Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 110 - 106: Magic Suppression Device

Chapter 110: Chapter 106: Magic Suppression Device

As soon as they reached the door, they were stopped by the gunmen. One of them blocked their way, looking at the odd trio, he asked, "What do you want to do?"

"The master wants to take this girl away!" Luo’er stated, trying to sound firm.

"When did the master say that?" The gunman questioned, then he turned his head to his comrade, who shook his head in confusion.

"This nouveau riche is a gifted new student at the Magic Academy, the master is very interested in her!" Luo’er continued to bluff.

"Newly rich, magical genius?" The gunman looked back at his companion, hesitating before asking, "Audrey?"

"Yeah," his companion nodded, and then added, "The academy has been discovering many magical geniuses recently."

Their dialogue was still in English. Even though it sounded a bit stiff, Luo’er and his companions were able to understand it.

The gunman nodded somewhat unclearly, then turned back and asked, "What does the master want with her?"

"Is that something you should be asking?" Luo’er answered coldly.

The gunman was speechless, looking to his comrade for help. The latter shrugged, implying it was up to him. The gunman then moved aside and motioned, "Go ahead, just greet the people inside, don’t let them mistake you."

Luo’er let out a sigh of relief, he looked at his companions, and then led Tangmo into the building. He had been here twice before and was quite familiar with the layout. They bypassed the hall, climbed the stairs, walked down a long corridor, and finally arrived at the library.

There were over a dozen gunmen in the library huddled at a table, discussing strategic deployment. Luo’er led his party past them, keeping a low profile, their heads down. As they walked past the bookshelves, Cheng Ziang hesitated for a moment. He took a round M67 fragmentation grenade out of his vest, pulled the pin, and placed it under a bookshelf, piling two books on top of it.

This was the only path from the library to the archive room. If anything happened, and these people happened to pass by and accidentally touched these two books, they would be in for a lot of trouble.

The trio finally arrived in front of the archive room. Two gunmen who seemed to be more professional than those in the academy guarded the entrance.

"What’s the matter?" One of the gunmen blocked their path.

"The master wants to see her!" Luo’er continued.

"When did the master say he wanted to see her, and why haven’t I ever seen you?" This guard was clearly more alert than the others outside, and his words almost took Luo’er aback.

"Are you certain you have never seen me?" Luo’er spoke gravely, "This girl is an up-and-coming aristocrat, a genius newcomer at the Magic Academy, Audrey. Didn’t you know the master wanted to take her away?"

"When did this happen?" The gunman asked suspiciously.

"It seems it’s not your place to interfere in the master’s affairs; he specifically assigned us to this task. We’re doing it for him." Once again, Luo’er replied coldly. Unable to come up with a good lie, he continued to follow this routine.

"If it were the master’s business, we would certainly know. Who exactly are you?" The gunman challenged, ready to confront them.

"What’s going on?" Suddenly, the wooden archive room door was swung open. Without the protection of magic runes, it was just an ordinary wooden door. A large man walked out, his face still covered. Yet, Luo’er recognized him from his comportment.

This was the spy infilterating the Academy. It now appeared he was the commander of these men.

There were two gunmen behind him. Luo’er’s peripheral vision swept into the archive room, confirming that there were only these three men inside.

"Master!" Upon seeing the man, the guards immediately greeted him respectfully.

"You are the commander, aren’t you?" Luo’er asked him.

"The question is, who are you? You don’t seem to recognize me. What’s with the bandages on your arms?" The commander asked, furrowing his brows as his gaze fell on Luo’er’s arm.

"Do you remember Xiluo?" Luo’er did not answer the question directly but chose instead to change the subject.

"Why do you mention him?" The commander queried.

"We seem to have discovered the cause of Xiluo’s death!" Luo’er revealed a shocking secret.

"Xiluo? Who killed him?" Upon hearing Luo’er’s words, the commander became quite excited, even overlooking Luo’er’s identity.

"He..." Luo’er hesitated for a moment, then pulled Cheng Ziang over. Looking at the commander, he said, "This man knows how Xiluo died."

"How did he die?" The commander asked anxiously, looking at Cheng Ziang. His eagerness to know about Xiluo’s death made him overlook the long dagger hidden behind Cheng.

"Him..." Cheng Ziang began, then slowly raised his head. His eyes flickered with a beast-like glimmer as he revealed a ferocious grin, "I killed him!"

"What, you!" The commander was taken aback. Before he could react, Cheng Ziang had already made his move.

With a kick, he shoved aside the commander in front of him. The two hands behind his back each held a throwing knife, which he accurately jabbed into the necks of the two gunmen beside him, pushing them to fall backwards.

The two guards who were about to fire their guns saw him let go of the knives. Swiftly, he drew a long knife from behind and made two slashes before them. The throats of both gunmen were immediately sliced open by the sharp blade, and a torrent of blood gushed out instantaneously.

While the commander was struggling to get up, Luo’er came forward, pushed Cheng Ziang away, raised his pistol, and shot him in his forehead. The bullet pierced through, splattering his brain and blood all over the floor.

Knowing they had given themselves away, Luo’er, not minding the nastiness, pulled Tangmo into the archives room. He then picked up a rifle from the floor and handed it to Cheng Ziang.

Cheng Ziang nodded and took up his post at the doorway. Inside the archive room, there were indeed only those three dead bodies. Luo’er’s eyes immediately caught sight of the odd contraption placed on the table.

He wasn’t sure how to describe this device. It was a little larger than a basketball, with a square base made up of peculiar rhombus geometric figures, an asymmetrical mass that seemed completely chaotic.

Luo’er took a step forward to examine it. The material of the object was unique, it was neither metal nor stone. It was jet black and glowing, giving off an inexplicable gentle warmth. He noticed a strange handle-like thing on the base, surrounded by some scale marks.

He counted them and found exactly twelve divisions. Placing his ear near the object, he heard the ticking sounds of mechanical movement from within. It seemed probable that this device, similar to a clock, uses mechanical potential energy for its functioning.

"Luo’er," Tangmo suddenly called out to him. She was staring blankly at the device, appearing somewhat dazed.

"What is it?" Luo’er turned his head and asked.

"I can feel it," Tangmo said with her eyes closed, "All the magic in the vicinity of this thing is stagnated."

"Feel it?" Luo’er asked puzzlingly, as he felt nothing at all.

"Mm-hmm," Tangmo nodded, "A very subtle feeling."

"So you’re saying, this gadget is the device causing the magic prohibition?" Luo’er looked at the strange contraption incredulously, "Where did these guys get this thing from?"

He thought, if the United Nations Army of Earth had such a thing back then, suppressing all magic on the battlefield, the outcome of the Second Otherworld War would have been completely rewritten. And now, he needed to decide whether to report this item to the headquarters.

After much hesitation, Luo’er decided to draw the object and send it to the headquarters. As for the prototype, he thought it would be better to destroy it.

Just as he was about to take action, a violent explosion sounded outside, and he raised his head to look at Cheng Ziang and asked, "What’s happening?"

"What do you think is happening? Do whatever you need to do quickly, and I’ll hold them off!" Cheng Ziang retorted, reloading his ammunition, and then raising the rifle and leaning out to fire at the panicked gunmen.

"Bang, bang, bang..." His rapid, continuous firing took out three gunmen, and the remaining ones hurriedly hid behind bookshelves and began to return fire.

The bullets splattered against the walls, but the thick walls made it difficult for the small-caliber bullets to penetrate, making for a reliable cover.

Luo’er anxiously looked around, suddenly noticing a row of tube-like objects wrapped in oil paper with long fuses exposed sitting on another table.

"TNT!" Seeing this, Luo’er instantly had a plan. So he told Tangmo, "Moumou, set the explosives. We’re going to blow this place up and make sure no one gets out!"

"Okay!" Tangmo nodded. She had also noticed the explosives on the table, so she picked them up, bundled them together, and began setting them up.

The secret tunnel entrance within the archives room was wide open, merely concealed behind a wooden board. To prevent anyone from climbing up, he pulled out a hand grenade and tossed it in. After hearing the explosion, he finally felt somewhat reassured.

He turned around, casually found a file with blank paper from the archives, tore it off, and began searching around. He finally found a steel pen on a desk.

It was a pen from Earth. He unsheathed the pen cap and flicked it. Assuring it still had ink, he began nervously sketching out the strange device.

His quick sketching skills were not as good as Baiyue’s, so the drawing was rough. In the meantime, Tangmo had set up the explosives and came over to Luo’er, anxiously watching him.

"Are you done yet?" Cheng Ziang shouted loudly. He leaned out and fired a few shots, inviting a barrage of return fire. He knew if he continued to delay, the entire academy’s gunmen might swarm in, which would be a disaster.

"Done!" Luo’er threw the pen away, quickly stashed the still-drying sketch into his pocket, and yelled, "Barricade the door!"

"Yes, sir!" Hearing Luo’er’s command, Cheng Ziang, felt as if he had been liberated. He tossed aside the rifle, pulled out a hand grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it out. Taking advantage of the ensuing chaos, he closed the wooden door and toppled the hefty archive shelf onto the door to secure it.