Chapter 184
Chapter 184
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 184
Chapter Title: Biological Information (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
By digging away busily like that, a space big enough to bury an adult man opened up.
It took about three hours, but they buried the henchman alive so he could dig his way out on his own.
Fortunately, they were in the middle of expansion work on the fourth basement level. With four of them working together, things went quickly.
I peered down into the round hole.
"Not too uncomfortable for breathing, are you?"
"Getting a sand massage?"
Jaeyeon ticked his tongue, wearing the henchman's face.
"Can't you just bust out quick?"
We stepped into the corridor.
According to the henchman, he was the only guard on the third basement level. Unless something unusual happened, we wouldn't run into anyone in the third basement corridor.
The problem was the CCTV.
The only spot without cameras was the break room where we'd emerged from the portal. The corridor cameras had no blind spots.
So in the end, this is what we did.
"Don't look up."
Jaeyeon said it casually.
"We're in black suits anyway. Walk confidently, and they won't recognize us for a bit."
He was right.
After burying the henchman alive, we headed to the stairs leading to the second basement without issue. Striding boldly, no one stopped us.
They probably still had no idea anything was wrong.
It'd be great if we could make it to the first basement smoothly like this.
Unfortunately, the guy we'd buried was such a low-level grunt he didn't even have a car.
No car keys to steal. But the henchman had tipped us off to head to the first basement. There'd be people in the records room there—we could snag car keys from them.
Jaeyeon had also taken his access card for the first basement.
Beep!
He opened the stairwell door.
No elevator, just stairs. The heavy stairwell door was reinforced, only openable by those with Enhanced Bodies.
Luckily, no signs of life from the stairs.
We headed up to the first basement.
"What the hell."
We reached the first basement quickly.
As soon as Jaeyeon cracked open the stairwell door, I muttered under my breath.
"Why are there so many bodyguards?"
They had to be the elders' henchmen.
They swarmed the first basement. Total opposite of the third. The suited men stood motionless like mannequins, hands behind their backs.
All guarding what looked like the records room door.
Getting all three of us in quietly would be tough.
Unless Jaeyeon was disguised as one of them...
"Why don't you head into the records room."
Maybe thinking the same, Yoon spoke up right as Jaeyeon quietly shut the door.
"I'll cover you here."
"Trust your cover? Lucky if you don't shoot me in the back."
"Should I leave it to Hildebert then?"
"Don't want a bullet in the back of my head."
"Hey."
I gave Jaeyeon a sullen look.
"I'm not that bad, right?"
Jaeyeon stared at me blankly with the henchman's face.
Better than him staring at me with his own face.
He watched me for a moment, then shook his head.
"I'd sooner trust my fate to my fiancée's hands."
Yoon ignored Jaeyeon's words.
More like he was barely holding back from decking him.
Even as he snatched the gun from my waistband, his master's scowl didn't fade.
"Such a romantic setup!"
Jaeyeon spouted nonsense as he stepped into the corridor.
He marched heavily toward the records room entrance. The men in the hall barely reacted. They'd glance at his face, then indifferently shift their gaze back to empty space.
Smooth sailing.
Jaeyeon stood boldly in front of the records room door.
We watched tensely, ready to bolt.
Couldn't hear much...
What if he gets caught?
But against my worries, Jaeyeon slipped inside safely.
"Huh."
Smoother than expected.
"Now he just needs to come out safe."
"Too many of them."
Yoon muttered lowly.
I was thinking the same.
Narrow corridor, single door, way too many guards. Even if this was close to ground level, did they really need this many in a space with almost no blind spots?
Even assuming they weren't top-tier, the numbers were excessive.
Something important had to be in that records room. That's why it was in the main building.
Half parking lot, but no garage entrance in sight...
Boom!
A massive explosion rocked the records room door.
[Code 9. Test subject escape from Records Room 1.]
[Code 9. Test subject escape from Records Room 1.]
The alarm blared.
The bodyguards snapped into action.
"What the—?"
"Son of a—!"
"Fire!"
They all aimed guns at the records room.
Thick smoke obscured the interior. No clue what they were seeing. Best we could do was watch them squint and unload into the haze.
Rat-tat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat-tat!
A heavy thud mixed in with the gunfire.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
Footsteps.
Not Jaeyeon's—definitely not. They grew louder.
The gunfire continued, but the steps didn't stop.
Finally, something huge burst from the records room.
It barreled out, shaking the floor.
Over two meters tall, it smashed through the door, threw its head back, and roared.
"Raaargh!"
What the hell is that?
Huge.
Human-like in shape, but size-wise, and shrugging off all those bullets—it sure wasn't normal. I blinked.
"Creature?"
"Ah. Not records room—bio lab."
Yoon said.
He added calmly as the hulking humanoid grabbed and flung a henchman.
"Guess the buried guy fooled us."
What the hell were they experimenting on to make that?
One henchman was definitely dead. Snatched by the monster, hurled, then stomped into an unrecognizable pulp.
Didn't seem that skilled, but didn't expect it'd turn him to mincemeat so easy.
"Request backup!"
The survivors yelled desperately.
"Backup!"
"Damn, it's coming this way."
The henchmen backed toward the stairs, muttering.
As their backs grew larger, Yoon straightened up and said flatly.
"Let's pretend we're reinforcements."
Good idea.
"Ditch that bastard and run?"
I smiled faintly.
He meant it.
Honestly, I was tempted too.
But in the end, I made a pretty loyal call.
"Wouldn't it be best to naturally send that thing and the henchmen up, then slip into the records room?"
"Yeah, sure."
Yoon straightened his posture.
"That works too."
Now the giant and henchmen were right in front of us.
Yoon flung open the stairwell door. Light flooded the dim stairs, silhouettes blocking it.
Things moved fast. The master drew his gun and fired at its eye. Rat-tat-tat-tat! Bullets hammered the right eyeball. The test subject shrieked and thrashed.
A punch that could've crushed a bear's skull.
As two henchmen whipped around toward us, we ducked under the test subject's arm.
We sprinted down the long corridor.
"Damn, it won't die even like that."
Racing to the records room, I marveled at the test subject's vitality.
"Tougher than your average creature. What the hell is it?"
"Was human once."
Yoon said it chillingly, matter-of-fact.
White, soulless corridor.
We raced through, diving into the shattered door.
Another door waited beyond.
Half-open, like the portal control zone's.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
Heavy footsteps from behind.
I glanced over my shoulder.
"It's skipping the stairs—coming our way."
"Inside."
Yoon didn't bother turning.
"No need to fight it."
Right call.
I followed him through the door.
As I turned to shut it, our eyes met.
Bloodshot glare. Head swollen so much the neck vanished.
Even with my sword, I wouldn't take it lightly.
The monster, impossibly fast for its size, spotted us and bellowed.
"Raaargh!"
Slam!
I shut the lab door just before it lunged.
It hit with a heavy thud. Shook the thick door. Impressive power.
Won't break through, though.
Satisfied with the timing, I turned.
To a chilling sight.
Space as vast as a department store basement garage. But instead of cars: desks, mystery lab equipment, a computer the size of three desks fused, thick stacks of files.
Shattered glass cage that must've held the test subject.
Jaeyeon, back to his own face, looked at me.
"You made it?"
The man grinned oddly, raking back his sweat-matted hair.
"Good work. Wanna tour the lab till that thing leaves?"
I started to reply indifferently.
While sullenly eyeing Yoon already rifling through experiment files. Taking in Jaeyeon, who'd deliberately smashed the test subject's glass.
Until one window on the computer screen caught my eye.
An all-too-familiar face I couldn't ignore.
"What?"
I headed straight for the computer.
"Why's Ye-hyeon here?"
***
"Hmm~. Your stalker, maybe~?"
"Doubt it, but not impossible."
Single-occupancy hospital room.
Dusk fell outside the window. The silence it brought shattered softly by the man and woman's voices.
As Ami's story ended, thoughtful Ricardo drawled his usual languid question.
Ami answered promptly.
"A normal stalker wouldn't vanish like a ghost."
"I acted like an idiot."
"No."
She sighed, turning to self-reproaching Sca.
"You called the ambulance."
"So you're saying the perp's the same as Hilde's kidnapper..."
Ricardo muttered in a lower voice than usual.
His gaze fixed on the floor somewhere. Half-lost in thought, posture clear: crossed legs, hands jammed in coat pockets.
Ami nodded.
"Yeah."
"Ah~. The Commander~?"
"On his way."
Sca replied, checking his phone.
"Probably in ten minutes..."
The door opened.
Crisp dress shoes clicked as Ye-hyeon entered.
Ignoring the straightening men, he went straight to the bed.
"Ami."
Supreme Commander Lee Ye-hyeon called the name of the kid like his own little sister, face stern.
"How's your condition."