Ch'en also looked with a heavy expression at the soldiers surrounding her and the manager; it was blindingly obvious that they had come with ill intent. Hoshiguma and Jeanne stood by Ch'en's side, observing the enemies encircling them with wary eyes. Their appearance was nearly identical to soldiers of the Ursus Imperial Army.
Ch'en instinctively reached to draw her blade, but only when her hand grasped empty air did she remember that, in order to avoid raising suspicion, she had left both her standard-issue blade and Chi Xiao outside. This was... truly problematic. Even she wasn't confident in dodging crossbow bolts and snatching a weapon while surrounded by such a crowd.
Hoshiguma, at that moment, hoisted the table they had just been using as a makeshift shield, positioning herself in front of Jeanne and Ch'en in an attempt to protect them. But that table was merely a product of ordinary hard plastic; trying to block an Ursus crossbow bolt with it was nothing short of a pipe dream. If she continued to block like that, the only outcome would be her body being pierced through by bolts—there was simply no other possibility.
"What do you think you're doing, Manager Ivanov? Do you know the consequences of pointing these illegal weapons at LGD officers?" Although they were the ones in danger, Ch'en's interrogation remained incredibly firm. To an outsider, it looked as though the three of them had surrounded the hundreds of soldiers and were currently advising them to surrender.
Ch'en's eyes pierced into Ivanov's like sharp arrows. That piercing gaze made the Ursus man unable to look her in the eye; instead, he kept dodging her stare like a common rat.
"Things have already devolved to this point—what use is saying all that now? We have over a hundred men standing right here. Do you really think we can just let this matter pass like it's nothing?" Ivanov was nearly at his breaking point. It was supposed to be a meticulous plan; he had even prepared for this group to conduct a carpet search for a month, guaranteed not to expose a single hair!
But now, every perfect plan had been shattered by a sudden, unexpected change! Somehow, a group of incredibly strange creatures had broken into the secret underground chamber. These things were only the size of lions at first, but neither swords nor crossbows could deal effective damage to them. In fact, those advanced Ursus weapons could do nothing more than "polish" their scales!
In the end, they had even resorted to using Originium warheads. In an environment like a secret chamber, that was a fast track to turning everyone into the Infected! Aside from the risk of accidental injury when the Originium shattered, the high concentration of Originium dust produced after the warhead exploded would turn most of them into Infected. For an Ursus enterprise, the status of an Infected wasn't just "low"—it was more like being sent straight to the eighteenth level of hell. You couldn't say they didn't exist, but it was better if they didn't.
But they couldn't care about that anymore. During the time they had been fighting these giant lizard-like monsters, fifty of their brothers had already been "cremated" by the flames spat out by those things, leaving not even a stray bit of ash behind. As for the effect of Originium crossbow bolts... how should one put it? They were less effective than just shooting regular bolts! These things, whatever they were, had a resistance to Originium Arts stronger than specially bred Rockcrabs!
Well, isn't that great? Their attacks on the creatures had devolved from "polishing" to "skin-scratching." Fortunately, the heavy crossbow bolts eventually had an effect, and the creatures scurried away after feeling the pain. Truly, they were the only ones on record to use their incredibly crude Originium Arts to fight a group of Dragon-kin that had passed their juvenile stage. They could be called masters of "elemental disadvantage."
"Wait! I think I get it now. You guys were the ones who let those monsters in, weren't you? You intentionally used those monsters to force our hand so you could order an immediate arrest, right? How despicable of you! Where is your morality as police officers?" Halfway through his recollection, Ivanov suddenly felt as if his brain had finally connected the dots. With an expression that said "I have seen through your tricks," he looked at the bewildered Ch'en.
Ch'en was completely stunned! She had heard him blathering on, but she didn't understand a single word! What did he mean, they let monsters in? Where was this even coming from?
But beside her, though Jeanne's face remained cold, her heart was churning with waves of realization. Wasn't it obvious? The Earth Dragons I let in have ransacked their nest! Judging by this stance, these guys must have suffered quite a loss—at worst, they had probably lost many people.
But I only intended for them to scout the path! Why did those little fellows I called out cause such a massive mess?
Do you have any idea what you've done? Do you know how much trouble you've caused? Even if those dragons were standing right in front of her, Jeanne would still have to say: You did... a fantastic job!
Facing these guys, why bother worrying about such details? If you lined up this entire company including the doormen and shot every second person, there wouldn't be a single wrongful conviction, and you'd still probably let nearly half the criminals go!
The only question was: what was that massive explosion just now? Could it be a special Ursus-made Originium bomb? Jeanne also knew that spitting out flames of that destructive power, mixed with large amounts of earth and stone turned into magma projectiles, was not something those little guys could achieve yet. No matter how much grain they ate, they didn't have enough power to grow to that stage. Not in their wildest dreams. The mana contained in grain was simply too meager.
Jeanne's right hand quietly moved to her waist, her hand appearing as if it were phantom-gripping something. Her eyes swept over the surrounding enemies; the moment they launched an attack, she could immediately summon her weapon to protect Ch'en and the others.
"Reporting to the boss! A group of LGD officers has surrounded our company outside, and there's even a large number of drones circling in the sky. Should we stop them from entering?" While the two sides were at a stalemate, someone from Rhine Gold reported the situation. The second LGD squad, led by Swire, had appeared and was now in a standoff with Rhine Gold's personnel.
Ivanov was still surprised—where did these doormen find the people to halt the LGD's progress? Those guys with nothing but batons should have been pinned to the ground and arrested long ago, shouldn't they? Out of curiosity, he looked through the window at the two groups in a standoff. He discovered that quite a few soldiers from the secret chamber had run out and joined the effort to block the LGD.
What he hadn't noticed was that ever since the pillar of flame erupted from the garden, various inconspicuous hidden doors throughout the company had been opened. Many people were in such a rush to escape for their lives that they didn't care about anything else anymore. A few had even managed to run out of the company, only to be promptly pinned to the ground by LGD officers and handcuffed first—as for what laws they had broken, that would be settled later.
Those who hadn't managed to escape in time were now facing off against the LGD officers. The atmosphere between the two sides was tense to the point that a single spark could cause an explosion!
"What do we do? Do we fight these cops or surrender?" The soldiers on Rhine Gold's side were currently like stray dogs; after witnessing those terrifying monsters that felt like a natural disaster, they no longer had the slightest desire to fight the LGD. Their courage had been burnt to ash along with those spraying flames. They no longer possessed their former high spirits, nor the thought of daring to launch a thousand-man assault on Lungmen.
"What else can we do? We'll see! Once that monster runs out, we'll find a way to make them fight it to the death!" The man who said this had legs that were trembling so much he almost wanted to flee first. But for the sake of appearances, he desisted. In his plan, this tactic of "diverting the disaster" would definitely work; the LGD would surely be wiped out.
"Surrender! It's useless even if you take us as hostages! But if you surrender, we can offer leniency." Ch'en scanned the surroundings, looking for any way to seize some weapons. The opponent was, after all, a well-equipped battalion of a hundred men; the three of them were truly at a disadvantage.
"Leniency? To hell with your leniency! At this stage, do you think saying such things is still useful?" Seeing the situation collapsing on all three fronts, Ivanov slammed his walkie-talkie to the ground, shattering it. He knew the crimes he had committed meant death anywhere—even if he were extradited back to Ursus!
It was at this moment that something seemed to be falling from the sky again. It immediately drew everyone's attention.
"Will it ever end?! Is the weather today 'randomly falling objects'?!" Someone shouted, and the tightly wound nerves of the crowd began to snap. However, Ch'en noticed that the objects were falling right next to them, though she couldn't see clearly what they were.
"No need to worry. It's just that the two sets of cutlery we ordered have arrived," Jeanne said as she looked at Ch'en and Hoshiguma.