Chapter 86: Halo (4)
At the mention of an intruder, Bayets glared at the soldiers with a terrifying look and shouted.
“You idiots! Didn’t you conduct a proper body search?”
The soldiers responded with voices full of indignation.
“N-no, sir! We thoroughly searched them. We moved all the equipment to another location and even made them strip down to their underwear!”
At their words, Bayets made a doubtful expression and then asked the hunter he was interrogating.
“You! You hid a tracking device, didn’t you?”
The hunter, still under the influence of the truth serum, answered obediently against his will.
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
“Where did you hide it?”
“I-in my head.”
“In your head?!”
Surprised by the unexpected response, Bayets grabbed the man by the neck and pulled him forward.
He examined the man’s head with piercing eyes, and sure enough, he saw a clear surgical scar between the man’s hair.
So, the tracking device wasn’t attached to clothing or shoes but was implanted in the man’s body, specifically inside his head.
“Sichuan Tang Clan, you crazy bastards! You did this to one of your own?!”
Only then did Bayets realize they had been deceived, but this wasn’t the time to be shocked by the enemy’s ruthless tactics.
“Quick, we need to get out of here!”
Under Bayets’ command, the soldiers of the General's forces rushed outside.
Left behind in the dimly lit underground prison were the hunters, with only a flickering lantern for company.
At first, they were relieved they hadn’t been asked any strange questions under the truth serum, but soon fear began to creep in.
This place was a makeshift facility outside the walled city.
It wouldn’t be surprising if a monster appeared at any moment.
Even being underground provided no assurance of safety.
The underground railways operated by different countries also had to be guarded 24/7 because of monstrous mole-like creatures.
“Hey! What the hell is this? You need to explain what’s going on before you leave!”
“Hurry up and open this! And give us back our gear!”
The hunters, seizing the moment when the soldiers were gone, tried to break the iron bars and escape.
Thud! Thud!!
But no matter how hard they tried, the iron bars didn’t budge.
The effects of the mana-suppressing agent mixed with the anesthetic still hadn’t worn off.
In their current state, even a single goblin could come in and wipe them all out.
Just as fear began to spread among them, someone started to move.
It was Hyun Suho.
Crunch!
He easily tore off the iron bars, holding them up as he looked around.
“Did they treat the steel with chemicals? How unusual.”
Even without the use of mana, he was a hunter strong enough to fight a bear based solely on his stats.
Like a bear, a hunter could easily bend thin iron bars.
Usually, to imprison hunters, you’d need a prison made from monster materials, but here they used plain steel.
Surprisingly, they had used chemicals to enhance the steel’s strength.
“They’re using drugs in all sorts of ways.”
Like the others, Hyun Suho was almost naked, wearing only his underwear.
After the soldiers took everything, they didn’t leave them in their original underwear but instead put them in tacky, worn-out designs.
It was an act done with the tracking device in mind, but it was ultimately useless.
Who would have guessed that they hid the electronic chip in his head?
All the equipment the soldiers took from him was cheap gear he had bought to disguise his true level.
The real gear was stored in nano particles.
As he took a deep breath, the nano particles hidden in the surrounding shadows covered Hyun Suho’s body.
Rumble!!
The nano particles, wriggling like slime and forming shapes, soon transformed back into their original gear form.
Hyun Suho, now fully armed, stood before the captive hunters who cried out as if a savior had appeared.
“You! Break these damn bars!”
“We need to get out of here!”
But contrary to their desperate pleas, Hyun Suho had no intention of helping them.
The hunters hiding in Vladivostok were mostly of ill repute.
Especially those who went so far as to replace their hunter terminals to sneak into the city—they were even worse.
The ones he had heard through the truth serum had committed all sorts of crimes, including murder, robbery, and rape.
He even thought it would be better for the Earth if they were eaten by monsters.
Ignoring them, Hyun Suho approached the spy with the tracking device implanted in his head.
“There’s still some truth serum left in you, right?”
In response to Hyun Suho’s question, the man naturally answered.
“Y-yes.”
“Alright then, let’s get started. I’ve got a lot to ask you.”
Hyun Suho still didn’t know anything about the situation here.
He moved the nano particles to form a chair, sat down, and began the interrogation.
* * *
Meanwhile, the soldiers who had gone outside were quickly heading towards the city.
The prison was built outside the walled city to evade the persistent pursuit of the Tang Clan.
The city was already teeming with their eyes and ears.
It was a special setup, prepared with utmost caution, but due to the unexpected tracking device, they were now at risk of being caught.
“Hurry up! We need to get to the city gate!”
The city wasn’t too far away, but the pursuers were far more skilled.
The enemy was closing in swiftly with their expert tracking skills and speed.
In the midst of this urgent situation, someone stumbled and fell while running.
It was the medical officer, Tatiana.
She had been struggling to keep up with the others, and finally, she tripped and fell.
“Ouch!”
The loud noise of her fall reached Bayets, who was leading the group.
“Damn it!”
Bayets quickly turned back, grabbed her with one arm, and started running again.
Despite his fierce, merciless appearance, he surprisingly took care of his comrades.
Tatiana, feeling apologetic, said, “I-I’m sorry, Colonel.”
“I told you to exercise more!”
Even as he grumbled, Bayets didn’t let go of Tatiana and kept running.
Though his speed remained fast even while carrying someone, they couldn’t escape the pursuers.
Whoosh!
Bayets sensed something flying towards him from behind and quickly swung his hand to deflect it.
Clang!
Even though he used his bare hand, it made a sound like metal clashing, and the thrown dagger flew off harmlessly.
But the other soldiers weren’t as agile as Bayets.
Struck by the flying projectiles from behind, they collapsed to the ground with agonized screams.
“Aaargh!”
Bayets, holding Tatiana, was the only one left standing.
Realizing they couldn’t escape, Bayets gently set Tatiana down behind him.
Then, taking a deep breath that made his chest swell, he shouted with all his might towards the front.
[ROAAARRR!!!]
As he roared, the shockwave swept forward like a typhoon.
It wasn’t just a shockwave; it was a sonic boom, sharpened like a blade, that tore through everything in its path.
Rumble!!
Rocks were sliced cleanly as if by a sharp blade, and the trees within the range were crumpled and shredded in a spiral pattern.
Bayets had used the Howling skill that had previously burst the eardrums of hunters, but this time, its power was on a completely different level.
It seemed that he had deliberately toned it down before to identify the spy.
“Huff, huff!”
Bayets gasped for breath, having suddenly exerted a tremendous amount of power.
He hoped this would slow down the pursuers, but they weren’t so easily deterred.
“Oh my... It seems you don’t have much love for nature, do you?”
With a relaxed voice, mysterious figures emerged from the shadows of the forest.
Twenty men, all dressed uniformly in green robes.
At the forefront stood a man who looked at Bayets leisurely, as if admiring a fish he had just caught.
“Bayets. Where are you in such a hurry to go?”
The man spoke as if he knew Bayets well. And Bayets knew him, too.
“Tang Tianqi! You dare come this far?”
“Ha ha ha! What’s that? You dare use the word ‘dare’ against me, a member of the Great Tang Clan?”
Bayets glared at him with a hardened expression, then glanced at his fallen subordinates.
They were writhing in pain, foam bubbling from their mouths.
“Damn bastards! Did you use poison?”
“What’s strange about a poison master using poison? Unlike you fake hunters who use strange chemicals.”
Tang Tianqi casually waved his hand, and three daggers shot out like rays of light.
Bayets, startled, tried to deflect them with a sweep of his hand, but one of them suddenly twisted its path and dropped vertically just before it hit his hand.
In the end, he managed to deflect two, but one lodged into his thigh.
Thud!
“Grrr!!”
Bayets staggered backward.
He was a formidable hunter at Level 6.
But even with that, the stark difference in skill between him and Tang Tianqi was apparent from this single move.
Bayets quickly pulled out the dagger, but his thigh had already gone numb.
As Bayets staggered, Tang Tianqi sneered at him.
“It’s a paralytic poison. It won’t kill you right away, but without an antidote, your heart will soon stop.”
“You filthy scum...!”
“You should have just done as you were told. If you had kept producing Halo as promised, none of this would have happened.”
“Shut up! You know exactly what that stuff is!”
“What it is? It’s just a drug. You’ve been making a fortune off drugs all this time, so why did you suddenly do something so stupid?”
Vladivostok is a harsh environment where farming or livestock raising is nearly impossible.
The only people who come here are criminals on the run.
To feed the residents, they had to make money through intermediary trade using the port they had.
The most profitable trade was, of course, smuggling, particularly drugs.
The General didn't stop such smuggling, instead taking a hefty tax to sustain the city.
Despite the harsh environment, the city’s people lived well because the illegal funds from such activities trickled down to them.
Halo was a drug distributed directly by the Tang family.
It was a high-end drug processed in Vladivostok from raw materials sourced from the continent and sold overseas to places like Korea and Japan.
At first, the General’s side didn’t bother to stop them.
They even helped by setting up factories in the city to produce the finished product.
But once they learned a certain fact, everything changed.
“Are you out of your mind? Do you realize what you're dealing with? You’re messing with the drug lord’s merchandise?!”
Halo was the product of the South American top-ranked drug lord.
The drug lord was an extremely dangerous figure.
The drugs he made were far more dangerous than ordinary drugs.
The world considered them more hazardous than nuclear materials.
No one knew how, but the Tang Clan somehow managed to get hold of the raw materials and started distributing them.
"There's no way we're dealing with you anymore! Get out of our city!"
"Heh, that won't do."
As Tang Tianqi and his men closed in, Bayets shouted at Tatiana.
"Run quickly and warn the others! I'll hold them off here!"
"But…"
"Go!"
Seeing the resolute look in Bayets's eyes, Tatiana, with tear-filled eyes, quickly started to run.
Watching her go, Bayets began to gather his strength in earnest.
"Graaaaah!!"
As he let out a battle cry and summoned his strength, his body began to grow larger.
Crack! Creak!
His body swelled up like a balloon, and soon, even his clothes were torn apart.
Just when it seemed his stretched skin would split, a thick, dark-red fur sprouted, covering his entire body.
His fingernails extended into sharp claws, and his mouth elongated into a snout.
His ears moved up to the top of his head and stood erect, completing the transformation.
Amazingly, Bayets had turned into a giant bear.
"[ROAAAARR!!!]"
Although he had transformed into a massive bear, easily over 3 meters tall, Tang Tang Tianqi remained unimpressed.
"A Shapeshifter, after all?"
Shapeshifters.
A term used to describe those who could transform into creatures like wolves or bears.
An extremely rare class, allowing one to turn into creatures like the werewolves or werebears found in ancient stories.
As their size increases, so do their physical abilities, and their regeneration rivals that of a troll.
It seemed the poison that had paralyzed his thigh had already been neutralized.
"[Growl! Growl!]"
Bayets, now in his werebear form, stood on guard against the Tang Clan warriors.
While it looked like his large, sharp claws could tear them to shreds, Tang Tianqi remained calm.
"A useless class that can't even use equipment."
That was the critical weakness of Shapeshifters.
They couldn't use any of the excellent equipment obtained in dungeons.
On the other hand, the Tang Clan was famous for inventing and skillfully wielding strange weapons.
"Take care of him."
Tang Tianqi gestured toward Bayets with his chin.
His relaxed expression indicated he didn't see the need to act himself.
At his command, his subordinates stepped forward and began hurling their throwing knives.
Shushushushu!!
"[ROAAAARR!!!]"
Bayets, now a massive bear, charged at the Tang Clan warriors.
Despite his enormous size, Bayets moved much faster than a real bear.
In a single leap, he covered a distance of 30 meters.
In his werebear form, Bayets could fight and defeat even a level 7 monster head-on.
But this time, the opponents were too skilled.
Pupupupuck!
One by one, the throwing knives began to lodge themselves into Bayets's body.
"[Graaaah!!]"
Even as Bayets frantically dashed around, the Tang Clan warriors effortlessly weaved between the trees, constantly throwing more knives.
Their accuracy was so high that more knives hit than missed.
Soon, Bayets's back and sides were covered with dozens of throwing knives.
Even though his regeneration was extraordinary in his werebear form, he couldn't withstand the venom-coated knives.
"[Growl! Growl!]"
Bayets, foaming at the mouth, finally stumbled and collapsed to the side.
Thud!!
He was so heavy that dust kicked up in all directions.
Even in that state, Bayets kept his eyes fixed on Tang Tianqi.
Tang Tianqi calmly stepped on Bayets's body and spoke.
"Heh, how amusing. Did you really think that woman who ran away would make it to the city safely?"
Bayets had literally sacrificed himself to fight and allow Tatiana to escape, but it was all in vain.
Tang Tianqi had already sent someone after her.
"My subordinate will soon bring her back. Once I have you all as hostages, I'll find out everything there is to know about this 'General.'"
Tang Tianqi never intended to kill Bayets.
His real goal was to capture Bayets, the General's right-hand man, and use him to lure out the General.
Even the Tang Clan hadn't yet uncovered the General's true identity.
But they did know his profession.
"An alchemist capable of perfecting Halo… Heh, you'll be of great use to me."
Although they'd gone through the trouble of building a prison outside the city, it had actually worked to Tang Tianqi's advantage.
Thanks to that, he was able to capture Bayets so easily.
All he needed now was to capture the woman who had fled, and he could move on to the next stage of his plan.
As expected, it wasn't long before the runaway Tatiana returned to the scene.
"Colonel!!"
Tatiana cried out, seeing the fallen Bayets.
But something was off.
The person who returned with Tatiana wasn't one of Tang Chun-gi's men.
The man who had rescued Tatiana, Hyun Suho, spoke to Tang Tianqi.
"Sorry, but I'll be taking them with me."
* * *
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