The wild animals should be the most valuable goods of this organization, so I think they'll be kept in a more tightly-guarded warehouse.
[player]I think it should be the electronic lock on the right.
[Ciri]I'll agree with you then, since I don't know which one is right either.
[Oumu]I don't mind since I'll still be picking a lock anyway.
[player]Do you need me and Ciri to keep watch for you?
[Oumu]No.
In this short time we've been talking, I see that Oumu has already taken out a roll of transparent tape. He pulls off a piece and lightly presses it onto the number pad attached to the wall beside the door. After sweeping it back and forth with his palm a few times, he peels off the transparent tape and holds it up to the light. I can see traces of fingerprints on several numbers.
[player]It looks like there are seven digits.
[Oumu]This type of lock usually requires an eight-digit password. It looks like the number "8" appears twice in this password.
[player]Why?
[Oumu]If you look carefully, the fingerprint on "8" is clearer than the other ones, yet there is some overlap. Don't you think it looks like it was pressed twice in a row?
[player]You make some sense. How can we determine the order of these numbers then?
Oumu doesn't answer me. Instead, he looks at the fingerprints on the tape a few more times.
[Oumu]I usually need to perform a few more procedures... but I don't think I need to this time because this password is a birthday.
After he types something quickly on the keyboard, I hear a click that sounds like something opening. Ciri then pulls hard on the warehouse door and opens it halfway.
[Oumu]Do you now understand why various apps don't let you use birthdays as passwords?
I nod to express my understanding, but... it's really convenient to use your birthday as your password.
We are dumbfounded as soon as we enter the warehouse. Who would have imagined that the goods stored in this warehouse would be so valuable... There's another door in this warehouse, as well as another security guard who is sitting behind the desk at the door.
He is munching on a chicken drumstick in his hand seriously when we enter the room. The moment he raises his head and meets our eyes, his eyes glaze over for a moment. After that, he reacts quickly, holding up the drumstick with one hand and quickly reaching for the walkie-talkie on the other side of the table with his other hand.
Ciri reacts quickly, dashing forward with quick steps to strike him with a blow as fast as the wind. After the security guard falls over, she kindly cushions his head with her foot before it hits the ground.
[player]Do people really knock people out with a karate chop like in the movies?
[Ciri]I don't know because I hit them with the handle of my whip.
I look down at the security guard, who is now lying peacefully on the ground with his eyes closed, and the dirty drumstick that fell on the ground before it could be put away, shedding some insincere tears for them in my heart.
After Oumo closes the warehouse door, he walks over and looks at the security guard on the ground.
[Oumu]Let's finish this as soon as possible. There'll be trouble when he wakes up.
As he speaks, he searches the security guard and finds an access card. He then walks to the door behind the desk and swipes the access control system on the wall next to him. The door opens with a click.
When we walk in, I find that my experiences are indeed useful. There really are lots of valuable stored here.
There are safes lined up in a row here. If Shijukara is here, even he would know that it's not possible to store two red-crowned cranes in here. It seems that we've entered the wrong room.
[player]Ahaha... Let's try another door. I just knew I wouldn't be lucky enough to pick the right one on my first guess.
The security guard who was eating the drumstick is still unconscious when we go back the way we came, and we walk around him to the door. Oumu quietly opens a crack in the door. After seeing that nobody is there, he motions for us to quickly slip out and run to the door locked with a chain on the left.
Oumu takes a toolbox out of his backpack. After he opens it, I see all sorts of tools, ranging from slender steel wires to various types of screwdrivers.
He picks up two slender steel wires and inserts them into the keyhole, unlocking the lock after fiddling around with them a few times. Oumu catches the slipping chain quickly with lightning-fast reflexes so that it doesn't fall onto the ground and attract the security guards.
[player]The problem with this kind of lock is that once we enter this door, the security guards will definitely know it has been opened the next time they patrol this area.
[Oumu]If that happens, there are only two possible outcomes. Either the security guard locks it again from the outside, trapping us inside, or they will notice that someone has entered the room and enter it to catch us.
[Ciri]I prefer the second scenario because I'm confident in my fighting skills. It'll be more troublesome if we're locked inside.
[Oumu]It won't be a big problem. Before coming here, the boss and I agreed that I'd send him a text message every half an hour. If we don't leave this place within two hours or if I don't send him a text message within half an hour, he will assume something has gone wrong and come here to save us. However...
[player]However what?
[Oumu]If that happens, both sides will suffer great losses. People are bound to get hurt or die in fights.
[player]Please don't make something so terrible sound so commonplace.
[Ciri]Now that Soumu's got our backs, we'd better not waste any time here. Let's try to find the red-crowned cranes before we get caught.
[player]Well, if we can complete our mission before we're discovered, we can avoid having any direct conflicts.
The scene that greets me after I push open the doors and enter the room is not what I expected. I quickly estimate that the empty room has an area of around 200 square meters, and there's a door on the wall opposite us. On the floor are some marks leading to the door. Ciri kneels down to check this out.
[Ciri]This looks like the droppings of some kind of bird, but I can't tell if it's from the red-crowned cranes.
[player]This is a good sign. At least we have a direction now.
We run towards the door on the other side. This door is also locked with a chain, which is completely ineffective to Oumu.
After we enter the next room, we find ourselves in an empty room that is about 200 to 300 square meters big. The only difference is that there are two doors, one on the wall in front of us and the other on our right, and there is something that looks like the droppings we saw earlier on the floor leading to both doors.
[player]We found this trail again, but there are two trails this time. Could this be some kind of trap?
Ciri walks over and inspects them carefully.
[Ciri]This shouldn't be a trap. The droppings are darker on one side. Judging from the dryness, these droppings have been here for longer. The droppings on the other side are still semi-dry, so they should be relatively fresh.
[Ciri]It looks like both directions may lead us to animals, but I'm not sure which direction is the right one...
[Oumu]Time doesn't wait for anyone. Let's pick one randomly and see where it leads to.
I think Oumu makes a lot of sense. We won't get anywhere just by standing here, so I choose...
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