Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 97 - Infiltrator Penguin Bot

Lumi furrowed his brows, reading the quest. It was a light issue that had been at the back of his mind.

What?

It’s true that the System is stupid and incapable of higher thought or communication. But still, even still, as far as I understand, it isn’t supposed to list quests against the Wings of Darkness.

That said, it isn’t as if the system has access to outside information. If it isn’t blatantly obvious that the quest harms the Dark One’s plans, it’ll keep on issuing quests.

Did the system somehow, even after all this time, not catch that we are working against the Wings of Darkness?

"We’ll help." Lumi promised, turning to the seal. "This is exactly why we’re here. To root out corruption wherever we find it."

He raised a brow in a purposely visible gesture of suspicion. "Say, I was told this was part of the heart of what is considered seal territory. There’s a department of penguins?"

"Um..." Dahni slithered back now that he was being eyed with suspicion. "There is, there is!" He put his flippers up, placatingly. ""C-come on, there are penguins... of course there’s penguins here! Not too many but still..."

He gulped, and further explained. "There’s humans too! It’s not like we segregate!"

"Alright..." Lumi took his eyes off him. "We’ll investigate now."

Lumi led the group out, but not to the seals. He brought them back out the entrance, to the cliff overlooking the ship.

"Excuse me," Valeria gently tapped Lumi’s shoulder. "Why are we here?"

Lumi’s eyes stared down at the rowdy man currently busy rambling to a woman who clearly didn’t care. "For him."

Valeria looked over as well. "For Jin?"

Lumi nodded. "The infiltrators were mechanical, weren’t they? Then, Jin should be able to feel the electricity in them just as he felt it from the technology."

Valeria’s mouth lightly widened in shock. That was right, Jin could do that. Then, how come she hasn’t thought of it? It’s true she hasn’t faced these types of mechanical constructs before, but it still upset her to know she missed something so obvious. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"Hey, Jin!" Lumi called out at the man. "Come up here!"

"Yeah?" Jin yelled back up, then mobilized, swiftly climbing the cliff face.

Lumi then gently patted Marcus. "You’ll take his place."

"Ah, okay..." Marcus seemed a bit disappointed. "I guess my fire wasn’t very effective..." He leaped down, then used teleport halfway down in order to ensure his landing safety.

After Jin came up, they explained the situation with him, to which he grinned. "Aye aye! Another job for the Lightning Caller!"

"..." That earned him a strange side eye from both Valeria and Zara.

"Why." Zara spat, turning away. "Are you speaking like that?"

"Like what?"

"Hehe~" His behavior earned him a small giggle from Susie.

"?"

..

With Jin in tow, they made their way to the alleged port area, though port was a strong word to use for a place on top of a tall island with no shoreline. The port was bustling with activity, real penguins and seals moving cargo, maintaining equipment, conducting the thousand small tasks that kept a remote station functional.

"Hmm..." Jin stared at the workers, attempting to sense. "You know, everyone has a bit of electricity in them. So even if you want me to sense them, it’ll probab- nevermind I found them."

"There," he stated, pointing them out. "Those four."

"I see them." Lumi confirmed, then moved his gaze to the others. "We’re in the open. Before engagement, let’s evacuate the civilians. Go, act quick before the agents go rogue."

The Knights quickly scattered, forcefully hurrying any workers to leave, quickly. They used all methods available, from their reputation, authority, or forging reasons.

Lumi approached the suspicious penguins with intentions to stall. "Excuse me." That got their attention. "Your activities don’t seem to match up with today’s itinerary. May I see your orders?"

The four penguins paused mid-lift. They set their crate down, and turned to face Lumi. One of them produced a set of documents. It waddled towards Lumi. "Please examine the papers."

Lumi took the papers and began pretending to read them. Whether they were proper or not didn’t matter at all. It wasn’t as if he knew how to tell the difference. Regardless, they were likely in order. He purposely stalled out for two entire minutes giving them back. "They seem to be legitimate. However, such orders should have never been produced. Who gave your assignments today?"

The four penguins stared at him. For a fraction of a second, nothing moved. Then, the same penguin replied to him. "Orders were issued by Port Authority Subsection C."

"Understood." Lumi nodded. "I’ll question them once I’m done here."

Sensing the area growing quieter from the evacuation, he knew he wouldn’t need to stall much longer. He took another step forward, and gestured as he spoke. "Before I go, I need to see your documentation."

In sync, the four of them reached into their pockets, producing the necessary item. Lumi took each one, examining them all longer than necessary. Once he saw Valeria making her way back to him, he gave them back with a smile. "Everything has been verified. Thank you for your cooperations. You are free to go."

"Understood." A penguin replied to him, and they all turned away in sync. Lumi raised his wand, and struck one in the back!

THUNK!

A metallic sound rang out.

He grinned, then cast light magic on the spot, tagging them all.

This time, the infiltrators no longer pretended. They immediately shed their disguises, revealing mechanical monstrosities that bore only a passing resemblance to penguins. These were more heavily armed than the seal variants, with integrated weapons systems and thicker armor plating.

[Infiltrator Penguin Bot - Level 37]

[Infiltrator Penguin Bot - Level 36]

[Infiltrator Penguin Bot - Level 38]

"Useless!" Valeria taunted the enemy as she lunged straight at the three. Her rapid speed directed their attention from Lumi to her.

A penguin bot opened up their beak, an energy beam forming. Valeria quickly blocked the beam with her sword as it carved out a molten line through the dock they’d been standing on.

Lumi teleported away behind a stack of crates, energy beams flying in the air above his head. Beryllium’s work, oh how familiar he was with them! "Their eye still serves as their targeting system just like a living creature! Take it out to take their aim out!"

The three infiltrators scattered. Valeria chose one to target, quickly catching up to it. Its eyes flickered, and a heat began to rise up inside itself. "You wh-" She quickly guarded herself as an explosion rang out.