"What's going on!"
"Boss, what are you doing?"
"Damn Raghaf, are you trying to kill me after I've served my purpose? There are endless gold coins here, why bother?"
As the rope hit the ground, three exclamations came from the phone's monitor.
Benjamin stood outside the Well of God and rummaged around, and the ten exorcism talismans he had placed on his chest were now ashes.
Although he had a feeling these things were useless, he hadn't expected them to be this useless.
Clearly, a beginner's practice piece.
However, it also confirmed that the god in this Western Indian legend was indeed not a proper deity.
After all, the mainstream religion in India is Hinduism, with Brahma as the god of creation and Lakshmi as the god of wealth, wisdom, and fertility.
The Goddess of Prosperity prevalent in the Western Indian clearly conflicts with the Hindu clergy.
'Hastar,' this god of greed, doesn't resemble a god at all, instead, he is more like a mad beast.
"Stop making noise. Now, do as I say."
Benjamin spoke into the monitor, then pulled out a Shadow D28 drone and two pairs of pliers.
The drone was about the size of two palms, multi-rotor, capable of vertical takeoff and landing and hovering, with a payload of 10 kilograms—it was military-grade.
He opened the well cover and threw the two pairs of pliers down the well.
"Now, you two pick up the pliers. A monster carrying wealth will emerge shortly. And this monster is afraid of flour."
"I'll lure it with food. You two use the pliers to grab the Bag of Wealth from the monster's waist and remove it. You'll then have enough wealth for a lifetime."
Benjamin then took out a flatbread, tied it to the bottom of the drone with a rubber band, and piloted the drone into the well.
Then, He quickly closed the well cover.
Inside the 'Hastar' lair, the two men picked up the pliers, bewildered. They didn't understand Benjamin's meaning—what monster? What Bag of Wealth?
"Raghaf, I was wrong. You are a thousand times more greedy than I imagined. Let me go, I will help you."
Vinayak knew he had no chance of struggling.
"Untie him."
After hearing Benjamin's command did the two untie the ropes binding Vinayak.
The drone then began to fly down the passage, hovering in mid-air above the nest.
The crimson inner walls of the nest began to writhe, the ground became sticky, and a bulge emerged from the wall.
A humanoid creature covered in crimson blood crawled out from within.
It knelt on the ground, stretching out pleading hands, hissing at the flatbread bound beneath the drone.
"God of Greed, kneeling for a flatbread?"
"Hastar, where is your dignity as a god?!"
Benjamin, outside the manhole cover, controlled the drone to hover slightly in the air via the monitor, dodging Hastar's leap.
Hastar ignored the sounds coming from the monitor, only roaring again as he looked at the flatbread, climbing up the nest wall, trying to pounce on it.
"Stop spacing out, give me the pincers."
Vinayak snapped at Raghaf's two still-dazed underlings.
At the same time, he snatched the pincers from Yellow Braid.
Yellow Braid's right hand was injured, and his left hand couldn't even hold the pincers properly, and he was merely a tool used by Benjamin to test the Well of God.
Benjamin maneuvered the drone, swaying left and right, sometimes high, sometimes low, dodging Hastar's constant leaps and bounds up the inner wall.
Hastar roared increasingly frantically, even kneeling in submission, but failing to obtain the flatbread, it suddenly leaped up again, landing near the entrance of the passage.
Benjamin, with the skill of a professional operator, lowered the drone by a meter, managing to dodge Hastar.
Vinayak stood inside the flour circle, quickly clamping down with the pliers at the right moment.
However, he only managed to pull open the pocket around Hastar's waist, causing a pile of gold coins to fall to the ground.
The clinking of the coins attracted the attention of the dark-skinned middle-aged man.
His initial stunned silence transformed into a greedy glint in his eyes, and he too extended his pincers, waiting for his chance.
Enraged by the two men inside the flour circle who were intermittently stabbing it with their pincers, Hastar lunged at them, hissing and extending its bloody hand.
The moment the bloody hand touched the flour circle, sparks flew from its palm, accompanied by a sizzling sound like roasting meat.
Hastar hissed in pain and withdrew its bloody claw.
The growing hunger as it regained its senses drove Hastar into increasing madness.
It began chasing the drone around the flour circle, completely ignoring the two pincers that kept reaching out beside it.
After dozens of attempts, Vinayak, having learned from experience, precisely inserted the pincers into the gap between the Bag of Wealth and Hastar's waist, using Hastar's running momentum to apply force in the opposite direction.
*Thud!*
The palm-sized, bright red Bag of Wealth was finally pried off and fell to the ground.
Hastar sensed something was wrong and instantly stopped its leaping body.
Its greed for the gold coins temporarily suppressed its insane hunger, and it tried to turn back to retrieve the Bag of Wealth.
Vinayak and the dark-skinned middle-aged man, Hakob, reacted swiftly, simultaneously extending their pincers to grab the Bag of Wealth and pulling it back into the flour circle.
Hastar missed its target, roaring as it crashed into the flour circle, only to be reduced to ashes and disappear on the ground.
Another bulge emerged from the inner wall, and a complete Hastar tore through the membrane and crawled out, continuing to roar, staring at the wallet, then at the dough, extremely agitated.
The swarthy middle-aged man greedily picked up the money bag and gently poured it onto the ground, where a pile of gold coins appeared.
The sight of these gold coins so stimulated Hastar that he crashed into the flour circle again.
The dark-skinned man, Hakob, and the man with the yellow braid exchanged a glance, then turned to Vinayak, their eyes filled with malice.
"Fools, what are you two thinking? Look down at your situation!"
Vinayak took a half-step back, but then, afraid of stepping out of the flour circle, quickly stepped forward again, pointing to the ground.
Upon hearing this, the two lowered their heads to look. The originally thick layer of the flour circle had unexpectedly thinned by half.
"It's the slime on the ground. Since Hastar woken up, this slime has been constantly consuming flour, damn it!" the man with the yellow braid exclaimed.
"Raghaf, my good friend, how should I return the Bag of Wealth to you?"
Vinayak asked the camera.
Benjamin silently watched the monitor.
He had been quite curious to see which of the three would ultimately be left to hand over the Bag of Wealth, but he hadn't expected Vinayak to still retain a sliver of consciousness.
The drone evaded the attack of Hastar, which had regenerated from the inner wall behind them, and landed at the feet of the three inside the flour circle.
Hastar circled the flour circle frantically, howling.
"Tie the Bag of Wealth to the drone, take out the flatbread and feed it to Hastar to distract it. I'll drop some flour."
"No, boss! What if you don't put down the rope? We'll go up with the Bag of Wealth!"
The man with the yellow braid was furious, because he was afraid Benjamin would take the Bag of Wealth and abandon them.
"Shahu, I don't mind waiting for you to die and getting a few others to do it again."
Benjamin replied calmly.
"I... boss, I was wrong. I lost my mind. Forgive me. I'm your loyal little brother."
A sliver of reason returned to the man with the yellow braid's eyes, and he quickly apologized.
"It's alright, I'm not angry."
Vinayak snatched the Bag of Wealth from the dark-skinned middle-aged man, took the flatbread from the drone, hung the pouch on it, and couldn't help but say again,
"Raghaf, this isn't fair."
"Fairness only appears when needed. Do we need it now, my friend!"
Benjamin asked calmly.
"...Yes, we don't."
Vinayak paused, looked around, and sighed.
"Then please, throw the flatbread a little further away, thank you."
Benjamin controlled the drone, rotating its fan to hover one meter high, ready to take off at any moment.