Outskirts of the Royal Capital, the entrance to an abandoned drainage system was hidden behind a tangle of chaotic thorns.
Pushing aside the obstruction, a pungent stench that was almost nauseating hit them—a mixture of years of accumulated sewage, rot, and some indescribable chemical agents.
The air was damp and heavy, carrying a metallic rust-like tang.
Sefina, Flovi, and Lisika slipped one after another into the gloomy sewer.
Beneath their feet lay sticky sludge, occasionally crunching underfoot as they stepped on unknown objects.
The light from the Magical Flashlight Sefina had made flickered within the narrow, arched tunnel, casting distorted shadows on the walls.
The sewage flowed slowly in a channel beside them, gurgling quietly. Aside from their faint footsteps and breathing, only distant dripping and some rustling crawling sounds could be heard.
Based on the vague direction Mia remembered escaping from the laboratory, combined with fragmented intelligence recently gathered by Lisika using her Orc Talent in the underworld, they finally pinpointed their target deep within this labyrinthine sewer network.
That filthy base conducting those disgusting experiments was hidden beneath this filth.
***
Entrance to the Laboratory
Unlike the filthy external sewer, the inside of the base’s entrance was still crude but noticeably cleaner, built from rough yet sturdy stone.
Two guards dressed in uniform black robes leaned against the door, faces etched with fatigue and boredom.
“Ugh—so sleepy,” one guard yawned widely, rubbing his drowsy eyes.
“You know, this godforsaken place is so remote. Since I started as a guard here, not even a decent rat has sneaked in. Staying up all night guarding this lousy door is exhausting.”
The other guard, leaning lazily against the cold wall, replied:
“Be grateful, at least it’s quiet. Didn’t you forget what happened a few years ago inside the lab? That Lab Explosion—quite a few ‘experimental subjects’ escaped.”
“Oh, that one,” the first guard sneered. “Heard it was some test subject suddenly going berserk and causing havoc inside. But didn’t the higher-ups send people to clean it up pretty quickly? Just a false alarm.”
“Seems so. Anyway, stop worrying about that. Before the shift change, we still need to organize this month’s Observation Data and submit it to the Third Seat for review……..”
However, the guard leaning against the wall hadn’t finished speaking when……
“Da—da—”
The clear, steady sound of leather boots striking the ground approached abruptly, cutting through their idle chatter. The sound echoed through the silent corridor with an inexplicable oppressive weight.
Both guards instantly tensed, sharply turning their heads toward the source.
Three women emerged from the shadows. Leading them was a tall white-haired woman whose ice-blue eyes resembled eternal frost, radiating a piercing killing intent as they swept over the guards.
Behind her stood a cold-eyed white-haired woman dressed in a maid outfit, and beside her, a somewhat nervous cat-eared girl.
“Who goes there?! Stop! This is private territory!” the guards immediately raised their staves, magic gathering as they assumed battle stances.
But the response was not words.
Sefina moved like a phantom. Both hands, somehow already holding two exquisitely crafted pistols pulled from her pockets, fired.
“Bang! Bang—!”
Two sharp, crisp blasts rang out in the sewer space.
The muzzle flashes vanished instantly. The two guards couldn’t even cast any defensive magic before two blood holes appeared on their foreheads.
Shock and life froze in their eyes as their bodies went limp, collapsing softly to the ground while dark red blood quickly spread across the comparatively cleaner floor.
Sefina handled it cleanly and efficiently. Against these obviously low-tier magical guards, using pistols was far more effective and discreet than expending her own magic to cast spells.
Flovi watched the scene calmly, her expression unreadable as if she was merely watching her mistress brush away dust. Her mistress was always this decisive and ruthless.
Lisika, startled by the gunfire, let out a soft “Meow!” and instinctively shrank behind Flovi, patting her chest. Meow meow, the big sister’s moves were still as decisive and terrifying as ever, meow!
***
“Lisika, you stay at the entrance and set up a few simple Alarm Traps. Signal immediately if there’s any abnormality.”
Sefina put away her still-smoking weapons, her voice cold. “Flovi, come with me. None of the researchers or Combat Personnel inside can be left alive.”
“Understood, meow! I’ll make sure not even a fly escapes, meow!” Lisika nodded eagerly. Compared to going in to fight, guarding the door and laying traps was clearly more to her liking.
“Yes, Mistress.” Flovi gave a slight nod, lightly resting her hand on the Sword at her waist. It was cleaning time again, though this time the “cleaning” targets were rather dirty.
She hoped it wouldn’t soil her skirt and stockings too much.
“Buzzzz—” an inconspicuous buzzing suddenly sounded.
At the same time, inside the laboratory, a man wearing a white researcher’s coat with a gloomy air had a similarly unremarkable fly resting on his finger, emitting a faint buzzing.
The fly at the door and the one on his hand were not ordinary flies but modified Magical Creatures used to transmit information.
He spoke casually, his voice calm but cold:
“Rats have broken in. Ander, their speed isn’t slow. Take a team of Armed Men and block the passage leading to the Core Area.”
“Yes, Director!” A burly man with a scarred face immediately bowed and took the order, his eyes turning fierce as he hurried out to mobilize personnel.
The man called the Director frowned slightly. Who were the intruders? The Security Bureau of the Royal Capital? No, their style and numbers didn’t match.
Another faction? Or… allies of those failed experiments? But only three of them dared to break in directly…
A cruel smirk curled at his lips. That was fine—just the opportunity to test the latest experimental subjects’ real combat data. Let’s see how much trouble they could stir up in this labyrinth.
The Director’s gaze shifted to a huge reinforced glass wall.
Behind it lay an even larger and more chilling space—
The Main Laboratory.
***
Inside the laboratory, the light was dim, with only countless cylindrical Glass Tanks emitting a faint, gloomy glow.
Each tank stood over a person’s height, filled with pale green or light blue Nutrient Solution—more precisely, life-sustaining fluid.
Within each tank floated a naked, ordinary human, their expressions twisted in pain or numbness. Men, women, old, and young—they looked as if asleep, yet more like soulless husks.
Countless thick tubes resembling monstrous tentacles extended from the tops of the tanks, harshly inserted into the mouths, noses, arms, chests, and even heads of these “experimental subjects.”
Some of the bodies inside had already undergone obvious mutations: skin covered in scales, limbs twisted and deformed, or sprouting organs alien to humans.