Chapter 9
The old lady exhaled a cloud of smoke with a sigh as she gave her warning.
“I’ve made myself clear. No police. Have them all withdrawn.”
“Are you saying we should just let the Crow Thief go free? Other victims will be disappointed.”
“……”
This time, Raven was the one to shut her up. Doris Hunt might look like a woman ruled by stubbornness alone, but as a member of the social elite, she never neglected her duties and responsibilities.
So, it was only natural that she could be persuaded.
“Fine. I’ll cooperate. But make sure I never have to see him. Tonight I’ll be in my bedroom, so that area is off limits.”
“Still, just in case, some security……”
“Wasn’t it the inspector himself who said that thieves aren’t dangerous like robbers?”
“……”
One win, three losses. The master of silencing others had turned the tide in an instant.
“Well, thank you for worrying. But I have……”
Lady Hunt pulled something from her drawer and set it on the desk.
“This.”
A revolver.
Raven’s gaze sharpened, just as sharp as Lady Hunt’s.
“Using a firearm outside of self-defense is a crime.”
“Don’t worry.”
With her cigarette holder at her lips, the old lady boasted with confidence.
“No crime will be committed here tonight.”
* * *
Perhaps the heavens were on my side tonight, for the whole city was blanketed in fog.
No, wait. Maybe they weren’t.
Dangling from my umbrella, I scoured the city below me again and again, left and right, back and forth.
‘This should be around here—where is it?’
My eyes felt like they were about to fall out. It was already a dark night, and now the fog was swallowing up the lights, making it even harder to see.
Among the spires jutting sharply above the mist, I couldn’t tell which one was Hunt Tower.
‘Should I have opened my umbrella right at the base of Hunt Tower and gone straight up?’
Of course, that thought had crossed my mind before. But I had my reasons for not doing it. If I had, I’d have been caught right away by the police swarming the area.
And even if I managed to avoid their eyes by sheer luck, I wouldn’t have been able to avoid the walls.
The thought of flying smack into a building hidden in the fog and tumbling down like a fool of a bird made me abandon the idea altogether.
Now, wandering the night sky like this, I found myself quietly regretting it.
‘Should I just retreat and come back tomorrow?’
[The mission must be completed today.]
No sooner had I thought of it when the system flashed a warning.
‘Vicious — really vicious.’
The ruthless system changed the mission’s success condition: from “send a notice” to “send a notice as follows.”
Then it even, almost tearfully kindly, specified the exact wording to put in the notice.
[This Friday night, I will come to steal Mrs. Doris Hunt’s emerald necklace.]
That was because I’d lied on the last mission’s notice, saying I’d steal some random jewel.
“Hey, you didn’t tell me what to write on the notice! This is the system’s fault.”
The system was an AI, so it learned fast.
Missions that started simple had gotten progressively more complex and picky. It added a notice requirement. When things looked like they were getting easy, it threw surprise sub-missions into the regular ones.
It adjusted the difficulty to my level — making sure I could never say, “Piece of cake!”
What made me even madder was that the system learns from my actions.
If I found and abused a loophole, it sealed that loophole completely the next time. Like now.
“Look — it even sets the date on the notice in case I might write the wrong date as well as the wrong item.”
So I had to steal that necklace tonight.
[Reward]
》30 spiny parrot feathers
》3 skill points
》100,000 notoriety points
Did it crank up the difficulty and pay out generously? The points were generous, and it even offered a rare crafting ingredient.
“So that’s three repair kits, then?”
Missions like this were rare. I couldn’t miss it.
I’d better look over the map again even if it wouldn’t help much.
“Open map — huh?”
As soon as the map opened I wiped it from my sight. From the north I could see several thick columns of white light piercing the fog and shooting into the sky.
They were searchlights used for night sweeps.
Since it was the top floor of a skyscraper, they’d lit the area expecting me to approach from the sky.
“That checks out.”
I wondered if they realized the tightly spaced lights they’d turned on to find me would end up guiding me.
“Hunt Tower’s the only place they’d leave searchlights on, right? Thanks for the cop GPS!”
I flew straight for the tower. Dodging the beams shot into the sky, I traced down Hunt Tower’s long spire and lightly landed just above the top floor.
[You have entered the crime location. The target’s marker is displayed.]
A green triangular marker started to twinkle somewhere beneath my feet.
The penthouse had three floors in total — a pyramid shape narrowing toward the top.
Because the location wasn’t public, I couldn’t get an internal floor plan. I had no choice but to follow the marker.
‘Some nanny’s umbrella durability.’
[Nanny’s Umbrella: 89%]
I had left it at 100%, and already it had worn down by eleven percent. Items wear faster the more finely you manipulate them. Trying to dodge the searchlights earlier must’ve used more durability than usual.
‘I need to keep dodging the searchlights…’
I decided to save the umbrella for the escape and test a new item instead.
Pop-pop-pop-pop.
Suction-cup boots.
The ingredients were four giant octopus suckers from the stuffed specimen the tuna-cutting gang’s boss treasured, and a pair of boots from a master seafood butcher.
The story of what I went through to make that pair of boots would make you cry. I’d taken undercover jobs at the tuna boss’s mansion and the seafood factory, ended up wrapped up in a love triangle and a shootout.
They probably still don’t know that “One-Eyed Nico” is actually a woman and an infamous phantom thief.
Pop-pop-pop-pop.
I walked down the slanted outer wall of the building like it was a downhill path. Not on the third floor, not on the second. The marker blinked on the widest first floor.
There were broad balconies on the second floor all around, so I couldn’t cross directly to the first-floor exterior. As I leapt onto an empty balcony, voices from behind a corner reached me.
“What the hell is that woman?”
They’re coming this way.
I quickly vaulted over the railing.
“An umbrella that flies — is she a witch or what?”
“She might be riding a broom next.”
Brooms exist too, but they’re lower-tier items; we don’t use them now, Corporal Smith.
“Hey! Cut the chit-chat and don’t take your eyes off the sky!”
From afar I heard Wesson scolding the officers. They were probably staring blankly at the sky, never imagining I could be walking on the wall.
I moved again — not down but sideways. I found the window closest to the marker and followed the first-floor exterior.
I relied on those two boots and essentially lay in midair as I walked. Sometimes I pushed myself up to peer through windows.
“Ah—searchlight!”
In that posture I ducked to avoid a beam skimming the wall, hid behind a protrusion to avoid the gaze of cops on the balcony below. This was acrobatics, pure acrobatics.
‘My core power is insane. Women are all about the core, after all.’
Thank goodness I’d finally used the core I’d melted a bunch of precious skill points into during the mission before last…
“Ah!”
Peeking too far into a window, I nearly met Hunt’s eyes — he’d been standing right in front of the glass.
“Gah!”
Startled, I misstepped.
If one of the suction boots hadn’t been stuck, I would have tumbled straight down.
“Phew…”
Dangling upside-down in midair to catch my breath, a strong gust shook my body. Ugh, blood rushing to my head.
“Hup.”
I planted the dropped foot against the wall and hauled myself up. Then I crept around that window and peered inside from above.
‘He didn’t see me, apparently.’
Hunt was still standing there, watching outside.
‘As expected, Hunt’s a good navigation beacon.’
My guess that the item I was to steal was on the side guarded by Chief Inspector Hunt had been correct — the marker was blinking in the next window.
