Chapter 104: Caracas – Slums – Staircase 3
“First of all, we’ll guide you inside, but if it seems dangerous, we’ll back out, so keep that in mind.”
Dusty said this nonchalantly as he walked into the dark block.
The others followed suit.
It wasn’t because they were accustomed to it, but rather, apart from Alice, none of them seemed to acknowledge the presence of the maggots.
Alice, without a word, accelerated her internal time, and at the same time, began gathering immense magical power in her mechanical tendrils and grasp.
In the past, using magic would have been akin to a suicidal act due to Alice’s inefficient and wasteful energy consumption, but since absorbing Gaia’s twisted vitality, she could wield magic freely with a bit of delay.
The twisted vitality endlessly replenished her depleted energy, making it trivial to burn down several houses filled with maggots.
-Shakak…!
-Krrrik!
However, the maggots, as if sensing Alice’s murderous intent, vanished the moment mana gathered in her hands.
Countless maggots that occupied entire houses, bricks, and buildings disappeared as though teleported, leaving Alice bewildered.
Was it an illusion?
No, it was too vivid; the sensation of thousands of maggots wriggling and staring at them had been unmistakable.
Maggots don’t have eyes, but it was evident they had been perceiving and recognizing them.
‘Theresa.’
【A large-scale teleportation magic has been activated. It appears to be a highly sophisticated and discreet spell that even Dusty, a human, and the accompanying doll would find difficult to detect.】
Theresa seemed to have noticed something as well.
Alice turned her gaze to the house and road where the maggots had been.
With the sudden disappearance of the swarm, there were no longer any notable peculiarities in the road or buildings.
‘Theresa, what about their presence?’
【No detection in the vicinity.】
What were those maggots?
Could they have been watching and observing us?
The idea of maggots possessing high intelligence and personality seemed absurd, yet in Ark, bizarre occurrences were common.
Preconceptions and biases from her previous life were easily invalidated here.
Not just intelligent maggots, but even far smaller entities like the Progenitor Virus possessed rationality, so it wasn’t too strange for an insect colony to have intelligence.
The issue was that those maggots seemed to be watching Alice and Dusty’s group as they stepped into the industrial zone.
“Hey, Overseer. What’s up with you all of a sudden?”
Anis looked at Alice, who had suddenly stopped, with a puzzled expression.
In Alice’s accelerated mental state, she had been deep in thought, but to the others in real-time, it looked like she had frozen mid-step, standing still like a malfunctioning robot.
Alice shook her head as if to dismiss the matter.
“You, your name was…”
“Anis. I don’t have a surname, so it’s not a memorable name for an overseer like you.”
“Ah, right. Anis, have you seen anything unusual like maggots around here?”
“Maggots? What are you talking about?”
“I mean, have you ever seen something like maggot sub-species… or a shaman raising thousands of maggots?”
Anis exchanged glances with the other members and Dusty.
The looks seemed to ask, “Have you seen anything like that?” before they all shook their heads.
“No such sub-species exists. I’ve heard rumors about a fearsome insect woman with moth wings and antennae ruling like a queen in the Abyssal Region…”
“Oh, I know her. Her catchphrase is, ‘What should I play with?’ before she tears people limb from limb as a hobby.”
“Most rumors from the lower realms are usually exaggerated or outright lies.”
“There are shamans who control insects, but they’re incredibly secretive. If someone could control tens of thousands of maggots, they wouldn’t be stuck in the lower realms. They’d have been scouted by the central forces and escaped here long ago.”
There was no clear information.
In the end, Alice decided to put the maggot issue aside for now.
‘Well, maggots aren’t the priority right now.’
If maggots had caused a calamity in the lower realms and become Alice’s mission target, it would be different, but they were entirely unrelated to the blood contamination and the disappearance of the academy students.
Alice decided to act as if she hadn’t seen the tens of thousands of maggots watching her.
What was important at the moment wasn’t the maggots but the exploration of the factory district.
Whether solving the blood contamination issue or passing through, she needed to move to the sector where the academy students had disappeared.
If the dangerous calamity of blood contamination had occurred here, it was highly likely that the missing academy students were also in this area.
If the maggots appeared again, then she would consider capturing or exterminating them.
After 30 minutes of walking into the factory district with black blocks.
The buildings were packed densely, reminding her of the Kowloon residential area, but there were only empty houses with no signs of life.
“It’s quiet.”
“Isn’t this too devoid of people?”
“Hmm, this doesn’t make sense…”
As Anis and a few other organization members started whispering, Dusty’s eyes also began to show a hint of puzzlement.
The heavy industrial district was vast, even larger than the Seoul Alice once lived in as a human.
Filled with every conceivable type of industrial complex and facility, this area was the heart of all lower-realm production, including the Caracas stairs.
That the Central Administration hadn’t taken the industrial facilities here could be seen as the greatest act of mercy towards the lower realms.
Naturally, this place was divided among crime organizations, gangs, mafia groups, and tough thugs within the lower realms.
Walking 30 minutes should have led them to at least encounter someone.
Even gangs occupying the industrial districts understood the importance of the facilities and avoided causing destruction.
However, they were particularly sensitive about outsiders trespassing into their territory.
“Everyone, halt.”
At Alice’s command, the Hush Gang members and dolls immediately stopped walking.
“Dusty? Why are there still no people here?”
“The only plausible explanation is a conflict between the organizations occupying this zone…”
“There’s no sign of destruction or bloodstains. Do crime groups clean up the blood and bodies off the streets themselves?”
“No, that’s…”
In the lower realms, corpses left on the streets were usually neglected.
Bodies were stripped of all belongings by scavengers known as “body cleaners,” who would then sell the organs and dispose of the remains at butcher shops in the Abyss.
The process was far from clean.
Streets were often stained with dried blood, and only the occasional gas storm sweeping through the lower realms kept the streets relatively clean.
“It’s clear something happened here since there’s still no one around.”
Alice’s eyes began to glow yellow.
“Theresa.”
【Initiating area hack.】
Dozens of mechanical tendrils shot out from Alice’s spine, latching onto buildings, electrical wires, pipes, and network cables with spike-shaped terminals.
Theresa began a large-scale hack, infiltrating all electronic devices, CCTVs, drones, and factory facilities within range.
【Arbitrary alignment of industrial processes.】
【Exclusion of unauthorized production records.】
【Security system disabled.】
【Checking account deposit records.】
【Assessing the situation.】
【System alignment underway.】
【Internal network compromised… Rebuilding system infrastructure.】
【Reviewing the past two weeks of records.】
Theresa quickly breached the weak factory networks, processing overwhelming amounts of data to isolate relevant information.
The system’s security was so lax that the sheer volume of incoming data made extracting useful information a challenge.
As Alice’s body heated up from power consumption and hardware activity, Theresa narrowed the focus to the past two weeks to deduce recent events in the area.
Predictably, no high-quality CCTV footage was available.
Even if there had been, it would have been abandoned by the central administration over a century ago.
However, factory operation logs, vibration data, power usage, and logistics movements offered clues.
While Alice glanced around at the factory district’s landscape, Theresa processed countless computations, reviews, and analyses to uncover what had occurred.
The findings revealed that this area had been a production hub for illegal narcotics and weapon modification equipment.
Approximately one week ago, all production and logistics activity had ceased.
【Human, anomalous activity was detected around seven days ago.】
‘What’s your take on it?’
【The likelihood of blood contamination is high.】
Though more information was needed, the factory district’s lack of visual data left much to speculation.
-Crack!
Suddenly, footsteps echoed.
A doll’s wrist extended into a sharp skewer.
Hearing the sound, Marlang cocked her head curiously with an “Uuung~?” before pulling out a bone-and-flesh-assembled machine gun.
“Who’s thereee~?”
Marlang asked, aiming her gun at the source of the sound.
Her childlike, innocent voice carried the weight of a deadly threat, with a massive energy round already charged in her weapon.
The overwhelming aura would have been palpable even from afar.
“W-wait! Stop!”
Finally, someone emerged from the alley, hands raised in surrender.
He looked like an ordinary back-alley thug, but the tattoos etched on his body gleamed ominously.
Alice turned her gaze to Dusty.
Is he someone you know?
Yeah, a familiar face.
Dusty nodded and quietly spoke to Alice.
“His name’s Kalz, from the Leonard Family. He joined the family around the same time I did, but while I went independent and started the Hush Gang, he stayed there.”
“So, was he originally a Hunter like you?”
“When awakened ones join organizations, they get treated decently. By the way, that guy got caught trying to drug and assault the deputy guild leader’s daughter, then fled to the lower realms to avoid getting killed.”
“Ha, what a gutsy bastard.”
Kalz, at first glance, looked like an ordinary and kind person, but hearing about his attempted assault and escape to the lower realms was revolting.
It’s a reminder that appearances can be deceiving.
“Hey, this is Leonard Family property, a designated parts production zone. If you recklessly approach—”
“Approach and what?”
“Well, uh…”
However, Kalz seemed to possess some situational awareness.
Someone commanding the Hush Gang as their subordinates and having a refined-looking young lady in tow in the lower realms meant one of two things.
Either the person was a monster themselves, or they had a monstrous being guarding them.
Judging by the confidence in Alice’s voice, Kalz vaguely recognized her as a powerful figure from another region.
“Could you perhaps not approach? I’m just a grunt, and if a fight breaks out, I’m definitely dead…”
“Kalz, you bastard. You haven’t changed.”
“What? How do you know my name…”
“It’s me, Dusty. We joined the family together, remember?”
“…Dusty?”
Kalz’s expression showed he was lost in thought for a moment.
Yet, he still seemed unable to fully recall Dusty’s face.
“I guess I’m too dumb to remember you.”
“Well, you were that kind of guy.”
Though Dusty had also fled to the lower realms after committing crimes, he was sharp enough to run the Hush Gang efficiently while constantly relocating.
It would be fair to think that remembering passersby like Kalz was more of an unusual trait.
“Anyway, you can’t go in. A critical meeting is underway right now.”
“A meeting?”
“A meeting among the organizations to decide the owner of this industrial zone. Most of the key members are inside. Grunts like me are just guarding the perimeter.”
Alice nodded as she listened to Kalz’s explanation.
If that was the reason, then the organizations had a valid motive to restrict access to this area.
It wasn’t an unreasonable explanation.
However, Alice glanced at Marlang.
“Teacher, should I shoot?”
“Yeah.”
-Bang!!
Without hesitation, upon Alice’s command, Marlang fired a gun crafted from their own bones and flesh directly at Kalz.
-Thwack!
Kalz collapsed, struck in the head by the bullet, while the Hush Gang members and Dusty stared at Alice in shock.
“W-what are you doing right now…?!”
“Heehee!”
-Ratatatat! Bang! Bang!
Thud.
Splat.
The fallen body of Kalts began to be shredded by bullets enveloped in energy.
“Hey, you crazy woman!!!”
Unable to hold back, Anis grabbed Marlang’s gun barrel and glared at her.
From Dusty and Anis’s perspective, Kalts might not have been closely tied to them, but shooting a lower-realm person out of nowhere like a lunatic was incomprehensible.
What was she trying to pull?
Did she think the lives of lower-realm people were as insignificant as ants?
The upper-realm pigs didn’t even see them as human.
As distrust and dissatisfaction toward Alice slowly spread among Anis and the Hush Gang, Alice tilted her head nonchalantly and spoke.
“Does that look like a person to you?”
“You insane woman. So you’re saying we aren’t people either!?”
“No, no. Look at that.”
Alice gestured with her chin.
The body of Kalts, which had stopped moving under the hail of bullets, began to wriggle and rise.
Blood.
Kalts’ entire body was made of a semi-solid, semi-liquid form of blood.
Earlier, it had camouflaged itself with human-like colors, much like a chameleon, as if trying to signal it wasn’t infected.
“What… what the hell is that…”
“This is insane.”
Pushing the shocked gang members aside, Alice stepped forward with sharp, clicking footsteps.
“It’s a terminal stage symptom of blood contamination.”
This was a fully contaminated being, with 100% of its body replaced by blood.
Needless to say, that wasn’t a human.
It was a monster wearing the memory of a human, mimicking a human’s behavior—a grotesque abomination.
The thing that had mimicked Kalts seemed unable to fully regenerate its body after being torn apart by the energy-laden bullets.
Its arms and legs wobbled like slime, while the two halves of its body rubbed against each other in midair.
[How did you know?]
The blood emitted a bizarre vibrating sound.
Now exposed, it had abandoned its mimicry of Kalts’ casual, thuggish tone, adopting a strangely elegant cadence.
“If someone speaks without breathing, moves their mouth without using their tongue, and merely opens and closes their lips, anyone would find it strange.”
[Strange. Most people are fooled easily…]
“I’m kind of amazing like that.”
【Human, you only knew because I told you.】
‘Shh, quiet.’
The truth was, it had been Theresa who tipped Alice off.
Without Theresa, Alice would have been completely deceived.