Chapter 1042: Easiest Money We Made

We climbed through the gap in the wall, the cover that hid the hole on the other side being just a simple cloth that was made to be the same gradient in colour as the rock wall which we could easily push aside.

The cavern was completely pitch black and the flashlight from my Power Armour barely illuminated the area, though I could just have Renata turn up the brightness and intensity of the light if I wanted to.

The dogs that had climbed through the hole ahead of me were already sniffing around the place, as though they sensed that this was an area that the bugs would frequent.

They had already spread themselves out and I realised the cavern behind the wall was bigger than I thought.

At the far end of the cavern were three holes that no doubt led to other parts of the nest, which I assumed was where the bugs would move through when within this cavern.

I assume this cavern was a naturally formed one and the bugs just happened to tunnel into it and used it as a place to link other tunnels to it as an intersection.

Right now, there were no bugs in sight but the guard did say that they’ve spotted bugs moving through here before so perhaps it’s just a matter of time.

I turned to my girls, "Alright... How do we want to do this?"

Amber raised an eyebrow at me, "We’re just trying to capture bugs right? We can just grab them instead of shooting them and then tie them up or something, right?"

I raised an eyebrow, "You speak as if that’s something really easy to do?"

"Is it not? I’m pretty sure that’s pretty easy to do for our group in particular?"

"Without using our... You know?"

Amber gestured at the space in front of me, "Tera... You have a hundred dogs in front of you... You can just get them to do it..."

Ahem... A hundred and one dogs, ok? Can’t leave one dog out. They’re all cute.

But...

"How would they even help with that? They’re dogs aren’t they?"

She raised an eyebrow at me, "It is precisely that they are dogs, Tera. I think if you just ask them to capture the bugs for you, they will be able to do it."

Err... Is that how it works? I’m pretty sure it’s not that easy but... You know what? Worse comes to worse, we’ll just use our powers anyway...

In the first place, my plan had been to just let the dogs attack the bugs and then just find one or two of the stragglers and pin them down with my powers before securing them.

I turned to the dogs in front of me, "Can you capture some bugs alive for us? Preferably with them intact. But don’t risk yourselves to complete this task. If you might get hurt when handling the bug, kill it if you have to instead of allowing yourself to get hurt, understood?"

I honestly didn’t think this would work at all but the dogs all let out a bark before they suddenly split themselves into nine groups with Freyja also joining one of them.

They then split off into the three tunnels and ran off, disappearing into the darkness without waiting for us.

Err... Is that alright? I mean... Should we go after them?

We didn’t even need to wait long before there were sounds of barking coming from within the tunnels right before the clicking sounds that were unmistakably from the bugs.

There were then sounds of fighting and I was just about to rush inside the tunnel that Freyja’s group had ran into when the dogs started running back out again.

Each pair of dogs was dragging a bug between them and they were easily carrying them out of the tunnels despite the fact that the bugs were doing their best to struggle free.

Freyja even managed to secure a humanoid bug and she effortlessly lifted it up in the air in her jaws while clamping her mouth over its neck to carry it over to us.

None of the dogs even looked like they were hurt and it felt like they were simply playing fetch with me where they brought back the items I had thrown for them to catch.

Err... Well then... That was easy?

And here I was thinking that we might have some trouble securing the bugs since it wasn’t like we brought any ropes or cages to put the bugs in them...

Yet here they are... Just casually holding fifty one of these bugs like they were nothing more than sticks they had retrieved.

I turned to my girls, "Can you go and tell those guys to prepare a place to put these bugs?"

Yumiko nodded, "Already done, Mistress. I told them to prepare when we were climbing in here. We can just carry them out through the hole."

She already expected us to complete the task this quickly huh?

All of us went back out through the hole, my girls stepping out first before me and the dogs followed behind them.

The workers that had been idling beside the hole earlier had moved all the way down the side to watch us from a distance, clearly not willing to be near us.

On the other hand, the guards were still close by and they seem to have brought several empty carts with a flat bed and nothing else.

I raised an eyebrow at the guard, "You want us to tie them down or something before putting them there?"

He shook his head, "Just toss them on the bed of the cart. They will be contained."

Err... If you say so...

I kept my guns ready as I directed Freyja to throw her bug on the cart first, my dog swung her head in an arc to toss the humanoid bug on top of the cart.

It hit the cart with a loud thump on its back and it quickly flipped back up on its feet, only for four glass walls to pop up from the cart and a top to slide in place, trapping the bug inside it.

Its mandibles opened to screech but no sound came out from the glass container.

It then pulled back its fist and tried to punch the glass, making me believe it was going to shatter.

Yet, aside from a dull thud sound coming from the container, there was not even a scratch on the wall.

I see...

I then looked at the rest of the carts, "You only have ten more? There’s fifty more bugs."

"We’ll have to make multiple trips... Just drop ten on those carts first and I’ll bring these down to be... Processed. Then we’ll come back to get the others."

We actually need to wait for them as they make multiple trips? Ugh... Fine...

The dogs went ahead to put ten more bugs on the remaining carts and the glass walls also popped up to contain each of those bugs before they could escape from the cart.

The guards then went ahead to escort the carts to one of the buildings inside the outpost while I stayed with the rest to watch over the rest of the bugs.

Well... To pass the time, I got out of the Power Armour and started patting the dogs that had already handed over the bugs and giving them belly scratches so it didn’t even feel like I waited long before the guards returned.

The leader of the guards jerked visibly when he saw me patting the dogs but he chose not to say anything and simply gestured towards the empty carts.

I got the next batch of dogs to dump the bugs on top of the carts and the guards quickly left with them, allowing this next ’wave’ of dogs to come over to demand the same treatment of patting and belly scratches as well.

It took them a total of five back and forth trips before they finished transporting all the bugs that the bugs had caught.

With the number of bugs we just gave them, I think we’re looking at a payout of close to if not more than fifty million Credits for just this extra job.

And all we did was climb into a hole, tell the dogs to go fetch some bugs, then return here and dump it on these guys.

Easiest money we’ve ever made I almost feel bad about it, especially since the dogs were the ones who did all the work.

I guess I’ll repay them by making them some food later on.

The guard watched the last batch of bugs load up before turning to my group, "Follow me. I think there’s someone who would like to speak to you about this..."

I raised an eyebrow, "Will I get paid for this?"

"That... Unfortunately will not be up to me to decide... But I think there might be another job lined up."

Hey, if you’re paying us. Let’s go then.