Chapter 486: Ignorance Is a Crime
Inside White Cloud Academy.
At the Thousand Layer Library Tower, Xuanzi and his group soared upward through the night, swiftly ascending floor by floor until they reached the top.
Landing silently, they stood before the tower's entrance, suppressing their excitement as they inspected the door. It was tightly shut, with no keyhole or visible mechanism to open it. The only way in was through brute force.
One of the Title Douluo retrieved a needle like device from his robes and handed it to Xuanzi. This was a soul tool specifically designed for breaking into secured locations, often used by spies to steal classified information from enemy nations.
Xuanzi pressed the sharp end of the device against the wall and activated it. With a soft boom, a crack silently appeared in the seemingly solid wall. Clearly, this tool incorporated some form of spatial technology.
Once the opening appeared, the interior of the tower was revealed rows upon rows of bookshelves lined the space.
Overjoyed, Xuanzi and the others quickly darted inside, one after another, their black clad figures disappearing through the opening. But as they fully entered, they realized the tower's interior was far larger than it appeared from the outside. It was an expansive space, its true dimensions hidden through spatial manipulation.
Endless bookshelves stretched into the distance, layered in countless rows. There had to be at least tens of thousands of books here.
Their gazes barely skimmed the bookshelves before turning to the upper section of the tower, where glowing clusters of data, resembling streams of light, hovered in midair. From their research on their phones, they knew that these data clusters were the true essence of the library. Each contained an immense wealth of information.
A single data cluster could hold the knowledge of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of books.
Compared to these, the books on the shelves below were insignificant.
"Hurry up! Grab as much as you can!" Xuanzi whispered urgently before launching himself toward the glowing orbs, greedily absorbing the vast streams of data. Seeing this, the others quickly followed suit, seizing as many data clusters as possible.
In no time, dozens of these orbs were taken.
Their greed unsatisfied, they turned their attention to the countless bookshelves. Without hesitation, they activated their soul tools and began frantically looting books, stuffing them into their storage devices like rats raiding a granary. Their avarice knew no bounds.
Once they had completely emptied the top floor, they knew it was time to leave.
Without lingering, they darted back through the hole in the wall.
Once outside, Xuanzi retrieved the same device and pressed it against the wall again. The hole distorted and then vanished entirely leaving no trace.
Satisfied, Xuanzi and his group considered their mission a complete success. Not a single alarm had been raised, and they had exceeded their original goal.
So this was White Cloud City? A place that supposedly housed gods? Yet it had been completely powerless to stop a few Title Douluo from coming and going as they pleased.
They scoffed inwardly at the city's so called strength, before swiftly leaping from the top of the tower and descending toward the ground.
But the moment they left, the entrance of the tower suddenly began to shift and ripple. A face formed on its surface, watching their departing figures with a puzzled expression.
"I really don't understand what they're thinking," the face murmured. "They told me not to interfere and to assist them as much as possible in taking whatever they wanted. Well, I'll just follow orders." With a shake of its head, the face melted back into the tower's surface, vanishing as if it had never been there.
As expected, White Cloud Academy's library was far from unguarded.
The Thousand Layer Tower itself was an extraordinary treasure, a masterpiece of soul tool technology. It was equipped with an advanced AI security system, tasked with safeguarding its knowledge and keeping meticulous records of all who accessed it.
Machines were far more reliable than humans when it came to security.
Had the tower's AI been allowed to act freely, Xuanzi and his group would have been captured the moment they approached. Their little soul tool wouldn't have even left a scratch on the tower's surface, let alone created an opening.
After all, if the tower contained a massive internal space, it was obviously utilizing spatial technology. And if spatial technology was in play, how could it not have countermeasures?
If not for the AI receiving orders to allow their theft, Xuanzi's tool wouldn't have even chipped a tile off the tower, let alone breached its defenses.
They had only succeeded because the security system had let them succeed.
Meanwhile, Xuanzi and his group, carrying their stolen knowledge, remained blissfully unaware that their "perfect crime" had been entirely orchestrated. Their confidence soared as they returned to their hotel.
Not only had they infiltrated White Cloud City's most secure repository of knowledge, but they had also done so without being caught. To them, this was proof that White Cloud City and even its so called gods were nothing special.
After all, how could relics from ten thousand years ago compare to the modern advancements of their world? Gods? So what? They were just stronger beings, nothing more.
After this flawless heist, Xuanzi and his group completely dismissed the power of White Cloud City.
They moved with a swagger as they returned to the hotel. Their room remained untouched, the window still open just as they had left it. Everything appeared exactly as they had left it, confirming their belief that no one had noticed their actions.
One by one, they returned to their rooms, acting as if nothing had happened.
By now, hours had passed.
Dawn was still two or three hours away.
But just in case the stolen books contained tracking mechanisms, they decided not to examine them yet. Instead, they planned to wait until they had left White Cloud City and returned to their own continent before reviewing their haul.
After all, their world was separated from this one by an entire ocean. No tracking system could possibly reach that far, right?
Even if White Cloud City discovered the theft, it wasn't like they would actually chase them across continents, right?
And even if White Cloud City did send people to confront them so what?
On their own turf, they had the home advantage.
If anyone from White Cloud City dared to come after them, they would be at their mercy.
Did they seriously think they would allow themselves to be bullied in their own domain?
Their successful heist had filled them with so much arrogance that they no longer feared White Cloud City or even the entirety of Douluo One.
They were completely fearless.
But sometimes, ignorance itself is a crime.
(End of Chapter)
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