Chapter 127: [127]: Smash and Grab, Corporate Security

The Platinum Vault was no longer an auction house. It was a warzone.

Apostle Vane pulled himself entirely out of the rubble. His corrupted purple aura flared with malice. The Void entity had just been physically batted across a room by a player registering as a low-level merchant!

The system logic in his hijacked brain was screaming in confusion.

"You mask your data!" Vane shrieked and pointed a jagged finger at Sebastian. "You are an anomaly! I will strip your spoofing code and feed your true files to the abyss!"

"Yeah, good luck with that." Sebastian replied and cracked his knuckles.

Down on the stage, the sleek NPC auctioneer was absolutely losing his mind. His self-preservation AI had kicked in. He grabbed the thick containment cylinder holding the Regional Core and bolted for the backstage exit.

"Oh no you don’t!" Gwen yelled from the upper booth.

The smuggler vaulted over the velvet railing and dropped twenty feet down into the aisles. She did not use magic. She hit the ground rolling and came up on one knee to raise her heavy kinetic pistols.

BANG! BANG!

Two armor-piercing slugs tore across the stage. They did not hit the Core. They hit the auctioneer squarely in the back of his right knee.

"Aaaargh!" The NPC screamed as his leg buckled instantly.

He collapsed onto the polished obsidian stage and dropped the containment cylinder. It rolled heavily across the floor. The massive blue diamond inside pulsed with a deep glow.

"Seattle, grab the rock! I will handle the bug!" Sebastian ordered without taking his eyes off the Apostle.

Vane did not go for Sebastian. He saw the Regional Core rolling on the stage and lunged for it. His tattered cloak billowed behind him. He needed that anchor to spread the Void corruption across the server.

Sebastian intercepted him.

He did not have his teleportation. He could not bend space without blowing his cover. He just relied on his heavily synchronized biological muscles.

He pushed off the marble floor with terrifying speed and intercepted the Apostle right at the edge of the stage.

Sebastian threw a brutal right hook aimed directly at Vane’s chest.

Vane raised his arms and attempted to block the strike with a wall of corrupted purple mana.

Sebastian accessed his suppressed inventory. He pulled a Tier 2 [Armor Pierce] buff and fed just enough of his glitched multiplier into it to shatter the ward without triggering the planetary alarms.

CRASH!

Sebastian’s fist punched cleanly through the purple shield and sank deep into Vane’s digital sternum.

"GUH!" The Apostle choked. He staggered backward and clutched his chest.

Before Sebastian could follow up, a blaring siren erupted from the ceiling. The lighting in the amphitheater snapped from warm gold to a harsh red.

[WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED ASSET ACQUISITION DETECTED.]

[INITIATING LETHAL LOCKDOWN.]

"Boss! We have a massive problem!" Gwen yelled from the stage. She had just scooped up the heavy containment cylinder and secured the Regional Core under her arm.

Sebastian glanced up.

Dropping from concealed hatches in the ceiling were a dozen Aegis Corp Automated Defense Turrets. But these were not standard bullet-spitters. They were heavy rotary plasma cannons designed to turn armored vehicles into puddles.

And they were all tracking Sebastian and Gwen.

"Corporate security is always so dramatic." Sebastian sighed.

The turrets spun up with a terrifying whine.

WHRRRRR.

"Drop the asset and lay flat on the ground!" A synthesized voice boomed from the security grid.

Apostle Vane laughed as his health bar slowly regenerated. He tapped into the fear of the room. "The server’s own immune system will kill you for me!"

"Shut up." Sebastian grunted.

He needed to disable the turrets, but an EMP or a massive gravity well would instantly flag him. He had to be subtle.

He opened his UI and grabbed a Tier 0 spell called [Basic Trip]. It was a garbage skill used to make low-level goblins stumble.

He pushed his multiplier into it and carefully evolved it just to Tier 3.

[Frictionless Surface]

He targeted the mechanical gears and tracking mounts of the ceiling turrets. He did not break the guns. He just deleted the friction holding their targeting servos together.

"Fire!" The automated system commanded.

The turrets unleashed a blinding barrage of blue plasma.

But because their internal gears had zero friction, the massive recoil of the guns sent them spinning wildly out of control. The turrets basically had a mechanical seizure!

They sprayed plasma indiscriminately across the ceiling and blew up the crystal chandeliers. They blasted massive holes into their own housing units.

BOOM! CRASH!

Showers of sparks and melted metal rained down from above. Two of the spinning turrets accidentally shot each other and exploded in a massive fireball that shook the entire room.

"What the fvck?!" Gwen screamed. She ducked as a rogue plasma bolt melted the podium ten feet away from her.

"Just bad maintenance." Sebastian yelled over the explosions. "Run for the exit!"

Vane roared in frustration. He raised his hands and prepared to unleash a massive Void attack to clear the room.

Sebastian did not give him the chance. He scooped up a heavy broken piece of a marble chair from the aisle. He did not cast a spell. He just threw it like a major league fastball.

WHAM!

The chunk of marble hit Vane square in the face. It interrupted his cast animation and knocked him flat onto his back.

"Come on!" Sebastian barked and sprinted up the aisle.

Gwen was right behind him and hugged the heavy cylinder containing the Regional Core. They burst through the ruined oak doors and left the screaming corporate elites, the exploding ceiling, and the dazed Apostle behind them.

"That was your version of keeping a low profile?!" Gwen yelled as they sprinted down the hallway of the Platinum Vault.

"I did not use a single black hole!" Sebastian argued. He casually kicked a security drone out of the air as it tried to scan them. "I call that extreme restraint. Now, where is the elevator?"

"End of the hall!" Gwen pointed as her boots pounded against the marble.

They reached the glass elevator. Gwen slammed her hand against the call button. The doors hissed open, and they threw themselves inside.

"Under-City, express." Gwen commanded the interface.

The elevator lurched and plummeted down the side of the skyscraper at terrifying speeds.

Sebastian leaned against the glass and let out a long breath. He looked down at his left wrist. The iron Spoofing Drive was smoking slightly, but the green runes were still holding. He had not triggered the planetary firewall.

He looked at the glowing blue diamond sitting in Gwen’s arms.

"We got the anchor." Sebastian smirked and wiped a speck of dust off his suit. "Next stop, Earth. Time to upgrade the neighborhood."