Chapter 293: Underground City! Ghouls Everywhere!
Three Kagune blades, each different in appearance, landed on Xia Shang almost simultaneously, emitting sounds similar to metal colliding.
"So hard!" one of them exclaimed in shock, looking at Xia Shang's neck. The sharp blade his right arm had transformed into struck it, actually producing sparks. The sparks were brilliant and dazzling but quickly vanished.
"I didn't expect to run into three S-Rank Ghouls just by walking around. It seems this Underground City truly hides dragons and crouching tigers."
Xia Shang smiled and raised his left hand, gently gripping the blade that had struck his neck.
At this moment, the three realized the newcomer was formidable and possessed considerable strength. They quickly retracted their Kagune and retreated.
However, the ghoul whose blade was gripped by Xia Shang found that even using all his strength, he couldn't pull his Kagune free from the opponent's hand. "Terrifying grip strength like iron pliers... Could this opponent be an SSS-rank Ghoul? No, his body surface isn't covered in Kagune. How could he withstand the slash of the three of us?"
"Unless, at the instant of our attack, the opponent predicted the landing position of the blades in advance, then blocked with Kagune, and retracted the Kagune back into his body after our attack ended."
Cold sweat gradually seeped from the ghoul's forehead. At this moment, his internal thoughts were extremely complex.
"Regardless, this opponent is not someone I can defeat."
"Don't be nervous. Answer a few questions for me, and perhaps I'll let you leave."
*Crack!* Xia Shang squeezed hard, and the scarlet blade in his hand was actually crushed directly by him. With a crisp sound, bright red fragments instantly scattered across the ground.
"How many Ghouls are there in the Underground City?" Xia Shang lowered his hands, standing quietly in front of the ghoul, his tone calm.
"Roughly twenty to thirty thousand."
The ghoul turned his head to look behind him. His two companions who had been with him were now nowhere to be seen.
"Ungrateful bastards," he grumbled inwardly, then looked at the man in front of him, his attitude respectful. "Most of them are native inhabitants and their offspring. Fifty years ago, after being infected by the One-Eyed Ghoul King of the Underground, they were driven underground by the humans from the surface."
"So these buildings are your handiwork?" Xia Shang asked, looking around.
"Mostly. But this isn't the core area of the Labyrinth. The further you go in, the more complete the buildings are."
The ghoul with scarlet eyes raised a hand and pointed in a direction.
"Take me to see."
Facing Xia Shang's request, the ghoul dared not refuse.
"Lord, please follow me." He quickly led the way for Xia Shang, afraid that the other party might kill him if displeased.
The survival environment of Tokyo's 24th Ward is far more brutal than other areas. Since there are no humans in the Underground City, Ghouls can only survive by resorting to cannibalism. Therefore, it is referred to by the CCG as a true human exclusion zone, where even Associate Special Class Investigators are not qualified to enter alone.
Kishou Arima of the CCG, on the other hand, regularly leads teams into the Labyrinth to clear out Ghouls, calling the operation 'Whack-a-Mole'.
Suddenly, Xia Shang stopped.
Not far away, a massive monster was seen gnawing on two corpses on the ground. It had its back to Xia Shang, stood about three meters tall, and had a row of pale spikes of varying lengths growing from its spinal column. Moreover, its bloated muscular surface was split open with four or five gashes. Looking closely, one would find circles of dense sharp teeth inside, resembling the mouthparts of worms.
"It seems your companions were killed." Based on the Kagune distribution and coverage area on the monster's body, Xia Shang could basically conclude that the opponent was a top-tier Half-Kakuja, likely just a step away from becoming a Kakuja.
"Those two stumbled into the Talkative Monster's Feeding Ground. No wonder they were killed."
The ghoul glanced a few times casually, his expression unchanged, as if the death of his companions was just a trivial matter to him. "You don't seem sad."
"What's there to be sad about? This month I've already gone through two groups of companions. S-Rank Ghouls have to team up with other Ghouls to survive." The ghoul seemed to remember something and suddenly warned, "Since I'm an outsider who accidentally escaped in, I can understand everything you say. But the guys living deep in the Labyrinth are different. They don't understand what Kagune is, or what a Ghoul is. They see themselves as humans.
I guess it's possibly because they've never left the Underground City and have no contact with the surface city, so over time, they've forgotten the difference between humans and Ghouls."
"Intruder!" The monster, catching Xia Shang's scent, suddenly turned around, bared its fangs, and abruptly opened its mouth, spitting out a hideous long tongue. It shot towards Xia Shang like a cannonball.
Xia Shang sidestepped to avoid the attack, then swung his hand in a slash.
*Pfft!* In an instant, the long tongue covered in barbs was sliced into two sections, and the cut was extremely smooth, spraying a large amount of blood.
*Hiss hiss!!* The severed tongue that landed by Xia Shang's feet writhed like an earthworm. At the same time, the foul-smelling blood that fell on the ground corroded it with sizzling sounds.
"Such fast reaction speed."
The ghoul beside him hadn't even clearly seen how the long tongue was shot out before the man had severed it.
"I'll kill you! Argh!!"
The monster, in immense pain, charged towards Xia Shang like a raging gorilla, then raised its hands and smashed them down fiercely.
In a flash, Xia Shang leaped up and delivered an extremely heavy whip kick directly to the monster's head. The monster that had just charged forward was sent flying sideways the next second at an even faster speed.
With a loud *boom*, the monster crashed through three huts before finally stopping.
After the sky-high dust settled, the monster lying in the ruins was seen with its head caved in. Yellowish-white liquid was even slowly flowing out from the cracks in its shattered skull.
"Too bad it was a Koukaku."
Xia Shang came before the corpse. After devouring the Kakuhou inside the opponent's body, he felt a little disappointed.
Currently, he had already taken the Ukaku from Kuzen Yoshimura and, after devouring a large number of Ukaku Ghouls, his fusion degree had reached 100%.
Furthermore, a month ago, Matasaka Kamishiro successfully advanced to SSS-rank Ghoul.
And after Xia Shang completed the Ukaku fusion, he fused the Bikaku Kakuhou from Matasaka's body.
Currently, the fusion progress of this ability is 95%.
He estimated it would be completely fused very soon.
In other words, the four pieces of the puzzle were only missing Rize Kamishiro's Rinkaku.
Actually, at a normal speed, Rize Kamishiro would have already advanced to SSS-rank Ghoul. However, creating experimental subjects required a large number of Kakuhou, so Rize Kamishiro's advancement speed slowed down.
Nevertheless, as time passed, Rize was only a hair's breadth away from becoming an SSS-rank Ghoul.
Xia Shang estimated that in at most a week, he would be able to complete the final piece of the puzzle.
"Let's go," Xia Shang said, reminding the ghoul who was still in a daze.
(End of Chapter)