As soon as they heard the door closing, Max gave Little Dou a signal. He wanted to open the vault first.
It was the most useful of all the things that were in this room. Most of the items here would only stay in his inventory. Max couldn't use them as they might be traced somewhere.
But money can never be used everywhere. No one would be able to trace it if Max doesn't give others a chance to find him.
Another reason was he felt that he was starting to forget the numbers he memorized. Max hurried with Little Dou, going straight to their stations.
Both of them concentrated on unlocking the complex circular door. One at a time, they continued, slowly but surely.
The circular door has multiple locks that were connected to each other. If one lock failed to unlock, the door wouldn't budge.
On its exterior, there were multiple looks, each having its different way of opening it. But in reality, it was only one lock. It's either they can unlock everything, or they won't unlock it.
Max felt what Little Dou went through at Xiao Ming's room. It was the pressure and nervousness weighing down on their shoulders.
After a few moments of quietness with them doing their own work, both of them backed out, looked at each other, and sighed in relief.
Max took a step forward, reached out for the handle as he turned it clockwise. Metal scrapping sounded out as he turned it.
"Huuu."
Max sweated on the metal wheel as he held it securely with his hand then pulled hard on it.
*creakkk*
"Hahaha! Little Dou we are now professional thieves!"
[Yeah! But I did a lot more!]
Little Dou laughed as her eyes shined. She was happy about them reaching this point and couldn't wait to take all of this for themselves.
"Hahaha! We're the only ones here, so all of this is ours!"
Everything around him was valuable. Max saw the treasures spread on the table to the money on the vault. He was only thinking about one thing: all of it will be theirs. Xiao Ming will deal with the rest.
"This is so heavy."
"Hyah. Pull!"
"This is fine already."
*Tock*
"No air? Is this pure steel? How was this made?"
"This vault is good stuff!"
"Hey, Little Dou should we also get this?"
"Actually no, no, we can't. If we did, they would know that it was an Awakened if this thing disappears. We're not Awakeneds, just professional thieves.
"Woohooo"
Max jumped on the stacks of money as he threw a handful of them to the air. The smell of money around him was incredible.
"We're really rich now! I can't get used to this!"
"Don't worry. This is only the beginning. Our first goal was to have this city for ourselves. We're going to dominate this city!"
"We're taking over the entire underground world of this city to be the underground king!"
"Or maybe the school first? Whatever. I'll definitely do it! I will run around the city more!"
"We can steal more of their businesses too! But we'll take it one at a time."
[That's right! Dominate this city! Then we can move to some other place to find more women and get stronger a lot faster!]
Little Dou raised her fist, cheering for Max. It will be a long road to the top, and Little Dou knows that they have to try harder than how they were doing now.
*poof*
A large amount of money disappeared every time Max touched them. It was like his hands were erasing them from existence. Inventory is really convenient.
...
"This is the last one! Bye!"
*poof*
"Xiao Ming you're in trouble now! Hahaha!"
The vault was left with nothing. Max thoroughly swept everything, leaving nothing inside. Max can visualize the contents of his Inventory, and the amount of money in there was unbelievable.
But Max wasn't contented with just this. He remembered that he came here to make trouble for Xiao Ming and he would make the best out of it.
"Come Little Dou. We still have a lot of cleaning to do!"
[I will take the shiny stuff!]
Little Dou flew to the diamonds that she had been eyeing as Max went to the heavier ones. With one touch, the items disappeared.
Little Dou flew back with different gems on her arms. All of it disappeared to Max's Inventory.
...
The warehouse was now empty except for the tables and the vault. Max and Little Dou looked satisfied. Their faces glowed with happiness. This night was eventful for them, gaining a lot of things in one go.
"Let's write our name on the wall!"
"No not our real names! Our thieves group! Haha, in the future, I want influential people to shiver in fear when they hear this name!"
"Let's take this chance to let them know who we are and who they will be dealing with in the future!"
[Un! A second identity? Let's do it!]
[You can be Max in the morning and someone else at night!]
Little Dou liked the idea of having a second identity. Max can use it to fight enemies in another identity and also maybe socialize with other Awakeneds if he ever came across one.
"What name should we use?"
"Hmm. Shadow?"
"Shadow thieves. What do you think?"
[Shadow thieves! They will be everywhere!]
"Yes! They will be everywhere! We will be everywhere!"
Max got a random antique paintbrush from his Inventory and wrote those words on the wall. Max can already imagine what their faces would look like when they read it.
"There!"
"We have to leave now before the cart comes back."
"We need to be far away when they get here!"
Max stopped his hand from reaching the door to ask Little Dou that was on his head about something.
"If we pull this door open, the guards would notice us? Also, wasn't this door locked from the outside?"
[...]
"..."
[...]
"No worries. I've got this. We still have the Time Stop. We only need to think of the correct way to use it."
"Should I do it?"
Max gave Little Dou a cheeky smile, implying something with his eyes.
[Up to you!]
Little Dou knew right away what he was talking about. She had been with Max for quite some time to understand what he meant to say.
A large and tall vase appeared in his arms. Max would make the loudest noise he could by throwing this vase to the door.
When they opened the door, Max would stop the time and make a run for it, straight out, back to his house.
Max had a target where he should throw the vase. It was at the vents on the ceiling. Max didn't know where it was connected, but he wanted to poke a hole on it or destroy a part of it.
So they would think someone used that way to get in. The shadow thieves broke from the vents. If the vents weren't connected anywhere, they would still be confused as to why it happened, and they will be back to knowing nothing.
"Hehehe. Ready?"
[Go!]
*CLANKKK*
'That's a big hole! Any time now.'
"What's that?! Open this quick!"
When the door opened, Max stopped the time. He rapidly ran as fast as he can straight out of the hotel.
There were a lot of people back there. Even the Awakened was behind the door. Max continued running, having thirty seconds of Time Stop for himself.
Max ran outside the hotel, went farther and farther until he blended in the dark.
Without a doubt, Xiao Ming will severely suffer this time, and this won't be the last.