Chapter 85: Halo (3)
The Sudden Betrayal of the Soldiers.
The hunters, who were slow to grasp the situation, tried to react, but it was already too late.
The soldiers weren't just the ones following behind; there were also a considerable number lying in ambush in the shadows of the cave.
Bullets flew from all directions like a hailstorm.
Tat-tat-tat-tat!
The hunters, who had only been focused on the monsters' movements, were caught off guard by the ambush.
"What, what is this? Why are they suddenly...?"
"Arghhh!"
Hunters hit by the bullets collapsed like fallen logs.
The tank-type hunters tried to endure a bit using their skills, but it was still not enough.
In the end, they too fell onto the cold cave floor.
Once all the hunters were down, the soldiers, after observing for a moment, approached and skillfully checked the fallen hunters.
They gently nudged them with their feet, and only after confirming there were no signs of life did they lower their guns.
"...It seems we've cleared them all."
"Are these the last of them?"
"Yes, these are the last ones. Good job, everyone. The ambush squad can now wrap up and come out."
A total of five hunters lay on the ground.
The soldiers began to transport the hunters somewhere using prepared stretchers.
Included among them was Hyun Suho, who was pretending to be unconscious and lying still.
'It seems they're not suspicious.'
Hyun Suho had used telekinesis to stop the hail of bullets just before they reached his skin.
Using Nova's hologram technology, he made it look like he had been hit by the bullets, deceiving the soldiers' eyes.
Though it was uncomfortable being dragged along in that position, there was nothing he could do about it.
'These are some interesting bullets.'
As Hyun Suho fiddled with the bullets he had caught using telekinesis, he examined them closely.
They weren't ordinary bullets but were shaped like small syringes.
When someone was hit by them, the drug inside would be injected.
'Tranquilizer darts, huh? Interesting.'
These weren't bullets meant to kill.
They were tranquilizer darts used to capture animals rather than people.
Surprisingly, the darts contained a powerful tranquilizer capable of knocking out even the strongest hunters.
Hunters are strong. Even if it's a tranquilizer meant to bring down an elephant, they can usually withstand it with ease.
With various abilities or emblems that enhance drug resistance, they can become almost immune.
It was astonishing that there existed a tranquilizer strong enough to take down these hunters without them even putting up a fight.
'Can you analyze the contents?'
[It's a mixture of special chemical substances and mana. While I can determine the drug's composition, understanding the exact chemical processing method or mixture would require specialized equipment.]
'I see.'
Even Nova admitted it would be difficult to pinpoint without specialized facilities.
Hyun Suho pocketed the tranquilizer dart and continued his thoughts.
He had infiltrated the city to find a drug factory, but he had gotten caught up in something entirely different.
Even though this was a lord's territory beyond the reach of the government, he never imagined the lord would dare to kidnap hunters.
Even for a lord of a city, if this situation were to become known, they wouldn't be able to withstand the aftermath.
As these thoughts swirled in his mind, they were dragged to an underground facility somewhere outside the city.
It was a secret facility outside the walled city.
Even if it was underground, defending against the monsters that would be drawn by the scent would cost several times more.
'Could it be they built this facility here to hide the location of the drug factory?'
He thought he had finally found the drug manufacturing plant.
Indeed, in a place like this, no matter how much one searched the city, it would never be found.
'Pretending to be unconscious was worth it.'
His plan was to blow up the entire facility, erasing it from the face of the earth once he found the drug factory.
In a place like this, it would also be possible to lure monsters in and turn the area into a wasteland.
In his mind, he quickly formulated dozens of possible tactics.
However, once he entered the underground facility, Hyun Suho couldn't hide his disappointment.
There were no complicated chemical facilities for drug manufacturing, only narrow cells lined with iron bars.
He couldn't see well due to his pretense of being unconscious, but Nova kindly explained.
[This is a makeshift prison facility that hasn't been in use for long.]
'Is that all? No secret rooms or anything?'
[None.]
Nova's firm words shattered his last hope.
'Something's off again.'
The hunters who had been brought here were stripped of their equipment and locked in cells.
The number of hunters lying on the ground was exactly 17.
'How many hunters were in the plaza initially?'
[A total of 262.]
'So they didn't capture everyone, just a select few. What's the criterion? Or did they just grab anyone?'
Hyun Suho was curious about why the soldiers had selected only a few hunters from the group to imprison here.
Was it just a coincidence that he was among them?
'Could it be... they're making drugs from human flesh and blood?'
As he waited, all sorts of thoughts crossed his mind.
How much time had passed?
The effects of the tranquilizer seemed to be wearing off, as the hunters who had been unconscious began to wake up one by one.
"Ughhh!"
"Where, where are we?"
The hunters, confused by the dark underground and the unfamiliar equipment, began to shout.
"What is this? Let us out, now!"
"Who did this? Open this right now!"
Shocked and furious at the unexpected situation, the hunters approached the iron bars, determined to break them.
More than half of them had the strength to bend steel as if it were nothing.
Angry, they grabbed the bars and applied all their strength.
"This damned thing…."
Creak!
Despite straining until their faces turned red, the iron bars didn’t bend or even budge.
Then, someone else stepped forward.
"Power Tackle!!"
One of the hunters, a melee fighter, attempted to break down the iron door using a skill.
When activated, this skill hardens the body like diamond and propels the user forward at high speed.
Anything in the way, whether it’s a monster or an obstacle, could be easily pushed aside or destroyed.
Confident in his skill, he shouted, but...
"Huh? What’s this? Why isn’t anything happening?"
Despite his loud proclamation, the hunter remained rooted to the spot, unable to move an inch.
At that moment, another hunter, a mage, shouted out.
"Fireball! What? N-no! I can't channel any mana!"
Hearing this, the others tried to activate their skills, but none of them could use their mana either.
Apparently, the substance in the bullets wasn’t just a tranquilizer.
As the hunters murmured in disbelief, the sound of boots echoed down the hallway, and someone entered the underground chamber.
A huge man squeezed his way into the cramped space.
"Damn, it's so damn tight in here. I told them to dig it out bigger."
It was Bayets, the man who had originally explained the operation to the hunters.
Grumbling as he entered the underground prison, Bayets looked around with a scowl and shouted.
"Everyone, quiet!"
Though not as ear-shattering as his initial roar, his voice still echoed loudly through the underground chamber.
The hunters, who had been about to argue, hesitated and fell silent.
Bayets looked at them and shouted.
"You all entered our city while hiding your levels. Speak the truth! What are you plotting by coming into the city?"
At this unexpected accusation, one of the hunters, still holding onto the bars, shouted back.
"W-what are you talking about? Hiding our levels? I’ve never done anything like that!"
"Yeah! This is absurd! Even if you have authority from the Russian government, this is a violation of the Hunter Act! If the Hunter Association finds out about this, they won’t stand idly by!"
They all began to protest, each trying to defend their innocence.
Bayets sneered at them and said,
"Cut the crap! My skill, Howling, varies in impact depending on the level of the target. No matter how much you tampered with your Hunter terminal, you can’t fool me, Bayets."
The captured hunters were shocked, and so was Hyun Suho.
'So that's what it was?'
It turned out that the loud roar he had unleashed from the stage earlier was a special skill.
Some had suffered severe damage, to the point of their eardrums bursting, while others had merely winced and stood unaffected.
This meant that the soldiers had compared the damage each hunter received with their reported levels.
'Wasn't her name Lieutenant Tatiana?'
The girl who had cheerfully treated people came to mind.
[Alright, stranger, let me take a look at your ear.]
Come to think of it, she had known he was from outside.
She must have already known before treating his wounds.
Not only was he suspicious as an outsider, but the fact that he claimed to be level 3 and yet took no damage must have been noted.
'I guess it was inevitable.'
He had been completely fooled.
Even though he knew that Hunter skills could be all sorts of things, he never expected them to be used in such an unexpected way.
'The world is indeed vast.'
[So don't get too confident that you can escape easily.]
'I'll be careful.'
He was once again reminded that getting arrogant just because he was a level 6, nearly a Ranker, could lead to a swift downfall.
Bayets spoke to the captured hunters in a triumphant voice.
"Reveal the true reason you hid your identity and came here. If you don’t, you’ll be executed immediately."
Around Bayets, soldiers stood holding guns, their expressions cold.
The hunters instinctively realized that Bayets’s words weren’t just a bluff.
This was a secret facility, far from the city.
No one would ever know what happened in a place like this.
Fearful, some of the hunters began to confess.
"I-I'm on the run after killing a French noble! That's why I bought someone else's terminal!"
"Me too! How many of the people who come to a wasteland like this are actually decent? We paid brokers to buy them!"
Unlike Nova, the others didn’t have the ability to hack their Hunter terminals.
So, they illegally used the terminals of other retired hunters through brokers.
Of course, they couldn't take on official requests from the Hunter Guild with them, but it was enough to pass through the city gates.
As the hunters eagerly tried to prove their innocence, someone else entered the underground prison from above.
It was Tatiana, the same girl who had treated their ears earlier.
She hurried in, her cheerful voice not matching the tense atmosphere.
"Excuse me!"
Still dressed in her medic uniform, she pulled out a syringe from her pocket and said,
"We’re going to start administering this injection one by one now. So, those of you in this line, please come forward and extend your arm through the bars."
At her sudden announcement, the hunter closest to her looked confused.
When he hesitated, Bayets pointed a gun at him and shouted,
"Did you stuff sausages in your ears? Didn’t you hear her? If you don’t extend your arm immediately, you’ll be executed on the spot!"
Click!
Startled by the sound of the gun being cocked, the hunter quickly stuck his arm out through the iron bars.
Tatiana, still in her cheerful tone, said, "Okay~ This might sting a little."
Forced to extend his arm because of the gun, the hunter nervously darted his eyes around and swallowed hard.
He had no idea what might be in that syringe.
Gulp!
Tatiana administered the injection and stepped back, while Bayets stepped forward and asked, "Name?"
"M-Marco Ronian! Ugh!"
The hunter, who had answered Bayets’s question instinctively, suddenly clapped a hand over his mouth in shock.
"Why did I… say that out loud?"
It was as if he had spoken without realizing it.
Hyun Suho quickly understood the situation.
'Is this a truth serum?'
A typical truth serum doesn’t work this fast.
Usually, it puts someone into a semi-conscious state where they answer questions in a daze. You wouldn’t be able to stay this coherent.
But then again, after seeing a substance that could instantly knock out hunters and freeze their mana, a specialized truth serum didn’t seem that surprising.
Bayets continued with his questioning.
"Why did you come to the city?"
"I-I was looking for an opportunity to sneak into Korea."
Seeing that a few questions were working well, Bayets began to ask more serious ones.
"Do you know anything about Halo?"
"H-Halo? No, I’ve never heard of it."
"Hmm… alright."
Bayets moved on to the next cell without delay.
'Halo?'
Hyun Suho felt a bit confused.
The reason he had come all the way to this distant country was to track down the source of a drug called Halo.
He was certain that Halo was being manufactured in this city.
Naturally, he thought it was the work of General's gang, but their reactions were odd.
It wasn’t like they were trying to hide their drug…
'It’s like they’re also tracking Halo, just like me?'
They seemed less like drug traffickers and more like drug investigators.
Bayets and Tatiana continued interrogating the hunters one by one.
Then, when they reached the fifth hunter, something happened.
"Stick your arm out!"
This time, the hunter was an Asian man.
Even though they were in Russia, it wasn’t unusual to see an Asian man here, given the proximity to China, Korea, and Mongolia.
In fact, there were already a number of Asian hunters in this place.
"Can’t you hear me? I said stick your arm out!"
At Bayets’s shout, the hunter hesitantly extended his arm.
After seeing that they were left alone after asking a few routine questions, the other hunters began complying more readily.
But this guy’s hands were trembling unusually.
"Alright~ Just hold still for a moment."
After Tatiana injected him and stepped back, Bayets scrutinized the man with a sharper gaze and asked, "What’s your name?"
"Tang Zhengyi."
At the man's response, Bayets and Tatiana exchanged a look, as if they sensed something.
"Why did you come to this city?"
"F-following orders."
"Orders? Who gave you these orders?"
"The Clan…."
Click!
Suddenly, the sound of bullets being loaded into chambers echoed through the previously quiet underground prison.
It was the sound of the men behind Bayets loading their guns.
It wasn’t something they had agreed on; they had loaded their guns out of nervousness.
Bayets glanced at them in annoyance, and a young soldier, biting his lip, stepped back a pace.
Bayets resumed his interrogation.
"Do you know about Halo?"
"Y-yes, I do."
Bayets looked like he had finally caught a big fish.
His nostrils flared as he took a deep breath, his excitement barely contained as he slowly asked,
"You… are you a member of the Tang family?"
At that question, the man's pupils shook violently.
Bang bang bang!!!
Suddenly, a commotion erupted outside, and someone burst in, shouting,
"Captain! We’re under attack!! Some strange guys are invading this place!"
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