Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Underground World (2)
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The string of disappearances at the Labyrinth Library over the past ten days had plunged the underground world into terror.
The plaza was packed with mole yokai.
The blind maze mole shouted to the crowd.
“The end times have come underground! The corruption and depravity of the underground world have finally summoned the apocalypse! You citizens who still cling to righteousness—act now!”
Seoran, who had been watching the speech, called out in a loud voice.
“What must we do to avert the end times?!”
The blind mole, thrilled, shouted back.
“From your voice, I can tell you’re young, yet wise beyond your years! The way to avert the end times is simple! It’s to judge the corrupt and incompetent leaders with your own hands!”
Seoran cried out in shock.
“You mean start a rebellion?!”
The surrounding maze moles began buzzing all at once.
The flustered blind mole hurriedly waved his hands.
“No, no! That’s not what I meant! That would be disastrous! Any citizen with real insight settles things with votes!”
“Votes?”
These moles even hold elections?
“That’s right, votes! Listen up, everyone! The Vertical Shaft Faction currently ruling the underground world lacks the ability to lead us maze moles. They haven’t solved this string of disappearances for days now. The only faction capable of governing the underground world is the Horizontal Tunnel Faction! A clean vote for the Horizontal Tunnel Faction!”
The blind mole had steered the topic straight into politics.
A dizzying intuition made Seoran mutter.
“Oh, please...”
The shills hidden in the crowd shouted in unison.
“A vote for the Horizontal Tunnel Faction!”
“Long live the Horizontal Tunnel Faction! Long live the isolation policy!”
“The Vertical Shaft Faction—resign immediately!”
“What the hell!? Without trade with the surface, where do we get food? Mass starvation is guaranteed!”
“In my day, we lived just fine without trade! The missing ones were definitely snatched by surface-dwellers! There’s research data proving it!”
“Someone drag this conspiracy nut out!”
“Long live the Vertical Shaft Faction!”
“Long live the Horizontal Tunnel Faction!”
The maze moles, trading heated political opinions, couldn’t hold back their tempers and started brawling.
Police rushed in and began breaking up the fights.
Seoran hurriedly left the plaza too.
Seeing Seoran return so soon, Totoseo asked.
“Why are you back already? You said you’d watch the plaza spectacle while I gathered intel.”
How should she explain?
That the blind doomsayer mole was actually campaigning for election, and her prodding had whipped up hardcore supporters and conspiracy theorists into a frenzy?
She just made something up.
“We need to solve the disappearance case as soon as possible! We can’t afford any delays!”
Totoseo looked deeply impressed.
“Assistant, I never imagined someone of a different species could be this passionate. All right—let’s crack this case and bring smiles back to the underground world!”
The mole and the girl left the investigators’ office and headed for the spirit stone vein.
The spirit stone vein was some distance from the central district.
It would normally bustle with maze moles mining spirit stones, but now all operations had halted.
Most of the dozens of missing victims had vanished near the spirit stone vein.
The two arrived at the site of the first disappearance.
It was a massive tunnel carved out during spirit stone mining.
Wide enough left and right, with a ceiling so high it could fit a ten-story building.
Totoseo shared the information he’d gathered from days of inquiries.
“The first disappearance was ten days ago. It happened while transporting spirit stones mined from the vein to the central district. Twelve maze moles, thirty-seven ore carts, and all the spirit stones they carried—gone.”
“Bandits after the spirit stones, maybe?”
“That’s what we thought at first. So we stationed large forces along the route connecting the central district and the vein.”
“And what happened?”
“Some units have gone completely silent. Contact cut off in an instant. But the really strange part is, there’s zero info on the attackers. Normally, when combat breaks out, the unit’s messenger bolts from the scene immediately per protocol.”
“No time for even the messenger to escape—definitely suspicious. A surprise attack makes the most sense, right?”
Totoseo nodded in agreement.
“The investigators figure it’s a pretty large attacking force. Otherwise, you can’t explain zero soldiers escaping a not-that-tight encirclement. And with no leads from wide-area searches, they must have inside help with access to intel.”
“A large force with inside collaborators? What’s their goal? Stealing some spirit stones wouldn’t even cover maintaining that many troops...”
“That’s the baffling part. No one knows how they recruited such a force, where they sourced food and weapons, or how they kept it secret. Unrealistically, no traces at all.”
“What about yokai?”
“No yokai in the underground world could threaten maze mole units. We exterminated them all long ago.”
“Or maybe from the surface?”
“Impossible. Every maze mole soldier maintains an airtight watch. The underground world is one giant sealed chamber.”
“Then the attackers must be insiders.”
“Exactly—a large force with inside collaborators!”
Just then, a sound came from far off.
“Investigator, you don’t hear that?”
“Hear what? It’s just us around here.”
Seoran closed her eyes and focused on the sound.
Thud thud thud thud, thud thud thud thud.
It seemed to be growing louder.
“Something’s getting bigger.”
“The sound’s getting louder? Meaning it’s coming this way?”
“Huh?”
Seoran’s face suddenly filled with alarm.
Her genius spirit energy detection picked out an object beyond the darkness.
A massive spirit energy source was closing in fast.
But the speed was insane.
“Dudududu—run! Run away!”
Seoran grabbed Totoseo and bolted the opposite way.
Totoseo, initially skeptical, soon sprinted at full speed too.
Now even his ears caught the roar.
Seoran chanted a dharma incantation and pulled out the Stone Petal Flower.
She hopped on with Totoseo.
The flying dharma vessel rocketed forward on her immense spiritual power.
The pursuer had already locked onto Seoran and Totoseo.
A chase unfolded through the twisting, three-dimensional maze.
In the midst of dazzling acrobatic maneuvers, Seoran instinctively glanced back.
The pursuer was a massive snake covered in black scales.
So enormous it could swallow buildings whole.
Reflexively, Seoran activated a barrier spell.
The snake swallowed Seoran and Totoseo—barrier and all.
*****
The mole yokai huddled together on the snake’s camouflage, chatting away.
The topic was their life’s misdeeds.
Since they were all doomed anyway, the idea was to have some honest talk.
A mole renowned for his diligence spoke up.
“Truth is, I’ve cheated before.”
“Ugh, scum!”
“Enemy of women!”
“Die, playboy!”
The others jeered playfully.
It was the kind of wrongdoing that would normally earn finger-pointing, but the dire circumstances made everyone lenient.
One attentive mole chuckled and asked.
“So, who’d you cheat with? Your wife’s acquaintance, by any chance?”
The cheating mole confessed shyly.
“My wife’s little sister.”
“Okay, but even a sister-in-law is kinda...”
“Hey, isn’t it classic?”
Some showed disgust, but most shrugged it off.
A mole who knew him well asked.
“Your wife has three little sisters, right? Which one?”
“All three.”
“Wha— the youngest is super young, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, younger than my daughter.”
The mood flipped in an instant.
“This guy’s beyond irredeemable!”
“Take secrets like that to the grave!”
“You’re dragging all beasts down with your shame!”
“You’re no friend of mine anymore!”
The beastly mole got beaten and tossed into a corner.
The remaining moles decided to change the subject.
They feared what other secrets might spill.
“Hey, what’s this snake yokai’s name?”
“You never read the Yokai Chronicles? It’s a ‘Black Scale Reverse Flow Blood Snake.’”
“There was a yokai like that? How come I didn’t know?”
“Officially, they went extinct centuries ago.”
“It’s been alive this whole time?!”
“Ancestors, you should’ve searched more thoroughly...”
“Why stay quiet for centuries, then pull this crap the year I enlist...”
The atmosphere grew steadily gloomier.
Then the camouflage entrance twitched and spat out a round orb.
It was Investigator Totoseo and assistant Ryu Seoran, wrapped in a barrier.
The downcast moles cried out.
“That ripple earlier was yokai hunting!”
“Totoseo came to save us!”
“You’re a hero!”
Totoseo replied flatly.
“I got eaten too.”
The dozens of maze moles exchanged awkward glances.