Chapter: Chapter 21The east wing of the Kuroda mansion was where sound went to die.Nobody lingered back there. Staff walked in, did what they came to do, and walked out again. You could feel it the moment you turned into that corridor, something that made your voice drop on its own and your feet go careful. Could've been the medicine smell that never left the walls. Could've been something else. The kind of feeling that comes from knowing something sad has been happening in a place for a very long time.Hana walked the hallway. Her shoes were quiet on the carpet. There was nothing on the walls, no pictures, no mirrors, just that same pale paint she'd been looking at for three years now. She knew this corridor the way you know your own bedroom in the dark. The creaky spot under the carpet near door six. The handle on door nine that wobbled if you turned it too fast. She knew all of it without thinking anymore.She stopped at the last door. She held the handle of the door, pushed it open and went in.The
Last Updated: 2026-05-26
Chapter: Chapter 20Hiroshi had both hands on the wheel, knuckles still white. The truck noise was louder than he wanted, but he kept his foot down anyway.Mika spoke again through the earpiece."Next left. Two blocks down. Alley behind the old noodle shop. You shouldn't come down here to the basement. I don't want to be discovered. Do you copy?”“Sure.”He turned left. The tires screamed on the wet road. The truck pulled sideways. He got it back on track."Two blocks," he said."Two blocks."He counted. One. Two. He swung right into the alley. The truck barely fit in. Both sides of the truck scraped the walls the whole way in. The metal was dragging on the brick.He didn't stop."The basement entrance is behind the dumpster. Green door."He parked and cut the engine. The quiet landed all at once. His mind felt like he could still hear the noise and all. But it's all quiet now. He just sat there for a bit with his hands still on the wheel. He finally relaxed his face and shoulders. Then, he took a deep b
Last Updated: 2026-05-23
Chapter: Chapter 19Hiroshi moved before the guard could say jack.Two steps was all he took. He used his hand to cover the guard's mouth. The guards lips were soft under his palm. Breath warm and wet coming out through his nose. He tried to shout but the sound didn't get past Hiroshi's hand.Hiroshi's other hand found the side of the guard's neck. The exact spot Mika had shown him. He pushed his thumb in hard.The guard's eyes rolled up and backwards. His whole body went loose. Knees buckled. Hiroshi caught him on the way down and lowered him to the floor slowly. The guard's head touched the carpet without making a sound.Hiroshi stood up and straightened up. His heart was going hard. He looked at the drive still in the server. The green light was still blinking. A notification came from the system.LitRPG: [Data Transfer: 87%...]Then the radio on the guard's belt crackled."Zen? Are you there? Report."Hiroshi went still. He looked down at the man on the floor. Out cold. Nobody was answering that."Z
Last Updated: 2026-05-22
Chapter: Chapter 18“What? I can do this. You really don't know what I am capable of.”Mika's voice came through the earpiece. Flat and tired."The code changes every hour," she said.His jaw tightened. "I won't be needing that info. I can see it was tightly screwed. I'm gonna unscrew and get back to you."He pressed his palm flat against the door. Cold metal. Solid. He wasn't breaking through it. Not quietly anyway, not fast enough.He looked back down the hallway. The stairwell door was still closed. The guard is still on the floor. But that wouldn't last. "The guards downstairs are going to come check on the one I knocked out."Mika went quiet for a second. Then he heard her breathe out through her nose. Long and slow. “You only have your hands with you. How on earth are you going to break it?“With my hands.”“What are you? Superman?’“Yep. Maybe more. Sometimes, I forget what I really am.”"Then stop talking to me and start working," she said. "Look at the keypad. Is there a panel next to it?"He lo
Last Updated: 2026-05-21
Chapter: Chapter 17He had his back against the north wall of the warehouse. The metal was cold through his jacket. He looked up. The drainage pipe was exactly where the blueprint said it would be. Rusted and old but it looked like it would hold.Mika's voice came through the earpiece. Barely a whisper."Fog's good," she said. "Moves with you. It covers your shape perfectly.""I can taste it," Hiroshi said."Good for you. But you have no time for that now, stop tasting and start climbing."“You right.” He smirked. He grabbed the drainage pipe with both hands. The metal was rough under his fingers. Its lakes of rust started to come off on his palms. He pulled himself up. His feet were finding the brackets. Arms doing the work. Three weeks ago he couldn't have done something like this. Three weeks ago his arms would have given up before he got anywhere near the roof.Now they just moved with no form of fatigue.He climbed fast. Hand over hand. The fog swirled around him.He reached the roof and pulled himse
Last Updated: 2026-05-21
Chapter: Chapter 16For the whole day, the blueprints stayed on the wall of Hiroshi's bedroom.He put them up across from his bed. When he woke up the next morning, they were the first thing he saw. He stood in front of them for hours tracing the hallways with his finger. Counting the cameras. Memorizing the guard rotations until he could close his eyes and walk through the whole building.Mika's voice came through the laptop on his desk that evening. Her camera was off. It was just her voice. Scratchy. Tired."Show me the path again," she said.Hiroshi pointed at the roof. "Skylight here. Drop to the catwalk. East hallway to the server room.""How many steps?""Forty seven.""Cameras?""Six. Two at the start. One at the corner. Two in the middle. One at the door.""Rotations?"Hiroshi closed his eyes. "The first gives fifteen seconds. Second gives twenty. The corner gives ten. The two in the middle give thirty together. Last gives twelve.""Guards?""Twelve on night shift. Two on the ground floor. One i
Last Updated: 2026-05-17
