At this moment, Ch'en's eyes looked as if she wanted to eat several Ursus dragons alive. This was something Swire hadn't mentioned to her before. In other words, these bastards had never said a word about the Originium bombs!
She never expected that those so-called Originium shells had been hidden in a certain area of the secret chamber beneath this company all along! To say this was an extremely dangerous situation would be an understatement. If those shells were triggered for any reason, it would be no joke! It would be absolutely lethal!
Ch'en drew her backup sword and pointed it at the soldier Jeanne was dragging against the bars, speaking sharply:
"Tell me exactly how many Originium bombs there are! If you dare to fool us about this, I'll give you an experience you'll never forget, even if I have to face disciplinary action for it!"
Ch'en's urgency was well-founded; the LGD officers had already begun stepping into that secret chamber. If they were careless and accidentally activated an Originium bomb... it wouldn't just be a matter of the officers on-site being in danger. A large-scale Originium shell could even affect the air in this entire block, causing the Originium density in the atmosphere to multiply!
Although they had prepared for the possibility of explosives being stored here, the thought that the enemy considered the quantity "massive" meant Ch'en didn't dare lower her guard. She hurried to contact Swire and the others.
Who in their right mind puts so many bombs inside their own home?! Aren't you afraid of a single misfire sending you to the heavens?
Furthermore, the staff here lived in the dormitories right next door; it was a wonder those people could even sleep at night. If it were her, she'd have found a way to pack her bags and run within two months.
"They're gone! They're all gone! The massive cache of bombs we prepared to contaminate this block in a crisis—they were all eaten by that big guy! We originally planned to detonate them inside its stomach, but the remote control didn't work no matter how much we mashed the buttons!"
Seeing Officer Ch'en on the verge of a breakdown, the man quickly explained the situation below. He was truly worried Ch'en might resort to ruthless measures; right now, she looked like an infuriated dragon.
This was hardly surprising. To Ch'en, the safety and harmony of Lungmen were her "reverse scale." Anyone who touched that scale would not meet a good end. The luckiest would be pinned to the ground and pummeled by this dragon; the worst might be executed by Ch'en on the spot. It depended on the level of resistance; those who fought to the death might even get a taste of Chi Xiao in a critical moment.
"That guy... a single beast ate all of the bombs you had stored?"
Jeanne felt a surge of shock upon hearing the soldier's words. She had considered many possibilities in her mind, but she never expected they had all been eaten. No wonder the "little" fellow looked covered in Originium when it reappeared. It turned out it had eaten so much pure Originium that it was currently suffering from severe indigestion.
"Yes, yes, yes! When we found it, that entire warehouse full of bombs was empty! And then when we saw that monster, it was like a balloon being blown up, just growing larger and larger without stopping!"
He recalled the scene of finding the creature as it roared and grew gargantuan, eventually even bursting through the warehouse doors and charging out with ferocious intensity. It was at that moment they realized how insignificant their strength was before such a creature. It left them feeling a profound lack of security, fearing that some creature might suddenly annihilate them.
Jeanne looked into the man's terrified eyes. Sensing that he wasn't lying to fool her, she tossed him back and stopped bothering with him. In any case, the LGD wouldn't make things easy for them in the end, so there was no need to execute him right this second.
"Hello? Hello! Pink Sausage Dragon, what do you want? Speak up! If you don't talk, I'm hanging up, I'm busy over here..."
Over here, Ch'en had been staring intensely at the soldier after hearing the bombs were gone, worried he was lying. As a result, she had left the connected Swire hanging on the line.
"It's nothing now. But be careful when you're searching; they say there are a lot of Originium products hidden underground! By the way, have you found anything down there?"
Ch'en could hear that Swire's temper on the other end was anything but small; she sounded like a firecracker about to be lit. She wondered what was down there to make the woman this angry. However, considering the reckless style of these people, Ch'en felt she wouldn't be surprised by anything.
"Phew... just come down and see for yourself in a bit. I can't explain this place clearly in a short time. But let me give you fair warning: if you come down, be prepared mentally!"
With that, Swire hung up the phone abruptly before Ch'en could respond. She was in no mood to chat; she only wanted to know who the animal researcher behind this place was!
In front of her sat rows of dissected organs from Infected people. They were submerged in unknown liquids, looking like a scene straight out of a horror movie.
How could she be sure these organs came from the Infected? It was obvious—they were covered in prominent black Originium crystals, testifying to the identity of their former owners.
What kind of person would dare to carry out such insane and inhumane experiments? And how many years had they been doing this in secret without them noticing a thing?
"Everyone, move out in squads! No matter what, we must drag these people out! I want to see exactly what kind of 'holy figure' dares to perform these experiments behind our backs!"
At Swire's command, the guards who entered with her immediately went into action. They split into several squads according to the plan, vowing to bring that animal to justice.
In their eyes was a rage equal to Swire's. Even though these people might not particularly like the Infected in the slums—some might even feel a deep-seated loathing for them—witnessing such a tragic scene and remaining indifferent just because the victims were Infected would be a complete erasure of their humanity.
As human beings, their emotions forced them to feel fury at this sight. This had crossed their bottom line; it was something they could not ignore.
With this mindset, they carried out their task even more meticulously than usual. They wouldn't even let a rat hole go, fearing it might be the enemy's hiding place disguised by Originium Arts.
In fact, if conditions allowed, they would have preferred to use flamethrowers to burn out every possible ventilation shaft to ensure no one was hiding inside. This strategy had been vetoed by Swire from the start. She didn't want to hear about someone accidentally blowing themselves up by igniting an Originium product with a flamethrower—only a complete idiot would do something like that.
While the LGD officers were hunting down the researchers underground, three people were hiding behind a wall inside a laboratory, not daring to come out.
"So what do we do now? I told you not to try and capture them alive; it was a high-risk move. Look at the result—we might not even make it out of here," the man named Gvass said angrily to the researcher beside him, clutching his bleeding thigh. Beside him was an Ursus covered in burns(Ivanov).
After falling from the upper floor, the coward(Ivanov) had luckily used his Originium Arts to escape before the magma could cremate him. As for the price he paid? One only had to look at the black crystals on his body. Because of his close contact with magma mixed with a massive amount of Originium, he had become an Infected.
"Donald, think of a way to control my condition, fast! If this keeps up, no one is getting away without my strength!"
The coward, wrapped in bandages, felt the Originium inside his body growing uncontrollably like it had gone mad. Beside him, the one called Donald looked at the two of them with an air of intense interest, as if he had discovered some rare treasure.