Exploring Technology in a Wizard World-Chapter 546 - 544: The Punishment for Making a Mistake

Around the same time.

Somewhere on the East Coast, an underground hall.

With a creak, the door to the hall opened, and Muse Housekeeper stepped inside. She glanced briefly at the bustling crowd in the hall, not paying too much attention as she walked straight to her designated seat at the far end of the hall.

Her body relaxed into the seat, luxuriating in the comfort for quite some time, when suddenly Muse opened her eyes. Her long eyelashes fluttered as something felt amiss.

Hmm, something was off. But what was it?

That was it—up to now, no one had brought her a cup of petal honey water with the appropriate temperature and sweetness.

Muse’s eyebrows knitted together as she sat upright in her seat. Her eyes quickly scanned the entire hall and then she noticed more things that were off: compared to other days, although there were still many busy people, the number was definitely fewer than before. Most importantly, Franklin was not here.

This—

Muse’s lips tightened, and the next moment she called out, "Franklin, where is he?"

People in the hall, too busy even to lift their heads, did not respond—they either dared not or did not know.

Muse grew angry, her voice rising as she shouted again, "I’m asking you all, are you deaf? Franklin, where did he go? Tell me!"

"Muse Housekeeper." A faint voice finally responded.

Muse instantly looked over to see it was a short wizard, no taller than 1.6 meters, with brown hair and wearing a lead-gray coat, looking nervously at her.

Muse recognized him; he was another squad leader under her command. Due to mediocre abilities, his squad had few members and was no match for Franklin’s. Additionally, because of his unremarkable appearance and lack of savvy compared to Franklin, she had largely ignored him.

Muse looked at him and said, "Sisco, right?"

"Uh—" he hesitated for a moment but then honestly said, "Muse Housekeeper, I’m Thomas."

"..." Muse opened her mouth, "Alright, Thomas, do you know where Franklin has gone? Tell me."

"Gulp!"

Under Muse’s gaze, the wizard named Thomas swallowed nervously before answering truthfully, "Muse Housekeeper, I’m not exactly sure where Franklin has gone. I only know that a day ago, he suddenly left the base with most of his squad members and hasn’t returned since. It seemed like they had some mission."

"Hmm? Are you sure he left with most of his squad?"

"Yes." ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

"But usually, such missions don’t require so many people, do they?" Muse’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked at Thomas and instructed, "Thomas, you contact Franklin for me and find out what’s going on."

"Yes." Thomas, not daring to object and not even correcting the slight mispronunciation of his name, hurriedly took out a crystal ball and started operating it.

After a while, Muse, growing impatient, asked, "Isn’t it ready yet? Why is it so slow, Master Thomas?"

"No, no, not at all." Thomas looked up at Muse with a somewhat strange expression, "Muse Housekeeper, I don’t know why, but I can’t reach them at all. They’re not responding at all, it’s like..."

"Like what?"

"Gulp!"

Thomas swallowed again without speaking but instead raised a crystal ball for Muse to see.

She saw that the crystal ball was pitch black, mixed with an intensely dark red color that bore an ominous look.

Muse saw it, her eyebrows shot up, "Hmm? Is something wrong? Are they dead?" Her expression did not change much, though her tone became suddenly colder.

"Did you try to contact Franklin alone, or everyone in his squad?" Muse then asked Thomas.

"Everyone." Thomas responded with a shiver, his voice barely audible, as if afraid to anger Muse.

After hearing this, Muse suddenly fell silent, and the atmosphere in the entire hall grew tenser. Those busy in the hall felt an overwhelming pressure, their breathing constricted as if a hand clutched at their throats.

Thomas, closest to her, felt it most acutely, not only having trouble breathing but also felt as though he was suffocating, his body trembling as he looked up at Muse and spoke, "Muse Housekeeper... Muse..."

Muse looked at Thomas and coldly asked, "You must know something about Franklin’s situation, right? Don’t tell me that just because you’re not in the same squad, you know nothing—that would be very disappointing. What exactly is going on with Franklin? Tell me everything you know!"

"I... I..." Thomas’s lips quivered a few times, and the next moment, he began speaking rapidly—whether it was about what he truly knew, or merely guessed, he didn’t hide anything.

A few minutes later, Thomas, panting heavily, looked at Muse: "Muse Housekeeper, that’s it... Huff huff..."

"Swish!"

The oppressive feeling emitted by Muse suddenly disappeared. Thomas fell to the ground, gasping for breath. After a while, he looked up carefully at Muse, only to see Muse with a blank expression, a calm gaze, completely impassive and inscrutable. At this moment, Muse seemed like an iceberg, which made Thomas feel even more terrified.

Then, Muse suddenly spoke to Thomas, "According to you, Franklin did have an accident. And it happened a long time ago, but he kept it from me until everyone in his team died, and he could no longer hide it. Right?"

"Um." Thomas nodded.

"In that case..." Muse said, "let’s activate the Resurrection Pool and resurrect Franklin and all the deceased members of his squad."

"Resurrect everyone? The resources required..."

"Take as much as you need from the warehouse! I know exactly how many people can be resurrected with the materials in there; you don’t need to remind me."

"Er, yes, yes." Hearing this, Thomas hurriedly ran off, running out of the hall towards a mysterious stone room.

...

Then it was half a day later.

In the underground hall, people who were previously busy had stopped what they were doing, their gazes concentrated on a group of about a dozen people standing in the middle of the hall.

The dozen or so people were, of course, the resurrected Franklin and his squad members. Although their bodies were new, their memories were old, and they stood in the hall somewhat confused.

Franklin was slightly better off because he had cautiously stored his memories two days before the incident. After coming out of the Resurrection Pool, he had some guesses about the situation, and now looking at Muse in front of him, he felt slightly uneasy and puzzled.

Could it be that the worst had happened?

What exactly caused his death?

Could it be that Muse Housekeeper noticed he was hiding something and, in a fit of anger, killed him directly? This seemed unlikely, as he had always been careful, and the Housekeeper didn’t have that much idle time.

Or had he proceeded according to plan and then the plan failed, resulting in his death? That seemed even less likely. Although he had been investigating someone who had already killed four of his subordinates, killing including him and his whole team seemed too far-fetched.

Taking a deep breath, Franklin, with this unease and confusion, looked up at Housekeeper Muse, just about to say something, when he suddenly saw Muse make a silencing gesture.

What is this?

Franklin was stunned, and then his eyes narrowed as he saw Muse extend a hand towards him.

"Snap!"

With a sound, Muse’s hand clutched, and Franklin felt the air around him gather towards his body, then smash onto him like a ton of bricks.

"Crack," Franklin felt a sharp pain all over as the sound of breaking bones rose, and he uncontrollably fell to the ground.

But Muse wasn’t going to let him off easily. His hand tightened further, the surrounding air continuously striking and shattering every inch of his body, inflicting on him the most intense agony.

This pain was nothing—after all, there’s a limit to physical pain, but it’s the endless mental torment that truly invokes fear.

As the air attacked him, Franklin sensed an irresistible spiritual power crashing into his mind, enveloping every part of his consciousness, and then gradually shattering it. In an instant, his soul felt as though it had been thrown into hell, ceaselessly scorched by blazing fire.

"Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Franklin screamed miserably, his eyes bulging, his body rolling back and forth on the hall floor.

The crowd watched in horrified silence; Muse, however, was unmoved, continuing to clench his fist.

Franklin’s body began to curl up, slowly contracting, and his throat could no longer emit screams, just meaningless, guttural growls.

Eventually, even the growls disappeared, turning into an unrecognizable corpse.

Muse glanced at it, found the corpse bothersome, and clenched his hand again, "Puff," and like an orange being squeezed, Franklin’s corpse burst instantly. The difference being, instead of juice and pulp, it was blood and flesh that splattered in every direction—a veritable rain of blood and flesh.

After a moment, Muse glanced at the blood and flesh-strewn floor, huffed slightly, his emotions still not eased. He slightly turned his head to the side and coldly ordered the Wizard, "Tandos, go, resurrect Franklin a second time!"

"Ah?" About a second later, Thomas realized Muse was talking to him, dared not say a word of refusal, and once more ran out of the hall, inwardly mourning Franklin for a tenth of a second.

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