Chapter 405 - 276: The Devil Workhorses Are Ready

Chapter 405: Chapter 276: The Devil Workhorses Are Ready

With that, he left the office.

Elsa finally understood what Zog was up to. She muttered while clicking her mouse, "Such a big-shot boss, acting as a shill in a game he invested in himself. So embarrassing for a Dragon..."

Before she could even finish, a dragon’s head poked in through the doorway.

Zog wore a "gotcha" expression. "Insolence! Slandering your boss! That’s a fine! The Great Dragon is listening to you!"

Elsa was speechless and brought a hand to her forehead. She’d forgotten about Zog’s super-hearing.

Zog left again.

Elsa waited a moment, figuring Zog must have teleported to Deepwater City by now.

First, she gave a couple of tentative coughs, then said in a barely audible voice, "Zog... Xiaozhuo."

After speaking, she stared warily at the door.

When no dragon came bursting in, her voice grew slightly louder. "This feature isn’t working. It’s not responding when I click. And that guy in the game is making fun of you."

The clever Elsa was trying to lay a trap.

However, there was still no response from the doorway.

It seemed Zog really had reached Deepwater City. Even with hearing as good as his, he couldn’t listen in from a thousand kilometers away.

And so, Elsa grew completely bold. She began to curse loudly and with abandon, "That Dragon Zog! What does he do all day besides bully his assistant? Vampire! Cheapskate! Vile capitalist Dragon! No wonder he and the Teacher can’t even lay an egg..."

Just as Elsa was getting into the swing of her rant, she stared in astonishment as the office door was pushed open again, and a large, red dragon’s head poked through.

"Caught you again!" Zog said smugly. "Knew you couldn’t resist."

"Boss, if I told you a Ghost just possessed me, would you believe it?" Elsa made one last desperate attempt to save herself.

Zog gave her a look that said, ’Do you really think I’d believe that?’

Her struggle failed. Her prize: a fine.

And so, filled with boundless resentment, Elsa started taking it all out on the second-strongest player in the game...

「Deepwater City, the Outskirts.」

The Church’s Gate of Hell was established here, in this remote area far from the city.

It was built here to avoid causing public panic.

Although the plan was for many Devils to settle in Deepwater City in the future, that had to happen gradually. Seeing tens of thousands of Inferior Demons march out of the Gate of Hell right from the start would be rather terrifying.

Zog waited in front of the gate.

He had been waiting for the Inferior Demons for a long time. The city’s automobile factory had been completed a few days ago, but production had yet to start due to a lack of workers.

He was just waiting for the Inferior Demons to start the assembly lines.

A purplish-red light flared from the Gate of Hell. Then, several massive Deep Prison Demon Refiners emerged. Their steps were labored and their progress slow as they dragged several thick, heavy iron chains.

A few minutes later, Zog saw what the Deep Prison Demon Refiners were pulling.

Giant iron cages.

Inside were Inferior Demons, packed together so tightly there wasn’t a single gap between them.

The scene couldn’t help but remind Zog of the subway during morning rush hour.

This mode of transport, where it was hard to even breathe, made it obvious they weren’t being treated as fellow Devils—they were being hauled like pure cargo.

Anyone who didn’t know better might have thought Zog was engaged in some kind of triangular trade with Hell.

Half an hour later, nine cages of Inferior Demons were parked on the open ground. The Deep Prison Demon Refiners that had transported them returned to Hell.

Zog glanced over them, trying to get a headcount. Uh...

He couldn’t get an accurate count just by looking.

Then, a familiar figure appeared at the entrance of the Gate of Hell.

It was a sleazy, corpulent, middle-aged man wearing a dinner suit, a formal hat, and carrying a cane, but he was barefoot.

Asmodis.

Zog took the initiative and went to greet his collaborator.

"I never expected the Lord of Hell himself to grace Deepwater City with his presence."

"With diplomatic relations with Feilin on the verge of being established, and the war with the Demons stabilizing, I certainly had to come see Feilin for myself. Of course, this trip was approved by the Church," Asmodis replied.

It was the first time Zog had ever heard of a war "stabilizing." ’As expected of a Devil,’ he thought. ’Is this what they call normalized warfare?’

"Do you need a guide? I can arrange one for you anywhere on the Feilin Continent, except for within the Loman Empire."

"No need. I’d rather look around on my own. This is the first batch of Inferior Demons—six hundred per cage, for a total of five thousand four hundred. There may have been some attrition during transport. I hope you’ll understand."

’Attrition, he calls it.’

Zog mused, ’If this keeps up, does that mean only the strongest and sturdiest Inferior Demons will make it to Deepwater City? It might eventually cause a divergence in traits between the Feilin Inferior Demons and the Hell Inferior Demons. The Feilin ones will excel at burst, while the ones in Hell will excel at endurance...’

"Perfectly understandable, perfectly understandable."

Asmodis asked, "But there’s one thing I’m curious about. How are you going to get the people here to accept Inferior Demons?"

He glanced in the direction of Deepwater City and sniffed the air. "They’re mostly Humans. With this many Inferior Demons, it’ll be hard to keep them from being discovered, won’t it? Or have you already gotten the locals to fully accept Devils?"

"Who said they’re Inferior Demons?" Zog said. "These are a brand-new breed from the Shenke Affiliated Institute: worker Slimes. Perfectly harmless."

"Slimes?"

Asmodis was completely taken aback. While Slimes were also unpopular Demons, their combat strength was so weak—most of them couldn’t even defeat a goose—that people didn’t take them seriously.

"But aren’t Slimes and Inferior Demons quite different?"

Asmodis turned to scrutinize the caged Inferior Demons. There were no Slimes in Hell; he had only ever seen pictures of them in books. If the illustrations were correct, the only thing the two had in common was their amorphous, blob-like shape.

But Inferior Demons were far more disgusting.

They were considerably larger than Slimes, and their bodies weren’t gelatinous or slimy but composed of molten flesh and blood. A vaguely humanoid face was visible upon their flesh, perpetually twisted in an expression of pain and despair. They had two hands, but it was hard to tell how many fingers each one had.