episode_0117

“Lucky.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

A woman with long hair wearing a black research gown and a man with short hair were laughing as they looked at the people trapped in the room.

“Ugh…”

“Someone please help me…!”

The room was covered in white spider silk. People transformed into white cocoon-like forms were struggling to break free, but the threads were as tough as an orc’s sinew, rendering them immobile.

Ssshh.

The culprit who transformed people into cocoon forms, a giant spider confined to only the second floor of the building, descended from the ceiling and approached the disturbed cocoons.

“Ahhh!”

As the giant spider spun around the cocoon and sprayed silk, a small gap in the cocoon disappeared completely. The man wriggling inside the cocoon felt nauseous like a ship hitting rough waves and retched.

After neatly displaying its food in the appropriate place, the giant spider meticulously inspected the other cocoons. Once the inspection was complete, it immediately crawled back up to the ceiling.

Thud, thump.

A soft and delicate heartbeat sound quietly spread. It emanated from dozens, hundreds of eggs hanging from the ceiling. These cocoons would serve as delicious food for the future offspring of the giant spiders.

Watching this, the female researcher with long hair twirled the end of her hair and said,

“Just when the prey ran out and I had to put out the fire in a hurry -… It’s so disappointing. I wanted to use them as test subjects.”

“Aren’t there a few more left?”

“There are. There are some left, but -… They are rare specimens that are hard to come by, so they will all be used in the main experiment.”

She muttered with a frustrated voice, pursing her lips. Despite her sensual figure swaying enticingly to seduce the man, the man with short hair felt no attraction.

“Using fresh test subjects could make them a few years younger…”

The female researcher in her mid-twenties seemed like a witch who would commit any cruel act for the sake of youth. Although no one knew her exact age, the man with short hair knew she was over 100 years old at least. No matter how beautiful a woman may be, no one liked someone with a rotten core.

“Can’t we at least get one?”

As the woman tilted her head and asked, the man shook his head and replied,

“It might be difficult now, considering the critical timing. We’re not far from mass-producing the ‘weapon’…”

“That’s true.”

The man turned around and gazed at countless glass capsules.

Inside the capsules, transparent liquid filled them, with black liquid resembling melted life forms floating in the center. Eyes and mouths irregularly appeared and disappeared.

“We’re running out of time. The completion of the weapon for the massacre.”

The man smiled with exhilaration. The woman, seemingly uninterested in such matters, spoke with a detached expression,

“Oh -… I want to finish the research as soon as possible and go to the city. Seeing ugly things every day is making my skin crawl.”

She took out a mirror from her pocket and started examining her face. After observing her expression, the man spoke in a solemn voice,

“No matter how close you are to your goal, you must not let your guard down. This is the most crucial time -…”

“You know talkative men aren’t popular, right? So annoying.”

Seeing the woman snort, the man could only let out a small sigh.

“At least ensure strict management of the capsules. One mistake could lead to disaster…”

“Is it possible for an ambiguous finished product to be born? Do you think I’m a fool? How many times do you need to explain?”

The woman, as if about to vomit with anger, got up and left, clacking her tongue.

Gurgle, gurgle…

The man, without a word, looked at the glass capsules before moving on to find his task.

“…Finally gone.”

Lian, who had been watching the two, let out a small breath. He was looking down from the ceiling vent.

“Do we need to move like thieves? It would be more fun to coolly cut down all the attackers, wouldn’t it, partner!”

“Huff…! ‘Unbelievable! What’s this!’ or… ‘When did the boss…!’ Such praises can be heard! Indeed, the partner is a genius!”

After confirming that there were no signs nearby after lightly soothing the magic sword, he quietly detached the entrance to the ventilation shaft and landed in the research lab.

Swoosh.

Lian approached the giant spider breeding ground that the man and woman had been watching earlier, trying to keep the noise to a minimum.

“Ugh, please, Lord Noah… save us…”

The voice coming from inside was that of an organization member he had heard several times before.

“How can I rescue them from there?”

Rescuing people by breaking glass and making noise was one way, but there were only 26 repair kits. Considering that the number of missing people, including Noah, was 31, it meant that five people were held captive elsewhere.

“I need to rescue them as quietly as possible and find the others.”

Therefore, it was necessary to rescue the people without causing a commotion. Lian quickly scanned the surroundings.

“..! That’s…”

In front of the giant spider room was a large machine. Lian, keeping quiet, swiftly moved towards the machine like a flying squirrel.

“Hmm…”

Seeing all sorts of incomprehensible buttons and levers, his mind went blank.

“In this situation, it must be…”

After a moment of thought, Lian started randomly touching things with a mindset of solving it in a comedic way!

Click!

As he pulled down the lever, the light in the giant spider room went out.

Clang.

Pressing a button, water started pouring out from inside.

“What the heck?!”

The problem was that the water was pouring out from the ceiling. The eggs attached to the ceiling began to get wet and shrink away in the water. The spider turned its bewildered face around.

Clang, beep, clang.

Click, clank, thud.

Pressing buttons and pulling the lever up and down repeatedly, the giant spider room started to descend into chaos.

The lights flickered on and off like a nightclub, and water of various kinds poured from all directions, resembling someone entering a car wash naked.

“What’s this?”

Upon pressing a red button that looked like it shouldn’t be pressed, robots popped out from the walls of the giant spider room and started cleaning. The neatly laid spider webs were cut and sucked into the vacuum cleaner.

“What the heck! Aaargh!”

The enraged spider bared its sharp teeth to tear apart the robots.

Crunch!

The giant spider bit into the robot it was cleaning.

Boom!

The robot exploded.

“Aaargh!”

The giant spider twisted its body, screaming. By this point, someone might have felt the disturbance and come running, but… thanks to Lian pressing the “noise cancellation” button, no one noticed the commotion.

While the giant spider was suffering, the cleaning robots diligently cleaned the spider webs, including the cocoons. As soon as the cocoons were cut open, people inside panicked and scrambled out onto the floor.

If the spider webs had remained intact, they wouldn’t have been able to move, but the webs were already shredded and being sucked into the vacuum cleaner.

“Squeak!”

“M-Monster!”

Terrified people sat on the floor, staring blankly at the giant spider on the 2nd floor of the building. They were so frightened that their bodies went limp.

“Everyone, pull yourselves together and gather here!”

“…!”

At that moment, a firm voice snapped them back to reality.

“Lady Pia..!”

“Ahh!”

The people who were sitting down began to walk towards Pia as if they had found a beacon of light. However, not everyone regained their senses upon hearing Pia’s voice.

“Do not turn away from fallen comrades nearby; you must help each other!”

“Yes!”

“Alright, let’s go.”

As if possessed, nine people walked towards Pia, carrying their unconscious or dazed comrades. Pia also lifted two unconscious children in each arm without any issue.

She had trained herself to handle such situations.

“I need to find the entrance.”

As Pia urgently scanned for the entrance…

[Squeeeak!]

“…!”

The belatedly awakened giant spider let out a long wail. It started turning its black eyes crimson while looking at its ruined home. It began to thrash around in extreme anger, with magical energy surging within its body.

Thud!

It leaped off the wall and landed on the floor. Dozens of chilling eyes, thick and elongated legs covered in fur, elaborate patterns all over its body, and teeth larger than a human torso were exposed.

Like sheep thrown before a wolf, they trembled delicately.

“Ah… Lady Lian…”

Pia, her legs weak, sat on the floor, clasped her hands, and began to pray.

“Please, even if it’s just these children… I’m okay with dying…”

Having taken Lian as her deity, Pia prayed sincerely, showing sacrificial devotion like ordinary worshippers. Tears streamed down Pia’s face.

At that moment, Lian said, “I’ve pressed everything that can be pressed… Where on earth is the button to open the door?”

Frustrated at not finding the door-opening button, she furrowed her brow.

“In times like this…”

She brought forth the wisdom (fist) of her ancestors.

Thud!

As she struck the machine head with her fist, it crumpled as if hit with a club.

Creak, creak…

Sparks flew everywhere as if the machine had completely malfunctioned.

Humming sound…

The door to the giant spider’s room opened!

“As expected, machines listen when you hit them.”

Lian smiled brightly, extending her magic sword as she headed towards the door.