Escaping The Mine [4]

Now armed, Gio and Ricky cautiously made their way out of the front of the building and into the building across the street. This was also an unnecessary stop, but Ricky wasn't going to say anything against Gio's decisions anymore.

Because of him, he'd made it this far and even had weapons to defend himself. If it weren't for him, he would have been dead in the mine. Rather than giving his own opinions, he realized it was better to shut his mouth and follow the orders of the boy in front of him.

Unaware of Ricky's budding loyalty, Gio scanned the area. The nature of the building they'd entered was just as obvious.

'This is the easiest possible heist in human history.'

Right, they were currently inside of a bank. 

"Follow me."

With two quick words, Gio jumped over the counter and made it to the other side. The glass and protections that would usually prevent him from doing so had already been destroyed.

In any normal situation, Gio was not supposed to know the layout of this bank or any other building in this mine site, for that matter.

However, he was able to accurately locate the vault with the ease of someone who worked in this facility for the majority of their lifetime.

It was all thanks to a single glance he took at a single blueprint when he was 18 in his past life. It was a blueprint of the entire mine site and its facilities. That single glance was stored perfectly in his mind and became a permanent memory that he could always refer to. He looked at that map in his memory specifically, and within a moment, he had already memorized everything presented to him there.

Reaching the inside of the vault was usually impossible. It was protected by several mechanisms, some electrical, some manual, and some using a very special kind of energy.

'However, now that there are only thirty minutes remaining before "that moment…"'

As he expected, the building suddenly went dark. The beasts had broken the grid that powered the small city, which took all faculties away from several buildings. 

The only remaining defense he had to worry about was the physical strength of the vault door. 

'It sounds like a problem on paper, but the reality of the situation is that this is a mine site in the 6th Stratum.'

They spent money on defenses where they could, but with the inherent protections of the building itself, it was only possible to break into the vault if one had the equipment granted only to the city's police force.

"Confidence in the precise and detailed structure of the mining city" turned into an absolute weakness when the "precise and detailed structure of the mining city" collapsed.

"Ricky, step back a little…no, more than that. As a matter of fact, just go into the other room."

After getting Ricky to move to an appropriately safe distance, Gio grabbed the explosive he took from the security force building and planted it on the door's locking mechanism. After arming it, he rushed into the other room with Ricky and hurriedly closed the door behind him.

Moving to the furthest wall, he put his hands over his ears and prompted Ricky to do the same, just in time for a large explosive to blast the door open and flood the room with smoke.

"Wait a second…"

Just to be cautious, Gio didn't immediately rush in. After a few moments, when the smoke started to disperse, they finally made their move.

As expected, a hole was blown into the vault door. It didn't blast all the way through the metal, but it was more than enough to destroy the locking mechanism. 

When Gio pulled on the door with just a little bit of strength, it responded to his pull and started to open.

Though he didn't want to admit it, he wasn't able to actually get the door open until Ricky stepped in to help. Such was the difficulty of a thirteen-year-old body.

Nevertheless, in the end, the duo reached their goal. 

"Jackpot."

Physical currency stopped being used several centuries ago. The current society used a digital currency called Credits for any and all transactions. 

For the sake of convenience, however, physical forms of currency were still produced. They were rectangular card-shaped objects called Vault Cards, or "Vaults" for short. Their various colors and designs told of just how much money could be stored inside of them. 

All of the cards in the bank vault were black. In other words, every single one had a number of up to 100,000 Credits stored inside.

"Take as many as you can keep in your pockets, but not a single card more. We can't be concerned about money when we're escaping."

If they took too many, their mobility and dexterity would be inhibited. When running and making large movements to get away from mutated beasts was the majority of what was in store for them for the next thirty-five minutes, they couldn't be concerned about what was in their pockets.

They only needed "enough." Ricky took six and Gio took four. The combination of ten cards potentially meant they had one million Credits on them, so they didn't need to worry about acquiring more for a long time once they left this place.

'This will fund me for the next two years.'

That was the original purpose of raiding the bank.

"Huu…"

Gio closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. 

"It's been easy until now…"

"Easy?!"

"...but it's going to get a lot harder from here on out."

Ricky didn't seem to agree with him. That didn't make him change his statement, though. They had been able to avoid confrontation with mutated beasts because they were in a relatively uncrowded area, but that was about to change.

"If we want to leave, we have to use one of the existing exits. Even if I use all of the grenades I have with me, I won't be able to blow a hole in the outer wall of the city. If we want to reach any of the existing exits, we'll have to move through one of the civilian groups in the city, which means we will encounter the mutated beasts we've been able to avoid this entire time."

More importantly, with time passing, the beasts that were busy feasting inside of the mines were going to come out and join those on the surface. That would lead to the worst possible scenario.

"You said you were ready before, but it's a little different now. You've already seen what a mutated beast is like up close. Do you think you'll be able to fight the next time you see one?"

It was important to build courage inside of Ricky. In his previous life, Ricky awakened his courage because there wasn't anyone else who could save them. That situation led to his eventual death, so it couldn't be replicated.

Gio had to find other ways to bring out the version of Ricky he was able to see for a few moments in the past before he died. They were about to charge into the fray, and he couldn't keep with him a Ricky that would freeze up and panic at the critical moment.

"Even if you have to close your eyes and cry through it, you will hold the trigger and shoot. That's all I want you to promise me."

Ricky faced him with a serious expression and nodded. His grip on his gun tightened.

"I promise."

It was a promise with no value, since Ricky hadn't shown that he was capable of following through with it, but that wasn't important. 

He was going to have the chance to showcase his sincerity soon enough. 

Because the moment they left the bank building, it began.