The reason Russell proactively proposed this was simple.
He had already predicted that he might soon be requisitioned to help search for the mysterious clue Tsukishiro Yanagi had mentioned that was needed to open the door.
In that case, he might as well help them open it now.
That way, they would have no reason to trouble him afterward.
“You can open this door?”
A glint flashed across Tsukishiro Yanagi’s glasses.
“This is a Belobog Heavy Industries BV-7 Vault.
Dual-layer composite armor.
The outer layer is hardened alloy, while the inner layer is a concrete shock-absorption layer.
There are also two locking systems on that door.
One is a twelve-digit mechanical combination dial.
The other is an Ether Seal.”
She pointed toward the faint purple patterns flowing along the seam of the door.
“Take a closer look.
The moment it detects forced entry, it’ll inject a high-energy Ether flow in reverse and destroy everything inside the vault.”
The reason Tsukishiro Yanagi gave this warning was obvious.
In her understanding, anyone capable of opening the vault should possess its key.
But according to the Lin Siblings’ report archives, that key was inside the missing pocket watch.
She didn’t want to believe that the person who had saved her was a bad guy.
But if he possessed the key…
Then there was a very high probability that he was.
Meanwhile, Russell, who had originally been full of confidence, hesitated for two seconds after hearing that entire explanation.
“I can try.”
Tsukishiro Yanagi narrowed her eyes but said nothing.
She merely stepped back half a pace.
What surprised her, however, was that Russell only glanced at the lock before shifting his attention toward the wall beside the vault.
“The self-destruct mechanism’s trigger logic shouldn’t extend this far, right?”
“According to the records, the seal monitors stress changes in the door hinges and locking core…”
Tsukishiro Yanagi frowned slightly.
“What are you planning to do?”
Russell didn’t answer.
Instead, he pulled the Diamond Pickaxe from his System Inventory.
The pickaxe head reflected a cold cyan sheen beneath the Hollow’s dim light.
Its entire body was wrapped in a pale purple enchanted glow.
Efficiency V.
Silk Touch.
No Unbreaking enchantment.
As for why not, that would become clear shortly.
Under MC’s system rules, a wall made of concrete and alloy like this only counted as a particularly hard Block.
With the Diamond Pickaxe’s mining efficiency, its hardness was roughly equivalent to one-and-a-half times that of Obsidian in game terms.
Russell had encountered plenty of such things over the past two months in the Hollow.
Tsukishiro Yanagi instinctively took another step backward.
When the first swing landed—
There was no sharp metallic clash.
No shower of sparks from hardened materials colliding.
Instead, the sound made when the strange pickaxe struck the wall was oddly dull.
Yes.
Dull.
The man appeared to be swinging his bizarre pickaxe at the wall with great effort, yet somehow produced almost no noticeable noise.
As a result, the entire scene looked suspiciously like some kind of bizarre performance art.
Tsukishiro Yanagi’s expression became somewhat strange.
But before she could think further, the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth strikes landed.
Then her pupils abruptly contracted into pinpoints.
Because right before her eyes, Russell continued swinging that strange pickaxe.
Every strike landed precisely within the same one-meter-square section of wall.
In less than twenty seconds—
Bang.
A square opening large enough for a person to pass through appeared in the wall.
The cut surface was so smooth it looked laser-cut.
Beyond it lay densely packed archive shelves and rows of server units.
“Let’s go.”
Russell slung the pickaxe over his shoulder and shook his head somewhat dissatisfied.
“Looks like this direction really doesn’t count as a door.”
The speechless Tsukishiro Yanagi stood frozen in place.
Naturally, she had no idea what Russell was lamenting.
Under normal circumstances, an Efficiency V Diamond Pickaxe would only need 3.375 seconds to mine through a wall with one-and-a-half times Obsidian’s hardness.
Of course, that assumed it was in Steve’s hands.
Russell required more than five times as long.
That was precisely why he hadn’t enchanted the pickaxe with Unbreaking III or Mending.
He always felt he would die from exhaustion before he ever managed to break the pickaxe.
“…Just what are you?”
The words came from behind him.
As an official operative, Tsukishiro Yanagi had seen countless Ether Aptitudes.
Electrical discharge.
Physical enhancement.
Flame manipulation.
Ether looked like magic.
But Ether was not magic.
According to the latest research, Ether was fundamentally a type of carrier particle.
Agents used W-Engines to control it and equipped Drive Discs to reduce its harmful effects while enhancing their ability to manipulate it.
Overall, it still had to conform to certain physical rules.
For example, an Agent who fought with fire always needed some kind of ignition action.
Whether it was creating sparks through weapons and gauntlets or carrying a firestarter.
But this man…
This ability to directly dismantle the rules governing matter itself had completely exceeded the limits of her understanding regarding the diversity of Ether Aptitudes.
The knowledgeable and well-read Vice Section Chief’s mind was now filled entirely with question marks.
“Huh?
Didn’t I already tell you?
I’m just a Hollow Raider.”
Realizing that Tsukishiro Yanagi’s reaction was this intense, Russell awkwardly stopped digging, put away the pickaxe, and climbed inside.
“Hurry up and get in here.
I can’t handle the stuff inside.”
Tsukishiro Yanagi took a deep breath before finally regaining her composure.
Only then did she realize that the hand gripping her weapon had gone numb.
She had been holding it so tightly because she suspected he might be a bad guy and had been prepared to draw her blade at any moment.
But now…
The situation had become so absurd that it was difficult to make sense of at all.
…Still, he was right.
This wasn’t the time to dwell on such things.
Without hesitation, Tsukishiro Yanagi followed him inside.
In truth, when Russell saw her reaction, he finally realized that he might have shown off a little too much.
From Russell’s perspective, the minimap was a mod ability.
Mining Blocks with a pickaxe was merely a basic MC ability.
Since he had already revealed a mod ability that couldn’t even remain active permanently, what was there to hide about a basic ability?
But thinking about it afterward, casually carving a chunk out of a vault wall in front of someone really was rather shocking.
Even if…
He had only displayed one-fifth of the pickaxe’s true potential.
Which was why he hadn’t continued mining a second Block in accordance with MC mechanics to turn the opening into a proper doorway.
Fortunately, while Steve needed a few tricks to squeeze through a one-block-high opening, ordinary humans could easily crawl through a one-meter-square hole.
A case of lacking stats and making up for it with mechanics.
The air inside the vault felt even more stagnant than the Hollow outside.
The temperature had also noticeably dropped.
Apparently, some kind of constant-temperature system designed to maintain eighteen degrees Celsius was still functioning.
Even so, the space carried the peculiar odor unique to long-sealed environments.
The smell of rusting metal.
The scent of moldy paper.
A strange combination that made it obvious this place had not been opened for a very long time.
★ ★ ★
Shilling time!