Chapter 447 - Show Business (9)

"Only one more step and we'll be out of here," Ben panted to catch his breath.

"You mean we have to climb that ladder?" I noticed the only way out.

"Do you have the energy to climb on your own?" He appeared like he would faint soon.

"I think I do," I nodded my head.

"You climb first," He dashed to the front of the ladder.

I never thought my experience in escaping the dorm room in the middle of the night would help me in these kinds of situations. I swiftly climbed the ladder, skipping some bars since it was easier than using a rope. But I forgot how long I would have to climb for with Ben suffering going down the never-ending staircase on his own while I slept. My arms were getting numb as my grip loosened as I grabbed onto a new bar.

Pushing more mana to help me, I gritted my teeth to continue climbing. There had to be a better way to escape the underground pathway. Could I get a better map from the dimensional library? It would expend most of my mana in exchange, meaning I could die after the cameras targeted me to extract more mana.

"I don't think I'll be able to climb anymore," I felt my hand slipping on one of the bars.

"Wait for me to catch up to you," Ben grunted.

"Well, I didn't think I would find our precious new members here," someone below us chuckled.

Ben quickly hugged my waist from below to teleport somewhere else in hopes it would work. I punched the floors of his apartment as we were at the same place as before. Alice frowned as she noticed how exhausted both of us were.

"They know we know about the passage. We can't teleport out of here. We have to physically leave this place," he warned Alice to abandon the mission.

"How was it like down there?" Alice closed the curtains.

"It's much bigger than what's on the map. The map isn't accurate. They have patrols and cameras everywhere. We need to report everything we've discovered and get more support," he ordered some food on the tablet.

"Eat Rika, I can't carry you all the time," Ben passed me some plates of food.

"I need some cakes," I grabbed the tablet from him.

"You need some balanced meals," Alice took the tablet away from me.

I puffed my cheeks as I poured some sugar into the yogurt, salad and soup. It was a pain adding more adjustments to the food when cake could be immediately eaten. I stopped eating after taking around three bites from each of the small plates. This was already more than I usually ate for breakfast.

"No wonder she's so thin," Alice disposed of the remaining food.

"How are we going to escape?" I wanted to know their plan.

"We'll have to take a hover car back to your school," she told me her line of thinking.

"How about a hover bus?" I knew the criminals would want to stay hidden from the general public.

"We can take a hover bus to my mansion and use the teleportation gate near a secure area to your school. From there, we can take a hover car," Ben implemented all our ideas.

This was how I was covered under a long cloak as I entered the hover bus full of people. It was my first time to be surrounded by a crowd of regular people. I found most of them to be students taking the bus to school. Thankfully, none of the theater members appeared in any of the stops. I guessed they predicted us to use the hover car instead. After transferring onto many hover busses, I found myself in front of Ben's family mansion.

"You don't have an identification tag with you, do you?" Ben turned to me once I entered his mansion.

"I think I left mine with Cillian," I recalled.

"Then we'll have to take my family's hover car to have the school let you in," he abandoned using his teleportation gate.

"I'll tailor some of our sister's old clothes," Alice ran to his sister's room.

"Can't we teleport with your family's hover car into the gate?" I didn't want to run into the criminals again.

"I can check how much mana it has charged," he didn't think it was a bad idea.

While Alice pushed me to change into the outfit that she arranged for me, I sighed, not wanting to leave his safe mansion surrounded by tough barriers. I turned to let Alice take more pictures of me, wondering if there weren't better clothes in his sister's closet. Why did everyone like to put me in dresses instead of comfortable pairs of pants or loose shirts?

"I pushed the hover car into the teleportation gate," Ben wiped some sweat from his forehead.