Chapter 112
It didn’t take long to decide who was going to go to Area C with me. The members of the gang who lived in Area C volunteered to go with me, many of them with menacing eyes.
The gang members lined up in front of the mansion.
All of them were wearing the gas masks I distributed and waiting for orders.
Just as I was about to leave.
“You’re late.”
Parnello, still wearing his gas mask, grinned as he walked toward me.
“Parnello.”
“I suppose since you’re doing this yourself, and since Alessia is involved, I should be there for you.”
“……And father?”
“The Consigliere himself has offered to stand by. I don’t know about anyone else, but with him there, I can come and go in peace.”
“……Surely.”
It was because Consigliere was overshadowed by the monster called Parnello, a man of such power that he was said to be the third man of Corleone.
Consigliere would be reassuring.
“Have you contacted the agents who are quarantining Area C?”
“Yes, Intelligence says they’ve already been informed.”
“I’ll be on my way.”
“At your service.”
Parnello, the jack-of-all-trades.
What kind of sense and ability does he have to be called my father’s right-hand man?
He was like a godsend.
I immediately climb into the sedan driven by Parnello and twelve cars pull away from the mansion.
As we made our way to Area C in a long procession, we were greeted by a strange sight.
A cluster of cars flashing blue and red lights at the entrance, and gang members blocking them.
“……Police?”
“I’ll check it out.”
While I was puzzled by the sudden appearance of the police, the gang member in the passenger seat gets out first and walks towards the police.
The three of them are talking about something.
Noticing the cops’ increasingly strange expressions, I get out of the backseat and approach them.
“Can I help you?”
The cops turn to look at me.
“Are you people……eh, the ones from Corleone?”
One of them suddenly exclaims in horror, while the cop next to him gives me a dumbfounded look, as if he doesn’t know what’s going on.
He seems to recognize my face, so there must be a Corleone connection.
“From your reaction, I’m guessing you know me……must be the old one.”
“I’m……I was there the day the Blount family disappeared.”
“Ah, I see, it’s good to know you were there, I’m sure we can talk.”
I slowly approach him and give his dusty collar a gentle pat.
“By the way, I was wondering about one thing.”
“Yes? What…….”
At the same time, a momentary burst of energy permeates the air around me.
“May I ask what is going on in the Corleone domain?”
The cops break out in a cold sweat with a gulp.
After a moment of reluctance to speak at my words, the officer finally sighs and opens his mouth.
“We lost contact with the officers working in Area C, so we were told by the higher-ups to investigate what’s going on, but as you can see……out of the ordinary, we were blocked by members of Corleone. May I ask why?”
Were there police officers in……?
If so, their presence here was not incomprehensible.
After all, they were only there on orders.
“The reason is simple. Because if you go in there, you’re both going to die.”
“……?”
“Oh, I mean, even Corleone members will die if they go inside…….”
Their eyes widened, as if they didn’t understand my words.
Or did they interpret my words the other way?
I decided to explain a little more so that there’s no misunderstanding.
“There’s something pretty dangerous inside. We’re here to clean it up, and since it’s a Corleone issue, I can’t go into details, but we’ll make sure the police officers inside…..get out safely.”
“No, that’s not what-”
“Detective Kim, stop.”
The guy with the walkie-talkie with a foolish look on his face is about to say something more, but the cop next to him stops him.
“I hear what you’re saying, then, please.”
With that, he offered me his hand.
“Yes.”
I shake his hand lightly and head for the entrance, Parnello naturally falling into step beside me.
“You heard that?”
“Yeah, I remember that guy.”
“Really? Is he trustworthy?”
“Yes. The other one, the man who just shook your hand, has been with Corleone for a long time, so he’ll be in good hands, and best of all…… just made eye contact with me.”
……Then I’ll keep my mouth shut, too.
With that, I walked away from the officers and approached the entrance, where the gang members bowed to me.
“What’s the situation inside?”
I ask the man who seems to be in charge here, pulling a gas mask from my bag.
“At first there were a lot of people asking to be released from quarantine, but now it’s quiet as a mouse.”
“……Yes.”
The organization’s members may have been infected during the quarantine.
After ordering everyone in the room to put on gas masks, I turned to the person in charge.
“If anyone here complains of any unusual symptoms, send them to the mansion immediately. They will be escorted there by members of my organization wearing protective suits.”
“I will do so, Master.”
With that, I dismissed the officer in charge and turned to the men in the gas masks, briefly explaining the operation.
“Our job is to look for plugs, or anything that looks suspicious at first glance.”
A member raises his hand.
“What do you mean…..suspicious?”
“Yes, most likely…… in the shape of a giant mushroom. If you see anything like that, contact me immediately. Beyond that, there may be villains lurking in this area, so if there’s an engagement, we can shoot a flare into the sky immediately. Questions?”
No one raises their hand this time.
They just stare at me, their eyes filled with determination.
I’m sure they want to end this quickly for their own families.
“That was long.”
I mutter to myself as I stand in front of the two-meter barbed wire gate.
“Well, let’s get in.”
Chirp───
The gate swings open and everyone immediately starts running towards the center of the city.
If Plague were to manifest his powers, he would definitely scatter them around the places where people roam.
The bustling streets I and Alessia wandered through are eerily quiet, like a post-apocalyptic city center.
“I don’t see anyone here. They must have gone somewhere as a group.”
Parnello said, looking around to see if something was wrong.
Where did all those people go under these circumstances?
“Parnello are there any buildings or spaces in Sector C where people might congregate to?”
“Umm……one comes to mind, but would people congregate in one place under these circumstances?”
“Normally they wouldn’t, but……if there was someone to control them? If the streets are this quiet, I can only assume they’ve been moved somewhere.”
“Indeed……then we’ll head straight there.”
This time, Parnello takes the lead and changes direction.
We headed to a shopping street just off the center of town where the largest hypermarket in Area C was.
“This is probably where they’d gather.”
Parnello says as he stands in front of the store and looks around.
Just in case, I use my [Skill: Aura Sonar] to detect people inside.
It seems that they are using this place as a shelter as he said.
“Let’s go in.”
There were no lights visible from the outside, even though it was a large mall with people gathered, so I activated the night mode and went inside.
The people I detected with [Skill: Aura Sonar] were gathered on the second floor.
When I tried to run up the stairs quickly, ignoring the mess on the ground floor.
“Huh?”
I noticed that the door to the second floor was locked.
Why bother locking the door?
With that thought in mind, I transformed my aura and inserted it into the keyhole to open the door.
Dulcak──
A faint light welcomes us as we enter the open door with a cheerful sound.
And at the same time…….
snap── snap── snap── snap── snap── snap── snap── snap── snap── snap── snap── snap── snap── snap── snap── snap.
We are confronted with the sight of countless rats surrounding us.
“Well, at least we know who’s here…….”
“Yeah.”
The rats scurry around us as if to check our faces.
After a while, the rats began to scurry off in different directions, and In-young, a black man, approached with the sound of heavy footsteps in the distance.
“Ha, Grandpa and Master?”
A voice trembled, as if frightened.
Beyond the darkness, the figure of a girl with white hair and red eyes could be seen.
“Is it Latte……?”
The last time I’d seen her, she’d been tortured, her face puffy and covered in dust and blood, so this was the first time I’d seen her in her proper form.
Of course, judging by the blood on every inch of her clothes, she was hardly in good shape even now.
“Well, yes. How did you and grandfather get here…….?”
“I’ve come to sort things out. First of all, I want to ask you, are all the people who disappeared from the streets…… here?”
“Ah, yes. I’ll show you inside first.”
With that, Latte turns and starts walking.
As we follow her inside, the light gradually brightens.
There are people huddled together, and rats scurrying about, providing water and food.
Apparently, they know what’s going on.
“Latte, did you evacuate the people here?”
“Oh, yes, that’s right, sister Alessia told me to do that.”
“……Alessia?”
“Yes.”
Alessia was taking her usual “night walk” when she suddenly felt chest pains and collapsed.
But it wasn’t just her. At the same time, other people around her began to collapse one by one.
“Sister told me that this must be an attack on Corleone, and that the mastermind must be around here somewhere.”
Somehow managing to save herself, Alessia left Latte with a job to do and went off to find the mastermind of the attack.
Here’s what she told her…….
1. Gather as many people as possible in one place.
2. Separate those who are showing symptoms from those who are not.
3. Hide until further assistance or communication from Corleone.
At this point, Parnello, who was standing behind me, took stock of the situation.
“Everything seems to be in order, for the most part, but what happened to this?”
“Oh, that’s the thing, I checked the rats just in case, and there were a lot of sick ones, and I thought it might be related to what happened, so I quarantined them all.”
This was a good thing.
The fact that Latte, who could control rats, happened to be here was a stroke of luck.
“How many members of the public are infected?”
“Yeah, just the ones we’ve quarantined on the third floor, totaling about 30, though I’m not sure how many are out there.”
The situation wasn’t as bad as I thought, thanks to the quick response.
I breathed a sigh of relief and was about to tell Latte that she did a good job.
──!
A corner of my vision began to glow red.
“That’s…….”
A red light floating in the sky beyond the window.
It must have been the light from the flare guns that were given to the members of the organization to use in the event of an enemy encounter.
But then.
───Ping. ───Ping.
One after another. More and more flares start firing.
Soon, the sky over Area C is dyed red.
───Ping. ───Ping. ───Ping. ───Ping.
“Master. That’s…….”
“Yeah.”
It was clear that things were getting weird.
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