Chapter 305

"Actually, we don't have any reason to fight..."

"We have it on our end, and our boss will come to talk to you later. For now, please allow me to fulfill my duties as a security guard."

"... Okay then."

BIU--!

Suddenly, a hand was raised, without a flash of light or any warning... The matte black pistol, held in a black glove, was fired from the hip in the night, and the longsword user who had been posing in front of him fell to the ground.

In preparation for returning to covert hunting operations, Nana made a point of equipping all her weapons, except for her revolver Guardian Gun, with silencers while she was in the car.

Before everyone could react, the enchanted rubber bullet had already struck Red's forehead at Hiss... Nana suddenly felt very fortunate that she had packed non-lethal ammunition into the M1911.

After all, he wasn't planning to kill the other party, and it would be too foolish to escalate into a full-scale war with the local gangs.

Ignoring the chorus of wailing "Red! Big! Brother!", Nana turned around and, with a strange expression that seemed to want to laugh but dared not, Rope entered the target she had activated earlier.

Listening to the chaotic exchange behind her, where the girl from Feline, who was traveling with Red, was shouting, "Stop howling, he just fainted," Nana chatted with Rope while surveying the situation in the shop:

"Speaking of which, if we were to have you, Rope, communicate with them..."

"No, it's the same talking to these stubborn people... They don't even care about the Guard Bureau's agents, so there's probably nothing in this world that they care about."

Shaking his head and making an 'oyster oyster' sound, he Rope rubbed his hands together as he looked at the area he was free to explore.

"So, we'll start the investigation now?"

"It seems their older sister will take a while to arrive, so let's get on with our work..."

While speaking, she had Rope put on a positive pressure breathing mask and openly turned on the lights to facilitate Rope's search. Then, Nana also went into the depths of the house.

"Hey... wait a minute..."

Seeing Red, who was using his long sword to support himself and rubbing his forehead as he got up again, Nana glanced at the red and swollen area on his forehead and kindly reminded him:

"You could actually rest more."

"But my little partner doesn't seem to want me to sleep any longer... Don't bother looking for her, she's a bit afraid of you and went to urge the older sister. Everyone saw me get taken down by you in one go, and they got beaten up like pigs... The employer probably won't say anything, but can you tell me what Rhodes Island is doing in such an ordinary shop? The shop owner is also the Infected, but he's very ordinary, nothing that would attract the attention of an organization like Rhodes Island."

"This has nothing to do with the Infected... Just think of it as us... dealing with a severe parasitic disease..."

Considering that the other party came from the Snowfield Reunion Movement and trusted her to some extent, Nana added:

"You can treat it as another Catastrophes... I'm here now, which is proof that things are bad enough."

That's really something, there's no way to refute it.

He scratched his head, but then his expression contorted with pain from the bruise on his forehead. Red sighed and looked at Nana:

"So, how do you plan to check?"

"... Aren't you afraid of having to go to the hospital for checkups after getting involved in this? I mean, I might have to forcibly send you to an observation point..."

As Nana spoke, she opened the water tank to check for the spread of Nethermark, and pointed to Red Rope, who was fully armed with a breathing mask and a protective suit hood pulled up under his clothes. Red, however, didn't seem particularly afraid.

"I'd be thrilled to get a free medical check-up, unless you want me to pay... I Reunion Movement, and I bet Rhodes Island knows better than I do how much money I have... Besides, if I'm defeated and then do nothing, my employer will still nag me. At least let me see what you've been doing."

Seeing Red's persistent pestering, Nana nodded and remained silent.

Watching the Rhodes Island black cat carefully checking various water stains and dirt with cotton swabs, occasionally lifting the drain cover to inspect something, Red tried hard not to think about the large bruise on his forehead, and casually remarked:

"This doesn't look like a medical company; it looks more like one of those rat and cockroach extermination businesses... But speaking of which, I have heard from others that strange-looking things have been crawling out of the sewers... You wouldn't happen to be looking for that, would you?"

"Strange thing, how strange?"

Seeing Nana's sudden interest, Red gestured for a long time and made many descriptions, but in the end, it sounded like he was talking about something that didn't exist:

"... basically, it's a monster that's neither a cat nor a dog, neither a mouse nor Originium Slug..."

Upon hearing Red's description, Rope, who had been searching through the shop, stopped what he was doing. After meeting Nana's gaze, Nana nodded.

"Yes, that's what we're looking for. What did you do with it afterward?"

"... Just killed it in a very ordinary way... The person involved even said that the thing was very ferocious, like a dog with its bones showing, but with a split rat's head... At the time, we all thought he was joking... Was it really true?"

Where is the body?

"They killed him and then dumped him in the trash. He's probably been disposed of by the garbage disposal plant by now."

Although Red spoke casually, seeing Nana marking things on the map, making phone calls (presumably to the Guard Bureau to inquire about the collection route for the current garbage dump), and finally summoning a squad called 'Thunder' to inspect the landfill while saying something frightening like 'If there's a problem, deal with it all,' Red felt a little nervous holding his long sword.

"So, it really is... a disease similar to Catastrophes?"

"You can certainly treat it as such."

"Ah!"

Hearing Rope's soft exclamation from not far away, Nana rushed over. Seeing Rope pointing to the floor and tapping his gloved fingers on the floor with a hollow sound, Nana told him to step back. Then, she started a high-intensity cluster sonar scan centered on that spot and down into the ground.

As a red dot appeared in the eyes of Rhodes Island's black cat, the SHD spell Terminal used its eyepiece to mark the Seaborn individual on Nana... and seeing the red dot below suddenly surge toward the ground as if it had been stimulated, Nana quickly got up to avoid it. Instantly, a segmented limb as tall as a person pierced through the floor tiles, grazed Nana's cheek, and stuck into the air.

Without time to respond to Red's curses and questions, which included profanities from his hometown of Ursus, Nana flipped her hand and a greatsword appeared, then slammed it into the floor with the blade facing down.

"Everyone, get out of this area!"

Flames poured into the ground, and the rocks boiled as if in boiling water!

Seeing the shop suddenly transform into a giant, imposing blowtorch, the gang member with a swollen cheek paused, seemingly lost in thought, and said:

"Old Zhu, it's not that I'm not willing to help you..."

"I think I understand why Brother Red had that expression when he heard that name..."

Upon hearing this, Rope had retreated to a safe area as soon as the battle began, opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.

Do these people really understand the current situation?

With a sigh, the Little Bunny tugged at its ears to keep them from standing up too high, then looked nervously towards the battlefield.

PS: Waaaaaaah!

PSS: Axi was busy revising the fluency and forgot to upload, thus losing her perfect attendance bonus. Please be aware.

9th Lungmen Seafood: 350 This is so bad I have to sit up and fight (not really)

The ground boiled and spewed fire, the black shadows shrieked and twisted... As a rain of metal projectiles rained down from the sky, the twisted monster, riddled with bullets by the armor-piercing spell, did not notice the Rope urging Red and his minions to flee together.

The monster, with its white chitinous carapace, now moved upwards along its spine. Its head, covered by the carapace, and its chest, which should have been a vital spot, were riddled with bullet holes. Gushing out dark purple blood mixed with the slime on its body surface, dripping down in a slightly viscous consistency.

"What is that thing?!"

Even though they lowered their voices, the terrified cries of Red's underlings were still too obvious now that the raging subterranean fire was quickly subsiding.

Whether due to confidentiality agreements or the current atmosphere where no one dared to utter a sound, Rope made no attempt to explain... The Little Bunny simply lowered its body and covered its mouth and nose, its amber eyes filled with the profile of a certain Black-footed Cat standing nimbly on a street lamp in the night, expressionlessly changing a pistol magazine.

Even though the figure in the Feline wasn't particularly robust or tall, and I didn't know much about it, just by looking at the timid appearance of the monster that was as big as a small car, I knew that it was afraid of the petite figure that had to be looked up to see.

"Without a doubt, that monster is Rhodes Island's target... but..."

Why here of all places?

Before Red could even start to feel a headache coming on, Rope, speechless at the fact that his efforts to make himself inconspicuous had been completely ruined by the guys around him, continued to lower his ear and whisper:

No, it's not.

"... What?"

"That monster isn't our target... or rather, it might just be one of our targets."

The fishy stench, the chitinous carapace and the slippery, chaotic colors, and the howl that sounded like an insect mixed with the roar of a large Feline beast... Yesterday, because the combat personnel intercepted all the Seaborn inside the building, An Rope had no idea what the enemy looked like. Now, he is trying his best to etch the characteristics of the 'Seaborn' into his memory.

Stay away from areas with hostile targets—this is the experience the Little Bunny has gained from surviving in the old city, still fully healthy and lively... But how useful is this memory for a monster like Seaborn, whose characteristics are so chaotic? It 'Rope hard to say.

As a negotiator who knew his own rudimentary skills, Rope knew that the best thing he could do was not to interfere in the battle between the strong.

"These kinds of monsters live in groups, and there's a very high chance they've built a nest in that place. Hey... big brother, you'd better notify your higher-ups to take a headcount and then we should get away... but not too far. If we die out of Medic's sight, Rhodes Island won't be responsible."

"... You make it sound simple..."

Ignoring the whispers between the Little Bunny and the former Reunion Movement members in the distance, Nana frowned slightly as she looked at the enormous Seaborn before her.

Without a doubt, this is a type that didn't appear yesterday, nor did I see it in the materials.

Or rather, because of the high mutation rate of Seaborn, Nana has never seen a Seaborn that matches the one in the PRTS database.

This individual that emerged from the ground was estimated to be over five meters long. At first glance, it looked like an armored snake with a webbed tail, but upon closer inspection, one could see six scythe-like limbs and countless tiny limbs supporting its upright posture. Two enormous pincers blocked its head and thorax like a crab, and several eyeballs, connected by nerve bundles, were held atop the pincers and rapidly rotated, observing.

Nana could see that the eye with the thickest nerve bundle was staring back at her... It wasn't that it hadn't noticed the Rope and other people in the distance, but compared to those 'foods,' Nana, the 'enemy,' was clearly a greater concern.

"... PRTS, record audio. Unnamed large individual, from the complete penetration of the armor-piercing technique into the conventional vitals to the cessation of 'blood' loss, took a total of twenty-eight seconds... Preliminary assessment indicates that the subsequent destructive power of the.45 caliber is insufficient."

"PRTS, please expedite this message to all combat teams and Frontline Command, with the subject line: 'Suspected discovery of a main combat- Seaborn individual.'"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a monster, now able to move again, with pincers but more like an insect, and covered in carapace—resembling a biological armored vehicle—charged straight at him.

Accompanied by the clicking and clattering of the arthropods' shells, the giant pincers, unlike any living creature, precisely gripped the streetlight and sharply 'cut' it from the ground. The fallen streetlight was then 'shorn' again from the spot where Nana had landed. As Nana jumped and dodged, the monster, which cut steel as easily as paper, had already sliced the streetlight into four pieces.

If it weren't for the crisp metallic sound of the hollow metal lamppost hitting the ground, someone unfamiliar with the scene might have mistaken it for a stage prop.

"Judging from its appearance, the main clamp is made of Seaborn, and its output is... at least thirty tons."

Continuing to refine the report, she approached the monster's body from the unavoidable lamppost, using her supple body like a gymnast to dodge the sweeping crab claws. The black cat girl still stared at the rapidly shrinking 'spiky eyes', and finally landed lightly and steadily behind the monster.

Just as the black cat raised the gun hidden behind her and aimed it at the shrunken 'eye' and 'nerve bundle', a sudden gust of wind from another direction forced Nana to jump up and dodge again.

Although that shot, based on the location of the nerve bundle and probably the nerve nodes, ultimately didn't go through because of the opponent's ADHD.

But seeing how the other party smashed part of the chitinous carapace on her head to drive her away, Nana, suspended in mid-air, became even more determined to shoot that spot.

However, just as Nana was gathering a magical springboard under her feet to prepare for a second jump, the wet and sudden tightness on her ankle made her body freeze in mid-air.

"... nerve cord?"

Watching the bluish-black flesh of the Seaborn taut and stretched under her movements, the tiny muscle bundles snapping in mid-air one by one, Nana tentatively judged that the opponent's physical strength was roughly equal to her new knight armor. However, the sight of the lamppost being held by the other pincers and smashed down like a giant club forced Nana into a rare defensive stance...

To Rope and his men, it was nothing more than a few seconds of exchange.

The charging sea monster, Medic forced to escape from the heights while simultaneously attacking the monster's pincers from a blind spot; the girl's graceful, dance-like evasions, a beautiful maneuver that made the monster fight itself... and finally, being pulled in mid-air by deformed fleshy ropes, then being swatted away by a half-street lamp wielded by crab pincers.

Even setting aside the metallic clanging sound, reminiscent of a temple bell, the sight of the deformed and bent lampposts, transforming from straight into L-shapes, and the battlefield where the road surface was smashed open, leaving the concrete cracked, made onlookers hold their breath.

Fortunately, without the need for any questions from the onlookers, the billowing smoke was immediately dispelled by the rapidly dissipating heat... Rhodes Island's black cat stood up expressionlessly under the gaze of the onlookers, the bright blue magical light on the girl's arms demonstrating the consequences of being struck head-on by tens of tons of force.

Looking at the brief report popped up by the Halo System that 'the waist and leg armor have been forced to activate active cooling,' Nana subconsciously rubbed her chin, which had almost been hit... Even an 'Angel' would probably lose consciousness instantly if her vitals were hit by such a huge force.

However, what Nana found even more upsetting than being "ambushed" was the damage to her bag, which resulted in the packaging of many first-aid supplies being torn and a number of her "freelancer's tools" being damaged.

The idea of Agent Number Seventy-Seven getting angry was something Nana herself hadn't considered, and even ICA's agents and supporters probably hadn't thought of it either... But Nana is indeed angry now, and she's going to take off her coat and handbag to fight this monster.

Tearing open her still-dirty Rhodes Island uniform, she tossed it aside along with her handbag. The girl's armor-assisted turbine emitted a sharp, piercing Rope, and a visible heatwave emanated from behind her. Meanwhile, An Suo, who had been secretly leading Red and his henchmen to several different hiding places, glanced at his Terminal amidst the vibrations.

[Medic: When Rope, could you please take my bag and coat with you? I'm currently fighting a suspected Seaborn Siren military unit. The good news is that I've welded the location of its suspected lair shut with my 'sword,' so Seaborn reinforcements shouldn't be arriving on the surface for now. However, I don't know the situation in the lower levels of the city... Is the Guard Bureau's blockade okay?]

[Ch'en Hui-chieh: I haven't received any reports of an emergency from the outer perimeter, but I've also discovered Seaborn in the designated area. I will notify you immediately if there is an emergency in the outer perimeter.]

[Medic: Understood. Now, each group, report on the situation you encountered...]

[Ch'en Hui-chieh: The Nethermark Central district. The Guard Bureau and... Lin Yuhsia are handling it together.]

[Liskarm: Thunder Team is currently battling in Admiralty District, and a large number of Frightfish and Nethermark have been confirmed.]

[Texas: The Penguin Squad have also discovered the Nethermark in the Sheung Wan District... but haven't seen Seaborn yet, and are currently tracking it.]

[Inoue Takina: The Starlight Team has inspected and cleared the Peak District and is currently engaged in battle with Sai Ying Pun Seaborn at Sai Ying Pun... Sorry, due to the use of heavy Firearms Arts, we damaged some of the Mobile City's electrical system, but we also confirmed that Seaborn is suspected of using electricity... no, the behavior of Shichiu Umbrella Age-Old Abandoning Umbrella and consuming electricity.]

Electricity for consumption?

Before Nana could download the Starlight Team's real-time report, facing the giant monster charging at her again, Nana raised her left hand, and the silver Guardian Gun, with its crosshair-like magical light, appeared together with the Halo above the girl in the bodysuit.

The incandescent beam of light, the roar of the turbine, and countless points of light converged at the muzzle of the gun. The assassin remained expressionless as the giant pincers capable of slicing through steel were held across her chest.

The killer pulled the trigger and the monster snapped its giant pincers shut almost simultaneously. The incandescent beam pierced the pincers first, leaving varying shades of crimson highlights on the subsequent segments. The girl's raised right arm collided with the outer pincers that were slamming into her, producing a metallic clanging sound.

The small claw, which should have been firmly attached at this moment, drooped limply. The half-crushed crab claw, still exuding the aroma of roasted meat, had become the focus of the second confrontation between the two sides.

She quickly put away the revolver, which had been scorched red by the high temperature after activating the 'Judgment' spell. As the Angel's right arm wrestled with the sea monster, and the 'Armor Mode' sounded, which only the girl could hear, black armor plates spread from the point of contact between the two wrestling forces, covering at least her entire body.

[Medic: In other words, all predicted locations showed Seaborn response...]

Is it something that was expected, or something that had already happened...? But that's not the key point.

As the knight, covered in jet-black armor plates, turned his head to glance at the greatsword 'fused' to the ground, accompanied by a female voice announcing 'Strength Mode,' the knight's boots moved in unison with the sea monster raising its other large pincer. The Black Knight kicked the sea monster, which was as big as a vehicle, several meters away, sending it crashing into the far end of the street.

The loud noise drew the attention of the fleeing people.

"... That, is it Medic?"