Chapter 122: Base Desertification
The worms trapped within the transparent cover were beginning to feel fretful, and some that were originally boring into the native beasts’ bodies had charged out and slammed into the cover in attempt to break through it. Some Poison Fang members saw very clearly the worms biting right through a body part packed with bones and coming right out. Their gaping maws and shrill cries could be heard even through the transparent cover.
The ripped flesh and broken bones were incredibly striking, and the Poison Fang members who saw them shuddered unconsciously at the sight. No wonder the people who were bitten by the worms had screamed so wretchedly; no wonder some of the victims had killed themselves unhesitatingly the second they were infected. It was better to die than to suffer such terrible pain.
Carranio pressed another button, and a couple of spray tubes appeared inside the cover. Scarlet flame gushed out of the tubes and instantly filled the insides of the transparent cover. Someone moved closer to report what happened at the warehouse to Carranio, but Carranio waved his hand and motioned for the person to wait for a moment. At the same time, he turned on the communicator and said something before reassuming his previous posture, watching the scene below unfold from above.
The transparent cover might have cut off any entry or exit, but in reality there were air vents in all four corners of the cover. These air vents allowed air to pass through, but forbad the worms inside from slipping through it and escape. The Poison Fang members laughed arrogantly as they smelt the burnt smell of the worms and listened to their sharp cries. It was the best laughter they had had for the last couple of hours, but they did not know that it was going to be the last laughter of their life.
At the same time, Cillin and the gray cat were hiding at a spot close to Poison Fang’s research base.
The research base must be destroyed if they were to cut off Poison Fang’s hope. Cillin knew what kind of place Poison Fang’s research base was; it made him recall the short time he spent at the laboratory beneath the slum. They were both cold, merciless, and filled with twisted and crazy people.
While lying on the ground and covering its ears, the gray cat stared blankly at the research base not far ahead. It only needed to ‘listen’ to know that the research base’s defenses were pretty strong. If they went in rashly, the defense system would definitely blast them to smithereens. It turned its head around and was just about to ask Cillin what to do when it saw Cillin taking out an object about the size and shape of a lunchbox. The gray cat grew furious, “Cillin you glutton, now’s not the time to eat your box lunch!”
Cillin: “…”
You’re the least qualified in the entire world to say this, you stupid cat! Box lunch? Who in their right mind would squat at such place in such a situation and eat their box lunch?! You’re the only gluttonous cat who would thought of such a thing?!
Cillin pinch one of the gray cat’s ears and said, “Good cat. Now, go dig a hole to the bottom and center of the base, put this there and leave quickly. Make sure to hide and shield yourself from any detection. Got it?”
“There’s no need for question marks for such an easy and simple matter.” The gray cat grabbed the small box with its mouth and begin digging into the ground with its forelimbs like a drill.
After predicting the range of the underground scanners, the gray cat bore directly to the depth Cillin had informed it earlier before moving towards the base. Once it confirmed that it was at the right spot, it then put down the small box and swiftly ran back through the way it came.
The gray cat had just gotten out of the hole and was about to boast about its accomplishments when Cillin swept it into his lap and ran madly towards the distance. He did not forget to throw down a couple of ‘quail eggs’ along the way.
Once they’d retreated out of the danger zone, Cillin stopped and put down the gray cat.
“What the meow is with that run-for-your-life thing, man?”
“They just updated their scanners to scan for bio signatures just now. Any bio signatures outside the base would be eliminated by the defense system without mercy. It’s probably that skull boss’ work.” Normally, the bio signature scan would not be activated because there were guards patrolling the base’s surroundings. But the opposite had obviously happened just now.
“They have a good nose, but lucky for us we’d already escaped. I don’t think they noticed us, did they?” the gray cat looked towards the base. The ‘quail eggs’ Cillin had left behind just now and several worms in hiding were all completely vaporised by the base’ defenses.
“They didn’t. It’s good that we ran early. We would’ve been found out if we were a second slower.”
“All’s good then. But what’s that box all about?” The gray cat asked.
“Something I prepared specifically for laboratories like these.”
The gray cat flicked its ears and continued to stare at the research base. It very much wanted to see exactly what was this thing Cillin had ‘specifically prepared’ for the lab.
Five seconds later, every alarm within the entire base rang.
“The bio signature scanners had been shut down!” Cillin put strength into his arms and tossed a couple of ‘quail eggs’ at the lab’s direction. The lab’s scanners detected the box beneath the base the second he remote controlled it to start, but since he had added some interference devices onto the box’s shell earlier, it took a much longer time for the scanner’s system to analyse its danger level. By the time the analysis was finally complete, there weren’t much chances left for the personnel inside to escape.
The gray cat was about to ask Cillin for the reason, when the base’s front door became unlocked. A group of people pushed and shoved their way to the front, even as the entire base began to sink behind them.
The incessant screams of unwillingness, despair, sadness, fear and more were only louder than the next. The people who escaped had to face the ‘Birds of Paradise’ that had just broken out of their shells in front them, while death was still chasing them from behind their backs.
The gray cat that was at first a little dumbfounded, suddenly froze and puffed up. It watched as the base began to turn into sand from the inside to outside…
The pincer attack between the desertification and the ‘Birds of Paradise’ was without a doubt a destructive one. The people who were wearing protective suits weren’t afraid of the ‘Birds of Paradise’, but the thick protection also affected their movements and slowed them down enough to be dragged into the whirlpool and be desertified.
The ground within five hundred meters diameter had been completely transformed into sand. As the scarlet desert slowly seeped into the area, it would not be long before this desert was transformed into a part of the scarlet desert as well. There would no longer be a base here. There would only be sand.
Cillin was lost in thought as he stared at the desert. It was as if he had returned to that rainy night when he had entered into that underground lab, and was tied to the lab bench and experimented on. These people had imposed their madness onto innocent people and earned fame and glory from it. They might have left their names on magazines of high contribution, but had they ever thought of the countless innocent and restless souls they forcefully dragged to the lab bench and left to die there?
Cillin did not have the rights to accuse these crazy researchers. In a sense, Cillin was not much better than them. Who was righteous and who was evil? Who was right and who was wrong? Cillin did not think too deeply into these things. To stay alive, and to live together with the people who treated him well. That was all he wanted.
Cillin sucked in a deep breath and tossed the complicated thoughts to the back of his mind while smelling the sands and the blood mixed within them. He turned his head to look at the gray cat still maintaining its frozen and puffed up appearance, before poking its back with a funny smile.
“MEOW!!”
The gray cat’s tense figure immediately jumped into the air.
See, it was scared witless again. How dumb.
When the gray cat regained its senses, it furiously jumped onto Cillin’s shoulder and slapped his face with its forelimbs.
“Alright alright, it’s my fault, it’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have poked the almighty cat while you’re blanking out.”
“I wasn’t blanking out, I was contemplating! Contemplating!”
“Right, right, contemplating.”
After stroking the gray cat’s fur, the one man and one cat continued to the next step of the operation.
