Read Novel Full Book 2 Chapter 637
Book 2 Chapter 637
Luca didn’t dislike the night. Rainy days were the same.
Until not long ago, it wasn’t like that. She didn’t like the always dark city, Meltown, and hated rainy days because it meant there was no work. So this was a relatively recent emotional change.
Therefore, Luca didn’t feel deep sentiment toward the dark sky. After all, she had never experienced the sun or daytime.
You can’t long for something you don’t even know. Besides, Luca’s imagination wasn’t rich enough to envy something she had never experienced.
Perhaps if it were the original Luca, she might have seen the sun, so her thoughts might have been a little different.
“…Hoo.”
She ended up thinking about something she didn’t need to.
Luca felt a heavy guilt every time she thought of the original Luca. It was because she felt like she had forcibly taken the place where that girl was supposed to be.
While shaking her head slowly, a voice suddenly rang out.
“It’s been two days.”
The voice, slightly awkward, belonged to Bardrog, the captain of Amdal.
It was not Kiel Marlgol, the head of the Grand Galactic Alliance. That one disappeared right after Residue left. It seemed like he was watching the current situation but didn’t intend to get deeply involved.
“Has it been that long already?”
“Yes, it has.”
“……”
Luca made an uncomfortable expression at his polite attitude. Even though she was Destruction, she still perceived herself as an ordinary teenage girl. Hearing honorifics from an older man like him was distressing in many ways.
But even when she told him to speak more comfortably, he never listened. Bardrog treated Luca with more courtesy than necessary.
Was it because she was part of Residue’s group?
Or had Kiel given him some sort of instruction?
Whichever it was, Luca’s influence couldn’t surpass either of them.
'Two days.'
Had it only been that long? Or had it already been that long?
Luca felt conflicting emotions simultaneously as she thought for a moment.
Residue hadn’t said how long it would take. This could be interpreted in two ways.
Either it was hard to predict how much time it would take from the beginning, or whatever happened, he had entrusted the decision entirely to Luca.
“He could have at least clearly said which it was before he left.”
As she grumbled inwardly, Bardrog spoke in a cautious voice.
“…There’s a problem.”
“Go ahead.”
“We’ve run out of food.”
“…Hmm.”
Luca narrowed her eyes.
Of course, Amdal’s food storage had enough preserved food to feed hundreds of people for a year. It would have been nice if the enemy hadn’t destroyed the food storage with a single blow. ȑâɴ𝘰ꞖÊ𝐒
“So I think it’s about time you made a decision……”
Bardrog once again brought up the topic he had mentioned some time ago.
“The number of surviving prisoners far exceeds that of the crew. I’m starting to feel the limit of controlling them. Honestly, I don’t know how much longer they’ll follow our orders.”
Amdal’s facilities were mostly destroyed in the crash.
But whether fortunately or unfortunately, only the detention cells, made of the strongest materials, remained intact even after falling from ten thousand meters above the ground. As a result, most of the prisoners survived. More than half of the crew had died, though.
“…For now, they’ve followed our orders and returned to the detention cells, but if the power management system cuts out, the detention cells will no longer function as intended. Their durability will plummet below half. And among the prisoners on this Amdal, there are at least dozens who could easily break out under those conditions.”
It was a headache-inducing issue.
Luca pressed both temples and spoke.
“What do you think, Captain?”
"Two things came to mind."
Bardrog said.
“One is for you, Luca nim, to directly deal with the prisoners.”
He knew Luca’s power.
Two days ago, the Absolutes had come to this place.
Bardrog felt death the moment he faced them. Each and every one of them was several times stronger than the prisoner Rirokan Confrost, who had been Amdal’s de facto ruler.
Luca had driven away such beings without a single scratch.
If Luca made up her mind and decided to take lives, not a single prisoner on this Amdal would be able to keep their neck intact.
“……”
However, Luca wore a reluctant expression, and fortunately, Bardrog was quick to pick up on it.
“The second option doesn’t require you to dirty your hands directly. We send the entire detention cells into that lake.”
“The lake?”
Luca, not understanding right away, asked back.
“Yes. From inside the detention cells, it’s hard to grasp what’s happening outside. By the time they notice, they’ll already be sinking. It would be an exceptionally neat watery grave, or even if they manage to escape, wouldn’t the giant war machines in the lake take care of them? There’s no risk of it affecting us.”
“I see. I’m not doing it.”
“Huh?”
“You said we’re out of food, right? I’ll go get some.”
Bardrog asked blankly.
“Uh, from where?”
“I’m thinking there might be fish in the lake.”
“…Huh?”
Luca stretched and stood up, then set off toward the lake. Bardrog’s dismayed gaze pierced her in the back of the head, but she didn’t bother to look back.
“…Things I can do, things I have to do.”
The words she muttered in a low voice soon scattered in the wind.
“Things I want to do.”
***
Residue opened his eyes.
“…Hmm.”
Still alive.
Barely, luckily, or perhaps regrettably.
Residue sat up with a stiff body and first checked whether he was bound in any way. Fortunately, there were no annoying chains or the like.
Clang-
“…Well, this is something.”
There was a shackle fastened to his ankle.
The shackle wasn’t connected to a wall. Instead, a large iron ball was attached at the end, the size of Residue’s curled-up torso.
He knew what kind of metal this was.
“It’s anti-metal.”
A special kind of metal that can block the release of external force.
A metal that, in the past, could only be found in the Top Universe. The existence of this metal surely influenced why the Ruler, the Lightning God, couldn’t enter that place.
Residue tapped on the iron ball.
“The purity’s a bit low. Did they mix in something?”
That didn’t mean it wasn’t solid. In fact, its efficiency at blocking external force seemed to have increased significantly. The shackle itself was also made of anti-metal, so breaking it would be difficult. With bare hands? Even more impossible. Even aside from its special application, anti-metal was one of the hardest metals in existence.
Should I cut off the ankle?
It’s the most feasible option, but for now, it’s on hold. He had only a sliver of external force left in his body, so regeneration would be difficult.
If he made a mistake, he might die from blood loss.
“Kuhaha…”
Residue laughed to himself like a madman. For this body’s end to be from excessive bleeding, what a comedy.
Only after a long fit of laughter did he slowly look around.
It wasn’t a prison… or a sealed room.
Rather, it was a very wide, open space.
To describe it, it looked like the center of a city.
But when he raised his head, what he saw wasn’t the sky but the rugged ceiling of a cave.
“Didn’t expect to end up here like this.”
The place where Residue had been lying was.
It was the Underground City.
***
Residue wandered the city, dragging the iron ball behind him.
There were no signs of people. It felt as if he were the only one left in the world.
He suddenly looked up at the cave ceiling again. Most likely, he had fallen from there. Judging by the large crater at the spot where he had been lying.
“Did the Red Knight subdue me and throw me here while I was unconscious?”
…Why didn’t they kill me?
Residue first questioned that, but since no plausible guess came to mind, he stopped thinking about it.
At any rate, if the structure of the Underground City remained the same, there would only be one exit. Somewhere in the cave ceiling, there should be a hole like an ant tunnel.
In other words, escaping with this cumbersome iron ball attached would be difficult.
“The wound’s still bad too.”
The gaping hole in his chest remained as it was.
Blood wasn’t flowing, but the wound wasn’t getting better either. To put it precisely, it was just maintaining its current state. In short, the condition of the body was still far from good.
Moreover, escaping from this place right now was meaningless.
Sin City had the Red Knight. Unless he could find a way to defeat that beast, there was nothing he could do even if he left this place.
“Why is that beast here anyway?”
Of course, it wasn’t entirely impossible.
Two knights under the Half King.
They were the most powerful force the Half King could mobilize. Normally, they should be used actively in the fight against Destruction, but absurdly, the Half King was using those precious forces to block or control surrounding cooperation.
That kind of behavior was disgusting, but in any case.
The Half King was using the Red Knight to monitor and control the Absolutes of the Top Universe. In other words, that one would not leave Sin City.
If they meet again next time, he might really die this time.
Residue thought about the worst possibility, then glanced around.
The Underground City.
The Top Universe definitely knew about the existence of this place.
Then one new question immediately arose.
Why hadn’t they destroyed the Underground City and left it intact?
“Because it’s useful.”
Then the only way to find out what that usefulness was would be to run around and investigate the place directly.
Residue clicked his tongue.
One worst-case scenario came to his mind. The person Residue was looking for might already be dead. If that were the case, not only would he lose the means to become stronger, but escaping the Underground City would also become far more difficult.
However, that worry disappeared the very next moment.
Turning right at a sidewalk, he saw a familiar building at the end of the street.
A massive cathedral.
Though it looked far more damaged than when he had last seen it.
“Hm.”
Residue sensed many presences inside.
So it wasn’t a completely abandoned ghost city. Thankfully.
Residue walked straight to the cathedral and flung open the doors.
“……!”
The people inside turned their eyes toward him.
Most wore expressions of great surprise, and among them was the very person Residue had been looking for.
There were also dozens of dwarf Miglings, and among them a few familiar faces.
Ignoring the rest for now, Residue looked at the one he sought and grinned slyly.
“How are you doing, Michael.”
After a brief silence.
“Waaah!”
A moment later, a cheer burst out.
“Trowman!”
“Trowman is here!”
“Ohhoho, how nice!”
The Miglets jumped and cheered.
Residue, walking toward Michael, roughly tousled the dwarf guys’ heads.
“Yeah, yeah, you bumpkins. You know what's cool. Have you been well?"
[…]
Michael still didn’t show much of an expression, but somehow, Residue could tell he was flustered.
[…Why are you here?]
“I came because I’ve got business.”
[What business?]
“There’s something I want to teach you, and something I want to learn from you.”
[…Something to teach and something to learn?]
Michael tilted his head at the words that were difficult to grasp.
“Well, let’s set that aside for now.”
Residue glanced around and then looked at someone who was bothering him even more than Michael.
“Why are you here?”
“……”
Yang In-hyun, the Master of the Flower Mountain Sect and one of the Twelve Void Lords, remained silent.
*****
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