Chapter 140: Gathering the Scattered Central Army (3)
Chapter 140: Gathering the Scattered Central Army (3)
The Central Army officer failed to withstand and endure Iron’s brutal threat and was forced to spit out everything that he knew.
The laboratories hidden in the Center were places where orphans, illegal slaves, and people with huge amount of debt were tinkered with and experimented on. There was one laboratory in areas that were marked with a unique symbol.
However, since the officer was in the lowest position, he did not know any other detailed information, especially about the whereabouts of each laboratory.
“That’s everything I know!”
Iron frowned at the Central Army officer’s words.
He clearly knew that those who knew a lot of information had left and returned to the capital while abandoning the rest of their men. That was the only reason why he believed that this officer knew nothing more.
He did not know any of the officers that hid deep inside this laboratory and the thought of at least saving one flashed in his head for a moment but he still shook his head. This was because he believed that it was better to kill them off neatly than keep them alive for them to just do the same thing in the future. So he did just that before turning towards the soldiers.
“Do any of you know where the rest of the surviving Central Army units are?”
The eyes of the soldiers stared at Iron as they started talking one by one.
The Central Army had always allocated their units to bases so there were definitely bases that were still yet to be attacked by the Death Corps. He thought that he would be able to find other laboratories once he looked around such places.
“From now on, you will be absorbed into my troops. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Good. There seems to be some supplies left in the village, go and bring them.”
The Central Army troops moved to gather the supplies in the village at Iron’s orders. They only collected useful items before getting reorganized.
Iron called for his subordinate officers while the Central Army troops were being reorganized.
“We will work around here for a while.”
Everyone nodded at Iron as they looked at the map that was spread out on top of the desk. With the village where the laboratory was located placed at the center, Iron marked the areas in the surrounding areas where villages, towns and cities where the Central Army troops were possibly located.
“We will search the area around this village from now on. The rangers will have a lot to do.”
The rangers’ leader, Nyx Cole, brightened at Iron’s words.
He and his unit had been pushed back by the knights and the assault units. But this time, the rangers were going to show their specialty.
“You will need to scout the areas where the Death Corps are flocking and search for the Central Army’s surviving troops. It’s going to be tough. Can you do it?”
“We will do it.”
“Good. You have to scout and search from this area to that area for a week.”
“I will make sure to carry out your orders perfectly.”
Iron sent Nyx Cole, who’s eyes were shining brightly, with his words of trust in him.
“Cardro.”
“Yes!”
“Temporarily command the airships and prepare for emergencies. Work with Carl in this operation and transport the Central Army troops that will be found by the rangers.”
“Yes, sir!”
Cardro bowed his head upon receiving Iron’s command and went out of the room.
“Ariel, you and I will prepare for any state of emergencies.”
“Yes, sir!”
“And tell the remaining leaders to train the Central Army troops.”
Iron looked at the map after giving Ariel his orders.
The outskirts of the Center were the areas that were close to the North. And from what he heard from the Western Commander, the area where the Central Army Commander was said to be isolated was in the Southwest.
Iron drew a straight line from where they were to where the Central Army Commander was currently isolated and trapped.
“We should gather as many troops as possible.”
It would be difficult for them to change the situation and help the Central Army Commander with just their brigade-level troops. At best, they would just be able to deal with the Death Corps with leisure.
But Iron had no intentions of stopping at just that. So, he planned to gather the scattered Central Army troops and fill in enough numbers for division-level troops at the minimum and corps-level troops at the maximum.
These troops would then be the one that he would use to deal with the Death Corps. If he had his holy power’s sanctuary added on top of that, then it would be possible for them to deal a heavy blow even if the Central Army troops were still disorderly.
“Then…”
Iron lifted his pen and tapped at the place where the capital was marked.
“I’ll find out what you guys are planning and what you’re going to do.”
Iron mumbled to himself as he added the plans of finding out the secrets of the Imperial Family to his agenda.
The Empire that was still holding out despite the fact that it should have long collapsed.
He believed that the secret of the Imperial Family was playing a part behind the scenes and was the reason why the Empire was still able to hold out. And for him to know their secret, he had to use as much effort as he could to enter the capital. Of course, his first agenda on the list was robbing them of their laboratories.
Although they had carried out and transported most of the things in the laboratories, they still left various clues in their haste, ranging from the documents to the equipment that they had used, all of these were left behind. They even left traces of their discarded experiments which made it possible for Iron to infer about the experiments they were conducting.
“Are they really human?”
Iron couldn’t help but mutter these words as he looked around the underground laboratory.
He could see hastily discarded wastes at the fifth and lowest basement floor of the laboratory. The problem was that most of the flesh that was left here was not from monsters but from humans.
Iron’s expression turned cold when he saw the human parts scattered all over the place. Their state indicated that they had experienced a brutal death from the experiment. He wondered if the people who did the experiment in this place were the same human beings as them.
“Ugh!”
Several wizards, who followed behind him, couldn’t stomach the scene in front of them. Even Ariel had a stiff expression on her face.
From what they could infer from the discarded pieces of papers on the ground, it seemed like the experiment that was mainly conducted in this laboratory was focused on human regeneration.
They could tell that this experiment was being conducted for a long time just by seeing the words ‘213th experiment to upgrade and improve the regeneration ability’ on the scattered documents. However, even if the words written included the words improve and upgrade, the flesh that was discarded were stretched and swollen to the limits. It seemed like whoever was under the table had suffered from excessive regeneration.
“The Center… has been doing this for a long time?”
Despite Ariel’s question, Iron remained silent as he stared at the chunks of flesh scattered on the ground.
The chunks of flesh were rotten and decayed. It seemed like the Death Corps attacked this place to insert the black beads into these chunks of flesh and turn them into zombies. It seemed like they wanted them to get the revenge that they badly wanted to incur on the bastards that put them under the table and made them undergo these terrible experiments.
Reaching this point, he had no choice but to wonder…
‘Are the Death Corps the villains?’
The justified cause of the beings who wanted to take revenge against the Center, who used innocent lives for their experiments.
vs
The ‘evil’ attached to these beings that those who did not know anything had labeled them with.
These two thoughts were fighting and clashing inside Iron’s head.
The main culprits were the Central Government and the Imperial Family but for the beings of Death that had fought against the Empire for a long time, the Empire itself was the devil.
“The Center has crossed the line.”
Iron looked coldly at the chunks of flesh scattered in the ground as he murmured to himself.
He had also done a lot of experiments in his previous life.
He did cruel and brutal experiments on monsters to learn more about their weaknesses and find ways to effectively counter them. However, those experiments were justified. He had done those cruel experiments to protect the North. And since the monsters had also brutally killed and tricked the humans, they could rationalize that those experiments were for a justified cause.
‘This isn’t it.’
This thought flashed in Iron’s head as he gritted his teeth in anger the moment he realized what atrocities that Center had done.
They had experimented with their own kind. This was already breaching human rights but what was worse was the fact that they experimented on children. There would probably be some room for understanding if they had used criminals for their experiments. However, from what he had heard, they had deceived and attracted the innocent for their experiments. Doing such a grave sin gave them no room for any arguments.
The Western Commander had told him that the Imperial Family was a necessary evil. However, the question ‘Is the Imperial Family really necessary?’ was a question that continued to linger in his head.
And today, he finally found the answer to his question.
‘We don’t need the Imperial Family.’
No matter their reason for needing the Imperial Family, he would wipe them out the moment he got the chance.
The more he fought against the other races, the more he understood their stance. He had experienced being abandoned with the North in his previous life so he could sympathize and understand the pain of these beings who had been abandoned and betrayed.
And because of this, his hatred for the Center grew even more.
They had called them a ‘necessary evil’ but he would rather extinguish and eradicate this necessary evil than deal with a bigger disaster.
‘Disaster will already befall us since the God Game has started.’
Iron calmed his raging thoughts as he dragged the chunks of flesh from the lowest floor of the laboratory above ground.
The eyes of the troops that saw this scene shook wildly. They all had eyes and they could clearly tell that these chunks of flesh came from humans.
“Prepare a funeral. They are innocent victims so make sure that you do your best to honor them.”
The soldiers’ expression turned firm and rigid as they gathered the chunks of flesh in one place and prepared for a funeral as per Iron’s orders.
They gathered logs and branches and lit up a fire. They couldn’t bury them in the ground in case the Death Corps used them and caused problems so the only way that they could honor their deaths was burning their flesh and cremating them.
The entire troops watched as the flesh of the humans and monsters that were intertwined together burned. They all turned solemn as they whispered their prayers and words of comfort for the hard lives that they had experienced.
Iron and his Special Mobile Unit moved earnestly the day after they completed the funeral procedure in the laboratory.
To fix the distorted and disorderly thinking of the messy Central Army troops, they began to roll them hard.
They also began their search for other laboratories in the villages scattered in their vicinity. And as the rangers expanded the radius of their operation, they found a place where surviving Central Army troops were located.
The hiding troops were rescued through the efforts of the airship fleet, the exploration of the drake units and the detailed combing and scouting of the rangers.
“Found survivors in ××× Village. Requesting for medical support.”
“We discovered a large group of the Central Army troops in a mountain 60km south of the base. They had a battle with the Death Corps but they won without much damage and are currently joining us.”
“We discovered an alliance of survivors 50km east of base. It will be difficult for them to join us on ground. Requesting for an airship.”
“We discovered some of the Central Army troops southwest of base. One of the officers specifically knew about a laboratory.”
The officers busily moved around to deal with the reports that came in from all over the place.
The wider the area that they covered, the more troops they needed. In the end, the Central Army troops that were training under them also began to move.
Iron dispatched the Central Army troops to cover any close distance request while his Special Mobile Unit used the airships and expanded their scope of operations.
“Please get some rest.”
“I’m still alright. I heard that they found another laboratory around here?”
Iron waved his hand at Ariel’s concern as he pointed at the map.
“Yes.”
“Hoo… This is the third, right? There’s a lot.”
Although the area that they were searching was not that large, they had already discovered three laboratories. The problem was that they had to fight against the Death Corps each and every time. After all, they were also aiming for these laboratories like them.
However, compared to other places, they did not fight that desperately. It seemed like their enemies had heard rumors that they held funerals and honored the victims whenever they robbed a laboratory. Some of them had also watched from afar and disappeared after seeing them cremate the bodies of the victims.
“Bring me the information that you got from the laboratory.”
Ariel bowed her head after looking at Iron restlessly.
“Ask away if you have questions.”
“That… are you going to use the materials that we have collected.”
Iron continued to connect and piece together the torn papers before staring at the restored experiment materials. There was a lot of experimental data left in the laboratory that they had recently discovered. They did not know if it was because the Shadows did not visit the laboratory or if they were in a haste so they only took the extremely important information. But a lot remained and got into their hands.
Iron restored all of these data and collected them along with the data that had been discarded in the laboratory that they had first discovered. Using these data would result in a huge backlash against the Center.
“We should gather as much as possible first… I’ll have to think about whether I should use it or not. Either way, this is a problem that I can’t decide by myself anyway, right?”
Ariel nodded heavily at Iron’s answer.
“Hoo… If you’re done looking, then go outside and get some rest.”
“…Yes.”
Iron looked at the experimental data after Ariel had nodded lightly and went outside.
The Empire might collapse the moment he used this information. Because of that, he won’t be able to use it hastily. However, one thing was certain, he would definitely be able to use it someday. Iron did not have a shred of loyalty to the Empire so he did not have any misgivings in using this information. The moment the Center showed signs of collapse, he would use this data to wedge it deeper. But for now, he would gather them one by one.
“The day this information is revealed… is the day that my promise with the witch will be fulfilled.”
He had a contract with the witch that still remained in his heart. And he could feel that the day that he would fulfill this contract was not that far away.
Bathump!
His heart thumped loudly as if it was looking forward to the day where he could fulfill the contract and promise that he had made to the witch.