Nick looked at the coral person walking past him on the lower floor.
This was the first coral person that had passed by him.
Nick hadn't moved at all in the last 20 minutes.
The coral person had simply finished their round and was starting again.
Nick wasn't completely sure what kind of route they were following, but based on the floor plans, he assumed that they were going up this staircase, going to one of the higher floors, going down another staircase to the ground floor, coming back to this staircase, and ascending again.
'64,' Nick thought. '64 of them are on this route.'
'Time to move.'
A huge amount of Zephyx gathered around him as he jumped out of the crack on the second floor.
An instant later, he pulled the metallic part he had cut out earlier and put it back into place.
CRRR!
He bent it to keep it locked in the spot.
Naturally, if someone watched closely, they would be able to see that the floor had been damaged here, but Nick was banking on the fact that the Sea King didn't focus on every single part of the floor.
An instant later, Nick walked forward and stopped behind another coral person who was walking in front of him.
Right now, he was using his ability to suppress the sound he was making by moving.
He was also looking back, making sure that the other coral person wasn't about to see his back.
Luckily, the Sea King avoided looking at moving things to keep its focus, which was why the patrolling coral people were not looking at each other.
When Nick saw that the gap between them was just wide enough that they couldn't see him, he turned into mist and deactivated his ability.
In his mist form, he could travel without making any noise.
Like this, Nick just kept following the coral person in front of him as they kept ascending the staircase.
Nick wanted to enter one of the floors, but he couldn't.
Opening a door was way too conspicuous.
Even more, if there was a coral person looking at the door from the other side, they would notice it immediately.
Nick had to see his target to use his ability.
Additionally, making a hole near a door was also too conspicuous. The floor was okay since no coral person looked down or up while walking, but they looked forward.
Because of that, Nick had to follow the coral person until they reached the floor on which they would continue traveling.
After ascending over ten floors, Nick saw the coral person stopping in front of a door.
The next moment, they moved their hand over the side of the door, and the door opened.
At this moment, Nick's heart rate spiked.
This would be one of the riskiest moments in his mission.
He made himself as small as possible and floated behind the coral person's torso.
At the same time, he kept looking backward to see where the coral person behind him was.
The other person was slowly climbing up the stairs to this floor.
The coral person in front of Nick stepped through the door.
A tiny bit of mist went past the coral person's torso to scout forward.
Another coral person!
And it was looking directly towards the one he was following.
Nick immediately used his ability to influence their vision and rushed toward the corner of the hallway.
At the same time, the coral person who had been behind Nick turned the corner to look at the floor.
If Nick were still behind the other coral person, this one would have seen him.
But as it stood right now, Nick was hidden by the doorframe.
Nick's Zephyx was dropping rapidly.
50%.
30%.
20%.
BANG!
The door closed, and Nick immediately jumped behind the coral person again and deactivated his ability.
'I have ten seconds until the door opens again,' Nick thought, metaphorical sweat streaming down his misty face.
The coral person in the hallway was constantly looking at the door.
As the two coral people came closer to each other, Nick used his ability once more.
He went to the floor and stopped below the other coral person's feet, clouding their feeling.
The coral person who had walked in front of Nick passed by the one in the hallway.
Nick jumped out from between the coral person's legs and stayed behind them, deactivating his ability.
Right now, both of them had their backs turned to him.
The door opened as the next one entered the hallway, but since Nick was behind the coral person in the hallway, it didn't see him.
Nick was almost touching the coral person beside him.
If it moved in any way, Nick would be spotted.
But it never did.
And that was what Nick had bet on.
The coral people acted like perfect machines.
If they were humans, they would move from time to time or just randomly look around in boredom.
Any of these things would expose Nick.
But there was no reason for them to do anything like that.
They were fully dedicated to their task, and this coral person's task was to look at the door.
Ten seconds later, Nick went between the coral person's legs again and used his ability once more to cloud its feeling.
The next coral person walked past, and Nick came out again.
In ten seconds, he did the same thing again.
After a full minute, Nick finally managed to achieve his goal.
His Zephyx had recovered.
He was using his ability to control the feeling of the coral person every ten seconds, but that didn't require a lot of Zephyx, allowing him to recover his Zephyx in the ten seconds between patrols.
Nevertheless, the last minute had been incredibly stressful.
One moment of carelessness, and he would be found.
'If it weren't for my special Shell, I wouldn't be able to recover like this,' Nick thought.
When the next coral person passed, Nick used a ton of Zephyx again and materialized.
He slipped something into the coral person's pocket and also pointed a small device at the coral person's hand.
He was using a brutal amount of Zephyx every second.
DING!
The device indicated that it was done, and Nick returned to his mist form.
Then, he recovered his Zephyx again over the next minute.
When his Zephyx was recovered, Nick put the device on a chip he retrieved from his bag before slipping the chip into a glove he was wearing.
Then, he floated backwards.
In an instant, he used a ton of Zephyx to influence everyone in the hallway.
As fast as he could, Nick put his glove on a door in the hallway.
DING!
The door opened, and Nick shot inside.
BANG!
The door immediately closed, and Nick took a deep breath.
He waited in silence for anything.
Ten seconds passed.
That was when Nick released a sigh.
This had been so insanely risky!
One wrong move, and they would have seen him.
But he had done it, and now, he could finally relax.
Nick looked around and found himself in one of the locker rooms in front of a Containment Unit.
He had bet on the fact that no coral person would stay in these locker rooms.
After all, why would they?
In order to get to these, someone would need to get through the hallway. It made more sense to guard the hallways than the inside of the locker room.
'Eleventh floor, first room in the east,' Nick thought as he remembered the floor plan.
'This Containment Unit should be empty.'
Nick went over to the entrance of the Containment Unit and looked at the console.
It was deactivated.
'Just as expected,' Nick thought before looking up.
'The next floor is where the offices of the Specialists are. There should also be light.'
The next moment, Nick went to the ceiling and touched it.
Knock.
Nick lightly knocked on the floor.
The sound was almost imperceivable.
Nothing.
Knock!
Nick knocked stronger.
Nothing.
What was Nick doing?
He was creating tiny bits of noise to see whether or not somebody was in the office on the floor above him.
If someone heard the knock, they would have looked to the ground.
At that moment, Nick's main ability would have fluctuated since they technically perceived him a little.
If that happened, Nick would just stop.
The sound was so subtle that the Specialist would think that it was just a random noise that one of the coral people made.
Most likely, they wouldn't investigate.
Even more, they might not be able to investigate.
Which Specialist would want to remain in Anatomy?
Anatomy had transformed all their people into coral people.
Every normal person would believe that they would be next.
Most likely, Anatomy was keeping their Specialists under house arrest to stop them from fleeing.
The only reason why they most likely were not transformed yet was so that there was no issue with their Fanatics.
After all, Anatomy needed some Specialists for their Fanatics.
Nick took a deep breath and unsheathed his blade.