Chapter 6 01.0006: "It was arranged clearly"

Horatio suppressed his inner panic, stood up immediately, put the huntress's legs on his shoulders, and pushed her back when she was about to fall out of the vent.

With a snap, she successfully entered the ventilation duct as the buckle of the waist belt was loosened.

Horatio immediately jumped up on the rubble and disappeared in just ten seconds.

"Ok?"

The three cultists walked to the side where the strange noise came from, only to see total silence in the darkness, with no human figure in sight.
-
The two of them crawled side by side in the narrow ventilation hole. Anyone who was a little bigger would probably not be able to get through.

The pipe did stink, but it was diluted a lot by the fragrance emanating from the female huntsman.

But if the distance was any further, the smell would be very torturous, so Horatio could only get as close as possible.

Adhering to the gentlemanly principle of not looking at what is inappropriate, he tried hard to restrain his instincts, always keeping his head down, not looking at the round buttocks twisting in front of him, so as to avoid getting stuck in the ventilation duct like the huntress.

Not long after climbing forward, I felt a pool of liquid. I looked down with the help of the headlamp and found that it was blood, and it was very fresh.

"You are hurt?"

"That's not my blood. The end is just ahead. I need to stop and pry the grille apart. Don't get too close..."

"Um?!"

The Lady Huntress stopped and hadn't finished her words when Horatio, who had been looking at the ground almost the entire time, suddenly raised his head. The thermal imaging device in front of him hit the elastic sphere in front of him, and the rebound caused the night vision goggles to poke his eye sockets.

Then he heard a small low moan and rapid breathing.

After enduring a not-so-long but agonizing period of crawling in the pipe, the two landed safely.

"Hiss, it hurts!" Horatio rubbed his red eyes and squeezed out a sound.

After the pain in my eye sockets eased a little, the scene in front of my eyes gradually changed from blurry to clear.

He sat on the ground and saw the female huntsman rubbing her bottom in pain, with a look of shame and anger on her face. She gnashed her teeth, as if she wanted to eat him alive.

"Uh, that..." Horatio's mind was working at high speed to organize the language to explain.

She stared coldly at Horatio who was smiling bitterly, her red lips moved slightly, she looked very angry, and her hand was on the grip of the pistol.

[The night vision goggles poked her up, and judging by her expression, it seemed like it was more than just a poke to her butt…]
Horatio clasped his hands together in apology, and gestured that there might be an enemy nearby.

But fortunately, she seemed to have suppressed her anger in the end, removed her hand from the grip of the pistol, and turned away with a gloomy face.

Horatio just breathed a sigh of relief, then snap!

The female vigilante suddenly turned around, and the pistol twirled between her slender fingers and slipped into the holster in an instant.

Horatio lowered his head towards the place where the sound came from. The soft soil in front of his crotch bulged, and a steaming black hole was clearly visible.

"Next time, the bullet will land five centimeters from here." She whispered angrily and immediately began to be alert all around.

[Five centimeters later…]
Horatio gasped as he looked at the position five centimeters behind him, and said with a wry smile: "Good marksmanship..."

He stood up, dusted himself off, and swallowed as he looked at the huge, ugly mutant bat corpse on the ground.

I don’t know if it’s due to long-term nesting contamination or if it’s just the nature of the breed.

This mutant bat weighed at least 15 to 18 kilograms and was about the size of a doll pillow. It was impossible to see such a large Chiroptera mammal in Ancient Terra. Even if she saw it for the first time in such a narrow environment, she would probably scream in fear like her.

Horatio returned his gaze to the female vigilante who was checking the situation against the wall.

As a girl who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, her performance can be considered excellent by vigilante standards, and she is by no means a mere gilded embroidered pillow.

The girl seemed indifferent to Horatio's praise, but the proud expression on her face seemed to say, "How can my shooting skills be bad?"

"Hurry up, there's something going on ahead." The girl's urging voice came from the front.

Horatio became serious again, took out the silencer from his tactical waist bag and screwed it on the barrel of the gun, then walked in front of the girl with the gun, standing guard against the wall.

He frowned slightly, and then he noticed a sweet fragrance in the air, which made him feel aroused.

Horatio could hardly say that he was not strangely excited.

He could clearly smell the mixed scent of perfume and incense on the girl, which diluted the sweet smell in the air a lot, and he didn't feel so itchy in his heart anymore.

The huntress remained alert with a serious expression on her face, seemingly not affected by the strange fragrance at all.

[Okay, maybe it's just too much high-end perfume.]
She remains vigilant at all times, and with the help of advanced technological equipment, she can determine whether there is an enemy behind the corner, as well as the probability of risk.

After a patrol of dozens of cultists left.

She used the vital signs auspex to confirm that the road was safe, then patted Horatio on the shoulder, and the two began to tiptoe and move forward slowly.

Beep beep beep
There is a room in front, with the words "Monk's Lounge" vaguely engraved on an old wooden sign, but it has obviously been converted to another purpose now, and there is a constant sound of radio waves coming from it.

Suddenly, Horatio raised his right fist, which meant "Stop!"

A cultist was approaching, and Horatio put his index finger from the guard to the trigger, ready for action.

The man walked into the room. The door was not completely closed, but left a small gap, and the light inside was bright.

Horatio raised two fingers and drew a circle in the air, indicating that the danger was over, and motioned for the huntress to follow.

When they reached the wall beside the door, Horatio pushed the thermal imaging camera up and peered through the crack in the door, while the Huntress remained alert in front and behind.

[Is this... the mailroom? It seems to be a dedicated line, so there is no interference.]
He gestured to indicate the function of the room, the number of people there, and suspected there might be some clues inside.

"Enter, pay attention."

She patted Horatio on the back twice and gave him a thumbs-up.

Horatio walked carefully to the other side of the door, crossed his legs, glanced at the huntress, and nodded slightly, which meant countdown.

three……

two……

……

One!

Horatio used his elbow to push the door open, stuck out the barrel of his gun and quickly pulled the trigger towards the room. There were three soft sounds followed by three muffled thuds of people falling to the ground.

Almost at the same time, the Lady Hunter pulled the trigger from the opposite side and shot the remaining radio operator who had just responded to the call dead with two shots.

"Safe, enter," Horatio gestured.

The indoor wiring is complicated and cables are laid everywhere, just like the data center of a mining truck factory.

Horatio entered first, pushed away the radio operator who was lying silently on the table, and after confirming that he was dead, he immediately checked the communicator.

The Huntress examined the three men Horatio had killed and took a deep breath.

In less than three seconds of reaction time, all of them were hit right in the head, cleanly and efficiently, killing them with one shot.

When I thought about how I had just shown off my marksmanship in front of this guy, it now seemed like I was just showing off my prowess in front of an expert.

After confirming that there was no ongoing communication in the entire room, Horatio began to speak.

"This is a dedicated line that calls another receiving station, and then it is manually transferred to the target from there. So we can't use this to call the Legal Department. The request for help will be screened out and expose our whereabouts. There is usually more than one mail room." Horatio said.

"Take the storage board next to that dead guy, don't throw it away!" The Huntress stood in front of an old and bloated array of Thinkers, thinking.

Horatio raised an eyebrow and pointed at something that looked like an oversized graphics card.

"this?"

"Correct."

He was unsure, but shocked. After the forty-first millennium, humans had actually made a storage board like a big square brick!
When I think about the setting of this world, maybe there really is a human brain inside this thing as wetware. [Okay, no wonder they said not to throw it away, they were afraid that your brain would get dizzy, right?]
"So, you're going to copy down all the communications in there?" Horatio inserted the large square brick into the slot.

『++Command: Access data++』

"++Instructions: Data processing++"

『++Command: Encrypt data++』

"++Command: Save and start++"

"1%……"

"3%……"

"6%……"

"I will uncover all the root causes of today's incident," the huntress said coldly, "and then execute them myself."

"This thing is too big, it will not be conducive to our subsequent operations."

"The contents inside are very important." The Lady Huntress entered the copy code.

"Okay. I hope that helps."

Horatio turned around and looked at the vast number of message scrolls in front of him, and suddenly an idea came to his mind.

Since the omen fragments can help him predict how things will develop next, can they reveal what key information he should collect?

With the mentality of giving it a try, Horatio closed his eyes and entered the dark space.

『+Activate: Omen Fragment+』

『+Energy: 3/6+』

『+Psychic Power: 3/6+』

+Corruption: 3/6+

『+Soul Fire: 3/20+』

Horatio looked at the panel and found some clues.

It seems that as long as the enemy is killed by the weapon operated by oneself, the soul fire of the dead will be absorbed.

And judging from the relatively abundant spiritual energy reserves, the original owner seemed to have entered a high-spiritual energy environment without even realizing it.

[Let me see which information would be more helpful to me.]
Three scenes flashed before Horatio's eyes.

Two of the scenes reveal letters placed in different corners of the room, and the third scene shows the patrol discovering the horrific scene in the carriage and sounding the alarm.

Horatio took a deep breath, frowned, and immediately turned to ask the Huntress: "How long will it take?"

"Ten minutes, probably."

Without giving himself time to think, he immediately set out to look for the location of the letters in the first two scenes.

They are all anonymous letters.

"The supplies are ready, all that's left is what you promised us."

[This looks like correspondence from the Port Gang.]
Horatio held his chin, his brows furrowed.

It is very common for cultists to buy supplies from gangs in the port area. Even the gangs may not know that these people are cultists. As long as there is money to be made, they are willing to take risks.

Is this really a valuable clue?
Horatio threw the letter back, but it made a muffled sound that paper couldn't possibly make.

He picked up the envelope again and found a silver coin in it. On the coin was a strange vulture man leaning on a cane with empty eyes, which was terrifying beyond words.

[Privately minted silver?] Horatio fingered the silver coin.

No, this thing looks more like some kind of token rather than something minted for counterfeiting.

Although he didn't know what it was used for, he decided to put the silver coins in his pocket first.

Then, Horatio went to a locked cabinet, picked up the gun, pointed it at the keyhole and pulled the trigger.

The inside looked no different from an ordinary storage cabinet, but Horatio saw a hidden small mechanism inside through the omen fragments.

He reached into the cabinet and turned the knob on top.

click -

There is a small storage cabinet opened on the wall.

With this level of camouflage, it is difficult for ordinary people to find that there is a mechanism here. After all, who would touch upwards when opening a cabinet?
"What is that?" The Huntress heard the noise and walked towards the secret cabinet.

"I don't know, it should be a very important secret letter."

The huntress looked skeptical, and took out one of the scrolls and opened it.

"Oh, Holy Emperor..." She immediately took a breath of cold air.

Horatio leaned closer to her, his brows lowered to the extreme by the contents.

"Horatio Cochrane will be escorted from the prison to the Ministry of Justice fortress in three days. The escort vehicle has been dispatched. The last number is XXXXXXX. There are two escorts. The Ministry of Justice Specialist: Farida Hood."

Just two lines of words contain enough information.

Farida Hood stood there, her pupils trembling in disbelief.

Even if there is no signature, the sender's position is self-evident as he was able to write such detailed information about the Ministry of Justice's inconspicuous escort operation.

Farida took two steps back and let out a long, rapid breath.

"I didn't expect that someone had clearly plotted against me three days ago..." She sat on the table.

Horatio took the letter from her.

Even if he knew in his heart that there was a traitor in the Ministry of Justice, as a prisoner he would definitely not believe her if he told her. If he was taken back to the Ministry of Justice and told others about it, she would definitely be dealt with immediately for various reasons.

Now, I have seen it with my own eyes and the evidence is solid.

Uh-huh-huh

Suddenly, the emergency lights came on and the alarm sounded.

"What happened! Did they find out that we were copying the communications?" Farida was on guard with a gun, but was thrown off balance by the sudden alarm.

"Do not."

Horatio, who had known about this situation in advance, seemed quite calm: "They just found the escort vehicle. The intelligence has been obtained. We have to withdraw."

Suddenly, a rhythmic, sharp and evil speech came out from the radio.

"My dear brothers and sisters, the two sacrifices escaped after killing several of our comrades, but they will not be able to run far. The Dark Prince will curse them! Take up arms and find them! Use their hearts and body fluids in exchange for the blessing of the Lord of Pleasure!"

“They’re starting to mobilize.”

"It's almost there! Wait a minute!"

Farida lay in front of the array of thinkers, her emerald eyes reflected in the same color as the light, beads of sweat continuously sliding down her beautiful curved chin.

"91%……"

"93%……"

Horatio stood behind the door, gun in hand, alert. He could already hear the rapid and dense footsteps coming from the corridor.

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(End of this chapter)