I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 245

As I looked over the array, my translation skills went to work. It wasn’t as smooth or instantaneous as if I were fluent in any language, but Translation could still pull out words and translate them, and with my parallel processing, I could very quickly work out and memorize an entire sequence, no matter how complicated. Thankfully, these transportation arrays seemed to be made for dummies, and the instructions were written clearly on how to use them.

This world that came before felt a bit like my own, with standard buildings filled with signs to properly direct people. The ability to use a device did not necessarily mean you needed to know how to make it. As long as someone took the effort to make devices user-friendly, even a moron could figure out how to use a crosswalk button or an ordering kiosk. Although that said, even within these ruins, it was hard to imagine a world that replaced the conventional electrical energy from my world with this life energy.

“If you want me to transport all of us, it will require a great deal of energy,” I turned to Lord Blanche and stated simply.

“How much?” he asked.

“I’ll need… Ten-thousand kilojoules.”

“Ten thousand!” He cursed, shooting me a glare, but then, after gritting his teeth for a moment, he snorted. “Fine, if you must!”

To my surprise, he made a gesture, and a purse appeared in his hand. He threw it to me. When I opened it, I found ten somewhat large rocks with a thousand glowing notches in them. I had never seen such a rock before, but it looked like an oversized kilojoule. It was pretty obvious, though, so it didn’t need Tiffany’s whisper for me to figure out what I had in my hands.

“Ten Megajoules,” she hissed.

Since the prefix kilo stood for one thousand, the prefix mega stood for a million. In other words, a megajoule was equal to one thousand kilojoules, so I had ten million joules in my hand at that moment. I couldn’t help but tense slightly. I had told him that number at random. I had an idea of how much energy I needed, but I increased it tenfold because they had mentioned how much Antecedent technology took to use.

I was testing out the situation and seeing if I could get some benefits from them. I never expected them to just hand me the money. In reality, I could insert my own energy into the machine directly and run it. I had enough in my body to run the teleport dozens of times, although I had no clue how long it’d take to recover it.

However, since Lord Blanche gave me the money, I might as well keep it. I was naturally still fifty thousand kilojoules in debt. After living in the relatively poor household of the Capala branch, where they were scrapping by with every penny, I had lost perspective on how much money a successful family should have. Lord Blanche was able to pull this out of his pocket, which meant that the true reserves probably went into the millions of kilowatts or more.

I still took the megajoules out of the purse and began to place them on the array. I’d slip them into my luminal space when the time called for it. I didn’t plan to immediately pay off my debt. Instead, I’d use this money along with the thousand kilojoules I obtained before to make more money downstream. I was confident I could pay off the debt once I got the opportunity.

That didn’t mean Lord Blanche was pleased with all of this. He was still muttering under his breath as he watched me work. I suppose it was still a significant amount of money to use for a single use. It was a steep price, but the alternative was to wander these ruins until we went mad or were picked off by a deranged survivor, so he had no choice.

I knelt, placing my hand on the central activation rune of the array. As I did, I began to channel the energy from the crystals into the platform, one by one. The lines on the floor began to glow brighter, the hum of power growing in intensity as the array came to life. While I worked, I noticed Lord Blanche looking down the dark path heading the other direction, and that back at me. His eyes were contemplative.

I could already guess what he was thinking. The ruins were a treasure trove, and leaving now felt like abandoning a mountain of gold. Down that route, there might be countless opportunities. Based on the mythic plants and herbs his group had just acquired; he’d be hard-pressed to break even given the amount he had to spend to leave.

“Since you can read signs, tell me…” he gestured into the darkness, his voice gruff. “Does that direction lead deeper into the compound?”

“It does,” I confirmed without looking up. “But we’ve been lucky enough to find a way out. Going deeper would be a fool’s errand. The risks are too great.”

Although I said that, my mind had already come to the same conclusion as his. I had every intention of coming back. Once I got them out of there, I planned to return alone. The secrets of this place were too valuable to leave behind. However, I didn’t want to deal with Tiffany, let alone the Blanche family, while I explored. I couldn’t use all of my tricks, and I would also need to share. I had already shared quite a bit with the Lou family, but that was only because I felt I owed them, and they were friends of the Capala family. I had no such feelings when it came to the Stride family, and certainly not the Blanche family.

Lord Blanche continued to stare into the oppressive darkness, a longing look on his face. I hesitated for a moment, but then I reached out and began to change the direction of a few of the arrays. I also swapped the megajoules for kilojoules instead. Then, I finished channeling the last of the energy into the array. The platform was now blazing with light, the air around it shimmering and distorting as the teleportation spell reached its peak.

“Tiffany… help me with this.” I made a gesture, and she tilted her head but stepped over to me.

“What do you need?” she asked, reaching out with her hand.

“Is the teleport done?” Lord Blanche asked, watching me darkly.

To Tiffany’s surprise, I grabbed her hand, using her to help me stand. “It’s done. The teleportation is ready to go.”

“How long will it remain active?” Lord Blanche asked the question casually while checking on the two other men.

“Like this? About twelve hours before it goes dark. It really is better if we leave now,” I responded, pulling Tiffany closer to me.

She tried to pull away, but my grip tightened on her arm, and she stared at me in confusion. We steadily took a step off the platform. I could see Lord Blanche watching the pair of us carefully as we moved to the side.

Lord Blanche turned to the pair of us. “Then, it would seem that your services are no longer needed.”

Tiffany frowned. “Lord Blanche? What are you talking about?”

“Dead paragons can’t reveal any treasures they find.” I gave a tight smile.

“What?” Tiffany blinked and then gasped. “Lord Blanche, you can’t… our families…”

“The Stride family is only a means to an end!” he snapped. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

He raised his hands, and I could feel energy swelling around him.

“Actually, you have something bigger to worry about.” I smiled gently.

He froze for a second. “What are you talking about?”

“The front door? Now that the locking mechanism is broken, anyone can open it.”

“What are you-” he began, but then a booming sound came from down the hallway.

“I told you, it can be opened!”

“It’s freedom!”

“I see a light! Stop them!”

I had sensed the mad men congregating since we entered. Although I closed the door, it had been shorted, which meant we had only been waiting for them to try to force it open again. Now that it did, a dozen crazed men were running toward us. The moment Lord Blanche looked in that direction, I grabbed onto Tiffany.

“We’ll take our leave!”

She let out a cry as I threw her onto the platform, immediately leaping for the center where my hand struck the middle button. My movements were extremely fast, far quicker than Lord Blanche could have expected, and far more decisive. Immediately, light exploded around us.

“No!” he lifted his hands to throw an attack, but then hesitated.

If he struck the array, he’d be breaking it, stranding himself down in this darkness. He wasn’t a fool. The next moment, the madmen reached the platform. Lord Blanche threw out a defense that shattered. Meanwhile, my vision shimmered and faded as we were teleported away.