Nebur’s voice hummed in his ear. “Alright, I’ve got the coordinates. Take a left up ahead and stay low.”Nox smirked, stuffing the sheet back into his coat as he stood up and started walking. “Rex, Neb. Weve got all the time in the world.”He moved through the thinning evening crowd, slipping between dimly lit alleyways. The smell of old metal and frying oil clung to the air.“You’re about three blocks away,” Nebur reported. “Target’s living in a small ft above an Electro-repair shop. Pce has a security cam at the entrance—try not to wave at it.”Nox exhaled. “Always these security cams. Wait, can you hack or take them over? That would be big!”“I could,” Nebur mused, “but that would leave a trace. You want sneaky or fshy?”Nox turned a corner. “This must be it. Any blind spots on the cam?”“There’s a small gap in coverage near the side entrance,” Nebur replied. “You’ll have about five seconds to slip through unnoticed as it turns to the right.”Nox scanned the area as he noticed a pipe leading toward the roof of the building. “Okay, what if we climb up that pipe over there?”“Risky, but doable—depends on your climbing skills,” Nebur analyzed. “You seem quite fit, so your chances are good. I’ve looked over the past few weeks of footage, and it seems that Mr. Clipboard lives alone and leaves for work around 9:30 until 18:30, so he won’t be home. His species is sheep, and generally, it seems like he doesn’t have many friends. Poor guy. Are you having fun yet?” Nebur teased, vibrating in his pocket.Nox grinned as he grabbed onto the pipe. “Alright, then. A lonely sheep with a strict schedule—makes my job easier.” He tested the pipe’s stability. “Let’s see if my climbing skills are as good as you think, Neb.”With one leap, Nox tugged on the pipe and slowly climbed up toward the window.Nebur hummed in his ear. “Steady now. Wouldn’t want you to make a dramatic entrance through the wrong window.”Nox gritted his teeth as his fingers slipped slightly against the grimy pipe. A yer of oil and dust coated the metal, making each pull a bit harder than expected. His boots scraped against the wall as he adjusted his grip, forcing himself upward inch by inch.“just – a bit more…,” Nox muttered, tightening his hold and pushing himself up until he finally reached the window ledge. With one st heave, he swung himself onto it, pressing his back against the wall to catch his breath.“There we go.”He pulled out a small picklock from his coat. “This will do the job.”Nebur flickered. “Cssic.”Nox smirked, sliding the picklock into the keyhole. “This is the easy part Neb.”With a few precise twists, he felt the mechanism shift. Nox stepped inside, carefully closing the window behind him.His eyes scanned the room—papers scattered across the floor, some crumpled, others neatly stacked. The overstuffed cupboard in the corner barely held its contents, beled by days, weeks, and months.“Looks like Mr. Clipboard takes his work home,” Nebur mused.Nox smirked, stepping over a pile of reports. “Yeah, and by the looks of it, he doesn’t take much else.”His gaze nded on the small bed near the window, a few potted pnts beside it, the only sign of life in an otherwise suffocatingly organized space.Nox took another gnce at the sheet in his pocket. It was written on an old receipt from the 17.09.“That might be the date when the health inspector came!”Nebur vibrated in his pocket. “Good catch. That means whatever he wrote down that day is probably in here somewhere.”Nox tucked the receipt back into his pocket and scanned the overflowing cupboard. “Alright, let’s find the right sheet before I drown in paperwork here.”He stepped closer, eyes darting over the beled stacks, searching for anything marked with that date until he found it.Nebur hummed. “Nice work. Now revise it and get out of here.”Nox carefully pulled the clipboard from the mess, flipping through the sheets until he crossed Chuck’s “Crispy Crib.”His eyes scanned the viotions marked in red. “Alright, let’s make some adjustments.”

  Nox raised an eyebrow. “Oh damn, I can't just overwrite that. Neb, connect to the printer there. I’ll scan the document, just print it without all these uh, little extras, okay?”“Fine, give me a second.”Nox quickly moved to the small, dust-covered printer in the corner.“Alright, I’ve got the scan. Printing a ‘clean’ version now—no glowing mystery sauces included. A shame to lose that piece of culture, right Nox?”The printer sputtered to life, slowly spitting out an identical sheet—minus the damning viotions.

  Nox smirked as he read through the list, shaking his head at some of the absurd viotions.

  Health Viotions – 17.09 – Chucks Crib -

  Excessive grease buildup on cooking surfaces , got changed in→ Authentic seasoning method in progress.Improper food storage temperatures , is now under→ Innovative temperature experimentation for enhanced fvors.Employee failed to wear gloves while handling food , now says→ Traditional hands-on cooking approach, heritage technique.Suspiciously high amount of stray animal visitors , reads → Community outreach program for local wildlife.Unidentified glowing substance near fryer, edited to → Special house sauce undergoing secret fermentation.“Perfect, that will do the job.”He slowly ripped out the old viotion sheet . “Might be useful ter!”“Always thinking ahead, huh?” Nebur mused.Nox smirked, tucking the original sheet into his coat. “You never know when some dirt on a bureaucrat might come in handy.”He carefully pced the newly printed version back onto the clipboard and slid it into the stack.“Alright, mission accomplished. Time to disappear before Mr. Clipboard clocks out of work.”

  Nox gnced out the window spotting a problem “Weve got a problem with pn a – looks like the store below has opened and people are down there I don’t know what they are gonna say about our little circus number climbing down there. Ive got a pn b.”

  Nebur processed for a moment “Understood. Calcuting alternate exit routes. Pn B”

  Before Nebur could finish her sentence he casually opened the door of the apartment and walked down the staircase, even crossing someone on his way down.“Good day, mister,” Nox calmly said as he walked by.The older man barely gnced at Nox, grumbling a distracted, “Yeah, yeah, you too,” before continuing up the stairs.“or just go out the front door…” Nebur murmured. “Let’s just hope he doesn’t have a photographic memory.”Nox chuckled under his breath. “Please, Neb, I’m just another forgettable face in the crowd.”As Nox walked out the main entrance, he gnced at the security camera that just swiped over him. He tilted his head, smiled at it, and waved, after he calmly fused back with the crowd.“Sorry, Neb. Force of habit. Haha.”“Unbelievable,” Nebur sighed. “You just had to say hello, didn’t you?”Nox grinned, hands tucked into his coat pockets. “What can I say? Gotta keep up appearances.”“Right. Let’s just hope they don’t review that footage anytime soon,” Nebur muttered. “Now, back to Chuck before you get any more ‘habits’ that might get us caught.”“Nebur, you gotta rex a little. There is nothing more unsuspicious than someone smiling and waving at a camera. We all did that once or twice before. And with no questions asked, there won’t be someone reviewing that footage anyway.”“Alright, fine,” Nebur conceded. “Fact-checking now... there we go. Security footage from this building auto-deletes after 78 hours unless manually fgged. So, unless someone has a reason to check it, you’re in the clear.”Nox smirked. “See? No need to panic. Just another face in the crowd. Let’s get back to Chuck, I’m dying of hunger.”“Hmm, I can already taste the dumplings,” Nox grinned, picking up his pace.“You really want to eat there after you’ve seen all the health viotions?” Nebur asked, her tone skeptical.Nox turned a corner in to an empty street and squeezed through a small wooden fence. “Of course. After all, these things just add up on the fvor.”“Right. Because a ‘hint of grease buildup’ and ‘mystery sauce’ really enhance the experience,” Nebur added…