"Show off? What do you mean?"

Cindy asked Richard as she recalled his previous plan.

It could be said that Richard- despite all his "genius" was pretty much an idiot when it came to planning for conflict.

Yes, he may have ability when it comes to earning money but outside of that, he was just an amateur whose closest experience to actual battle planning was RTS games.

But this was not a game and Richard did not have the guts to use his people as disposable pawns.

As greedy as it may seem, the fact that Richard wanted to get everything without losing anything was both a strength and a weakness of his.

"I think I could transform your pets"

Richard did not answer Cindy directly as he instead asked her a leading question.

Unfortunately, his question was even more obvious than a far right/left journalist who can’t seem to hide their intentions despite trying to veil their words in mystery.

"You probably could, you won’t even need to transform them, just an illusion should be enough"

Cindy replied giving her own thoughts and Richard shook his head.

"How about the mystics?"

Yet the answer he got from Cindy was a smug look that had a wide smirk as she said-

"Is that the limit of the oh so great Merlin’s Descendant?"

While Richard didn’t have a hint of pride or deep connection to the title that people love to slap onto his name. He still felt quite a bit of annoyance at Cindy’s attitude.

"Fine, let’s go with the illusion"

RIchard acceded which made Cindy let out a quiet "hmph".

’Easy’

The young witch thought as she created a projection of the location which she was able to trace from the monster corpse.

"That looks familiar"

Richard commented as he squinted his eyes, the building that was reflected on the projection was one that he felt was VERY familiar.

"No way..."

The facts were right in front of his face, it was really hard to deny it...

"Let me make a call..."

Richard excused himself and took out his phone . He dialed a number and-

"Finally!"

When the other side picked up the first thing she said made Richard show a grimace, a rare expression.

"Are you ok?"

He asked the person on the other end, Hana, who stayed in their office how she was doing.

"The people we were looking for are right next door!"

"Yeah... we kinda just figured that out"

"Then hurry up! I can’t hold them off for long!"

"We’re on our way"

Richard turned to Cindy and signaled her to get ready.

Yuna understood that things weren’t really going as "well" as she thought they would but found a bit of humor in the situation.

"You didn’t realize that a group of kidnappers were right next door?"

She said with a smirk but Richard didn’t humor her as he focused on leading them back to the office.

’You’re going to help right?’

Why work hard to rush there running when they have a quick and easy taxi?

[Do you want to bring that woman with you?]

’Sure, showing off the teleportation would increase my credit score in the Yuna Bank’

The goddess did continue the conversation with Richard as she began her teleportation.

They didn’t need to have physical contact, all that was needed by the Goddess was a confirmation of the target and her pact with Richard would do the rest.

Yuna tried to pester Richard but he remained silent, but the woman didn’t seem willing to give up as she clung to him and just then-

"What?"

"Welcome to the office"

Richard said as he pulled his arm away from the flabbergasted Yuna.

He didn’t even explain anything as he immediately strode towards Hana.

"How’s the situation?"

"I have my spirits guarding the entrances, it seems Cindy had also sent the pets she left here on standby to prevent anyone from escaping"

Hana’s explanation made Richard click his tongue in annoyance. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

The plan he created was quite amazing (in his opinion) as it made use of Richard’s special abilities to disguise the army of pets under Cindy’s control.

They would create distractions, make doppelgangers of themselves run around like headless chickens while they snuck into the base of their enemies, saved hostages and took down the group.

"A time attack huh?"

Richard muttered as he started to formulate a new plan yet before he could start to think of how to go about it, Maiko had already rushed out the door.

The otaku-yokai was no idiot, she immediately realized the dire situation and understood that the enemy was likely prepared for an all out conflict already.

She didn’t even excuse herself as she rushed through the door, her large frame barreling down in complete silence further proving her existence as a Yokai.

’What a fine ass’

[What are you gonna do?]

Richard didn’t have a bad feeling, he didn’t feel anything wrong so he was able to keep his calm but the goddess warning him echoed in his mind.

He turned to Cindy only to find that Ragnar had appeared carrying bottles of gin for some reason-

[I brought him here]

’Well, the more the merrier I guess’

Richard then addressed everyone-

"Things took a turn for the worst, we don’t have time to make a plan or cook up some elaborate scheme. This time, it’s all out war- time to go R*mbo on these bastards... though please focus on saving as many innocents as possible"

"I already blocked of the whole street"

Cindy quickly replied to Richard giving him a sense of ease.

At least, they wouldn’t have to worry about innocent bystanders or doing som m*n in bl*ck amnesia tricks.

"So- we could go wild right?"

Ragnar was slightly tipsy, he had obviously been drinking and Richard did not even try to go on to the topic of how a ghost could get drunk.

He simply waved it off for now as there were more pressing matters to deal with-

*BANG*

Everyone rushed to the windows and saw Maiko rushing into the building next to theirs.

She didn’t even use the front door!

The damned eight foot tall woman crashed through the concrete walls like it was made of styrofoam as the echoes of her destruction echoed from within the facility.

"On more opening to guard"

Richard lamented but Hana raised her hand and proposed-

"I’ll guard it"

Richard gave Hana an unimpressed look before shaking his head and saying.

"Let’s go"

His voice was languid as if the whole matter was nothing but a pain in the ass.

One of the things he learned to do was turn off his brain when shit really hit the fan. Now that there was too much things happening and so much random decisions and actions being made-

All he could do was stop overthinking things and face everything head on.

He called it "warrior mode" as it reflected the mindless actions many warriors took when charging into an army of swords and spears with disregard for safety and their future.

In such a state, Richard’s mind was fully focused on combat and maintaining the mystical powers that protected his body.

Although it was not a completely "invincible" state, it would at least give him a level of power that could allow him to shrug off bullets completely.

With his mystical might exploding, Richard didn’t go through the door or break the walls to leave the building. All he did was jump and like a ghost, he phased through the walls and entered the building without a sound.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Ragnar, Cindy and Hana were speechless at Richard’s actions.

"Did you teach him that?"

Cindy asked Ragnar who shook his head, his mind going sober after seeing his pupil do some crazy shit.

"But he did ask me whether it was possible for him to control the atoms in his body or something, I still don’t get it but he called quantum...."

"Quantum Tunneling, a famous internet myth on how there is a "non-zero chance" that a human could phase through walls. Its core principles revolve around the theory that "matter is mostly empty space"."

Cindy continued the explanation which Ragnar was unable to recall which prompted Hana to ask.

"You know about it? I thought you were a business major?"

"Richard went on a long rant about it after he first experienced teleportation, that’s probably why he was able to grasp or the spell so quickly"

Cindy lied through her teeth, not about Richard’s rant but of his mastery of teleportation.

After all, Yuna was still her and she was quietly masking her presence making it difficult for the others to notice her.

Though Cindy did and so did Ragnar... maybe only Hana didn’t realize it but that didn’t matter.

"So? Are any of you going to follow him?"

Cindy asked with a smile while gesturing towards the window but Ragnar waved her off saying-

"I’ll take the door, don’t want to break his building"

Meanwhile, Hana followed Ragnar while giving the excuse of-

"I’m on guard duty", obviously referring to her exchange with Richard before he jumped over.

A few minutes later, the two finally left, leaving only Cindy and Yuna in the room.

"So?"

She asked Yuna who was directing a cheeky smile her way.

"You still haven’t changed have you Li-"

"Shut it!"

"Oh my~ well then, how about some wine?"

Yuna brought out a pair of wine glasses and a bottle of expensive red wine.

Where did she get it? Who knows.

Cindy didn’t bother to ask, no, it was more like she was already used to this kind of act by Yuna.

"Take a seat"