The Strongest Curse Master - Chapter 347

Chapter 347: Against Time
Seeing Thunder use its towering stature to intimidate him, Ace stepped closer and said, “Let’s go, buddy. Lead the way. If you see a mouse, don’t get scared—I’ll catch it for you, alright?”

He tried to pat its trunk condescendingly, but Thunder dodged his hand and glared down at him with a death stare. It seemed Thunder cared a lot about its image—maybe because it was the king of Dee3’s cyborg zoo. Everything was fine as long as it was making Ace look like the fool, but the moment Ace turned the tables, Thunder couldn’t take it.

Ace didn’t care. Thunder started it—he just finished it. If it couldn’t take the heat, it shouldn’t dish it out. From now on, Thunder would think twice before messing with him—unless it wanted to risk embarrassing itself in front of its cyborg buddies.

“Thunder, what’s wrong, buddy?” Dee3 asked, sensing the tension between them. It was strange, considering they had seemed to be getting along earlier.

“Dee3, no need for a guide. I’ll be fine on my own. Just open a tunnel to the depot—I’ll finish up and be back in a jiffy,” Ace said, not wanting Thunder’s petty behavior to delay him any further. The longer he lingered here, the more time Prince had to uncover the location of the Overlords’ treasure.

“Okay,” Dee3 nodded, opening a tunnel to the depot. She added, “If you need to contact me, just step into the tunnel and speak—I’ll hear you and can reply.”

“Don’t you have a cursed phone and a secure network?” Ace asked.

“It’s better if we don’t take any unnecessary chances,” Dee3 said, concealing the fact that she had simply forgotten they could communicate using cursed phones using a secured line. A moment later, she added with righteous composure, “Still, here’s my contact info.”

“Got it,” Ace nodded, saving the contact and heading into the tunnel, exiting the core of Dee3’s dungeon. Meanwhile, Thunder disinterestedly returned to its cyborg companions, trying to wash away the bitter taste of losing to Ace.

…

Arriving at the depot, Ace immediately summoned Specwork, Specorc, Specarc, and Specroll, who resumed their tasks from where they had left off. However, Dame Wasp urgently informed him, “Master, we don’t have much time. It appears the earlier commotion has attracted a lot of unwanted attention. The Brigadier General in charge of the base came in person to access this sector after others failed to do so. When even he couldn’t resolve the issue, the entire base was placed on high alert—they now believe their systems have been hacked.”

She continued, “The General has mobilized the staff to regain control of this sector as soon as possible. At their current pace, they’ll break through and regain access within the next hour.”

While inside Dee3’s dungeon, Dame Wasp was unable to connect to the base’s systems. But now that she was back within Base Wulfric, she immediately scanned the network and discovered that the base was in lockdown and operating under high alert. Time was no longer on their side.

“What if you interfere directly?” Ace asked, knowing full well that if Dame Wasp chose to, her otherworldly tech and knowledge could easily overwhelm the government’s best tech operatives.

“Then we’ll have all the time we need—but doing so will confirm to the General that something suspicious is still going on in these maintenance depots. That might push him to resort to desperate measures to catch the intruders in the act. He may even resort to using the last resort to maintain the integrity and sanctity of Base Wulfric. Based on General Kerrigan’s track record, the latter is highly likely,” Dame Wasp predicted, analyzing the situation and how it might escalate based on their next move.

“Shit,” Ace roared in frustration. The immense wealth of the nation’s years of research into vehicle-type curse gadgets was right in front of him—within his reach—but time was slipping away.

One hour wasn’t enough for the Speclimes to devour all the vehicle-type curse gadgets in the depot. And these vehicle type curse gadgets were too large to fit into Emi’s 2-star enchantment storage talisman. Unable to think of a way to salvage all of it, Ace gave his orders to Dame Wasp.

“We don’t need every version of the vehicle type curse gadget. Help the Speclimes prioritize the ones we can actually use in future missions over the others. Have them devour those first. Tell them not to waste time on different iterations of the same vehicle—the latest model will do. Leave behind the older-generation planes, drones, and helicopters. Just focus on the newest ones.”

Ace shook his head in helplessness, looking like someone who was robbed of billions, though, in truth, he was the one doing the stealing. He seemed to have forgotten that he wasn’t in his backyard picking home-grown veggies but inside Base Wulfric, a top-secret government facility stealing super secret, state-of-the-art, curse gadgets.

“Master, can’t we just move these curse gadgets to Dee3’s dungeon for safekeeping and let the Speclimes feed on them at their own pace?” Dame Wasp suggested, wondering if he had forgotten that the friend he recently made happened to have an entire elusive dungeon.

“No. Dee3 turning a blind eye to our crimes is already pushing her limits—but asking her to actively participate would be insensitive,” Ace replied. It wasn’t that the idea hadn’t crossed his mind, but he knew what they were doing was outright theft, while what Dee3 did to survive couldn’t be classified the same way. Base Wulfric was her home. Borrowing from one’s own home wasn’t theft.

“Are you sure, Master?” Dame Wasp asked again, surprised that he was truly considering giving up such a massive haul, not wanting to force Dee3 into doing something she did not want. She hadn’t realized when her master had begun to think highly of Dee3. While Dame Wasp herself liked Dee3 because she could relate to her tragic background, she wasn’t sure what made her master admire her so deeply. This only made her respect Dee3 more, as very few people ever earned her master’s admiration and consideration.