Report
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HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
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Chapter 320
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Roberts' private mansion was located on the outskirts of the fortress.
Just because it was on the edge and not in the center didn’t mean she was poor.
Even though the military significance of the fortress had faded, the security within it remained exceptionally high. The streets were patrolled by warriors, and above, enormous warships flew regularly through the city. In such a place, there weren’t many fools who would commit crimes.
Moreover, since the Water Fortress had accumulated wealth over a long period, its residents were generally quite affluent. For most people, there was no need to resort to crime to get by.
With safety guaranteed no matter where one went, there were quite a few like Roberts who chose to live on the outskirts. It was a choice for a quieter life, away from the hustle and bustle of the city center.
As Roberts' airship passed over several houses and landed atop a mansion, she was greeted by a calm scene.
In the middle of the mansion was a small artificial lake, surrounded by pentagonal houses. Between the houses and the lake were plants imported from other planets.
The airship landed on a platform in the lake. As it touched down, the surface of the water rippled violently.
“What’s this?”
Startled, Roberts checked the airship's cameras. There didn’t seem to be any problems with the landing, but the lens was covered with water droplets. Aside from the splashing water, there was no visible damage.
“Unbelievable…”
Muttering under her breath, she disembarked and crossed the bridge leading to the garden filled with plants. Each step she took triggered the mansion’s sensors and cameras.
｢Welcome.｣
“Yeah. I’m going to take a bath, so get a decent bottle of wine from the cellar.”
｢Understood.｣
“And check the airship’s landing system; it seems to have a problem.”
｢I’ll check it.｣
She gave orders to the slave, who was likely monitoring the cameras, and headed for the bathroom.
The bathroom in the mansion was large enough to accommodate dozens of people. She undressed and sank into the hot tub.
“Ahh…”
The warmth from the hot water made her pale, delicate skin flush a soft pink. As her body relaxed, a soft, tired groan escaped her lips.
‘This feels better.’
She hadn’t been in a good mood when she first arrived at the mansion, but the warmth and comfort quickly calmed her down. She thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a short nap before the wine arrived. She closed her eyes, surrendering both body and mind to the soothing water.
Just as she was about to drift off…
Beeeeep, Beeeep, Beeeep
The loud noise jolted her awake. Roberts quickly rose from the tub, causing the water to ripple violently.
“…An alarm?”
It was a sound she rarely heard, so she didn’t recognize it immediately.
The sound coming from outside the bathroom was an alarm that went off when someone unauthorized entered the house.
Which meant… someone had entered her home without permission.
“What’s going on outside?”
Her voice echoed in the bathroom. As if in response, the alarm outside abruptly stopped.
“……”
It grew silent again, but Roberts couldn’t relax.
There were no guards assigned to this mansion. Instead, speakers were installed in every room, allowing her slaves to hear and follow her orders.
Since she had given an order, a response should have come. It was unusual for the alarm to be turned off without a word.
Now fully awake, Roberts hurriedly got out of the tub. Without drying off, she grabbed her terminal pad first.
‘I need to report this!’
It might not be anything serious, but she couldn’t be sure. She quickly reported to the warrior squad of the fortress and put on her robe.
The warriors would be here within five minutes. Until they arrived, she had to hide in the mansion’s shelter.
When she stepped out of the bathroom, bright lights greeted her. The mansion’s interior seemed as calm as usual.
Except for one difference.
"Where is everyone?"
There was no sound at all from within the mansion. Not only were there no intruders, but the slaves were also nowhere to be seen.
The situation felt off. The shiver running through her body wasn’t just from the cool air conditioning.
‘I—I have to get to the shelter quickly…’
Roberts walked with trembling steps. The home that had felt so comforting just moments ago now felt eerily unfamiliar.
Leaving the building with the bathroom, she entered the corridor and found signs that an intruder had been there.
“Wh-what’s this?”
On the floor, paved with fine stone, were wet footprints clearly visible. The size and shape of the footprints didn’t look human at all. In fact, they were larger than her head.
The footprints were heading towards the wine cellar, outside the corridor.
“…Damn.”
Roberts created a whip with her psychic power and gripped it tightly. She never imagined she would face something like this in the Water Fortress. After this ordeal, she resolved to place some of her combat slaves around the mansion for security.
The only fortunate thing was that the wine cellar and the shelter were quite far apart. With an unknown beast chasing the slaves, she had to hurry to the shelter.
She ran, half-clad, with no sign of anyone chasing her.
Once she reached the shelter safely, she checked the surveillance cameras installed throughout the mansion. Just like in the control room, the cameras allowed her to monitor all the spaces within the mansion.
The cult-style computer began working, displaying images captured by the cameras in midair. She moved her eyes quickly, searching for any signs of the intruder.
‘Nothing?’
She couldn’t see the intruder anywhere. There weren’t even signs of a slave being attacked by the beast.
“What the hell…”
Just as she was flipping through the camera footage in confusion, a noise suddenly came from outside.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
It was the same alarm sound she had heard in the bathroom. It had started out faint but was gradually growing louder. This meant the intruder was getting closer.
In a panic, she checked the camera footage in the hallway where the alarm was ringing.
“What’s going on? Where is it? Where the hell is it?”
The corridor was empty, but the security system was loudly indicating that someone was there.
While watching the footage to find the source of the alarm, something caught her eye.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
She leaned in close to the floating image in the air.
“…”
At first, she thought it was just a stain or a pattern. A common geometric decoration seen in hallways.
It wasn’t.
It was a wet mark.
Something that wasn’t captured by the camera had been leaving footprints as it walked along the corridor.
Bzzzz ‘beep’
And the marks stopped right in front of the shelter door.
Her head slowly turned back.
The alarm stopped, and instead, another sound began.
The noise of something heavy being dragged.
The sound was similar to the heavy alloy door opening.
---
“Cough, so there’s no problem, right?”
“Yes. It seems the security system malfunctioned because it’s outdated. I’m truly sorry for the trouble.”
“Should we inspect it further?”
“No, I think it’s fine. As you can see, I’m in this state.”
The armed warriors glanced at my body before quickly turning their faces away.
“Ah, I see. Understood.”
“We’ll take our leave now. Please go and rest.”
“Thank you.”
They awkwardly bowed and left.
"To think you'd come out in the middle of a bath. You should’ve just had the slaves handle it."
"Maybe you were having a fun time with the slaves? Looks like that’s the kind of vibe."
"Enough of that nonsense."
The voices beyond the closed mansion door quickly faded away. Soon after, a small combat aircraft took off and left the mansion.
With no sign of any more visitors, I re-entered the mansion.
‘That was a surprise.’
When I first arrived at the mansion via the airship, I didn’t worry too much.
Unlike Alcardi’s mansion, the Water Fortress didn’t have armed guards. The city itself was so safe that only a few slaves were stationed in the mansion.
I, who had submerged in the lake where the airship landed, used auxiliary systems to quickly assess the mansion’s personnel and started acting.
I intended to deal with the slaves, starting with the one carrying the wine, and then move on to the mansion’s owner.
‘If it hadn’t been for that loud bell sound, I would’ve definitely succeeded.’
In my form as a "Clever Weakling," I was immune to various detection systems due to the effect of the "Alien Creature Fur." The waves generated by the fur interfered with all types of detection equipment. Even the vibration monitoring systems were no exception.
Yet, the reason I was caught was water.
The fur became wet, and it seemed that the system designed to disable detection wasn’t functioning properly. My appearance didn’t show up on the cameras, but the wet footprints were clearly visible. Anyone with a keen eye would have noticed that something not captured on video was leaving marks.
‘An unexpected weakness.’
I knew the "Alien Creature Fur" wasn’t invincible. However, I never expected such a simple yet fatal flaw.
‘Even though this is a desert-like planet, it’s the Water Fortress. I need to be cautious.’
I reminded myself to be careful with water in my “Clever Weakling” form and headed back to the shelter. There, I retrieved a pad device left by the mansion’s former owner.
‘Alright. Now, the remaining task is...’
I needed to confirm something with Roberts, the slave trader I had consumed. Normally, I would have used parasites, but my "Swarm" ability was currently sealed. So, now it was time to use the "Humanoid Parasite" instead. I summoned the Humanoid Parasite, which had replaced the previous member of my swarm.
A bug with the face of a cult woman tore through the nest on my back and leapt out. Since I had summoned it while in the "Clever Weakling" form, its size had shrunk considerably.
The Humanoid Parasite, now about the length of an adult man’s arm, fluttered its wings and landed before me. The slave trader, now aware of the change in its body, looked pale and horrified.
“I have something to ask you.”
As my voice echoed, the same voice as hers, she widened her eyes.
But with all authority over her body now belonging to me, the only thing she could do was respond:
“…Please speak.”
She could only fulfill her role as a minion.
---
Si-hyun Yujin realized that she was dreaming the same dream again.
A white room.
Her own self sitting in the center.
Faceless figures whispering something to her from the side.
The recurring dream, which she had every time she slept, had become a part of her life.
Lately, it had even started to feel like she couldn’t go without this dream.
“You ■■ the ■■■.”
The figure sitting in the chair spoke. As always, she couldn’t understand what was being said.
Si-hyun thought.
What would it feel like if I sat in that chair?
It was a thought she had never had before, but it didn’t seem odd to her.
Her consciousness gradually narrowed toward the chair. The faceless figures stopped whispering and turned to look at her. Despite not having visible faces, they seemed to be smiling for some reason.
Everything was strange, but she didn’t realize it. The thought that she needed to sit in that chair immediately consumed her mind.
“You ■■■ ■■■.”
Despite the figure’s exclamation, Si-hyun’s eyes suddenly shifted toward one of the faceless figures just before she sat down.
As she got closer, she could tell.
The figure’s body had cracks, like a shattered mirror.
The moment she realized that, she woke up.
“……”
Unlike the familiar dream, waking up drenched in cold sweat felt very unpleasant. Pushing open the glass wall, she quickly exited the bio-capsule, habitually grabbing the pad.
She frowned at the long message that appeared on the pad’s screen. Her eyes were fixed on a single word in the message: “Analysis Failed.”
“…Failed?”
Although she had succeeded in defeating the monster, one of her goals, there was little joy in victory. This was because the damage she had taken was not insignificant.
During the fight, she had lost her crystal battery. Now, only enough energy remained for two more uses of the Abyss Destroyer.
‘This isn’t enough to kill Akira.’
Akira Yujin, the CEO of Megaorp, like Si-hyun, was a genetically modified being. It was possible that he had received as many genetic modifications as the monster she had killed.
This meant that the Abyss Destroyer might not be enough to kill him in one shot.
Akira was an even more cunning opponent than the monster. If something similar to this happened again in their fight, she would lose.
“That's why I was relying on this… sigh.”
She set the pad down with a deep sigh.
Now that she couldn’t recklessly use the relics, a new alternative was needed.
What she had now placed her hopes on was the blood on the enhanced suit, ‘White Maiden.’ Although the monster had been completely incinerated by a lightning strike, the dried blood that had adhered to the suit still remained.
Si-hyun had ordered the lab aboard the flagship to analyze the blood. If they could transplant the monster’s genes into her body, she would gain immense power.
However, contrary to her expectations, the blood analysis kept failing.
The blood contained too many different kinds of genes and a lot of foreign substances.
To resolve this, more samples were needed, but the monster had evaporated without leaving a corpse. It was, of course, an impossible request.
In the end, the research team concluded that analysis was impossible at this time. At least with the equipment aboard the flagship, it was impossible to analyze the monster’s genes.
‘If it were the Megacorp database, it might be possible…’
The Megacorp database on the moon had the best research facilities. There, they might be able to analyze the monster’s genes.
The problem was that infiltrating the Megacorp database was anything but easy.
The heart of Megacorp’s intelligence was so tightly secured that even Yujin’s shadow would have to risk their life multiple times just to get in.
If she were to lose her life during the infiltration, it would be a complete contradiction. As long as there is even a glimmer of hope, the infiltration of the Megacorp database must be postponed.
‘In the end, is that the only option left?’
Si-hyun recalled the incomplete map left by Beom-ho.
The current situation she found herself in was not much different from before she came to Verzan 02. She had restored some of her power, but she had lost the relic her hidden card.
To fight against a formidable opponent like Akira, she needed new weapons. In this situation, she could only hope that the map would yield meaningful results. The problem was that there were no clues to complete the map.
If there were enough time, it might not be an issue, but that wasn’t the case. Megacorp’s internal conflict was nearing its conclusion. Once the war ended, Akira would turn his attention to clearing out Si-hyun Yujin’s forces.
She had to complete the map before Akira’s pursuit fleet started moving.
“…This is giving me a headache.”
Was it the daily nightmares mixed with the practical problems? She wasn’t sure, but her head was aching.
It seemed like she needed to clear her mind. She also needed to wipe the cold sweat from her body.
She staggered toward the bathroom.
——————
HELHEIM SCANS
[Translator – Seraph]
[Proofreader – Draxx]
Join our Discord for release updates!
https://discord.com/invite/dbdMDhzWa2
——————
Chapter 320
