Saul and the other's slowly walked over to the supposed area where the entrance A of the basement was. The area they were approaching had a chain link gate. Saul checked if the gate was locked or not, and it was. However, it was a chain lock which could be easily cut with a bolt cutter.

Saul took out a bolt cutter he brought along for this situation and easily cut it. The chain fell to the ground, and Saul gently pulled the gate open, trying to make as little noise as possible. Luckily it didn't make any loud noises, and the gate slowly opened.

The stairs were old and rickety, made out of reinforced concrete and covered in rust and mold. The place hadn't been taken cared of in years. The old stairs made a creaking sound while the blood wolf's went down the stairs. It was pitch black, so they were forced to rely on flashlights. The stairs were slippery with water dripping from the ceiling. A strange smell of rusty iron, metal and rotting fish filled the air.

This old staircase led all the way down to the basement, and there were no windows in sight. If they tried their best, they could only see the bottom of the stairs.

Once they got to the bottom of the steps, the blood wolf's shined their flashlights around the basement. As expected, they were met with a dingy and filthy place filled with clutter, scrap metal, abandoned machinery, and rusted equipment. The ceiling was high but the floor was filled with holes, and water was seeping in from every corner, the floor being wet and sticky with moisture.

"God, i hate this place."

Nomi commented as she held back the urge to retch at the horrific stench. The smell was so bad it could knock most people out if they breathed it in for too long.

"I agree."

Taguchi had a expression of disgust on his face.

However, Saul looked up and said:

"It' sucks but we have no choice. This is our escape route, we need to clear it first and then move ahead, above."

The blood wolf's nodded, and then began to walk forward, making their way through the damp and cold basement. They were forced to go in single file, because it was too cramped for more than one person to go at a time. However, that was an advantage as it reduced the chance of getting ambushed.

The only sounds that could be heard were their shoes slapping on the wet ground, the dripping of water, and the sound of something dripping and falling to the ground which was getting further away from them.

"Is there a water tank nearby?"

Taguchi asked, as he shone his flashlight on a nearby pipe. Water was dripping from the pipe and falling down the ground.

"That, i don't know."

They continued to walk, for atleast a few more minutes. And then, Saul suddenly signalled for the blood-wolfs to stop, and they stopped, almost simultaneously.

"We are here."

The narrow basement tunnel ended in what appeared to be a underground junkyard, filled with all sort's of rusted metal's.

"a junkyard in a basement?"

Although, it wouldn't be fair to call it a junkyard. A better term for it would've been a dumping ground for broken factory machine's and wasted scraps. Saul pointed the flashlight at the pile of scrap's, but because the flashlight was rather weak, it only shine'd on the closest ones. They couldn't see anything past a certain distance, not to mention that the piles of scrap acted like a wall.

"We need to make sure there are no one here, first."

Saul said as he signalled to two of the blood wolf's to go check out the area. Nomi, Taguchi nodded in response and they quickly walked around the junk, searching the area. Fortunately, they didn't find anything on this side and they gave a sign to Saul, giving him the go ahead.

"All clear."

Taguchi said.

However, the response from Nomi's side was:

"what the..fuck.."

Saul's face twisted in uneasiness after he heard those words.

"What is it?"

"Come have a look, you have to see this."

Nomi came over to them while holding his flashlight. Saul walked up to the corner of the dumping ground and looked over the junk's. His eyes went wide when he saw what made Nomi say "Fuck."

There was something amongst the junk piles. Something that didn't belong there, something that looked like a organic.

Bodies.

Human bodies.

Tons of them.

At a first glance, it just looked like a bunch of black dots but closer inspection revealed the gruesome truth. Most of the bodies looked fresh, but there were a few that were rotting. At first you could not see the features on the bodies, but the closer one got in the closer the detail's of the bodies could be seen . The bodies were pale white, except around the eyes and mouths which were dark red, most likely from blood pooling.

They were thrown out like garbage or thrown on top of each other. It looked like they were thrown in a very haphazard way, as if not a single care was taken.

And the smell. Good god the smell. It was a revolting stench which could not be described in words. It was the putrid stench of decaying human flesh.

"God...which mercenary group was responsible for the security of this factory again?"

That was a reasonable question Saul just asked. A mercenary group hired by someone like the Kusonoki conglomerate would not allow something like this to happen in a place they controlled, and if they were responsible, they would be severely punished. It seems the Kusonoki conglomerate had hired a bunch of people from a "rough group" this time.

"rough groups" are not officially registered with the central mercenary company, which means that they can disregard laws and rules and do whatever they like. In actuality, the mercenaries in these groups are no different from mercenaries who commit crimes. But the companies are also to blame, since they hire and provide support to these mercenaries, which means that they are still able to carry out illegal activities without worrying about being punished.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

However, there was also another aspect to it.

The reason why major corporations like the Kusonoki conglomerate hired these "rough groups" in the first place is because they are cheap, and they'll work without asking much questions if the work is borderline illegal.

This was basically the unofficial part of the mercenary world.

In the first place, the works which mercenaries did was stretching the law to begin with. With the backup of the mercenary company, people could submit their request and if it wasn't something overly illegal, it would be done. That's why some people viewed mercenaries as shady people.

"..What the hell..what kind of sick people did the Kusonoki conglomerate hire to guard this place."

Taguchi exclaimed as he covered his mouth, clearly showing his disgust. Nomi did a similar thing. Only Saul seemed to be calm, almost like he was expecting something like this.

"Well, looks like we are being welcomed with open arm's."

It was a macabre welcome indeed.

Despite saying something like that, he made sure to avoid getting to close to the bodies.

"Let's stay far away from them, unless you want to vomit your breakfast's out."

"Y..yeah."

Nomi said as they walked away.

It took a while for them to look around, and once they were done.

"Well, this place is secured. Shall we move on?"

"Yeah, we'll move on."

Saul replied, while keeping his eyes away from the bodies.

Everyone nodded, and with that, they left the area. They walked through the tunnels for another five or ten minutes, the only sound that could be heard was the squelching of their feet on the wet ground. Then, they came to an another set of stairs, which were in better condition than the stairs they came from.

This was the set of stairs which will lead them above to the first floor of the factory.

Saul climbed up the stairs first, followed by the others. The stairs were sturdy enough even though they looked rickety. Once everyone was above, they exited through a door in the corner of a empty room.

They were finally in their target area.

The room they were in was dark, but once they illuminated the room with their flashlights, it turned out to be an old office. There was nothing remarkable in this room. There was a small window on the back wall which was covered in dust.

There was a thick layer of dust covering everything, and a strong stench of something foul lingered in the air. There was also some equipment and furniture lying around but they were in bad shape.

The only thing that remained was an old looking wooden desk.

Looking around at the exit of the room, Saul could see two mercenaries standing guard.

The two mercenaries were average in height and weight, with plain faces and hair. They were dressed in military gear. They had assault rifles, but they looked like cheap quality weapons the kind you could buy in the black market.

They were having a conversation together, so they were not really focused on their job. Their attention was focused on the conversation. However, this also made them easy to takedown.

Saul gestured for the blood wolf's to stay put. Saul slowly, quietly crept up behind them. Then, in a swift motion, he placed one hand over the men on the right mouth's, preventing him from making any loud sounds, and with the other hand, he pulled out a knife and placed it on the man's neck, cutting his carotid artery.

While Saul was killing the one of the right, Taguchi took out his sniper, aiming for the man on the left, delivering a clean headshot as a bullet pierced through the man's brain.

The man on the right, whose carotid artery was cut immediately started to choked to death as blood filled his mouth. He tried to struggle against Saul, but Saul, not letting go of his hold, tightened his grip on the man's mouth and kept his arm in place. The man's struggle gradually weakened, and after a minute, he died.

Saul then let go off the now dead body as it fell to the ground. Taguchi lowered the sniper as the other man slipped down due to the wall and sat, his head hanging low as blood poured out of it.

Taguchi then walked up to the two dead body's and quickly frisked them.

"These things are useless."

Taguchi said as he held up one of the weapons they carried while looking at it with a disdainful look.

Taguchi then checked their clothes if they had anything else on them, and after a few minutes, he found something.

"Look's like they aren't completely useless."

He said as he took out a key card.

"They're only useless because their weapons are disabled right now. Say your thanks to Luna."

"Thanks." Saul said as he took the card from Taguchi.

"Where is Sato-san? Wasn't he supposed to be coming in before us?"

"He probably is on the other side of the factory, we just need to keep ascending, we'll meet on the third floor anyways."

Saul put the card into his pocket.

"Let's keep moving, it's not safe to stay in the open, like right now."

"Right."

Everyone said as they stood up and left the room. Once they walked outside of the room, the blood wolf's noticed how huge the first floor of the factory was. It was still old and rickety, the floor which was cracked concrete was covered in a thick layer of dust and extremely old lights hanging from the ceiling were going on and off.

The place was incredibly large, and at first glance it seemed to be never ending, even the ceiling was high enough to have dust swirl in the air, which made it difficult to look up at it.

After walking for what felt like forever, Saul stopped all of a sudden.

He could see a staircase that was covered in blood, this was the staircase which went to the second floor. Beside the staircase was another staircase which was probably went to the third floor. Saul could also see a metal door which had a sign on it: "Guard Room" Saul looked at the blood covered staircase and the sign on the door and let out a deep sigh.

"F-fuck..."

As soon as he said that, multiple guards came out from hiding behind old machines.

About four or five people were behind two large machines near the staircase and three more men were behind boxes on the opposite side.

All of them were carrying assault rifles. However, unlike the two which they killed earlier, they were more disciplined. Saul was a bit taken a back, when he saw them coming out, but he quickly composed himself and took one hand from behind him, signaling others of their locations.

Taguchi and Nomi saw him, taking over behind old machinery. Taguchi put out his sniper rifle, loading a bullet in and taking aim.

While, Nomi took out a pistol, also taking aim.

They could've just charged directly at them since Luna had destoryed their firewall and was in their system, which should've stopped their weapons from working however that wasn't tested yet.

The mercenaries on the opposite side took their aim at them as well, however Saul didn't bother to hide. He dropped the knife which he was holding, raiding his arms up in the air.

"Come on, no need to be so serious."

He said, his voice echoing around the area.

It was a tense atmosphere. However, there was a moment of hesitation in the mercenaries as well. Then, a guy from the opposite side of the staircase said:

"Who the hell are you people?"

"We're all family."

Saul said, his eyes briefly darting to Nomi who was pulling something out of her backpack.

"Well, I didn't ask for your life story." The guy grumbled, he looked like he was the leader of the group. A bead of sweat ran down his forehead. He was clearly in high alert.

"Nomi, BRING OUT THE BIG GUNS!"

Saul shouted, immediately as he did, shots were fired from where Nomi would've been standing at, a round was launched at lighting speed towards the mercenary talking to Saul, piercing his body and as it did, it exploded.

The blast was loud and filled with the smell of metal. The noise from the explosion and the loud sound of blood splattering against the factory floor echoed around the entire first floor. The loud noise was shocking, and the other's were dumbfounded for a moment, with their ears almost bleeding and ringing from the explosion.

"Good job!"

Saul exclaimed as he looked at the bloody body.

However, it wasn't like only one dead would be enough to guarantee their safety. Nomi continued firing, explosion's going off one after the other, flesh flying into the air and splattered on the ground.

As the dust began to settle, Saul looked at Nomi who was holding an J-r400.

It was a gun which was spray painted pink by her, it held only big rounds which would explode immediately upon contact with a body.

"That.."

Taguchi was at a lost for words.

Nomi gave him a smug grin.

"That was awesome?"

"Yeah, real awesome."

Taguchi said, sarcasm clear in his voice and his eyes going back to look the carnage.

"Come on, I've been wanting to use this since our mission started."

Nomi exclaimed.

Saul didn't say anything; he just walked over to Nomi. Once he was close to her, he held her shoulder's tightly.

"Good job, however you should reload them. This definitely caught everyone's attention."

"Hehehe, plenty to go around."

She smiled and reloaded the rounds, it could hold twelve at once, the original capacity was only six however she had tweaked it a little, having parents who used to work for TecCorp is a massive advantage.

But Saul was right. The loud explosion had alerted everyone of their presence. It alerted almost everyone in the area, and for that reason, the blood wolf's had to hurry up to make their next step, because soon they would be surrounded by people. Once Nomi was done, Saul let go off her.

"Well, what're we waiting for. Hurry up."

He said as he began running.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.