Chapter 1378 - Chaos in the Inner City

Having Paths that revolved around stealing was pretty damn rare in the multiverse. Thieves didn’t tend to live long, as they made a lot of enemies, and it wasn’t as if wanting valuables was anything unique to any Path. All monsters could benefit from absorbing powerful natural treasures, so it wasn’t uncommon for them to sometimes rob one another, though this thievery often ended up with a battle.

That was why most creatures who had good stealth were also more than capable of fighting if they had to. In fact, in many instances, rather than steal an item and risk a fight afterward, they would strike the current owner of the treasure first in the hope of either killing or seriously injuring them. In these cases, could it really be called stealing if one killed the owner first?

However, while they were rare, those who did have Paths focused almost solely on obtaining treasures, often by stealing them from others, tended to be very good at what they did. They more or less had to be, as if not, their race wouldn’t have survived long, given the number of enemies they made simply by living in accordance with their Paths.

One such creature that had already made many enemies throughout the system event was naturally Jasper, the little Shimmershroud Planeswarper. As could only be expected, he was one of the first Administrators to make his way into the Inner City, having simply phased through one of the walls.

From there, he did what he did best without a single soul ever noticing his presence. Jasper effortlessly appeared inside shops and stole everything within a minute or two before quickly disappearing. Unlike Jake, he didn’t show the same caution and instead went straight to the nearest store to maximize the efficiency of his looting spree. He didn’t fear being discovered, as quite honestly, nothing was able to see through his magic.

While Jake had to make sure no one was looking at him when he stole an item, Jasper didn’t have those same concerns. He simply appeared in front of a treasure, created an illusory veil around himself and the item, then stole it; only after he was done would he reclaim the veil. From the store owner’s perspective, it just looked like one of his items on sale had teleported somewhere without any warning, definitely not helping the C-grade cyclopes level of panic in the streets Jasper was sweeping through.

As could only be expected, an Investigator was soon put on the case. The powerful B-grade, with abilities specialized in finding thieves and other criminals, searched all the stores carefully. He took notes, used all his skills, and did everything he could to find the Shimmershroud Planeswarper.

Eventually, he discovered the pattern of Jasper’s careless movements and went ahead of the thief, staking out the next store he would hit. The Investigator had been correct, and when the criminal finally showed up at the store, surrounded by hidden Officers and an Investigator ready to spring his carefully laid trap, the result was exactly as one would expect.

Jasper stole his hat.

--

Investigating crimes was a difficult endeavor even before the system, and now, with magic and skills, it had both gotten easier and a lot harder at the same time. Harder in the sense that there were many skills for a killer to hide what they’d done or escape detection, and easier due to tracking skills, karmic magic, divination, or even time magic, allowing one to rewind time and witness a scene of the past.

However, there was one way to avoid being detected that worked just as well after as it had before the system. One way to commit the perfect crime:

Never let anyone know that a crime had been committed. The easiest way to avoid an investigator was to never have an investigation start in the first place.

One way to accomplish this was not to leave a corpse. Rather unique to this Inner City, slain cyclopes actually left corpses and didn’t just turn into blue energy, and even if killing a C-grade wasn’t difficult, it was very hard to do without leaving any clues, especially when one considered the massive size of the cyclopes living within the Inner City.

There was one very consistent way to never leave behind a corpse or even any traces of combat, though:

To kill them somewhere else.

Teleporting a kilometer-tall cyclops away would naturally be quite noticeable, but there were certain individuals with a perfect ability to hide both themselves and their victims. Assassins who were used to striking and disappearing with everyone around being none the wiser.

One such assassin was currently hidden in a store, waiting for the last customer to leave. Once the cyclops was gone, Caleb didn’t hesitate to strike, and before the store owner could even realize what was happening, he found himself within the Shadow Realm right before a bolt of black lightning obliterated his body in a single strike.

At the same time, back in the store, a worm and an old swordsman were busy taking every item marked as a treasure for the event. It didn’t take long for the two of them, and soon after, Caleb reappeared, having left the corpse of the cyclops within the Shadow Realm, never to be discovered. By the time anyone even noticed he was missing and got worried enough to raise the alarm, they would already be long gone. Besides, the Investigators had way more pressing cases to worry about.

“Get in quick,” Sandy said once the final treasure had been claimed. “An asshat is running our way because asshats decided it was a good idea to flee down this specific street.”

Caleb didn’t hesitate as the worm ate him and Sword Saint quickly before proceeding to fly towards the floor. Rather than crash into the stone, Sandy phased straight through it and into the ground beneath the building, then turned towards the next building they planned to hit, digging through the ground to reach it.

Well, calling it digging didn’t feel entirely accurate, as they technically didn’t dig through anything. Caleb wasn’t sure how it worked, but Sandy described it as “going in between all the small gaps in everything” or something like that. He could try to understand it, but honestly, Sandy wasn’t the best at explaining and clearly didn’t care to be either.

“How does the next store look?” the Sword Saint asked.

“It seems like we can... and, nope, it was just hit by a fireball,” Sandy grumbled, annoyed. “These people, I swear to all that is delicious, they need to learn some darn subtlety.”

“Hitting a store further in seems safer,” Caleb said, shaking his head and letting out a sigh.

“Yeah, I think we’ll have to if we want to avoid getting caught up in the chaos of all these incompetent asshats being chased by giant asshats,” Sandy complained. To clarify, the first asshats were other Administrators, and the giant asshats were the Investigators, which Sandy had dubbed asshats because of their hats.

“That does appear to be our best option,” the Sword Saint nodded, noticeably less opinionated at this stage of the system event, instead leaving most of the decision-making up to Caleb and Sandy.

While he was definitely the strongest among them by a wide margin, this wasn’t the kind of place where power alone would help much. Sure, the old man could stay hidden pretty decently, but his stealth skills honestly weren’t anything to write home about, and while he could effortlessly kill the store owners and even slay the Officers, that wouldn’t exactly help much.

They had all seen what happened if one caused too much of a ruckus in the Outer Garden when people tried to fight the cyclopes that had come to investigate. While the Administrators initially looked like they were winning, the situation rapidly changed when a Cyclops Magi walked out of the gate and created a crater the size of a continent, killing the Administrators who had caused the issue.

Well, most of them, anyway, because while it was a little embarrassing to admit, the three of them had been part of the group fighting the cyclopes back then. Not intentionally, mind you. They had wanted to avoid combat, but they were caught up in the situation when Sandy was struck while hiding underground, and seeing as it looked like they could take out the guards, the Sword Saint and Caleb had joined the other Administrators to fight back.

At first, they had indeed been winning, but when that Magi appeared and started channeling what looked like a second sun, Sandy quickly acted and ate the Sword Saint and Caleb right before the massive orb of flames descended and destroyed everything, leaving only the oddly praying cyclops behind, who were somehow undamaged.

That, and a very crispy worm.

While the attack of the Magi had been more than any regular early B-grade could hope to handle, Sandy wasn’t the average early B-grade when it came to durability. Sandy was a very tanky worm, but even then, they’d been significantly injured from the blow and needed about two hours to fully recover.

That two-hour delay had caused them to miss the initial opportunity to rob stores before things turned chaotic, even if they’d managed to go through the wall and had avoided the gate by using Sandy’s space magic.

“Oh, hey, I see someone!” Sandy suddenly said, before slightly changing direction. “Now, that’s not surprising. Yeah, I would totally expect him to be in that kind of situation, seeing how bad he is at subtlety. His ego alone takes up way too much space for him to ever hide himself.”

“The Forest King?” the Sword Saint asked, Caleb thinking it was a little hurtful to conclude who Sandy was talking about based on that description.

“Who else?” Sandy confirmed, speeding up further while staying below the ground, using their spatial perception to continue sensing everything happening in the surrounding area. “And would you believe if I told you he’s currently fighting an Investigator and a bunch of Officers?”

“I would believe it, but I doubt he’d be that dumb to outright battle them,” the Sword Saint said, being at least a little less hurtful with that statement.

“He’s not. He’s trying to escape, but the asshat is hot on his ass, so he’s not getting away. Trying though, and if he makes it to the sewer, I guess he’ll be okay,” Sandy said, Caleb and the Sword Saint both nodding.

The sewers seemed to be the safe space of this Inner City, at least when it came to the cyclopes. They didn’t pursue anyone who escaped into the sewers, making it the only real place anyone could escape to if they didn’t have good stealth skills to help them get away. Not to say that the sewers were safe. They were just the only option sometimes if one had been discovered, though Sandy hoped to present the King with another.

“You’re okay with another passenger, right?” Sandy asked. Caleb and the Sword Saint were both about to answer as the worm spoke again.

“I wasn’t asking you two. Tom already gave his a-okay, so I’m going in for a golden bite of Unique Lifeform.”

Right then, Sandy started flying directly upwards and returned to the surface world once more. Upon doing so, Caleb and the Sword Saint could finally see the outside world, where they immediately spotted the Unique Lifeform fleeing not too far away with nine Officers and an Investigator chasing after him. They kept launching attacks, but the King managed to deflect or block them all. However, it was only a question of time before one of them managed to pierce his defenses or the Unique Lifeform messed up.

Speeding up, Sandy used some kind of boosting skill to make themselves faster as the worm moved to cut off the path where the King was fleeing by flying through a building. When the King was close to the outer wall of the house they were flying through, Sandy suddenly phased through the wall and inhaled the Unique Lifeform right in front of the many pursuing cyclopes, as well as a good few bystanders looking curiously at what was happening.

Sandy quickly changed direction and went straight down, facing into the ground right as a spear stabbed for where the worm had been mere moments earlier. The cyclopes tried to tear up the ground for a few seconds, but Sandy was already long gone, now with another person in their stomach.

“You’ve looked better,” the Sword Saint said with a light chuckle after the Golden Forest King appeared right next to them, the Unique Lifeform indeed looking a bit worse for wear. He didn’t appear very injured, but being hounded and chased by giants still clearly took a toll.

“I shall not deny that I found myself in a rather unfortunate situation, so the assistance is appreciated,” the King answered, shaking his head. “Fools got me involved when they were being chased. I killed them for their transgression, but the cyclopes simply changed their target to me.”

“I would also blame others if I got caught trying to shoplift,” the Sword Saint said in a teasing voice.

“That is perhaps the worst part. I have managed to acquire treasures from only one store, and the sole reason I could even do so without being discovered was due to it being abandoned because of a nearby battle,” the King said, seeming pretty deflated with this stage of the system event.

“This certainly seems like an event that heavily favors those more inclined towards stealth,” Caleb added. “Everyone else seems forcibly delegated to the sewers unless they want to be in for a very bad time dealing with an army of angry cyclopes.”

“And the threat of another Magi showing up,” the Sword Saint sighed.

“Magi?” the Forest King questioned.

The Sword Saint briefly explained what had happened at their gate, making the King fall silent for a few moments before speaking again.

“I see. At my gate, a creature called a Spearmaven appeared and stabbed forward, launching a beam that obliterated everything in its path besides the other cyclopes,” the King said. “It appears that nearly every gate had a similar scene play out. Unsurprising, seeing as there are bound to be fools everywhere, and a single fool could easily cause a chain reaction that forces others to fight, eventually leading to a master appearing to teach us Administrators a lesson.”

“Which begs the question... won’t these masters also appear within the Inner City sooner rather than later if this goes on?” Caleb asked. “Granted, they can’t unleash the same kind of attack as they did in the Outer Gardens, but just one or two of those monsters could chase down and slaughter most Administrators. The only reason anyone survived the initial appearance was their lack of interest in following up on any attack to make sure they’d finished off everyone.”

“See, that’s why we’re trying to get away from all the asshats, because they keep attracting asshats, and if too many asshats get involved, I also expect even worse asshats to appear,” Sandy said, being as clear and concise as always. “Our main goal is the Palace of Abundance anyway, though I would love to do a bit more shopping on the way.”

“Hey, we have another member now,” the Sword Saint smiled, giving the King a look.

“I will need some time to fully recover, but once I have, very well, I’ll join your endeavors,” the Unique Lifeform agreed before proceeding to enter meditation, speeding up his healing process.

Caleb looked at the Golden Forest King and Sword Saint, honestly starting to feel sorry for anyone who dared provoke Sandy at this point, now that the worm had the possibility of spitting out not one but two absolute monsters.

Well, Caleb was also there, but the Judge knew that of the three, he was definitely the weakest... except at this particular stage of the event, as, honestly, given the requirement for stealth, these two would only be liabilities if not for Sandy.

When they reached the Palace of Abundance, he had a feeling that things would be very different, though.