“Did we get them all?” asked Shin Sung-Hyun.
“I think we got them all,” replied Wei Chun-Hak.
The gang members were strong, but they were no match for the cream of the crop Players of Earth.
A few Players still suffered some minor injuries because of the many different abilities that the Overminds possessed, but the result was still a landslide victory.
“Jun-Ho-nim. What should we do with them?”
“...”
Seo Jun-Ho looked at the gang members with a cold gaze and said, “We’ll have to kill them.”
His cold reply made even his allies gulp nervously. However, no one opposed his decision, as they weren’t foolish enough to show mercy to their enemies.
“Wait, what?! You’re gonna kill us? I thought you were just going to turn us over to the power plant?!”
“You lunatics! Do you not have any idea who our backers are? You won’t get away with killing us!”
“Too loud,” Seo Jun-Ho muttered coldly.
Slash!
Seo Jun-Ho’s cold dagger flashed, and the Overminds collapsed, dead.
Seo Jun-Ho walked past them and read their memories one by one.
“Write down everything I say from now on.”
Seo Jun-Ho calmly summarized the crimes and atrocities that the gang members had committed. He also revealed the identity of their backers.
Shin Sung-Hyun groaned. “Hmm… will this really work? These guys are involved with Float’s black market.”
“It doesn’t matter.” It didn’t matter if these gang members’ backers were to mobilize and avenge the deceased gang members. “We’re going to destroy the power plant the moment we get inside.”
Time wasn’t on their side because no one had any idea about just what kind of safety measures the emperor had installed in the power plant.
“Speed is the key to success in this operation,” said Seo Jun-Ho.
***
It wasn’t difficult for them to take on the appearances of the gang members because Skaya had prepared an extra potion for each of them.
“All right. Have you memorized the background and basic information of the Overmind whose faces you’re wearing right now?” asked Seo Jun-Ho.
“Yes.”
Aside from the Players, the failures seemed determined as well as they nodded.
Yuri seemed apologetic as she said, “I’m sorry. It feels like I’m leaving all the hard work to you guys.”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s not like you’re not doing anything.”
Yuri’s job was to delay reinforcements.
“The security and the army will mobilize the moment the power plant is under attack.”
And Yuri’s job was to stop them until the power plant was razed to the ground.
“I wish you the best of luck.”
With that, the Players and the failures got ready. Someone made a sidelong glance at Seo Jun-Ho, who was disguising himself as a thin-faced man.
“You said the gang isn’t behind the weird disappearances. You sure about ignoring the recent disappearances?”
Seo Jun-Ho turned and figured that the unfamiliar individual had to be Wei Chun-Hak because of his manner of speech.
“It should be fine. I’m sure the mastermind will be happy.”
The denizens’ hatred would shift to the gang.
The mastermind behind the recent disappearances was still unknown, but Seo Jun-Ho thought that they had to be clapping and jumping for joy.
“All right, let’s move out.”
“I’m sorry, but please bear with me.”
The remaining failures disguised as company’s staff members surrounded the Players and pushed forward with bats.
“Damn it! Stop pushing me!”
“How dare you! Do you know who our backers are? Huh?”
“I’m good friends with the Mayor! You should know your place, trash!”
The Players were soon pushed out of the door, and they were immediately inundated with camera flashes.
The reporters of Float competed to ask questions.
“Mr. Shupigel! How do you feel after opening the greatest Gate in Float’s history overnight?”
“Many people are saying that they knew about the gang’s existence. What are your thoughts about this?”
“Is it true that the gang lobbied the mayor and the city security?”
“My job is to catch criminals and hand them over to the power plant. The power plant will handle these criminals, not me.”
The criminals growled as they walked down the streets, but they collectively went silent upon reaching the tightly shut doors of the power plant.
“...”
‘The power plant is just behind that huge door.’
Seo Jun-Ho signaled to Yuri with his eyes before walking into the power plant.
***
A man was casually flipping over the pages of a newspaper.
He was munching on a slice of fruit, but he stopped chewing upon seeing a few news titles.
[Shupigel Company arrests sixty-four gang members.]
[Mayor of Float denies all allegations related to the gang’s bribery.]
[Mayor of Float says—I’ve never heard of them!]
“Hm?
‘Oh, the culprits of the recent disappearances in the city have been captured, and it turns out to be a massive operation done by a huge gang composed of sixty-plus members, huh?’ The man smirked. “Interesting.”
The man was aware that the articles were way off the mark because he was the culprit behind the recent disappearances in Float.
Thud!
There was a dull thud. The man turned and saw an Overmind crawling on the floor. The Overmind looked as thin as a mummy.
“...You’re still alive?”
The man stared at the Overmind, seemingly amused by the latter’s struggle for survival.
Eventually, he got bored and stood up.
Crack!
He stomped on the Overmind’s spine, killing the Overmind instantaneously.
The man muttered, “This is rubbing me the wrong way.”
It was indeed strange. The average number of prisoners that the power plant would receive every month was two prisoners, and it was all because there weren’t many criminals throughout the continent.
“But sixty-four criminals at once… especially in a time like this?”
The man was also keeping an eye out on the power plant, so he instinctively deduced that the arrest of the gang members was a well-played scheme that someone had cooked up.
“I only know one person who’s daring enough to do such a thing.”
‘Specter. It must be him.’
“I might be able to get something out of this.”
The man—the Heavenly Demon—grinned as he flicked his white hair backward.
***
The soldiers of the power plant moved Seo Jun-Ho and the group. The prisoners soon found themselves in a massive empty room. Seo Jun-Ho saw researchers in white gowns busily moving about behind the rectangular window on one of the walls.
An unfamiliar man walked over to Seo Jun-Ho and said, “A room like this is often used for interrogation purposes.”
“In that case, why are they interrogating us at once? Calling us one by one would have been more effective in scaring us.”
‘But things are going pretty well so far…’
A total of sixty-four members managed to infiltrate the power plant. They were given the orders to raze the power plant to the ground with bombs the moment they were given free time.
‘Why does it seem like there isn’t much security here… did the emperor make a mistake?’
Seo Jun-Ho looked around in confusion, and his eyes landed on one of the researchers.
The researcher met his gaze and asked through the microphone.
- What is it? Do you have any questions?
“...No. We’re not going to give you shit.”
- Hehe. It doesn’t matter. We are not going to ask you any questions, anyway.
Seo Jun-Ho’s eyes narrowed. ‘They’re not going to ask us any questions? Why did they even bring us here?’
Seo Jun-Ho was about to ask a question, but the researcher smirked.
- Dirty criminals like you only have one role to play here—you’ll be one of Her Imperial Highness’ toys.
“Her Imperial Highness?” asked Seo Jun-Ho,
Crackle!
A wave of lightning manifested out of the blue, and it swept across everyone.
“Keuk!”
“Argh!”
They all shuddered and collapsed.
[Thunder Resistance (C) has resisted the lightning attack.]
Seo Jun-Ho’s Thunder Resistance (C) only made his muscles cramp for a few seconds.
‘Why are these guys trying to kill us? Wait, if they wanted to kill us, there are many easier ways to go about it. Have they discovered that we’re Players?’
It didn’t seem to be the case judging from how the researcher addressed them.
‘What is going on, then?’ Seo Jun-Ho thought, but his train of thought was interrupted by a sense of weightlessness.
‘Where did the floor…’
The floor had disappeared, prompting Seo Jun-Ho to curl up into a ball.
Crash!
“Argh!”
Fortunately, the fall wasn’t that high, and it wasn’t enough to injure Seo Jun-Ho.
“Is everyone okay? Are you guys okay?”
“Damn it…”
“I-I think my arm broke.”
Unfortunately, the Players without resistance to lightning suffered a lot.
The lightning had paralyzed them, so their bones broke upon landing.
“...!”
Seo Jun-Ho looked around, and then he flinched in surprise. He thought that he was standing on white stones, but his eyes soon adapted to the darkness, and he was horrified to find that he was standing on a myriad of bones.
“Bones?”
The bones had piled up and created a mountain of bones.
The alarm bells in Seo Jun-Ho’s head went off.
‘No way… do these bones belong to the prisoners of the power plant?’
Seo Jun-Ho gulped and looked around warily.
‘The researcher definitely said that our role is to become Her Imperial Highness’ toys.’
Seo Jun-Ho had never heard of Her Imperial Highness’ existence, and even Digor’s memories didn’t contain any information about her.
‘Did the emperor erase his memories?’ If Seo Jun-Ho’s assumption was true, it wasn’t strange that Digor had no idea that an imperial princess existed. ‘Just whose genes did she get that she’s consuming the members of her own race?’
Seo Jun-Ho bit his lips.
An unscathed figure approached Seo Jun-Ho.
“Are you all right, Junior Brother?” asked the man.
“Geon-Woo hyung?” asked Seo Jun-Ho. His demeanor brightened upon recognizing Baek Geon-Woo. The latter was completely unscathed.
Baek Geon-Woo looked around and said, “So? What do you think about the so-called Her Imperial Highness?”
“I think she obtained the dominant gene of something sinister, and I think… no, I honestly don’t know.”
‘Cannibalism, cannibalism…’ Seo Jun-Ho had heard of some monsters in Outland with the tendency to prey on their own kind. However, he couldn’t make a hasty judgment because their lives were at stake here.
Rumble.
A heavy rumbling suddenly echoed along with the noisy clanging of chains.
“...”
Everyone’s eyes turned toward where the voice had come from.
Tap, tap.
A figure slowly emerged from the heavy doors that had the one and only light bulb in the room.
“Hello.”
The figure was a beautiful woman.
“Ah!” Goosebumps suddenly broke out all over Seo Jun-Ho the moment he saw her, and it was all because her figure reminded him of a certain being.
Seo Jun-Ho trembled. “...I remember it now.”
“Pardon? What did you say, Junior Brother?” asked Baek Geon-Woo. He gulped when his gaze landed on the beautiful woman.
Seo Jun-Ho dazedly muttered, “They had also come from beyond a Gate.”
“What are you talking about…?”
“It’s a bee.”
“Damn it,” Seo Jun-Ho bit his lips and muttered, “An Atonic Bee…’’
Atonic Bee was an endangered species that produced Janabi.
However, there was a difference between Janabi and the beautiful woman in front of them.
‘I managed to beat Janabi because it had just been born.’
However, the beautiful woman in front of them was different.
‘She’s a queen.’
The Atonic Bees were capable of evolving infinitely as long as there were genes to absorb. The beautiful woman in front of them had to have received the Queen of the Atonic Bee’s dominant genes.
‘It seems that the security here wasn’t lacking at all.’
The emperor had simply decided not to station that many troops in the power plant because he had infinite trust in the imperial princess—no, he had infinite trust in the Devil of the Power Plant.
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