Chapter 81 – Actors Entering the Stage
Inside the secret prison, Brim was tied on a surgeon table. His wrist and ankle tendons had been severed, and his face was covered by a steel mask.
This was not the same type of mask that Misha had experienced as sharp nails embedded behind the mask, located on the eyes.
Once a wearer put this mask on, the nails would stab into the eyes of the victim.
Brim attempted to use his self-regeneration to repair his damaged nervous system, but he could not use his skill.
The nails from the mask contained the same substance within AR shells, the anti-regenerative bullets. They interfered Brim's psychic's ability to manipulate his blood cells.
The back of Brim's neck had been partially cut, and his cerebellum nerve was damage. As a result, he had a hard time trying to control his body from the neck down.
Brim's yellow blood dripped down from his both eyes. He attempted to melt the mask, but he could not gather his saliva.
Around Brim, ten soldiers monitored his condition while two surgeons tried to dissect his scales from his skins. Their scalpels melted each time they inserted into Brim's flesh.
"This is no use. We've lost 20 scalpels already. We can keep his blood, and we can't even properly cut his without destroying our tools."
The surgeons turned to their superiors, trying to get their approval.
"Please postpone the test. We've run out of tools."
The captain of the soldiers passed the messages, using the radio on his shoulder.
"Ma'am, we've run out of knives."
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[Tell the quacks, severe the test subject's limbs and freeze them.]
The captain shrugged at the surgeons, "You heard her."
"He will die from blood loss."
"We're not treating a patient. He is nothing but a discarded piece of meat."
"If you say so."
Hearing his death sentences, Brim flinched. He licked the mask, hastening the melting process.
Brim cried as he desperately tried to break the mask. Had his partner been around, this kind of toy would have been dissolved in a flash.
'I'm so sorry, Sam. I should have died with you that day. I'm sorry!'
Brim hopelessly prayed to his deceased partner, begging for forgiveness.
Then, he heard a faint whisper. It was a clear voice of an adult woman.
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The moment he heard the mysterious voice, a loud boom noise and an earthquake alarmed everyone in the facility. The siren rang, and automatic alarm from the defensive system alerted everybody inside.
[Intruder detected!]
[Intruder detected!]
While everybody in the surgery room crouched down because of the earthquake, the radio on the captain's shoulder spoke, "All units, gather at elevator seven! I repeat, gather at E-7. A mutant is raiding our prison!"
All soldiers glanced at each other before they dashed out of the room, leaving two surgeons with the crippled Brim.
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An elevator with a sign E-3 brought Joan and her five crews from the prison to the ground floor. As soon as they stepped foot outside of the elevator, everybody found themselves inside the House of Parliament.
After seeing Mia's appearance and his abilities in the CCTV feeds, Joan did not waste her time waiting for him inside the prison. Realizing the difference in abilities between Mia and herself, she chose not to fight Mia in a direct confrontation.
Joan and five of her subordinates from the real world walked out from the House of Parliament. Once they got out of the white building, they could see the dust fog from the location of the collapsed casino.
"Uriel Mia, you sissy bastard! Your entire family doesn't belong in this galaxy!"
Joan turned toward her escort soldiers, "Go fetch my mech and tanks! Arm them with AR and HE shells as if you're up against an alpha egg!"
"Yes, ma'am!"
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In the dark sky, an elder butler stood in the air, watching the chaotic scenes inside Mafdet City. His dragon wings spread wide as they flapped to keep this dragonewt afloat.
Sebastian came to watch the action personally.
"Hmm."
His eyes glared at the collapsed building site, but he switched his attention toward a group of soldiers who were driving toward the city airport.
"Hmm."
No one knew what he was thinking.
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Meanwhile, Thorn and his Zeris One had been deployed. Behind him, four Tautog mechs were also following him from behind.
These five robots formed a provisional squad as they rushed toward the junkyard where Mia had stopped here once.
This place would be their extraction point.
Thorn saw a trail of black smoke coming out of the city. He pressed the intercom button, "Chief, has Misha gone nuts? What the heck is happening over there?"
"Misha bombed their prison cover. Well, she pretty much destroyed everything for a shortcut."
"A shortcut?"
"Yup, a freaking shortcut."
"…"
"Oh, by the way, Misha roasted a few scorpions and snakes on her way there. Have you guys seen them?"
"Yeah, the corpses are still fresh."
"Collect those and bring them back to base. I haven't eaten a grilled snake for months. We can also sell that to the black market."
"… Are we here for the rescue mission or are we here for the loots?"
"Both! War costs money! We take anything and everything we can get!"
"…"
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Dove and other combat players were alarmed when an explosion broke out from a distance away. Not only the combat class players paid attention to this event, but all lifestyle players were also keeping an eye on this incident as well.
"An event again?"
"A terrorist attack?"
Dove opened his quest menu, but no quest appeared on his screen.
'If this is an event quest, a notification should come after a couple of minutes. If it doesn't come, it is not a quest.'
As Dove had predicted, a notification screen appeared before all players in the Mafdet City.
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In the anime district, Shurka immediately opened her game menu to log out of the game, but the log out button was disabled.
"No!"
She gritted her teeth as she glared at the cloud of dust.
"Damn terrorist!"
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<
"I knew it! Uncle Fluke, your game sucks!"
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On the opposite side of the wasteland, a twelve-meter tall queen egg stood still.
Her skin no longer pulsed, and no tentacle came out of her mouth. No zombie gathered around the queen like the usual as she did not release her pheromone.
She was already dead.
However, something was moving in the inside. A red creature was eating the queen within her body.
This monster was the owner of many red gels that base 88 crews had stolen, Amro.
The creature was once an alpha egg. Now, it slowly grew into a different kind of monster.
From the size of two meters oval ball, this mutated red monster grew into over a three-meter long lizard with two heads, six feet, and eight tentacles.
The former eggshells transformed into scales. Two long necks and two heads extended from the lizard body. A short tail and six legs grew from its sides, forming a structure similar to that of a tardigrade. On its back, eight red tentacles wriggled around freely.
One of its heads was the head of a snake. It had extensive and round red pupils that cover its entire eye sockets. This was Amro's original head and the master of the hydra body.
The other one had the face of a human. This was the face of Crimson Krastel.
Currently, Krastel stared at Amro, who was eating the intestines of his mother. His eyes and expression were indifferent like a mindless doll.
As Krastel's brain was destroyed and his soul was forcefully merged with Amro, most of his memories were in fragments after he was revived. He could not remember his previous life or even his human speech.
However, Krastel still retained his psychic abilities and remembered about their usage.
The second head looked around in confusion as if he was a newborn baby in a new world. Krastel gazed at Amro's head in curiosity, wondering what he was doing.
Soon, Krastel mimicked Amro's action, eating the intestines of the queen egg. The moment his tongue tasted the delicacy before him, he could not stop eating.
An hour later, Amro stopped eating and fell into a daze. He stared into the direction of Mafdet City.
"Who?"
The legs of baby hydra kicked the ground, pushing itself through the body of the dead queen egg.
Amro emerged outside of the queen with its body soaked in green blood.
"Grr."
Krastel groaned at Amro, annoyed that his food time was interrupted.
Amro peered at Krastel as it mumbled, "Better food, more comrades, over there."
"Grr?"
"Let's go."
"Ah."
The deadliest monster in the wasteland began its journey.