Chapter 133: Chapter 92: The Employer’s Meeting
John returned to the locker room.
He gagged on the ground.
The Omega Inhibitor was a valve injector, not as easy to carry as a chip, otherwise, he would have given himself a shot long ago.
He even had hallucinations just now—he saw blood streaming from the hostages’ eyes in a daze, with voices urging him to shoot them in the head.
[John, what the hell is going on over there, f*ck, talk to me you motherf*cker!]
"I’m not dead."
[...You took a little too long and did extra things. That fat guy might sense something is wrong and shows signs of ending early and bailing. Two automatic sentinels have blocked the entrance. Hurry up.]
"Okay."
John regained his sanity.
The critical level also gradually stabilized.
He walked into the shower room, passed through the cracked tiles, and into a dimly lit old hallway, where he heard voices from the innermost room.
John sneaked closer to observe:
The atmosphere in the room was extremely eerie.
A middle-aged man, covered in blood, paced the room, his belly so fat it could be drained of oil. He had two metal arms and his knees showed traces of an alloy skeleton.
A spotlight shone in the center of the room.
A woman’s corpse lay across a metal countertop, and several other people lay collapsed around the table. According to remote scans, none showed signs of life.
Legizamon was making a call.
He seemed to be contacting his Ghoul accomplices, asking them to clean up the scene later and ordering the type of person they planned to abduct next.
"This time there’re six, and a few in the basement cages without breath that also need disposing of."
"Have them dragged away within the next two days, don’t waste my time. My brain is overflowing with ideas. Didn’t I tell you last time? It will definitely break the website record..."
"I only have two supplies left, I’ll consume them in a bit and try something different, like a rehearsal for the new movie..."
"Get me more raw materials."
"...There’re plenty on the streets; if not, pick some up near the border station..."
"Who lets you profit? Be quick with the supply!"
Legizamon cursed to his heart’s content.
He turned around, catching sight of a figure stiff in the dim corridor with the corner of his eye.
"F*ck, you... lu, lu-lu-lu~"
Legizamon was shot in the chest.
Electricity amplified through the blood pool on the floor, spreading a light blue ripple through the room.
His tongue felt like a half-bite of fatty meat, bit until it bled by trembling teeth.
Bang, bang...
John emptied the stun gun’s magazine and found plastic sheets suitable for disposing of a body in the room, packaged up this guy and slung him over his shoulder.
He dumped the fat guy next to the wardrobe.
The two people in the basement still held grenades.
John took the explosives.
The two of them raised their heads, faces ashen, exuding an unbearable stench as their already thin clothes were soaked with sweat.
They shakily climbed the stairs, almost running back down upon seeing the unconscious Legizamon.
One of them let out an ambiguous scream, seeming to want to rush into the shower room to find someone.
John grabbed her hair, roaring.
"Nobody alive inside!"
He was still tortured by tinnitus.
The experience of rescuing people at Owl Town came to mind, and he couldn’t let himself be trapped by hostages again.
If these two girls went crazy, he might very likely choose to shoot directly.
Fortunately.
They forced themselves to calm down.
Snatched back their lives once more.
John rummaged in the wardrobe, taking out a Funds Card, clean spare clothes, and some valuable ornaments.
He packed everything into two bags, tossed them to the others, and carried the fat guy back to the surface.
Outside the front gate of the Old Dreams Studio stood bio-authorized protective turrets.
They were blocked.
Oulos’s voice came again.
[That’s it, John, throw that guy over the wall from the back alley, then get in the car and leave!]
[If the signal’s interruption drags on too long, and Kammel can’t contact Legizamon, the hovercar will fly over.]
"Isn’t the signal jammed?"
[There’s a last faded point, don’t you understand!]
"If I take down the mechanical hounds, how long before reinforcements arrive on the scene?"
[Your goodwill is overflowing!]
"I’m maintaining sanity, Ouro..."
[Shut up, John, don’t call me by name while working, especially in front of strangers.]
Oulos was forcing herself to stay calm.
[We’ll need to talk later when we meet, and I’ll remind you once more: if they’re caught and turn you in, they’ll keep scouring the footage until they hunt us down!]
"At this point, just give them a choice, it’s important for me to maintain sanity."
The phone line went silent for a long time.
[From the moment you take down the first turret, you’ll have eight minutes to leave the scene.]
Oulos exited the communication channel.
The two girls, wrapped in coats, curled up in the corner, deliberately keeping a certain distance from John.
He turned around.
The voice beneath the ghostly mask was cold.
"Leave Eden City, and don’t think it’s a good place. Run as far as you can before being devoured..."
"When I give the signal, run along the alley till you can see the street but stay out of the light, find an auto motel a bit pricey, and say you were beaten by a john."
"Finally, you never saw me."
John raised his gun, then kicked open the door, dodging far under the continuous turret fire, taking aim at weak points to shoot.
The advantage of home guards lies in their concealment.
They lack the high armor and large-caliber bullets of traditional machine sentries, and have poor mobility, becoming targets if they fail to immediately eliminate detected threats.