Volume 4 Chapter 20: Grimm Foe

Casablanca was the largest city in Morocco. This city was originally a colony of the Spanish government. After the Axis and Allies started fighting in North Africa, because the Mediterranean and Atlantic routes were tightly blockaded by the British fleet, the Spanish government secretly leased this place to Germany’s North African Corps.

By using this method to bypass the British fleet’s sea blockade, supplies were sent to the North African Corps from this neutral colony in Morocco. It was a secret military supply warehouse for the German Army in North Africa.

After the Allied forces won the North African campaign, Morocco was also controlled by Britain and America. After the Allied forces took control of Casablanca, they connected the underground parts of the military supply warehouse with other important military targets in the city center, forming a huge underground shelter.

However, to meet the deadline for the meeting of the three major powers’ leaders, the connecting passages of the underground shelter were built in a rush. Some passages were not very sturdy. During the previous shelling, some passages couldn’t withstand the force of the explosions and developed many cracks.

“Shh… shh…” At that moment, a somewhat eerie whistling sound suddenly echoed in a certain section of the underground network.

The explosion-proof lights in this section were all off. Besides the eerie whistling, there was only the faint rustling sound of dust and gravel falling through the cracks in the passage. The whole section revealed an unusually terrifying atmosphere. Combined with the narrow space of the passage, it gave people an extremely oppressive feeling of suffocation.

The depths of this passage were pitch black. Only near the corner was there a dim light refracted from the explosion-proof lights of other branching passages.

Tracing the source of the whistling, two faint green glows suddenly lit up in the dark passage. Deep within the green glows, two points of rich, blood-like crimson could vaguely be seen.

The darkness in the passage seemed to sway slightly with the green glows, faintly revealing a terrifying shadow of indeterminate shape.

“What to do… it seems there’s no time to make a Skeletal Angel! What a pity, wasting such excellent material!”

As the calm words were spoken, it made people realize with a start that the terrifying shadow was a living person squatting on the ground. In front of this person, there seemed to be a vague, blurry object, but it was blocked by the figure and hard to see clearly.

As the green glows swayed, the figure stood up, and then the sound of light footsteps was heard. The figure had just taken two steps when it suddenly stopped again.

“Smack!” The figure slapped its own forehead as if mocking itself. “Haven’t been out for so long, I’ve really become slow. How can I not take a souvenir back from such excellent material? Heheh!”

The figure turned back around, squatted back into place, gripped a dagger tightly in its hand, and began cutting forcefully.

…

Grant slowly removed the Human Skin Mask from his face, stuffed it into his chest, leaned against the wall, and sat down on the ground, his chest heaving rapidly. His physical strength was severely depleted. From last night until now, using “Joker’s Gift” twice in one day had almost drained the vitality of this body.

If he hadn’t used many recovery items from his Storage Space, he probably wouldn’t even be able to move now. In the end, Grant hadn’t been able to stop Indiana Jones. That archaeology doctor was really too alert. Furthermore, unlike Little Red Riding Hood Liv, Jones’s whip skills couldn’t be mimicked by the Joker. Relying purely on physical techniques obviously wasn’t enough to defeat the cautious Jones.

When one aura suddenly vanished from the distant battle, Jones immediately and decisively disengaged from the fight and fled. And because Grant’s strength was completely exhausted, even if he wanted to chase, he lacked the ability.

While resting, Grant suddenly sensed something and looked back. He saw a figure emerge from a corner in the distance. The figure’s face was somewhat pale, the shirt on its upper body was open, and there were white bandages wrapped around its abdomen and left shoulder respectively.

A large stain of blood seeped through the middle of the white bandage on the abdomen. Judging by the amount of bleeding, it might very well be a penetrating wound. The left shoulder, wrapped with the other white bandage, was noticeably lower than the right shoulder, suggesting the shoulder blade was shattered.

However, Grant’s attention wasn’t focused on these things, but was tightly fixed on a small package held in the newcomer’s right hand. It was a set of tattered military uniform wrapped around something like a small jar. The bottom was soaked with blood, and as the figure moved forward, blood droplets spilled along the passage.

“Qin Lun, you actually managed to kill her!” Grant moved his gaze away from the package with some difficulty and looked at the newcomer.

The Joker had fought both Little Red Riding Hood and Indiana Jones once and knew well how troublesome these Superpowered Beings were. Even though these Plot Characters from another dimension didn’t have Law Bodies, the difficulty of killing them was unusually high.

The corners of the newcomer’s mouth curved into a strange arc. A red glow flashed briefly in his eyes, but he didn’t respond verbally.

“Eh? Wait, you’re not Qin Lun!” Grant suddenly frowned, became alert, and used the wall for support as he stood up. “You are… Joey Foster! The fight is over, and you’re still controlling Qin Lun’s body?”

“Who said this body belongs to him!” Joey sneered and cracked his knuckles. “If that guy hadn’t managed to get a few decent abilities, I wouldn’t have held back until now!”

“Then, do you still want to continue with our previous plan?” Grant asked in a low voice, a trace of doubt flashing in his eyes.

“Of course! Such a fun thing, I’ve wanted to have a good play for a long time, hahaha!” Joey’s eyes revealed madness as he threw his head back and laughed. The bloodstain on his abdominal bandage rapidly expanded with his laughter, but the Dissector’s face showed no sign of noticing.

“Let’s go then. The vibrations from the surface have almost stopped. Those Oranienburg Unit Special Forces Soldiers should all be dead by now!” Grant looked up at the ceiling of the underground passage, his face expressionless.

The special forces soldiers who came with the Gentlemen Alliance were originally a full assault squadron of over 120 people. When they landed on the beach, these special forces soldiers were attacked by nearly two regiments of Allied Forces. In the end, only a little over thirty escaped.

Although the Oranienburg Special Forces Soldiers weren’t super snipers like Gerthard, whom Qin Lun possessed, each soldier had strong individual qualities and were all crack shots. During the shelling, they hid in the ruins on the surface, using semi-automatic rifles and grenades to gradually resist the arriving Allied Forces troops.

From the time the Gentlemen Alliance entered the underground passage until Grant and Joey finished their fights, about twenty minutes had passed.

Using just over thirty men to block the elite American 101st Airborne Division guarding the city center of Casablanca – this level of bravery and boldness evoked a flicker of respect even in a Serial Killer like Grant.

“Heheh, couldn’t you keep your own prey?” Joey sneered strangely, looking around the passage as if eagerly hoping to see another corpse.

“No, Indi… Doctor Jones was very clever. As soon as your fight ended over there, he immediately retreated!” Grant said with some annoyance. He had almost blurted out Indiana Jones’s full name but managed to correct himself quickly. “Since you killed that woman called Kathleen by Doctor Jones, did you gain anything?”

“Heheh, that woman seemed to be a famous Superpowered Being. After she died, I received a chain task and directly completed the first step!” Joey rolled his eyes and generously displayed the prompt information from his Death Notice in the Team Channel.

“Grimm Foe: Apostle 70053, you killed an Associate Professor of Grimm Academy, triggering the chain task ‘Grimm Foe’. The base progress of this task is already complete. Killing other teachers or students of Grimm Academy can increase the progress of this task. Task rewards will be settled upon return. The World Exploration Degree reward within it will be issued as an additional reward.”

“Prompt: Grimm Academy is a high-level Superpower academy in this world. The academy is located in Greenland. Among its teachers and students are many Legendary figures who left significant historical deeds in both the official history and unofficial histories of this world.”

“Prompt: Every kill of an important figure from Grimm Academy will significantly impact the historical trajectory of this world. While increasing the Apostle’s World Exploration Degree, it will also plunder a large amount of World Origin for the Shattered Starry Sky and can enhance the final Otherworld Mission evaluation.”

“Warning: Grimm Academy is very united, with close relationships between teachers and students. Killing any teacher or student of the academy will bring frantic retaliation upon the Apostle. It will also add unpredictable variables to the Otherworld Mission, indirectly increasing the difficulty of the Otherworld Mission. Because this difficulty is unpredictable, the original Otherworld Mission rewards cannot have their base rewards increased; only additional rewards can be given through World Exploration Degree.”

“Grimm Foe…” Grant looked at Joey with a complicated expression, mixing envy and a bit of helplessness.

This task couldn’t be shared. Unless he also killed a Grimm member himself, the task reward belonged to Qin Lun alone. But because they were currently a temporary team and working on tasks together, the future trouble would have to be borne by everyone.

However, Grant was no ordinary person after all. He wasn’t afraid of trouble; instead, he felt a surge of excitement and eagerness. Thinking of this, the Joker licked his lips and let his gaze fall on the package in Joey’s hand.

“Joey, let’s make a deal… Since you’re only keeping this as a souvenir anyway, how about I trade you 5000 Shattered Crystal for it?”

“Oh?” A cold light flashed briefly in Joey’s eyes. He stopped walking, turned his head, and looked quietly at Grant.

“I… was joking, don’t mind it!” Grant also stopped at the same time, arched his back slightly while looking at the “Dissector,” and immediately withdrew his proposal.

“Heh heh!” Joey narrowed his eyes slightly, his smile not reaching his eyes. “Let’s go. The shelter guarded by Kathleen and Jones should be just ahead. Let’s go see our haul.”

Watching Joey turn and start walking forward again, Grant curled his lip and followed at a leisurely pace, though he secretly increased the distance between them slightly.