Chapter 88

Screening Quest (2)

Mud covered the entire floor because of artificial rainfall induced by the Chinese government.

Dew sprinkled through the thick fog as two aliens walked under the rain.

Judging from the weapons they carried and their movements, they seem to be in charge of external security.

'Comparing them with Earth's standards, they're A-Rank Awakened.'

It's consistent with the data I saw from my previous life.

Their unfamiliar clothing focused more on the expression of religious law, status, and occupation rather than the function of covering and protecting the body.

The parts of their bodies that weren't covered by their attire showcased their physique. Taut muscles stood out on their limbs covered with light brown fur.

Above their shoulders, they had heads that resembled a water buffalo.

I recall their identity in my head.

'Botarchs!'

Swish!

Adam, who rushed in without hesitation, drew a diagonal line in the air.

At the moment of impact, its body collapsed and was soon stained with blood. His speed was almost too fast to be chased even by my eyes.

His right hand, covered with a dark red crust, struck the alien's forehead mercilessly.

Crush!

Its skull was crushed, causing its face to collapse.

Right before the lifeless Botarch fell to the ground-

Swish!

The sword energy I fired off sliced through the remaining alien's neck.

Without even proper resistance, two lives were lost in an instant in that manner.

On top of the mud, a stream of blood mixed with rainwater started to make strange colors.

Boosh!

I charged my sword energy to create flames that burned even under the rain.

I burned their bodies with it as I raised a question.

"You mean to say that they don't care about this kind of behavior in the Union, right?"

Returning his arm to its original state, Adam nodded, his expression looking bothered.

"If you look closely at the treaties they enforce, they only have one goal, and that's for everyone to move as the system intends them to."

"How is the fact that human refugees in the trusteeship regions shouldn't be slaughtered related to the fact that aliens who have invaded Earth could be killed?"

"To put it in simple terms, the former is non-Awakened refugees, and the latter are Awakened who invaded other dimensions."

The Union wanted to gather more dimensional beings into the main quest.

Therefore, it was understandable that the massacres of those who had the potential to Awaken be prevented.

"But killing the Awakened would hinder them from entering the main quest as well."

"Involving the Awakened with each other in a way that would force them to kill or be killed is considered as a system-led situation. I deal with one of them for justifiable reasons."

I couldn't understand it even though I listened intently.

"By the way..."

Adam stared down on the green soil he stepped on and the landscape that spread out around him.

"Are they going through all the effort to invade another dimension for the sake of... Farming?"

The world that Adam lived in seemed to have never been linked to the Botarch's dimension nor the dungeon.

He made it obvious multiple times that he had no idea about their ecosystem.

I followed his gaze and nodded.

"That seems to be their purpose for invading Earth."

The small town had changed so much that it was hard to find traces of the past.

The asphalt, sidewalk blocks, and cement had been removed.

In their place, dark green soil, excreted by a giant worm, stretched far and wide.

And on top of the fertile soil arranged as intended by the aliens, there were plenty of corn-like plants.

Adam looked at the body of the Botarch.

"They seem to be herbivores."

I confirmed his guess.

"Look at their size. You need to eat a lot to move that body. Wouldn't the tall grass here be perfect as their staple food?"

That wasn't a guess. It was a piece of information that had been revealed in the future.

As if to double-check what I said, Adam approached the plant and examined it carefully.

He then proceeded with voicing out his thoughts.

"Oh, I see. Compared to the area of land that they occupy, there is an absurd lack of nutrients that can be absorbed when these are consumed."

How did he know that just by looking at it?

I was amazed inside, but I replied indifferently.

"Is that so?"

The Botarchs had also improved the plants with modifications after modifications, reducing their size and maximizing the nutrients contained.

That was the best they could do with their biotechnology.

"Their civilization has a large number of Awakened since it started the tutorial much earlier than Earth, but they're far behind in science and technology.'

A dictatorship system ran their politics under Theocracy, and they were vicious and very belligerent.

It came to the point where they could no longer consider trading for needed technologies and resources with the humans by establishing a relationship.

'They took the wrong step from the very beginning. I mean, all pagans are either slaves or deserved death to them. Their kind is impossible to negotiate with.'

There was only one reason why those Botarchs constantly showed interest in other dimensions and attempted to invade them.

Food.

The tutorial's industrial revolution led to a significant increase in the population. To support that, more food and, naturally, land to cultivate food was necessary.

'Coincidentally, there are a lot of Awakened there as well. Enough to bully other dimensions.'

They especially displayed a great obsession with Earth.

Their reason for doing so was much simpler than anyone could think of.

I looked at their staple plants that were bigger than ordinary people's height.

'Photosynthesis isn't important for this plant's growth. If the right soil is prepared, and its water intake is sufficient, it grows abnormally fast.'

That's why most of their food was produced during the rainy season in the Botarch world, which lasted less than a few weeks per year.

'The farm they've built on Earth is more of a pilot concept than for the actual purpose of supplying food.'

The first thing they did when the dungeon boundary collapsed and crossed over to Earth was to capture and gather the citizens in one place.

After that, the giant worm was released to change the world's soil characteristics to enable them to plant the seeds.

They experimented if the plant could grow well in our world.

'As soon as that happened, the Chinese government dispersed artificial rain all month long. It's as if they had been waiting.'

Optical lenses on satellites couldn't penetrate thick clouds.

The goal was to prevent satellite photography by other countries, but that action led to an unexpected situation.

Thanks to the Communist Party of China's countermeasure, the crops on the aliens' pilot farms showcased explosive growth.

The result was so sublime that it made the High Priest, the ruler of the Botarchs, become deeply interested.

'If they had let them be as they were, the seeds wouldn't have been able to survive the cold, dry winter in Beijing. If plants didn't grow well, the aliens might've given up and returned to their world...'

The Chinese government's response to hide the situation had rather led to aliens' interest in Earth to grow as well.

"Then, shall we go in further?"

Adam urged me forward.

*

The Botarchs' means of communication seemed to fall short of the humans' technology during World War I.

Even as we proceeded inside, killing the guards one after another from the outskirts, their camp remained relatively quiet.

Just before we got to the center, Adam frowned.

"There's a lot more of them than I thought."

Following him, I tossed my [Penetration] in the same direction we're headed.

At that moment, the scene that Adam did dawned in front of me.

I couldn't help but click my tongue.

"Oh, shit. It was this much?"

Beyond that was the reason why the Chinese government ignored the hostages and deployed airstrikes in my previous life.

"There are over a thousand people who came over here and camped."

The gates that connected to a dungeon always had an entrant limit.

However, that only limited the people that could be left in the dungeon.

Considering that the gate connected to the Botarch dimension had an entrant limit of 100 through dungeon expansions, they found a way to maximize efficiency.

The first 100 individuals would enter the Botarch dimension gate and circle around the dungeons connected to it. They would then proceed to enter dungeons connected to the Earth by crossing the boundary and invading Beijing.

After that, the gate's limit of entrants would go back to zero.

If they were to repeat it ten times, an army of 1,000 would be able to infiltrate into the Earth.

'If we leave it like this, their number will only increase. We can't take our hands off this while waiting for the Chinese government to commence the airstrikes.'

Most importantly, it didn't end with the airstrikes in the previous life.

Despite experiencing brutal bombing, the High Priest, who showed so much interest in Earth, deployed even more troops to Earth than it did in the first place.

'Now that I think about it, it's reckless and incomprehensible, but how can I perfectly understand the mentality of an alien?'

The result was a large inter-species battle within Chinese territory.

Although China emerged victorious due to the Communist Party's determination to blow up the entirety of Beijing, it was gained at the cost of large casualties.

At that time, China's national power, which was greatly shaken, was one of the reasons that later led to the nation's collapse.

"What are you going to do? Just jump in?"

I shook my head.

If it became an all-out war, the lives of the hostages would be in danger.

"There's another way."

It was one of the cards that I held in hand, having decided to infiltrate this place.

I activated [Penetration] and looked around.

It wasn't long before I saw what I was looking for.

"There."

I pointed to a specific place.

A little further into the center of the containment area, human buildings almost completely disappeared, leaving only the farm that the Botarchs created and the tents used for temporary residences visible.

In the meantime, however, some buildings remained intact.

Most were low-rise buildings such as gyms and exhibition halls. It was used for keeping the hostages locked up.

However, there was one remaining skyscraper standing proud and tall amid the streams of rain.

That was where I was pointing at.

"Hmm?"

Adam didn't jump to conclusions that time.

"Can't you see that?"

"It's too far. What's there?"

I kept it in my mind.

The detection limit of that strange organ that replaced the functions of [Penetration] was about two kilometers.

However, there was another way to detect hidden presences that didn't seem limited by distance.

I spoke while thinking about such.

"There's quite a lot of them on top of that building, and there's something unusual going on."

Adam's spirit went up when he heard my plan.

"Indeed! That's a good idea."

We immediately activated [Stealth] and flew up to the top floor of the building.

While crossing the rainy sky, our surroundings remained relatively quiet, as if no one in the Botarch garrison underneath us had noticed.

'As expected, he's controlling it from here.'

They had broken all the windows on the top floor.

We both looked inside from outside the window.

Inside was a Botarch that wore the most vibrant clothing that we had ever seen. Several soldiers stood by with weapons as if to protect him.

The Botarch, who was heavily defended, had a strange-looking flute in its hand.

Using the information I read in my previous life, I analyzed its identity.

'That's a Priest-ranked.'

The Botarch species' ruling class, the Priest, concentrated on observing outside the windows while holding on to the musical instrument.

At the center of the area beyond the barricades were the Botarch camp, a concentration camp, and the building we were in.

The farm extended around the camp as if to enclose it.

Multiple large-scale and small-scale earthquakes continued to occur on the farm's outskirts. The buildings had collapsed, the land was divided, and the groundwork was underway.

The place where the Priest was staring at was the outer area.

A creature was turning the ground over in that place.

'The giant worm!'

Watching it from our position, the worms that the Botarchs released in the outskirt were eight in total.

The Priest, who observed the scene, blew on the flute, putting it near his mouth once in a while.

It's a sound that's inaudible to human ears, but the worms reacted immediately to it. The path of their movements twisted and changed little by little.

I observed the timing when the Priest intervened, taking note that it only did so when a worm was about to go out beyond the barricades or when it was about to enter the arranged interior of the farm.

And every time it blew into the flute, Mana glittered in its fingers and seeped into the object.

I kept its movement in my sights.

Adam, who was watching it together with me, whispered lowly.

"That's where the weird sound was coming from. Should we strike them?"

"Wait."

He looked as if he was in doubt.

I gave the signal after a few moments had passed.

"Now."

Adam opened his palm eagerly.

As he aimed at the building's interior beyond the broken windows, his fingers separated and twisted in a strange angle from each other.

Cr-crack!

Flesh became lumped together, a stream of blood gathered between the finger bones, and a beak emerged from the palm. Two eyeballs sprang up in the place where the joint on the back of the hand was located.

A red bird with a blood-membraned wing appeared where Adam's right hand was.

His lips opened.

"Go."

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

The bird flapped its wings.

Propelling itself by kicking off with its thin legs, only his blunt wrist without any wounds or sharp cuts remained on its spot.

The small bird fell down at an angle in the misty sky.

It thrust itself into the glassless window swiftly.

"@#[email protected]#%#@!"

The bastards who noticed it shouted as loud as they could.

"!#$!!!"

The priest pointed its finger at the bird and roared.

In response, the guards rushed in, their weapons in hand.

It was too late, however.

"...!"

The red bird lifted its beak and cried out with an eerie voice.

Pa-pa-pa-pat!

The bird exploded.

Hundreds of meat pieces swirled like a storm of bullets inside the top floor of the building.

Fragments of flesh and bones were fired in all directions like the shells of a claymore.

Each of them was a weapon reinforced by Mana.

Not a single alien remained standing in the building after the sudden explosion.

"Shall we go in?"

I stepped over the window frame.

The interior was a mess due to the traces left by the avian explosion and the Botarch corpses torn up by it.

Shhh!

As if to rewind a video, fleshy debris gathered in all directions and reconstructed Adam's hand.

A piece of bone stuck in the concrete wall forced its way out through a wall, and chunks of meat that pierced through the Botarch Priest's eyes floated in the air.

While he was recovering his body, I picked up the flute that the Priest held.

I tried to put Mana inside it actions.

Every time I did so, I observed how the earthworms outside moved.

Adam was looking at me with interest.

"Okay, I got it."

I played the flute without hesitation, making a pattern.

Rumbleeee!

The worms that were concentrating on destroying buildings on the outskirts immediately dug into the ground and disappeared underground.

Perhaps because the speed was too fast and the movement took place at once, their noise was loud and clear even where we were.

Below, I could hear the Botarchs murmuring in bewilderment.

Some of them could be seen approaching the building to see if there was any unusual change.

'It's useless.'

I waited for a few seconds.

Boo-boo-boo-boom!

With a roar, the Earth fluctuated without mercy.

The sound of the ground collapsing rang much closer than before.

Below, the Botarchs' shouts and screams echoed ceaselessly.

Adam shouted as he looked out of the window with his chin in one hand.

"That's amazing!"

I turned my gaze, too.

The earthworms that dug a hole underground showed themselves again.

The giant creatures didn't touch the building where the hostages were trapped and the skyscraper we were in.

They scrambled through the farmlands and the campsite's tents that the Botarchs had carefully arranged.