Chapter 42
Chapter 42
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: Black Flames in the Depths
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The ground vanished from beneath his feet in a sensation utterly alien to him.
Jin's eyes widened at the unobstructed view stretching out before him.
Holy shit! That's high!
The distance between the transport ship and the rooftop was just over 30 meters.
A standard apartment floor was about 2.7 meters high, so this was like jumping from the 11th story.
For the record, Jin had never gone bungee jumping in his life.
Why? Because it scared the hell out of him!
He'd never given in, not even once, no matter how much his ex-girlfriend begged.
And yet here he was doing it now...!
To top it off, there were no safety measures whatsoever.
It was pure, unadulterated freefall—challenging gravity with nothing but his bare body.
They say falling comes with wings.
I've got none, though?
If he kept accelerating unchecked like this, it'd be minor injuries at best, coma at worst.
Of course, he wouldn't die, and he'd regain consciousness in a day or two, but that wasn't the point.
So Jin focused his mind.
And that was all in one second.
It had only been the tick of a single second hand since leaping from the transport.
His ash-gray eyes locked onto his target.
An outdoor light fixture twisted toward the sky.
A one-eyed sentinel glaring at intruders.
Jin paid the toll of mana to that elongated body.
The next instant.
Jin blinked into existence in midair, grabbing the light fixture with his hand already outstretched.
Screeech—
The sentinel's neck bent like a whip under the strain. Jin released his grip and landed on the rooftop with a springy motion.
He spared a brief glance at the bodies sprawled amid the downpour before heading straight inside the building.
The first thing he felt was the heat.
Thick, stifling air like stepping into a charcoal kiln.
Jin wrinkled his nose and bounded down the stairs.
Bodies lay at regular intervals on the landings and steps, every one with heads engulfed in white flames. Excluding the burning skulls, their conditions were better than those on the rooftop. Amid his haste, Jin scrutinize their clothing and gear.
And that's when he started noticing a familiar mark?
They were positioned variably, but identical in design.
A skull clamped on a cigar.
Beneath it: [Death Harbor]
Death Harbor?
Not Actavis, at any rate.
So not the company's own security forces.
Private security firm? PMC?
Either way, it was overkill for a mere data chip manufacturer. Something was definitely up here. With that thought, Jin kept running.
Shhhh!
Sprinklers sprayed water everywhere. It was the backlash from the heat and flames filling the building—same chaos inside as out in the rainstorm.
But how far down had it gone?
Jin's brows furrowed.
He'd already descended nearly 10 floors, yet no sign of Eanna—not even a glimpse.
Surely she wasn't using the emergency stairs—?
Thud, bang!
Rounding a landing, Jin instinctively dropped low.
A bullet whizzed past his head, leaving a dent in the wall.
It might look like he'd reacted to the gunshot, but bullets traveled faster than sound—dodging after hearing it was impossible.
That's why the saying: If you heard the shot, you lived!
What let Jin duck in time was the thud of the stairwell door bursting open, before the bang of the shot.
And between that thud and bang, Jin had already drawn Gravis.
Bang—!!
The roar was at least twice as loud as the previous shot.
A man clutched his chest, stumbling back before collapsing in a heap.
Only then did Jin turn, approaching the man spewing blood and kneeling to meet his gaze.
The bulletproof vest had saved him from instant death, but the unabsorbed impact ravaged his internals.
Jin read as much from the dying man's fading eyes and shallow breaths. And that he had a little time left before the end.
"Hey, hey. Got some questions. Answer straight, and I'll send you off easy."
"F-Fuck... you, you bastard."
"Yeah, figured."
Jin promptly wrapped static electricity around his right hand.
Far easier to wield now, thanks to his mana circuit's growth.
It still crackled and bristled in defiance, annoying as ever, but damn useful anyway.
Build proficiency like this, right? Stack it steady—that's what matters. Maybe one day I'll pull off Eanna-level insanity?
Static electricity. Imagine an electric storm blanketing the rooftop. Like a psionic storm. Yeah, stardom awaits.
Then a sudden thought.
Uh, too long?
Jin withdrew his hand from the man's neural port and spoke.
"So, changed your mind?"
"Guh... haah, haah... ngh."
Luckily, the persuasion worked, allowing a few clean Q&A exchanges in this wholesome atmosphere.
"...So you're mercenaries, contracted to garrison the building as guards? But your zone was only the upper floors—no clue what's underground?"
No answer came.
A corpse opening its mouth would be terrifying in its own right.
"So fragile."
Tsk. Jin rose with a low click of his tongue.
Not entirely fruitless, though.
At least he had a hunch where Eanna went.
Thus, Jin headed for the elevator.
He'd have loved to hit (↓), wait, and drop straight down, but all lifts in the building were shut down.
His reason for standing before the darkened elevator was different—
Boom!!
A heedless kick crumpled the door. A few repeats, and the mangled panels fell inward, exposing the interior.
"Live long enough and..."
Gazing into the vertical black shaft, Jin sighed and shed his outer jacket.
He wrapped his flight jacket around a nearby rail, gripped it, and dropped without hesitation!
Shoulder over shoulder, or whatever.
Applying action flick wisdom to reality, Jin mentally saluted his mentors.
Thanks, Ethan Hunt.
Thanks, James Bond.
(Neither actually did this.)
Not as smooth as in movies—hiccups along the way—but faster than stairs. Jin smashed out through the inner doors at the bottom.
What greeted him: a lobby ablaze.
The space utterly devastated, mercenaries strewn like trash.
Whose handiwork was obvious, so the jacket-clad Jin crossed the lobby, tracing the thick residual mana.
Twitch.
Sensing presence right beside him, Jin instinctively pulled the trigger.
Bang—!!
A mercenary rising to his knees toppled. Even twitching to rise again, his face bore a massive hole, so Jin charged and stomped his head.
Noise erupted from all sides.
"Aaaah!!!!"
Jin scowled at the mercenaries shambling up like zombies from the flames.
He'd spotted what they had on their heads.
Berserk.
Not all corpses revived.
Only the relatively intact ones—those without white flames consuming their skulls—roared with malice.
Jin struck first.
Gravis barked repeatedly.
Roaring heads exploded one by one.
Until the magazine ran dry.
Click-click. As the slide locked back with resistance under his finger.
Jin ejected the mag, swung his arm. At the arc's end: a mercenary stabbing down with a dagger—right in the face.
Crack!
Grabbing the crumpling skull's collar, Jin headbutted its face.
In that moment, another berserker lunged for Jin's blind spot despite its frenzy. Shielded by a body bunker plate, it fired through a small hole at its center.
One bullet grazed Jin's shoulder.
The rest thudded into the human shield's heaving back—
Jin blinked atop the shield-merc's head. High enough.
Perfect for a guillotine heel drop after lifting his foot high.
The guillotine passed sentence.
Crunch! Helmet crumpling, blood spraying from eyes, nose, mouth—the merc toppled. Jin landed stomping his skull, snatching the orphaned shield.
Ducking behind it fast as rifle rounds rat-tat-tat peppered the surface.
Short breath in the storm's lull, then Jin charged. Using momentum, he slammed the shield edge up—catching a reloading merc under the jaw.
Splatter!!
Blood gushed from the half-severed neck.
Releasing the shield, Jin swung a massive arc-fist at the last merc.
Russian Hook.
Like hurling a fastball, the punch drove the merc face-first into the floor.
"...Ptoo!"
As Jin spat and reloaded Gravis after clearing all berserkers—
Bang!
The emergency stairs door opposite the lobby flew open like it might shatter.
Click.
The gun barrel naturally aimed beyond: a familiar helmeted head.
[Jin?]
Eric's visor filled with huge letters. His body was blood-soaked, but his steady gait suggested it wasn't his.
"Quick arrival."
[???? ???? ?????]
Ignoring the aggrieved question marks, Jin chin-jerked the fallen mercs.
"These guys were all infected too."
[Met a few upstairs]
"Yeah? Place is a madhouse."
[But weird]
"What?"
[No staff]
"...Huh?"
Only now realizing he'd encountered no employees descending the building. The air on his skin suddenly felt cold, impossibly so.
"Let's move."
Not a sit-and-solve situation.
Hurrying on, Jin shared intel with Eric keeping pace.
Nothing major.
"Something's in the basement, seems like. They couldn't access via stairs or elevators. Probably another route."
[→ → Eanna's mana → →]
"Right, follow this. Hustle."
So the two ran.
Eanna's mana was... transparent yet scorching?
Warm yet destructive?
Distinctly her, easy to track.
Even without, burning bodies at intervals screamed this way!—double verification, no chance to get lost.
Revived mercs occasionally blocked paths, sure.
But not enough to halt two Solos.
Through repeated skirmishes, Jin vaguely grasped Eric's ability.
Body acceleration?
Mana circuit too?
Feels artificial, though.
Then a new entrance welcomed them.
Once veiled by translucent barrier, now scorched away.
They plunged in without pause.
Pounding footsteps echoed in the long, narrow, slanted corridor before vision widened abruptly.
The next moment.
A vast space etched into Jin's senses, bathed in faint blue light.
Alcohol stinging his nose.
Ominous air.
Cold fluorescent glow.
Low mechanical hum.
And at its end: Eanna's back.
The woman who'd outpaced them stood motionless, staring somewhere.
Like roots gripped her soles.
Damn, why's she making me nervous?
Jin hurried to her side.
Instead of asking what, he followed her gaze.
Hummm—
There: a massive glass tube linked to dozens of tubes.
Inside bubbling emerald-green liquid: a man on a respirator.
Long hair floating wildly, eyes closed in deep slumber.
And coiling his body: something—
Rising, cooling; rising, cooling in cycles.
An unholy writhing.
Black flames.