Chapter 124

After taking all the artwork in the room, Alvin went to the safe. But after a quick look, he decided not to target it.

The safe was made of a strong alloy, and attached to the wall. He couldn't break it open to loot the contents, nor could he steal the entire safe.

He then went sat down, and waited.

After another 10 minutes, the watch he was given by Sven started beeping softly, signalling that the unit of Machinery Hivemind was in place. Alvin took a deep breath, and exited the door. He then rearmed all the traps he had disabled while going into the room, and broke through them with brute force and reentered the room.

He then ripped off the painting on the wall, and started fiddling with the mechanical lock, as he waited for someone to come.

Barely 20 seconds later, he heard heavy footsteps, and the door was swung open.

Alvin looked back to see a sharp-looking man in his mid-thirties with a goatee staring at him from the doorway.

"Well well well, what do we have here? A rat trying to take a second bite of food?" he asked tauntingly.

"I am a rat? And that makes you a cat? If so, I got to tell you, you are one funky-looking cat" said Alvin leisurely.

The man's face turned purple, but his voice remained calm. "Humour. A weakling's aggression. Now. You are going to surrender to me quietly, or you are going to have two broken legs" he said advancing.

Alvin took a defensive posture, and was about to detonate all the gunpowder he had hidden all across the room, when he suddenly felt a spiritual fluctuation from the side. He looked in that direction, as did Goatee opposite to him.

There on the wall, the faint outline of a door was visible. As they get watching, a hand holding a weird stick reached out from the door followed by the whole body.

A man who looked to be in his mid-twenties came out. He had blonde hair, and a clean-shaven face.

For a brief moment, Goatee, Blondie, and Alvin just stared at each other, confused.

Goatee was the first to react. He yelled, "Who are you? What are your plans here?"

As he yelled, Alvin felt a formless pressure enveloping him, that felt like electricity running through his spirit. Beside him, Blondie too was suffering from this pressure by Goatee.

"Interrogator" thought Alvin as he decided on his plan of action. Next to him Blonde tried to throw a couple of objects flailingly at Goatee, but Goatee kicked the object back to Blondie.

Alvin slowly pulled out his revolver, and fired a shot sideways. The bullet hit one of the fake paintings Alvin had planted, which was soaked in oil and had a large amount of gunpowder on its frame. The painting caught on fire in a small explosion, as did multiple objects across the room.

The Psychic Piercing by Goatee weakened as he was processing the fire, and Alvin used this moment to activate one of the functions of the Lifesaver.

With his current strength, the dark seed of the Lifesaver would only be a problem if at least 5 were planted within a short time. Since Alvin had changed into the face of Alvin Jonas long back and had never used the Lifesaver to change it to a different face for a while, that dark seed was resolved. Hence, Alvin had 4 uses of Lifesaver without being affected.

Alvin now used the flame transfer ability to quickly jump into a bunch of flames behind Goatee. And before Goatee could react, Alvin kicked him in the back.

Goatee reeled forward. This impact further disturbed his use of Psychic Piercing, and Blondie recovered. He took this opportunity to kick Goatee in the abdomen. As Goatee fell down clutching his abdomen, Alvin pulled out his revolver and started firing at Goatee. Goatee rolled out of the way, and threw objects at Blondie and Alvin. When he tried to get back up, Blondie yelled, "The ground here is dry, dry ground is slippery!"

Goatee immediately stumbled, Alvin took this opportunity to stomp his face to the ground. He roared, and pushed off Alvin and managed to stand up.

"How dare you!" he yelled drawing his own revolver and using Psychic Piercing. But unlike before Alvin and Blondie were farther apart, so they couldn't be affected at the same time. Blondie hurled one of the fake antique tables at Goatee, which he promptly kicked back. He then started firing shots. Alvin and Blondie dodged them, and fired back, while continuing to throw random stuff at Goatee.

"Why is he kicking aside all the stuff? They are slower than bullets, he could easily dodge them instead of taking the effort to kick them aside" thought Alvin.

He threw a table in a particularly wide-angle at a slow speed, and sure enough, Goatee raced over and kicked it aside. Seeing this, Alvin had an idea.

"The Black Emperor and Justicar pathways are very similar, and even the royal family has some people in the Black Emperor pathway. Could it be that he has fought against another Beyonder of the Black Emperor Pathway before, and is vary of a Bribe? Blondie has obviously displayed the powers of a Lawyer, and it is possible he Briber. Indeed, if he gets affected by a Bribe, and his Psychic Peirceing is not as effective, we would probably trounce him. Since he just has to delay till his backup gets here, he is not taking any chances" thought Alvin.

He made a couple more awkward throws as confirmation, and sure enough, it seemed he was trying to make sure that he wasn't perceived as 'accepting' a bribe by the loophole using Lawyer.

Alvin knew that he couldn't let there be a status quo. Soon, reinforcements of Goatee would come rushing in. The Machinery Hivemind would deal with them, but he had to get out of this room before that happened, because their battle style was a bit trigger happy. Hence, he decided on a plan.

Alvin then threw another fake antique porcelain vase at Goatee at a tricky angle. Since his hands and legs were otherwise occupied, he elected to headbutt the porcelain vase.

Immediately in contact, he realised it was a mistake, as his head cracked and he was flung backwards.

"Heavy charms are cool" thought Alvin from the side, as he immediately proceeded to land a high jump kick on Blondie.