Chapter 37 37: Didn’t See That Coming

— — — — — — After finally getting a full picture of their enemy, Fujiwara Chika was completely shocked. She immediately requested a livestream when Veyron and the others made their move. There was no need to worry about camera angles or anything technical — just open the stream, and let the view automatically follow the action by the chat group. ... "Hi hi~ Good afternoon, everyone! Just as requested, your fav Miss Merlin's livestream is about to go live~" A glowing screen appeared in the air at the activity room of the Amundsen–Scott research station. On the other end of the screen, hovering above Raccoon City, Little Merlin waved cheerfully at the viewers. After Chika made the livestream request, the others, curious or for their own reasons, also showed interest. So after checking with the two people involved, Merlin offered to handle the stream herself. Why not just use the chat group's built-in livestream feature and instead go with magic? Well... it was mostly to prepare the survivors mentally and let them watch the fight too. Back in Tokonosu City, Takagi Yuriko had toured the Umbrella Corporation's lab once and warned them — beyond the typical undead, there were also mutated ones, Umbrella's "special creations." But lately, they'd only encountered standard zombies. The only real challenge had been the sheer number of them — relentless and unafraid of pain or death, with one goal: devour. So who could say for sure that, after gaining enough power to deal with regular zombies, they wouldn't start thinking: "Eh, they're so easy to kill." That's exactly why it was important to show them the upper limit — what the worst of the undead actually looked like. Staring at the city now swallowed by blood-red flesh, Yuriko gasped, "This is... Raccoon City?" "Yes, this is Raccoon City," Little Merlin confirmed calmly from the other side of the livestream, clearly hearing her through the Merlin clone stationed there. Yuriko: "..." The eight other survivors: "..." "Alright, save the chit-chat for later — it's about to start~" Veyron and Hancock had already made plans on the way here, so after a brief exchange to confirm things, they got ready to move. Getting the signal, Little Merlin didn't waste time chatting with the audience. She raised her staff and cast an illusion spell. The plan was simple — just three steps. Step One: Use Merlin's illusion magic to sneak into the heart of the flesh-infested base. Step Two: Retrieve the box of spiral glass vials from the meat-plant-thing and stuff it into the group's shared red envelope for safekeeping. Step Three: Destroy the flesh plant. If that fails, stay outside to make sure it doesn't escape... and wait for the coming nuke to finish the job. --- Step One went without a hitch. Thanks to Merlin's illusion, the moment Veyron and Hancock got close, the fleshy mass split open, creating a tunnel lined with pulsing red muscle — just enough space for them to pass through. But because walking on that looked disgusting, the two hovered above the ground, keeping about a dozen centimeters of distance as they floated straight to the flesh plant. First half of Step Two also went smoothly. Once they saw the plant, Veyron's Observation Haki was already picking up on the foreign objects buried inside the flesh. Although the number of boxes didn't match what they saw, he still retrieved three boxes — slicing the plant open and pulling them out one by one, then tossing them into the special red envelope for Merlin to handle. They didn't know if the boxes were infected, so only she had the right setup to safely receive them. Then things went sideways — fast. "ROOOOAAAR!!" (Give it back!) A furious howl erupted from deep inside the meat plant. On the surface of its outer wall, a human face appeared — its eyes wide with fury, staring at the two intruding "thieves." It didn't wait for a response. Dozens of fleshy tendrils lashed out from every direction, slicing through the air as they flew at Veyron and Hancock. Veyron cut them down one by one with his blade. "Slave Arrow!" Hancock, on the other hand, conjured a massive, glowing pink heart in front of her using her Devil Fruit power. With a firm pull on its edge, hundreds of pink arrows shot out toward the meat plant. The entire thing was instantly turned to stone, completely covered by her arrow barrage. "Is it over already?" Chika's voice came from the Antarctic livestream room, sounding pleasantly surprised. "...Do they look like it's over to you?" Selena replied dryly, glancing at the screen and pointing to Veyron and Hancock's tense expressions. As she spoke, under the city — beneath Raccoon City's streets — things took a turn. The flesh plant's attacks didn't stop — in fact, they got worse. More faces, identical to the one on the flesh plant, appeared all around on the walls of flesh, shouting over each other in chaotic roars: "ROOOAR!!" ×?? (Give it back! Give it back! Give it back!.....) The space, which had been tens of meters wide and tall, began to shrink as the walls of living flesh started closing in. "I didn't see that coming..." "Let's retreat for now," Veyron said mid-swing, Observation Haki sweeping in every direction to track every detail. "I'm starting to think this whole city is its body — like one massive flesh sack." It had barely been ten seconds since the plant realized the boxes were missing, but Veyron had already cut down well over a hundred tendrils. Yet hardly any of them piled up on the ground. Why? Because every single severed tentacle melted right back into the fleshy walls the moment they touched them — reintegrating instantly. The one bit of good news was that the stone chunks from the shattered meat plant hadn't disappeared. That meant Hancock's stone arrows could counter the flesh's regeneration — her Devil Fruit was the perfect matchup. In game terms, it was like reducing the enemy's maximum HP — not just damaging it. With another clean sweep of his blade, Veyron created some breathing room, then raised his sword — Bloodwing — and slashed upward. With a sharp cry, the crimson slash tore open a deep crack overhead, dozens of meters long. The blade, infused with spiritual energy and Haki — carrying Veyron's will— slowed the flesh's regenerative ability along its path. Seeing the opening, Hancock unleashed another barrage of Slave Arrows, petrifying both the surrounding flesh and the metal structures from the old Umbrella base. This was part of the escape plan they'd agreed on beforehand. Before the meat could close in entirely, the two flashed through the stone-lined passage and jumped upward. Veyron slashed again. Hancock followed with another arrow storm. Again and again, they repeated the process, carving a path out. But after a few rounds, Veyron began to frown. "...Did we really come down this deep?" A quick sweep with his Observation Haki — and his expression changed. . . .