Chapter 169
Chapter 169: Attack (3)
The hesitating woman finally answered the call.
“This is the Turtle Ship. This is the Turtle Ship.”
—Jane! The monster production line has been attacked!
Yoo Ji-han listened closely to the small voice coming through the ring.
A slightly frantic, commanding voice of a middle-aged man.
It felt like someone he had heard recently.
‘Ah! It’s that guy.’
The owner of that voice was someone who had appeared simultaneously in the memories of Mumu and Paras.
He was presumed to hold a fairly high rank among the people from another world.
He mentioned the location where the scattered heroes were attacked and demanded a report from those hiding in the Turtle Ship.
The woman assessed Yoo Ji-han, who was staring at her intently, and spoke.
“Nothing seems out of the ordinary here.”
—That’s a relief. But you need to protect the items in your kitchen at all costs.
“……!”
At the mention of the kitchen, the woman wearing the ring bit her lower lip.
The other people from another world listening in were equally as disturbed.
Their faces looked as if they had been caught hiding something.
—It seems Paras couldn’t be found after all. Jerry has also sustained injuries.
“……Yes.”
—I’ll come by to get the items tonight, so you must absolutely not come out of there for the time being.
After a hurried call ended.
Yoo Ji-han looked at the woman who was gazing up at him and smiled broadly.
“What are you doing? Why aren’t you leading me to the kitchen?”
“Damn it!”
The heroes forcefully hauled the people from another world to their feet.
They kept looking for opportunities to break free from their bindings, but such resistance was meaningless in front of skilled heroes.
Eventually, they had no choice but to reveal the specially hidden space.
‘It looks like a laboratory.’
The space they referred to as the kitchen was very large.
Transparent beakers, microscopes, and unknown machines were placed in a pristine white space that seemed void of any bacteria.
On the large whiteboard, words that looked like worms were scribbled haphazardly.
“What’s this?”
In the center was a cylindrical vat that looked like something used to boil broth in a restaurant.
Upon opening the lid, it revealed a liquid that was either very white or pitch black.
Park Jae-kyung, inspecting the contents, shouted.
“This is all that drug!”
“The one that was in the syringe?”
“That’s right.”
A drug that transforms ordinary animals into monsters or mutations and bleaches the hair of IUPC members white.
Those were stored in large quantities here.
“So the kitchen was a place for making drugs.”
“I suppose it’s time to speak up.”
“Gah!”
As the sword was aimed at their throat once more, the people from another world started to talk one by one.
As it appeared, this was indeed a kitchen for producing drugs used on animals and IUPC members.
They had boldly set up research and drug production facilities right in the heart of the city.
Yoo Ji-han pointed to a vat filled with white liquid and asked.
“How many doses is this sufficient for?”
“Two thousand people.”
“……That’s a lot.”
Yoo Ji-han licked his lips at the answer.
It meant there was enough drug to produce two thousand white-haired humans right before him.
Thinking of the number of monsters they could control, the scale of living weaponry born from that drug could easily surpass ten thousand.
“How many kitchens are there in Korea?”
“Five. This is the only one in Yeosu.”
“Don’t lie and give me a straight answer!”
“It’s five! Really!”
“What’s the total amount of drugs produced so far?”
“Probably around twenty, judging by the size of that vat.”
“Twenty times two thousand……. That’s forty thousand, just by simple calculation.”
A legion of forty thousand white-haired monsters.
Yoo Ji-han couldn’t ignore that number and let out a sigh.
But just then.
“The recorded failure rate for awakening is about 35%.”
“……?”
“Considering those who couldn’t adapt, it might not reach forty thousand. At best, it could be thirty thousand or barely over twenty thousand.”
“Twenty thousand?”
“Right.”
The man who had initially been subdued and fainted spoke up, having regained his composure.
His fellow otherworlders were furious.
“Adem! What the hell are you saying?!”
“Can’t you just shut up?!”
“Shut up yourselves! I didn’t want to help with this damn reckless plan from the start!”
“You traitor…!”
“So what? Just because I’m from Ajesia doesn’t mean I’m some extremist like you!”
The man huffed with an excited expression on his face.
While forcing the dissenters’ mouths shut.
Yoo Ji-han approached the man who provided the information and gave him a friendly shoulder hug.
“If you play your cards right, we could become good friends.”
“……I’ll tell you everything I can.”
The man looked at Yoo Ji-han with a determined expression.
*
The expeditionary force received various stories from the cooperative Adem.
While they already knew about the downfall of Ajesia.
Hearing the details directly from the source felt completely different.
“Quickly, boil it!”
The drugs scheduled for delivery were dealt with by evaporating them using fire magic.
After the moisture vanished, the remaining residue turned to stone, which could be disposed of easily.
To prepare for any unpredictable situations, Min Yu-ri waited outside the kitchen with Chilla.
Bang! Bang! Boom—!
“Ah….”
“Do you know how hard it was to obtain those?!”
The people from another world wailed at the sight of the collapsing research facility.
Some even shed tears while destroying machines that were hard to come by in the civilian sector.
If they were to create a facility of this scale again, it would take at least a month or more.
At least, it would be impossible to set up a new kitchen before this crisis ended.
‘We were lucky.’
Hidden within the Turtle Ship, this kitchen accounted for the largest production capacity among all kitchens in other regions.
Simply occupying this place dealt a massive blow to their enemies.
“It’s breaking nicely.”
“You don’t seem to care.”
“Since it doesn’t belong to me anyway.”
The most cooperative man among the otherworlders.
Mage Adem remained unperturbed while watching the kitchen fall apart.
Even as his companions cried out traitor right next to him, he seemed unfazed, indicating remarkable mental fortitude compared to his weak combat skills.
Adem looked at Yoo Ji-han and asked.
“What’s going to happen to me now?”
“You’ll be punished once this matter is settled.”
“Just spare my life, please.”
“I told you. Based on your actions, I might even consider pleading for mercy on your behalf.”
“……”
“You need to understand how big of a favor that is.”
The mage who took the lead in drug development due to the surrounding demands was rather obsessed with preserving his life.
Yoo Ji-han offered him the suggestion of sparing his life based on his demonstrated attitude.
“Really know nothing about internal plans?”
“The kitchen only makes ‘milk’ and ‘chocolate milk’; giving commands to the IUPC is up to the higher-ups. I have no idea where they’re gathered or when they’ll attack.”
“You mentioned you would deliver the drugs tonight.”
“I was planning to deliver milk. But that’s no longer possible.”
In a previous call through the ring, they had said they would come to pick up the items around late evening.
The other party was still unaware that this place had fallen.
Yoo Ji-han stared at the empty vat and said.
“Can we just change the color of that milk drug to make it look like plain water?”
“It should be possible….”
“We’ll be making fake drugs from now on.”
Yoo Ji-han requested Adem to create a fake drug that looked identical to the real one.
What would be added to that drug was the bodily fluids of a monster with powerful paralytic poison.
Essentially, they were about to create a toxic substance containing paralytic poison.
*
“Caw!”
“Caw caw!”
Late evening.
Ten gigantic seagulls descended toward the Turtle Ship model.
Riding atop were hooded figures.
One of them fiddled with a ring on their finger and said.
“We’ve arrived. Just bring out the goods.”
After about five minutes,
As the hidden door of the Turtle Ship opened, Adem walked out, pushing a large cart.
Seeing him, a robed man said.
“Adem? Why are you coming out in person?”
“……I was cooped up in there all day, it felt stifling.”
“Sorry, but no strolls allowed. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning at the earliest.”
“I know, so here, take this.”
Adem calmed his racing heart and pushed the cart.
The robed man opened the black bag on the cart and checked the syringes filled with white liquid.
“Looks like there’s no problem.”
Fortunately, the fake drug had no visible differences.
Adem sighed in relief.
“Who made it? How could there possibly be any issues?”
“Haha! Understood. We’re well aware of your efforts.”
“Once we take Korea, we’ll secure good positions for everyone.”
“……I look forward to it.”
The seagulls grabbed multiple bags with their claws.
Once again, the ones carrying people began flapping their wings and took off into the sky.
As the seagulls started to move and Adem returned to the warped space,
The heroes hiding near the Turtle Ship revealed themselves one by one.
“The tracking magic is working perfectly.”
“Let’s chase after them now.”
Just as Yoo Ji-han was about to pursue the soaring figures.
“Wait!”
Jung Young-wook’s party burst out from the space distortion.
Party leader Jung Young-wook looked as though he had something to say.
Park Jae-kyung asked him.
“What’s the matter?”
“We want to go with you.”
“Shouldn’t role distribution have already been settled?”
It was only natural that the core party of Yoon Do-ha and the newly appointed Yoo Ji-han would take the main actions.
The Jung Young-wook party, along with them, was supposed to support instead of taking the front lines.
They would have known that already.
“Those guys are useless to us now anyway… can’t we just kill them all and move on?”
Jung Young-wook’s eyes were lowered.
He meant to dispose of the useless otherworlders here and move together.
“Ji-han! You saw my skills during the promotion sparring. I will surely be of great help.”
Indeed, having experienced Jung Young-wook’s considerable skills alongside him during the promotion sparring, Yoo Ji-han recognized it.
But he replied to him.
“Knowing that, I entrust the Jung Young-wook party to support the team and deal with the otherworlders.”
“But…!”
“Sorry, but we have no time to waste. Let’s regroup at the agreed place tomorrow.”
If they hesitated any longer here, they would miss their enemies.
After finishing his words, Yoo Ji-han’s party ran off following the seagulls.
“Yo Wook! See you later!”
“…….”
Jung Young-wook did not respond to Kim Si-hu’s bright greeting.
He simply stood there, staring after the people fading into the distance.
“Let’s head back in now, Yo Wook.”
“There will be plenty of chances for us to shine, right?”
His party members tried to comfort Jung Young-wook.
However, his gaze remained fixed on Kim Si-hu, who was getting farther away.
‘That bastard thinks he can do better than me… why does he keep ignoring me?’
Jung Young-wook glared at Kim Si-hu with a gaze filled with emotions.
Far more intense anger lit up his eyes than when he looked at monsters or otherworlders.
