Returning to those guys’ house, I woke them up by beating them up and asked them about the pension I used to visit every weekend.
But they tightly shut their mouths, saying they couldn’t speak.
‘Right.’
In fact, their behavior gave me more assurance.
Whack-!
I knocked them out again with a few more hits using [Stagnated Sneaky Drain].
These guys are cumbersome to carry around; what should I do?
I could just defeat them and not worry about any extra pay, but somehow I felt like I should give the families of the missing a choice.
‘It’s a waste to put them in Space, and flying around with them is inefficient. Hmmm… Should I just load them into the car and take them?’
Bringing the Sword Dragon into the city would be too conspicuous.
In the end, I opted to travel by car.
I went down to the underground parking lot, hoisted those guys on my back, and stuffed the unconscious ones haphazardly into the back seat and trunk before starting the car.
Then Yeon-hee, who had been quietly watching me, suddenly asked, startled, “Uh… huh? Il-wol can drive too?”
‘… Is it strange for a skeleton to drive?’
I thought I shouldn’t waste time on such trivial thoughts and urged her to get in quickly by patting the passenger seat.
‘It’s been so long since I drove, I thought I wouldn’t remember. Thank goodness.’
Vroom—
The sensation of pressing the accelerator felt incredibly fresh.
Yeon-hee looked at me curiously, driving with the hat that had been hanging in those guys’ house pulled down low over my face.
‘I want to show off my cool driving skills in a transformation, but I might need it later.’
Currently, [Transformation] could only be maintained for 30 minutes.
I really wanted to extend the duration of the transformation quickly. Maybe next week it would be possible.
The way to increase the duration was to raise one of my companions who was currently gathering information to 100%.
The leading candidate was Noh Ha-yoon.
Her information gathering had already exceeded 80%.
For some reason, even during the two days I hadn’t met Noh Ha-yoon, it had increased by 1%, which I didn’t quite understand, but whatever.
I was looking forward to another way to raise Noh Ha-yoon’s information gathering.
‘I’m not sure if this will work…’
While changing jobs, my ability to handle bones had increased.
‘I can now separate bones.’
I confirmed that the bones consumed recover along with my magic power.
Thanks to that, I could perform the bone-throwing attacks I had been sketching out all this time in dagger form.
Anyway, I thought I could use that ability to counter-propose the ridiculous deal Noh Ha-yoon had suggested in the ‘Hidden Dungeon’ in a modified format.
Noh Ha-yoon must have some pent-up desires she couldn’t express, which would be troubling for her in various ways.
My proposal would surely seem attractive to her.
Of course, since it was an unusual transaction, I would have to carry it out without Yeon-hee knowing. But if I succeeded, I might be able to raise Noh Ha-yoon’s affection to the maximum.
“Hmm…”
Though Yeon-hee looked a bit excited watching me drive, the mood changed back to serious as time passed.
That was probably due to the serious situation concerning our companions.
In fact, my time with Song Jin-kyeong and Ji-woo hadn’t been long, so while I felt a little regret for them, I wasn’t too worried about what might happen to them.
But Yeon-hee, not showing it outwardly, tended to have affection for the people she partied with, so her stance would be different from mine.
After about an hour of travel, we arrived at a lonely pension located in the suburbs. It was completely isolated, and I had to climb a bit up the mountain to reach it, surrounded by absolutely nothing.
“Do you feel anything?”
Nod—
In front of the pension, a barricade was set up, accompanied by a sign stating they were no longer accepting guests.
Strangely, there was an enormous underground space beneath the pension that I could never have imagined.
After thoroughly searching that entire area with my senses, I felt as though my head had been hit by a hammer.
“Why? What’s going on?”
Yeon-hee shook my body, urging me to speak quickly.
‘These guys… I was wondering how they were obtaining evolution stone materials.’
I hesitated to tell Yeon-hee.
Even I, who was usually calm, found the malignant presence in that underground space difficult to tolerate.
‘Hmm… But I have to tell her.’
We moved to a forest where our view of those guys was obscured.
After giving instructions to manage the three unconscious hunters carefully to the Lizard Squad, I sat Yeon-hee down and began revealing what I had sensed.
After hearing my entire story, Yeon-hee looked horrified, repeating the information in her head.
“There is… a factory producing babies underground…?”
“Clap, Clap, Clap.”
“The women hunters who went missing give birth there…”
“……”
“Goblin and female hunters… haah—”
Yeon-hee seemed to have grasped the general picture as she looked at me with a despairing expression.
It was shockingly cruel, and soon her lips pursed and trembled as her eyes grew red.
Goblin, known for their rapid breeding, female hunters who became stronger through long-term use of evolution stone, and an underground factory away from civilization.
‘There are plenty of civilians too. Damn…’
Even facing this unbelievable situation, we had to act quickly.
Since Yeon-hee was also in urgent circumstances, she broke free from her panic state and steeled her resolve.
‘I didn’t expect to use Ran’s ability this quickly.’
First, sneaking into the underground and gathering the victims into Space without being noticed was the best plan.
But if things went wrong, and it turned out that the enemy came out through four exits with me, Yeon-hee would have to stall them with the summoned creatures I had set up in advance to buy us time.
Of course, Yeon-hee would need to retreat if she felt it was impossible while riding the Sword Dragon.
‘It’s tedious, but the safety of the people comes first.’
Initially, I thought of inserting the victims into Space and having Yeon-hee summon me into the Dark Space immediately after a certain period of time.
However, the possibility that people might return to reality if my summons were released while still inside Space worried me, hence the plan.
But what left me feeling uneasy was.
‘It’s weird that there’s no S-rank hunter in such a large facility. Could it be that yesterday’s incident affected them here as well?’
Of course, Helen had played a significant role, but it hadn’t been too hard to find this place, so they should have been prepared for the possibility of being exposed.
It seemed a bit flimsy that their strongest force was A-rank.
‘Five A-ranks and a bunch of lower-rank hunters including B and C ranks… But still, it’s not something I can think too lightly of. This isn’t a composition I can handle with fighting alone.’
From the flow of mana, the hunters appeared to be organized to thoroughly bind and suppress the enemy.
Setting up a Big Boar tent around the car to block external senses, I sat Yeon-hee in the tent and gently patted her head.
She wore a dissatisfied expression that it had been increasingly common for me to go in alone, but soon showed a faint smile as she whispered to not die like yesterday.
“Be careful, okay?”
‘……’
Seeing Yeon-hee looking up at me worriedly, I had a momentary fantasy of roughly tasting her lips, but I managed to calm myself and moved toward the pension.
Knowing that many of them had sense-related abilities, I planned to dig in from quite a distance.
[Ground Borer]
After what felt like an eternity digging through the pudding-like soft ground, I easily infiltrated the area they had set up.
‘I bet they never thought I’d come in this way.’
No one could replicate silently sneaking into the ground like I did.
Ignoring the strict security starting from the entrance, I headed directly to the inner sanctum and expanded my senses as soon as I arrived.
I found myself in a place divided into dozens of rooms like a prison, where they were keeping the female hunters captive.
The areas I could detect through the pulse of my senses were distinguished based on how much the women’s bellies were swollen.
‘Whew— Damn it. I can’t help but curse.’
The women all had dazed expressions, drooling, and catheters attached to their arms supplying nutrients through the IVs.
‘Is that unstable energy flowing through their bodies… is it ‘Inbam’?’
Just recently, there had been a blue-eyed organization member caught in my [Transformation] state.
The newly drug type he had was called ‘Inbam,’ which I thought was only used for the financial gains of the Blue-eyed Organization.
It seemed however, here it was being used to strip the women of their will. It’s shocking that these bad guys share their items too. This is just hopeless.
‘The world is collapsing too quickly…’
This was an area I had failed to grasp in my previous life, and the decline was steep.
Suddenly, the words of Grandfather Orb came to mind.
[A hundred lives. Those who possess that ability could not save the world they belonged to.]
‘… How do I fix this? It seems impossible. Damn it.’
I grinded my teeth while focusing calmly on what I had to do.
First and foremost, finding Jin-kyeong and Ji-woo was top priority.
I stuck to the ceiling of the underground space with [Adhesion], meticulously observing the mana flow of each person in the prison, and thankfully managed to find both of them without difficulty.
‘Phew… Thank goodness.’
Realizing that Yeon-hee wouldn’t have to suffer, a sigh of relief escaped my lips.
‘Am I spoiling her too much…?’
I don’t know.
But I really didn’t like seeing someone I loved in pain.
Jin-kyeong and Ji-woo were in the farthest room, and I moved to that location.
Although the quantity and quality of the sensing barriers were comparable to the building where I had stolen evolution stone, they now meant nothing to me.
The only annoyance was the C-rank hunters patrolling at a certain distance.
Three hunters were taking turns patrolling the hallway near the last room.
I quietly waited for one of them to close in.
As soon as he approached.
[Special Strong Acid]
[Flame Cut]
Chop—
Without hesitation, I severed the man’s head.
I felt a slight sense of achievement, almost enjoying the extermination of a pest that harmed humanity.
– You have acquired a Fragment of Corrupted Life Potion. (15/100)
Additionally, I received a remarkable reward.
‘With two…’
These guys had also consumed evolution stone.
Or perhaps just being associated with evolution stone was enough to drop a fragment; I didn’t know, but it didn’t matter.
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