Under Investigation

When Morgan opened his eyes, he found himself staring straight at Gong Qiying.

"Ah, ah."

He opened his mouth and made a strange sound, as if his throat were being squeezed. He waved both hands at Gong Qiying, but when he tried to lunge at him, the chain around his neck yanked him off balance. Gong Qiying had chained him up again.

"Interesting. You're not trying to escape, but coming toward me instead?"

When ordinary people woke to find a terrifying monster standing beside them, they usually reacted in one of two ways: they either panicked and ran for their lives or grabbed a weapon and fought.

And Morgan... actually belonged to the latter group???

His face was filled with deep loathing for the monster. He bared his teeth and clawed at Gong Qiying, his hair standing on end as he hissed continuously.

A tribute to Legendary Rank Hajimi.

This behavior didn't suit his appearance, since he looked like someone who was very good at running away.

Gong Qiying pressed him to the ground with a single finger, leaving him unable to move, and immediately lost interest.

He realized Morgan was still an idiot.

His movements were exaggerated, but his eyes were clouded, revealing a streak of stupidity. He couldn't form a coherent sentence either. He'd fit right in at an asylum.

Clearly, something had affected his mind, leaving it incomplete.

Was this the price of transforming into a member of the Demon Race?

Gong Qiying pondered the question. But if the cost was so high, why transform into a member of the Demon Race? What they gained and lost were completely out of proportion.

In such cases, there was usually a reasonable explanation—Morgan and the others had been controlled by some mastermind or something.

Someone was turning humans into members of the Demon Race and putting them in dungeons to carry out some unknown scheme! That was the conclusion he reached.

This wasn't pure conjecture. He'd noticed that Ya Yi and Morgan both had the same brand on their necks. It looked like a winding serpent, but with strange, crooked growths on its body—were they horns or tentacles?

Gong Qiying memorized the brand's design. Perhaps it was the symbol of some organization.

Why did these organizations always like marking themselves? Were they afraid people wouldn't recognize them otherwise?

Just as Gong Qiying was about to make a prison cell and toss the two idiots inside, a sudden change occurred!

"Yah, yah—"

Morgan and Ya Yi's bodies swelled in the blink of an eye to several times their original size. Their skin stretched until it was almost transparent, and their internal organs were even visible.

Just as Gong Qiying reacted and raised his Stone Wings to shield himself, the two exploded.

"Anti-Dungeon! Destroy the dungeon!"

"Boom!" "Boom!"

The Hero Gargoyle's massive body staggered back a step as filth sprayed everywhere.

Fortunately, after withstanding the explosions, the gargoyle's transformation time ran out.

Gong Qiying, in the Hero Gargoyle's form, "regressed" into Gong Qiying, in Godwin's form.

"Destroy the dungeon?"

He kicked a skull lying on the ground—it was impossible to tell whose—and said, "You think you can?"

Morgan and the other man's last words had left Gong Qiying deeply irritated. He'd felt a little sorry for them before, but now all he felt was indifference.

Was this organization's goal to oppose dungeons? For now, he assumed there was an organization behind Morgan and the others—an evil organization bent on destroying dungeons!

But how were they going to destroy the dungeons?

As long as they had Mental Power, even if they killed monsters or destroyed the scenery, everything could be restored.

Gong Qiying quickly spotted the problem.

After Morgan died,

the dungeon's Mental Power hadn't changed.

"..."

He fell silent for a moment.

Mental Power was the foundation of a dungeon's operation. If everyone who entered a dungeon died without generating Mental Power, then the dungeon would indeed slowly perish.

Whatever Morgan and the people behind him had done, this was a viable approach—a way to destroy dungeons.

"If I don't find them and kill them, I won't be able to rest easy."

The Anti-Dungeon Organization could no longer be allowed to exist. He had to send every last one of them to join Morgan.

"But first, I need to figure out how to expose the mastermind."

Gong Qiying thought he'd have to investigate this in the outside world. There was simply too little information in the dungeon.

Just then, he suddenly felt someone touching his body in the outside world.

With a thought, his consciousness returned there.

"What's wrong?" He rubbed his eyes and yawned, pretending he'd just woken up.

The people who'd pushed him were the workers renovating the place. One of them saw him wake and could barely contain his excitement as he said:

"Sir, something big has happened outside!"

"What?" Gong Qiying could more or less guess what had happened.

"It's the Demon Race!"

Another worker gesticulated wildly. "They say they're huge, with all kinds of weird things growing on them. They're terrifying! Luckily, they've all been beaten half to death!"

"Get to the point," said an older worker. "We only heard about it from someone else, but apparently some members of the Demon Race were suddenly thrown out of Sain Underground City. They even knocked out the young master of House of Bede. The whole city's under lockdown now!"

"The Demon Race?" Gong Qiying said in "astonishment." "H-how could there be members of the Demon Race here?"

The workers glanced at each other. "We were shocked too! I've lived this long and never seen a living member of the Demon Race. They say the demons are being taken to the dungeon now, and they're going down the street in front of us, so we thought..."

Gong Qiying understood. He waved them on. "Go have a look. Consider it a half-day off."

"Hehe, thanks, boss!"

The workers hurried off, and Gong Qiying followed. He saw the members of the Demon Race, half-dead in their cages. They hadn't turned back into humans yet, and their strange appearance had drawn a large crowd.

The people here had only seen the Demon Race in newspapers and novels, where artists had drawn them. This was their first time seeing the real thing, and they were far more frightening than the illustrations.

"One's missing," Gong Qiying realized, noticing the number was off. One member of the Demon Race was gone.

Had it escaped? Impossible. How could it get away in front of everyone, especially while gravely injured?

Perhaps the guards had taken it away too, but why wasn't it with the others?

The prison wagon carrying the members of the Demon Race entered the dungeon. The crowd followed, eagerly watching until the wagon disappeared from sight, then finally dispersed.

The workers said goodbye and went to eat, leaving Gong Qiying to return to the shop alone.

However, two guards were standing outside his shop.

"What are you doing?" Gong Qiying frowned and walked over to ask.

"Are you Mareda?" one of the guards asked.

"Yes. What is it?"

He used Mareda as an alias because he was worried this world might have magic that could curse or track people based on their names. Better to be cautious.

"Do you know Tamda?" The guard took out a portrait. The strokes were crude, but the subject's features were recognizable.

It was him?

Gong Qiying recognized the man. He was the one who'd sublet the shop to him.

"He's a member of the Anti-Dungeon Organization. The City Lord has issued a wanted notice for everyone in that organization."

"Please come with us to answer some questions."