In front of the main gate on B2, where red warning lights flashed like mad.
Beyond the corridor swallowed in deep shadow, Biotechnica’s top-tier elite strike unit, the Manticore Squad, finally emerged.
"Captain. The intruder has forcibly sealed the entrance."
A squad member reported after checking the massive alloy iron door, now locked shut.
Then the tactical support netrunner scanning the battlefield spoke up.
"The test subjects in the facility are escaping. If we delay any longer, we’ll lose the targets."
The moment that report ended, the squad’s vanguard melee tank, Butcher, stepped forward with a rough snarl.
He was a walking steel fortress, over two meters tall and brimming with crushing mass, his entire body wrapped in thick titanium outer plating and a special alloy skeleton instead of skin.
Lifting the heavy powered combat hammer slung over his shoulder, he growled, "I’ll break through."
"Move."
A cold voice cut him off.
The one walking out of the darkness, shaking off smoke, was Alpha, the leader of this monstrous squad.
Unlike the others in their overwhelming armor, he looked almost ordinary and lean at first glance, but beneath that light frame was top-grade combat chrome built to slip into an enemy’s blind spot and end them in an instant.
Alpha casually waved Butcher back and gave his order.
"I’m faster. You take the intruder."
When he finished speaking, Alpha approached the tightly sealed steel gate and slowly lowered his stance.
He twisted at the waist, drew his fist back, and held that razor-thin tension right before the strike. The posture was eerily similar to the straight punch Ji-hwan used before landing a blow, down to the last detail.
But the custom Gorilla Arms implanted in both of Alpha’s arms were beyond anything normal.
Unlike ordinary prosthetics, his forearms were fully covered in thick special armor, and every joint had grotesque vents gaping open as if to dump some enormous pressure.
The instant his stance locked into place, the squad around him and Butcher all retreated in unison like a receding tide.
As if they already knew the horrible result that fist was about to create.
Then Alpha’s punch shot out like a cannon.
Kwaang!! Kwaang!!
Two heavy detonations tore through the air in succession.
The moment Alpha’s fist struck the iron door, the entire steel slab was ripped away, and the screech of crumpling metal shook the whole underground dome.
The barricade, twisted so tightly even a welding torch couldn’t have opened it, was crushed like paper by just two hits and collapsed into the corridor.
Inside the cloud of dust kicked up by the impact.
"...!"
Ji-hwan, who had been standing in the middle of the corridor to buy time for the survivors’ escape, flinched hard.
He looked down at the massive iron door fragment rolling across the floor, then shot a fierce glance through the choking dust toward the breached entrance.
"Even I’d need time to get through that... Who the hell...?"
Thirteen elite troops were walking slowly through the dust cloud.
Gulp.
Ji-hwan, who usually didn’t even blink in situations like this, swallowed dryly for once.
A bead of cold sweat slid down his temple.
"Heh... this isn’t going to be easy."
The careless laugh he let out as he volunteered to be the bait.
But his body was reacting far faster than his rational judgment.
His bones and muscle fibers tightened as if anticipating the brutal fight ahead, dropping him into combat mode on their own.
Even Ji-hwan himself hadn’t noticed it, but a smile had crept onto his lips.
Through the thick dust beyond the shattered steel door, the elite strike unit in charge of Biotechnica’s underground security, the Manticore Squad, had finally revealed itself.
Ji-hwan stood in the central crossroads plaza of the huge B2 dome. The place where they had appeared was the B1 railing area overlooking the entire plaza.
The overwhelming difference in elevation gave them a crushing advantage.
Alpha, the squad leader, stepped to the edge of the railing, shaking smoke from his shoulders, and looked down at Ji-hwan standing alone below.
"Well, this is a surprise. It’s been a while."
With a single gesture from Alpha, the nine elite strike members who had followed him in took cover behind the railing in perfect formation.
Red multi-lenses flickered, and nine blue gun barrels all aimed at Ji-hwan’s body at once.
"Idiots who come here to die on their own feet..."
The way he said it made it sound like there had been others who had once boldly stepped into this place before.
Seeing the laser dots raining down on him, Ji-hwan did not move forward recklessly. He froze in place.
Breaking through their crossfire was one problem, but the most important thing right now was keeping all their attention on him and buying enough time for the survivors to reach the tunnel safely.
"I seem to have taken a wrong turn. Any chance you’d let me leave quietly now?"
At that useless provocation, Alpha let out an unpleasant laugh from above the railing.
"You can leave. But first, you’ll be leaving your arms and legs on this floor."
When he finished speaking, Alpha activated his ocular lenses and scanned Ji-hwan’s entire body standing in the center of the plaza.
But almost immediately, deep wrinkles formed between his brows.
Not a single heat source from cyberware or implant identification code showed up in the system.
No cyberware? Zero chrome? No database record either?
Suspicious of his own scan, Alpha turned to the tactical support netrunner standing beside him and ordered, "Netrunner, check it yourself."
While the netrunner tried to tear apart Ji-hwan’s data, Alpha’s gaze returned to him.
Something was wrong.
Because a faint, eerie red smoke kept seeping from the body of that man with no visible machine parts at all.
"Captain. Then I’ll take this one?"
At that moment, the heavy man in the steel frame standing behind them, Butcher, stepped forward.
At the ferocious energy of his subordinate, who growled like a bloodthirsty attack dog, Alpha quickly smirked.
"Fine. Don’t overdo it. If you turn him into a blood pulp like the last test subjects, it’ll be a pain."
"Heh-heh. Understood."
With a grotesque laugh, Butcher hoisted the heavy powered combat hammer back onto his shoulder.
Then his heavy combat boots, fully covered in titanium armor, stepped over the railing and started down the iron stairs leading to B2.
Thud— thud— thud—
Butcher’s heavy footsteps as he descended the iron stairs pressed down on the cold air of B2.
On the upper railing level, Alpha, the netrunner, and the designated marksman beside them watched the descending Butcher in silence.
The marksman had a dry, expressionless face, with his entire right eye replaced by a multi-lens orbital calculator.
He stroked the barrel of a custom-modified tech sniper rifle that could punch through even thick armor plates, then looked at Ji-hwan.
"Looking at him reminds me of some idiot who crawled in here a while back."
At that, Alpha’s eyes, resting on the railing, turned cold.
He remembered too.
The face of a merc who had stormed into the middle of this horrific facility alone, wearing twin pistols and sunglasses.
"Wasn’t his name... Papa Sunrise?"
"Yes. The way he kept resisting until the end was pretty impressive. If his partner hadn’t betrayed him from behind, who knows how the fight would’ve ended. He was one stubborn bastard."
At the marksman’s words, Alpha gave a slight nod and let out a bitter mechanical hum.
"He was strong. A shame we never got to finish that one."
Down in the plaza below.
As Ji-hwan held his ground, catching every thread of murderous intent aimed at him, an unfamiliar name drifted down from above and lodged in his ears.
Papa Sunrise?
He’d never heard it before, but Ji-hwan quietly etched it into his memory.
By then, Butcher had finished descending the stairs and stood blocking Ji-hwan’s path, readjusting the massive powered combat hammer slung over his shoulder.
"We haven’t had any idiots invading lately, so I was getting bored. This works out nicely."
Butcher taunted him, but Ji-hwan didn’t even twitch. He stared straight at the titanium armor with cold eyes and asked, "You people don’t feel anything when someone dies?"
At that question, Butcher immediately snorted as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
It was the attitude of someone hearing disgusting nonsense that only some old relic from a dead era would spout.
"Looks like you want to lecture me about morals or something. Guys like you who only know how to run your mouths..."
The moment he finished speaking, blue electricity flashed along Butcher’s spine.
The implant was [Berserk], shutting off pain and squeezing the full power of his artificial muscles to the limit.
"All the old-timers are already dead!!!"
As the shouting brute sent his massive hammer crashing toward Ji-hwan’s head.
"Yeah?"
The instant before the hammer could land on his crown, Ji-hwan’s lips curled into a thin, bloodthirsty smile.
"Then this time, it’s you who’s going to die."
Swoosh—!!
The faint red smoke that had been rising gently from Ji-hwan’s body exploded outward in an instant, swelling violently into a torrent of red haze.
On the upper railing.
The blue lens eyes of the netrunner, who had been digging through the data net and searching obsessively for something, began flashing like crazy.
She was comparing the highest-priority wanted data she had just pulled from the upper server with the live biometric data of the man below, now pouring out denser red smoke. Her breath caught.
"No way...?"
Then, realizing something, the netrunner turned with a face gone white.
"Captain!!"
On the upper railing, the netrunner whose blue lens eyes were flashing wildly screamed in panic.
At that cry, Alpha snapped his head around irritably.
He had been about to enjoy the boring sight of the intruder getting crushed under Butcher’s hammer.
"What the hell is with the panic?"
"The confidential data on that man was just updated on the upper network. Look at this first!"
Skipping the explanation, the netrunner immediately sent encrypted combat footage into Alpha’s field of view.
"What... ?"
At the same time, encrypted combat footage was transmitted into the corner of Alpha’s vision.
The image showed a man cutting down a Hound team amid the ruins of a collapsed building, pouring out thick red smoke. What caught Alpha’s eye most was the scene of the vicious assassin Alexei, the same one he had once fought to a standstill, now bent over and covered in blood.
He beat that crazy bastard Alexei...?
That was a strong opponent even Alpha himself had only been able to match by pushing his [Sandevistan] to the limit.
"Butcher!! Stop now!"
Alpha leaned out over the railing and shouted, veins bulging in his neck.
But it was too late.
The order from the leader could never reach Butcher’s ears while his [Berserk] was pushed to the limit, numbing pain and leaving only the instinct to slaughter.
In the middle of that hell, where the heavy steel frame tore through the air without restraint, Ji-hwan was walking straight toward the charging Butcher with the calm pace of someone strolling through a peaceful park, even as the floor groaned beneath him.
Swoosh—!!
The instant the huge powered combat hammer was about to strike Ji-hwan’s crown, the energy wrapping his body exploded outward. The concrete beneath Ji-hwan shattered with a thunderous roar and flew in all directions.
What remained in that spot was only a faint afterimage, like heat haze.
The moment the hammer sliced through empty air, Ji-hwan’s silhouette, having read every line of the attack, was already deep inside Butcher’s reach.
The force gathered in both of Ji-hwan’s fists, wrapped in thicker red smoke, was his original technique: [Instant Strike].
Bang!
Puuuuuk—!!
Ji-hwan’s fist, wrapped in dense red smoke, burst with instantaneous force and pierced Butcher’s abdomen. Before the shock of that crumpling impact could even fade, Ji-hwan’s next blows, riding the recoil, slammed like lightning into the brute’s chest and head in rapid succession.
"Kuaaaaaaagh!!"
With a scream as his internal artificial neural network tore apart, the over two-meter mass was blasted into the air and slammed into the end of the corridor.
"Haa..."
Ji-hwan drew a rough breath and pulled back his fist, his brow tightening slightly.
Drip, drip.
Red blood ran down his hard knuckles and soaked the floor.
"What kind of body is that?"
Ji-hwan muttered lowly, feeling a faint crack in the bones of his hand.
That steel frame’s toughness was truly monstrous, harder and more stubborn than any machine he had fought so far.
But there was no reason to show mercy to an enemy who had fallen.
Ji-hwan kicked off the ground, aiming to finish the job while the brute was still stunned and catching his breath.
"Get Butcher out of there now! Shoot to kill, no matter what!!"
Alpha’s command, shouted while he watched everything from the upper railing, ripped through the entire underground dome.
At the same time, a merciless crossfire erupted from the blue gun barrels of the elite troops hidden across the B2 railing and stairwells.
Tatatatang!!
Through it all, the tech rifle in the sniper’s right multi-eye sent heavy lines of fire toward Ji-hwan’s vital points.
"Tch."
Ji-hwan clicked his tongue and twisted his body, throwing himself hard behind a nearby concrete pillar.
Using the rotational force as he hit the pillar and rolled across the floor, he drew three daggers from his waist and flung them into the air.
Thud!Ghk!
Several of Alpha’s men in the middle of firing went down as the daggers punched through their ballistic visors.
But the remaining troops quickly filled the gaps and formed an unbroken wall of gunfire toward Ji-hwan’s cover.
Amid that storm of bullets.
Alpha and the netrunner, having jumped down the shattered iron stairs to reach B2, approached Butcher’s unconscious body.
Smack! Smack! Smack!
"You idiot, wake up right now!!"
With a bizarre cooling-fan whine, the netrunner slapped Butcher’s titanium cheek hard. At the same time, a concentrated stimulant from her fingertips was being forced into the port at the back of his neck.
Seeing that through the cover, the fierce [red smoke] erupted once more from Ji-hwan’s skin.
Swoosh—!
Ji-hwan’s arm, compressing the output of his body enhancement to its limit, slashed through the air and sent a lethal dagger flying toward the netrunner’s throat.
The instant that blade, tearing through the air, was about to pierce her esophagus.
Screeeeech—!!
A harsh metallic scrape rang out.
Alpha’s specially modified Gorilla Arms, which had somehow already moved in front of the netrunner, caught Ji-hwan’s dagger in a crushing grip.
"Bad habits."
Alpha warned coldly, tossing the crushed dagger fragments to the floor.
"And your mob tactics are any better?"
Ji-hwan, crouched behind the massive concrete pillar while dodging the hail of bullets, snorted.
Even while his lips traded light banter, his eyes fixed on Alpha beyond the pillar were filled with deep tension.
He never took his eyes off Alpha for even a second, even while dodging the trajectories of bullets flying in from every direction.
Compared to the other squad members armored in heavy steel frames, Alpha’s build looked perfectly ordinary and lean.
But Ji-hwan’s skin-prickling instinct was screaming that this man was the most vicious predator in the entire space.
Especially the grotesque shape of those custom Gorilla Arms, with their abnormal vents cut into both forearms, screamed destruction just by looking at them.
He looks normal, but I can’t let my guard down for even a second.
Meeting Ji-hwan’s razor-sharp vigilance, Alpha clenched his custom Gorilla Arms into fists.
Then he gave a cold order to the netrunner, who was still injecting stimulants into Butcher on the floor.
"Wake him up. Now."
"Understood!"
The netrunner answered in a panic and kicked Butcher’s head with her boot.
"Mm... ?"
Only then did Butcher’s eyes fly open as he looked around with a dazed stare. The shock to his brain seemed to have scrambled his memory circuits for a moment.
"Where am I... and why am I sleeping here?"
The netrunner, utterly speechless, muttered with that strange cooling-fan whine, "Did he hit his head too?"
Then she slammed a fist into Butcher’s cheek.
"Get up, you crazy bastard!! You’re sleeping in the middle of a fight? I almost had your whole damn head ripped off just now!"
Butcher grimaced at the blow, which hadn’t left so much as a scratch on his thick titanium armor.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
As he grumbled and tried to stand, the memories from just before flashed through his artificial neural network like lightning.
Him activating [Berserk] and swinging the hammer, and that man’s fist driving straight through the crushing weight into his chest.
"What, I... got knocked out?"
Realizing that he had truly almost died just now, Butcher’s face went pale.
Seeing that, Alpha kept his gaze locked on Ji-hwan’s cover while nudging the heavy powered combat hammer rolling on the floor toward Butcher with the tip of his boot.
"You okay? Can you still fight? If not, just stay down."
"I’m fine."
Butcher shook his head hard and wiped the blood from his nose. Then he hoisted the heavy hammer back onto his shoulder and stepped up beside Alpha, radiating murderous intent.
Watching that terrifying recovery from behind the pillar, Ji-hwan’s brow furrowed.
That bastard’s already back up...
The sheer toughness of a man who had gotten up after taking Ji-hwan’s [Instant Strike] head-on.
What now...?
Ji-hwan muttered under his breath, his breathing sinking heavy.
To close the distance, Ji-hwan and the Manticore Squad both took a step toward each other at the same time.
Clack—! Click—!
The sound of elite troops on the upper railing and throughout the corridors reloading their magazines and placing fingers on triggers echoed coldly through the underground dome.
At the same time, Ji-hwan’s hands behind cover gripped two cold daggers. The energy rising over his skin grew denser by the second, and the fierce [red smoke] began tightening around his entire body, ready to explode his abilities to the limit at any moment.
Just before Butcher’s hammer hydraulics began to roar, and just before Alpha’s [Sandevistan] activated.
At that instant of silence, when both sides’ murderous intent had condensed into a single point and the tension seemed ready to burst at any second.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Cutting through the frozen silence of the standoff, a slow, leisurely round of applause echoed through the underground dome.
Then the Manticore Squad members lined up on the upper railing, guns trained below, moved aside in perfect formation to open a path. Through the shadows walked a man in a pristine custom suit, completely out of place in this underground hell reeking of smoke and sticky blood.
He was Director Lowell, the hidden hand controlling this bio-weapon research facility, an extreme sociopath who treated human lives as nothing more than disposable "materials."
Standing at the end of the railing, he looked down at Ji-hwan below with obvious interest and said, "Amazing. Truly amazing."
The praise dripped from him like he was admiring a rare sculpture.
Ji-hwan, with faint red smoke rising from his whole body and ready to cut in at any angle at a moment’s notice, glared at him with cool, lifeless eyes and said shortly, "Who are you?"
"My, my... I’m late introducing myself."
Even at Ji-hwan’s rude attitude, Lowell only smiled with a slimy look of amusement.
"I’m Director Lowell, the chief administrator and person in charge of this place."
When he finished speaking, Lowell began descending the iron stairs leading to B1 at an unhurried pace, his shoes clicking against the metal steps. At that dangerously reckless move, Alpha, who had been closing in on Ji-hwan while radiating murderous intent, hurriedly stepped in front of Lowell.
"Director, that man is dangerous."
It was Alpha’s warning, spoken from firsthand experience of that vicious strike power.
"He hasn’t been neutralized yet. If you wait a little longer, we’ll make sure to subdue him..."
At that moment, Lowell stopped dead on the stairs.
Then his gaze dropped coldly onto Alpha. It was the look of a disgusted master staring at a petty piece on the board he had paid for, daring to block his path and step outside his control.
Meeting that icy glare from the employer he was supposed to protect, Alpha swallowed the horrible sense of danger rising to his throat and cursed inwardly.
Dammit...
In the end, Alpha stopped talking and lowered his head, giving way. Lowell then turned his attention back to Ji-hwan standing in the center of the plaza and scanned his entire body.
The moment Lowell looked at Ji-hwan’s red smoke and scar-riddled body, his eyes began to gleam with an almost grotesque greed.
"Truly amazing. To think you’ve managed to push the dogs of Zetatech this far..."
Lowell’s mouth split into a greedy smile as he let out the most horrifying kind of delight.
"And with nothing but your own body."
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