Leo felt his heart beat out of his chest as he began making his way out of Lin Mu's room towards his own.
Thankfully, the Royal Maid was too stunned by the murder of the Royal Counselor to shout for a while, as Leo got to enjoy a good 10 seconds headstart, before the screams finally materialized, alerting security nearby.
Also luckily for him, on his way to Lin Mu's room, the Royal Counselor had reduced the hall security near Lin Mu's corridor as he did not wish to be seen moving to a lady's room by many, so late into the night.
This helped Leo cover a distance of 100 meters away from Lin Mu's room rather easily, as he managed to reach a bigger corridor with a fountain of a lady spitting water from her mouth, before encountering his first set of guards.
Having heard their approaching footsteps, Leo took cover immediately, as he watched them rush into the corridor he had just come from with hurried steps.
*Clank*
*Clank*
*Thud*
*Thud*
*Thud*
"Did you hear a scream?"
"Are we sure we are not hallucinating?"
"I swear if it's a maid screaming for help after spotting a spider, I'm killing the maid rather than the spider...."
The two discussed as they walked past Leo without even spotting him, as uptil now the royal guards seemed unsure of what was the reason behind the screams of the royal maid and Leo seemed to still have a window of opportunity to reach his room, before the maximum alert alarms were rung.
From here, the distance to his room was roughly 350 meters. Where he had to cover two 150 meter corridor's, with no shadows for him to hide in.
After the first 150 meter corridor, he would reach the central hall from where he diverged from the other contestants and followed Lin Mu based on a gut-shot.
This hall itself was 50 meters long and heavily guarded, however, even if he did manage to sneak past that hall somehow, he still had to cover another 150 meters worth of distance with no shadows to hide to get to his room.
'Fuck, it's impossible to cover all this distance without being spotted by anyone. Even if I was the flash and ran at supersonic speed. I'm still not making it to my room without encountering lots of guards.
Fuck Lin Mu and her plan!
I can't believe she coaxed me into thinking this was a good idea-' Leo thought, as he saw absolutely no scope of sneaking back into his room without being detected, as while following Lin Mu he had her as a source of distraction for the guards to run past them while their eyes were focused on her, to attempt doing the same when they had no other distractions, would undoubtedly be suicidal.
'I need to come up with another plan. And fast-' Leo thought, as at that moment one more set of footsteps entered his ears, as another guard came running down the hall shouting the names of the two guards that had left their assigned positions to check on the source of disturbance.
"ANDY…. COLE! ANDY- ANDY-" He shouted, as he walked down the hall with loud steps, looking at him, Leo felt as if the poor man had no idea about the screams and was only looking for his fellow guards because they were not in their usual positions.
"I swear, those two idiots will get me fired from my job…. How hard is it to follow the simple instruction of not moving from your assigned spots for the night?" The man murmured, as looking at him, Leo thought of a desperate and risky plan.
"Andy- ANDY-" the man screamed, as Leo silently moved away from the spot behind the fountain he was hiding in, and walked up behind the royal guard in hushed steps.
Taking a deep breath, Leo recalled Ben's lessons on how to perform a silent takedown, as the practice drills that he performed on Mount Faulkner, ran through his mind.
With every fiber of his being tense, Leo crept closer to the oblivious guard while crouching as he focused his gaze on the guard's exposed neck.
Moving in silence, with movements fluid and purposeful like a predator stalking its prey, Leo reached the guard, who was still calling out for his colleagues and unaware of the danger looming behind him.
Leo's heart pounded in his chest, but his hands remained steady as in one swift motion, he wrapped his arm around the guard's neck, locking him into a tight chokehold.
*GASPPP*
The guard's instinctive gasp was muffled against Leo's bicep as he applied pressure to the man's windpipe, using his other hand to stabilize the hold, just as Ben had trained him to.
The guard thrashed and struggled, but Leo anchored his stance, holding firm, using all of his strength points to ensure that the man could not slip away from his grip.
Every second now felt like an eternity to Leo as the guard's attempts to break free grew increasingly feeble.
If anyone walked up on him during these moments, Leo would be forced to leave the guard and run for his life, which would most likely not work out well as the guard he was trying to take down was sure to alert the others.
Leo had taken a big gamble by trying to take him down, however, as things stood, he found no other way to proceed, other than to choke his enemy and assume his identity.
Leo could hear the man's heartbeat accelerating against his forearm. The panicked gasps turned to strained wheezes, and then finally silence as the guard slowly went limp in his arms, his eyes rolling back into his skull as his consciousness slipped away.
Once he was unconscious, Leo eased him to the ground, careful to lower the body without a sound as he checked for a pulse after to ensure that the guard was only unconscious and not dead.
Once satisfied, he quickly set to work removing the man's uniform.
He unfastened the guard's leather breastplate, untied the belt, and tugged off the boots. It wasn't long before he was fully undressed, leaving him in only his striped underwear as Leo began to equip his gear in a hurried efficiency.
He felt the coarseness of the royal guards uniform fabric against his skin and secured the belt tightly around his waist, to complete the bottom layer, while putting on the beasts plate later to complete the major layout.
The breastplate, though slightly loose and not made to fit a lean man like him, would have to suffice for now, as Leo did not have the luxury of choosing a better fit.
Lastly, he slid his feet into the sturdy guard boots, lacing them up quickly as he stored his own clothes in the players inventory and adjusted the guard's helmet atop his head, to complete his disguise.
Moving the guard's body towards the fountain and hiding it beside the water wall, Leo inspected his reflection in the fountain's shimmering waters, ensuring that his disguise would pass a casual glance.
With a firm grip on the guard's spear, Leo adopted a steady, purposeful stride, mimicking the demeanor of a patrolling sentry, as for the first time ever he took up the role of the actor class, literally.
*ALARM*
*ALARM*
*ALARM*
Just as Leo was done changing into the clothes of a guard, the palace alarms started to blare, as the murder had been successfully reported.
Loud sirens rang throughout the palace walls, prompting all the guards to become extra vigilant and prevent any intruder from escaping, as this marked the start of the most difficult part of Leo's mission to get back to his room.
Taking a deep breath, Leo looked towards the group of royal guards rushing down the hall he was supposed to go in, as with extreme courage he began to run in the opposite direction as he screamed " INTRUDER ALERT-"
"THERE IS AN INTRUDER IN THE PALACE, NOBODY LET HIM ESCAPE"
As he acted like a frantic man who was on the job of alerting everyone else about the intruder.
His heart beat out of his chest as he brushed shoulders with the guards rushing in the opposite direction towards Lin Mu's room, however, his disguise seemed to be working, as the guards found nothing out of the ordinary with him and were instead singularly focused on the alarm.
Gaining more confidence in his act now, Leo began walking down the corridor such that the metal clinking of his gear blended with the chaos of footsteps in the distance, as he shouted and alerted everyone of the intruder that he himself was.
—-------
/// A/N - My apologies today. Although we have hit the GT Target, the bonus chapter will be a little bit more late than usual and given later tonight as I will be unable to finish editing it before reset time tonight.
Thankyou for your patience and understanding regarding the same- ///