The Strongest Curse Master - Chapter 341

Chapter 341: General Kerrigan & Major Bennett
“General, I’m telling you, I felt a faint curse energy disturbance from that sector of the base,” Prince McSuile said, barging into the restricted areas of Base Wulfric without proper clearance as if he owned the place.

“Prince, stop. My soldiers are already checking out that sector, as per protocol. Don’t make me regret this collaboration,” Brigadier General Kerrigan said firmly, ordering Prince not to test his patience by breaking the base’s rules and regulations.

Kerrigan not only thought Prince was overreacting but also believed he was being paranoid. After all, the entire Base Wulfric was rigged with curse sensors. If there had been a curse energy disturbance in any section, his soldiers would have responded immediately—it wouldn’t be an outsider’s turn to tell them that their base might be breached, even if that outsider was a Void-tier.

“Connect to them. I need to see what they see and know what they learn,” Prince demanded, making it clear he had little faith in the soldiers.

Still, Kerrigan swallowed his anger and signaled to the nearby Major Bennett to make the arrangements.

The Major nodded, but after receiving an update through his earpiece, his firm expression morphed into a confused one as he reported to the General, “Sir, the on-duty squad is unable to access that section. They don’t seem to have the clearance level needed to enter it.”

The reason for his confusion was simple: the on-duty emergency response squad had unrestricted clearance to nearly ninety-five percent of the base, especially most of the upper floors, to ensure rapid response times. The remaining five percent, which required higher clearance, was almost entirely located on the lower levels. Making the squad encounter a restricted area on an upper floor a highly improbable scenario, but it had occurred.

“What sector is it, Major Bennett?” the General asked, his mind racing through the few highly restricted zones on the upper floors. None, however, were located anywhere near the sector in question. In fact, he barely remembered that sector at all—likely because it had been deemed inactive for years.

“It’s a couple of maintenance depots. They haven’t been in use for a while because…” Major Bennett trailed off, scrolling through the files on his curse pad. There was no record explaining why those depots had been abandoned for the past decade. However, he noticed that one of the depots had been accessed earlier this afternoon for a vehicle-type curse gadget inception. As he skimmed the list of the curse gadgets involved, his brows furrowed deeply in alarm.

“Speak up, dammit!” General Kerrigan barked, seeing the gravity settle on the Major’s face.

While Major Bennett struggled to find the right words, Prince McSuile impatiently cut in, “General, let’s just go there and check it out ourselves. Considering the timing—and what’s at stake—we can’t afford to sit around second-guessing.”

Seeing a respected Void-tier spooked over what seemed like nothing, General Kerrigan—a mere mortal—sneered inwardly. In his eyes, strength didn’t necessarily equate to bravery. He thought such godly prowess was wasted on someone as cowardly as Prince McSuile. Yet, Kerrigan showed no sign of envy; if anything, he appeared to look down on such power.

Regardless of how he felt, Kerrigan agreed with the Prince, “Alright. Let’s head there.”

He had little choice. Despite capturing the Overlords’ descendant single-handedly, Prince McSuile hadn’t delivered the captive to the McSuile family. Instead, he had turned him over to the government, agreeing to assist in the recovery of the Overlords’ treasure and the 36th shard of the Spirit Comet. In return, the McSuile family would receive a 40 percent reservation in the gate to be opened to the Spirit Realm using the shard as long as the government was in possession of it. And if they ever planned to sell it, they would have to give the McSuile family first preference.

Though the Prince’s asking price was steep, the higher-ups in the capital deemed it worthwhile. Moreover, the McSuile family served as the country’s eyes within the mortal world’s curse community. With their patriarch missing, the government needed to take steps to help maintain the McSuile family’s sphere of influence, and this was one of those steps.

The General and his entourage boarded a small mobility vehicle, similar to a golf cart, to reach the nearest elevator. The elevator was large enough to accommodate the cart, allowing them to ride it inside. After arriving on the floor where the sector in question was located, they continued toward it in the cart, with Prince McSuile closely gliding behind them.

Prince seemed very displeased with the arrangement. He wanted to carry the General to the sector directly using his void walking, but he knew better. He could not treat the General like a helpless teenager whose life he could ruin on a whim, even if he was a mere mortal and only a one-star general. His father would have killed him just for entertaining such disrespectful thoughts. Prince had been raised to believe that no matter how powerful one became, no one was above the Constitution — a principle his father had deeply instilled in McSuiles.

“What the heck is going on in my base?” General Kerrigan roared when Major Bennett finally found the right words to report what could potentially be a massive embezzlement operation spanning the past decade. It was a huge deal. The Major knew heads were going to roll, so he took his time and carefully chose his words, not wanting to be killed on the spot in the General’s fury, like the King sentencing the messenger to death.

“General, focus,” Prince urged, reminding Kerrigan to prioritize the matter at hand and open the entrance to the sector first.

Kerrigan glared at Prince, but not wanting to make a fool of his command in front of an outsider, he swallowed his rage and attempted to access the maintenance depot sector. To everyone’s shock, he was denied access. None of them could believe there was a sector on the upper floors that even the Brigadier General in charge of the base couldn’t access. Kerrigan himself was stunned, unable to comprehend that he lacked clearance in his own base.

“Step aside, I’m breaking through,” Prince said, his gut instinct screaming that something was definitely wrong.

“No. If you hit a load-bearing wall by mistake, we’ll all be buried down here. Just use your void-walking to check the situation inside after I disable the sector’s security system using the system override key,” Kerrigan calmly instructed. In this moment of crisis, he suddenly appeared more dependable than ever. Even Prince couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

Base Wulfric was protected by numerous deadly curse arrays. If Prince forcefully tried to breach an unauthorized sector using void-walking, the arrays would immediately respond, potentially even killing him. However, because he was a McSuile, at worst, the arrays could at best prevent him, forcing him to retreat for fear of his life. The base’s curse arrays were powerful, but the McSuile weren’t to be underestimated.

Under the protection of his entourage, the General began the seven-step security verification process to use the override key and shut down the maintenance depot sector’s security. However, he immediately failed the first security verification step. Then a realization struck him at once, he shouted, “The base has been hacked!”

“The package is no longer secure in Base Wulfric. We need to move him immediately,” Prince barked, his mind focused solely on his own interests rather than the national security concerns the incident raised. But in his defense, he believed the breach in base security was directly related to the Overlords’ descendant.

“Shut up!” Kerrigan roared, no longer able to suppress his fury. Turning to the Major, he ordered, “Major Bennett, lock him up with his daughter.”

The Major and his colleagues’ eyes widened in shock, but it was Prince who looked the most astonished. Before he could ask why, Kerrigan explained, “As per protocol, all civilians in Base Wulfric must be secured and placed under surveillance in the event of a security breach. It’s up to you to decide whether you will cooperate or force me to activate the curse array formations.”

“Fine. Lead the way,” Prince surrendered without wasting any more words on the General, but he did advise, “Call for me before it’s too late.”

He had no choice. If he rebelled, not only would he become a curse criminal, but the McSuile family would sever all ties with him. His own siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews, and relatives would beg the board for the harshest sentence possible. If his father were still around, he would have sentenced him to death himself.

“Tsk.” Kerrigan clicked his tongue in frustration. He simply couldn’t bring himself to trust Prince. He couldn’t understand why Prince would willingly hand over the Overlords’ descendant to the government. Why settle for a 40 percent share of the gate when the McSuiles could have monopolized it entirely? He was certain Prince was playing a bigger game—and wondered if the security breach was part of it. He had no idea how all this benifits Prince but knowing the way Prince operated, he wouldn’t put it past him.