No worries. I’ve got this. We still have the Time Stop. We only need to think of the correct way to use it.”

“Should I do it?”

Max gave Little Dou a cheeky smile, implying something with his eyes.

[Up to you!]

 

Little Dou knew right away what he was talking about. She had been with Max for quite some time to understand what he meant to say.

A large and tall vase appeared in his arms. Max would make the loudest noise he could by throwing this vase to the door.

When they opened the door, Max would stop the time and make a run for it, straight out, back to his house.

Max had a target where he should throw the vase. It was at the vents on the ceiling. Max didn’t know where it was connected, but he wanted to poke a hole on it or destroy a part of it.

So they would think someone used that way to get in. The shadow thieves broke from the vents. If the vents weren’t connected anywhere, they would still be confused as to why it happened, and they will be back to knowing nothing.

“Hehehe. Ready?”

[Go!]

 

*CLANKKK*

‘That’s a big hole! Any time now.’

“What’s that?! Open this quick!”

When the door opened, Max stopped the time. He rapidly ran as fast as he can straight out of the hotel.

There were a lot of people back there. Even the Awakened was behind the door. Max continued running, having thirty seconds of Time Stop for himself.

Max ran outside the hotel, went farther and farther until he blended in the dark.

Without a doubt, Xiao Ming will severely suffer this time, and this won’t be the last.

 

 

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Chapter 96 – Precious Spoils

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The cart once again got back after a long process of biddings. Since the guy pushing the cart had been in and out of the room, the guards allowed his entry with no delay.

All of them failed to notice someone else going inside along with him. Max successfully got in, yet he never lost focus. The next one will be the trickiest.

Just like Little Dou described, the room was small, and there were barely any lights. On the other side was a door, a large steel door.

Two buffed guards were standing on sides of it. The guy had to stand still in the middle as they checked various areas of his body.

This showed that they paid substantial attention not to let any unexpected problems to occur. Too bad they were ordinary people in the end. Not one of them was able to see another person in the same room as them.

If Xiao Ming were to station the Awakened in this room, it might give Max a harder time to sneak in as he had to be extra cautious with his movements and breathing. But with only these people, Max only needed to stay silent, and he would be fine.

Finally, their thorough inspection was done. They fiddled with the locks then turned the giant wheel in the middle as the two guards pulled the one feet thick door together.

As the guy pushed his cart in, Max relaxedly followed behind him. Surprisingly, it was easy getting up to this point.

Max halted his steps as he froze with his mouth wide open. Slowly, his expression started to change. His eyes shined as a broad smile crept across his face.

‘Hahaha! Little Dou do you see all this? We’re rich! We really made it! Look at all of this!’

Little Dou sat on Max’s head as they gazed at the fantastic scene before them. Different items were spread out on the tables.

Max became more excited when he saw the items that he had wanted to see. Pieces of jewelry that were appropriately arranged side by side, little bars of gold, and what seemed to be some rare metals and treasures.

There was enough space to fit more items in this space. It had shiny white and gold walls and floors that were smooth on his feet.

The items had tags on them and written in it were names and prices of it. The items were separated in two, one side where Max saw the jewels and gold. The other side was where the antiques like vases, paintings, and sculptures were located. There were also other unidentified materials with them.

[Max! There! There! Look!]

 

Little Dou pulled Max’s hair as she energetically pointed to the far distant area. Max turned to where Little Dou was looking.

It was quite far, but when Max saw it, he almost couldn’t contain his voice. His eyes widened as his body shook in delight.

‘Hahahaha! This! This is great!’

As they got closer, Max was able to see it more clearly. It was a humongous vault, more than ten feet in height but its width was many more times than that. It can be considered a small room.

This vault made Xiao Ming’s look like a small locker. Steel coated its exterior and seemed to have different layers of metals stuck together.

Max saw how the door is. It was about two feet thick. Max could clearly see it now as the guy was in the process of pulling it open.

‘So this is why they were strictly guarding this place? For a second, I thought Xiao Ming placed those guards outside for the auction items.’

‘But now I know the real reason why. Xiao Ming probably valued this greatly. What a huge vault. Do banks have something bigger than this? How much money would be there?’

‘Hmm. I guess that explains it. Xiao Ming only stationed guards on the entrance, thinking that no one can take this vault away.’

‘At least, no normal human can.’

The man left it halfway opened to push his cart inside. He then unlocked the one side of the compartment on his cart to unload a large amount of cash that he had gotten from the auction.

Though everyone can pay digitally, most people would still prefer a cash transaction, having to save money from the percentage discount for using cash.

That was what most people know. Few individuals take advantage of it to hide their earnings or wanted more secrecy from where their money came from, and cash was the easiest to hide.

There were also some who didn’t want anyone to find out their identity, or they might simply be a proxy for someone else.

‘What the f*ck!’

‘There’s so much!’

Max wasn’t much surprised anymore. He saw a lot of things today that he was numb from seeing a large amount of money stacked on top of each other.

The vault was full of money. It can be said that it only contained money. The entire vault was filled with stacks of cash that if Max dived on them, he would suffocate from the amount of money that will cover him. Even now, from the adequately arranged stacks, it was already taller than he was.

‘This is seriously crazy!’

‘Hahaha! Well, thanks for this, I guess?’

‘This is ours now!’

‘Before that, let’s see how he opened this thing.’

Max checked for a password or a code to learn how he could open this thing. Max moved closer to take a look. He wanted to be able to open it on his own since he won’t be able to secure what’s inside with this guy in here. And Max wasn’t sure whether he could get himself out if he allowed the guy to lock him in.

‘Little Dou, let’s find out how he opened this!’

Once the guy gets out, they can then start doing them a good deed of cleaning this whole place.

There were a lot of complications placed on the door. It has all sorts of mechanisms that even Max couldn’t understand.

But he won’t give up. Since this guy knows it, that would mean it won’t be that hard to remember. Max is an Awakened. He should have even the slightest bit of edge in memory and ability to learn.

‘So this goes like this?’

‘This turns like this.’

‘Little Dou, check that.’

‘The code for this is… And I should turn it this way.’

‘What’s this? Is this like a timer lock?’

‘They need to use this vault a few more times later, so this won’t be a problem.’

‘I’ll remember these codes, and you remember those?’

After checking everything, Max and Little Dou decided what they should remember. It wasn’t that hard as it looked. More like Max was new to this stuff, that’s why he had to study how it works.

Once they memorized the long sequence of codes, Max and Little Dou were ready to open it themselves. No one spoke to each other, not wanting to suddenly forget about the numbers. They only stared at the ceiling and focused.

…

*Kacha*

The sound of the door being locked can be heard as the guy went out. For security purposes, he was once again inspected. Even his cart was checked to see if he really left the money inside and took out only what he should.

Once he was cleared, they let him go. The guards went back to stand stationary at the side door. They didn’t know there was someone left inside, gobbling up all the good stuff that was supposed to be stored for safety.

 

 

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