The smoke of battle had not yet dissipated.
The smell of charred meat and nauseating blood filled the air.
The square in front of the Benevolent Heart Clinic had turned into a massive open-air morgue—or more accurately, an intensive care unit.
Over fifteen hundred surviving monsters, like quails battered by a storm, knelt densely on the ground.
Most of them were wounded.
Some had charred feathers.
Some had broken legs.
Others had their fangs snapped off by Mia.
The sounds of wailing, pleas for mercy, and the chattering of teeth from extreme fear merged into a wave of despair.
Vroom—
The roar of an engine drowned out all the wailing.
Helena rode that heavy motorcycle burning with blue ghost fire, carving a cold arc through the piles of corpses before coming to a steady stop in front of Victor.
The electronic prosthetic eye on her metal pumpkin head flickered with a ruthless red light.
"Report, Commander."
A cold, synthesized electronic voice rang out, devoid of warmth.
"Battlefield cleanup complete."
"The enemy's main force has been annihilated; the remaining stragglers have all surrendered."
"According to calculations, these prisoners have severe injuries, the cost of treatment is extremely high, and there is a risk of a second rebellion."
Helena raised her arm, and a dark gun barrel popped out from her fingertip.
"Recommendation: Immediate execution."
"Proceeding with decontamination disposal."
Click.
As her words fell, the six surrounding skeleton guards simultaneously raised their iron clubs and spears.
With one word from Victor, these fifteen hundred souls would instantly turn into a pile of worthless dry bones.
The monsters kneeling on the ground were terrified.
"Mercy! Divine doctor, have mercy!"
"We were wrong! We won't do it again!"
"Don't kill me! I have an eighty-year-old mother at home..."
Although the cyclops lord Gorm had fainted, he had been splashed awake with cold water and was now prone on the ground, shivering like a dead dog.
His single eye was full of regret.
If he had known this doctor was so twisted, he wouldn't have come even if it killed him!
"Execution?"
Victor frowned and reached out to push down Helena's gun barrel.
He looked at the prisoners trembling all over the ground. His gaze was like that of a miser looking at gold coins rolling on the floor, or a farmer looking at the pigs in his pen waiting to be slaughtered.
It was full of pity and reluctance.
"Helena, your calculation logic is too rigid."
Victor pushed up his glasses, his tone earnest.
"Waste."
"It's simply a massive waste."
"Look at these cyclopes."
He pointed at the group of giant mountains of flesh.
"Thick-skinned and possessing immense strength. Though they're a bit dim-witted, that's exactly what makes them good material for hard labor."
"Look at those harpies."
He pointed to the bird-people huddled in a group.
"Though they're a bit ugly and their cries are unpleasant, they can fly! They are a natural air transport brigade and scouts."
"And those lizardmen..."
Victor's gaze swept over the group of slippery reptiles.
"Though their combat power is trash, they are skilled at digging holes. It just so happens I want to expand the basement."
"If I kill them, who will carry bricks for me? Who will mine for me? Who will be my free labor?"
Victor spread his hands with an expression that said, 'Don't you know how to manage a household?'
"And besides."
"Since they came all this way to 'register.'"
"Though their method was a bit crude, as a clinic with medical ethics, how can we turn patients away?"
"If word gets out, people will think our Benevolent Heart Clinic discriminates against patients with severe conditions."
Helena tilted her pumpkin head.
Her precise logic processor seemed a bit overloaded, and her CPU emitted a slight hum.
"But... Commander."
"They are too ugly."
"They seriously affect the city's appearance."
"And they are aggressive."
"That's simple."
Victor snapped his fingers, his face revealing the kind of smile full of creative desire that only a mad scientist would have.
"Ugly?"
"Then we'll do plastic surgery."
"Aggressive?"
"Then we'll perform a prefrontal lobotomy... oh no, a 'thought correction' surgery."
"Once they enter my operating room."
Victor looked at the terrified monsters with a burning gaze.
"Even a dragon must coil for me, and even a tiger must lie down."
"I will make them..."
"Be born again."
...
Ten minutes later.
The massive iron door of the Benevolent Heart Clinic that led deep underground, which was usually tightly shut, slowly opened.
A cold wind mixed with the smell of engine oil, disinfectant, and a strange sweet scent blew out from within.
It was the new area Victor had just unlocked—
【Biological Modification Production Line (Large)】.
"Everyone up! Line up!"
"If you don't want to die, get inside!"
Roadhog swung his massive iron hook, herding the dejected prisoners like ducks.
The monsters looked at the pitch-black opening, instinctively feeling terror.
It was like the mouth of a giant beast, waiting to devour their flesh and blood.
"I'm not going! That's hell!"
A harpy shrieked, trying to fly away.
But in the next second.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
She hadn't even flown two meters before Helena shot her wing off, and she fell down screaming.
"In this place, there are only two choices."
Victor stood on a high platform, holding a megaphone, his voice cold.
"Either go in and receive 'treatment' to be reborn."
"Or become fertilizer right now to nourish this land."
"Choose."
Facing the dark gun barrels and roaring chainsaws.
The monsters yielded.
One by one, dejected and dragging their scarred bodies, they lined up and walked into that unknown abyss.
...
Underground factory.
The space here was staggeringly large, almost like a small underground city.
Countless massive conveyor belts were rumbling in operation.
On the ceiling, dense mechanical arms hung down like tentacles, their tips flashing with various colors of lasers and electric arcs.
Giant glass culture vats stood in rows, with green nutrient solution swirling inside.
"This is... too spectacular."
Although Elizabeth had seen it once before, she was still shocked facing this grand scene in full operation.
"Director, are you really going to... modify all three thousand of these monsters?"
"Of course."
Victor stood before the main control console, his hands dancing rapidly across the interface.
His gaze was focused and fanatical, like a conductor composing a masterpiece.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
"I'm going to build an army."
"An army that belongs to me, one that is absolutely loyal and possesses powerful combat capabilities... a monster legion."
"System, load the modification templates!"
【Command confirmed.】
【Loading mass modification plans...】
On the light screen, three brand-new 3D models meticulously designed by Victor slowly rotated.
"Group one: cyclopes."
Victor selected the most massive model.
"Plan: 【Heavy Titan (Labor Edition)】."
"Remove excess fat, reinforce bone density, and implant a metal exoskeleton. Replace that useless single eye with a high-precision electronic eye, and while we're at it, sever the pain nerves."
"From now on, they will be tireless porters and battering rams."
"Group two: harpies."
The image shifted to a female figure with metal wings.
"Plan: 【Steel Valkyrie (Mass-produced Type)】."
"Pluck those messy feathers and replace them with light alloy wings. Implant sonic weapons in their throats and replace their claws with refined steel blades."
"Change that screeching shrew habit for me; I want a disciplined aerial bomber."
"Group three: lizardmen."
"Plan: 【Abyss Miner (Expendable Type)】."
"Reinforce forelimb digging capabilities and harden the skin's keratin layer. Implant a 'vein-finding' chip in their brains."
"Mining, scouting, and being cannon fodder will rely on them from now on."
As Victor issued one command after another.
The entire underground factory completely boiled over.
Rumble—
The conveyor belts began to accelerate.
The monsters were forcibly pinned onto operating tables by mechanical arms.
Anesthetic gas billowed out.
"Ah—!!!"
"Let me go! My eyes!"
"My feathers! Don't pluck my feathers!"
Screams, cutting sounds, welding sounds, electrical hums...
All sorts of noises intertwined, performing a cruel symphony named "Evolution."
This wasn't simple treatment.
This was reshaping.
It was a forbidden ritual that forcibly merged flesh and blood with steel and magic.
"Increase power!"
Victor looked at the soaring data on the dashboard, a crazed light flashing in his eyes.
"Faster!"
"It doesn't matter even if there are losses!"
"What I want to see are results!"
...
Outside the clinic.
The old hunter John was sitting on the steps, smoking that low-quality tobacco he had just bought from the goblin Gold Tooth.
He looked at the distant sky.
From the tallest chimney of the Benevolent Heart Clinic, a thick, strangely rainbow-colored smoke suddenly emerged.
The smoke drifted in the wind, carrying a bizarre fragrance so sweet it made one dizzy.
"This is..."
John took a puff and suddenly felt his head spinning, and the scenery before him began to turn multicolored.
"Hallucinogens?"
He quickly covered his nose and mouth, looking at the castle with a terrified gaze.
He didn't know what was happening inside.
But he could hear it.
Even through the thick walls and earth.
He could still hear the bizarre roars coming from deep underground, emitted by thousands of creatures simultaneously...
Roars that were painful, yet seemed to be cheering for a new life.
"In there..."
John's hand trembled, and his pipe fell to the ground.
"Just what kind of monsters are they making?"
...
Deep underground.
The first batch of completed "products" had already been pushed out of the culture vats.
Clack! Clack!
Rows of steel giants over six meters tall, covered in heavy armor with red lights flickering in their single eyes, stepped out with heavy strides.
They were no longer those bloated and stupid cyclopes.
They were—Heavy Titans.
Followed by.
Buzz—
A sound of metal wings flapping rang out.
A group of steel harpies wearing silver battle armor with wings as sharp as blades circled in formation in the air.
They were no longer those harpies that only knew how to screech.
They were—Steel Valkyries.
Finally.
There were the dense, tide-like numbers of reinforced lizardmen with drill-like claws.
They lined up neatly before Victor.
Thousands of pairs of eyes, devoid of any emotion and left with only absolute obedience, stared fixedly at the man on the high platform.
"Roar—!!!"
They roared in unison.
The sound shook the entire underground city.
Victor stood on the high platform, overlooking this terrifying legion he had built entirely by himself—a legion full of sci-fi and magical colors.
He spread his arms as if embracing the whole world.
That sense of achievement made the blood in his entire body boil.
"This is..."
"My army."
"The medical security force belonging to the Benevolent Heart Clinic."
He turned around and looked at Elizabeth, whose expression was complicated, behind him.
"How about it, Financial Manager?"
Victor pointed at the steel monsters below, smiling brilliantly and arrogantly.
"With this team."
"Next time someone dares to skip out on their bill or cause a scene at the clinic..."
"Can we... talk some sense into them?"
Elizabeth looked at the monsters and then at Victor.
She swallowed hard and nodded with difficulty.
"Director."
"I think..."
"From now on, there probably won't be anyone on this continent who dares to owe you medical fees."
Rate on N.U.
