Somewhere in Goldenclaws HQ
Meanwhile, a pest infestation was plaguing the Goldenclaws in the ventilation shaft. Ivy and Bella were crawling through like two raccoons on a stealth mission.
“Hey,” Bella whispered, her voice muffled by dust, “are you sure this is the way?”
“Yes,” Ivy whispered back without turning around, “I saw the sign when we were being dragged to that cell. You really need to pay attention to your surroundings. Didn’t we have the same ranger training?”
“Well, in my defense,” Bella replied casually, “I was too busy being dragged.”
“Shhh. We’re here,” Ivy said.
They peeked through the gap in the ventilation hatch. The room beyond was empty, dusty, and filled with file cabinets.
“The archives room,” Ivy grinned.
Quietly, the hatch was opened. Ivy and Bella climbed down into the room with the grace of expert thieves.
“What are we looking for?” Bella asked.
“The base layout. It seems they’re pretty neat about documenting whatever they build,” Ivy said.
---
Goldenclaws HQ, Guard Office
“So… name and number?” the female captain asked.
She stepped closer to Kovalski menacingly, each footstep echoing like a threat assessment.
“Uh… Thingol Pebbleclaws, 58D353,” Kovalski said.
“You’re new, aren’t you?” the captain asked.
“Y-yes, ma’am,” Kovalski replied nervously.
“And yet you’re trying to slack off? With me?” the captain glared.
“Keep it natural, Kovalski,” Irving whispered through the comms. “Like when you talked to a female superior back home.”
“N-n-no, ma’am,” Kovalski said, sweating. “I’m just… I just want to get close with everyone here since I’m new!” he lied spontaneously.
“Hmm. Including me? That’s bold,” the captain said.
She circled the dwarf slowly, examining him from top to toe.
“There’s never been a dwarf who said that to me…” the captain said. “Tell me something.”
She leaned close to Kovalski’s ear from behind.
“Are you a spy?” she whispered.
Kovalski shuddered. “!!!”
“Who sneaked here to steal my heart?” she continued whispering.
“Huuuh?” Kovalski said.
When he turned around, he could not believe what he saw. The expression on the captain’s face was extremely familiar to him.
A perverted face.
The same face he regularly used when he saw a woman he considered prey.
“I… uhh… I…” Kovalski stammered.
“Kovalski, calm down,” Irving coached through the comms. “Remember. Single Piece. Rich. Condo. Sports car.”
The captain took a step forward.
Kovalski took a step back.
“B-b-but… but I…” Kovalski said.
“You can do it, Kovalski,” Irving whispered. “…for the team.”
Kovalski tilted his head up as the captain towered over him. Saliva leaked from the side of her grin like a predator assessing prey.
“…”
---
Langley, BICH Command Room
While Mo was still busy staring into Young Mo’s vision, Janet got distracted by the audio wavelength from Kovalski’s transponder on the main screen.
“Hm? What is that ranger doing?”
“The signal isn’t clear,” a BICH officer said. “I think this Kovalski guy is even deeper underground.”
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“Tch,” Janet said. “What is he thinking, leaving his post like that?”
“Try to stabilize the connection,” Janet commanded. “I want to know what they’re doing right now.”
She turned to another BICH officer.
“Connect me to Megan,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am,” the BICH officer replied.
---
King Baldrik’s Office
Meanwhile, in the Goldenclaws leader’s office, Megan was rummaging through Baldrik’s desk drawer, checking the papers one by one.
“Heh. So the Atlas bomber is actually a Goldenclaws,” Megan smirked. “How nice of them to keep the mission journal like this.”
Megan took pictures of the documents one by one.
“Megan, come in,” Janet’s voice crackled through the comms.
“Overlord, I have the identity of the Atlas killer cook/bomber,” Megan said. “They didn’t even bother to erase the mission journal.”
“Good,” Janet said. “We have physical evidence now.”
“That’s right. Nice and easy,” Megan said. “I’ll go back to the room and wait quietly for the meeting to end.”
“Unfortunately,” Janet said, “I think we have a situation.”
“What is it?” Megan asked.
“The rangers,” Janet said.
Megan sighed. “What are those idiots doing now?”
“They don’t know our transponder can transmit audio,” Janet said. “Apparently, they went deeper underground.”
“Doing what?” Megan asked.
“That’s what I want you to find out,” Janet said.
“Tch. Fine,” Megan said. “I’ll go.”
---
Langley, BICH Command Room
“Okay, Megan. Retrieve them before they do something stupid,” Janet said. “They’re still an asset for the foreign office. I’ll update you if I find their direction.”
“Copy that,” Megan said. “Megan out.”
“So, have you managed to strengthen the signal?” Janet asked a BICH officer.
“Uhh, yes ma’am, but it’s still hard to hear anything,” the officer said, slowly raising the volume. “It only sounds like… breathing.”
“Hmm,” Janet said. “Then max the volume.”
---
Guard Office — 5 minutes later
Hiding behind the crates, Irving watched the guard office from afar. The door opened. The bulky female captain walked out, fixing her pants and belt.
“Tch. Mediocre,” the captain muttered. “And what kind of sex talk was that?”
She pulled out a tobacco pipe and lit it.
“Well,” she added, exhaling, “at least he brought good tobacco.”
Then she left.
“Kovalski,” Irving said into the comms, “did you… survive?”
“…yes,” Kovalski’s voice trembled. “I got the info… somehow…”
“Okay…” Irving said. “And… do you need a few minutes alone?”
“…yes,” Kovalski sniffled weakly. “Also… sniff… please don’t tell anyone…”
“I get it, brother… I get it,” Irving said. “I promise you. No one in this world will ever know.”
---
Langley, BICH Command Room
“Bleeeeeegh.”
The officers were dropping like poisoned flies. One puked into a trash bin. Another sprinted to the toilet. The audio transponder had already done irreversible mental damage.
Janet and Mo—who had long turned off Young Mo’s vision feed—also looked disgusted.
“I-it sounded like a slaughterhouse,” Janet said like she just witness something dreadful.
“I… can’t believe sex could sound that diabolical…” Asmodeus—the literal Demon God of Lust—muttered, his voice hollow.
---
Factory Area, Deep Underground
Not long after, even deeper underground, Captain Irving and Specialist Kovalski were sneaking through the Goldenclaws factory complex.
Engineers hammered, welded, and assembled airships and steam armors in perfect synchronization—cold and efficient. The dwarves worked with joyless professionalism.
“Where to now?” Irving asked.
“…”
Irving turned. Kovalski’s face was still stuck in the trauma.
“Kovalski. Snap out of it!” Irving hissed.
“Huh? Oh—boiler room,” Kovalski said.
He blinked back into reality.
“The bull—I mean, the dwarf captain,” Kovalski corrected automatically. “Said they left part of the old dungeon there.”
"Tch. I need you back to focus" Irving said while rummaging his sub-space bag.
He then pass over a purple colored status recovery potion to Kovalski.
"Drink it, i dont know if it can get rid of trauma, but better than nothing," Irving continued
Kovalski nodded and took several sip before moving from cover to cover again, with Irving on the lead.
---
Meanwhile, on the other side of the factory, Megan—the only adult who still doing her job properly—was perched on a high scaffold overlooking the full scale of the factory.
It was massive, at a football-stadium scale, with endless assembly lines of steam armors and airships.
“Goodness,” Megan murmured. “They could arm several kingdoms with this place alone…”
She tapped her comm. “Overlord, come in.”
“This is Overlord,” Janet replied.
“I found a major Goldenclaws war factory. I’m gathering pictures for intel,” Megan said.
“Damn, dwarves really can build anything underground, huh?” Janet sighed. “Copy that. After that, head to the boiler room. The misfits are talking about heading there.”
Megan smirked. “Copy. Heading to the boiler room after this.”
---
Boiler Room
The gigantic steam engines pounded like the heartbeat of an overworked titan. Gears of many sizes spun with a mechanical growl. The pipes screamed randomly, venting occasional steam dramatically.
“Are you sure this is the way?” Bella asked the same question again.
Ivy wiped the sweat from her forehead, holding the crumpled blueprints.
“I don’t know either,” Ivy muttered. “But this is the deepest part of the base.”
Click.
A gun muzzle pressed into the back of their heads.
They froze.
“Damn,” Irving said from behind them. “Both of you are so short I thought you were dwarves.”
Ivy and Bella exhaled in synchronized relief.
“Jesus, you scared me,” Bella muttered.
“How could you leave the BICHes and come here?” Ivy asked.
“Let’s just say… it took some sacrifices,” Irving said carefully.
Kovalski sagged into a depression crouch behind them. Ivy and Bella blinked at him.
---
A few minutes later, Ivy and Bella were back in full gear. Irving pulled their weapons out of the sub-space bag and distributed a handgun and throwing knives to Ivy, and an M240L machine gun to Bella.
“Over here?” Kovalski asked, pulling the wooden boards aside.
“Yep,” Ivy confirmed. “The blueprints match.”
Bella helped remove the planks. Behind it was a real dungeon entrance.
“Hopefully these dwarves didn’t loot the dungeon’s treasure…” Irving prayed weakly.
Bella opened her mouth cheerfully: “Maybe we can—MMPH!”
Ivy slapped her hand over Bella’s mouth.
“Nope, you’re not allowed to cast any jinxes this time,” Ivy warned.
Bella glared back, feeling offended.
---
Inside the Dungeon
The treasure room was obviously the old dungeon’s vault—ancient architecture, nice pillars, totally different from the dwarven architecture outside.
But the contents?
Devastation.
The treasure chests—opened, emptied, violated—were scattered everywhere. A broken dwarven forklift sat nearby, cobwebbed, dusty, and abandoned.
The Misfits hit the floor emotionally.
Bella stood confidently, hands on her hips, her voice triumphant:
“See!? Bad things could still happen even if I didn’t say anything!”
No one responded. They were too busy grieving their nonexistent retirement funds.
The truth hit hard.
The Goldenclaws had found the treasure long ago.
The Goldenclaws had funded their entire army with it.
The Single Piece treasure was gone.
Or was it?
