90. Nice face (1)
After the fight with the puppet, Oliver searched the basement.
It was a natural procedure.
As an executive of the Black Hand, there was a high probability that there were books on black magic and demons in his hideout that swept through the contaminated area.
That was the reason why he came in the first place.
So Oliver searched desperately for the book on his own.
However, things don’t always go their way.
I searched the basement as hard as I could, but unfortunately, I didn’t get anything as expected.
I expected there to be quite a few books, but it was completely empty, as if in preparation.
In the end, Oliver had to go back with only a relatively less damaged invoice doll, laboratory tools, emotions in a flask, and a notebook with the recipe for the invoice doll that had fallen on the floor.
It was truly a sad case.
‘Well, it was a fun experience, so wouldn’t it be regrettable?’
Oliver muttered as he recalled the entrance to Hell and the artificial spirit he saw through his puppet.
It was an area that I did not understand yet, but I knew enough that it was great.
If there was an opportunity, I would like to ask for a teaching next time.
Leaving behind that regretful feeling, Oliver put his emotions in his fingertips and brought it to the wall.
It was to explore the structure of the basement here, and it was like a huge ant den.
Ant dens purposely built large and complex.
There was a strong sense of hiding something, and then Puppet’s words came to mind.
There are many illegal experiments in the basement of Area F, some of which are related to demons.
It had nothing to do with Oliver at the moment, but it was a little bit intriguing.
Isn’t it? Even those wizards are dealing with demons. It was a pretty fun story.
Tuk Tuk Tuk Tuk.
Oliver climbed the secret staircase and placed his emotional hand against the dead-end wall again.
Black emotions moved through the cracks in the bricks, and a door suddenly appeared.
Then, something fast flew. It was a fist with knuckles.
Bang-!
“…is everyone okay?”
Oliver asked, blocking Joe’s fist with his quarterstaff.
His body was wet with blood and sweat, and his eyes widened when he saw Oliver.
It was as if the dead had come back to life.
“…you, how…?”
“I went up the stairs. Are you okay?”
Joe faltered and clenched his fists.
He was still surprised to see Oliver, but he could see Sam and Arthur lying behind his back.
They too were in a similar state to Joe.
He didn’t die, but his whole body was drenched in sweat, and his clothes were torn everywhere.
But what stood out more than that was a swarm of zombies strewn around as if the thread had been broken, which Joe talked about.
“You fell and suddenly zombies appeared from all sides.”
“Yes, I saw it.”
“We fought hard, but in the end we were subdued, but he didn’t kill me… And then, all of a sudden, they all collapsed before. What do you know?”
Oliver thought for a moment.
how to explain this
It was difficult to explain everything.
The entrance to Hell, shown when the puppet tried to swallow him.
Oliver managed to escape the crisis by extracting emotions from it, but it seemed impossible to explain it as it is.
Hell, like the devil, was also not to be said in a rude way, but he didn’t know if something could happen to Oliver’s life if he made a mistake.
Above all else, if Oliver said that he had knocked down the puppet alone, it would make the story very complicated and annoying.
It was true that he needed a reputation as a solver, but it seemed too early for him to handle it yet.
It wasn’t just his pure skill that knocked down the puppet.
For that reason, in the end, Oliver decided to go around in moderation.
“Puppet released it.”
“·····What?”
“Well·····. He lured me down, took me somewhere, subdued me, and suddenly released me.”
“You just let it go?”
“Yeah, I looked somewhere and now it’s enough, you let me go……. He’s a fun guy.”
“·················ogue.”
Joe, Arthur, and Sam all looked at Oliver without a word.
It was like a reaction that I couldn’t believe, but my real feelings were also stained with doubt.
Arthur gasped and said.
“I’m sorry, are you serious? You could have killed us all, but all of a sudden you just released us?”
Oliver spoke calmly to give it persuasiveness.
“Oh, yes. I’ve got everything I need, so I’ll spare you. I said I had fun.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Joe seemed to understand. There was sincerity, but Arthur tilted his head as if confused.
“Is there still something very strange?”
Tired Oliver walked past Joe and walked over to Arthur.
One of his golem prostheses was completely shattered, and the other was also half-broken.
“I think it’s very strange too, but isn’t it important to survive once?”
Arthur looked at Oliver in amazement at that, and then sighed in reply.
It was a look on the face of admitting that he was wrong.
“That’s right. I apologize for the stupid question.”
“no. Thank you for your understanding…. So, shall we go up now?”
***
Oliver, who joined Joe’s party, went back the way he had come and went up to the ground.
When I opened the door and climbed up, a group of Goodman mercenaries and a group of fixers greeted Oliver’s party.
“shit! I was alive!”
“how····!”
“I won! Everyone give me money.”
Seeing Oliver’s group, people looked surprised.
There were those who were genuinely surprised, there were those who did not believe, and there were those who rejoiced in winning the bet.
But what stood out the most was his greedy expression, as if he had seen gold.
Like Hugh, the captain of the Goodman mercenaries.
“I’m glad everyone came back safely… What the hell happened down there?”
As Oliver was about to answer, Joe interrupted.
He drew a line on Hugh, whom he had been friendly with until he went down.
“First of all, getting out is a priority… There were fewer people than that, so what happened?”
He replied with hesitating about whether he had been pushed back from the flag battle.
“ah·····. Well, when the zombies outside suddenly collapsed or left, most of them ran away in the meantime. We are the only ones left here.”
Hugh spoke proudly, as if proving their friendship, but Joe didn’t even listen.
“I can’t believe I went down for them.”
“Aren’t you glad that everyone left safely?”
Oliver said without thinking.
I was just saying good things are good, but Joe looked at Oliver with feelings of complaining, questioning, and incomprehension, and then he lowered his eyes.
“What·····. right.”
“What the hell happened? A puppet?”
Hugh intervened again and asked.
He asked, expecting an answer.
It was obvious in Oliver’s eyes, but when Oliver tried to answer, Arthur intervened.
“For now, say that sound later and everyone moves. Hey, you guys, get ready to move fast too. It may have gotten better right away, but zombies may appear again later… Hey, friend. Get yourself ready to move.”
Arthur said to Oliver as he advised.
Along with a little greed, there was concern for Oliver and his own liking.
I don’t know why, but Oliver nodded his head as Arthur had said, and prepared to move with him, and Hugh noticed it, and then quietly retreated.
It seems now is not the time.
Before long, Oliver came out of the building with members of the Fighter Crew, including the Goodman Mercenaries, Arthur’s Resolver Team, Knuckle Joe and the Dual Pistol Sam.
As Hugh said, all the zombies outside the building were in a state of collapse, but Puppet seemed to have kept his promise.
Also, he was a kind person.
But apart from that, the solvers were not able to relieve their vigilance.
After all, everyone suffered as much as they could from this army of zombies.
Perhaps, if he wanted to, it was a power worth trying with the City Defense Forces guarding the outskirts of the contaminated area.
Did the horse become a seed?
After some time passed by the fallen zombie hordes, I could see a group of soldiers in the distance.
At first, everyone rubbed their eyes wondering if they had seen it wrong, but it was not.
The city defense force guarding the contaminated area was coming this way.
Taken from n̲o̲b̲l̲e̲m̲t̲l̲.̲c̲o̲m̲
Not one or two men, but a well-formed force.There were enough hundreds of them, and in addition to ordinary soldiers armed with rifles and heavy weapons, there were about thirty soldiers armed with exoskeleton armor, and about two war mages.
At first, all the solvers welcomed the city’s troops, but after a while, everyone’s expressions hardened.
It was because everyone was living in such a way that they came to help.
The atmosphere is closer to performance than rescue.
In fact, as they got closer, the soldiers skillfully surrounded Oliver’s group.
I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal in reality, as the fixers called the City Guard as salary thieves, cowards, and bourgeoisie, but it seems that’s not necessarily the case.
Arthur pulled his tired body forward and shouted.
“No, fuck it…. Even if the solver is a janitor who cleans up cancer, what is this to people who have been searching for it!”
That was then. A man emerged from among the trained soldiers.
He was dressed in a suit to contrast with the soldiers in military uniform, and his youthful appearance gave off a very tired atmosphere.
there was a face It was none other than a city official who gave a brief explanation before entering the contaminated area.
He pulled out the megaphone and said.
“ah-! ah-! hello. All the solvers… A report came in, so I came here directly. Sorry, disarm everyone. Let me say it again. Disarm everyone.”
***
After disarming as a city official said, Oliver was led by soldiers into a building and locked up in a certain room.
It wasn’t very narrow, but it was dark, but it wasn’t just dark.
There was magic in the darkness, and that magic harmonized with the darkness and weakened people’s minds.
Of course, it didn’t really matter to Oliver.
Oliver remained still.
He was monitoring this side through a surveillance device hidden in one side of the room, but Oliver was conscious of this and did not show any suspicious or hostile acts.
Is it thanks to that? After a while, someone finally came in.
It was a city official who came with the soldiers and ordered disarmament.
“hello. Dave.”
The official sat down with a formal greeting.
He still looked tired, but apart from that, his tired eyes with dark circles contained a sharp light.
“hello?”
“······Yes, sorry for bringing you here. I got a report.”
“How is your name?”
Inconsistent conversation.
The city official’s eyes narrowed.
“Yes?”
“How is your name? I learned that in order to have a conversation, you need to know your name.”
The city official looked at Oliver silently.
It’s like looking at what Oliver is trying to do.
“······I’m sorry, but I ask the question. The answer is you. Do you understand?”
“ah···. Yes. If so, then so be it.”
“Well then, let me ask you a question. According to the solvers who came first, is it true that the high-risk criminal puppet dug a trap in the contaminated area and attacked the solvers?”
“Yes. you’re right.”
“Then you got locked up in a building?”
“Yes.”
“I heard that you were the first to recognize a puppet, is that true?”
“Yes, it is. However, I didn’t immediately recognize that it was Puppet-sama. I just noticed that it was an invoice doll. Afterwards, Puppet-nim just revealed his identity.”
A city official murmured.
“Invoice doll……. A high-performance zombie based on a human corpse.”
“uh? Do you know?”
“To work for the Landa Ministry of Home Affairs, you need to know the basics. Rather, I ask questions.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“How did you find out?”
“I’ve seen people who used invoice dolls in the past.”
“Not everyone can use the Invoice Doll, but it’s amazing.”
“Oh, is that so? It’s a fun technique, but I didn’t know it was like that.”
“················ogue.”
“…? Did I make any mistake?”
“no····. Why did you go down to deal with the puppet?”
“Is it dangerous to stay still? So I just said it, and they accepted it… He was kind.”
City officials laughed.
“Puppet is kind… What did you do down there?”
Oliver answered the question.
He went down with Joe, Sam, and Arthur, was ambushed and fell into a trap and went down alone.
“Did you meet Puppet there?”
As he told his companions, Oliver talked about the adaptation. without an inch of error.
To see if this actually worked, the city official quickly collated in his head and nodded.
“Whoa….. Did you just let him go?”
“Yeah, after subduing me, he looked somewhere and released me saying that it was enough. They tell me it’s fun.”
“Did you say it was fun?”
“Yes. I don’t know why.”
“ah····. I think I know somehow.”
“Yes? what is that… Oh, sorry. The question is asked by city officials.”
“Can I ask you one simple question? It’s also a personal question.”
“Yes, you tell me.”
“Why are you attaching Nimja to your puppet?”
The city official narrowed his eyes blatantly. It was more of an interrogation than a question.
“It’s kind of a habit.”
“Habit?”
“Yes, I was taught to be respectful from a young age. So it’s just like this. If it makes you uncomfortable, I will stop.”
Instead of answering, the city official looked at Oliver, as if judging something.
He was constantly calculating something in his heart, and he was in a state of deep trouble.
“…you said you talked to puppet, what kind of conversation did you have?”
“This and that.”
“What is this and that?”
“He taught me that there are a lot of illegal laboratories in the basement of Landa.”
“Well, it is an open truth. Other than that?”
“Well, we also talked about self-study.”
“Research?”
“Yes.”
A light shone in the tired city official’s eyes.
“Speak in detail about what-”
“Get away. When it comes to black magic and demons, we, Parters, have the right to investigate. It’s written in the city pact, so you have no right to stop us.”
the sound through the door.
Oliver and the city official turned their heads towards the door, and the door opened with a bang.
A couple of men and women came in, some of them quite familiar.
It was the paladin Joanna.
“My name is Elton, a paladin from the Seland branch of the Pater religion. We’ll take it from now on.”