Chapter 9 - Ansel, New Objective

8:12 am in the morning. The Bullhead arrived at the outskirts of Ansel. The people were greeted with an eerie and haunting scenery with fog covering the hill and only the landing area on the outskirts is visible.

"Alright, I will return in two days. If there is a need for emergency evacuation earlier, you can send me an alert but it would take two hours for me to arrive." The pilot said before he opened the hatch on the back for Adam and his team to leave.

"Okay, thanks." Adam nods his head before exiting the aircraft.

As soon as they did, the Bullhead closed its hatch and left. Adam can't really blame the pilot when this scene literally reminds him of Resident Evil Village or something.

"Wouldn't say no to a hot and tall vampire milf though…" Adam mumbles to himself, inaudible to the others.

"You said something, Master?" Agent narrowed her eyes on Adam who immediately replied, "No. It's nothing." But she didn't really believe his words because of her intuition. Are gynoids even capable of intuition? Who knows…

First they check their surroundings.

The Bullhead airport? runway? landing pad? Whatever it is was literally at the side of a cliff extended by a sturdy metal platform embedded and supported by the mountain itself. This location is logical to build a landing pad since the cliff side is clear of obstacles and has a direct and unobstructed view to the lush forest below that are partially submerged in fog too.

"There is too much fog. Is it even natural?" Adam asks the Agent who also shares the same suspicion as him.

"Master. While I appreciate you putting that much confidence in me. I am afraid such a topic is beyond what I am created for as a Tactical Doll." Agent deadpanned at Adam for keep asking her every question he has like she is a walking encyclopedia.

"Sorry…" Adam apologized quickly, not realizing he had hurt her feelings or something.

Nodding at his apology, the Agent answered his previous question. "Although I do not have a definitive answer. This thickness of fog is definitely unnatural." She said and pointed at the road that has a railway track connected to the landing pad to go up the mountain. The fog was so thick that as soon as the track entered the valley surrounding the road as if the road was carved out of the mountain.

On the landing pad they fortunately have better visibility because the wind is blowing away the fog around the cliff side.

"Right…" Adam looks unconvinced at the road leading up the mountain to the mining town. "It's just begging for someone to get jumpscared."

"Master got scared?" G41 lifts her head and looks at Adam with a smile. Not a mocking smile but just a normal smile as she puffs her chest out. "G41 isn't afraid! Let me protect you, Master."

As much as Adam wants to say, go ahead and take the lead. He has his dignity as a man to protect. Not to mention, he didn't really want her or Agent to get injured because they aren't human. He didn't know if his First Aid skill would work on them since it stated to use Nanomachines in the description.

"Thanks but no need. I can manage this." Adam gave the endearing girl a brief headpat before walking toward the road next to the railroad.

"Master, I am equipped with multiple types of visions including infrared visions. I can see without any problems. Perhaps it's best for me to take the lead?" Agent sighed after seeing clearly is afraid after looking at his unconfident stride that is filled with hesitation.

"Eric also has the same feature. Master can share vision with it."

"He does too?" Adam immediately takes on Agent's suggestion and links his vision with the robot dog mounted on his shoulder.

"Alright, we are ready now. Let's go." Adam realized they wasted quite a lot of time already. More than 20 minutes looking around the area yields nothing.

Since his System basically confirmed the presence of Zombie infection in this town. What remains a question is how bad is the infection? Is everyone dead? Turned into zombies? Or are there still survivors?

The news and bits and pieces of information he gathered said there is an attempt to contact Ansel but no one is able to contact the town instead of no one answering the call. Someone is jamming the communication to the town.

While they walked while following the railroad tracks, they stumbled upon an outpost by the railroad track. It was obviously empty but no sign of battle around here or anything.

"Master, I found a landline phone." Agent pointed at the small box built into the wall.

Adam gave Agent a nod. Before opening the box and finding the phone inside. On the lid of the box is a list of names and numbers. The places are the sheriff's office, mine outposts, Hunter Guild, etc with corresponding numbers that can be dialed to contact the said places.

Adam dialed the number for the sheriff's office before he placed it close to his ears.

"Tuut… tuut… tuut…"

It went on for a long while and no one was answering. Not giving up, Adam dialed all the numbers and all were the same. No one is answering the calls.

"It looks like we have to get in there ourselves to take a look at the situation with our own eyes…" Adam grumbles as he already has bad feelings about this and the pit in his stomach is just getting deeper as each of the calls reaches no one.

"Where should we go next?" G41 asks while standing at the branching track of the railroad. One leading straight to the town and another leading to the mine as the sign indicated.

"To the town first. Adam replied as they continued their journey up the mountain towards the town.

———

Just as Adam and his group made progress up the town, Another Bullhead is inbound to land on the cliff side landing pad.

"Remember. Our mission is to arrest Doctor Braun and his associates, dead or alive. They had experimented on enhancing and controlling the Grimm for their terrorist activities." Winter glosses over the mission assigned to her and her team. "So, be careful during the mission. As far as we know. They succeeded in mutating the Grimms."

Many winced as they had seen first hand what the experimented Beowolf had become. Stronger, sturdier and fights more aggressively like a rabid dog. A common Beowolf becomes even stronger than Alpha. They dread what will happen once the experiment becomes even more widespread.

Winter captures the expression made by her subordinates and nods as they all understand the importance of their mission and how bad it would be if they were to fail.

As soon as the Bullhead landed, they quickly evacuated the aircraft. Two left behind with the pilot to guard their only exit from this place. The other ten follow after Winter to carry out their role.

*Thum!*

*Boom*

*Boom*

The ground shakes and vibrates intensely which they might mistake as the mountain suddenly collapsing.

Three loud explosions suddenly alerted the group of Specialists. They all stood still for a moment trying to investigate the source of the noise. But it's clear the explosion is coming from the direction of their target, Ansel.

"Move, quickly!" Winter lead her team into the road in between a narrow valley.

———

"Tch"

Adam clicked his tongue when they arrived at the entrance into the town only to find it buried by collapse rubbles. Someone had to have collapsed the valley in an attempt to cover up this path.

"Retreat back a little. I'm going to clear up the rubbles." Adam said and called an artillery strike on it.

Is it a dumb move? Probably… he probably alerted whoever was waiting for him that he was here, kicking down his door even. With the explosive entrance.

However, if there is Infected zombies. This will conveniently attract them out for him instead of having to investigate every nook and cranny of the town. The survivors too.

*Boom* x3

The Artillery pulverized the rubbles blocking the path. Adam and his companions went in with their guns ready to shoot but they didn't really find much or even any zombies on the street. Instead, those infected had already been taken care of long ago considering the corpse has symptoms like unhealthily pale or entirely different coloured skin that is unnatural and they are also rotting on the ground.

*Grrr*

"Master! Enemies!" G41 is the first to react when one monster resembling Beowolf he fought before suddenly appeared but with a sickly appearance.

G41 is already firing at the odd Beowolf and Agent follows suit moments later. Adam remains still as his attention is on the Beowolf, he notices something is off about the Grimm.

The Grimm snarled before it sprints forward and tried to pounce on G41 but Adam snap out of his daze and move to G41's side before he fired three shots in rapid succession which peppered the Grimm's head and body enough to thwart it's momentum, causing it to fell short and landed in front of the three who immediately lined their aims at the Grimm's head, turning it into a mangled and scorched mess.

(We need to gib G41 a name…)

"As I thought. There is indeed something wrong with this Grimm." Adam mutters out loud when the corpse didn't decompose or showing any sign of decomposing.

"Indeed, I also cross reference this Beowolf to those we encountered previously and this one is vastly different in not just size and appearance but also their attack behavior." Agent agreed.

"Hmm. Did I do good, Master?" G41 however didn't seem to care much about what she was shooting as long as it's dead. Adam grunted and showered her with plenty of headpat. He swears this girl cannot live without being showered by affection. "Praise me. Please praise me more!" G41 happily enjoys being showered by affection and would melt in his hand if weren't for they are still on a mission.

Once he was done taking a break with G41, he approached the hole on the ground where the Beowolf appeared from. It's a hole in the town square and there are many traces of blood leading here as if they were dragged into this hole.

"There is no other path other than this." Agent added after she completed her scan on the town.

"But I still have bad feelings about this…" Adam looks at the sole path to advance forward that reeks of the smell of ambush or trap unless they want to take a detour and investigate the mine first.

"Why don't we send Eric as our eyes and check the path in advance."

Adam looks back at the robot on his shoulder that shows no reaction to the suggestion but stares back at him loyally waiting for its order.

With a sigh, he dismounted the robo doggo from his shoulder and put it on the ground before it immediately rushed ahead to complete its task.

In the shared sight between him and his Dinergate, Adam first saw it walk through a long tunnel system before it emerged into a cavern of sort with a minecart on the railroad, some empty and some having ores inside of it. Unopened crates and barrels holding some mining equipment on a corner where the miners probably take a rest. However, what surprised Adam was the number of Grimms inside the cavern from Beowolf to Ursa and a few others that look like snakes, big ass scorpions and gorillas. They were all shambling around while protecting green and red fleshy sacs that contain what seems to be human or what remains of a human after some were partially dissolved and some have only bones left floating inside the sacs.

Adam immediately cut off the feed and ordered Eric to return immediately. But he was interrupted by a notification.

*Ding*

[Objective completed.]

[Prologue of the Disaster]

-Head to the mining town of Ansel near the mountainous border between Vale and Vacuo to investigate the sightings of Infected.

Reward

- 50,000 XP

- 100,000 $

[New Objective]

-You have found out the proof that Infected are present in the mining town, Ansel. However, you didn't expect to find an entire incubation nest inside the mine. Destroy all the nests.

Reward

-Depending on Performance grade.

The moment Adam saw the reward is dependent on his performance grade, Adam immediately knew this is a combat heavy objective.

"Fuck. There's no going back because it's a damn main objective too." Adam dreaded while also cross-referencing this objective with one of the missions available in the game that have a similar objective which is to destroy all the eggs. However, in the end is a large egg that will spawn a boss monster.

Normal zombie? Sure. Adam has no issue. Boss zombie? Fuck no, they are tanky as hell and he isn't delusional thinking have a plot armor defending his ass from being clapped by the Boss zombie.

"Halt! Who are you people trespassing in a restricted area?"

"Huh?" Adam frowned when he suddenly heard a shout when he was staring at the hole on the ground, contemplating his next move.

He turned to his back and found none other than the oldest sister of this body he possessed, Winter Schnee. A sort of high ranking field officer working closely for the General of the Atlesian military.

It was an unexpected encounter with guns aimed at both sides. G41 and Agent wouldn't be happier to tear those humans apart for daring to even aim their guns and weapons on their Master. One rifle and 4 laser cannons aimed and ready to retaliate while Adam tried to diffuse the situation while he still had the headache-inducing objective to complete when both sides were trying to tear each other's throat apart. Except for him of course.

"Let's not immediately resort to violence. We are on the same side right?" Considering the Atlesian military is indeed on humanity's side, they better cooperate before this outbreak gets out of hand.

"Surrender peacefully or by force." The Atlesian specialist captain apparently wouldn't budge or take no as an answer.

"Hard-ass bitch." Adam grumbles loudly on purpose which made Winter frowned and popped a vein. "I'm trying to save humanity here for fuck sake!" Adam complained as he himself didn't want to be here if not for his objective guiding him here before unknowingly throwing a difficult task on his lap.

Adam tosses two Cryo grenades to the Specialists and stunned them with a side of ice before jumping into the hole with his companions.

—————

If you readers feel generous or want to appreciate my work and effort, feel free to tip me here.

https://ko-fi.com/lazy_kat_aoi