Chapter 35: Surprise?
Five kilometers east of the royal palace, within an ancient ruin spanning over three hundred years of history.
The ruins were filled with crumbling walls and broken tiles, with remnants of daily necessities still faintly visible. This was a scenic area within the East Gorteau nation.
These ruins had been developed by a certain relic hunter before becoming a tourist attraction. The above-ground ruins held little viewing value, but the crisscrossing underground tunnels were an excellent place to escape the heat, and they carried a certain sense of mystery.
At this moment, the scenic ruins were completely empty. Since the Chimera Ant incident had spread, unless a tourist had water in their brain, no one would approach the royal capital, or rather, no one would even come to East Gorteau for tourism at all.
Thud.
A low, muffled sound came from underground. Within the crisscrossing tunnels below, several men and women were fleeing for their lives.
"Wow, where's that cat? Exact location."
"About 400 meters behind us."
"Dou Dou, can you still teleport?"
"I can't anymore. I'm practically falling apart. I've already teleported four times in a row. If I do it again anytime soon, I'll definitely die."
"Damn it."
"That cat's speed has recovered."
"Has she been toying with us all along? Felines tend to have that habit, more or less."
"How is that possible? The palace is in complete chaos. If we hadn't looted the royal treasury, she wouldn't have chased us at all."
These men and women were sprinting at full speed through the tunnels. The leader, a blonde female contractor, clutched a metal box in her arms. The box was studded with gems. It was the reward from a special mission, and until she completely shook off the pursuers, she couldn't store this metal treasure chest in her storage space.
"What do we do? Should we abandon it?"
"Bullshit! How many chain missions did we complete to trigger the final mission? Once we gain ownership of the chest, the items inside will be certified by Reincarnation Paradise. Forget how many Paradise Coins the treasures inside can sell for, just the Soul Crystals alone won't let me give up now. No risk, no reward."
"Your life is more important than these things!"
The leading female contractor was named Winnie. She was a mixed-blood woman and the leader of this small adventure group. The group had six members. The seven of them had already abandoned their main mission because they knew the Ant King's heart was too difficult to snatch.
When Winnie formed this small adventure group, her assessment rating was relatively high, reaching A+. As a result, the group possessed an A-rank team ability that could exempt them from one forced execution (team type). After the penalty for forced execution was waived, this skill would disappear. That was the advantage of a team.
With such a get-out-of-jail-free card, Winnie's plan was to reap massive benefits within the Hunter world to offset the losses from failing the main mission.
Boom!
Behind Winnie's group, gravel and debris exploded from the tunnel wall. A white-haired, cat-eared girl burst out from the rubble. Usually, a girl with this appearance would give off a soft and cute vibe. Unfortunately, this cat girl didn't evoke that feeling. Her fingertips were sharp, the muscles in her legs bulged, and her round, wide eyes were filled with killing intent.
"Found you, nya."
The cat girl shook her slender tail, her two cat ears twitching. Her name was Neferpitou, one of the three Royal Guards directly under the Ant King. Her hobbies were studying the anatomy of other creatures or hunting prey, just like now.
The cat girl didn't care about appearance or figure. Although her upper body was curvaceous, her two thick, muscular thighs destroyed any sense of aesthetics. Those legs were very 'Spartan.'
In the cat girl's view, as long as combat power was strong enough, that was all that mattered. As for the beauty or ugliness of her appearance, she didn't care at all.
"We're dead."
A male contractor stepped back. The reason he dared to infiltrate the palace was entirely because their team had a space-type support, which gave him confidence.
Unfortunately, a one-kilometer teleport couldn't shake off the cat girl's pursuit. Initially, they had clung to the hope that the cat girl wouldn't leave the palace, since the courtyard was already in chaos.
But unfortunately, whether it was the Ant King or the cat girl, neither had encountered humans who were too powerful. They believed humans were a weak species and hadn't taken them seriously.
"Neferpitou... madam, the Ant King is in great danger right now. We can trade a very important piece of information for our lives. As for this treasure chest, we are also willing to return it to its rightful owner."
"The King is in danger now?"
The smile vanished from the cat girl's face. She would not let anything that could threaten the King go unchecked, even if the probability was one in ten thousand.
"That's right. The chairman of the Hunter Association, Netero, is about to arrive. He is the strongest human. If the Ant King falls to his hands..."
"Don't be ridiculous. The King will never be harmed by a human."
A purple aura surged from within the cat girl's body. She became very aggressive and cruel.
"However... I cannot underestimate anything that could threaten the King. Tell me what you know. If it's truly important information, I might let you go. As for the wealth you stole, if the information is important enough, I can reward you with it."
The cat girl's proposal was tempting. She wouldn't dismiss anything that could threaten the Ant King. As for letting these contractors go, that was absolutely impossible. She had already planned to quickly extract the general information from these people, then keep one alive, open their skull, and use her Nen ability to manipulate their brain, thereby confirming the truth of the information obtained.
As for these contractors, they never believed the cat girl would release them. They were buying time, buying time for the space-type contractor in their team. Once that support's ability recovered, they could teleport continuously three to four times.
"Alright. The situation is roughly like this..."
Winnie organized her thoughts. She was very clear about their current predicament. If they fought the cat girl head-on, all of them were dead.
Just as Winnie was about to reveal to the cat girl that the chairman had already gone to find the Ant King, the entire tunnel suddenly shook.
Boom!
Dust fell from the ceiling. Winnie and the others looked up.
"What now?"
The space-type girl in the team even had a tremor in her voice.
Boom, boom, boom!
The ground shook as if the mountains were moving. The cat girl's gaze was fixed firmly above.
After the shaking stopped for a few seconds, a closer, louder rumble came.
With a crash, rubble fell from above. A massive figure landed, blocking the other side of Winnie and the others.
Bang!
The huge figure landed. In the dimly lit tunnel, only a pair of blood-red eyes could be seen.
When Winnie and the others made out the shape of that figure, they all swallowed hard.
"Mi... Minotaur?"
Winnie ignored her teammate's absurd nickname. She stared intently at the creature that resembled a Minotaur. This thing gave her a very dangerous feeling.
Whoosh~
Another figure jumped down into the tunnel from above. A faint red aura emanated from them.
Seeing this figure, Winnie immediately judged that it was a human. No, it was a contractor, a very, very dangerous contractor.
With the cat girl blocking the front and a contractor who couldn't be faced head-on blocking the rear, Winnie felt their situation was even more hopeless.
"Hey, woman over there. That box in your hand... looks pretty good."
Hearing the newcomer's words, Winnie let out a groan. The metal treasure chest in her hand clattered to the ground. She could stall the cat girl for a moment, but she couldn't fool this 'contractor' with unclear intentions.