Chapter 813: Panic Spreads

"Haha, rarity increases value, and the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish. You don't think those heretics will become unsellable in the future, do you? Or do you think we dare not sell or catch them?"

Orario prohibits human trafficking, but that hasn't stopped traffickers; it's just that the ones who got caught were dealt with, while the more capable ones still roam free.

"Compared to listening to you, committing crimes in the face of the wind and getting caught, it's better to hide for a while and act after the wind dies down."

Dikes doesn't care at all whether heretics are accepted by Orario; to him, the more something is forbidden and protected, the easier it is to sell at a high price, so he hasn't stopped the surface's recent acceptance of heretics.

"Wait a while, but you have to be able to afford the wait."

"What do you mean?"

"If your side refuses to listen, we will also cut off supply support to the Artificial Labyrinth. Hah, the curse of the Daedalus bloodline—how long can you withstand it?"

Sarcastic words came from under the black robe, making Dikes's complexion turn extremely grim. He gripped the long spear in his hand, and the surrounding smugglers also had unpleasant expressions, gradually surrounding the black-robed person in the middle.

"What, want to make a move? Don't blame me for not reminding you—only Lv. 5 you, plus this group of stinking fish and rotten shrimp, cannot be my opponent."

"You bastard, who are you calling stinking fish and rotten shrimp—"

The burly bald man who had previously hunted Vini hadn't finished speaking when his head separated from his body and fell down.

Ye En had drawn his sword at some point; his sword-drawing speed was so fast that no one present could react.

Under Dikes's wind goggles, his pupils shrank. He had expected Ye En to be strong, but not this strong.

"Since committing crimes in the face of the wind and being discovered gets you killed, and now refusing your demands also gets you killed, I must decide for my own life."

The opponent's strength did not make Dikes retreat; he raised his spear and aimed it at Ye En.

"Well, well, Dikes, don't be so temperamental~"

Just as the scene was tense and battle was about to break out, a decadent Male God walked over.

"What, Icarus, do you want to interfere with my choice of how to die?"

Dikes glanced sideways at his own god and asked.

"No, no, no, I just don't want the child who always brings me fun to just disappear like this."

"6"

Icarus shrugged, and under his own regiment leader's displeased cold snort, he looked toward the black-robed person over there.

"Ye En, shouldn't Enio have given you a detailed plan?"

"It's impossible to just let my familia's children risk their lives for no reason and serve as stepping stones for the script story he plotted in his heart, right?"

"As long as his plan can guarantee the safety of my familia's children, instead of facing high-risk, even deadly situations."

"I think my Dikes wouldn't be the kind of stupid goods who wants to easily end his own life."

"Adult Enio needs the ability of the Violent Maniac to control magic beasts; he just needs him to control magic beasts to cause some destruction in Orario."

"Hmph, you make it sound simple. Those heretics who went to the surface are now living at Hearth Manor, and which of the Extreme Desire Tyrant, Sword Princess, and Great Severing over at Hearth Manor is easy to provoke? You want me to go control those magic beasts to cause trouble; aren't you just trying to make me walk into a net to die?"

"It doesn't have to be heretics; ordinary magic beasts will do. Of course, you also have some heretic captives here; controlling them to take to the surface Orario is also no problem."

Hearing this, Dikes was stunned, then clicked his tongue.

"According to your plan, to create panic among residents toward heretics in Orario, you probably need to create a magic beast disaster."

"And to create a disaster, the magic beasts going to the surface to cause trouble have weak strength and few numbers; they probably can't even pass the municipal guards."

"But transporting so many magic beasts to the surface, the entrance of the Artificial Labyrinth Knossos on the surface would easily be discovered. You make us bear such great risk but give no benefits at all. Do you think we'll obediently do such things?"

"Remuneration: we will secretly transport two billion Valis of supplies to the place you designate on the surface for you."

"Also, we won't let you do this alone; we will also send experts from the Dark Faction to cooperate with your actions."

"There will be three Lv. 6 experts and a group of Dark Faction experts of varying levels to cover for you and avoid the discovery of the Artificial Labyrinth's surface entrance."

"Hmph, now that's human speech. Why didn't you say it clearly earlier?"

The tense atmosphere was eliminated.

Although someone had already died, now there is Resurrection Magic. As long as one is willing to bear the high resurrection fee and the corpse is preserved intact, bringing the dead back to life is nothing.

"By the way, did Joesen buy resurrection insurance?"

Dikes looked at the headless corpse on the ground and asked directly.

"Seems not."

"Why not?"

"Captain Dikes, we seem to be a smuggling group not tolerated by the Guild, right?"

"Nonsense, I know that. I'm asking why not?"

"We are bad people, and the Guild is official. Us paying money to the Guild—isn't that like a meat bun thrown at a dog, gone and never returning?"

"What stupid goods. We are indeed bad people, but does the Guild know? Not buying resurrection insurance means now resurrecting this bastard requires paying the full amount. You know that, right?"

Dikes cursed as he spoke; he still hoped that in this life, he might be able to break the bloodline curse of building the Artificial Labyrinth.

"Take Joesen's corpse to the Guild. Ye En, you killed him, your side bears the resurrection fee. We'll talk about the rest later."

Ye En:

Just now killing the chicken to scare the monkey was too fast; I should have just cut off one of his arms.

Enio is Dionysus's alias on the dark side. As the great villain in the script he wrote himself who wants to destroy Orario, he usually sends Dark Faction members to do work, and money is needed from top to bottom.

And his money basically comes from the Vineyard operated under his official God of Wine identity, but this wave of plan about to be executed has almost emptied more than half of Dionysus's current familia assets.

"Forget it, spending ten million more is spending ten million more. Anyway, as long as the plan is executed smoothly."

At night, after hearing Ye En's report, Dionysus didn't mind the extra ten million resurrection fee.

"Varetta, long time no see."

"Vitt, I didn't expect you to still be alive."

"Hahahaha, before the darkness envelops the world, how could I be willing to die!"

The red-haired youth laughed and looked to the side.

"Who is this?"

"Revis, a weirdo from inside the Dungeon. She's the guy tagging along with us on this escort mission this time. Who knows if she can kill off some of those hypocritical bastards upholding justice and order on the surface this time around."

"This mission is escort, not killing."

Revis frowned, unable to hold back a reminder. She had been called over by Ye En to help, not to start a head-on war with Orario's Familia forces on the surface.

"Heh————"

Varetta was just about to sneer a few lines when she was interrupted by the red-haired youth beside her.

"The target we need to escort has arrived."

As the words fell, footsteps rang out from the dark Artificial Labyrinth, mixed with the shrieks of monsters.

Dikes appeared in the Dark Faction remnants' field of view, escorting monsters with his men.

"Hey hey hey, weren't you gonna make a big move? Just this many monsters, what's that enough for?"

Seeing the quantity of monsters, Vitt showed some dissatisfaction.

"Enio's plan is to incite panic among Orario's surface residents toward the Xenos. These ordinary monsters and Xenos with disturbed spirits are for dropping on the surface this time to lure the Xenos into a trap————"

"But this seems a bit different from the original plan, right?"

"As long as the achieved effect is the same, or even better, that's fine."

A plan merely floats on the surface; when it comes to actual execution, you still have to look at the actual situation.

And the actual situation is, transporting a large amount of monsters up to Orario carries too high a risk of discovery.

Dikes, based on his understanding of how Xenos cherish their companions, slightly optimized the plan Enio gave him.

"Run, Xenos. Return to your companions' side. Tell your companions who've already gone to the surface that we'll later send the companions still in our hands up to the surface to rampage."

"If the notification is late, and your companions sent to the surface get killed by Orario's Adventurers, that's got nothing to do with me."

Before executing the panic plan, Dikes deliberately released one Xenos, letting it run back to pass the message.

So, when monsters appeared in Orario, and the appearing monsters were about to be done in by the City Guard, Broly and the others, having received advance notice from Gulos' side, arrived at the scene in time, staging a 'spare the monsters under the blade' scene.

"The appearing monsters weren't high Level, nor were they many in number. And this happened to be a street the City Guard patrols daily. When the monsters appeared, patrol personnel stopped them in time. Aside from some buildings being destroyed, there were no human casualties————"

"Mr. Broly, some of these monsters are our Xenos, but some are just ordinary monsters. And whether ordinary monsters or our Xenos, they all seem to have suffered some kind of mind control."

"This is a Curse."

Fels, who had come along, examined things and quickly reached a conclusion.

"Some force is deliberately releasing ordinary monsters in the city, and controlling Xenos to cause trouble, yet deliberately telling us in advance...

Why is that?"

Doubt appeared, but an answer soon followed.

"Those bastards' aim isn't to cause any destruction to the city of Orario, but to destroy the trust in Xenos that Orario residents built up with such difficulty."

After the first incident of monsters appearing in the city, monsters of unknown origin kept popping up here and there in Orario, at various times.

These monsters weren't strong, nor were they many. With the City Guard present, they didn't cause any casualties, but they still left all of Orario somewhat panicked.

Originally Vini and the others could go out normally carrying Xenos certificates, but because this business happened, Orario residents' attitude toward Xenos reversed once again.

Even wanting to explain that the troublemaking monsters appearing in the city weren't Xenos was useless, because the opponent is very cunning, mixing ordinary monsters and Xenos together.

Reed and the others don't want to give up on rescuing companions controlled by the Curse. This leads to the situation where every time monsters appear in the city, they must first subdue the monsters, and only after confirming whether they are ordinary monsters or Xenos controlled by the Curse can they proceed with further handling.

And this inability to decisively slay troublemaking monsters in the city has drawn skepticism from some ordinary Orario residents and Adventurers.

There are even rumors that the monsters appearing in the city are attracted by Xenos, and that to have peace, Xenos must be driven back into the Dungeon.

As the frequency of monsters appearing in the city increased, such obviously problematic talk unexpectedly gradually gained the upper hand and was acknowledged by people.

"Sister, how is it? Caught the guys releasing monsters everywhere?"

"No. Those people releasing monsters are very cautious. Basically shoot and scoot."

"Adi's Sister, people can shift positions, but those monsters can't just appear out of thin air, right?"

"They can't appear out of thin air, but they can be arranged in advance. Some monsters were pre-positioned in certain places before the incident happened.

And some others should be those bastards hiding in the dark causing trouble, shifting through Orario's complex sewer routes."

"Then we just monitor the sewers?"

"Other places are easier to speak of, but Daedalus Street — that place's surface streets alone are a small Labyrinth, and the sewers are even more complex. Those bastards seem to move freely through Orario's entire underground waterway via Daedalus Street's sewer system————"

The Ganesha Familia people aren't just eating dry rice; they did catch some clues, but unfortunately still ran into some problems.

These City Guards find it very hard to pursue a group waging proper guerrilla warfare in the city in terrain the other side knows well.

"Regiment Commander Shakti, an accident happened."

Suddenly, an Amazoness Warrior burst in.

"What happened, Ierta?"

"One of our teams was wiped out."

When Shakti led people to the scene, what she saw was an alley paved with fresh blood and black ash.

Ganesha Familia, a Guard platoon led by a Lv. 4 Adventurer, all died right here.

Moreover, not only were the people killed, the corpses were destroyed with Flame Stones.

"They can be resurrected, just need to repair the remains. But don't worry, this expense, our side will reimburse."

Hearing they could be resurrected, Shakti breathed a huge sigh of relief, and only then began analyzing the scene's situation.

. 888

"From the enemy encounter alert to being killed, only a very short time passed.

The team leader was a skilled hand from our Ganesha Familia.

And people aren't chickens; even on guard, to frontally speed-kill a Lv. 4 and a group of Lv. 3 Adventurers.

"I'm afraid, even being one level higher wouldn't be enough——"

Shakti quickly inferred the opponent's strength from the scene.

"I'm afraid there's a First Rank Adventurer helping on the other side——"

The situation became even more complex.

"Fels, how's the situation?"

"The Hestia Familia and the Loki Familia have both joined the Ganesha Familia's encirclement."

Finn's side encountered the opponent yesterday, but they turned out to be remnants of the Dark Faction.

1

"Didn't leave anyone behind?"

"There are helpers on the other side; the encirclement's forces were too dispersed, and the opponent broke through."

"Although it didn't cause too many casualties, the situation is not optimistic for the Heretic's side. If they can't catch that group of bastards releasing monsters all over the city to cause trouble, the Heretic will probably have to bear the resentment of Orario's citizens."

Uranus sighed somewhat, saying that everything had originally been moving in a good direction, and the Heretic had initially been accepted by the mortals on the surface, but as a result, due to the sabotage of those who don't want to see humans and monsters living in harmony, it has become this chaotic state today.

"Lord Uranus, please don't worry. The three Familias are gradually tightening the encirclement, trapping those troublemakers in the Daedalus District. Monsters no longer appear elsewhere. I reckon it won't be long before that group is found and dealt with."

"I'm just afraid that in the end, those bastards will jump the wall when cornered and fight to the death, causing huge damage to Orario."

"The monster group is almost ready. Then, let them rush out directly from the four sewers underground of Daedalus Street, causing huge destruction and chaos to Orario, then detonate the Flame Stones buried all over Daedalus Street, retreat into the Artificial Labyrinth, and it'll have nothing to do with us."

"Daedalus Street—I remember it's one of the ancestral properties designed and built by your ancestor Daedalus. Dikes, you really can bring yourself to do this!"

"Hmph, if it weren't for Daedalus's bloodline curse, I'd want to destroy the Artificial Labyrinth itself, let alone just the street above built to cover up the construction of the Artificial Labyrinth."

"Coincidentally, destroying the buildings above ground, when rebuilding, I can also smuggle more construction materials into the Artificial Labyrinth."

Revis heard the conversation between Dikes and Varetta, and she couldn't help but remind them: "Although the plan has gone smoothly so far, we still need to be careful when wrapping things up. If our traces are accidentally discovered——"

"Then we'll just fight head-on with whoever discovers our traces."

Varetta said indifferently.

"Among those surrounding us, only the Loki Familia side has three Level 6 Adventurers, and our side also has three Level 6s. In a head-on fight, in terms of top-tier combat power, we're not afraid."

Vitt also said.

"The Loki Familia isn't a problem; the problem is the Tyrant of Excessive Desire on the Hestia Familia side."

Seeing the two Dark Faction remnant leaders looking eager to try fighting, Revis shook her head.

"That's just a newly promoted Adventurer junior. Although she's somewhat famous in Orario now, there's no need to fear her, right?"

"I'm just reminding you: the other side's strength might not be ordinary. Believe it or not, it's up to you."

Revis didn't intend to explain anything to the two of them. If something really happened and that terrifying bastard discovered her traces, she'd just run away directly.

Coincidentally, she could use these two bastards who know nothing as cannon fodder to help her escape and buy time.

As for her, Revis, being a weirdo, she's been able to survive until now mainly by relying on selling out temporary teammates whose strength she doesn't know and who always have inexplicable confidence.

The white-haired ghost from the Twenty-Fourth Floor Labyrinth was like that, and the Polluted Fairy Essence Clone from the Fifty-Ninth Floor Labyrinth was also like that.

Nowadays, she's very steady, clearly aware that the opponent is formidable, and has already made up her mind: as soon as something goes wrong, she'll just run away directly.