Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Experiment Subject Record (2)
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The Second Logistics Warehouse on the outskirts of Anseong City, Gyeonggi Province.
Disguised as an ordinary logistics center, the facility was shrouded in an eerie silence as the night deepened.
In front of the firmly shut iron gate, men in security uniforms stood guard with stern vigilance.
But what they held weren't mere batons—they were mana rifles loaded with live ammunition.
Their eyes, unmasked with killing intent, scanned the darkness.
Vroooom-!
At that moment, a black SUV tore through the shadows, barreling toward them at breakneck speed.
The roar of the engine shattered the stillness.
"Wh-what the hell! Stop!"
The guards panicked and aimed their rifles.
But the car plowed straight through the barricade.
BOOM-!
The steel barricade bent like taffy and flew aside.
The guards scattered in terror, diving out of the way.
The car smashed through the gate and screeched to a halt in the middle of the factory yard.
White smoke billowed from the hood.
Screeech.
The driver's door swung open, and a man stepped out.
Emerging from the cloud of dust was Siwoo, impeccably dressed in a suit.
He loosened his tie and gazed indifferently at the swarm of approaching guards.
"Intruder! Open fire!"
Rat-tat-tat! Bang-bang-bang!
Dozens of mana bullets and live rounds rained down on Siwoo.
It seemed too late to dodge, but instead, he curled one corner of his mouth into a faint smile.
He simply raised his right arm to shield his face. That was all.
Clang! Ting! Ping-!
An unbelievable sight unfolded.
The bullets poured onto Siwoo's suit, tearing the fabric but failing to pierce his skin.
Like striking a steel wall, the lead rounds crumpled and rained harmlessly to the ground.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ [Skill Replication - Body Hardening] Choi Min-seok's physical technique. Compresses muscle density to the limit, making the body harder than steel.
"Y-you idiots! What are you doing! Magic! Use magic!"
The guard captain bellowed.
The awakened mercenaries unleashed fireballs and ice arrows.
Siwoo's eyes narrowed, and he stomped the ground hard.
Crack!
The asphalt cratered, his form blurred, and he vanished from sight in an instant.
"Huh...?"
Siwoo was already in front of a mercenary about to launch a fireball.
There was no time to react.
Slash.
The tactical dagger in Siwoo's hand flashed, drawing a red line across the mercenary's throat.
Without even glancing at the falling body, he launched toward the next target.
Simple, concise, brutal.
Kim Ye-eun's swordsmanship wasn't flashy.
It was a killing art optimized solely for slaying foes.
And now, it was perfectly replicated through Siwoo's body.
Stab! Thud!
"Gaaah!"
"Spare... Gurk!"
Bodies piled up in Siwoo's wake.
He pierced hearts, slit carotid arteries, snapped necks.
No wasted motion.
"M-monster...!"
The remaining guards backed away in horror.
Impervious to bullets, moving too fast to track—a monster.
This wasn't human.
Siwoo shook the blood from his dagger and advanced on them.
Not even out of breath.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ [Skill Replication - Mana Circulation] Replenishes mana consumed by intense physical activity in real-time, copied from Lee Jia's recovery power.
Endless mana.
Impenetrable shield.
Invisible blade.
That was Han Siwoo right now.
"If you don't get out of my way."
Siwoo's blue eyes gleamed coldly.
"I'll kill every last one of you."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The elevator halted at Basement Level 2, where intruder alarms blared madly.
Weee-oong! Weee-oong!
[Intruder alert! Intruder alert!]
Armed personnel poured out from the end of the hallway and opened fire.
Siwoo stomped the floor.
The concrete cratered as he shot forward like a cannonball.
He closed the distance in a blink, his dagger tracing a silver arc.
The lead man's neck was half-severed, blood spraying.
Siwoo plunged toward the next without hesitation.
Thwack!
The fist to the solar plexus punched through body armor, caving in ribs.
Siwoo grabbed the soldier's neck, slashed it with his dagger, then rampaged onward without pause.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Central Control Room, Basement Level 2.
The researchers monitoring the screens were in full panic.
"What the hell is that! He wiped out thirty guards single-handedly!"
"Who is he? No data on this guy!"
On the screens, Siwoo was committing outright slaughter.
He ripped steel doors apart with his bare hands and tore enhanced humans like paper dolls.
The hallway he'd passed through was a sea of blood.
Bang!
The control room door flew off its hinges.
The thick bulletproof glass door was torn out entirely and slammed into the opposite wall.
Siwoo strode in through the dust cloud.
His face was spotless, not a drop of blood, but his presence was like a grim reaper from hell.
"H-heek!"
The researchers screamed and huddled in the corner.
The lead researcher hit the emergency button with trembling hands.
"R-release the subjects! Release the experiment subjects! Stop him!"
Weee-oong!
Warning sirens wailed as the locks on the basement isolation cells disengaged.
Iron-barred doors swung open, unleashing grotesque howls from within.
"Kieeeek!"
"Grrrrr...."
Monstrous abominations no longer worthy of being called human flooded into the control room.
A horde that would terrify any ordinary hunter—but Siwoo didn't bat an eye.
If anything, he gripped his dagger tighter with an annoyed expression.
"Is this really how you want to show me the evidence?"
Siwoo leaped into the pack of experiment subjects.
A massive claw slammed down, but he didn't dodge—instead, he raised his arm to block.
Clang!
The sound of metal clashing rang out.
Instead of being flung back, Siwoo yanked the arm and pulled the monster into his embrace.
Stab!
The dagger pierced the experiment subject's forehead dead-center.
The brain-destroyed beast collapsed limply.
Meanwhile, another lunged at Siwoo, teeth bared.
Siwoo smashed its skull with a casual fist, unflinching.
Crunch!
The head burst like a watermelon.
He ripped off the arm of one swinging claws and jammed his dagger down the throat of another snapping at him.
What followed was a one-sided massacre.
Siwoo danced through the monsters.
Slash and stab, slash and stab again.
Blood and flesh sprayed everywhere.
"M-monster...."
The researcher slumped to the floor, staring blankly at the carnage.
The man in the suit was far more monstrous than the things they'd created.
After snapping the last chimera's neck, Siwoo approached the researcher.
Bathed in gore, he grabbed one by the collar and slammed him against the wall.
"K-21."
Siwoo's voice was low and gravelly.
"Where is it."
"H-heek! Sp-spare me...!"
"Just answer the question."
"Guhk... I-I don't... I just... "
Siwoo drove his dagger into the researcher's thigh.
Stab!
"Aaaagh!"
"I won't ask twice."
Siwoo twisted the blade, and the researcher screamed, pointing inward through his pain.
"B-basement! Basement Level 3! Operating Room 1! It's there! Please, spare me!"
Siwoo flung the researcher to the floor.
Then stomped his neck to knock him out.
He never said he'd spare him.
Without delay, Siwoo headed to Basement Level 3. His steps quickened.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Basement Level 3. The air here was different from above.
Dead silence. The stinging reek of disinfectant mixed with the metallic tang of blood.
The smell of burning flesh hung heavy.
Siwoo stood before the largest iron door at the end of the hallway.
Finding Operating Room 1 made his heart pound fiercely.
The ring found in Paju. Min-seok's expression.
Everything urged him onward.
'Please.'
Siwoo kicked the door open.
Bang!
The operating room was a scene of horror.
The researchers had already fled through the back door.
In the empty room's center stood only a cold operating table, stark and alone.
And atop it.
Lay a person.
"......"
Siwoo's breath caught.
A woman, limbs bound, covered in blood.
Her patient gown was soaked through, its original color lost, and her neck was grotesquely mutilated as if hacked apart.
Various machines were hooked to her body.
No movement at all.
Not even the rise and fall of her chest. She looked no different from a corpse.
'Too late?'
Despair crushed his chest.
Siwoo clenched the silver ring in his pocket.
He dragged his heavy feet to the table.
"Sorry... I'm late."
With trembling hands, Siwoo tried to undo her restraints.
He carefully brushed aside the blood-matted hair covering her face.
But then.
'Huh?'
Siwoo's hand froze.
Up close, something felt profoundly off.
Her hands... were too small.
The contours of her blood- and bruise-smeared face looked far too youthful for Choi Min-seok's wife.
Late teens, maybe early twenties at most?
'No.'
Siwoo's eyes shook.
'This isn't Kim Yun-seo.'
She didn't match the wife in the photo Min-seok had shown.
This was... someone entirely different.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡ [Insight Eye] Ding.
⚔ STATUS ⚔ 👤 Name: Lee Chae-i ⭐ Rank: E-Rank 💫 Potential: S-Rank Re-awakening / D-??? 📊 Status: Vocal Cord Damage / Near Death 🔍 Special Notes: Possesses S-Rank Potential Lee Chae-i. Not Kim Yun-seo.
Another victim they'd used as an experiment subject.
Siwoo was actually relieved it wasn't her.
The woman's condition was on the brink of death.
Lee Chae-i's state was horrific.
Her throat bore hideous suture scars like centipedes, from forcibly mangling her vocal cords.
Her pale skin had lost all color, corpse-like, with dried blood crusted at her lips.
Wrists and ankles were raw and bruised from the leather straps, marks of desperate struggle in agony.
Nails crushed, fingers twisted at every joint.
Impossible to fathom the pain.
'Should I be relieved? Either way, it's too late in this state.'
Siwoo turned to search for Kim Yun-seo elsewhere.
If not here, then somewhere else.
That was when it happened.
Twitch.
A faint twitch from what he'd thought was a corpse—Lee Chae-i's finger.
Tiny, but clear to Siwoo's eyes.
"......!"
Siwoo gripped her wrist impassively.
A pulse. Faint and irregular, but alive.
"Can it be done?"
He squeezed her hand tight.
If he could save her.
If there was even a chance, maybe another re-awakener.
She wasn't the one he sought, but he couldn't ignore her info.
Above all, her potential held him back.
Siwoo removed his jacket and draped it over her.
"......"
'Kim Yun-seo first.'