The Savior of American Comics? I'm the Subspace Evil God!

Chapters 449, 814, and 815: Lyon: I have a friend…

Leon strode forward, first glancing at the 'dog tag' hanging around the other person's neck, then checking the person's breathing, gently shaking them while loudly asking:

"Captain Decante, tell me, who did this?"

"Something...something attacked us..."

Captain Dan Decant, who had regained some consciousness, said with a pained and frightened expression, "You two are too late. Ricardo Irwin has already taken the opportunity to escape."

"This place...this place is a trap."

"A trap? How could this be..."

Upon hearing this, both Lyon and Sheva Allom showed expressions of disbelief.

However, Captain Dan Decanter, already in his final moments of lucidity, didn't choose to explain why this was a trap. Instead, with his last ounce of strength, he pulled a USB drive from his pocket and, while handing it to Leon, instructed him:
"Take this, it contains some information about the transaction..."

“I downloaded this from their computer while I was away. You…you must give it to headquarters. I think it can help headquarters find out what exactly happened here…”

After saying that, his neck slumped, his head drooped limply, and he breathed his last.

"Damn it, if it weren't for that weird, big infected guy, we should have been able to catch him in time for the capture operation, and this wouldn't have happened..."

Looking at her comrades who had died tragically, Sheva Allom clenched her fists with deep remorse, but had nowhere to vent her anger.

Leon, on the other hand, was much calmer than her. After all, many of his comrades had sacrificed their lives during his missions, and he had long been used to it.

"Kirk, this is Lyon, please respond... We have successfully obtained the data, but the entire Alpha Squad has been wiped out. Ricardo Irwin has been confirmed to have escaped."

A moment later, Kirk's voice came through the communicator, "Roger that, Leon. You and Sheva, immediately locate the Alpha Team's car parked outside the warehouse, and then use its storage devices to upload the data to headquarters' cloud."

"clear."

After ending the communication, Leon and Sheva Allom began searching along the passageway for the gate leading to the outside of the warehouse.

However, just as the two of them successfully found the door by following the corpses of the Alpha Squad members scattered throughout the area, a strange noise came from the ceiling behind them.

"Damn it, Leon, look up there, what the hell is that?"

Sheva Allom pointed her gun at the ceiling not far away, at a mass of objects that looked like hundreds of black tentacles intertwined and coiled together, her face filled with terror.

Chirp——

The object on the ceiling suddenly fell down, and then countless black tentacles twisted like serpents and pounced on Leon and Sheva Allom.

Along the way, whenever they came into contact with the corpses of members of the Alpha Squad, the tentacles absorbed them completely at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Roar--

The first object to fall slowly rose from the ground and gradually revealed a roughly human-like outline.

If you look closely, you'll find that there really is a human inside, but the human's whole body is constantly shedding and splitting into a large number of black tentacles.

This bizarre scene looked incredibly terrifying.

"I think... this thing must be the culprit that wiped out the entire Alpha Squad, right?"

Leon quickly said something, then while having Sheva Allom find the key to open the warehouse's main door, he used his pistol to attack the strange humanoid thing.

bang bang bang-

The bullets struck the black tentacles, splashing up patches of yellowish-green liquid, but they did not harm them in the slightest.

The humanoid monster opposite him did not sit idly by and wait to die, but instead swung its arm sharply in the direction of Leon.

The arm, formed by dozens of black tentacles, stretched out strangely like a rubber band, nearly hitting Leon.

"Sheva, I'll deal with it. You figure out how to open the door."

As if he had already devised a plan, Lyon continued firing as he retreated back through the passage he had come from.

Seeing that he had successfully drawn the attention of the monster covered in black tentacles, Leon quickly quickened his pace and led it away from the area where Sheva Arom was.

Then Leon stopped at a corner, pulled out two grenades from behind him, pulled the pins, and threw them together at the feet of the monster that was following him... if it had feet!

Boom! ...

Flames shot into the sky, and the massive explosion and intense heat engulfed the monster's body, causing it to emit inhuman screams before finally turning into a pool of nauseating black liquid...

"Leon, are you alright?"

Sheva Allom looked at Leon, who had returned, and asked with concern, "Where is that monster?"

"I destroyed it with a grenade."

Lyon said with a grave expression, "It's pretty much certain that what just happened was the culprit that wiped out the Alpha Squad. It's probably another new biological weapon, and we must report this important situation to headquarters!"

The gate opened, and the two men, armed and on high alert, walked out. They were met by two military Humvees parked to the side.

"found it."

Lyon peered into the passenger seat of one of the military Humvees and spotted a satellite transmission device that looked like a briefcase.

Once the case is opened, its internal structure looks like a laptop computer embedded inside the case.

After successfully starting the computer, Leon quickly plugged in the USB drive that Captain Dan Decanter had just given him and remotely uploaded the encrypted data on it to the cloud server of the BSAA headquarters.

"Leon, do you know what kind of monster that was just now?"

Sheva Allom, while keeping watch, asked with lingering fear. Leon, without looking up, replied, "It's probably a new type of biological weapon that Ricardo Irwin deliberately left behind to deal with the rescuers, right?"

"Compared to the Alpha Squad, you... cough cough, we're already very lucky to be alive."

For Lyon, he had experienced even more dangerous situations in past missions than today, and he had always completed them successfully.

Therefore, his mentality had long been honed to a rock-solid state through countless life-and-death missions.

However, perhaps due to some kind of curse, apart from a few teammates like Chris, Jill, and Rebecca, all the other teammates who went on missions with him ended up either dead or dead...

So much so that he now sees Sheva Arom as a dead person.

Meanwhile, Sheva Allom, unaware that she had been unknowingly given a 'death buff,' nodded noncommittally, but still said with some self-reproach:

"If we had gotten here a little earlier, maybe..."

"Sheva, stop thinking like that," Leon couldn't help but remind her. "If we had arrived earlier, we might already be dead here like the Alpha Team."

After saying that, he turned on his communicator. "Lyon calling headquarters. The data has been uploaded. Please respond."

Soon, a reply came through the communicator: "This is headquarters. Data received. Leon, you and Sheva did a good job. We will immediately send people to crack and analyze the data uploaded back!"

Despite the praise from headquarters, Lyon showed no sign of a smile. Before the other party ended the call, he urgently reported:

"The entire town's inhabitants seemed to have descended into a state of madness, especially the rebels. Their behavior and details were extremely similar to the Los Ganados (the host population controlled by the Plaka parasite, often referred to as livestock or machinis) that I had previously discovered in Spain..."

"But there are still some special individuals that I've never encountered in my previous missions, so I suspect they are likely the real seller behind Ricardo Irwin, who upgraded the [Praca Parasite]!"

"Received, thank you Lyon, this intelligence is crucial."

"Wait a minute, headquarters."

At that moment, Sheva Allom suddenly spoke into the communicator: "Ricardo Irwin has escaped. Has our mission changed?"

Headquarters quickly responded, "The mission remains unchanged; arresting Ricardo Irwin is still your top priority..."

"The West Africa branch has just analyzed satellite images and believes that Ricardo Irwin has likely escaped to the mining area on the other side of the train station."

"what?"

Sheva Allom's eyes widened, and she exclaimed in disbelief, "Headquarters, did I hear that right? There are only two of us left now, and you still want us to go deep into enemy territory alone? What's the difference between that and sending the two of us to our deaths?"

Leon glanced indifferently at Sheva Allom, who seemed quite alarmed, clearly having no objection to the order issued by headquarters.

After all, in most of the missions he had carried out before, wasn't he always going deep into enemy territory alone?
He has long been used to it.

He really wanted to say to Sheva Arom, "Why don't you send me to the mine and then go back by yourself?"

Your presence causes delays.

"Don't worry, Sheva, the Delta Squad has been dispatched there. They will do their best to help you pinpoint the location and arrest Ricardo Irwin."

Sheva Allom tried to argue, "Wait, we can't take such a huge risk, even the Alpha Team..."

But then the communicator crackled with the emotionless order from headquarters: "I repeat, the mission remains the same. We absolutely cannot let Ricardo Irwin escape again this time. You two, cross the train station now and head to the mine. Over!"

Sheva Allom exclaimed excitedly, "Damn it, this order is absurd! Those officials at headquarters don't treat us like human beings at all!"

While checking the guns and ammunition, Lyon calmly said, "Do you feel like you're being used as cannon fodder by the higher-ups?"

"What I want to tell you is that this is normal. After all, BSAA doesn't prioritize employee safety and rights like the Subspace Group does."

Sheva Allom glanced at Gyan with a hint of resentment, clearly sensing the teasing in his words, but still asked with some curiosity:
"【Subspace Group】? Is that the 【Subspace Group】 that has saved Earth multiple times?"

"Yes."

Lyon nodded noncommittally, then continued with a hint of longing, "A friend of mine joined them a while ago, and she said the employee benefits at [Subspace Group] are absolutely amazing..."

"I really regret it now that I didn't join [Subspace Group] with her back then."

Clearly, the friend Lyon was referring to was none other than Rebecca Chambos, who is now a senior researcher at the Subspace Group!
In fact, two years ago, not long after Rebecca joined the [Subspace Group], she felt the generous humanistic care and material rewards provided by the [Subspace Group], and thought of giving a helping hand to her fellow brothers who were fighting on the front line of anti-biochemical KBism and living dangerous lives every day.

Lyon was naturally included in this.

However, in the eyes of Lyon and most people, the then-unknown [Subspace Group] was just a privately owned enterprise, and was not capable of shouldering the heavy banner of resisting global bio-terrorism.

So neither Lyon nor Rebecca's other close friends chose to refuse.

But as the Subspace Group gradually rose to prominence and demonstrated its formidable military strength in turning the tide in one 'world-destroying crisis' after another, Lyon felt somewhat regretful for his decision to refuse back then.

Although the BSAA is now a legitimate organization under the United Nations.

However, after being incorporated into the organization, the BSAA, now under the control of the United Nations, did not improve the welfare and benefits of its employees in any way.

It's barely passable; it can't possibly be as generous as the [Subspace Group].

Previously, without any comparison, Leon and the others didn't feel there was anything wrong with it. After all, their initial intention in voluntarily joining the BSAA was to stop those bio-chemical terrorism elements from creating panic and disaster.

But now, with Rebecca as the best example, it would be a lie to say they have no thoughts about it.

After all, we're all doing the same job. The [Subspace Group] provides money, manpower, and equipment as needed, and their corporate culture is absolutely top-notch.

When they got to the BSAA, they could only risk their lives to get the worst 'basic living allowance'. Who would want that?
Is a UN agency really less powerful than a private company?

(End of this chapter)