Chapter 310

Chapter 310

Borin’s gaze was cold as she stared ahead.

Cold air seemed to pour from her already expressionless face.

Her gaze was fixed on a large factory on the outskirts of the North District.

Most commercial districts and factories were concentrated in the Central District, where City Hall was located. In particular, major production facilities were gathered near City Hall.

It was a measure to allow City Hall to efficiently manage all goods produced in Neo Seoul.

That did not mean the other districts had no commercial areas or factories.

Items they developed independently, items of lesser importance, or items absolutely necessary for each district’s survival were produced within each district.

The factory Borin was watching now was one of those places.

It was a factory that produced food for the elves.

The elves of Kurayan had mainly been herbivores.

Kurayan’s plants had been so rich in nutrients that they did not need to eat meat. Thanks to that, they had no problem maintaining their bodies on fruit and grass alone.

But Earth’s situation was different.

The land had all been devastated, leaving far too little space to grow plants.

Bukhansan behind Neo Seoul had been preserved to some extent, but developing that place was impossible.

That was because City Hall had designated it a special preservation zone.

So, for survival, the elves had built their own food production factory.

The ingredients, made by properly combining cultured meat and cultured plants, were focused solely on the elves’ survival.

They contained all the nutrients the elves needed, so although the taste was poor, they still kept the elves’ physical condition at its best.

Of course, not all elves ate food produced by the factory.

Many elves enjoyed meat.

The elves too had changed greatly after crossing over to Earth.

At first, it had been an unavoidable choice for survival, but now many elves actively enjoyed the taste of meat.

Borin was one of them.

She believed that eating meat strengthened one’s fighting spirit. That was why she enjoyed meat. Even so, that did not mean she disliked the artificial food made in the factory.

Her house was also filled with food made at the factory.

That was how important this factory was to the elves’ survival.

That was why Borin was angry.

“How dare they play tricks in a food factory?”

While monitoring Eli, they had detected a suspicious flow.

The Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit had tracked that flow and come all the way here.

Eli’s close aides had recently been entering and leaving that factory often.

They were clearly plotting something secret.

Borin gave an order to the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit.

“Enter.”

“Yes!”

“We must subdue all of Lady Eli’s close aides and find out what they’re plotting. Brace yourselves.”

“Yes!”

The Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit answered briefly and firmly.

They were dealing with none other than Eli’s close aides.

If things went wrong, internal strife might break out.

Although she had been exiled, Eli’s influence in the North District was still intact.

They had to completely settle what was happening in the factory before Eli noticed.

As a major facility, the factory was protected by a magic circle.

When a translucent membrane blocked the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit, Borin gave an order.

“Disarm it!”

“Yes!”

At the answer, members of the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit took round metal plates from their bags and attached them to the magic circle.

Crackle!

In that instant, sparks flew from the metal plates, and blue electric current spread through the entire magic circle.

The true identity of the metal plates was a key.

A universal key that could neutralize and open the magic circles spread over the North District’s major facilities.

When this key was used, all magic circles were temporarily neutralized.

Just like now.

Bzzzzzt!

A large door formed around the place where the key had been installed.

Borin and the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit passed through the door and entered the factory.

“What is this?”

“Why has the protective magic circle been lifted?”

Those at the factory entrance muttered in surprise.

They saw the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit entering the factory.

“Fuck! What is this?”

“Stop.”

They blocked the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit’s path.

Borin looked at them with a cold gaze and said,

“We are the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit, here under Lady Serian’s command. Anyone who blocks our path will be regarded as a rebel and dealt with accordingly.”

“Rebels?”

“What?”

Those inside the factory looked bewildered.

Most of the people working here were elves or dwarves.

The elves flinched at the word rebel, but the aggressive dwarves grew angry instead.

“On what grounds are we rebels?”

“Do you think receiving Lady Serian’s order is everything? You’ve accused us of rebellion without any evidence, so you’ll definitely have to take responsibility.”

The stubby dwarves raised their voices.

An ordinary elf might have flinched before the dwarves’ vigor, but Borin was different.

“We can find the evidence from now on.”

“What?”

“Let us look inside the factory. If it’s clean, I’ll admit my guilt and withdraw. I’ll also step down from my position as captain of the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit. So move aside.”

“Fuck! Do you think that makes sense?”

“Why would it not make sense? It’s simple. You step aside, and we go in to check. Do you not understand that?”

“No! This is a factory soaked with our blood and sweat. We can’t just open it to you as you please.”

The dwarf desperately refused Borin’s words.

In that instant, a cold smile appeared on Borin’s lips.

“Rejecting my words now means rejecting Lady Serian’s order. That confirms rebellion. What are you doing? Open the path.”

“Yes!”

The Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit answered and charged at the dwarves and elves blocking the way.

Swish, swish, swish!

The rapiers in their hands flew at terrifying speed.

“Fuck! Block them.”

“You think we’ll just take this?”

The factory’s dwarves and elves drew war hammers and rapiers and resisted the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit.

Borin snorted.

“They definitely have something to hide.”

They were blocking her so desperately because there was something pricking their conscience. But with their strength, they could not stop the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit.

Even among elves, their level of combat power was different.

The factory’s elves and dwarves were no match for the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit, who had been thrown into countless dangerous missions and crossed the line between life and death.

“Aaah!”

“Kuh!”

The Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit opened a path in an instant, neutralizing those who blocked them.

Borin walked along the path they had opened and headed deeper into the factory.

At the factory entrance, artificially grown plants were growing.

When she pushed past the plants and entered, a vast space appeared.

On one side of the factory, enormous test tubes were lined up in a row. Inside the test tubes filled with special culture fluid, artificially cultured meat was growing.

On the opposite side, plants brought from Kurayan were being cultivated.

After briefly scanning the factory interior, Borin went deeper inside.

When she entered the inner area, a bulkhead and an iron door appeared.

It was a hidden space that existed inside the factory.

The factory blueprint had not marked any such space.

Clank!

The door was locked from the inside.

“Hoo! How annoying......”

Slash!

Borin sighed and swung her rapier, and the lock was cut apart like paper.

Borin strode into the hidden space without hesitation.

In that instant, her expression twisted sharply.

It was because of the reek of blood wafting from inside.

“What is this?”

This was the first time she had smelled such a terrible scent of blood in the North District.

The faces of the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit members who had subdued the elves and dwarves outside and entered after her changed just like Borin’s.

“Krgh! Urp!”

“Damn it!”

The smell of blood was so intense that the moment they smelled it, they retched.

They forced down their churning stomachs and entered.

The instant Borin and the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit reached the depths of the hidden space, their eyes widened.

“Crazy!”

“What the hell is this?”

A cruel sight far beyond imagination unfolded before their eyes.

Human corpses were skewered on spits and hanging in the air like butcher-shop meat.

Countless insects clung to the human corpses dismembered by body part.

Bzzzzzz!

The insects flapped their wings and gnawed at the corpses.

A member of the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit asked Borin while covering her mouth.

“Captain! What is that?”

“I don’t...... know either.”

Borin had seen many monsters while carrying out countless missions, but even she had never seen lifeforms like the insects inside the hidden space.

They were the size of an adult’s forearm, with four pairs of wings and ten legs. Their mouths had huge teeth resembling hooks, and four pairs of eyes moved in different directions.

Their tails also resembled scorpions.

They looked like locusts inflated several hundred times over, then combined with several other insects.

The insects sensed the intrusion of strangers and all looked at them at once.

The sight of tens of thousands of insects glaring at them was so terrible that one would fear seeing it in a dream.

Kekekek!

Kek!

They made strange sounds as they clacked their teeth.

It seemed as if they were exchanging conversation among themselves.

Seeing that, Borin hurriedly gave an order.

“Close the door.”

“Pardon?”

“Not a single one must be allowed to leave this place. A disaster will fall upon the North District. Close the door quickly.”

“Y-Yes! Understood.”

The Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit hurriedly closed the door.

After that, a magic Awakened of the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit melted the door and its seams with ultra-high-heat flames. It was a measure taken because Borin had cut apart the door’s lock.

Borin gave a bitter smile and murmured,

“I hope it holds for a while.”

Whoooosh!

In that instant, the insects sensed danger and rose into the air all at once.

Tens of thousands of insects flew in a swarm, then charged toward the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit at the same time.

The sight of countless insects charging while clacking their teeth was terrifying. But Borin did not waver in the slightest.

“Come at me as much as you want, you filthy bugs!”

---

BOOM—!

A massive roar shook Neo Seoul.

The impact was so great that vibrations could be felt even in other districts.

Zeon stopped for a moment and looked in the direction the roar had come from.

Flames were soaring high into the sky not far away.

“What is that?”

“It’s from the factory.”

The people startled by the explosion shouted as they saw the flames.

The place where Zeon stood was the North District.

He had entered to receive the North District’s cooperation in tracking Hassim.

Zeon frowned.

A bad feeling had descended on him.

This kind of feeling was almost never wrong, so he could not simply pass it by.

“Tsk!”

Zeon clicked his tongue and walked toward the place where the explosion had occurred.

A short while later, he arrived at the factory Borin had entered.

Blood-red flames were soaring through the factory ceiling.

The heat was so intense that the factory walls looked as if they might melt at any moment.

Elves and dwarves subdued by the Blue Fallen Leaf Special Operations Unit lay on the factory floor.

Zeon passed them and entered the inner part of the factory.

BOOM—!

A thunderous roar erupted from the iron door inside the factory.

As if an enormous impact had struck it from within, the iron door bulged outward.

CRASH—!

Another roar erupted, and the iron door shattered.

Then a tremendous number of insects poured out all at once.

Bzzzzzz!

“Not a single one can escape. Disaster will fall upon the North District.”

Borin’s urgent voice came from inside at that moment.

‘Disaster will fall?’

Without thinking any further, Zeon opened his subspace.

Clatter!

A tremendous amount of sand poured outside.

“Sand Tornado.”

The sand swallowed the insects in an instant.

There were many bugs trying to escape outside, but the sand was thousands of times more numerous.

GRRRRIND—!

Sand Tornado rotated terrifyingly and ground away every last insect.