Lobster Famillia

Chapter 23 — Lobster Famillia

In case of emergency, the Red Rose Pavilion was built with secret underground tunnels as a precaution.

Unfortunately, the employees weren't able to use the tunnels in time.

A secret tunnel was connected to a nearby shop that belonged to Red Rose. I will infiltrate the pavilion using it.

As I entered the secret tunnel which bore resemblance to a labyrinth, I carefully navigated according to my memories.

When Red Rose was still constructing their shops, Ning Shui guided me here since it connected to all of their shops.

I ran at a fast rate, so I soon reached a secret compartment. A hidden door that leads to a large storage room.

This area was the third basement level that stored many important and expensive items.

Using my acute senses, I could feel that there was no presence around the hidden door.

I opened the hidden door and entered the storage room.

Red Rose Pavilion had five floors and three basements.

However, I can't waste a lot of time searching for the bombs.

That's why…

"People are coming…"

I sense them coming closer to my location.

My lips curled maliciously.

"They came at the right time."

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A group of ten armed people were walking across the hallway.

"There's a storage room somewhere in this basement. I've heard that it's filled with lots of gold and luxurious items, so we can instantly get rich if we secretly sell them for money!"

A man casually explained to the people following him.

The entire group turned excited.

"We'll rise from rags to riches now!"

They cheered joyfully while raising their fists.

"Will Vlad really come? Many claim he's actually the real boss of Red Rose."

A shorty asked them nervously.

"Fool, why would a secretive bastard reveal himself just like that? Even if he appears, we have a hundred armed men and mechas. There's nothing to worry about."

The man scoffed at the shorty.

The others laughed seeing the silent yet still nervous shorty.

"Here's the door leading to our wealthy life!"

The man and the others were greedily staring at the door.

"I'll open it." A pretty boy volunteered himself, causing the others to click their tongues.

"Let's see what's inside!"

He tried to open the door.

"Ah! It's already open. Why is such an important place not locked? Weird."

The man clicked his tongue before pushing the pretty boy aside.

"Don't worry about small details. Let's head inside."

He stepped inside the room when various needles suddenly emerged.

"Ahhh!"

He dropped to the ground while convulsing terribly.

"...!"

The others puzzledly stared at him, but they soon pointed their soul guns toward the room.

It was then—

A pair of demonic red eyes lit up inside the dark room, several whooshing sounds flying out.

Those were the sound of two hardened fists rapidly shooting like guns.

Bam!

Bam!

My fists smashed their faces with blood and teeth splattering.

"Cobra Fang."

I pounced on the remaining people with incredible speed and flexibility.

Swiish!

My toxic metallic nails easily tore their throats apart.

Those guys were now dying an agonizing death as they held their throats, not being able to speak nor breathe, the poison slowly eating them away from the inside.

However, I left the short one alive unlike them.

"Where are the bombs?"

I grabbed his throat before slamming him against the wall.

He struggled from my hand that strangled him up with my toxic nails digging into his throat.

"You're now poisoned. If you want the antidote, tell me their locations."

I inquired with thick and heavy bloodlust pressing down on him.

The shorty heaved pathetically with his narrowed pupils staring fearfully into my dead red eyes.

Death.

He saw the incarnation of death.

"I-I'll t-tell you…!"

I soon released his throat from my grasp.

The shorty began to tell me everything they were told in this operation.

"Here's the antidote."

I threw him a bottle and then left upon absorbing the life forces.

There was never a plan on leaving that guy alive.

The antidote was merely a medicine that would extend his suffering from my poison.

In the first place, I didn't make a promise to keep him alive.

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There was a bomb installed on the second basement level.

The number of armed men patrolling in the basement was significant. This confirmed the information that a bomb was installed here.

The mastermind probably sent the disposable pawns here in case there was a small chance where I would sneakily enter the premises.

There was no time to waste, so I tried some methods to hide my presence. I used Steel Breathing to slow down my heart rate which caused my body temperature and breathing to lower.

And if I add Nature Concealment which I was still trying to imitate from Na'er…

My presence wouldn't be detected by ordinary people.

I extended my spiritual power inside a certain room.

Two hostile presences and one dangerous item were soon detected.

There were armed men patrolling across the hallways.

But with my ghost-like presence, I was able to pass by them and quickly enter the room.

As soon as I entered, I easily killed the two fellows with my fists. Their protective armor wasn't able to handle my power.

The first bomb was a simple remote controlled bomb.

To solve and disable it was easy.

I've encountered similar experiences in my past operations, so I thoroughly studied and learned about ordinary bombs and soul bombs.

The two remaining bombs were located at the ground floor and third floor.

I just skipped the first basement level and soon arrived at the ground floor.

The ground floor was where the hostages were gathered in one spot. They were surrounded by almost fifty armed men on the lookout.

Aside from them, I could see the second remote controlled bomb next to the hostages.

As for the two mechas, I could clearly see them lying in wait outside.

It wouldn't take long for them to notice something was wrong.

That's why I decided to skip the second bomb.

Taking advantage of their blind spots, I lightened my steps to climb the stairs.

Red Rose Pavilion was heavily sound proofed, but I couldn't make careless mistakes.

That's why I was never letting them even fire their guns.

There were hidden compartments in the upper floors for the employees to use as shortcuts.

I was able to sneak around a lot faster by using them.

The third bomb was installed on the backstage of the musical stage.

As expected, there were lots of disposable pawns around the area. They were closely guarding those who entered the backstage.

Unfortunately for them, I got the advantage of knowing the layouts of the entire building.

I went to a secret compartment for a shortcut towards the backstage.

There was no one inside, so I dropped down and quickly disabled it.

They would notice it quickly if they took a look, so I needed to hurry even further.

The words of enemies can't be totally trusted, so I went to the remaining floors to look for other dangers.

On the way, there were only a few people that I've encountered, so I killed them in a flash.

And on the fifth floor, I saw two people on the wide observatory.

"Hehe, let this Uncle have fun with you before we leave this place."

A man smiled lecherously at a pretty man who had pale skin and a slender figure.

However, I noticed there was a huge unknown bomb laid behind him.

"...ahh!"

The pretty man let out a soft gasp after being strongly pushed to the floor.

"Your slender legs look delicious…"

The pervert licked his lips and started to unbuckle his pants.

The sight of the pretty man looking so pale and fragile caused him to become very excited.

Meanwhile, the pretty man just stayed silent and unwillingly closed his eyes.

However, at this very moment—

As the pervert held his crooked and dirty dagger, I brandished my greatsword and slammed it harshly against his dangling object.

"Humkkhpp!"

He wasn't even able to let out a scream as I've already stabbed my hand deeply into his throat.

After dealing with him, I then approached the unknown bomb.

The unknown bomb wasn't remote controlled and its quality was much better.

A bomb that can even cause death to the ringless and two ringed spirit masters.

A bomb specially prepared as a killer trump card for me.

My lip curled upward with my expression increasingly becoming distorted.

"I'll use your present well."

I then looked at the handsome man, one of the pavilion's attendants.

"Just hide in here."

I made a simple instruction before leaving the observatory.

The man bowed many times with his expression full of gratitude.

He was born a mute.

And thus, he could only perfectly express his current feelings through music.

The man went to the balcony where there was an extensive view of the red moon.

He held his dearest flute,

Wanting to play a dedicated tune,

To the wise astute.

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My master plan is to drop from the huge ceiling of the ground floor.

That's the reason I now stand on the second floor.

According to my calculations, I was sure the hostages were just right below me.

As I held the improved smoke canister with my hands, I started to heavily stomp on the floor, causing large and wide cracks to appear.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

BAM!

The ceiling cracked apart and finally collapsed down.

I fell down along with the rubbles, throwing the smoke canisters in the air.

A large amount of white smoke suddenly spread everywhere.

The huge to small rubbles of the collapsed ceiling fell harshly on the floor.

The chaos was enough to scatter and move away the armed men from the hostages.

Some people already guessed who was behind the collapse since they now just heard reports about strange casualties. That's why they sent the order for everyone to quickly gather here.

"V-Vlad is attacking!"

"Open fire!"

The chaos and noise attracted the armed men who were leaving their respective floors. All of them went to help those from the ground floor and started to shoot towards the hostages, but with their vision hindered by smoke, their shots were lots of misses.

If they were to carelessly shoot, there would be friendly fire.

Initially, the hostages panicked from the falling wreckage, but I sent those rubbles away with my greatsword.

These rubbles also served as a perfect barricade against the bullets.

If there was any stray bullets that went through, I would block them with the greatsword and throw poison needles at them in return.

I got hundreds of them inside my spatial ring.

Meanwhile, the employees calmly began to guide the remaining customers to a safer place. The entire building was their workplace, so they knew it the best, making them able to move even with the lack of proper vision.

"No time to waste."

There was no need to hold back my strength anymore.

My Spirit Heart roared powerfully, pumping vigorous soul blood that surged across my veins.

The Life-Death Wheel spun rapidly inside the Spirit Heart. They released dense and heavy bloody mist around my fists.

As I bursted with enhanced strength and speed, the thrown poison needles were so fast to even follow.

I could clearly sense the enemies within the dense smokescreens. Even my spiritual power was capable of detecting everyone's movement.

As such, I could clearly feel them dying from the poison needles.

The rate their numbers dropped went even faster when I started to smash my greatsword and fist to those who were near me.

And when every hostage was evacuated, I approached the remote controlled bomb.

"Don't move!"

A sudden hoarse voice resounded powerfully.

Then, the large smokescreen was swept by the appearance of two large and powerful mechas.

The entrance of the pavilion was completely destroyed.

A clear sign they forcefully fit inside with their mechas.

"Vlad, you sneaky bastard!"

A voice full of anger came out from the leading mecha.

"I've warned you that if you use underhanded means, I'll explode the entire building along with the hostages!"

Despite the threat, however, my expression never showed any changes.

I just merely held the final bomb with my hands.

"Then try it."

I expressionlessly said.

"Arrogant bastard! I'll show you then, the results of your stupidity! Face the consequences of messing with our Lobster Famillia!"

Upon hearing such remarks, the underlings were shocked to their core.

They knew the bombs were about to be exploded.

"Boss, wait! If you explode it now, we'll also die with them!"

All of them were desperately running towards the two mechas.

"I don't care about a bunch of disposable trash!"

"No, you son of a bitch!"

"Fucker, I shouldn't joined you!"

As anger consumed their hearts from the betrayal, they wantonly fired their guns at the mechas, but those bullets only dented the metal frames.

"Fuck…"

"It's over!" The boss grinned hideously as he pressed a button.

"Vlad, you'll die by my hands!"

The prospects of earning fame and honor for killing a popular hero eluded his mind.

However—

"Wrong."

My lips and eyes suddenly distorted madly as I threw the bomb towards them.

"It's the other way around!"

The boss and the underlings closely watched the bomb fly towards them in slow motion.

BOOOM!

The bomb soon exploded into a fiery storm and hot smoke.

The Red Rose Pavilion shook terribly. It once again experienced destruction. Hot wind spread everywhere, along with thick black smoke and broken debris.

"I-impossible!"

Unlike what the boss expected, only one bomb exploded.

The bomb thrown at them.

As the smoke receded, I saw uncountable charred corpses and the unharmed mechas with blackened frames.

"Why didn't the other bombs explode?"

The boss cried out in disbelief as he pulled his hair.

"Don't tell me…. you managed to disable all of them in such a short time!?"

The boss had thought there was a small chance of Vlad sneaking to disable the bombs, but he never expected it would really happen...

I didn't reply.

Why bother with a dead man?

There was a brutal smile on my face with madness evident in my eyes.

In contrast, a serene sound of flute was starting to spread everywhere.

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This chapter was unsatisfactory since I'm unfamiliar with situation like this… What do you think?

This is a transition state from ordinary world to spirit master world, so expect that spirit masters battle will be mainstream later on. Which means his poison needles will be used rarely except for assassination.

Anyway, they are just to farm life forces and experience new things about soul technology like mechas since they would be important later on.

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