Chapter 153. 1st Area (3)
Karhal made a confused expression while looking at Keron who was descending rather quickly.
“Do you know something?”
The area below was a land of mystery.
But Keron didn’t seem like he was worried while heading down.
Keron, Etianon and close to about ten people made slightly awkward expressions.
“Well…You see.”
“Hmm?”
‘Wait a minute…This guy was the one who suggested we just throw them down alive.’
Team leader, Karhal, looked at Keron, who seemed to have done something behind his back, and frowned.
…………
Clanggg
“Kyaaaaa!”
Smash
The final attack.
The moment this attack hit.
The girl’s neck shined.
To be precise, the necklace on the girl’s neck shined.
In that instant a bright blue light appeared around the girl and absorbed the force of the Forked Lightning that had hit the girl.
Paaaaaaang
But that was it.
“Kuhuk…”
The girl made an expression as if she was out of breath.
She could only.
The necklace did not work for free.
It was a necklace that drained an excessive amount of mana from the user.
Since it was designed for the use of Sages and not Humans.
The woman soon collapsed on the ground after being drained of mana along with the bright blue glove on her hands.
The Azure Glove which could send out a powerful laser beam.
Since it drained a huge amount of mana, they, the Farmers, could only use it as an ambush with the amount of mana they had.
Just like when they had attacked Hansoo.
‘But even so… It shouldn’t get blocked like this.’
It would be normal for a usual Hunter to melt down within a few seconds but the bone armor sticking out from the man’s body, the silver armor he had been wearing already and the golden reinforcement around him just dispersed the bright blue laser beams as it hit him
Even Karhal, the strongest Hunter of the 1st Area that they despised, was inferior to this.
Which meant something.
The girl grinded her teeth and then glared at Hansoo with blazing hatred.
“…Is that Ekidu bitch crazy! For a guard to do such a thing like this!”
Keron and a few others coming down for some dirty work was understandable.
Since those guys were the ones who shoved them down here.
But for a guard, who should be keeping the rules of the village in check, to come down to do the same thing.
‘Damn bastards. Wasn’t playing around with us like that enough!?’
But Hansoo shook his head at the girl’s words.
“I am not a guard.”
Hansoo finished his words and then looked into the distance.
Countless people, from the depths of the darkness, were running towards this location after hearing the commotion.
At least 200.
It was not a coincidental number.
‘Oh yeah, I’ve heard about this.’
Even Hansoo hadn’t inspected and adventured through every nook and cranny of the yellow zone.
Since there were countless villages in many ceasefire zones throughout the entire zone.
Though all these villages operated in a similar manner due to all of them having been created by Clementine, there were still differences.
And he had heard about a special village out of those.
That there were people who shoved others into a secret location and operated a human farm.
‘These guys must be them.’
……………
The 200 people who had run over here looked at Hansoo with confusion, worry and fear.
And their leader, Mackill, looked at Hansoo with a heavy expression.
‘Hansoo huh. What are his motives?.’
There were about 200 people who had been thrown here.
But these guys were the weakest out of the weakest.
People who were farming in the village and were kidnapped by the Hunters of the 1st area.
Basically, they were the rabbits of the jungle.
Of course the others targeted them.
— Hahahaha! If there are farmers then shouldn’t there also be slaves? You guys are of the slave rank!! No, livestock!
‘Fucking bastards…’
Karhal should be damned as well.
But Keron and the others, who had thrown them in here in the first place, and came down periodically to play with them were the worst.
The reason for them being thrown in here was simple.
Since there weren’t that many Farmers who they could play with as they pleased.
They judged that it would be better to keep them trapped in here and to play with them.
And their choices weren’t wrong.
Since the carrier pigeons could not fly in this depths of darkness.
And it was so high that them, Farmers, did not have the ability to go up.
No, there was still a problem after getting up there.
Since the moment Keron and the others, who scout the Okun Tree daily, find them then they would just get dropped back down again.
They were many who tried to escape at first but as these events repeated themselves the 200 people stopped resisting.
Since it was better to stay alive then to die.
Even if they were slaves.
But the man in front of them was different.
‘He doesn’t have any looks of crazed greed in his eyes either…’
It looked like he actually knew of their existence in the first place.
Mackill emptied her mind and sighed as she asked Hansoo.
“With what motives have you come down here?”
Hansoo replied simply.
“The place where you got the items you are holding onto. I have something to do there.”
“…You know about that?”
As the people asked with a confused expression, Hansoo merely nodded.
There were a few things he needed to take from the research labs.
Mackill lifted the glove and necklace she had on her person and then asked.
“We took most of the useful stuff… Are you talking about these?”
Hansoo shook his head.
Those were just simple items.
Actually he wouldn’t be able to use that item any better than these people.
Though the Body Enhancement Surgery and Dragon Essence Blade gifted a powerful body, it did not gift one a large quantity of mana.
The amount of mana he had was actually lower than theirs.
Their mana rune progress was around 5% but his was even lower.
Those items weren’t his goal in the first place.
‘From what I know…the Sealing Jade is in the deepest parts of the lab.’
The invention the Sages had invented without the knowledge of the higher races, <Sealing Jade>.
It hadn’t been destroyed because its existence wasn’t known but it was located in the deepest part of the research lab.
Hansoo spoke out.
“Please guide me to that location.”
Mackill, the leader of the farmers, replied to Hansoo.
“Well. It seems like something beneficial to you but…What do we get?”
Hansoo answered simply.
“Don’t you want to go out?”
“What?”
Everyone started to mumble between each other.
To be able to go out.
There was nothing better than that.
Though they were living because it was still better than death, a life of a slave wasn’t quite what they hoped for.
No, they weren’t even slaves.
They were being treated as livestock.
— You think you’ll be able to live without the food we bring down? Hahaha! Listen well! We’ll give more to those who comply better!
‘Bastards.’
Mackill grinded her teeth from Keron’s words in the past.
But she shook his head soon afterwards.
‘That is not possible.’
Trapping them and treating them as slaves was the worst type of felony possible.
Karhal, Keron and the other hunters of the 1st Area would receive a harsher punishment than death if the Farmers here were to escape and reach the village.
“You think those guys will leave us alive? There’s a reason why those guys scout around the Okun Tree every day!”
They were indeed scouting around the Okun Tree in case of something comes out from the darkness.
But they weren’t doing it because something dangerous might come out.
It was the opposite of that actually.
They were doing so in order to keep the slaves in there.
Mackill laughed as she looked at Hansoo.
“I understand that you are strong. But I can figure out how strong you are after fighting with you. You are definitely not strong enough to fight 40 of the 1st Area Hunters by yourself.”
“Mmm…”
Everyone around Mackill nodded.
Though they had extremely screwed up personalities, they were still very strong.
There was a reason why around ten of them came down here in the first place.
Since the 10 of them had the confidence to fight 200 of them.
40 of them was a whole another story.
“And what are you going to do? Though not all the 1st Area Hunters participated in this human farm but it’s not like they are innocent. Which means even the ones who don’t know anything will be punished by the village. You think those guys will side with us?’
Mackill was angry.
In conclusion, the 40 Hunters of the 1st Area will combine all their strength to erase their existence.
Since it wouldn’t be a sin if they don’t get caught.
“If you don’t have the abilities then instead of giving us false hope just fuck off. You damned bastard. We will at least be able to live without you.”
As long as Hansoo wasn’t here it would be okay.
Then the Hunters wouldn’t have a reason to massacre the Farmers trapped in here.
The Hunters just needed to wait until the 1 year contract they had with the village ended and leave.
‘And… We will remain as slaves.’
They had attacked in glee after only detecting one when usually ten people came down at once.
Since one could be dealt with.
They were going to take one hostage and go onto the next level.
But the full force coming down here was a different story.
‘Nothing can be done. It’s better to live than to die.’
Mackill clenched her teeth.
If they attempted to escape with this guy then they would all get massacred.
“So you aren’t going to tell me anything? Even the location of the research lab?”
Mackill nodded at Hansoo’s words.
“Yeah. If we get caught by the Hunters after helping you then it’ll only hurt us. We will… Remain the way we are right now.”
Those guys were vicious enough already.
If they get caught then they couldn’t even imagine what would happen to them.
Since they were merely slaves to fulfill the Hunter’s desires and greed.
Hansoo decided to end the conversation after seeing Mackill say those words.
“You are quite amusing.”
“Mmm?”
Mackill made a nervous expression while looking at Hansoo’s expressionless gaze.
“The guys above can kill all of you.”
“…”
“But so can I. Aren’t I not frightening to you?”
Tremble.
A chill ran along Mackill’s entire body.
Hansoo’s calm eyes were inspecting every of them.
‘Of course I don’t have any thoughts of killing them…’
It would only work if he at least did this much.
And it would only benefit them the faster he found the Sealing Jade.
Hansoo spoke towards Mackill.
“Guide me. To the research lab.”
“…Damn.”
Mackill grinded her teeth.
At that moment.
One of the lookout who was staring at the entrance up above shouted out urgently.
“Damn! Mackill! This is bad!”
“Fucking hell. What could be worse than this current…”
As Mackill spat out those words, the lookout shouted back loudly.
“Fuck! All of them are coming down man! All of them!”
“What? How many?”
The lookout replied with a heavy expression.
“…Forty. All of them.”
“No way. Why so suddenly…”
Mackill made an expression of disbelief.
The existence of the human farm wasn’t known to all the 1st Area Hunters.
All 40 of them could not have come down just to play with them.
But Mackill figured it out almost instantly.
“Kang Hansoo! You fucki…What did you do up above!!”
Mackill spat out in misery.
She wanted to curse out but the eyes Hansoo had shown her before were simply too terrifying.
Then.
A loud shout was heard from up above.
“Hahahaha! Have you been well?! Our precious female piggy Mackill!”
“…Keron, this bastard.”
Mackill grinded her teeth in anger.
The entire farm looked towards Mackill with sympathy even during the tension but then soon made bitter expressions instead.
Since their situations weren’t that much different.
Keron, who was still hanging high above on the entrance, looked around his livestock in contentment.
Gazes filled with fear.
‘Yeah. This is it.’
Keron was but a cog in the village.
But it was different here.
It was like being a god.
‘Damn…I didn’t want to show this to Karhal.’
Keron made an amused expression at first but then frowned as he looked at Karhal.
He was the king of this place.
Of course somebody being above him would not feel good.
This was why he only told a few weaker ones and enjoyed this place together.
And since Karhal now had knowledge of this place, he wasn’t the absolute authority here anymore.
Keron looked towards Hansoo, the reason for all of this, and grinded his teeth.
Hansoo even had a laid back expression.
His expression contradicting with the expressions of the ones standing next to him pissed Keron even more.
‘Let’s see if your expression will be the same after this.’
Keron suddenly thought of something fun as he looked at Hansoo who was standing in the middle of the farmers.
‘Hmm. Wait a minute…’
Keron looked towards the farm below and shouted loudly.
“Ordering you livestocks! Attack that trash over there and kill him! Hahaha!”
“Oh?”
As Karhal made an amused expression, Keron felt a little depressed.
Since he could sense Karhal standing above him.
Keron grinded his teeth quietly and then gave an even better offer to relieve that stress.
“To the ones who do the best I will give more food! We will watch from up here! The ones who don’t fight…You know right? Start!”
“Fucking hell…”
Whether they fight or not, they would all get killed anyway.
Mackill made a dumbfounded expression at Keron’s shouts.