Chapter 135 - Medicinal Attributes

Julia shook her head, the stoic image of Ceres’s strength shattered by his outright naivety. “If you think this is impossible, you’re in for a shock when you see the Beyond. You probably won’t even be able to wrap your head around how entire planets function there.”

The Beyond was a completely different zone that Ceres could not even begin to imagine. How would such an anarchic society survive in the desolate zones of the frontier, which was teeming with hostile alien races and dangerous criminals?

“Enough chit-chat.” Saater interrupted them, pulling out his multi-terminal and sending all of them a data package. “I got a lead on the worms the attackers were using as I have seen them before. When I was young, our main method of treatment was with a similar type of worm and various other insects as well. We call them Brood Hosts, for they breed and care for an entire host of rare exotic insects that can be used to both treat and enhance humans.”

Ceres was surprised, knowing that such practice is basically outlawed in the Loeric Empire.

Biotechnology research was extremely low and also frowned upon in the Loeric Empire as a D-class state, resulting in these Brood Hosts being extremely rare. Thus, only the Dynasties had Brood Hosts that were never revealed publicly and only heard about in rumours, while it was illegal for everyone else.

The last Brood Host had been killed in Rockhold a long time ago but seeing as none of the parts ever entered nor left Rockhold, it goes without saying that it had a high chance of being manufactured here. This implies that most likely, another group that the Queen’s Guards were not aware of had access to a Brood Host.

Naturally Ceres had zero experience with anything to do with these, seeing as none of the exosuits he repaired had integrated such wild insects into them.

He could not imagine having squirmy little worms in the joints of his exosuit. “Is the black goo in my body also an insect? Doesn’t feel nor look like one.” Ceres thought to himself. Maybe a Brood Host might be able to answer some of the burning questions he had.

Saater was now bringing them to one of the largest exotic medicine markets in Rockhold to try and dig up information if any. It went without saying that all the medicine here was outlawed in the Loeric Empire – why would Rockhold do anything legally?

“Is Rockhold only focused on doing illegal things?” Halyon asked. “I feel like the entire city is geared against the law!”

Assistant A snorted. “Idiot, we only do things that make money. The moment a substance or device is made illegal, everyone in Rockhold would jump on it to make money out of it. We thrive on the definitions of the law. If the emperor says a certain drug is now banned, you can bet the people will come to Rockhold in droves.”

“Wait wait wait, so it is in your best interest to make things illegal?”

“Of course. If all these were regulated by the authorities, we would be screwed in an instant. This is why black markets and smuggling exist no matter how harsh the punishment is, especially when there is a huge demand for it. All the law does is drive that demands underground, and we profit on that improved margin. Do you think the only people watching the arena fights are citizens of Rockhold? Naïve!”

Halyon slumped in his seat as the hovercar began its descent towards a landing pad on the top of an apartment building. Sure, his original mindset of being a Keeper and inner had slowly changed over the year in the subterranean town.

But he always had a sort of subconscious thought that the law was put in place for the right reasons. However, the existence of Rockhold seemed to throw all of that into chaos, because there was a city that could exist wholly on the other side of the law.

Rockhold could have not existed if the law was enforced more thoroughly throughout the planet, but another ‘Rockhold’ would have just appeared in a different shape and form. On the flip side, Rockhold cannot exist without the law.

This dilemma threw Halyon, a former Keeper into deep thought. Was there even a right answer to this?

They exited the hovercar and subsequently the apartment building. Walking out on the streets, Ceres was immediately greeted with something akin to a large festival that spanned the entire street both ways. Stalls were propped up on every inch of the pavement, while holographic floats and large advertisements flashed in epileptic-inducing patterns overhead.

Ceres looked around in awe as he saw children running around with sweets and snacks in their hands, bought from the nearby stalls, while there were mini parades and dancers who filled the streets. It was not jampacked with people, but it was lively enough.

“Isn’t this supposed to be a sort of black market?” Ceres asked Saater as they strode past a few stalls. He already saw human organs and exobeasts genitals being sold, along with a few questionable items being sold in the grounded power form, claiming to boost virility. He was slightly concerned about what kind of sweets and snacks the children were buying here.

“It’s only a black market if you’re hiding from someone. We’re not hiding anything, so it’s a market, plain and simple.” Saater sighed.

“Saater! You’re back!” A group of feisty children ran up to Saater, hugging his legs and crowding around him. “Are you staying longer? When are you leaving? Give us a ride!” They barraged him with questions as he responded patiently and smiled gently, crouching to let a few smaller kids hitch a ride on his shoulders.

“I’m only here for a short while, I’ll be back longer this weekend. Mind telling me where the boss is?” Saater asked the kids.

The children quickly led him down the streets, but not without stopping to force Saater to buy the children some sweets and snacks from the stalls. Ceres grimaced as a stall owner offered him a skewer filled with questionable meat that oozed purple glitter.

They soon reached a large building with an old black horizontal black plaque at the top of the door in a language unrecognizable. A small sliding slot in the middle of the thick front doors slid open revealing two eyes staring at them and the kids. “Who the hell are you kids?”

“Hey, big dude, second day on the job and you forgot who we are? Let us in, you fat cunt!” One of the children swore at the guard.

“Fucking.. Why did I even take this job...” The guard sighed before swinging the door wide open, revealing a large circular medicinal hall. It was filled with other customers along with shop attendants dressed formally helping them. Saater’s group stood out in stark contrast with their brandished weapons and exosuits.

The walls were filled with square containers that were labelled, holding various medicinal drugs. Automated hovering drones filled the air as they moved containers to the ground before a packing drone packed them and prepared them for shipment.

The floor was carpeted with a plush gold and blue velvet pattern, while several horizontal glass display cases showing various types of injectors, surgical equipment and rare artefacts were placed in a curved case. Assistant A was already enamoured by a product display of several exotic medicines. “Will this grounded horn powder really improve my virility?”

Directly opposite the door was an elevated golden-framed glass display case, featuring the best the shop had to offer. A middle-aged man rested his elbow on the case, treating it like a table as he sat on a stool behind it, reading his multi-terminal using his left prosthetic hand. He wore a butler’s vest with a proper nice white shirt inside, sleeves rolled up revealing multiple scars on his right arm.

“Let me do the talking,” Saater whispered to the others as the children scampered all over the medicinal hall, trying to play with the drones. The group approached the middle-aged man, who barely glanced up from his multi-terminal.

“I don’t know anything about the attack.” The hall owner said immediately as Saater approached.

Julia’s eyes narrowed. “That’s a bit suspicious. Who said we were here about the attack?”

“What else? Saater only ever visits me for important things related to the Queen’s Guard. Despite me being the very man who raised him. Also, the attack is all over the news, everyone is talking about it. Anyone here can do the math, don’t look down on us, lady.” The hall owner scoffed.

Julia was about to rebut when Saater stopped her. “You might not know anything about the attack, but we’re here to find a Brood Host, Uncle Sai.”

Finally, Uncle Sai turned to look at Saater. “A Brood Host was involved in the attack? Really?”

Saater took out his multi-terminal and displayed a video recording of the worms before they disintegrated into a paste when Ceres exposed them to air. Uncle Sai watched the video quietly, before getting off the stool. “Follow me.”

They followed him to a back room, which was set up as a medical bay as well. Almost all of the fifty beds were full, being tended to by nurses save for one, where there was a dead body lying there. “Patient came in this morning complaining of ‘worms in his arms’. Not the first case either. All of them here are the same. Been happening for close to three months now.”

This was vastly different from what Ceres expected to find. This time it seems like the worms were even harder to get out of the body. With his ability to see life forms, he could see the patient’s body being riddled with squirming worms that seemed to proliferate throughout the body.

“LET ME GO!” Another patient on another bed fought against his restraints, pulling on the chain. Saater was shocked at the insane strength the supposedly ordinary patient was showing, being able to almost pull out the restraints without disregard for the intense bleeding on his wrist.

Nurses immediately went to the bed to restrain the patient, but they could barely even hold him down. Julia was about to move forward to help before the hall owner stopped her. “Don’t touch him barehanded, we don’t know how the worms are being transmitted.”

Ceres glanced around the room, checking each of the patients. He noted that the number of worms present in the body seem to increase with time. The worms were using the human bodies as a host, he would think. However, he had no idea what the worm does apart from enhancing rage and strength.

With his H.T. mode active, he looked back at the group and the hall owner and checked them, his face stern under the black mask.

The group walked out of the medical bay, heading to another room where they could talk in private.

“What’s the death rate?” Saater asked with a subdued expression once they ensured they were not being spied on.

“Extremely low. This dead patient here effectively killed himself. Otherwise, they gain immense strength and lack of pain. It’s almost like a stimulant. If it didn’t result in such violent side effects, I might have invited the Brood Host to sell it at my business.” Uncle Sai shook his head.

“Our attackers did not display the same level of reduced awareness,” Ceres murmured, to which Julia and Saater nodded. The attack by the dark mercenary outfit was too professional and precise.

“Perhaps the Brood Host is testing them on ordinary people first while selling better worms to other soldiers?” Halyon said his piece.

“Yes, that makes sense. Maybe the human hosts are being used as a sort of incubators before the Brood Host collects them back and filters the worms.” Assistant A chimed in.

“If that is truly the case, he will never see the light of day ever again.” Saater angrily clenched his fists. He grew up in this town, and to see so many patients be ravaged by the worms only made him angrier.

The group left the medicinal hall, thanking Uncle Sai for the information.

“We need to find traces of the Brood Host, or the organization behind the Brood Host if any. We’ll split up and check the locations where the patients were reported to be infected by the worms.” Ceres showed the data that the hall owner had provided them, a list of all the patient’s prior locations before being infected.

“That’s going to be hard. We don’t know what the incubation period of the worms is either, so we might be going on a wild goose chase.” Julia shook her head.

“Don’t worry, I got a plan, just follow my orders. Saater, Assistant A, Halyon, tell the people we’re investigating the worm plague and spread the information.”

“Really? Won’t that publicize the issue and make it worse?” Saater was shocked. Shouldn’t this sort of thing be kept secret so as to not panic society?

“The more chaos, the better. Don’t worry, I’ll let Cardenia know.” Ceres smiled as he patted Saater’s shoulder.

Saater’s eyes squinted, unsure of how to feel about Ceres treating him like a subordinate. The Queen did nominate Ceres as in charge of this operation, but he still could not really get over it. Wasn’t this guy just an exosuit designer?

However, Halyon and Assistant A did not have the same qualms, immediately saluting before running off into the market, telling as many people as he could. Even as Julia and Saater split up, Ceres instead returned to the medicinal hall.

“Hmm? Did you leave something—urk!” Uncle Sai was surprised before Ceres suddenly lunged through the hall, smashing through a display cabinet before grabbing Uncle Sai by the neck.

“Let’s have a nice clean chat, Mr Brood Host.”

“I…I don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you accusing me? I’m saving people here!”

The rest of the customers and workers in the medicinal hall had no idea what to do, completely stunned. Ceres quickly dragged Uncle Sai to the back room, throwing him against the wall.

“Are you going to come clean, or am I going to have to slice your skin open?”

“Does Saater know about this? If he finds out you’re threatening me… ARGGH!”

Ceres quickly grabbed the arm of Uncle Sai, squeezing hard. Using his other hand, he sharpened his finger before doing a quick slice, and a variety of worms fell out onto the ground. “What do you have to say now?”

Uncle Sai panicked, quickly apologizing. “I yield, I yield! I am a Brood Host, but I’m not the one spreading the worms!” He was shocked that Ceres was able to sense the worms in his body as well.

Having hidden his identity over the years very closely, not even Saater who grew up under him knew of him being a Brood Host.

Only a Brood Host or advanced technology from the enforcers would be able to sense the worms in his body like a scanner, and Ceres did not seem to have one. Was Ceres a Brood Host too?

“How can I trust you?” Ceres asked warily.

“Look, you can tell the worms apart, none of the current plague worms are in my body. Since you can sense the worms, you know this too!”

“That’s true, but what if you’re cultivating the worms in a separate place other than your body before forcing the patients to ingest them?”

“Erm…” Uncle Sai did not know how to answer that. He was about to propose letting Ceres search the medicinal hall, but realized that there was plenty of confidential research. As a Rockhold resident, he naturally was already entrenched deep in illegal activities – he naturally did not want Ceres to see them!

“Don’t worry, I believe you.” Ceres suddenly let go of the arm, watching on as the worms crawled back towards the Brood Host, filling up his arms before the wound was repaired. The sight irked Ceres a bit, but he could not say anything since his black goo was probably functioning the same.

“You believe me?”

“Partially. In order to clear my suspicion of you, you would have to find the other Brood Host, right? I give you five days. If you don’t find even a trace of him, I’ll offer you up to the Queen. Deal? Deal.” Ceres declared before walking away out of the back room as though nothing had ever happened.

When he exited, however, there were already four guards aiming at him, with Saater standing behind them. “What did you do Uncle Sai?!” Saater roared, aiming his own rifle at Ceres.

Ceres could sense a very strong sense of attachment between Saater and Uncle Sai. “I didn’t do anything, he’s fine, ask him yourself.”

Uncle Sai walked out of the back room, coughing slightly while hiding his arms behind his back where the worms within his body were still automatically sealing and healing the wound. “He’s right, we simply had a slight disagreement, but it has been resolved. I’m fine, Saater. The rest of you, stand down.”

The four guards looked at each other uneasily, before finally relenting and returning to their original positions. The customers who had been standing at the side sighed in relief, continuing their browsing. Firefights like these may be common everywhere in Rockhold, but it would be foolish to think everyone living here wanted to experience it every day.

Saater angrily stormed up to Ceres, grabbing him by the shoulder. “I swear if you try to pull any more funny shit in the middle of MY town, I will end you, with the Queen’s approval or not!”