Divine Milking System

Chapter 234: 234 | Like a Dying Star

We slipped outside.

The California night wrapped around us, cool and salt-scented from the ocean. My new clothes fit perfectly thanks to Aurora’s shopping intervention, black jeans that actually stayed up and a dark compression shirt that didn’t strain across my upgraded chest.

Three weeks ago I couldn’t run a mile.

Now I was about to commit grand theft with my girlfriend, my other girlfriend, and my best friend who hated mornings.

My life had gotten extremely weird.

Belle led us north along the edge of campus where the paths grew darker and the buildings gave way to natural landscape. Trees thickened around us. The restricted section sat another half mile ahead, marked by chain-link fence and warning signs that glowed faintly in the dark.

My Treasure Sense activated automatically as we got closer. The Platinum crystal sang in my awareness like a beacon, pulsing with concentrated mana that made my teeth ache even from this distance.

Belle felt it too. Her head tilted toward the exact location. "There."

"I feel it."

"How far?"

"Four hundred meters. Maybe less." freёweɓnovel.com

Her smile was visible even behind the mask. "Let’s go get rich."

We crossed into restricted territory at 11:34 PM.

The first ward shimmered into view as Belle’s detection picked it up. A sheet of pure mana stretched across the path, translucent blue and vibrating with contained energy that made the air feel thick. You could almost taste the magic on your tongue, metallic and sharp.

Belle dropped to one knee and pulled the disruptor from her bag. The device was compact, maybe the size of a flashlight, but its surface was covered in intricate runes that glowed faintly green in her grip. She pressed it against the base of the barrier where the mana flow looked thickest and gave it a sharp twist clockwise.

The barrier rippled. The blue light dimmed to a sickly pale. But it held.

"Problem?" I kept my voice low.

"It’s tougher than expected. Give me another thirty seconds."

I glanced at my phone. 11:36.

We had twenty-four minutes before the guard shift changed.

The disruptor hummed louder, its runes brightening as it worked. The ward shuddered violently once, then again, and finally dissolved into nothing, leaving only a faint ozone smell in its wake. Belle caught the device before it could clatter to the ground and shoved it back into her bag.

We kept moving.

The second ward appeared at two hundred meters out. This one pulsed red instead of blue, its energy pattern more jagged and aggressive. Belle attached the disruptor, and we stood there in the darkness, listening to the soft mechanical whine as it did its work.

Behind us, Jordan’s shadows crept outward across the dirt path like living ink, fanning out to monitor for any approaching guards. His breathing had gone quiet and measured. The usual lazy slouch had vanished from his posture. His spine was straight, his eyes sharp.

Turns out professional Jordan was legitimately intimidating.

The second ward collapsed with a faint crackle. We moved forward again.

The third ward sat right in front of the vault entrance. This one was completely different. It had layers, multiple frequencies stacked together in some kind of intricate pattern that made my vision blur just trying to focus on it. Like staring at a magic eye poster that refused to resolve.

Belle stopped and studied it for a long moment, her head tilting as she traced the mana flows with her eyes. "Okay. This one’s going to take both disruptors and maybe some creative problem-solving."

"How creative?" Naomi asked.

"The kind where Jace uses Wave Motion to destabilize the mana flow while I crack the frequency lock."

I looked at the ward. Looked at Belle. "You want me to shoot it?"

"Not shoot. Pulse. Low intensity. Just enough to create interference."

"And if that triggers an alarm?"

"Then we run really fast."

Great plan. Absolutely foolproof.

I raised my palm and gathered golden energy, keeping it contained to about ten percent output. The spiral formed slowly, humming with barely restrained power.

Belle worked the disruptors in sync, her fingers flying across the activation runes.

"Now," she whispered.

I released the pulse. Golden light washed across the ward’s surface, and for a second nothing happened.

Then the frequencies started canceling each other out. The red barrier flickered. Belle twisted both disruptors simultaneously, and the entire ward collapsed inward like a dying star.

Silence.

No alarms. No guards sprinting toward us. No emergency lights.

Just the night and our breathing. freewēbnoveℓ.com

Belle grinned behind her mask. "We’re in."

The vault door stood before us. Solid steel reinforced with mana-conductive alloys. A biometric scanner glowed beside the handle.

I checked the time. 11:43 PM.

Seventeen minutes until shift change.

Belle pulled out her final toy. A small black rectangle that she pressed against the scanner. Runes flared across its surface as it began cycling through authorization codes at speeds no human could manage.

"How long?" I asked.

"Two minutes if we’re lucky. Five if we’re not."

Jordan’s voice came from behind us, quiet and tense. "Someone’s coming."

My stomach dropped. "Where?"

"East path. Three hundred meters out. Moving slow but moving."

Belle didn’t look up from the scanner. "How long until they reach us?"

"At current pace? Six minutes."

"Then we’ve got time."

"Belle—"

"Jordan shut up and keep watching."

The scanner beeped. Once. Twice.

Green light flashed.

The vault door hissed and began sliding open with a hydraulic whisper.

Belle grabbed my arm. "Jace. You’re up."

I stepped through first, Treasure Sense flaring to maximum range.

The vault was smaller than I expected. Maybe twenty feet across. Shelves lined the walls holding various artifacts, cores, and equipment that the academy kept locked up for safety or research purposes.

But I didn’t care about any of that.

The Platinum crystal sat on a pedestal at the room’s center, rotating slowly in a containment field. Approximately the size of a grapefruit. Pure white shot through with veins of purple and gold that pulsed like a heartbeat.

One hundred thousand credits.

Just sitting there.

Belle moved past me. "Disable the field while I grab it."

"How do I disable a containment field?"

"Same as the wards. Pulse it until the frequency destabilizes."

I raised my hand again. Gathered energy.

Jordan’s voice crackled through the small radio Belle had given us. "Guard just changed direction. Coming faster. Four minutes."

"Copy." Belle positioned herself beside the pedestal. "Jace. Whenever you’re ready."