Lily trembled in her glass jar, tears streaming down her face as she pressed her tiny paws against her ears, trying to block out the horrifying screams of her companions.

  “I’m sorry, it’s my fault; I couldn’t save you… Wuwu…”

  As the cries of the mice outside suddenly ceased, the lid above Lily’s head was wrenched open.

  “Help!!! Let me go! Help!!!” she cried desperately, struggling against the grip of a white-robed Mihe.

  Nearby, her subordinates inside their own transparent jars banged against the walls, but no matter how hard they tried, the sturdy jars remained unyielding.

  Forced into a spread-eagle position on a small platform, Lily watched in horror as a Mihe, wearing a blue mask, approached her with a writhing black leech.

  Her chest heaved rapidly, and tears fell from her eyes. “I… I don’t want to die. I want to go home…”

  Just as the creature drew closer, the door slammed open with a crash. Charles burst in with a large group of people.

  The harpoon fired instantly, piercing the white-robed Mihe's head and yanking it to the ground.

  “Lily, are you okay? Are you hurt?” Charles asked, carefully lowering his cannon from its stand.

  Lily couldn’t find her voice; she clung to Charles’s finger, sobbing uncontrollably from fear.

  As he comforted her, Charles scanned the room. It looked like a holding area for animals, filled with various mice, lizards, and even bats trapped in glass jars.

  “Release them all,” he commanded.

  The crowd began to pound on the glass jars, and one by one, the animals were freed.

  With Lily’s mice joining the ranks, Charles’s group grew significantly, but he knew it wasn’t enough; he needed more allies.

  Just as he was about to move on to the next holding point, Lily sniffled and jumped onto Charles’s shoulder, her voice trembling. “Mr. Charles, everyone’s belongings are in the room next door.”

  Charles felt a surge of joy. He kissed the little mouse on the head and hurried toward the room.

  When Charles reappeared in the corridor glowing with red light, everyone had retrieved their gear and clothing. Excitement lit their faces.

  With their weapons back in hand, their strength surged, and the scattered Mihe were no match for them. Charles cleared through the holding points one after another.

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  He released monsters directly and handed over confiscated Mihe weapons to the humans, inviting them to join the fight.

  By the time they broke through the last holding point, the spacious corridor had begun to feel crowded.

  Aside from two crew members and a cook from the Unicorn, everyone else was unfamiliar.

  “Captain! Should we charge out now??”

  “Sir, you’re the one who rescued us. What’s our next move? We’re all ears.”

  “Can we go home soon? My ship sank; how do we get back??”

  Each person looked at their savior with excitement, but none understood the immense pressure Charles felt.

  His expression darkened. All the monsters had been released, and every communicable human had joined his ranks.

  Yet, with only around two hundred people, even with the chaos from the released monsters, it was nothing compared to the thousands of Mihe outside.

  “Dude, even if we gather all the Mihe test subjects, we’re still outnumbered. No wonder Salin’s rebellion failed,” Charles said, sketching a map of the second laboratory on the ground with his harpoon, his brow furrowed in concentration.

  Suddenly, gunfire erupted from outside; the Mihe had begun to move.

  Charles turned to his first mate. “Bandage, take some people outside to hold them off.”

  Bandage nodded silently and stepped out.

  Time ticked by, and as the gunfire intensified, Charles’s gaze swept across a section of the map, and his eyes lit up.

  He pointed to a corner on the eastern side of the map. “Richard, does this area look familiar?”

  “Enough with the suspense; just say it already.”

  “Don’t you remember? This is the place in the third laboratory where they kept the living relics. If there’s a place for that in the third lab, there must be one in the second lab too, right? Our allies aren’t just these creatures; the living relics inside are allies too!”

  Richard’s voice brimmed with excitement. “If we can release all the monsters in there, the entire second lab is done for!”

  “Let’s do it!” Charles declared, drawing a heavy circle around that area before rising and heading out into the open.

  He swiftly cleared out the Mihe blocking their path, leading everyone toward the living relic containment point.

  The journey was perilous; more and more Mihe swarmed toward them, each one stronger than the last.

  Their various special abilities rendered the group defenseless, and casualties began to appear among them.

  “Thud!” Charles, bloodied and battered, drove his black blade into a black Mihe’s neck.

  After a long battle, he felt a wave of exhaustion, but when he spotted the familiar heavy steel door, he knew he had arrived.

  “Captain, I have explosives here!” Dipp, wearing a mask, shouted as he rushed forward with the explosives.

  But a female follower of the Light Church stepped in to stop him. Leaning against the wall, she began to vomit—not just any vomit, but a jet-like spray.

  The dark green liquid that erupted from her mouth sizzled against the steel, releasing a noxious odor as it began to corrode the door.

  In no time, the corrosive liquid had eaten through the steel door, and the Light Church follower stepped inside first.

  The steel door was easy to open from the inside. Charles ordered his crew to swing the heavy door wide open, knowing what he had to do next.

  He didn’t let everyone rush in; he instructed the others to wait in the nearest room.

  Once the creatures were released, there was a high chance they would be indiscriminate in their attacks. He didn’t want to risk a fight breaking out between allies.

  Approaching the first door, just as Charles was about to open it, Dipp bolted ahead.

  He placed the bomb on the doorframe and quickly retreated.

  “Boom!!” A deafening explosion rocked the area, followed by a monstrous roar from behind the door.

  From the smoke of the explosion, a long, green creature covered in slender arms crawled out.

  The green monster locked its gaze on Charles for a few seconds before swiftly crawling out along the ceiling.