Chapter 218: Emergency Call
"It’s always good to have others handle the tedious work for you," Adyr murmured, his tone calm and distant.
He sat comfortably in a clean chair placed at the edge of the battlefield, sipping from a steaming cup of bitter coffee as he watched the workers move through the carnage. Overhead, the steady sound of rain echoed softly, drops tapping against the tarp stretched above him.
All around, the blood-soaked earth and scattered body parts painted a grim landscape, yet dozens of workers moved methodically through the carnage.
Dressed in bright yellow utility vests, they moved like worker ants across the blood-soaked field, each carrying heavy-duty equipment—electric saws, industrial drills, and reinforced tools designed specifically to handle hardened materials. After all, the mutants’ bones and armored hides weren’t something ordinary tools could cut through. Even armor-piercing rounds struggled to breach their defenses. Only these specialized instruments, crafted for dealing with such unnatural resilience, were capable of splitting open their skulls to reach the crystals buried inside.
One by one, they opened every skull they found, carefully extracting the purple crystals buried within the brain matter. After wiping the crystals clean until they gleamed, they dropped them into small pouches strapped at their waists before moving on to the next corpse.
Unlike them, Adyr’s appearance betrayed no trace of battle. His clothes were fresh, his skin clean, and not a drop of blood clung to his hair or face. The portable shower and change of clothing brought from Shelter City 8’s Player Headquarters had resolved those inconveniences long ago.
"Mr. Adyr, your uniform and equipment have been cleaned," a woman said quietly as she approached him, wearing the same yellow vest as the others. She carried a sealed box in both hands, her posture respectful but visibly tense.
"Thank you for the trouble. Just leave it there," Adyr replied softly, offering a polite smile.
But his attempt at courtesy only seemed to heighten the woman’s unease. Without another word, she set the box down and retreated in hurried steps, as if his smile itself had unsettled her.
Adyr didn’t find it strange anymore. He had already checked the public forums and the surveillance footage recorded during his earlier battle. Even he had been surprised by what he saw. He hadn’t expected the influence of Presence and Malice to extend so far, nor affect people so deeply.