He placed a cigarette between his lips and lit it.
Jin Crow narrowed his eyes as he reflected on the awakening drugs he had consumed throughout the day.
'That's the last cigarette. About half the liquor's left.'
Three cigarettes a day.
And approximately 6 oz (170 ml) of whiskey stored in the hip flask.
That was the old pharmacist's recommended daily dosage.
The side effects varied from vomiting, dizziness, chills, and temporary nerve paralysis to many others.
He had experienced those side effects himself, enough to make his teeth chatter in dread, but the problem was that the recommended dosage was far too small.
“I wish I could just pour it in like fuel.”
He muttered while wiping away the blood splattered across his cheek, whether it belonged to a Creature or a human.
Of course, if the old pharmacist who had gifted him the Hansarang-brand vitality tonic had heard that, he would have felt wronged.
Then again, who could have expected someone to spend the entire day fighting nonstop?
-Kikikikik! Kyaaaaaah!
Jin Crow stared into the darkness of the tunnel, lit only by the occasional flicker of underground lighting, at the Creatures charging toward him.
“Hup!”
He exhaled sharply before immediately swinging his sword.
He regulated his breathing and silently cut down the Creatures.
He thrust, twisted the hand gripping the sword, and withdrew the blade.
Sometimes he blocked attacks with his coat, whose special materials maximized its defensive capabilities.
Other times he threw himself into puddles stained with human blood and leaking sewage, rolling across the ground.
Of course, he was not alone.
Slash!
A Creature beside him collapsed without even managing to release its dying breath.
Turning his head, he saw the man in techwear whom he had previously met at the mansion casually spinning a jackknife before pulling up the mask that had slipped slightly down his face as he joked.
“I usually only cut people, so this is something new. Though I'd rather not make a habit of it. Feels like some kind of leisure sport.”
“……”
The only visible part of his face was his eyes, hidden beneath a black military cap and a mask covering his lower face.
But what mattered was not his appearance.
It was his identity.
'To think he's actually a team leader from the Murder Company.'
Jin Crow knew neither how many members the Murder Company had, nor its exact organizational structure, nor even who its leader was.
The only thing he knew was that they operated in teams, and that every team leader possessed combat power equivalent to at least a Quad Gear, if not a Penta Gear.
As proof, the man slaughtered every Creature blocking their path with skill and speed that did not fall behind even Jin Crow, despite the latter's extensive experience fighting Creatures.
His ability truly deserved recognition.
“By the way, doesn't our company care about work-life balance? They told me to come meet the Godmother, but instead I'm being treated like leftovers and stuck babysitting a middle-aged addict who can't let go of his cigarettes and booze even during a battle. What a life….”
The only problem was that he talked far too much.
Jin Crow frowned as he looked at him.
Meeting that gaze, the man blinked in surprise and asked,
“Oh, you heard that?”
Despite speaking loudly enough for anyone to hear, he somehow looked genuinely surprised.
Rather than answer, Jin Crow simply chose to ignore him.
Perhaps that deflated him.
Or perhaps he was simply that shamelessly sociable.
The man, who had introduced himself as Volk, followed behind Jin Crow through the damp underground passage and continued talking.
“So, who are we looking for again?”
“The old man in the plague doctor mask from the Black Market.”
“Oh, got it.”
Volk nodded absentmindedly as though he had no particular interest.
But Volk's reaction was hardly what mattered.
'The Queen appeared. Why?'
He did not know the exact point in time when the Queen was originally supposed to appear.
But he knew one thing.
It was not here.
The Free Planet Alliance was originally meant to collapse under the full threat of the Creatures only after the outbreak of the Fourth Galactic War.
Which meant—
The future had changed yet again.
Why?
There were already too many points of divergence.
Rather than dwell on the cause, he focused on what needed to be done immediately.
'First, find the old man. Then save as many people as possible and escape the Free Planet Alliance.'
Why had he even been willing to draw his sword against Stero Mer in the first place?
It had all been to stop his schemes involving the Creatures and to lay the groundwork for humanity's future.
But now that the Queen had already appeared, obsessing over that objective would only mean losing sight of what truly mattered.
Think rationally.
'Hunting the Queen is impossible.'
He did not yet know whether that Queen was already a Legion-class entity traveling alongside a King.
But even if she was not, reaching a monster with such overwhelming mind-control abilities meant fighting through hundreds of millions of Creatures.
Naturally, that was impossible for the fractured and divided Free Planet Alliance.
'No matter how troublesome they are, surely they won't keep acting recklessly even in a situation like this.'
This trip had reminded him that Beatus and Famille were still immature.
Even so, they were reliable.
Hino Kanae was no fool either.
And unless Baek Hui-young had somehow electrocuted his own brain, he would never choose an option that got Miel killed alongside him.
Even if they did run wild, it did not matter.
Out of concern, he had specifically asked Tita Genorua to look after them while telling them to escape.
'Whether it's the vitality tonic or anything else, I need to bring that old man with me if possible.'
In other words, the only thing he could do was return with as many valuable people as possible.
-Grrrrr.
“Volk.”
“Yeah, Instructor.”
“Call me mercenary.”
The two stared at the monsters whose eyes glowed within the darkness beyond the underground tunnel before quickly advancing once more.
-Kyaaaaaaaaaah!
Soon, the only sounds echoing through the passage were the agonized screams of the Creatures.
Black Mer had been caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the Void Rift.
But their mission had not changed.
Boom!
Dozens of artillery shells fired from the sky slammed into the Corrosive spikes raining down upon the earth, detonating with deafening explosions.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
“R-run!”
The civilians no longer cared who Black Mer was attacking.
Naturally.
They had no time for such trivial concerns.
Creatures charged after them with bloodstained eyes.
Buildings collapsed beneath the bombardment, mixing together with countless corpses.
And above them stretched an apocalyptic sight unlike anything they had ever witnessed.
Rumbleeeee!
Towering skyscrapers crumbled.
Civilization, built upon science, became nothing more than worthless rubble.
The sapient beings who had each lived their own lives were torn apart and reduced to mere chunks of flesh.
-GRAAAAAAH!
-Screeeee!
The streets flooded with nameless, lowest-grade mass-produced Creatures like an endless tide.
Pawns and Knights led the charge, reveling in indiscriminate slaughter.
“This way!”
Of course, not everyone simply stood frozen in terror.
Whatever anyone might say, the Free Planet Alliance was overflowing with PMCs and mercenaries.
Public safety had always been poor, to the point where nearly every household kept a pet shotgun.
Bang!
Ratatatatat!
Gunfire rang out.
Citizens retreated into their homes or into underground facilities relatively safe from collapsing buildings and bombardment, resisting the advancing Creatures.
Nor was that all.
With the disaster spiraling far beyond anyone's expectations, even the Public Security officers joined the battle.
Whether it was their last shred of conscience or simply the realization that they, too, would die otherwise, no one knew.
But as they entered the fight, what had begun as a massacre gradually became an actual urban battle.
The Black Market, the underworld of society, was no different.
“Fuck! What the hell are these things?!”
“Aaaaaaah!”
The Black Market merchants realized something had gone terribly wrong and tried to shut down their businesses and flee.
However, with security forces largely absent due to the civil war between the factions, everything became even more chaotic.
“S-stop them!”
“How the hell are we supposed to stop them?! Gah!”
Creatures knew nothing of concepts like the Black Market.
They simply obeyed the commands of the Higher Species, charging through the narrow passages toward the delicious masses of meat waiting beyond.
Once the fragile defensive line collapsed, the enormous underground cavity rapidly transformed into a scene of utter chaos and hell.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
Slaughter erupted everywhere.
An elf whose abdomen had been pierced between the jaws of a massive serpent-like Creature screamed in agony.
The human who threw himself forward to save her had his head blown apart.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
A Ripperdoc who had climbed aboard one of the illegal Titans he himself sold exploded when his firearm overheated.
“E-eat them instead! I-I don't want to! Aaaaaah!”
An old man with wrinkled skin who had trafficked children, women, men, the elderly, and every race imaginable was stripped of his bones, had his eyeballs torn out, and was chewed apart while still conscious before being discarded because, apparently, he did not taste good.
“S-save... me....”
A man fighting a Creature had his lower body completely crushed beneath it.
He desperately shoved his spilled organs back into his abdomen with his own hands.
It was a sight too horrifying to witness.
“Tsk.”
For that reason, beneath the plague doctor mask, the old man let out a sigh filled with instinctive disgust before forcing his creaking body upright.
“The longer one lives, the more things one ends up seeing that should never have been seen….”
Rolling a walnut in his hand, he set down the electronic cigarette pipe after running out of liquid and instead took out a piece of silver pellet herbal candy from his pocket and chewed it.
Then, sensing the grotesque monsters slowly making their way toward him, he pondered.
'Looks like the Family's internal conflict has been wrapped up nicely. I suppose it's about time I discarded this identity.'
He had grown rather attached to his disguise.
But it could not be helped.
It had already served its purpose.
That black crow-like fellow had successfully used the research he had intended to complete, proving its stability.
The Family had also stabilized, so they would remain occupied for quite some time.
'Still... it's a shame.'
Throwing away such an excellent research environment as his identity as a drug bartender without even a trace of regret was by no means easy.
That only demonstrated how loyal he truly was to the organization.
As he prepared to fight the Creatures slowly approaching through the alleyway and reached for the drug cocktails he had already prepared to inject into himself—
Slash!
Beyond the streetlights illuminating the darkness, he saw Creatures collapsing one after another.
Two sturdy silhouettes charged forward without hesitation.
The monsters were butchered and executed before they could even scream.
-Kii... kiiing.
Whether it was instinctive fear.
Or simply the dying cries of the monsters.
The final breaths of the Creatures echoed from outside.
Then one of the figures in a long coat indifferently drove his sword into the body of the last Creature.
'…….'
His instincts screamed at him.
The two men had not come here merely by chance.
They clearly had a purpose.
As a professional, he knew.
The two outside were professionals as well.
Growing even more tense than before, he aimed the shotgun in his hands toward the entrance of the shop.
The moment they entered, he pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The shotgun erupted in fire, pellets instantly engulfing them.
Without missing a beat, moving in a way no one would believe possible for an old man, he injected a drug cocktail into his thigh, gripped a scalpel, and slashed toward the leading man's neck.
“W-what? Viper?”
“Huh? Volk?”
The leading man, Volk, and the old man—or rather, Viper—stared at each other with wide eyes.
Instinctively, they both realized it.
Neither knew exactly what had happened, but they had each blurted out something they absolutely should not have.
Hiss, inhale.
Jin Crow, who entered a step behind after finishing off the last remaining Creature, placed a cigarette between his lips as he watched the farce unfold before quietly remarking,
“Your organization's security is truly impressive.”
Naturally, both of their faces turned slightly red.
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