Ch.305Berzan 02 (4)

“No movement detected inside.”

“No detection? There should be at least two of them.”

“Seems like there’s a jamming device.”

“Did you check with energy detection mode?”

“We’re detecting minimal psychic power from underground, but it’s not certain.”

In front of the hover bus center.

Twelve people wearing high-grade reinforcement suits made by Megacorp were having a suspicious conversation.

“A jamming device. Suspicious.”

“Could they be cultists?”

“Even if they’re not cultists, we need to make them into cultists. That’s the only way we can seize their slaves.”

In the Empire, members of the Sect of Voltex One are severely punished regardless of status. Even if a deer-horned Cult is identified as a cultist, they lose all rights and receive punishment by having their horns cut off. Needless to say, their property is also confiscated.

The leopard-headed Volf often engaged in such illegal activities for his master Alqadi.

Framing other Cults as cultists is a serious crime, even more so than cultist activities, but he had never been caught. This was due to his excellent work skills.

For instance, when doing illegal work, he never uses Cult equipment. He only uses equipment produced by Megacorp and Star Union. This is to disguise it as if visitors from outside caused the problems.

Even now, none of those present were carrying Cult equipment or tools. The reinforcement suits and weapons they wore were made by Megacorp, and the communication and detection equipment was made by Star Union.

“Let’s begin. Everyone activate stealth mode.”

“Confirmed.”

“Communication status check.”

“Communication status good.”

The leopard-headed Volf and his subordinates dissolved into the air. Nine entered the hover bus center, while the remaining three waited in the building for sniping and support.

The inside of the center was filled with sand. Looking at the cracked walls from neglect, no one would think anyone lived here.

If it weren’t for the footprints on the floor, they would have thought they came to the wrong abandoned house.

“These footprints confirm that the Volf is here.”

The leopard-headed Volf, who had directly confronted the female Volf, quickly found traces of his target.

“Uh, but what are these traces?”

Besides the Cult and Volf footprints, other things caught their eye.

There were strange traces everywhere, like marks left by a round object dragging its body, and footprints that seemed to belong to small spider-like creatures.

“Are these… animal footprints?”

“Could be animals that escaped from the market. Stay close to each other since we don’t know when they might jump out.”

Animals? This was unexpected. The slaves who had been moving separately gathered closely around the leopard-headed Volf.

And they quickly realized something was wrong.

“Eight??”

“B-but he was right behind us just now!”

There were nine who entered this place, including him. But only eight, including him, were present.

The leopard-headed Volf hurriedly tried to communicate but received no response. The snipers outside also reported not seeing anyone leave the building.

‘There’s no way he could have been taken in such a short time.’

“Where was he last seen?”

“Over there, sir!”

They approached a pile of sand in the corner as indicated by the slave. A Gauss rifle lay in front of the mountain of sand.

‘No other traces except… huh?’

The leopard-headed Volf discovered a strange mark as his subordinate picked up the fallen gun. It was a large swipe mark in the sand.

At that moment, they heard sand pouring from behind them. Eight heads turned simultaneously.

There was a dragon in the red sand. A giant snake reminiscent of the carnivorous worm, Redworm, that inhabits the desert, raised its head.

A dragon with lighter pink skin than a Redworm. The leopard-headed Volf, facing its numerous eyes, instinctively knew.

He had to run away immediately.

The moment his feet kicked the ground, countless snake heads popped out of the sand. The slaves who couldn’t react in time were caught by the snakes.

There were no screams.

Before the slaves could make a sound, the snakes dragged them into the sand. Just seeing the bright red liquid soaking the sand made it easy to imagine what fate the slaves had met.

While 5 people turned into bloody water, the remaining 3 escaped. Two ran inward, and the leopard-headed Volf ran toward the outside.

“Snipers! Respond!”

No matter how much he shouted into the communicator, there was no answer. Instead, he heard another sound from above.

An ominous flapping sound came from the blood-red sky.

Sometimes from nearby, sometimes from far away. Even when he looked up, he couldn’t see the owner of the wings.

At that moment, there was a loud sound of skin bursting in the sand in front of the building. Something had fallen from the sky.

The leopard-headed Volf was shocked when he identified the fallen object.

“!”

The object that had crashed onto the sand was one of the snipers who had been hiding in the building.

Thanks to the reinforcement suit, the corpse’s form was intact. Because of this, he had to clearly see the bizarre state of the corpse with his own eyes. The dead sniper was completely mummified, with all blood and moisture drained from the body.

“Damn it!”

He ran with trembling legs.

He needed to return to his master immediately and inform him of the dangerous beings hiding here.

His master was powerful enough to call upon the Cult Legion. He could purify the hover bus center that had been taken over by monsters.

But there was one thing he was mistaken about.

Monsters never let go of prey that enters their territory.

“!”

One of the new owners of the ruins blocked the intruder.

A Volf holding a golden spear that shone brightly under the red sky.

On top of her head, which resembled a white bird of prey, were black horns reminiscent of a warrior’s helmet. Below was a robust body that looked as if it had been molded from molten gold.

He had certainly met her during the day. But the Volf standing majestically on the sand with a spear felt completely different.

The leopard-headed Volf didn’t hesitate and immediately aimed his Gauss rifle at her.

The moment his finger pulled the trigger, she ducked. The tungsten bullet narrowly grazed above her head.

‘She dodged?’

Currently, he was wearing a reinforcement suit with stealth function activated. Unless that Volf had a special detection device, she shouldn’t be able to see him.

The battle had already begun. While he was contemplating, the opponent quickly closed the distance.

The second bullet left the muzzle, aiming for the enemy’s chest. The distance between him and the enemy wasn’t very long. It’s impossible to dodge a bullet fired from such a close range.

The enemy’s hand holding the spear moved like lightning. The golden thunderbolt cut the incoming bullet. The bullet, split in half, passed by her and embedded in the sand.

“What?!”

He gaped at the unbelievable sight. The spear that had cut the bullet was now aimed at his neck. He hurriedly tried to block it with his Gauss rifle, but the opponent was overwhelmingly fast.

“Kuh, kuhuh…”

A thin stream of blood splattered onto the sand. A small hole appeared in his throat, protected by the reinforcement suit.

The leopard-headed Volf threw away his gun and tried to cover the hole, but it was futile. His life quickly drained away like water rushing past a collapsed dam.

“What did you call me? A female bought as a slave?”

Had he forgotten his primal instincts after being a slave for so long?

As the leopard-headed Volf met the angry amber eyes, he recalled a legend he had heard from his kind when he was very young.

The story of the fall of the great gods.

The one before him was not a slave.

She was the goddess of hunting.

–

“Shit! Why did we come this way!”

“Damn it!”

The two slaves who had planned to escape through the opposite exit across the center soon regretted their choice. All doors were blocked by sand and debris.

The only open path was the one leading underground. Having no other choice, they descended the stairs leading to the basement.

Unlike the upper floor, the lower floor had lights on.

Irregularly flickering lights illuminated the exposed steel frames and wires on the ceiling and walls. The atmosphere was quite eerie, making the two slaves extremely tense.

The thought that they had made a series of wrong choices crossed their minds, but it was too late. They continued walking with their gun muzzles pointed forward.

At the end of the stairs was a very large cavity. They could see several passages connected to what appeared to be an unfinished underground cavity.

“There are many paths. What should we do?”

“For now, let’s keep going to the right…”

At that moment, both of them fell silent. They had heard a sound from within the darkness engulfing the cavity.

Clank, clank. It was the regular sound of metal objects colliding.

“……”

The slaves pressed buttons on their wrist pads with trembling hands. After switching their helmet visors to thermal mode, they turned their heads toward the source of the sound.

Confirming with their own eyes what was lurking in the gray world was their third mistake.

In the middle of the cavity, a spider of overwhelming size was crouching.

“Hee, heek!”

‘It’ reacted to the slave’s brief scream. A human female head attached to the spider’s body turned 180 degrees to face them.

“Two of you?”

‘Its’ eyes, cold like camera lenses, moved mechanically, scanning the outsiders.

“I will eliminate one.”

The spider that had been staying in the cavity rose.

The screams coming from below the stairs didn’t last long.

–

[Zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz zzzz (A huge mansion at the end of the street?)]

“Mansion. Mansion.”

The slaves sent by the Cult master were quickly dealt with. PS-111, who extracted information from a survivor, informed me through MPS-05 where their master was located.

I picked up MPS-05 from the building and moved toward the mansion where the Cult master was staying.

In the ‘Clever Weakling’ state, not only does my body size decrease, but my weight also reduces considerably. Combined with the ‘Stealthy Movement’ effect I gained from the ice planet before, my footsteps were almost silent. Even when I leaped over buildings with my four legs, none of those below noticed.

As I went deeper into the slave market, I began to see a fence larger than the buildings in the distance.

‘That must be it.’

Upon closer inspection, the mansion was partially fortified. Cameras and various detection devices were attached to the walls, and Star Union-made storm guns were on guard at the top.

‘But they’re useless against me.’

I kicked the building rooftop strongly with my four legs. My body flew rapidly like a shell fired from a cannon, passing over the fence.

After crossing the fence, I saw an armed guard below. Judging by the poncho with overlapping inverted triangles and diamonds worn over his suit-type reinforcement suit, he seemed to be from the Cult ‘Warrior Corps’.

The patrolling guard didn’t notice me jumping over the fence. I landed right behind him.

“Hmm?”

The warrior corps member reacted to the sound right behind him. Just before his head turned, my tails moved.

The pincer at the end of my right tail struck his head hard. With a sound like a watermelon breaking, his head shattered. Before he could fall, my left tail, resembling a snake, wrapped around the corpse.

I quickly devoured the prey with my three heads. The distinctive sweet flavor of Cult filled my mouth, but now was not the time to enjoy it.

The blood spilled during the meal by the heads on both shoulders was all wiped clean by the tongue of the middle head. The mimicry organ inside my body received the newly collected genetic information and constructed a completely different pheromone system.

From now on, I am not a cannon gunner from the surveillance department, but a security guard from the warrior corps.

I walked holding MPS-05. After passing through the wide and bright garden inside the fence, a pyramid-like mansion greeted me.

Around the mansion, I could see Cults dressed exactly like the security guard I had eaten. I approached the mansion without paying attention to their gazes. As expected, they showed no particular reaction upon seeing me.

Upon reaching the entrance of the mansion, a doorkeeper blocked my way.

“What? You’re not assigned to the mansion.”

“He said he wants to check the newly acquired creature.”

“Tsk. Get in quickly.”

The guard clicked his tongue briefly and opened the door. Thus, I entered the mansion without any hindrance.

‘Where could he be?’

I scanned the interior using the auxiliary organ under my jaw. Despite it being late at night, there was a lot of movement. Probably slaves and guards.

So I looked for beings with less movement instead. That arrogant master probably wouldn’t be working until night.

The auxiliary organ that collected all sorts of elements such as airflow, sound, and smell flowing within the mansion began analysis. Eventually, one peculiar movement was detected in a place on the top floor of the mansion.

‘There you are.’

Unlike others who were busily moving around, this was extremely static, unmistakably the movement of someone asleep. Having found my target, I got on the elevator.

Upon reaching the top floor and the elevator doors opening, a luxurious corridor greeted me. Here too, two armed Cult guards were waiting.

“Hey, you’re not assigned here.”

“The master said he wants to check the newly acquired creature.”

I used the same excuse I had at the entrance, but this time the reaction was different.

“Master Alqadi retired to his chamber an hour ago.”

“And he didn’t order anyone to bring any creatures.”

“Is that so?”

It would have been nice if they had let it pass, but that’s unfortunate. They chose the wrong answer.

I struck one guard with my right tail while grabbing the other guard who was trying to call for his colleagues with my combat arm.

“Kek!”

“Mmph?!”

The one hit in the waist by the pincer at the end of my tail was slammed against the wall with his body bent in a ‘ㄱ’ shape. The one whose entire face was grabbed by my combat arm flailed in panic.

“You, what…”

I squeezed my hand, crushing the Cult’s head. His horns and skull shattered, and the contents inside soaked my palm.

After dealing with the nuisances, I entered the room.

The source of my annoyance was peacefully asleep, completely unaware of what was happening outside. I put down MPS-05 and climbed onto the bed decorated with bright ornaments.

Then he sensed my presence and opened his eyes.

I extended my combat arm and grabbed his head.

“…!”

The Cult looked confused as to why a warrior corps member was here and why his body wouldn’t move.

I deactivated my mimicry organ and brought my muzzle close to him.

“I heard you’re willing to pay an unimaginable price?”

“?!”

His body trembles.

Is it regret for what he’s done, or the fear one would feel upon encountering a monster in a comfortable bedroom?

Actually, what he’s thinking doesn’t matter.

What matters is how valuable a price he can pay.

He will give me everything he has.

Whether he wants to or not.