The Devil's Evolution Catalog

“Ahem… So, I have a mission for you all.” The conversation suddenly turned serious as Aunty Xinqing finished ogling. “We found a group of survivors hiding out in a hot springs inn. However, the leader of this group has awakened his own supernatural abilities, and has begun leading his lackeys on a crime spree. We hope that you can take care of them as elegantly as always, then save the survivors.”

“Hot springs?” The moment those two words came to mind, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of familiarity.

“The inn is located in the 11th district, coincidentally where you guys are at right now.” Aunty Xinqing looked at Floater through the holographic screen. “Floater, open up your map, I’ll have the coordinates marked on it.”

“Understood.”

Floater opened up the map as instructed, laying out a holographic 3d layout of the area before us. The map itself had all twelve districts on it -we were currently located in the southern quadron of the city. I quickly noticed the blue arrow head floating above one of the buildings. The inn in question already had a yellow circle around it, marking it as our next objective.

With a tap of her fingers, Floater enlarged that particular area, bringing up a detailed holographic image of the inn’s structure. As the image grew ever larger, we could almost see through the doors of the inn.

“Hey, that inn looks sort of familiar.”

Now that I had the chance to look at the building, that sense of familiarity only grew stronger. I knew I had seen it before, I just couldn’t remember where.

“Ah!” Qiaoqiao suddenly smacked her hands in revelation. “Big brother, isn’t that the inn we stayed in? That’s the road we took to Joyworks Game City too. Qiaoqiao still remembers the giant tree in that inn. Look, big brother, it’s right there! Qiaoqiao even buried a pretty stone under that tree.”

“Here is a photo of the survivors’ leader, have a look.”

Aunty Xinqing transferred the image over with a flick of her fingers. Yet the moment Qiaoqiao opened up the file, the little girl nearly jumped back in horror.

“Ah… why is it that bad man again… wasn’t he dead?”

The image showed a man with hair dyed in a garish mix of yellow, green and red. I immediately knew it was that worthless hoodlum we met before. Ironically, it was such a person that ended up controlling the fate of a group of survivors. I guess evildoers really do prosper, huh? I sighed to myself mentally.

“You know this person? Well, he’s not a good person, I can tell you that much. Have a look at this photo we took of them…”

Aunty Xinqing promptly sent over another image.

This time, the photo was a collage of images depicting how the garish hoodlum and his lackeys mistreated the survivors under them. According to the timestamp, these photos were taken this morning. Within were photos of them beating up the men and abusing the women, the latter having an ominous mosaic already placed over them.

“These photos were taken this morning. That fellow seems to have the ability to control the zombies. And from the mostly unharmed state of the survivors around him, the ghosts probably weren’t an issue for them as well.” Aunty Xinqing’s face grew dark. “If only he wasn’t so heartless.”

“Once sis and Lixiang finish assembling the two exosuits, we will start the rescue mission.”

I knew full well what kind of character that tri-colored hoodlum was; even without being able to see the women in that photo, I could tell they must have gone through hell… Mercy is wasted on scumbags like him!

“Make sure to rescue them elegantly. And if possible, I want the footage to be as complete.” Aunty Xinqing nodded with a smile when she saw that I had accepted the mission. “The Federation is counting on you now, Ke! Oh. There’s something else too. Once they’re done, I need Bitong and Lixiang to submit a report on those bio-exosuits -our department needs it… Okay. Your Aunty is off now. Good luck, Ke!”

Just like that, the screen abruptly went dark. However, not before Aunty Xinqing sent me a flying kiss.

“The mother too?” While I did not actually accept that kiss, Floater seemed to have gotten the wrong idea anyway. “Scum.”

Wait… what do you mean ‘the mother too?’… Someone explain to me what’s going on here…

“Your Highness, the second set of magical armor is ready.”

Barely a second later, Lixiang and Bitong finished work on the second bio-exosuit.

“Good work, everyone.” I smiled at the girls. “Aunty Xinqing just told me that she needs a report as well. Could you girls prepare the necessary information?”

Dressed in a simple work exosuit, Lixiang lifted her arm up high. “Leave the third magical armor to this one.” She declared confidently.

“In that case, I will write up the report for the bio-exosuits -it wouldn’t be good to keep my mum waiting too long. I’ll come back to help once I’m done.”

Bitong and Lixiang split up the work without much fuss. Should everything proceed as planned, we should have a fully armed squad in another one to two hours.

Unfortunately, life always liked to throw us a curveball when things were starting to look good.

Just as Bitong was about to start work on the report, something happened next door in the lounge area.

Several skeletal Scorpids started crawling out from the giant hole left behind by that Sirenidae. Not only that, a host of skeletal beasts began to crawl out as well. Some looked like spiders except with four legs. Each limb was curved into a deadly blade that was reminiscent of a scythe. Then there were these lizard-like skeletons that were clad in armor. And there were just some I did not recognise at all.

In barely any time at all, the factory was swarmed by skeletal monsters. Soon after, ghosts started filling in from the walls, clearly formed from the vengeful spirits of the former inhabitants of this factory.

“Big brother, we’re under attack!”

“Get behind me, I’ll handle them.” With no time to lose, I quickly gave out a set of orders. “I’ll hold them off, you guys get to safety. Ready your talismans too!”