Eizen - All Strings Attached 3

During those 4-months that Myra was here at XALES, she studied all the mannerisms and habits of her co-workers. Mainly one co-worker, in particular, Stacy.

Stacy was a preppy uptight bitch who liked to assert her dominance whenever Mr. Jung wasn't present. According to Myra, she was moderately racist and discriminated against people based on their appearance. Targeting her was the easiest part of the heist.

We set our watches to 14:08 Eastern Time because Stacy had her scheduled lunch break at 14:15 every day for the past 4 years. She was the most tenured employee at XALES, but that didn't stop Myra from elevating past her within 4-months.

"Stacy, could you attend to that gentleman over there?"

"But Mr. Jung, my lunch-"

"Stacy."

"Fine."

Just as we planned, Stacy was clicking her heels as she strolled over to me. She was pissed. And I was about to make her life for the next 10 minutes a nightmare.

"Can I take a look at that diamond over there?"

I pointed to the section of Rehten exclusives that contained the Heavensbane Bull Diamond in the center.

"No offense, but I think that diamond is a bit out of your budget."

I always found it funny when people say 'no offense' followed by something offensive.

"Well, how much is it?"

"$2.5 million."

"Sheesh!"

Stacy was rolling her eyes and pouting.

"God damn! Do you guys sell the knock-offs by any chance?"

"Yep. Those are over here."

Myra's intel on Stacy said that she was all about money.

The fake Heavensbane Bull Diamonds were all $250-$2000 pending on the carats. Stacy wouldn't get much of a commission on these sales.

"Well then, I'll take one of those."

"Sure. Myra, can you fetch me that Heavensbane diamond display?"

"Fetch? I'm not a dog. Get it yourself. I'm busy with Mr. Jung's request."

"Ughhh!"

"Mr. Jung!"

Stacy went over to Mr. Jung and whispered in his ear.

Mr. Jung grabbed his head momentarily as I looked at Myra who just shrugged.

He ended up fanning Stacy away as she came back over to the counter.

"Sir, do you know which of the Heavensbane Bull Diamonds you want?"

With Stacy as the primary caretaker for the transaction, everything was falling into place as I expected.

***

Whenever we needed to have meetings related to our heists, we always met at Myra's house since she was renting a 1-bedroom apartment. Myra had texted us to let us know she had some new vital information regarding the diamond heist.

During Myra's first month working in XALES, she noticed they sold a lot of fake jewelry. Their consumer base was mainly non-adventurers. The wealthy elites that have never been to Rehten wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a real and fake gemstone. Generally, most shops put their fake jewelry in the display case.

There was a section of Heavensbane Bull Diamonds that was fake. The goal would be to switch the displays of the fakes with the real ones.

"You scare me sometimes with how shrewd you can be, Eizen," said Reginald.

"With the camera in the backroom linked to Mr. Jung's ability, how am I supposed to swap the diamonds?" asked Myra.

The key to swapping the diamond rested with countering the abilities of Mr. Jung. We had to make him fatigued.

Once Myra got to the back room, she had to be wary of 1 security camera.

Myra knew that all the security cameras within the store linked to Mr. Jung's eyes because of his Patrol ability.

[Patrol]

Affinity: Humana Realm

Cost: 5 Mana Cards

Rarity: Common

Damage Type: Mind

Ability: Synch your eyesight with a targeted lens object for 1 hour. Stackable. This cannot be used while the user is sleeping or unconscious.

Offensive: F

Defensive: E

It was a simple yet effective ability. If any object had a lens, Mr. Jung could take on its vision. With this ability, he could monitor his employees to ensure they wouldn't steal from him. Mr. Jung even called employees whenever they dropped a piece of jewelry to reprimand them.

Naturally, that patrol ability made things difficult, but it wasn't impossible to beat.

It seemed as if he focused all his monitoring on the backroom camera and the outside camera.

His ability could be defeated mathematically.

With the store hours being 0700 to 1900, Mr. Jung was active for a minimum of 12-16 hours. Thanks to Myra's appraisal skill, she gave us a more exact time frame of 0500 to 2100. From 0500 to 0700, Mr. Jung spends his time showering, getting dress, eating breakfast, and traveling to his store to meet whoever the opener is. Usually, he's in the store by 0630 and is setting up the store till opening at 0700.

Part of Myra's job over the past 4-months was to gather data on the usage of his patrol ability throughout the workdays. Essentially, the number of mana cards he spent on the backroom camera.

Through the preliminary data, Mr. Jung used his patrol ability from 2100 to 0500. We were initially confused about him using the ability while he sleeps. That was when Myra notified us of his second ability, Shared Pain.

[Shared Pain]

Affinity: Humana Realm

Cost: 10 MC

Rarity: Rare

Damage Type: Body

Ability: Select an inanimate target. Increase its max durability by 50%. You take one-fifth of the damage it receives. Non-stackable. Resets every 24 hours.

Offensive: C-

Defensive: B

It made sense how Mr. Jung could prevent all the armed robberies. When used with patrol, he could sleep comfortably for 8 hours. If there was a robbery, it would wake him up. He could alert the AOA, and the threat would be thwarted swiftly.

"So Mr. Jung uses around 60-70 MC per day just on surveillance?" said Ashton.

"Well, not exactly," I replied.

During the Rehten invasion, the humans who went through an awakening recalled seeing a blue hologram-like screen. When Myra went through her awakening, she described it as a video game-like system only she could see. Every time the system had asked if she wanted to use an ability, it asked her to spend MC, which we learned stood for Mana Cards.

When Myra told me that the blue screen she saw was like a video game, I instantly thought of all of those role-playing games in which characters would become ridiculously overpowered. A part of me was glad to hear that every Realmwalker possessed only 100 mana cards.

The other portion was that one's MC could only reset with adequate rest or through a magical item. I saw what Myra looked like when she had 20 MC remaining, and it looked as if she was going to collapse. She complained about how tired she was, and part of her vision was tanking.

"Mr. Jung has most likely never had to use 60-70 MC in his entire life. There were just a few incidents of armed robbery, but we could guess that only during those times did he spend that much energy," I continued.

"How is Myra going to accomplish this job then?" asked Reginald.

"Simple. We need to fatigue Mr. Jung. If we have him continue to waste his MC overnight, that should mitigate his ability to recover."

There were many ways to get Mr. Jung to continue to use his patrol ability overnight. We considered smashing one of his store windows, but the drawback would be the beefed-up security.

"Ah! Mr. Jung did mention that they were doing construction in his neighborhood soon. Wouldn't that keep him up at night? He's a light sleeper from what I combed through," said Myra.

It was undoubtedly cost-effective. It was a natural distraction that would make Mr. Jung have a restless night.

"Alright, let's go with that plan of attack."

I followed the updates on the construction in his neighborhood and found out they would be at it for an entire month.

After confirming Mr. Jung's schedule with Myra, we targeted the perfect day where he wouldn't have to work a closing shift and had to work an early opening shift.

We ensured Myra and Stacy closed the store the night before the heist. It was standard procedure to take all the jewelry in the display case and place them in the backroom during closing. The number of times Mr. Jung was nearly robbed warranted the double layer of protection with his magically reinforced doors.

Stacy's job was to inventory the jewelry that was sold and pass Myra the replacements to refill.

All Myra needed to do was mix the fake diamonds with the real ones.

Myra could only do this by bumping into Stacy to have the real and fake displays fall to the ground. All of this to target Mr. Jung and his attentiveness, thanks to his patrol ability.

Since Mr. Jung had called his employees every time an accident occurred, the play was for Myra to create the accident, so he would call her. We needed to know whether his patrol ability was still in effect during the closing period of 1900 to 2100.

All of this was to nullify the one ability that would ruin our heist, Mr. Jung's Appraisal ability.

With awakenings, everyone is born with a unique ability. While Myra was born with her appraisal skill, Mr. Jung had to acquire his skill, and since he wasn't an adventurer, he most likely had to pay a handsome amount of money to get it.

It did not shock us to hear that he had an appraisal ability. It makes sense for any jeweler or merchant to have that skill handy. We needed to know which Realm he formed a connection with when he awakened his system.

Luckily for us, it was the Humana Realm, which is pretty standard amongst all humans.

Unfortunately for Mr. Jung, he wouldn't be able to appraise Myra as she was an Asura Realmwalker. Appraisal is ineffective against those who are Asura Realmwalkers.

Myra had seen that Mr. Jung had not hired any Realmwalker or Adventurers to be staff associates during her interview. For him, it was disadvantageous, especially with the prospect of always looking over his shoulder, thinking about what abilities they could have. He couldn't spend the resources for that, considering he needed to protect his storefront.

When Myra and I came 5-months ago, it was to further enhance Myra's chances of being hired. Mr. Jung had appraised both of us when Myra applied. Since I wasn't a Realmwalker and he couldn't appraise Myra, the only choice was for him to go with his gut. Myra was everything he needed as an employee, like Stacy.

She was a workhorse during those 4-months and became trustworthy.

That trust is what I needed to bank on. It would ultimately lead to Mr. Jung believing that Myra made a mistake when she bumped into Stacy.

Myra notified me that Mr. Jung, in fact, called to reprimand her and claimed that he'd do the appraisal in the morning.

Bingo.

Stacy wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a real and fake diamond. She was only a sales professional. Mr. Jung would also believe that Myra couldn't tell the difference either.

Myra moved to appraise all the genuine diamonds with the fakes and made sure the switches were coordinated. When Myra and Stacy were done, they would lock up the store for Mr. Jung to handle the opening the next day.

I had to factor in many things, from Mr. Jung's work schedule to his abilities.

In the end, I estimated that if everything worked as intended, he would spend 60 MC.

I was wrong.

When Myra came into work on the morning of the heist, she texted us that Mr. Jung had used even more MC than we anticipated.

He spent 80 MC.

It would be physically impossible for him to use his appraisal ability on the diamonds.

***

It all came down to this one moment. Stacy was going behind the counter to retrieve the fake Heavensbane Bull Diamonds.

Thanks to Myra, she alerted me to which ones were the real diamond rings.

"You have great taste. The Heavensbane Bull Diamond is a rare delicacy even in Rehten."

"So I've heard."

"For your girlfriend?"

Why are you so talkative right now? Just shut up and give me the ring already.

"Yeah, I figured it would be a delightful gift for her graduation."

"Oh, then if it's a graduation, maybe I could interest you in-"

"No, just that one would be ok."

Maybe I was jumping the gun a bit. However, the longer she continues the draw this out, the more likely this plan will fail. It seems as if she just wanted to get some more money out of me since I ruined her lunch.

"I understand. That'll be $250. Debit or credit?"

Paying $250 for a $2.5 million ring sounds like a hell of a deal.

"Cash."

I had to leave no traces behind, even on the off chance that they could trace this back to me.

My stomach was turning into knots. Out of all the heists I've done till now, this is by far my most extensive one. My hand was shaking as Stacy swiped the debit card.

ChingkaChing ChingkaChing

"Would you like a copy of the receipt, or should I send a copy to your email, sir?"

SUCCESS.

"Paper receipt is fine. Thank you."

"I'll box this for you in just a moment."

My heart was pumping like no tomorrow as Stacy boxed that $2.5 million ring. When she handed it to me with the XALES pink bag, I had the biggest grin on my face.

I looked up to see Stacy undoing the bun in her long, blonde hair. She was actually cute with those deep blue eyes of hers.

"Is there anything else you needed?"

"No, no. Thank you once again."

"Mr. Jung, I'm going on break now!"

"Have fun!"

Mr. Jung was still preoccupied with Ashton and Reginald. I could tell he was visibly tired, and I kind of felt bad for him, almost.

I turned towards Myra, and she had the biggest grin on her face.

It was time for the last phase, the easiest but most neglected–the escape.

Thinking about it, this would have been one of the greatest heists of the 21st century. However–

I don't know when it all went wrong.

When I think back to how the day started, not even I could envision such an ending.

While I was standing there waving goodbye to everyone in the store, I felt a few cuts on the back of my right hand.

There were some inaudible voices also mixed in, coming from in front of me. More sharp particles were flying from behind me.

Soon they were accompanied by tiny red speckles mixed with the rock-like particles.

I looked up at Myra, as I'd never seen her so genuinely scared in my life. To lock eyes with her and see the sheer horror on her face–screaming–was something I never thought I'd witness.

The particles were picking up in velocity.

I felt intense heat coming from behind me as the sharp particles were rippling across the back of my head.

Blink

Something was thrusting me forward at an angle. I could see what looked like an arm, but it was unrecognizable. Mangled with a mix of red, white, blue, maybe some black, definitely some glass embedded.

Blink

Woah, I'm entirely in the air? Upside down at that. Wait a second. A truck? A fucking truck in the middle of the jewelry store?

Blink

This is a weird feeling? I can't feel anything, but I am sideways on the ground this time.

Ah.

I can't blink this time.

There's something in my left eye, I think. Can't move my right eye that much either.

Splat.

Woah. Something is rolling over to me on the carpet.

Stacy?

Woah.

Stacy just rolled over next to–

Wait.

Where's the rest of her?