Ch.249Operation: Take Down the Beloved Icarus. Chaotic Mayhem Begins! (2)

After Jessica’s orders, the remaining ten or so Superhumans from the Humanity Clan were immediately placed under forced detention.

After receiving the situation report from Jessica, I opened my mouth with a disinterested expression toward Tiara who stood before me.

“So… I’m looking for someone who can explain what exactly is going on here.”

“Hmm.”

However, Tiara’s face wasn’t so much surprised as it was, how should I put it?

Beyond her bewilderment, she looked like her mental fortitude was half-broken, as if thinking, “There really are sick bastards who pull this kind of stunt.”

Eventually, Tiara let out a deep sigh and began explaining to me what exactly was happening.

And after various details and explanations…

“…Who thought it was a good idea to include opposition members in the delegation?”

“I feel the same way, but the opposition demanded to be included… it’s all just petty power struggles in the end.”

As I watched Tiara staring blankly at the distant mountains—no, the distant space—through the massive window in the reception room.

I quietly decided to press X to pay my respects to that look in her eyes, filled with the sorrows of a middle manager.

Separately from that, I wanted to confirm with certainty that this incident wasn’t some prank by Humanity.

In response to my reaction, Tiara asked for some time to contact Antares via chat, and then…

“…The clan leader says that’s correct. Those fools simply did something stupid, and the Humanity Clan has nothing to do with this incident.”

“Hmm.”

Since she was giving me legal permission to capture and discipline these Superhumans.

I immediately nodded, then gestured for Jessica who was waiting nearby to approach, and said:

“Jessica, how many bastards have infiltrated the base?”

“Seven in total, but three of them are moving as a team… they’re probably operating under a single Commander.”

“Since we’ve received permission from our Humanity Clan friends, capture or eliminate all of them.”

“Yes, I’ll relay those orders.”

Of course, I’d love nothing more than to round them up and capture them all in one go like Smeragi.

Unfortunately, I still vividly remember the catastrophe that occurred when I previously captured Smeragi and two S-rank individuals at once.

So I ordered that they should proceed ruthlessly against the Superhumans, with permission to kill or capture as they saw fit.

==========

Setia, one of the Superhumans deployed after being swept up in Indian Machete’s instigation, used an unusual infiltration route.

Rather than using ventilation ducts that were tangled like spider webs, she moved through internal corridors by exploiting the blind spots of surveillance cameras.

And Setia’s target was Icarus’s base’s resource production facility.

-“Setia, you need to destroy as many resource facilities as possible, understood?”

“Yes, Commander.”

With her Commander’s trust-filled communication dripping in her ears, Setia was continuing to advance toward her objective.

But immediately after that.

-Thud!

-Boom!

Several thick bulkheads appeared and blocked the corridor Setia was advancing through, and simultaneously…

“I heard there was a rat that infiltrated the base, so it was true.”

“…Commander, I’ve encountered an enemy Superhuman.”

-“What? Which Superhuman?”

“You should abandon any hope of returning in one piece.”

“…It’s Ignis, and she appears to be in a much more developed state than me.”

-“Ah, of all people.”

As Ignis appeared with her vivid flame-red hair, emitting scorching heat through the gaps in her suit and wielding two energy blades.

Setia tensed her entire body and entered combat stance, knowing that although Ignis was technically lower-ranked than herself, Ignis was known to be superior in close combat performance.

Of course, it was absurd to think that Setia, an assassin-style fighter, could win in a direct confrontation against Ignis, a bruiser-type warrior.

A moment later.

“Ugh…”

-“This isn’t working. Setia, surrender.”

“I surrender, please spare me.”

“Oh.”

Following the order from Setia’s Commander who was monitoring the situation, Setia, her body covered in cuts, pleaded for surrender to Ignis with trembling arms.

And besides Setia, the situations of the other infiltrating Superhumans were equally unfavorable.

==========

Raymond, who infiltrated the shipyard to damage facilities.

After encountering Partia and resisting, he was subdued by a blow to the head with a scripture and was now being forcibly repented.

==========

Rococo, who tried to cut the circuits of the fleet’s long-range teleport system to interfere with fleet operations.

After being surrounded by Berial’s doll army during infiltration.

He was preemptively caught by Smeragi and subjected to a “hunting game” that ended with his limbs being dismembered.

==========

Lakan, who was infiltrating through the base’s water system and ventilation ducts to destroy the gravity detection radar.

Failed to escape in the narrow space due to tentacles released by Griyanar for water purification and others that escaped from the laboratory, resulting in muffled screams.

==========

…In this manner, although they were of the same rank, the infiltrating Superhumans were merely assassin-style fighters.

In contrast, the Superhumans they faced were close-combat specialists, making it unreasonable for the infiltrators to engage in direct confrontations.

If there had been any winning strategy, it would have been to avoid direct confrontation and continue fleeing while relying on the assassin’s natural method of “ambush”…

Unfortunately, thanks to Griyanar, Oxianor, and others, detection devices resembling a living organism’s neural network had been installed throughout the base.

No matter what the infiltrators did or where they went, those who created these systems, including Griyanar and the monster faction personnel, could instantly pinpoint their locations and provide real-time information to other personnel.

As a result, the assassins lost their advantage of surprise and were instead miserably toyed with in direct confrontations where they were inherently disadvantaged for their rank.

…Of course, in Lakan’s case, it was essentially like filming an adult video, unable to move properly in a cramped space while suddenly attacked by tentacle monsters.

In many ways, it could be described as the most unfair of unfair situations.

But if they spent another 4-5 hours like this, regardless of their likability, they would become physically dependent on it and lose half their lives.

Anyway, Griyanar was supposedly praising herself, saying it was all for the best.

==========

While the Superhumans he had instigated were being defeated, sliced up, or ground down for various reasons.

Indian Machete’s Superhumans—”Mirai,” “Sherpa,” and “August”—were advancing toward the “Biological Research Laboratory.”

Unlike the other users’ assassin-type Superhumans who had been torn apart while acting alone.

Perhaps because Mirai was a bruiser-type Superhuman, accompanied by Sherpa and August who served as sub-DPS and buffer Superhumans.

They were actually pushing forward despite the onslaught of various mobs and defense turrets that emerged in response to Icarus’s alert.

Of course, the reason they could make such progress was that the other four Superhumans were sacrificing themselves to buy time.

Indian Machete’s Superhumans had abandoned any attempt at stealth infiltration and were simply pushing forward to make this surprise attack successful…

But as mentioned above, no matter how stealthily they moved, they were like monkeys in Buddha’s palm inside the base.

In a way, this rapid advance was actually an appropriate strategy.

However, their relentless advance eventually came to an end…

“Hmm, it seems I’ve been assigned to deal with three people.”

“!”

“Stop!”

“W-what is this?”

The close-combat bruiser Mirai, sub-DPS August, and party buffer Sherpa.

The opponent who appeared to face these three Superhumans was none other than she who could single-handedly hold off 4-5 SSS-rank individuals inside this base filled with monster cells.

As she transformed her business suit into writhing tentacles and carapaces, simultaneously warping the surrounding base terrain into something resembling the twisted innards of a monster.

Eventually, our Oxianor appeared, spewing forth masses of monsters and weapon-equipped tentacles.

Indian Machete, watching the situation through his three Superhumans, realized that Icarus’s Superhuman forces were insanely powerful beyond what he had imagined, and uttered an immortal quote:

“This game is such bullshit.”