Su Xiao held a small tablet as he led the group. This tablet, which could track Arima Kisho's location, had been provided by the headquarters.
Although it could indeed track Arima Kisho's location pretty accurately, the signal this far underground was just too bad, so Arima Kisho's location disappeared from time to time.
That at least confirmed that Arima Kisho was indeed in the deeper area of the 24th district, at least a few hours away from Su Xiao's current location.
The dark red meat wall of the underground passage seemed to give of a faint sense of pressure to the Investigators, the faint smell of blood in the air was constantly gnawing on their nerves.
Su Xiao was very calm. Right now, they only had to find Arima Kisho. As for the what they were to do next, Washuu Matsuri didn't elaborate. He only told him to find Arima Kisho, and to follow his orders.
Of course, he would not blindly follow the instructions from Washuu Matsuri, but judge the situation and act accordingly.
The travel was smooth sailing, they only took 40 minutes until they reached the depth of the 24th because Mado Akira recognized the route.
"Boom."
A loud noise came from the deeper underground. Su Xiao was tense, but relaxed soon after. The sound came from quite far away from them.
After going into the deeper area in the 24th district, Su Xiao clearly felt the difference compare to the last venture.
Large amounts of gore had been splattered on the tunnels, and they came across groups of ghouls quite often.
Su Xiao did not actively provoke those ghouls, since he did not come down here to kill them this time.
Surprisingly, when those ghouls saw Su Xiao, they immediately turned tail and fled, they had no intentions of fighting.
After encountering the fourth group of ghouls, Juzo Suzuya spoke.
"Why don't you kill these ghouls?"
"That would just waste time."
Su Xiao glanced at the tablet and continued to move forward.
They ventured for another 2 hours, using a compass to identify the direction they had to take to reach Arima Kisho, who's location was displayed on the tablet.
"Tap, tap…"
Loud footsteps came from ahead. The Investigators were already used to this situation, they had stumbled across a dozen or so groups of ghouls on the way.
This time was unlike before however. As soon as Su Xiao could make out the appearance of these ghouls, Dragon Flash appeared in his hands.
These ghouls wore grass skirts, some wore necklaces made from teeth and bones, while some had painted their faces, they were primitive ghouls! These guys were very likely to attack the reinforcement team.
Sure enough, after these forty or so primitive ghouls saw the Investigators, they rushed at them.
"Roar!"
The primitive ghoul who took the lead was incredibly well built, his muscles were standing out, hinting at its power.
"Prepare to engage!"
Besides Su Xiao and Juzo Suzuya, who were in the lead, the ghoul Investigators behind them were obviously shocked. They had never seen such ghouls before.
"Captain Byakuya, what are these? Are they ghouls?"
An Investigator asked nervously, but Su Xiao did not pay attention to him and rushed ahead, his sword in hand.
Juzo Suzuya and Su Xiao were quick to rush at those primitive ghouls.
Juzo Suzuya didn't hesitate, he only killed ghouls.
Su Xiao reached a primitive ghoul and cut its neck with his sword. The combat begun.
After Su Xiao started fighting with a primitive ghoul, other Investigators also rushed forward with their Quinque.
After the first wave of attacks, the Investigators were shown the terror of these primitive ghouls firsthand. Quinque below the S level were completely incapable of causing fatal damage to these primitive ghouls.
Although the primitive ghouls could not use Kagune, their bones were abnormally tough and their bodies' strengths were extremely strong.
A male Investigator holding a long whip directly attacked a primitive ghoul's back. But the primitive ghoul only suffered a slightly bleeding wound from this attack.
After that, the primitive ghoul screamed and turned his head, showing his mouth was full of bad teeth. It jumped forward and slammed into the face of the Investigator.
"Ahhhhh!"
The male Investigator let out a meaningless cry, before the primitive ghoul bit him on his neck again.
A large piece of flesh was torn off, the Investigator covered his neck with his hands, but some blood still tricked down from between his fingers.
After a dozen seconds, the reinforcement team already had casualties.
The sounds of screaming, of explosions and of sharp items cutting flesh spread through the spacious passage.
The reinforcement team and the primitive ghouls fought in a particularly spacious tunnel, which was at least 8 or 9 meters wide. Su Xiao could not stop the primitive ghouls from attacking the crowd behind him. Furthermore, he came here to execute his mission, not to be a babysitter.
Whether these Investigators lived or died depended on their personal abilities. They were here to execute their tasks, not to gain experience. Them surviving had nothing to do with Su Xiao. He did not care about whether they were alive or not.
Twenty minutes later, the battle ended. The more than forty primitive ghouls were killed, while ten members of the reinforcement team were wounded. Most of them were slightly injured, the most troublesome was a seriously wounded one.
The man with the serious injuries was lying on the ground, his arm and large pieces of his bowel were torn off, and his pupils were enlarged, indicating that the man may go into shock at any time.
"Captain Byakuya, what should we do?"
Kuroiwa Iwao walked to Su Xiao, he looked awkward.
Su Xiao took out two syringes and walked over to the seriously injured member of his unit. In the deep parts of the 24th district, being seriously injured was equivalent to death.
This was a First Class Investigator with medium strength, although he was not particularly strong, he was very stable.
"Captain Byakuya, am I going to die?"
Su Xiao went down and looked at the First Class Investigator.
"What's your name?"
"My, my name is Murayama."
Murayama was not tall, but he was muscular. He was injured when he covered for a teammate.
If it had been another task, Murayama may still have had a little chance to survive, but this was the 'human free zone' an area deep inside 24th district. It was impossible to send Murayama to the surface on his own.
"Is this morphine?"
Su Xiao raised the syringe in his hand and looked at Murayama.
Murayama looked pale, everyone else around him was silent. Mado Akira, who was leaning against the meat wall, turned her head, she could not bear to see this.
"Inject it, captain, I'm going into shock."
Su Xiao pinched the muscles on his arm and injected directly into his vein.
Murayama's intestines were all outside of his body, this injection could not alleviate his current pain.
After injecting the morphine, Murayama took a breath and relaxed, the muscles on his face no longer twitched.
"Can you think clearly?"
Su Xiao looked at Murayama, and Murayama nodded.
"Captain, am I going to die?"
"Do you have any last words?"
Murayama smiled bitterly and shook his head.
"I have already written them in advance, but my entire family has been killed by ghouls. No one will read them."
Su Xiao lifted the second syringe.
"Captain Byakuya, what is this?"
Murayama said, with tears starting to stream down his face.
"Cyanide. After the injection, you will fall asleep. Your injuries are too serious, and you can't go back to the surface now."
Su Xiao did not continue to speak, waiting for Murayama's answer.
"I don't want to die, I don't want to die…"
Murayama suddenly became agitated. He was a human after all, no one wants to die.
"You are a ghoul Investigator. Being a ghoul Investigator is not an easy job. This was your choice."
The body of Murayama suddenly froze, and his pupils gradually enlarged.
"Come, come on, Bya, Captain Byakuya. I am a ghoul Investigator, this is my duty, I died to protect innocent civilians. I have killed thirty-one ghouls, and I have saved nine people from straight under ghouls' mouths."
Murayama's lips were shaking now.
Cyanide was injected into Murayama's body, and after a minute, Murayama's eyelids became heavier.
Cyanide was generally used for euthanasia. After taking it, or injecting a sufficient amount of it into the body, the person will soon enter a deep sleep, after that, the person will have heart failure and die.
Su Xiao once more took the lead and had the reinforcement team move on. The areas this deep into the 24th district were just cruel like this.
Morphine and cyanide were standard when entering the 24th district. Su Xiao, Yuna, and Arima Kisho, as members of the zero squad, all carried them on their person. This time, Su Xiao brought quite a lot of it.
The death of Murayama did not give Su Xiao any feelings, the strong survive, the weak die. This was the law in the derivative worlds.