It took me several minutes to notice that the city was suspiciously devoid of life. Nobody was walking around, the shops were closed, as were the houses' windows. Along the walls, there were several posters pinned, all resembling each others. Frowning, I approached one, to see if it could shed some light upon what was happening.

It didn't take long until dread filled my heart. My name, and a crude drawing of my face, over the words "Wanted". Several lines at the bottom, explaining the reasons- some legitimate, like me having forbidden knowledge, and others... not so much. Like fighting the "CPU Candidates". But then again, ASIC was strong in this nation, so...

Nevertheless, I started walking again, towards the Basilicom. If I had any doubts I needed to finish this now, they were finally gone.

"Target is approaching, Boss!"

"Do you have indications on his final destination?"

"He seems headed towards the Basilicom, Boss!"

"What? But we sent all our troops away! Who would be stupid enough to attack the Basilicom? Boss, we need to-"

"I want every soldiers still here slowing him down, if they can't capture him. I will not tolerate failure. Understood?"

"Yes Boss!"

I, surprisingly, managed to arrive in front of the Basilicom with no problems- apparently, the thought that I would storm the governmental building was so dumb, they didn't think of putting guards all around the perimeter.

But that stopped quite quickly. As soon as I opened the doors, I saw three soldiers, pointing their weapons at me. I could notice even more soldiers guarding the several hallways connected to the main hall.

"Stop right there, in the name of the law!", screeched the first one. I looked them over, and noticed that they were probably rookies, considering the way they held their weapons. There were two with some kind of rifle, and the last one had a big-ass sword he probably picked because it sounded cool, and could barely manage to hold.

I smirked, but deep inside I was starting to panic. That was probably the worst idea I ever had, and will ever have. "How about you drop your weapons, and I won't hurt you?"

The two gunners started firing at me, but I was prepared. With a shout of "Twinkle Star!", I managed to parry and reflect their bullets at them. Without even leaving them the time to process what happened, I ran towards them, knocked them both to the ground, before dodging the last soldier's strike. His sword may be to big for him, but that didn't stop him from trying to use it.

I stole one of his companions' gun, just to smash it into his face. As he fell to the ground, holding his nose in pain, I took the opportunity to kick him in the stomach, and then his two allies too for good measure.

I looked around, and noticed several more soldiers coming from other corridors, as well as a staircase. I hesitated for a hot second, before running there to go higher- I really doubt they'd leave the Basilicom's most secret and/or sacred treasure easy to reach.

"He managed to breach into the Basilicom!"

"What are you waiting for, send more guys after him!"

"It would help us to know where he's going."

"Yeah, well, until then, focus on blocking every paths!"

I went up the staircase, and to my surprise there wasn't a battalion of soldiers waiting for me at the end. Just another long corridor, littered with doors leading to other rooms.

Still, I could hear footsteps and loud voices coming from behind me, so I opened a random door, following my instinct, and went into the room.

As I looked around, I noticed that I wasn't alone. Somehow, I stumbled upon some kind of research lab. And there were at least ten scientists still working on... Something.

Before I could do something, one of them took out some kind of walkie-talkie, before calling for reinforcements.

The other scientists all started taking various items, to battle me or maybe slow me down, and that was when I realised I was doomed if I continued that way. I slammed the door behind me open, and started running in the corridor, trying to get to the other end.

I ran for what felt like hours, but was probably just under a minute, until I finally reached what looked like an elevator. Which opened, leaving me in front of a massive beast of a man.

The being, easily 2 meters tall and almost 1 meter large, then took a device out of his pocket, and said, in the deepest word I've ever heard, "Beefcake is stopping tiny manchild at elevator 3. Allowed to smash?"

I couldn't hear the answer, but judging the smirk "Beefcake" made, I didn't care to ask. He then took out a massive warhammer, and in the most sadistic glee I have ever seen a human show, he screamed "Beefcake will turn tiny intruder into pancakes!" and slammed his warhammer towards me.

I managed to jump backwards, and dodge the hit. And I did well, because the floor cracked with the pressure, showing that his size wasn't for show. Luckily, his swings weren't very fast, so I could spot them, and dodge accordingly, but I knew I wouldn't be able to defeat him, no matter what I tried.

I looked behind him, and noticed that the elevator was still open. I spared a look behind me, and sure enough, there were soldiers coming towards us. I only had less than a minute to enact some kind of plan.

I ran towards Beefcake, and sure enough, he was already starting to slam his hammer down to squash me like a bug. I dodged to the left, letting his weapon hit the floor, breaking it a bit more in the process.

I went behind him, and entered the elevator, before I started pressing the higher button. It seemed this specific elevator only went to floor 3, but that was still a win in my book.

"What's the status, Beefcake?"

"Tiny manchild managed to skip fight with me. Entered elevator towards kitchen. Beefcake evacuated all kitchen staff except cook chef. Refused to leave."

"Alright. I want everyone storming floors 3 and 4! Send in elite soldiers to keep an eye on the Restricted Zone!"

As the elevator went up, I tried to think about a plan. Obviously, the Basilicom was bigger than I expected, and I had no idea of where I was supposed to go. I couldn't just continue running everywhere, because I wouldn't be able to do that all day. Already, I was feeling a bit tired, and if they had more soldiers like this Beefcake, then I wouldn't last long. I needed to find some kind of map.

The elevator's doors opened with a quiet "ding", leaving me in front of a massive kitchen. Devoid of life, safe for one man, in a black and blue apron, wielding a really big butcher's knife.

He took a step forward, and smiled. "Hello there, young child. Was there something you needed?"

I paused, and looked around. It didn't feel like an ambush, but the man was way to calm considering what was happening. "Maybe. Do you think you could help me?"

His smile grew larger, and he took another step forward. "I definitely can, young one. I just need to confirm something with you."

"Sure, what do you want?" I answered, trying to slowly get around him, towards a door.

He tutted, and suddenly the elevator's door closed, and several "clicks" resounded in the kitchen. "Now, do not be hasty. We'll be here for a long while. Tell me first... Who are you working for?"

"Even if I wanted to tell you, I couldn't. And if I could tell you, you wouldn't believe me anyway." I clenched my teeth, and raised my lance. "What do you want?"

The man spread his arms open, and his smile became even bigger. "What I want? It is quite simple, young child."

Suddenly, he stopped smiling, took out another butcher's knife, and threw it at me. "I want to get back to working, and for that I need to capture you!"

I narrowly dodged the knife, and took position. He did the same, raising his knife, and frowning at me. With no more words, he ran towards me, and attempted to stab me, but I didn't decide to wield a lance for no reasons. I swung my weapon, effectively hitting him in the head before he could even approach me, and followed that by a thrust to the shoulder.

He managed to dodge the strike, and countered by throwing his knife again.

I couldn't dodge it in time, only managing to shield my chest with my arm. "Sonofa-" I removed the knife, and, raising my head, I noticed him taking another knife (again) and running towards me, probably intending to finish me off. I panicked a bit, and just blindly thrusted my lance in front of him, closing my eyes.

I heard a "clank", and opened my eyes. Blinded by his desire to finish me off, the chef didn't dodge my attack, and he was now impaled on my lance, his knife at his feet.

I removed my weapon from his body, and panicked a bit. Sure, he tried to kill me, but I didn't want to just leave him to bleed to death... Even through he would probably have done the same.

I took an healing pod from my bag, and activated it to heal him. I then took another, hoping it would stop the blood from flowing from my arm.

As I left the item some time to heal me, I noticed something glowing from the chef's pockets. Thinking it was maybe the keys to open the kitchen's doors, I decided to take it. Call it spoils of war, or something.

It wasn't keys. It was, in fact, a phone. An unlocked phone, with no passwords, PIN code, or anything to block me from entering.

A phone with what looked like a map of the basilicom.

Before I could check further to see if I really was that lucky, I heard a "click" coming from the doors. I panicked a bit, pocketed the phone, and hid behind the door.

Three soldiers entered, looked around, and noticed the downed chef. As they ran towards him, probably to check if he was okay, I decided to escape from the door they left open.

I closed it behind me, and for good measures, I jammed it using the chef's knife. I then took out the phone, and checked the map a bit. The third floor didn't have anything interesting, but the fourth floor had a whole location greyed, and named "Forbidden Zone".

I smirked. I finally had a lead.

"What do you mean, 'he escaped'?"

"We entered the kitchen, and we noticed that they managed to get the Headchef. We wanted to make sure he was okay, but the intruder appeared from nowhere and managed to best us even as we were piling up on him. Then, he destroyed the mechanism allowing the door to open, and we don't have the keys to open the others."

"Tsk. This is all coming out of your paycheck. I can't believe I have to get involved..."

"Boss, you don't need to-"

"Silence! Your incompetence has forced my hands."

There were many more soldiers patrolling the third floor, but since I managed to sneak out of the kitchen relatively undetected, I managed to move around without having to fight anyone.

I took my sweet time, doing so. I needed to rest a bit, and I wanted to make sure no one could find me. And so, it took me close to ten minutes to finally reach the fourth floor, and another ten minutes to reach the Forbidden Zone.

In doing so, I was left looking at what had to be the densest, most stupid morons I ever saw. A pair of soldiers standing near a place that looked exactly like the room before Leanbox's Sharicite Room, more heavily armed than the goons I fought at the entrance to the Basilicom. Turrets were turned towards them, but the two weren't bothered anyway.

"Hey hey, don't tell me it doesn't make you curious!"

The second soldier snarled. "Mate, ya wanna blow our cover like that? Lord Brave will be quite unhappy if he hears we were fired for something so stupid."

"Come oooon!", the first soldier whined. "It's not like there's going to be anything happening anyway, that guy is probably one of ours and if anything, he wouldn't come here alone. There's no way we'll have to stop him, and there's no way that filthy Oracle will ever know we went there!"

I narrowed my eyes. If I understood what was happening, then these two were probably ASIC soldiers. Which meant Linda was right about the group infiltrating the Basilicom, but also wrong, because the leader/oracle wasn't on board.

Which meant I made an actual enemy out of an entire government, with no way out. Nice.

A massive "pop" went off, prompting me to calm down a bit, and I looked at the two morons again. Or what was left of them, since where they were sat just two little piles of ashes.

I sat there stunned for a second, before I saw the turrets turn towards my location. Panicking, I chucked one of my EMP grenades where the turret was, and it blew up.

The lights went off, I heard several tiny explosions everywhere around me, and a whirring noise started emitting from the massive doors guarding what was probably the Sharicite Room. Several turrets started falling to the ground, and others just buzzed a bit before stopping completely.

The doors finally opened, and I entered the room. In front of me was a massive cristal. Shimmering, glowing with rainbow color. Floating high above the ground.

Lastation's Primal Sharicite.

I took out my tools, and started chipping away a little shard of the Primal Sharicite. it was a delicate process, because I didn't want to take to much, but at the same time I didn't want to have done this for nothing, so I needed a big shard.

In the end, I cut a cristal as big as my hands, and stored it into my bag. As I was doing this, I noticed the cristal losing its colors a bit. Which meant that yes, even cutting a tiny part of it was enough to weaken it quite a bit.

Meh, I probably didn't do to much damage.

... I hope I didn't do to much damage.

I didn't look around me when I was getting out of the room, because the place was supposed to be forbidden, so the voice took me a bit by surprise.

"So that is the reason you wanted to get heavily forbidden technology."

I whirled around to look for the source of the voice, and found it quite easily.

Blue eyes below silver hair, the man was trying to burn me with nothing but his cold looks. "Aren't you that guy I saw at the blacksmith?"

His eyes twitched, and he began to snarl a bit, but then composed himself again quite quickly. "My name is Kei Jinguji. I am this nation's Oracle, and you are actually standing in one of the most forbidden area of this building, just after having caused several blackouts by using an item that was forbidden by the Oracles Council. If you do not want your sentence to be worse than it already is, then you will surrender immediately and give us all of your belongings. If not, your life is worth less than what you have stolen."

I paled, but at this point it was all or nothing, so I stood my ground. "You already know my answer, so let's cut to the chase."

He sighed. "I am a woman of my words."

He's a girl? It wouldn't be polite to ask but damn, I never would have guessed.

He- She took a device from her pocket. "Your new goal is simple. Forget capturing him, if you have a shot, kill him."

I took this time to flee as far away as I could. I could feel her icy glare all the way until I managed to flee from the Forbidden Zone.

I ran towards a staircase, as I already tried several elevators but my EMP apparently fried them all. There was one at the end of the corridor, and no enemy on sight.

Until suddenly there was. A massive shadow appeared, and I barely managed to dodge an incoming attack. One that cracked the ground where I stood seconds before.

"Beefcake found tiny manchild again!"

I looked up, and sure enough, it was this giant monster of a man, still wielding his giant monster of a warhammer.

He raised his hammer again, and I backed off quickly, making sure to not be anywhere near his range of attack. His attack cracked the floor even more, and there were tiny chunks of it starting to feel unstable.

I tried to see if I could just go behind him like last time, but he was taking care to block the staircase with his whole body. I thrust my lance in an attempt to stab him, but with surprising dexterity, he managed to deflect my hit, and punch me- or, he would have punched me, if I didn't jump backwards, again.

"Tiny manchild is avoiding inevitable! Just let yourself be squashed!" he roared, raising his warhammer. "I will break you, tiny manchild! Planet Crusher!" he screamed again, before slamming it down with as much force as he could muster.

The attack sent a shockwave that knocked me to the ground, and sent my lance flying away, several meters down the corridor. I tried to stand up, but before I could do that, the giant was already approaching me, his weapon raised high.

"Does tiny manchild surrender now? Or Beefcake needs to teach tiny manchild a lesson?"

I raised my head up, but before I could utter a word, a resounding "crack" echoed in the corridor. Beefcake looked down, before attempting to take several steps back. The reason became evident mere seconds later, as the ground broke beneath his weight, and he fell to the lower floor.

I managed to stand up again after close to a minute, and went to pick up my lance. Conveniently, there was still enough floor for me to reach the staircase, despite the massive hole. I dared look down below, and noticed Beefcake didn't seem to get up. Still, he wasn't bleeding, and several soldiers were already trying to help him. So I took the opportunity to climb the staircase, to an higher floor.

Many doors were locked tight in the fifth floor. As I was getting ready to give up and just try to blast one open with another EMP grenade, I managed to open one, that was standing near the staircase.

It led to a massive circular corridor which seemed to go around the whole tower. One wall made of solid steel, like the rest of the tower, and another made of glass, allowing people to look at the city. Probably some kind of restplace, or something.

I started following the corridor, cautiously, before I spotted a figure standing right in the middle of the corridor. As I approached the figure, I figured who it was: the supersoldier that infiltrated the Basilicom. I think she was called Uni.

Uni raised her gun, and started pointing it at me, before speaking. "Stop right there, or I will be forced to do a repeat or our last performance!"

I immediately raised my lance, and started rushing her. She took several shots, all of them missing, before I managed to close the distance. Still, if I thought it'd be easy because she was a ranged fighter, I was wrong: before I could even manage to hit her, she kicked me with enough force to send me backward, before she started charging a shot.

A flashback of our last fight briefly crossed me, before I raised my lance. As she shouted "Venom Shot!", I started spinning my lance, screaming "Twinkle Star!".

Except, unlike last time, the shot was deflected. As she stood there, shocked, I decided in a split second to just tackle her, as anything else would probably be too slow, and would let her gather herself back.

And I was right. My body collided with hers, and her weapon was sent flying. I got up, and tried to run to steal it, but she grabbed my leg, and made me fall by pulling as hard as she could.

I kicked her before she could get up, through, and we then both took a second to get up.

Then, she started to snarl. "What did you do? I refuse to believe you just became that much stronger in so little time, enough to parry one of my best skills!"

"I dunno," I shrugged. "Just trained as much as I could, I guess. Now, will you let me go, or do you want to fight without your weapon?"

She just starred at me, and took out another gun, this one bigger than the last. Her weapon started glowing black, and I realised she was doing some kind of charged attack. I ran towards her, because I wasn't sure I'd be able to use Twinkle Star on this one, let my lance fall to the ground and grabbed her gun.

We battled a bit for dominance for the weapon, before she kicked me again, strongly enough to make me lose my grip on the weapon.

"Ahah! Now, just-" she began, before the weapon fired. As it was aiming at the wall.

The blast was strong enough to not only burn a hole into the massive steel wall, but also knock Uni into the glass wall at the opposite side. The glass wall still stood, but with massive cracks- and before I could realise what I was doing, I was already in the air, attempting some kind of dropkick.

I fell to the ground, and it hurts because I've never done that and I don't know how to catch myself, but I heard a resounding crack. Then, pain.

I looked at my legs, and there was a massive shard of glass just chilling there, having pierced my leg and calling it a day. More importantly, where there previously was a wall, was now a massive hole, and no Uni. Oh, and dozens upon dozens of glass shards.

I took out another healing pod (my last one, I thought to myself), took out the glass shard out, and healed the damage as much as I could. Then, I got up, took several wary steps, before grabbing my weapon again, and crossing the other hole, leading me deeper into the fifth floor.

There was no time to think about the potential murder I just did.

There were no guards at the fifth floor, but almost all doors were closed. Still, I managed to catch a staircase going up, and I was finally at the sixth floor.

Now, I needed to find my way to the balcony, and quick, because I was starting to breathe really hard, and I was having difficulties walking. The pod's effects clearly weren't enough to heal my leg completely.

The sixth floor, like the one below, was completely devoid of life. But, unlike the one below, this floor's doors were all open. So I just started going through them randomly, hoping to find the correct one. And it worked, because I found my way to the balcony pretty quickly.

I also found a sword pointed at my heart. The silver-haired girl, Kei Jimbuji, was standing on my way.

"Did you think yourself slick? That you were the only one interested in stealing from our Basilicom? That your plan was unique? Please. We built this store down below to make sure we had a way to direct dirty thieves such as you somewhere where we could arrest them easily."

She then walked backwards a bit, before taking a fighting stance. "Still, I have to admire your audacity. A one-man assault against the whole Basilicom? With the CPU Candidate not just still in the Nation, but inside the building? To steal our Sharicite, and destroy us? Why, we are lucky you didn't just destroy the whole cristal. It proved to us how bad our defence protocol was."

"Is there a point to what you're saying, or are you waiting for backup?" I asked, taking my lance out, and taking my own fighting stance.

She smirked a bit, before getting her composure back. "Not really. I merely wanted to vent a bit, is all. Still, you managed to defeat the Candidate by yourself. True, she was severely weakened because of your actions, but impressive nevertheless."

I shook my head. "If you still believe her to be a CPU, then I can't do anything for you. Just know that if you're still doing nothing, people are starting to take actions to stop these people."

"You may have motives, and they may be good. But for once, I'll allow myself to stop being merely this nation's Oracle..." she started, before rushing me, trying to pierce my heart. "... And I'll instead become this nation's last protector!"

I dodged, but she predicted that and corrected her movements to still hit me, leaving a deep gash in my chest. I tried to retaliate by swinging my lance, but she dodged just by moving her head a bit, and slashed me again. She would have continued, had I not managed to kick her away from me.

I looked at her, and then noticed- we were at the balcony. There was no point in fighting her, because I already determined she was not with ASIC. So I did the only thing I could think of.

I ran towards the end of the balcony, and barely noticed Kei's "NO!" as I jumped and attempted to prepare a graceful landing. And, well, I managed a landing at least.

I rolled several times, and then barely managed to get up, before looking behind me. A huge sign greeted me. "Megastore Nowa".

I looked up, and saw Kei punching the balcony's railings angrily. Giving her a salute, I looked around, before noticing, at the back of the building, emergency stairs.

Within ten minutes, I was outside the city. I didn't even see a single guard.

I looked at my wounds. They were bleeding a bit, but they weren't that deep. One of them already stopped bleeding, and I just made a temporary bandage with my other clothes, by cutting a piece of the fabric with my lance.

Lowee was to the north, I think. And there's no way I'm going to be able to stay in Lastation.

No rest for the wicked, I guess. I looked at my bag one last time, to make sure I had the Sharicite, took out the chef's phone, and used the compass app to go north.

And you know what? When I'm back in Leanbox, I'm asking more money from Chika.

Author's footnote :

This chapter wasn't as hard to write as the last one. Must be because I already had a better idea of what I wanted to do. Also, I had time. Also, hey long chapter! I'm like a hundred words away from 5000 words.

Anyway, posting this one on a wednesday, and next one probably on a Tuesday. That way I'll be able to continue my Monday schedule. I hope.

Beefcake: A massive man, wielding a gigantic warhammer. His speech may be crude, but he's actually really smart behind his looks. (Guild Member, C rank). He's always wearing fur, for some reason.

Headchef: A man who dedicated his life to cooking, or so he says. He's rather swift with a blade. It's rare that he wears something else than the Basilicom's kitchen staff's garments.

Review Time ~

Ace-of-Weebs: Nothing can go wrong with such a well-thought, foolproof plan! I mean, it's not like he was just planning to go in, swipe the thing, and get out, right?

Moonlit Dreamr: Thank you very much! I'll be trying to keep uploading on a regular schedule, but life won't always agree with me, so... sorry!