Chapter 338 From beast to man (1)

The sound of rock music coming through the earphones was loud.

Even the noise of a small car driving on a wasteland country road could not stop the sound coming from the earphones.

A tired-looking middle-aged woman stared at her soldier with her earphones plugged in, wondering if the child’s hearing was going to go down first or if she had to punch her fist first.

The soldier, who had received her piercing gaze, said with a grin.

“You look like you want to stab me with a knife. Professor Keller!”

At the soldier’s words, Maria Keller smiled and said something. But the soldier couldn’t hear because of the loud music coming from the earphones.

The soldier eventually pulled the earphones out of his ears.

“What did you say?”

She said, “You’re not going to hear me anyway,” she said. “What are you talking about, Victor? You bastard.”

The soldier named Victor chuckled at Maria Keller’s harsh remarks instead of getting angry.

“Don’t be so angry. You’re going to meet the devil, and you’ll have to listen to a song that praises the devil in advance, don’t you think? Isn’t it? It’s said that rock is the devil’s music in church.”

“Then, shouldn’t you listen to the hymn?”

“Because I’m a reasonable person. If there really is a devil, I think it would be wiser to flirt with the devil right in front of us than to find a God who can save me somewhere in the sky.”

At Victor’s answer, Maria gave a ferocious expression on her face. Victor smiled and enjoyed Maria’s furious gaze.

“Relax. Professor Keller! Is there anything wrong? Demons or monsters. Originally, these savage desert bastards worship everything. Some peasant once asked if George Bush was now their king?”

“Don’t be arrogant about being born a white man in a lucky country. Victor. Ignorance is exposed.”

“I mean, the CIA is mistaken again.”

Victor said, putting the Walkman and earphones down next to each other.

Maria finally stopped hearing that noise, she said, and she was relieved. Victor continued his words with a single smile.

“As you know, this mess started when Comrade Gorbachev withdrew his plan to evacuate from Afghanistan. That, what? The whole world is chaos because of a dungeon or something.

“Are you talking about the opening of the dungeon? It’s more serious than you think. It’s nothing like the Afghan war. It could be the biggest change since the discovery of fire.”

“Anyway, war is always the same for a soldier, well. Stone axe, nuclear bomb, or telekinesis. Anyway, the CIA, as you know, went to great lengths to turn Afghanistan into Soviet Vietnam.”

As soon as the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, the CIA did its best to swamp them and entangle them to keep them from escaping.

The result was Afghanistan, where 80% of the country outside the capital became the enemy.

“When Gorbachev announced his withdrawal, he would have believed that everything was successful.

Victor clenched his fists with an excited expression and opened them wide.

“Suddenly, a battalion level of Soviet troops disappeared in northern Afghanistan. There was no mention of a withdrawal. Even if you ask the local spies, they say they don’t know. There are only strange rumors circulating that they are demons or monsters.”

That was the reason why Maria Keller and Victor drove through the desert sands in this old car.

To find out why and why the Soviet army suddenly evaporated.

Officially there are no Americans in Afghanistan, so it was a fairly risky mission. There were no documents to prove the identity of the two.

“I heard there’s a pretty dangerous militant group there. Isn’t that what they do?”

“Ah, those armed guerrillas. They’re CIA-trained, weapons-supplied kids. But don’t overestimate them. They’re just armed guerrillas, you can’t annihilate a Soviet battalion.”

“Then you didn’t fight with conventional weapons.”

Maria Keller smiled obliquely and shook her head.

“That’s why you’re taking me like this.”

Victor snapped his fingers and said.

“That’s right, Professor. To be honest, no one knows the cause yet. But I’m guessing it has something to do with the opening of the dungeon, as you said before. The creatures that appear there don’t work with weapons?”

“It’s not that it doesn’t work…”

“They say they don’t die anyway. Anyway, I wonder if the monsters that came out of them wiped out the Soviet Army. The CIA sees this as a very valuable opportunity and thinks that it may create valuable strategic resources if used.”

“You’re doing the same thing.”Maria snorted. Monsters coming out of the dungeon are still not controlled by any means.

She also went in and out of the dungeon several times, but she had no idea how monsters with completely different ecosystems, habits, and environments could exist.

“It would be easier to tame an ant or a mosquito,” she said.

“Huh. The CIA also listened to the professor, so I just ignored it until this point. In fact, I’ve heard stories of demons and monsters in this area for a long time. You can’t stay still, can you?”

The ‘legend’ may be a metaphor for secret weapons or chemical and biological weapons. Maybe it’s about a secret nuclear missile base that has already been rumored.

Neither was a rumor the CIA could ignore.

“Then there are no Soviet troops there now?”

“As far as I know, none. The remaining troops also withdrew. Only some of our troops and locals.”

“Dispatch troops?”

Victor nodded his head.

“Dr. Samuel and his bodyguards. It’s okay.”

Maria frowned, then she let out a deep sigh.

“Samuel, how come this bastard has nowhere to go.”

“I heard that the professor and the field of major overlap a lot.”

“He’s an occult maniac. I’m ashamed to be called a Doctor. Don’t bring it to me.”

But Maria could see that the CIA wasn’t taking it lightly anyway.

He could be said to be the highest authority in the dungeon-related research that had just begun, and Samuel was a celebrity in the academic world, if not to that extent.

Bringing scholars to a war zone where the US had not intervened ‘officially’ and nowhere else meant it was a fairly serious covert operation. Moreover, northern Afghanistan was the border area of the Soviet Union.

There was no such tension at all on Victor’s face.

When the conversation was interrupted, Victor put the earphones back in his ears. Rock music was playing loudly.

Maria pulled out the earphones and threw them out of her window. Victor’s gaze, looking at him as if it was absurd, was satisfactory.

“Let me sleep. Huh?”

Victor grunted and gave up his earphones.

Actually, it was just a rant.

Maria did not like all this to her. This unpaved country road, the dry desert, and the sandstorm.

But most of all, he didn’t like this bizarre wasteland, which often conceived the gods.

***

It was midnight when we reached the canyon.

The desert slept dreaming of the memories of the trees that had grown thick a long time ago.

Now, instead of the river, the wind reversed the dry land and followed it, and people appeared in the shadows.

Victor exchanged questions and answers with them in Arabic. It was more like sharing a secret phrase rather than a familiar word because of the poor pronunciation.

“You’re late.”

As soon as the question and answer was finished, someone appeared in the moonlight.

It was Samuel, a man with a nervous impression wearing glasses. Beside him stood armed Arab men in turbans.

“Because the road is a mess. Doctor.”

“Things are all right. I think it’s best to hurry.”

Samuel looked a bit nervous. He only glanced at Maria with a quick glance.

He wasn’t friendly with each other.

The three of them decided to talk while walking.

As we entered the canyon, there were bloodstains and bullets everywhere. It looks like you’ve been through a pretty intense battle recently.

“Are the Soviet troops back?”

“No. It’s worse.”

“Worse?”

Victor asked as if he didn’t understand.

Today, America’s greatest enemy is, of course, the Soviet Union. It could not be understood that the situation was worse than the arrival of such Soviet troops.

But instead of answering Samuel, he looked around and kept quiet.

Viktor also kept his mouth shut, feeling that he was not in a situation to rush an answer.

“Maria, please stay close to me. The atmosphere is not good.”

Maria looked at the people in the canyon.

These were the local guerrillas that Victor was talking about, trained and armed by the CIA.

It was night, so it was difficult to recognize each face, but brightly shining eyes were staring at them.

“They say they’re protecting Samuel. How do you think they’re being watched?”

“Something seems to have gone awry. I don’t see any CIA contingents either.”

Victor was ready to pull out his hidden gun at any time, but if the guerrillas turned to the enemy, there was no chance.

However, he had to remain faithful to his duty, escorting Samuel and Mary, until he got to grips with the situation.

“Hey, Dr. Samuel. Excuse me, but can you tell me where we’re going and what we’re going to see?”

Victor carefully opened his mouth.

Samuel looked at Victor, a bit perplexed.

“Did you hear anything?”

“You know. The CIA monopolizes and hides all sorts of rubbish information. They told me to go and hear it for myself.”

Samuel didn’t answer. Rather than trying to hide it, he seemed to be unable to find anything to say.

As he pondered on an answer, Victor pondered as if giving a hint.

“There was talk of monsters and demons. What is it? Did something pop out of the dungeon? Or something like a secret weapon hidden by the Soviet Army?”

“I don’t think monsters or demons are wrong. But…”

Samuel opened his mouth as if displeased with a troubled expression on his face.

“The locals say they are the agents of the gods. A punishment sent by Allah to expel aliens who have invaded the sacred territory.”

“God?”

“Ha. I’m afraid that someone isn’t from the seminary, so I’m looking for an occult.”

Victor had a blatantly disappointed expression on her face, and Maria blatantly sneered.

Samuel looked at Mary with a displeased face.

“You’ll be the only one who calls you an occult maniac because you majored in theology. And I’m just translating the words of the locals.”

“Even if you pick it up, the very fact that you picked up those words is a reflection of your unconsciousness. Or you deliberately made a biased judgment. Look at Victor. You’re already disappointed to hear what you said.”

“No, let me talk to you.”

“Maria.”

Samuel said with a hard expression on his face.

“Many of these guerrillas gather to defend their country, but many are armed with religious fanaticism to support their patriotism. People from countries that don’t even allow sculpting?”

“Because it’s a group of fundamentalist fanatics, it’s probably easier to be swayed. Do you know how many religious groups misunderstood the dungeon opening for the rapture? What rational conclusion would be drawn from such a group?”

Samuel let out a deep sigh instead of rebutting.

“Then I would like you to see it and judge for yourself. Because I don’t even know what ‘it’ is. If it were Professor Maria Keller’s novel and objective reason, it would definitely be a distinction.”

Samuel was sarcastic, but his eyes were full of anxiety. His gaze soon turned forward.

“But before that, there is someone I need to meet.”

***

The place Samuel guided us to was a cave dug in the section of the canyon.Inside the not-so-old crypt, an old man with a thick beard was smoking a hookah.

But he only looks old because of his beard and turban, he didn’t look that old in reality.

The old man glanced at Victor and Maria, and Samuel spoke in English.

“Professor Maria Keller I was talking about. He’s the best authority in this field.”

Mary looked at Samuel with a surprised expression.

Just as Maria ignores Samuel as an occult maniac, Samuel hates Maria for being radical.

There was no direct confrontation due to the different areas of activity, and they were hard-working gossips in places where there was no other.

The old man looked at Maria, then turned to Victor and said something in Arabic.

He understood Samuel’s words, so he seemed to speak Arabic on purpose, even though he could speak English.

“He’s just a bodyguard. He doesn’t care.”

Victor took a step back, raising his hands as if he didn’t care about anything.

The old man looked at Victor and said something to the men who looked like bodyguards.

The men soon approached Victor and took his arms. Victor was annoyed, but surprisingly, he gave up his armament.

“It’s for safety. It’s better to have no blades or weapons to approach ‘it’.”

“Is that the old man’s opinion or Dr. Samuel’s opinion?”

Samuel did not answer.

As soon as Maria seemed to have gone through the complicated introduction process, she took a step forward.

“Assalamu Alaikum. I am Maria Keller. What is this person’s name?”

Instead of answering, the old man smiled and turned his gaze to Samuel. Samuel whispered to Mary.

“He doesn’t talk to women. He can’t give you his name. Just be aware that he’s a wealthy man who actively supports the CIA and guerrillas. He’s a radical fundamentalist, so be careful with his actions.”

“Whether it’s a dog or a cow, you shouldn’t have a name to call it.”

“Don’t talk to me directly, speak through me. If you need a title for Jung, call me ‘Mohammed’.”

Then Mohammed opened his mouth.

Samuel paused for a moment, but this time answered in Arabic instead of English.

Mohammed wanted to instruct Samuel to do something, but he gestured to him to unilaterally indicate that the conversation was over.

Samuel wiped a cold sweat and spoke to Victor and Maria.

“Welcome.”

“I don’t think it’s something that can be summarized like that.”

“If there’s anything you really need to know, I’ll let you know, so just know that. Get ready to go again right away.”

“Wait, we’re moving right away? We just arrived?”

“Did you expect a five-star hotel and a welcome drink? Even if you’re tired, be patient. When you get there, you’ll forget what it was like to be tired.”

Soon an armed guerrilla approached them.

The guerrillas took the lead in front of them with a blunt attitude. Samuel followed without hesitation, and Maria and Victor had no choice but to follow.

The guerrillas skillfully relied on the moonlight to move their steps, even though it was a canyon in the middle of the night.

Following behind, Maria felt her chest quickly fill with excitement.

I don’t know what happened here, but it’s probably not normal.

Something is going on that will make both Samuel and Victor and these desert guerrillas bewildered.

And it was enough to make the heart of a researcher who is willing to lay down his life for research, no matter what it was.

After a moment, Maria felt her heart stop beating, which had been beating wildly. Instead, she came with a chill that seemed to penetrate her heart.

Looking at the rounded silhouette over her canyon, Maria tried for a while to determine what it was.

But in fact, as soon as she saw it, she already realized it.

It was a huge mass of hundreds or thousands of humans gathered together like a ball of clay.