Chris's team took Luis to retrieve a mysterious sample, while Sheva led her team to find Eddie.
Josh, the remaining member, played the role of a bandit, finding gems to exchange for bullet supplies with the Black market merchant.
An hour later, Sheva found Eddie near the garden to the east.
Eddie was helping Ashley walk out, Ashley frowning. She regretted not leaving Eddie to chat; it was too uncomfortable.
"What's wrong with her?" Sheva asked, taking Ashley from Eddie.
"After-effects of the Plaga treatment. She'll be fine after some rest. I've already applied medicine, and it should take effect in about ten minutes. Your speed isn't bad. Let's go, we need to leave this cursed place too," Eddie said with a smile.
Sheva eyed Eddie but didn't speak.
"What's wrong? Is something the matter?" Eddie felt a bit uncomfortable under her gaze.
"Nothing, I was just checking if you were injured. I'm really curious how you survived in such a chaotic castle with so few firearms." Sheva was a bit puzzled. Even seasoned veterans like them would get minor injuries, so for a liberal arts student to have this ability was excessive, very excessive!
Chapter 503: Lisa's Roadside Robbery
Josh's team, acting as bandits, quickly collected some gems and returned. The Black market merchant, as promised, gave them some submachine gun bullets, though not many—just one magazine per person.
Sheva and Eddie also quickly returned to the front hall of the castle to rendezvous. Seeing the Black market merchant, Eddie's eyes held a hint of amusement.
This was a rather special Plaga, neither Subordinate nor Dominant. It seemed to coexist perfectly with the Las Plagas parasite. There was no mutation, no loss of sanity, and while it didn't display many abilities, it possessed a very useful one.
That was, it wouldn't be attacked by villagers, as kin don't attack kin.
Eddie pulled out a Butterfly Lantern. "This thing can be exchanged for quite a lot, right?"
The Butterfly Lantern was inlaid with colorful gems; it could fetch a very high price at auction. Nobles, after all, had money to spare!
The Black market merchant's eyes clearly lit up. "This is indeed a good item. Please wait a moment, I'll go get the goods."
Three minutes later, the Black market merchant returned carrying a box. "These are all yours. If you don't need them, just leave them here."
He had intended to chat a bit more, but the Black market merchant seemed to smell something and immediately packed up his belongings and left.
Chris's team quickly escorted Luis back. Luis loudly shouted, "I got the stuff, and these medicines!"
Bang! An indescribable spike tried to attack Luis, but Eddie directly shot it, deflecting its trajectory. It hit the wall, followed by a scream that sounded human but not quite.
Luis reacted, quickly running away.
In the chaos, his hands became empty. A humanoid insect directly snatched Luis's sample and slapped Luis against the wall with its tail, severely injuring him on the spot!
Sadler snorted, "You ants, daring to trespass on my territory. Now that the sample is in hand, there's no need for you to stay. I'll have Salazar, that child, entertain you well. Not a single one of you will escape!"
The castle was still collapsing. Sadler quickly retracted the enormous Turtle Needle and swiftly departed with the insectoid.
Looking at Sadler, Eddie still couldn't understand how he stored that large, thick Turtle Needle. It was very strange and didn't conform to the law of conservation of mass!
Luis was only severely injured, not dead, and could still be saved.
Eddie threw him an emergency medicine. "Use this to stabilize the injury. Take him, we need to head deeper into the castle."
Lisa received Eddie's subsonic message, nodded, and darted out quickly.
They passed through layers of obstacles and finally arrived at a secret door in front of the castle.
Sadler stood there, utterly furious. "You bandits, may you all die horrible deaths! Just you wait, Salazar, exterminate them for me! Let your actions bring salvation to the Salazar Family!"
"Yes, Lord Cult Leader!" The diminutive Salazar performed a comical bow.
Sadler was helpless; his brief skirmish with Lisa had left him severely wounded, and even his fused Dominant species Plaga conveyed a sense of fear, terrified of the highly destructive subsonic waves.
For the first time, the Las Plagas parasite made Sadler retreat from Lisa—this was the biological instinct to bully the weak and fear the strong.
Sadler could only leave for now; where there's life, there's hope.
The right hand that had snatched Luis's Las Plagas parasite sample in the hall earlier had been brutally torn to shreds by Lisa, and the unique test tube had fallen into her hand.
No one was a match for Lisa, and after seizing the sample, Lisa also quickly departed.
This meant that when Eddie and the others arrived at the secret door, only Salazar, accompanied by Left Hand, was waiting.
"You are very brave, very good. The castle has been destroyed by me. If you want to leave, defeat me and step over my corpse to exit. I will eat you all! Hahahaha!" Salazar finished speaking and was carried away by Left Hand.
Kevin stepped forward to inspect. "This door is locked. We need to use explosives to blast open the secret door."
"I just took a look. These cultists use explosives, so there must be some nearby. This place won't collapse, so we can collect some supplies and then go defeat Salazar," Eddie suggested.
"I think that's a good idea." Chris naturally supported his brother-in-law unconditionally.
Sheva also agreed, leaving only Josh, the black team leader, who could only agree as well.
Eddie looked at the secret door thoughtfully. He had already obtained the Dominant species Plaga; it was time to retreat. To eliminate the so-called Sadler? There was no need for that. He plays the villain, I play the hero—isn't that a good script?
A scream came from the left, and everyone rushed over. They saw a figure with an iron cage on its head and three sharp steel claws on each hand, grabbing an innocent teammate and frantically slashing, like a mad killer.
Bang! Powerful gunshots continuously attacked, forcing this Wolverine to retreat repeatedly. After enduring excessive firepower, its parasite was exposed from its back. For unknown reasons, it seemed unable to bear the host's pain and wanted to temporarily separate?
As the parasite was blown up, this Wolverine also died tragically.
Chris frowned. Another one dead. This was somewhat unbearable. "Let's proceed cautiously and not spread out too much."
Eddie crouched in front of this Wolverine, examining it. "This type of monster is artificially modified. Do you have flashbangs? They're very effective against these bugs. If that guy wasn't unconscious, asking him would be more appropriate."
Everyone looked at the unconscious Luis. This guy really had no luck. The sample he brought was stolen, and he himself was injured. Could he get any more unlucky?
After collecting supplies, they indeed found some explosives and some shotgun shells, which was better than nothing.
At this moment, the merchant reappeared, seemingly also fleeing. "Do you still have gems or gold coins? I still have some bullets here."
"How do we leave here? We can transfer money to you!" Kevin asked.
The Black market merchant shook his head. "I only accept jewelry, not transfers. All the exit routes are blocked. You can only go down to the excavation site, pass through it to the end, and defeat Salazar to get out from there."
"Don't make it difficult for him, he's just a merchant. Here, take this, and leave all the bullets for us." Eddie threw out some more collected gems.
"You truly are a generous customer, very good! These are all yours." The Black market merchant put down a box of ammunition, which also contained explosives and incendiary grenades. He took the gems and happily departed.
Chapter 504: Ready for Takeoff, Beautiful?
The Black market merchant was a person who had been parasitized. As for whether he was a mercenary or a local villager, Eddie leaned towards him being an outsider, at least his dialect was almost nonexistent when he spoke. Local villagers spoke very difficult-to-understand dialects and generally didn't speak foreign languages.
All they ever said was 'despicable outsider.' An outsider is still an outsider, no matter how despicable. It's not good to call others despicable just because you're stupid.
Ignoring the Black market merchant, Eddie led the way into the secret door. This was a dark underground mine. From the traces here, it had been many years old.
There were still many villagers being controlled and brought here to dig in the mine. Eddie said, "It's best to wear gas masks here. According to Luis's research report, the Las Plagas parasite here survives in spore form. Be careful not to get parasitized!"