Secret Base

"And we have arrived."

The place Triss pointed at was not different from their surroundings in design. Buildings with a mix of gray and yellow spread out as far as the eye could see, seemingly designed by the same person.

The alley was dark with patches of shade here and there, and no one was out on the streets—just two children and some wandering animals.

On the side of them were five same apartments facing the exact copy of them, three stories on each, about to dust off from old age. It was a wonder how these buildings could withstand the magnitude 4 earthquakes Stone City frequently faced.

That much of a size was nothing to other buildings, but to these street rat like buildings, it was another story.

However, this scenery was much more brilliant than Leon expected.

'The windows are still intact, huh?'

What he expected was an abandoned, windowless building that even the ghosts of the night wouldn't want to live in. That was how the hideouts of these kinds of terrorists, underground organizations in the novels he read and the movies he watched.

His intelligence quotient was enough to determine that they should not live in a place like that if he took a moment to think. If there were such a place right in the middle of the city, the guards would have already bombarded it with their sheer manpower.

"By the way, I've heard that organ harvesting was a thing a century ago."

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

Looking at her always-innocent eyes once was more than enough to feel ashamed of even joking.

"Nothing," before Triss could even open her mouth, "So, how do you differentiate the buildings? Like which one of them is yours and all?"

"Ah, that's easy."

She happily walked toward the window on the first floor and pointed at the left corner.

"There, you can see it for yourself."

"I can see nothing, though."

"Can't you see the 'R' word?"

Knowing what he should be looking for made things easier for Leon. He squinted his eyes and checked the corner carefully for a good twenty seconds, almost making Triss drop from boredom. Eventually, though, he saw a little 'R' word, the kind that you can't see unless you really focus on it.

"So, this is how you guys do your thing?"

"What thing?"

"I mean, knowing which place is yours and all."

"Yeah, something like that, but it's cool, right?"

"No brainer than I thought. However, it could be effective since it was hard to notice."

"Yep, now let's go."

The door of the apartment was already ready to welcome them. Their footsteps resounded through the empty entrance that didn't even have a single door on it. Steps of walking on empty ground changed into rhythmic steps of walking down.

It was a three-story apartment, but seemingly there were two more towards the downside. The last one, minus two, where they had stopped, had two doors. Triss went with the one on the left, using a regular key to open it, in contrast to the more advanced card keys or those that could only be opened with a retinal scan.

This much normality was too much for Leon. After all, he was about to get to the base of the organization that killed a heck of a ton of God's Guards. The organization that tries to overthrow the Gods, and no one knows what kind of powerful members they have.

Moreover, the same organization was formed by the people who fought against the Demigods, the mighty saviors or conquerors to some.

His brow twitched a bit in irritation, "Are you for real?"

"What is it this time?"

"Sigh…"

"What's up?"

"Nothing, let's just get in."

"Sure."

Inside of the house was completely normal, no different from any other house out there. All the standard pieces of furniture, television, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen—everything a typical house should have—were in this house.

The kitchen was up ahead, just parallel to the front door. Triss turned her head to the room on the right that looked like a living room for a second. But she chose the left side where there were three doors, two on each side while the other one was at the front.

She took the one on the right side, the bathroom.

Surprisingly, it had more empty space compared to either of the kitchen or the living room that Leon managed to slip a look into when passing through.

t had so much space that even if ten people were to stay in there, there still could be some leftover space.

"Hehe, the real thing starts now."

Taking Leon's interest from the spacious bathroom to her hand, that lifting the window above the washbasin. Under it was nothing but an emptiness.

The bathroom's walls were the same in design as the entire house, brick like wallpaper. However, there was nothing in the place she chose to touch. At least for a few seconds.

The moment Triss's hand met with the brick, a bright blue digital light appeared. It was a scanning device.

While her hand was being scanned, Triss's smile was also getting wider. She was quite satisfied with the fact that she could amaze Leon for a second.

'Isn't it unnecessarily bright?'

Fwuush!

This time, Leon felt the genuine surprise. The first one to disappear was the washbasin. Unlike the first opening, it was as quiet as the light when showed the way to them.

Following the washbasin, the entire window part opened, creating a black hole about 1.90 centimeters tall and 30 centimeters wide. It was more than enough for Leon and Triss to walk side by side.

Let out a giggle of joy, "How is it?"

Surprise on his face along with a smile, pointed with his right index finger, "This time was really good. I'll give you that."

"But you have seen nothing. Hehe, follow me," she really was enjoying the moment right now.

It took around five steps inside to have the light sensors brighten the surroundings. Five steps were to activate the light sensors, a huge margin of delay for Leon, but he didn't care about it.

Walls were completely metallic, coldness was still in them, but seemingly it wasn't something out of the ordinary.

After about ten seconds, Triss turned to her right.

Unlike before, this time, everywhere the eye can see was the same. Maybe that is why she just nonchalantly touched somewhere on the wall. Her hand got scanned once again, and the success showed itself as having the wall open like the washbasin a minute ago.

It didn't take more than ten steps inside for Triss to stop.

"We are heading down this time."

"How?"

"Come here."

Pat! Pat!

Two times.

Pat!

One time.

Pat! Pat! Pat!

Lastly, three times.

This was all it took to have the under of them open and welcome them with good old stairways.

"Unnecessary."

"H-Huh?" She got the most unexpected reaction, "Why?"

"After coming all this way, we have to use a code that is as easy as breathing, huh? Are you kidding me? If someone managed to come all this way, that means they also can easily solve this kind of easy sh*t, can't they?"

"W-Well…"

"Whatever, let's go. It's not your fault, anyway."

"S-Sure… Thanks…"

Then she literally jumped.

Tap!

"If it's that short of a distance, why the hell are you guys bothered to put a stairway?"

Tap!

"It seems like a necessity."

"Unnecessary."

"Fine."

There was only one path to their right. This time, they walked for about twenty seconds. Triss's frustrated steps were quicker than Leon's lazy ones.

"This is literally an elevator."

Instead of opening her mouth, she just went to the rectangle-shaped device. Horizontally stationed her palm, fingers facing the left side, towards Leon. Five seconds later, the above of the device, the place that wasn't any different from the walls around, opened horizontally.

Since she's done this many times before, she coolly looked at the newly showed up area where there's just a blue and white screen.

The same colors as on the screen brightened the outside, aiming Triss's head. It didn't take more than ten seconds to close back and have the elevator open itself.

"Unnecessary?"

"Kind of necessary."

"Let's see how you will criticize this."

Her confident smile that kept vanishing and appearing was here again.

She shot a glance at Leon before taking her eyes to the elevator.

Yet, the sheer number of floors was enough to have Leon raise an eyebrow in confusion. It started at minus four to all the way up to six, which was quite absurd.

"Check this out!"

Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!

Quick and nimble. That was how her fingers were when excitedly touching the numbers randomly.

Twenty seconds all it took for the elevator's door to close and their quick journey to below start.

"Unnecessary?"

"Necessary."

"Hahaha."

"Heh, you should have expected this much."

"Sure, sure. Hahaha."