CHAPTER 344: CHAPTER 344: CHOICE...

The chill intensified when he saw the "person" who had spoken behind him.

For a moment he was petrified in fear. And he wasn’t the only one. All the men were scared stiff.

Their response was even worse than the shark when it saw Muku’s nightmare armour for the first time.

Which was understandable since nightmares were a human thing. And with all the supernatural history, tales and such, humans had. Seeing the armour which looked like a demon that escaped hell, their reaction was only understandable.

And with everything which was happening in the world, who’s to say that demons didn’t exist?

"What? Is there something on my face?" Muku asked as he touched his scary face.

Unlike before, he didn’t tone down his voice from sounding creepy when he had the armour on.

"Haaa! Dieeeee!" Smith screamed as he aimed his hands at Muku.

Countless large and thorny vines came out and charged forward.

Everything happened in just a few seconds. And with how close Muku was, he should have been caught up in the attack right?

"Everyone get back!" Smith shouted as he looked around the vines.

He hoped that he had gotten the creature. But reason dictated otherwise. His vines gave him a mental image of everything they touch or destroy... And from that, he realised that he likely missed as all the images he got were either of the ground or the surrounding plants.

He had fought quite a few R5 beasts in his time, and even sparred with a few R5s from the organisation. However, he was certain that none of those opponents would have been able to escape unscathed when he attacked so suddenly with the opponent so close. And that made him really nervous.

He feared for his team the most. If that demon wanted to kill them, they wouldn’t be able to see it coming. Hell, even he wouldn’t have seen it coming if it had attacked when it arrived since he wasn’t expecting something like that...

"No. No. Nobody is going anywhere until we come to an agreement..." The familiar creepy voice rang out again.

This time it originated from the sky.

BOOOM!

An unimaginable pressure crushed down on him and his team. They all fell face down without any resistance at all.

For him, it was a matter of being caught off guard, but the others were just powerless. They would have ended like that even if they were told to prepare.

"Now that I have gotten your attention. What say you we talk Mr Smith?" The demon(Muku) addressed Smith as he was about to use all his strength to resist the pressure.

The pressure also disappeared at that moment, which allowed him to get up with ease.

"Okay, let’s talk. What do you want demon?" Smith asked while looking up at the "demon".

"Demon? No no, Mr Smith. I would much rather be called Nightmare. Don’t you think I’m more real that way?" Muku replied in an amused but creepy voice.

"Whatever, Nightmare. What do you want?" Smith asked stiffly and nervously.

He could tell that the other party didn’t see him as an opponent. This made him uncertain whether he should attack or not. After all, he couldn’t sense even a hint of life from the other party, let alone a mana signature.

"Hehe. What if I said your soul?" Muku asked teasingly.

"I don’t make deals with demons, nightmares or whatever you are" Smith replied resolutely.

Even if he was afraid and unsure, he wouldn’t show too much weakness lest the other party disregard him even more.

"But haven’t you already sold your soul to that random Monarch you know nothing about Mr Smith? Hell, I bet you killed a lot of innocents due to that contract... Honestly, this is why I hate humans. Such hypocrites" Muku replied annoyedly.

"Be that as it may. I won’t sell out to you. As for the things I did before, they had to be done. I regret nothing" Smith replied.

"Hmm, really now? Even if I were to kill your soldiers one by one until you agreed?" Muku continued...

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!...

BOOOOOM!

Just as Muku finished speaking, countless vines charged at him from all directions. However, like before, none hit him.

This time it was even worse since they all exploded after reaching five meters away from him. He didn’t even move.

This would have shocked the soldiers if their faces weren’t planted into the ground. It wasn’t every day that the attacks of a R5 Evolver like Smith were shrugged off so easily.

"Relax Smith. I was just joking. Anyway, all I want from you is for you and your crew to turn back right now and go continue what you’re doing somewhere else. There’s something here which isn’t for the eyes of random people like you. You understand right? Before you say anything, think about it because it’s your only chance as I won’t ask twice. And the moment you say no, if that’s what you decide to go with. I will start killing you all. And there’s hardly anything you can do to stop me. You seem like a smart man. So I’m sure you’ll make the right choice" Muku spoke seriously for the first time since arriving.

He decided to leave the choice up to Smith. At first, he wanted to fight the guy. But he soon realised that Smith wasn’t a "pure" R5. There was something wrong with his mana. Just like Chloe’s father back then. They might be stronger than the lower ranks, but they were nothing in front of those in the same ranks.

And Muku didn’t feel like fighting a fake R5 for his face human R5 fight.

As for how Smith would bring more people next time if he let him go... That didn’t matter anymore since the tracker on Jade was no more.

He quite appreciated the friendship between Smith and Jim, for that reason he decided to give them a chance.

"I..." Smith was about to voice his choice when he paused. He was undecided on what to say.

From the little exchange he had with the other party, if it could even be called that. He quickly realised that he might not be a match for them. So he couldn’t be as thoughtless as he normally would be with his choices.

He couldn’t rely on his strength like before.

After all, it was certain that the other party was R5 at least. While he had fought R5s before. It was either in sparring matches or in teams of at least five against one R5 beast... So yeah, the situation needed to be considered properly before making a decision.

After all, the people they were looking for were probably not there anyway. If they were related to the creature in front of him, then they wouldn’t have been so hellbent on running away.

At the very least, the information would have reached the headquarters at least. Or everyone would have been killed off before reporting anything...

But the Monarch wouldn’t let him off just because he made reasonable deductions without proof. Hell, they were ordered not to return with proper results anyway. So he was basically stuck between a rock and a hard place.

It was like he had to choose between dying now and dying later.

"Oh? Is it hard to make a choice? Let’s do this then..." Muku spoke from the air then...

Snap!

He snapped his fingers and the soldiers were released from the pressure.

The move was reminiscent of what Mrs C liked to do. It was obviously unnecessary but he did it just to be dramatic. Like mother like son, it seemed...

"Don’t give in to his pressure sir! We’re ready to die for His Excellency! And if we don’t, our families will be killed along with us when we return! So please, let us fight this evil being!"

"Yes sir! Please!"

"We’re willing to give our lives!"

"Don’t be intimidated, sir!"

"We can win together!"

More than a hundred voices shouted at Smith telling him not to give up.

With how confident they sounded, you’d think that they weren’t the bunch which had been completely suppressed a few seconds ago.

Though they couldn’t be blamed. They all knew that the situation was dire and their lives would likely end that day.

But what could they do? Their families relied on the base. If they didn’t die, then their families would die with them when they eventually do die.

Plus they had all done horrible things and knew that karma would catch up eventually. So maybe dying that day wouldn’t be too bad after all.

"Eww. You bastards are hell bent on staining my hands with your blood huh?" Muku interjected which silenced all the men as they were overcome by fear again.

Smith was unbothered by everything which was going on as he turned to his best friend for advice.

"Jim. I know you made a vow to yourself that you wouldn’t mix business with personal life as to avoid people from thinking that your achievements were influenced by me... And I admire that about you brother. But please, this time I need you. Tell me as my brother, what should I do?" Smith spoke to Jim weakly.

"...Haha. Bruh, what’s with that disgustingly weak-looking expression? We all knew a day like this would come. So what are you hesitating about? Isn’t the choice obvious?" Jim paused for a moment then replied in a free voice.

He sounded like a completely different person from before. Hearing his reply, Smith smiled brightly and turned to Muku.

"Listen here, creature. I have made my decision. And that’s..."