Chapter 263

Chapter 263

After leaving City Hall, Zeon went straight to the lodging where Aslan and Duduyan were staying.

Duduyan had already gotten up long ago, while Aslan was still in dreamland.

“Wake up, human!”

Duduyan kicked him, but Aslan did not regain consciousness easily.

“I apologize. This human crawled back in this morning, and he’s still off in dreamland.”

“He came in this morning?”

“Yes! He returned completely unconscious.”

“Has this happened often?”

“No. He does like alcohol, but he was never this bad before......”

Duduyan could not raise her head, as if it were her own mistake.

Her face was flushed bright red.

It was already embarrassing that he had come back after drinking until morning, but the behavior of her companion, who was still too drunk to wake up, made her unable to lift her head.

Zeon shook his head and said,

“It probably isn’t just the alcohol.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll take a look.”

Zeon approached Aslan.

He looked like a typical drunk. However, Zeon detected a foreign smell mixed into the scent of alcohol.

A damp, fishy stench that stimulated the nerves.

Zeon had smelled this kind of odor before.

“Hmm!”

After searching his memory for a moment, Zeon took a small bottle out of his subspace.

The bottle contained a red liquid.

Duduyan asked with a puzzled expression,

“What is that?”

“It is the secretion that flows from the back of a Flame Toad.”

“Pardon?”

“You probably haven’t seen one. It’s a monster that inhabits a place several thousand kilometers south of Neo Seoul.”

“Ah!”

“The secretion that flows from this monster’s back has the property of coagulating when it comes into contact with the bodily components of another monster.”

When a Flame Toad encountered a monster, it compressed the secretion on its back and fired it. If this secretion penetrated a monster’s body, it hardened like limestone.

Because of that, monsters struck by the Flame Toad’s secretion died as the blood inside their bodies coagulated.

Their blood hardened like stone and blocked their blood vessels.

Since Flame Toads were low-grade monsters, this method of attack only worked on lower-grade monsters.

Zeon had discovered that trait of Flame Toads and collected some of their secretion.

Zeon smeared the Flame Toad secretion on a cotton swab and held it near Aslan’s nose.

Duduyan did not understand Zeon’s action and asked,

“No, why use Flame Toad secretion?”

“I told you. It coagulates when it comes into contact with another monster’s bodily fluid components.”

“So what does that......”

Duduyan, who had been about to ask again, clamped her mouth shut.

That was because she saw the cotton swab touched by Aslan’s breath gradually hardening.

“Looks like I was right. City Hall put a drug refined from monster bodily components into Aslan’s liquor.”

“No......”

“It was probably something like a truth serum refined from monster by-products.”

“My God! Then does that mean all our information has entered City Hall?”

“Probably.”

At Zeon’s words, Duduyan covered her mouth with her hand.

Only the two of them had entered Neo Seoul to protect Steel Fortress’s secrets, but now it had all come to nothing.

If Aslan had confessed everything, then Neo Seoul would now know everything about Steel Fortress as well.

Now that Steel Fortress had been exposed, there would be no way to stop Neo Seoul if it grew greedy and invaded.

“This idiot......”

Duduyan’s anger exploded, and she kicked Aslan with all her strength.

THWACK—!

“Gah! Wh-What?”

Startled by the powerful impact, Aslan opened his eyes.

“You drunken bastard. Do you know what you’ve done?”

“Wh-What are you talking about?”

“Do you know what kind of mistake you made?”

“Wait! What happened? Let’s talk this out.”

Aslan sensed the ominous atmosphere, and his voice lowered.

“Die! Why are you even alive, human? Why are you alive......?”

THWACK—! SMACK—!

Duduyan struck Aslan mercilessly.

Aslan did not even dare resist and curled up like a shrimp as Duduyan beat him.

Aslan had instinctively realized that something had gone wrong.

He remembered drinking at the shop, but from a certain point onward, his memory was completely cut off.

No matter how strong the liquor was, it was impossible for him to lose consciousness all at once like that.

Because he was not an ordinary person, but an Awakened.

The fact that he, an Awakened, had been rendered unconscious in an instant was proof that the liquor he had drunk had not been ordinary.

‘Fuck! Did I cause an accident?’

It was not the pain from Duduyan beating him that hurt.

The fact that someone had done something to him without his knowledge made his heart drop.

Judging by Duduyan’s reaction, he had clearly made a grave mistake.

Because of that, he did not dare resist even once and had no choice but to endure Duduyan’s fists.

“Huff! Huff!”

After beating Aslan for quite some time, Duduyan grew tired and stopped punching.

Only then did Aslan cautiously ask Zeon,

“Did I...... make a big mistake?”

“The Mayor knows everything.”

“Everything?”

“Steel Fortress, Archelon, Moby Dick......”

“Fuck!”

THUD—!

Aslan slammed his head into the wall.

His forehead split open, and blood flowed.

He understood without needing any further explanation.

The source of the information was definitely him.

His head was still foggy.

As if someone had gone in and rummaged through it.

City Hall had clearly played some trick on him while he was unconscious.

If not for Zeon, he would surely have thought he had simply passed out from strong liquor.

The more he thought about it, the more chills ran down his spine.

He once again realized just how terrifying Neo Seoul was.

More than anything, he was furious at himself for failing to control his own mouth.

“A bastard like me should die.”

SMACK—! SMACK—! SMACK—!

Aslan struck his own face with all his strength.

His flesh tore, and blood burst out.

The blows were filled with sincerity.

He could not forgive himself for falling for Neo Seoul’s tricks.

Duduyan did not stop Aslan.

Even as his face became covered in blood and his cheekbone caved in, she only watched as if it were someone else’s business.

That was how deep her disappointment was.

The one who stopped Aslan was Zeon.

“Stop.”

“Don’t stop me, Mr. Zeon! A bastard like me should die. Why did I care so much about a bit of alcohol......?”

“Even if you had not gotten drunk, they would have found out the information they wanted. If they decide to uncover something, there is nothing in this world they cannot uncover.”

“Even so......”

“Now is not the time to hurt yourself. It is the time to prepare countermeasures.”

“Countermeasures?”

Only then did Aslan stop punishing himself.

He could kill himself any time.

What mattered now was protecting Steel Fortress from Neo Seoul.

“Give me any order. If you tell me to offer my heart, I will tear it out for you.”

“I do not need your heart, Lord Aslan.”

“Then?”

“Please look into one person for me.”

“A person?”

“Her name is Claire. She is the person City Hall is dispatching to recover Moby Dick’s heart.”

Jin Geum-ho had decided to attach exactly two people to Zeon.

One was a man Zeon also knew.

Lee Jeong-ho.

A man who belonged to the execution unit directly under the Mayor.

Neo Seoul’s strongest swordsman, also known as one of the Numbers.

Zeon understood why he was being dispatched.

After all, he possessed that much martial power and ability.

The problem was Claire.

Judging by the name, she seemed to be a woman, but there was no information about her.

Since Zeon already knew Lee Jeong-ho’s abilities, he could respond somehow. But he knew absolutely nothing about Claire.

That made it difficult to respond.

“I need information on Claire.”

“Claire? Understood. I will find out everything about her, even if I have to stake everything I have.”

“I’m counting on you.”

“Leave it to me.”

Aslan bowed deeply.

In truth, there was no need to entrust Aslan with gathering information about Claire. Using Argos’s Eye would be far faster and easier for obtaining information.

However, to lessen Aslan’s guilt to some extent, it was better to give him a task of this level.

Duduyan bowed her head to Zeon and said,

“I apologize that things turned out like this because of this idiot. Even so, he will carry out the task entrusted to him brilliantly.”

“I know.”

“Thank you, Mr. Zeon! We keep troubling you, and all we ever do is receive your help.”

“That is not true, Lady Duduyan!”

“I will educate this idiot properly.”

Normally, Aslan would have flared up if Duduyan called him an idiot, but now he kept his mouth shut and said nothing.

That was how deeply he felt his own mistake.

Zeon said,

“The matter has already happened. The two people dispatched by City Hall will move with us. We need to prevent information leaks as much as possible and think of a way to use them to the fullest.”

“Yes, Mr. Zeon.”

The two answered at the same time.

---

Zeon walked through the streets alone.

‘Too fast. Far too fast.’

Aslan and Duduyan had made contact with Zeon only yesterday. Yet Jin Geum-ho had already not only learned of that fact, but also discovered the reason Aslan and the others had met Zeon.

It was an unbelievably fast response.

‘That means he has surveillance on me......’

Without that, such response speed made no sense.

Zeon frowned.

Even under normal circumstances, he was never negligent in reading his surroundings.

It was a habit ingrained in his body.

Even so, he had not noticed.

‘That means people with special abilities were attached to me......’

Either way, he was in a situation where he had to play along with Jin Geum-ho.

But that did not mean he intended to move helplessly according to Jin Geum-ho’s will.

The moment one looked easy, the other party would dig even deeper.

There was no such thing as moderation.

In this world, the nature of the ground was to dig all the way to the bottom of the other party and devour them without leaving even a single drop of marrow.

He could suffer it once.

But he could not suffer it twice.

He had to show that he had a blade of his own so that he would not be taken lightly.

Zeon quietly raised his control.

WHOOSH!

In that instant, a sand-laden wind began to blow.

Zeon had moved the sand and loaded it onto the wind.

“Fuck!”

“What the hell? Why is there a sandstorm all of a sudden......?”

The people walking through the street were startled by the sudden sand-laden wind. Even so, no one thought it was strange.

That was because sandstorms blew frequently in the slums.

However, unlike usual, this sandstorm was rougher and denser.

The thick sand made it impossible to open one’s eyes.

The people coughed and choked on the sand that entered their noses and mouths.

They hurriedly covered their mouths and noses with the cloths around their necks, but it was useless.

The people did not dare raise their heads and waited crouched down for the sandstorm to pass.

But a few people responded differently.

The moment the sandstorm began, they put on masks equipped with purification devices.

All of them were members of the Shadow Unit.

They had been monitoring Zeon from a distance.

They had extracted the information they wanted, but surveillance of Zeon was still being maintained.

“Damn it! Why is there suddenly a sandstorm......?”

“Number Five is out of sight.”

In the brief moment it took them to put on their masks, Zeon had disappeared.

Just then—

The sand suddenly began gathering and rising in front of them.

In an instant, the sand took human form.

A soldier made of sand—a Sand Soldier.

The moment the watchers saw the Sand Soldier, they instinctively realized they had been discovered.

“Run!”

They fled without even looking back.

The sandstorm clung to them like a leech.

The watchers did not know.

They did not know that Zeon was pursuing them on the sandstorm.