【Name: Otherworld Door (Door, Space, Escape)】
【Appearance: No physical form. Manifests as a strange door with indeterminate width, size, thickness, material, and style.
The only definable feature is a cork plaque always found on the doorframe of the parasitized door, bearing the strange inscription “I just wanna run away,” carved with a fingernail.]
【Ability: Parasitizes doors, enables dimensional travel, crisis relocation]
【Cost: Before the ‘door’ disappears, you’ll permanently lose part of your strength/everything you own, becoming a wanderer in the Otherworld]
【File: An anomalous item belonging to the leader of the roaming rebels in the capital, Nathan. Created by the Aquarius Director of the Clearing Bureau for his wish, temporarily designated as 0001.
As part of the Aquarius Director’s most proud work, to ensure the safety of this anomalous item, he forcibly meshed it with another called the “Escape Plaque,” granting the holder an extraordinary escape ability.
Thanks to the powerful effect of the “Otherworld Door” which can ignore distance and teleport, even though they’ve been relentlessly pursued by the Kingdom for years, the rebel group with over a thousand members has never truly been exposed—until during one of their attack operations when they caught the attention of Leon Lain, a cleaner from the Virgin Branch…】
【Evaluation: Possesses the powerful ability to freely shuttle between all doors in the entire capital, and can unconditionally activate in times of crisis, instantly removing the holder, making it almost impossible to capture.
Additionally, when personally opened by its first user Joshua Robien, this anomalous item reveals its true form, becoming the “Otherworld Door” that briefly connects to the future.]
【Taint Value: 0.1】
Shit, watertight…
Looking at the repeated words “escape,” “crisis relocation,” and “impossible to capture” in the item description, Leon couldn’t help but click his tongue in his mind while eyeing this “Anywhere Door,” temporarily discarding any thoughts of seizing it.
There’s no other way to put it; whether it’s the director when he’s sober or that old silver coin, the Aquarius Director, anyone who climbs to a high position in the Clearing Bureau seems to cover both head and ass, not leaving even a pinhole-sized gap for others to exploit.
Thinking about it carefully, it’s normal. After all, if someone were really that careless and didn’t leave enough backup plans, they wouldn’t have made it to the upper echelons of the Clearing Bureau. Probably within the first few months of joining, they’d already be dead due to the ten percent annual fatality rate. Among these people, those who aren’t cautious are the minority.
Hmm… Even if I likely won’t be able to get my hands on this extremely useful anomalous item in the end, I’ve already accomplished three hidden objectives: finding the hidden prince, meeting the pair with memory abilities—the “grandparents”—and gathering quite a bit of intel. It looks like it’s time to reel them in.
Regretfully pulling his hand off the [Otherworld Door], Leon reached into his pocket and tapped a small mirror, signaling Puppy to fetch the valley terrain map—or rather, the location map of the rebel hideout—that he drew yesterday. He immediately sent word back to the bureau and turned around, walking back to his seat under everyone’s astonished gazes.
“Nathan-sama, your ability must be foretelling the future, right?”
After voicing his “deduction,” Leon glanced at the sullen middle-aged man seated at the main position while secretly switching out his [Elite Performer] badge, revealing an expression of extreme disappointment.
“I’m sorry, no matter what you saw in the future, I still believe that your command led us to a series of grievous mistakes.”
…
If I had “called for reinforcements” yesterday, the one coming to “reel them in” would’ve been our director. But now, the director has probably already set off for the General Bureau to initiate an inquiry against Aquarius. So, the person stationed at the bureau should be Emma Senior.
Since the rebel base isn’t in the capital but in a remote mountain valley far from the city, it’ll take Emma Senior some time to arrive. Add the time it takes for Puppy to run back through the Mirror World and report, and it’ll likely take about forty to fifty minutes.
What I need to do now is, in these forty to fifty minutes before the “net” arrives, find a way to hold everyone here, especially the middle-aged man as the leader, and the pair with memory abilities, so Emma Senior can arrest them and fully complete the predetermined covert objectives.
After confirming his task was to buy time, Leon didn’t wait for the middle-aged man to refute him and directly declared with shocking statements: “I don’t know what kind of future you saw, nor why you attacked the boarding tower, but there’s one thing I’m clear about—if we continue following your commands, we will only lead ourselves to new failures!”
“…”
“What do you know?”
Hearing “Xiaoba Jin’s” extremely decisive evaluation, the middle-aged man, who had endured for a long time, couldn’t help but feel a surge of anger. Standing up, he glared furiously at Leon and said: “You have no idea what kind of future I’ve seen! If you don’t follow my orders, next Krook… um…”
At this point, the middle-aged man hesitated slightly, then touched his temples, sat back down abruptly, and angrily rebuked:
“You don’t understand anything!”
“I understand.”
Seizing the opportunity of successfully provoking the other party’s anger, Leon quietly returned the small mirror after playing his trick, then observed the disarrayed middle-aged man. After looking at his suddenly much grayer temples, he calmly asked:
“Yes!”
Under the influence of the Black Goat’s rage aura, the middle-aged Joshua’s IQ temporarily dropped by thirty points. He directly admitted to the guess, feeling the flames of anger inside him growing stronger. He restrained himself from cursing and instead glared malevolently, questioning:
“If you believe I can see the future, why do you doubt my decisions?”
“It’s simple. I’m not doubting the future you see, but your judgment of the future. Or, to put it more bluntly, I doubt you as a person.”
Amidst the stunned expressions of the rebel group, “Xiaoba Jin,” who had just joined the core group of the rebels, stood up and looked earnestly at the middle-aged man, saying sincerely:
“Nathan-sama, I apologize, but I believe you lack the talent to be a leader. Even if you can see the situation of the future, you cannot make the most correct judgments based on the information obtained… And I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks this way.”
After saying this, Leon glanced around the room and nodded apologetically:
“My apologies, everyone… Those who agree with me and think Nathan-sama lacks the talent to be a leader, please bow to me.”
?!!! Completely unexpected that Xiaoba Jin’s argument with the leader would involve them, the startled group of rebels, influenced by the [Travel Thrush Prince]’s effect, all stood up again and bowed deeply to Leon in unison.
The only two people in the entire room who didn’t bow were little Phoebe, who had fallen asleep on the table at some point, and the bald woman, a staunch “leader faction” member.
However, more devastatingly, after seeing everyone “agree” with Xiaoba Jin’s words and believing Nathan wasn’t a qualified leader, the bald woman hesitated for a moment and, swayed by “inner turmoil,” bent over too.
“You… Impossible! You’re lying!”
Seeing each member of the rebel group stand up and bow to Leon, the middle-aged man couldn’t help but shake violently, but quickly regained his composure and glared angrily at Leon: “Your ability’s activation condition is definitely not convincing others! I’ve always been right in the past! Every operation, even if not successful, I’ve always managed to retreat safely! I’m an excellent… at least a qualified leader! They… they shouldn’t feel this way!”
“Alright…”
Upon hearing this, Leon didn’t argue with him but looked at him with a hint of pity, then nodded obediently:
“If thinking this way makes you feel better… then let’s say I lied to you.”
“…”
Having been thoroughly betrayed in front of everyone, even if he manages to escape from Emma Senior later, he probably won’t consider running away with the others, right?
Looking at the middle-aged man whose confidence had been unprecedentedly shattered, completely dazed by the sudden “betrayal,” Leon decided to add fuel to the fire while the iron was hot.
“I actually understand why everyone thinks this way.”
Amidst the bewildered expressions of the rebel group, Leon sighed directly and spoke on their behalf:
“Nathan-sama, you don’t realize that those of us willing to join the rebels want more than just successful attacks—we want to tangibly see a better future!
This future doesn’t refer to the kind of future you see, but everything is changing for the better! The future of everyone, even the entire kingdom, is moving towards improvement, but what have you given us?”
Pausing here, Leon gave everyone time to think along his lines but didn’t give too much time before summarizing for them: “Attacks! Attacks! More attacks!”
“Attacking merchants, attacking officials, attacking nobles, attacking royalty… You don’t know how to make everything move forward for the better; you only know how to carry out meaningless destruction again and again!
In the years you’ve led the rebels… Sorry, I couldn’t think of any other non-derogatory terms, but only ‘rebels’ fits our meaningless actions over the years.”
After questioning the “legitimacy” of the rebels’ existence, turning the face of the middle-aged Joshua pale, Leon, accustomed to killing with words, mournfully added: “After your many years of relentless attacks, have the greedy factory owners become kinder? Have the corrupt officials become competent? Have the arrogant nobles become restrained? Has the consistently inept royal family changed?
If none of these things have happened, then what exactly have you attacked? You’ve only been leading us around carrying out ‘successful’ destruction, failing miserably in every other aspect. How dare you call yourself a qualified leader?
Nathan-sama! Do you now understand why everyone is unwilling to continue following you?”
(End of Chapter)
