Chapter 76 - Mystery Chase Show - The Masked Sword King
It had been an hour since our grand escape.
Fortunately, the bipedal lizards with their weak legs couldn’t keep up with the heroes’ rapid retreat speed, so I thought we had shaken them off.
[★☆☆: Survive. (Incomplete)]
“Ugh.”
Despite having fled quite far, the mission completion notification hadn’t appeared, which meant we couldn’t escape from the tower yet.
Since abandoning the mission wasn’t an option, I needed to find another trigger to complete it and then bring back the heroes who had returned to Celestia.
Inhale.
Exhale.
“Master, are you tired, woof?”
“N-no, it’s not that.”
As I thoroughly enjoyed the slightly sweet smell of sweat emanating from Lumi’s body, my brain started spinning.
We couldn’t just keep running aimlessly like this.
It was time to play another card.
“See that huge building over there? Let’s head that way.”
I wasn’t sure exactly at what point the connection would occur, but if we were around the 23rd floor, we’d be getting close to when events would start happening.
We needed to make contact with the megacorp “Edo Corporation.”
In my memory, the power structure of the Great Imperial Empire described in the story was composed of three main pillars.
One was, of course, the imperial family and its subordinate government.
A group wielding absolute, unchecked power, though in practical terms, it didn’t operate entirely autocratically but rather as a somewhat messy collective where officials also had significant influence.
And among that messy collective, the lizards had the loudest voices.
The official setting called them “Dragon People,” but what does official know?
These friends, known by various names like reptilians, lizardmen, lizards, or dinosaurs, had extremely powerful voices.
And they were the main villain group.
Originally, the main mission on the 25th floor was to eliminate the lizard leaders, the cyberpunk version of the Ten Heavenly Stems, the “Five Dinosaur Villains.”
…I had expected to fight them eventually, but I didn’t know they would be so persistent as to force us into the tower and target us like this.
And finally.
“Wow…!”
“It must be almost 20, no, 30 floors high.”
The mega-corporation we had now arrived at was responsible for the Great Imperial Empire’s scientific technology. The “Edo Corporation.”
“Whew.”
It felt like it had been ages since I last stood on solid ground.
All this time, I’d been cradled by Lumi, then carried on her back, then cradled by Elise, then carried on her back, and somehow we’d still been pursued, so it had been a while since I’d actually walked on my own two feet.
“Lumi, do you think we’ve lost them?”
“Sniff sniff, sniff— It seems like it, woof!”
Though our objective hadn’t been achieved yet, judging from the meaning of “survival,” we probably needed to secure our “personal safety.”
“Master, is it safe here?”
“Hmm. Maybe?”
To be honest, I wasn’t very confident.
It was also a bit unclear if we could make contact.
But I thought it would be better to try for a clear route as quickly as possible, rather than staying up all night putting our faith in the Imperial Princess.
“Let’s go in.”
I confidently strode through the main entrance of the building, which had no guards.
Of course, that didn’t mean there was no security—surveillance drones similar to Duiju No. 38 (which made Elise’s chest look like it had three parts) were buzzing around.
“Tch.”
“Nyaaak—”
As if copying Neb’s habit, I grabbed Tinya, who was floating around pointlessly, by the scruff of her neck to subdue her.
As we entered through the automatically opening screen door…
《Welcome to Edo Corporation. Please state your purpose for visiting.》
Unlike Duiju No. 38, which definitely looked like it had a person inside, this was a robot that seemed to be 100% mechanical sitting at the reception desk.
For some reason, I felt like I should shout “I want to see the CEO!” but if I did that, we’d witness the miracle of our hostile forces multiplying through a 1+1 promotion.
“I urgently need to see the chairman. Please deliver this item…”
This was actually a ridiculous attempt.
If I went to Samsung headquarters and shouted for Lee Jae-yong to come out, would it work at all?
So I cast two pieces of bait.
One was the existence of Duiju No. 38 itself.
It could easily make us look like we were on government business.
The other was my smartphone, or in hero terms, the “Revelation Tablet.”
To ordinary people, it might just look like a rectangular piece of scrap metal, but heroes would instinctively recognize it as an item related to the Revelator.
The chairman?
Of course, they’re a hero. A 5-star character.
If they saw this, they wouldn’t abandon me—a razor-sharp calculation…!
《Your proposal is being reviewed. This will take some time, and meanwhile, we will escort you to the VIP room.》
“Yes. Thank you very much.”
Fortunately, I wasn’t rejected.
Well, behind the polite expression of escorting us to the VIP room was probably the hidden meaning of “if you’re deemed a disruptive element, we’ll detain you and feed you fish head soup.”
But the important thing was that my bait had worked.
“Let’s go.”
I led the heroes, who were too distracted by the hyper-technological building interior that was more impressive than any other scenery we’d seen in the Great Imperial Empire.
“Keuruk, why, why are you all so sluggish! Chase them more quickly!”
Gong Yong-wan was furious.
Whatever trick they had used, they had created a mass hallucination and escaped in the confusion.
It was infuriating enough that he was going around with several women, but that ability could certainly act as a variable when realizing “the great plan.”
He absolutely had to kill that bastard while the women surrounding him were absent…!
“Split up, chase them in groups! There’s no way out of Neo-Hanyang at this hour anyway! Keuruk!”
After urging his subordinates to form pursuit teams…
The true lizard-leader of this era, Gong Yong-wan, performed his duty as a leader.
“Bring me a palanquin!”
While he had been running frantically earlier due to the urgency of the situation, continuing to run around like this could cause blisters on the feet of his noble dragon body.
As he was enjoying his smoking time with a cigarette…
“Kruk, when we catch them, the men will be castrated and the women… Krut, krakat, kakat.”
While he was blowing smoke rings, imagining happy thoughts…
“…?”
A chilling sensation suddenly ran down Gong Yong-wan’s spine.
“Castrate, what?”
Hearing a woman’s voice overflowing with coldness, he instinctively turned his head to find the source, and what he saw was…
“Kreuruk…?”
A woman with her face completely wrapped in bandages.
But what was even more suspicious was what was revealed below her neck—
Her bursting bosom was barely covered by thin cloth, and due to the small area of the fabric, her upper and side breasts were explicitly exposed in an obscene manner.
Similarly, the tightly wrapped bandages emphasized her slender waist, creating an intense appearance that would be unimaginable in the gender-segregated Great Imperial Empire.
Gong Yong-wan suddenly felt a trail of saliva flowing down the corner of his mouth.
“Kuk—”
As he felt his consciousness flying away, his last thought was that it wasn’t a bad sight for his final moment.
Thud!
Looking down at the collapsed Gong Yong-wan, Renatel pondered.
Seeing the lizard beastkin wearing expensive clothes, she had compromised by knocking him out instead of killing him, but after hearing his verbal abuse earlier, she wondered if it would be better to behead him now.
But that deliberation didn’t last long.
“Kruk, Master!”
“Who’s this woman!”
Other lizard beastkins carrying the palanquin, a transport method she’d seen often in Hanyang, started appearing one after another.
Renatel contemplated briefly.
Should she slaughter them all?
Or she could make them unable to even open their mouths…!
These were clearly hostile forces targeting Revelator Ark, and right now, she had covered her ears, her tail, and was wearing a mask, so there wouldn’t be any repercussions.
Of course, the daring design around her chest area was certainly specific and public enough to identify her, but unfortunately, Renatel was a proud lone wolf.
She was dominated by discriminatory thinking that if her ears weren’t visible, how could anyone distinguish her from a human, so she failed to pay attention to such minor details.
But there was something weighing on her mind.
The image Ark had shown in the Great Forest.
That noble spirit of shaving off the tail fur, which was the pride of the beastkin race, but not taking lives.
Renatel concluded that she couldn’t deny that banner herself.
“Keuruk, get away from Master Gong…!”
“If he has even a single scratch on his scales, I won’t let you get away with it!”
As she watched the lizards hissing and erupting in anger…
“Freeze. Move even a step, and I’ll peel off your scales one by one.”
“Y-you insolent…!”
She attempted the highest form of intimidation, boasting history and tradition.
A hostage situation.
A little later.
“Keuruk, keuruk…”
After extracting all the information related to today’s operation, Renatel sighed as she knocked down every bipedal lizard.
It was good that she had obtained the information.
But now she needed to deliver this information to Ark.
She started running again, sniffing the air to guess the general direction.
A new heroic tale in Neo-Hanyang.
This was the moment when the legend of the Masked Sword King began.