Chapter 369: Delivery
(7 days later, Twin Fang Planet, Leo’s Apartment)
It was 9 a.m. and Leo had just returned from his morning walk.
Now back in his room, shirtless and doing push-ups, he was mid-way through a set of 200 when—
*Knock* *knock*
“Delivery for Leo Skyshard!” called a voice from outside the door.
The voice sounded loud and bored, the kind that had done this a thousand times already in his life, which gave Leo the impression that this wasn’t a trap, as he walked towards the door without reaching for a weapon.
*Tok*
Being cautious still, he opened the slit of his door and peeked outside, as only after he confirmed that the delivery man had no warrior aura at all, did he finally open the door.
“You’re Leo Skyshard?” The delivery man asked, as Leo nodded, and eyed the package behind him.
It was massive, and looked like a boxed TV unit, as for a moment Leo felt confused as to what it was?
“Need your thumbprint here, Mr. Skyshard,” the courier muttered without looking up from his data screen, as he tapped a few buttons and turned it towards Leo to get his biometrics.
*Tap*
Leo complied, but not before checking the sender’s tag etched into the box’s digital label, as he read the sender’s name to be ‘Muiyan Faye’.
Of course, Muiyan Faye was a moniker that he recognized instantly, for it was Mu Fan’s alias when she was his instructor at Rodova.
‘So it’s from the Cult–’ Leo thought, as he moved out of the way for the courier guy to drop it inside his house.
*Thunk*
The package made a soft thunk as the courier gently slid it into the apartment before turning to leave.
“Have a good day then, Sir” He said, as Leo gave him a small nod, then shut the door behind him, silence falling once again in his room.
He stood in front of the box for a second, arms folded.
Then, without much ceremony, he ripped it open.
And froze.
Inside, cushioned in thick mana-treated foam, was a photo-frame-sized rectangular slab, about as large as a small TV screen, if not a bit heavier and thicker.
Metal corners reinforced it. Its back pulsed faintly with embedded rune channels, and the entire thing looked more like a siege weapon than a dimensional portal point.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Leo muttered, staring at the object like it had just insulted his intelligence. “They actually want me to carry this inside the Vault?”
He crouched, inspecting the reinforced corners, the density and the ridiculous weight distribution of the frame, before reaching the conclusion that there was no way this would pass unnoticed through the Black Serpents Security, as let alone fooling a proper security scan, this would probably not even fool the guards stationed outside.
“Idiots… I’m working with idiots,” He sighed—and then noticed a slim envelope wedged into the packaging, as he unsealed it with growing frustration.
—
“To the agent in charge of this drop:
This is a bi-directional dimensional gate. You are to place it within your target location and activate it using the accompanying core. Do not misalign it. Do not move it after calibration. It is fragile and dangerous once powered.
Detailed instructions on how to align and power it are attached in the form of a drawing on the backside of this message.
Follow new episodes on the "N0vel1st.c0m".
– Supreme Master Argo.”
—
Leo’s head tilted slightly, brow furrowing as he flipped the paper and saw a detailed diagram on how to connect the power core to the frame and how to then secure it to a wall.
Along with it, he found the small energy core in the middle of the foam packaging, which although being palm sized, still hummed with incredible energy.
He stared at both objects in silence.
And then the headache began.
“You’ve got to be kidding me, I really am working with idiots!” he repeated, louder this time.
This entire plan was already a nightmare.
He was a cult agent infiltrating cult technology into a dangerous assassin organisation vault, however, now that technology had turned from a small pocket sized object that he was promised into a heavy TV-sized frame, that was half his height and twice the weight.
“Fuck me!” He muttered, as he leaned against the wall, ready to make an early morning rant call to Mu Fan—when he spotted something else tucked beneath the frame.
A smaller box, no bigger than his fist.
He opened it cautiously, as inside he found a spherical black object the size of a keychain, that was smooth and cold to the touch, and had another folded note taped to it.
—
“Figured your politician who probably gave you this mission didn’t think about how you would get it to your desired location, so this is something extra I’m sending with the package.
It’s another Dimensional Portal, with a working range of 10 kilometers.
It doesn’t have a mana presence and it’s untraceable.
If you eat it 2 days before the mission, you can probably pass any security check and make it to the other side safely.
It’s durable so don’t worry about your stomach acid damaging it. But you may have to hold your bowels till you’re ready to bring it out.
Once out, you may use your own mana to activate it, and it should allow you to retrieve this frame, if you follow the instructions I have drawn on the back of this letter.
Good luck.
– Argo.”
—
Leo blinked. Then let out a quiet breath. Not quite a laugh— but close.
“Well… at least one of you idiots had a brain,” he muttered, placing the orb on his desk and giving it a slight roll with his fingertip.
For all the incompetence and high-handedness the Cult liked to operate with, this Argo fellow seemed to know how to cover for their messes.
And oddly, Leo felt… calmed by that.
He glanced back at the frame, then at the orb, before finally looking at the back end of the second letter which showed a complex diagram on how to set up the photo frame just above a drawn portal array, that would provide a connection for a short duration of 20 seconds when activated.
He could theoretically use that connection window to grab the frame and bring it inside the vault to then complete the remaining steps of the mission, however, it wasn’t going to be easy for sure.
It was still going to be a logistical nightmare to complete this mission— and a severe loss of moral integrity if he really had to swallow and poop out the portal ball, however, at least now, he had a viable method to complete the mission.
“Alright,” Leo said under his breath. “I guess we’re doing this.”
He gathered the documents, repacked the orb, and dragged the heavy frame to the corner of the room, propping it up against the wall, just beside his storage cabinet.
There were still details to iron out, such as the mission timing, plan B if things went wrong, an exit strategy, etc, but at least now he had the tools he needed to carry out this mission.