Chapter 173: Don’t Mess with My Food 6
Lirisia, after extracting the memories of the three men, took an impromptu night stroll to the nearest urban area.
Yeonseo might later get angry about her leaving the dungeon carelessly, but if she was trying to stop the elves from getting hypnotized or brainwashed or whatever, she’d likely let it slide.
The streets of the city were bustling as always, with countless people leading their lives, hurrying past Lirisia with their own stories and reasons.
Street vendors selling their goods.
D-rank Hunters heading home after a day of dungeon expeditions.
People returning to their families after a regular workday.
Young couples and friends heading to restaurants, laughing and enjoying their day off.
To everyone, this peace was natural—this routine life seemed self-evident.
Yet, just beyond the fences encircling the city, a step off the safety roads, there was a constant threat of attacks by goblin or orc colonies that roamed outside the gates.
Still, people believed their world to be very peaceful, relying wholeheartedly on the awakened ones to protect them, which sustained the balance in this age of Hunters.
The social atmosphere in other countries or cities was likely no different.
Popular Hunters were idolized like celebrities or movie stars, protecting humans as the price of their fame.
On the genre Hunter gallery, millions from home and abroad gathered daily to share Hunter-related trivia and topics.
This society was stable; monsters were mere mobs to be consumed as entertainment, and even when dangerous dungeons threatened, people trusted the Hunters to save them.
That’s what the government said.
That’s what society claimed.
That’s what the Hunters asserted.
In 2088, this world of Hunters and gates was bright and peaceful, almost artificial, as if created by a playful child, with people leading orderly lives over a clumsy harmony.
But where there is light, shadows inevitably form, and this clumsy peace came with countless side effects.
Some people were simply doing business; some were working hard as Hunters; some led peaceful lives, yet others weren’t even granted the opportunity for such lives, and there were those who voluntarily cast aside peace, desiring chaos and destruction.
While Hunters shone like stars, adored by the masses, countless unregistered awakened ones lurked, exploiting others’ blood and sweat through illegal activities, wielding bloodstained blades behind the façade of peace.
In the shadows, those unblessed harbored resentment toward the privileged, eager to pull them down.
Many might believe this world is governed by laws and regulations, but in reality, fists are closer than the law, blades closer than fists, and some abilities of awakened ones, meant to take human lives, didn’t even need a physical form.
In other words, there were those blessed by awakening who mocked and cursed humanity for their own gain.
“Ah, here we are?”
[New Hunters F&B]
The company name listed on the elves' supply delivery list was something else entirely.
It was something along the lines of Samyang Processed Foods Land, but the company she found following the men’s memories had a different name.
'Maybe the higher-ups gave those lackeys fake information out of fear of leaks?’
Lirisia tilted her head in thought for a moment.
Lirisia’s black hair swayed gently in the breeze for a few minutes.
In the end, Lirisia, having found no clever solution, decided to go inside anyway.
She thought it wasn’t too late to investigate the interior and draw a conclusion afterward.
Even if someone here planned to hypnotize other elves and capture them, there were still three elves in the dungeon likely torturing those men for information by now.
No matter how effective hypnosis was, elves with powers on par with an A-rank Hunter wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice.
“Hmm, is it here?”
The building looked quite modern.
Had it been built recently?
Zzzt!
“Oh, an electric fence?”
The exterior was spotless, and an electric fence surrounded it to prevent monster access. However, the high-powered, high-voltage fence seemed to ward off not only monsters but people, as it enclosed the entire perimeter rather than just the outskirts.
Of course, with her physical abilities, Lirisia could easily leap over the fence, but she enjoyed the tingling sensation on her skin and walked through it.
Hmm… so thrilling...
“Stop right there.”
“Hmm?”
Oh, you arrived sooner than I thought.
I mean, I’m just here to complain about the bad ingredients, so why is an awakened one here pointing a sword at me?
Ordinarily, a company would just hire a private security firm or guards, but an awakened one in full combat mode approaching the moment I crossed the entrance? That was a suspicious sign.
“This is private property. Turn back immediately…”
The guard trying to block Lirisia suddenly realized she was standing beside him.
‘When did she get here…?’
He couldn’t understand how the woman, who’d just leapt over the electric fence with her bare body, had suddenly moved to his side. But that question didn’t last long.
Crunch!
“Ghh, guhuh!?”
[Memory Devour]
Lirisia’s tentacle snaked around and swallowed the guard’s head as if to devour him, and in an instant, the guard’s memories flowed into her mind.
Overwhelmed by the strange yet terrifying sensation of his memories being devoured, the guard quickly fainted.
At first, when she tried devouring memories from others, her head almost exploded from consuming the entirety of decades of useless memories, but by now, Lirisia could selectively take only the memories she needed.
“Hmm, I see. A curse practitioner… planning to bring about perceptual modification and cognitive decline at the same time… And what’s the end goal here? If the guild or government is spearheading this, they might go after the elven leaders. If it’s a crime organization or individuals, it’s closer to human trafficking. Oh, not even a local? And not even just a guard?”
Lirisia chuckled, amused to find that the guard she had just devoured memories from wasn’t even Korean.
The process of devouring memories from someone gave them the sensation of having their brain drained, a painful and tingling experience.
The guard couldn’t even die nor call for help, though he desperately tried to resist, but his efforts appeared to Lirisia as mere twitching of his fingers or eyelids.
“Let’s see here. San Guild, San Guild? Now who might that be?”
“Guh, gahh…”
“Oh, is this guy done?”
Any more memory extraction would leave him with permanent brain damage or kill him outright due to her memory devouring process.
Letting go of the guard’s head, Lirisia hummed a tune as she entered further.
One, two… fourteen presences just at the entrance.
Fourteen awakened ones just at a food supply company… now that’s suspicious.
“So anyway, I told their team... who’s there?!”
Fourteen… no, definitely more than twenty.
Not knowing who her target was, she needed to end this quickly.
Lirisia gathered a miracle in her hand to assert her control over this place.
“O children of insects who walk on two legs.”
Creak
Creak
Creak-creak
The sound of insect joints echoed.
The sigil of Familiar Summoning, etched with the vitality and malevolent energy in Lirisia’s body, began to draw itself without a brush.
Knowing Shia’s nature, she certainly hadn’t given that Yane proper food.
On the surface, she seemed gentle and had the appearance of a mentally challenged child, but though she couldn’t be compared to Lirisia or Shia, her essence was a monster consuming malevolent energy.
Perhaps what Yane truly needed to eat was humans.
And today, there was a chance for her to taste human flesh.
“Come forth. Your feast awaits.”
[Flesh Miracle - Familiar Summoning]
Spines transformed into blades. A human-shaped head emerged from the familiar’s sigil, letting out a scream of joyful hunger…
“Bueh-ing!” (No! No! I’m busy!)
“What?”
And she was rejected outright.
Before Lirisia could even ask why Yane hadn’t come out, Yane ignored her call and disappeared, leaving Lirisia staring blankly at the sigil inscribed on the ground.
‘Uh, um… what is this.’
Last time, she had appeared without complaints, without any refusals. Yane was neither weak nor frail, so Lirisia had trusted her to handle this cleanup, but Yane only poked her head out from the sigil, grumbled her disapproval, and vanished again.
“…..”
"Is the game over?"
Ugh, how embarrassing…
Lirisia let out a short sigh.
I mean… even if my first impression was messed up, I’m still the Shia of a parallel world, but to be so cleanly rejected by my familiar’s summoning was beyond imagination.
"A Tamer?"
"…Restrain her."
"Don’t kill her. We need to find out who she is and where she’s from."
"Can I have some fun with her first?"
"Do as you like. Just keep her alive…"
With a sigh, Lirisia pulled out a tentacle from her waist.
The unidentified awakened ones, who had been leisurely chatting among themselves, noticed her pulling out the tentacle and immediately shifted to a defensive stance.
Although they’d talked about having some fun, it was clear they seriously intended to capture Lirisia.
But it was already too late.
As Lirisia sensed their increased attention on her, she slightly crouched, placing one hand on the ground, assuming the stance of a runner at the starting line.
Bang!!
"!?"
With a light push off her legs, Lirisia’s body shot forward like a cannonball. She grabbed one of the awakened men by the head and slammed him into the wall, devouring his memories as she did so.
She hadn’t intended to eat his memories; it just happened because of the position and posture.
'Let’s see, so he’s hired from an awakened security firm. Hm, nothing special, but Shanxi Province, Shanxi Province… oh, and here’s talk of the San Guild again.'
"Restraint failed! Kill her!"
"Everyone, form ranks!"
The awakened ones, realizing they were under attack, immediately used their abilities to eliminate the intruder.
One breathed fire, and another sent a blade of wind slicing toward Lirisia.
However, the fierce fire merely left a bit of soot on her clothes, unable to burn her, and the razor-sharp wind, which could cut through anything like a chainsaw, didn’t even scratch her skin.
Lirisia didn’t even seem to realize she’d been attacked, continuing to hold the head of the first man she had knocked out, savoring his memories.
"Gah… urgh…"
"Ah, this one’s no good."
Startled by the unexpected attack from such a powerful being, the awakened ones fell back, forming a perimeter around Lirisia.
Judging by their response, they’d faced human opponents before.
Otherwise, not many awakened ones could form a perimeter this quickly.
Before the awakened man she’d been devouring memories from could die, Lirisia let go and slowly turned to look behind her.
Click, click.
"Just to be sure, let me ask."
"......"
"Anyone want to confess with a 'I’m sorry, I was wrong'?"
"Kill her!"
"Hyaah!"
With that, the awakened ones who had surrounded her charged at Lirisia.
They no longer relied on their abilities or mana to attack.
They drew weapons that looked quite costly, intending not just to subdue but to kill Lirisia outright.
'What a pity.'
Contrary to her words, Lirisia twisted her lips into a wicked smile and lazily wiggled her finger.
Boom!
"Urgh!"
"…!"
Lirisia’s tentacles burst from the ground, lashing in all directions to block their approach, and two unlucky men closest to her took a blow to the stomach, knocking them out.
In the process, a few ribs shattered like sugar cubes, but she paid it no mind.
The form didn’t matter—Lirisia didn’t necessarily have to grab someone by the head to devour memories. As long as she made contact, whether with a tentacle or her hand, she could consume memories, so as she watched the other Hunters heighten their wariness toward her, she examined the memories of the two fallen men.
These guys were nothing special.
They were just here because they were paid and promised jobs; they did whatever they were told. Even in their memories, those who hired them were from the San Guild, and they had memories of capturing or selling humans.
There was no explicit mention of the San Guild, but the fact that they were from Shanxi Province in China made it easy to deduce.
"Kill her!"
"As an intruder, treat her as if you’re ready to die!"
Lirisia hadn’t yet finished reading their memories, but the awakened ones were approaching faster than expected, so she retracted her tentacles and tackled the man closest to her head-on.
As Lirisia rammed her shoulder into the awakened one like an iron mountain, his bones crunched, collapsing as he hit the ground. Another attacker lunged with a blade wrapped in whirling wind aimed at her neck, but she grabbed his wrist with her bare hand, squeezing down.
"Gahhh! My hand…!"
"Oh, sorry."
It was easiest to subdue an armed opponent by breaking their wrist.
She twisted his wrist a full 180 degrees and applied pressure, and the mana weakly reinforcing his body shattered in an instant, causing immense physical and mental strain on its owner.
Honestly, she hadn’t planned to twist it so severely.
She’d intended only to make him drop the sword, but her body, now entirely different from when she was the Witch of the Dark Star, was oddly tricky to control.
Not my fault. Your body is just too weak.
Whether it mattered or not, Lirisia, like in a waltz, swung him around by his wrist like a mace, hurling him into another man.
"Guh!"
While one was struck by his flailing comrade, another awakened man rushed at her with a fist reinforced by fire and stone, solid as if molten lava had cooled into rock.
'Is that about A-rank? Not bad.'
She hadn’t fully adjusted to this Hunter world, but back in her previous world, someone of his strength would’ve been a formidable opponent.
"Oh, so scary."
Despite her words, Lirisia maintained a playful expression.
She casually extended her fist to meet his. As their fists collided, the reinforced magic surrounding his arm shattered like glass.
Crack!
"Aagh!"
But like glass, the shards of broken magic reversed and embedded themselves into his fist, leaving his arm shredded within moments.
The phenomenon occurred when one struck a far sturdier material while reinforcing one’s body with mana; the magic resonated and shattered in a web of cracks.
The excessive shock spread indiscriminately, crushing both Lirisia’s arm and the man’s arm, but within less than a second, her torn flesh regenerated as if time had reversed.
It was a scene of regeneration beyond simple healing, as if time itself was rewinding.
'Being in a human body certainly reduces my strength compared to before…'
Still, this body seems serviceable for now.
Seeing A-rank awakened ones fall without even putting up a proper fight, the guards hesitated to continue their assault, exchanging uneasy glances.
Not only was she effortlessly defeating A-ranks, but despite her arm being shredded like paper, her face showed no sign of pain. The sight of her arm regenerating instantly drained their fighting spirit.
Meanwhile, Shia was devouring the memories of the fallen, gradually uncovering the truth behind this suspicious food supply company.
"Let me ask once more."
"……"
"Gulp…"
"Anyone willing to confess with a 'I’m sorry, I was wrong'?"
"I… I…”
“Me…”
“I…”
“No one, huh? Typical of awakened ones entangled with crime syndicates… How admirably dedicated and resolute!”
"?"
"W-what…?"
“Why are you not even waiting for an answer…!"
The awakened ones finally understood.
The black-haired woman had never intended to let any of them leave this place alive.