BXBX NOVEL Chapter 77: Desperation
Under their hoods, their expressions marred trepidation, fear, and anxiety. The longer the silence went, the heavier the atmosphere became.
"It's either one of you who starts talking or I will start picking people at random to turn into demon food."
Everybody chilled upon hearing that threat.
"Just so you know, once I start doing the latter, it won't matter if you start talking. I will still feed you all, one by one, to the demons."
"S-Sir! We..."
"You, what?" The frightening man raised a brow, waiting patiently for whoever spoke to continue.
"W-we're working hard to investigate what happened." The same man responded, "From what we gathered so far, we could only conclude that the replacement group we sent somehow got ambushed."
"...that's it?" The frightening man asked.
"That's it, Sir." The same man replied, "We apologize, Sir, we are working overtime to discover the identity of the party that's responsible for this and, if we're able to, we will also try to discover how they managed to intercept our signal."
The frightening man stayed silent for a while, which didn't ease the group of people in front of him at all.
Each time he tapped his fingers at the armrest of his seat, the frightened men's hearts would jump ever so slightly out of fear.
Their leader wasn't the merciful kind despite his rather calm demeanor. He had no qualms about reaping the lives of useless people if he deemed it fit for their punishment. He hates useless people the most, the close second is smart-asses.
This is why they're afraid of him. His threats earlier? They're not really threats, they're more like a promise because they knew that he would definitely do that. That's why anybody who has worked for this man for a while will never try to test his patience.
"...five days." Their leader muttered loud enough for everybody to hear.
"I will give you all a five-day deadline. Before those five days were up, I wanted a detailed report on my desk. I want to know how they did it, who did it, and every intel they managed to learn from their captives."
After saying that, a burst of red fog filled their entire room. Exposed to that red fog, the frightened men felt nauseous and even more scared.
In an instant, they all felt like they went through hell and back. Frightening hallucinations attacked their minds mercilessly, causing their souls to shiver upon waking up from their brief nightmare. It didn't end there either...
As soon as they woke up, they were acutely aware that something had invaded their bodies. Upon closer inspection, they saw three worm-like creatures wrapped around their heart, brain, and soul respectively. All of them despaired upon seeing that yet nobody dared to even let out a peep.
"You know what will happen if you fail me." The leader decisively said before turning into a fog of blood-red mist dissipating into the air, signifying his departure.
Silence pervaded the entire room for a solid five minutes before somebody couldn't take it anymore and collapsed on the floor. The rest soon followed. Only a few managed to stay on their feet but even they had pale faces underneath their hoods.
"It's over...I'm gonna fucking die." The first person to collapse despaired, murmuring softly as he refused to get up from his position.
"You're not helping asshole!" Someone harshly glared at him upon hearing what he said.
"That's because I'm not trying to help, you stupid bitch! Has all of your concubines drained what's little left of your cognizance? Tch. Actually, don't answer that, it doesn't matter anyway. We're all gonna die soon."
"You..."
"Don't argue now." Someone interjected before the situation devolved even further. "We're allies here, all in the same sinking boat. If you all want to have even a small chance of surviving, conserve your energy and pour your efforts into the investigation instead. That would be more helpful instead of arguing."
"Tch. Easy for you to say." The crestfallen man replied, "We've already tried investigating the area numerous times before this and we discovered nothing! Not even a trace of the battle was left! It was a dead end. How are we supposed to submit something in five days? I think it would be better for us to start settling our wills and think of ways to cover up our incoming deaths."
"Don't be so pessimistic. Maybe there's a way out of this. We just have to think carefully."
"A way out? Way out of what? These Extinction Worms planted into us? Have you lost your goddamn mind? Even the slightest bit of touch or interference will trigger these worms to kill us right away. The only way out of this is by giving him what exactly he wants, and it's already established that it's a dead end so what way out are you talking about?"
Extinction Worms are a type of Parasitic Demon Insects. When one latches on to a target, they will split into three and latch into their victim's heart, mind, and spirit.
On their own, they will just slowly feed into their victim's longevity until they dry up. After that, they would search for another target. However, if they were raised by someone and bound through a contract, these worms turn into an excellent deterrent for unruly subjects because, at their master's will, they will instantly kill their targets.
And because they specifically latch into the core components of the target's being that they're called Extinction Worms.
The atmosphere within the room turned even more gloomy upon hearing the logical response of the crestfallen man. Their situation was so despair-inducing that they couldn't think of any possible ways to solve it.
"No! I can't accept this." Someone calmly declared. "There has to be a way. I didn't surrender my humanity just to turn into a vessels for these worms! I don't care if there are no traces left. I will search high and low if necessary.
I refuse to die like this!"
Having said that, this man turned away and left the place immediately. They figured that this person would once again survey the area where the replacement group disappeared to search for any possible clues. He's already desperate so he didn't care even if it was already concluded that there's nothing there anymore.
"Can we maybe plead for leniency?" One of the remaining cultists asked, "I mean, we have contributed to our cause too. At the very least, that has to amount to something, yeah?"
"Yeah, it amounts to our continued existence, dumbass." The crestfallen man sneered. "What? Do you think that we'd live this long if we weren't useful? That might work for others but to that guy? Hell no! Our tenure doesn't mean shit to him."
"To him, we're just means to an end. Sure, we have contributed to the cult but in the grand scheme of things? We don't amount to shit. We're just Branch Managers. We're all expendable in his eyes."
"If I could, I would've already killed him for all of his posturing. Fuck this fucking unfair life!" The crestfallen man swore angrily as he picked himself up and left the place without turning back.
Silence returned after he left, but it didn't last long until someone asked:
"What should we do now?" Another frightened voice spoke up. "The more we sit around here doing nothing, the more I'm convinced that we are indeed going to die soon."
Nobody could offer anything to comfort that. All of them are stuck in the same predicament, and this inactiveness surely wasn't helping at all.
"Hey, do you all think that we can get away with forging a report?" A suggestion was raised, which caught some people's attention.
"Elaborate."
"I mean, we're more or less fucked anyway, so why not take it to the extreme?" The same voice suggested. "The plan is we fake a report. Of course, we'll make it as believable as we could. I mean, we could at least discern what we think our enemies managed to know about us, right? We can also add fake proof of activity while we're at it."
"If push comes to shove, we could send another batch of acolytes as a sacrifice to make all of this even more believable. We just have to be...really creative about this."
Many were stunned upon hearing that suggestion. On normal days, they would've admonished him for even suggesting this, but with their current predicament, this is no less than a blessing.
Everybody seems to be considering this suggestion heavily. So the same one who suggested it decided to add more fuel to the fire...
"You know what? Fuck it! I'll do it myself. I'd appreciate help, of course. If this shit works, then fuck yeah! We all get to live a few more days in this miserable world, you all should thank me and give me some resources for saving your hairy asses."
"If it doesn't work, then hell it is! At the very least, I get to say that I did my absolute damnest to live in this pathetic excuse of a world. Anyways, toodles! I have a report to make."