Chapter 101
White steam rose from the exoskeleton worn by Lee Jinwoo as he gasped for breath.
He stared blankly at the hook attached to his arm.
These were monsters that he could not even scratch no matter how much strength he poured into his attacks.
Yet this single small hook had completely turned the situation around.
He did not want to admit it, but he had no choice.
A severe wave of reality hit him.
“Brat! Boss gear is always like that! If your brain is all muscle, just shut up and admire it!”
Picker mocked Lee Jinwoo.
Step. Step.
At that moment, the Bomb Maniac slowly approached him.
Lee Jinwoo flinched and looked up at me.
Without saying anything, I reached out and lightly tapped the damaged shoulder of his exoskeleton.
“Your condition isn’t good. Take it off. I’ll repair it.”
As if entranced, Lee Jinwoo removed the rattling exoskeleton and handed it to me.
I took it and shoved it into Shadow’s subspace storage.
Without any special effect, the massive piece of equipment was sucked straight into the air and vanished.
Then I muttered as if issuing an order to someone.
“Repair it.”
About five minutes later.
I pulled the exoskeleton back out of the air and simultaneously activated [Repair].
The equipment that had looked like little more than scrap metal just moments ago had been restored to a perfectly lubricated, brand-new condition.
“Gasp…!”
The members of the Machine Society watching nearby stared with their mouths wide open.
To them, it must have looked as if I had used a subspace item like those of Union Tech to send the equipment somewhere else for repair and have it returned within five minutes.
“Idiots. Looks like they all fell for it, sir.”
The performance I had studied for so long worked perfectly.
I would be able to keep using this trick in the future.
Lee Jinwoo’s pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck them.
Only now did he realize it.
The man standing before him was someone far above him—someone he could never dare to challenge.
He slowly lowered his head, deeply.
The rebellious look in his eyes disappeared, leaving only reverence.
“…Thank you.”
Lee Jinwoo, who was known for his pride, had bowed his head to someone.
The members murmured in surprise.
“Hah! See that, Boss! A good beating is the best medicine! He should’ve knelt earlier!”
Picker puffed out his nose proudly, acting as if he had won something himself.
Seeing him behave that way, I let out a quiet chuckle.
A building near Hongdae.
A sharp metallic scent of blood vibrated through the entire building and stabbed into the nose.
From the lobby to the stairs and corridors.
More than a hundred corpses lay scattered everywhere.
“Wow… this place is a complete slaughterhouse, sir.”
Picker muttered with disgust.
I frowned slightly and looked down at the floor.
Since being expelled from the Mapo Station Shelter, I had experienced many things.
But this was the first time I had seen humans slaughter humans on such a massive scale.
However, the soldiers examined the corpses as if they were used to it.
“They were all beaten to death.”
As he said, every single body had shattered bones and ruptured organs.
“Look here!”
Jeon Bongsik, who was leading the way, gestured.
At the end of the line of corpses.
There was a massive entrance leading down to Basement Level 1.
A heavy titanium alloy door that looked at least forty centimeters thick.
Something that would normally be used in a luxury bunker.
Yet that thick door had been grotesquely twisted and torn apart as if it were wet cardboard.
Lee Jinwoo ran his hand across the torn doorframe and clicked his tongue.
“They didn’t use cutters or explosives. They just tore it apart with brute force.”
“With force?”
“Yes. Grab it with both hands and rip.”
Lee Jinwoo spread his arms as if demonstrating.
Tearing titanium alloy with bare hands.
Was that even possible?
Even I probably could not do that.
Even with a heavily upgraded exoskeleton, it would be difficult.
“There’s only one person in Mapo District who would do something this insane.”
Lee Jinwoo’s eyes gleamed ominously.
“Lee Taesung of Ahyeon Shelter.”
Lee Taesung.
The ruler of Ahyeon Shelter, the man Yoon Sungjun hated.
I had heard he was a B-Grade Awakened.
“His trait is [Strength Enhancement]. That’s why something like this is possible.”
I looked at the torn cross-section of the door and thought.
Normally, if someone reached B-Grade, they possessed some kind of special ability rather than something simple like Strength Enhancement.
On the other hand, if someone reached B-Grade purely through physical strength alone, that would make him a monster in its own right.
“Let’s go in.”
The interior looked less like a research laboratory and more like a temporary facility converted from a warehouse.
Measurement devices scattered around.
Old desks and chairs.
But what overwhelmed the ordinary scenery was the carnage covering the floor.
Twelve bodies lay on the ground, melted beyond recognition.
Their skin and muscles sagged like jelly, while exposed bones stuck together grotesquely.
“Ugh… poison gas?”
One of the soldiers covered his nose and stepped back.
“It looks like a trap went off, or they released gas to destroy the evidence.”
Jeon Bongsik calmly analyzed the surroundings.
“A typical looting and murder scene. They probably took everything important.”
Jeon Bongsik’s words made sense.
The basement was not large, and at first glance there was nothing left.
The members nodded as if they were ready to abandon the search.
But my thoughts were different.
There was one difference between the bodies outside and the ones here.
“Picker. Scan it.”
“Yes, Boss.”
Moments later.
Hidden traces beneath the corroded skin appeared as data.
Just as I expected.
“Wait.”
When I spoke, Lee Jinwoo and Jeon Bongsik both turned their attention to me.
“The gas wasn’t the cause of death. It was used for concealment.”
“Excuse me? Concealment?”
I pointed to the wrists and ankles of the corpses.
At first glance it was impossible to tell because the flesh had melted away.
But bones do not lie.
“It looks like the flesh melted, but that’s not it. These are abnormal compression marks.”
“…Huh? You’re right. The melted parts have peeled skin and rough edges, but these areas are smooth.”
Lee Jinwoo stepped closer and narrowed his eyes.
“This didn’t happen after death. It proves they were bound and forced to kneel while alive. And for a very long time.”
“Then…”
“Right. They didn’t kill them immediately. They interrogated them.”
I tapped the melted floor with my foot.
“They released the gas to erase the binding marks and torture evidence. Lee Taesung was trying to extract information here.”
“…Damn.”
Lee Jinwoo’s mouth hung open.
Even the veteran members, including Jeon Bongsik, looked surprised.
From what could easily have been dismissed as fragments of corpses, I had reconstructed the entire incident.
“That’s incredible observation.”
Lee Jinwoo shook his head in admiration.
He had no choice but to admit that I was not simply someone with brute strength but someone with analytical ability as well.
“And if you look closely, you can tell there was only one intruder—Lee Taesung.”
“What’s the reason? There aren’t even any footprints.”
“If it had been many versus many, they would’ve noticed the intrusion. Were there any traces of firearms used outside?”
“Ah… no.”
“That proves Lee Taesung infiltrated alone and eliminated them quickly. If there had been multiple attackers, there would’ve been return fire.”
“Wow! Boss, that’s AI-level deduction, sir. All my teaching finally paid off.”
What teaching?
Chief Kim used to say my problem wasn’t that I was stupid, just that I didn’t have much education.
“Search the place. We need to find out what he wanted.”
With that one order, the atmosphere changed.
The members began searching every corner of the laboratory.
Ten minutes passed.
They overturned desks and ripped open cabinets, but nothing useful appeared.
Lee Jinwoo reported with a frustrated expression.
“There’s really nothing here. Even if there was something, they must’ve taken it all.”
Then suddenly.
Picker, who had been silently running a detailed scan, shouted.
“Boss! Boss! I found something strange!”
“What is it?”
“The mana concentration in the air here! It’s 420 percent higher than outside!”
Four hundred twenty percent?
I narrowed my eyes.
I had heard that Dead Zones had high mana density.
But numbers like this inside the basement of an ordinary ruined building?
This was not natural.
It was clear evidence that some kind of mana-related experiment or work had been conducted here.
I pulled out a device from Shadow’s storage on its back.
It was a Portable Penetration Scanner (X-ray) that I had modified from non-destructive inspection equipment used at the factory.
I built it expecting a day like this might come.
I moved the members aside and swept the scanner along the wall.
Black-and-white images of structures behind the wall appeared on the monitor.
Concrete.
Rebar.
Pipes.
And then, as the scanner passed the wall where a bookshelf stood—
“Found it.”
Behind the bookshelf, a hollow space embedded in the wall appeared on the screen.
At Lee Jinwoo’s signal, two soldiers rushed forward.
Crunch!
The heavy steel bookshelf was torn away like paper.
Behind it appeared a concealed small incinerator and crucible furnace.
“I can’t believe something like this was hidden here…”
The members murmured.
I opened the crucible lid.
Inside was nothing but a handful of completely burned ash.
“What did they burn, sir?”
“Can you analyze it?”
“That bear can’t, but I can.”
Picker quickly aimed his sensors and began analyzing microscopic particles.
“Analysis complete! High-purity graphite and pulp fibers detected! This is paper, Boss!”
Paper?
“Yes! And documents densely filled with writing! Large amounts of ink compounds detected!”
The situation became clear.
“When Lee Taesung attacked, the researchers erased their data themselves.”
I picked up a small fragment of a notebook corner stuck to the bottom of the crucible that had not burned completely.
The piece was no bigger than a fingernail, so the contents were unreadable.
But the deep indentation of the pen pressure was obvious.
“Data they tried to protect with their lives… This wasn’t just a simple research log.”
This was something that must not fall into enemy hands.
Or something that must never be revealed to the world.
“What exactly did the Sinchon Alliance ask you to investigate?”
“The investigation of the survivor extermination incident… sir.”
Jeon Bongsik swallowed hard.
“So it wasn’t just a disappearance. They were researching something here, and Lee Taesung moved to obtain it.”
The puzzle pieces fit together.
Now the important question was what had been here.
“Search a little more. There must be a clue.”
“Yes.”
While looking around the laboratory again, my gaze stopped on one corpse.
Its fist was clenched as tightly as stone.
If someone is beaten badly, their fists usually loosen.
I crouched down in front of the body.
Using the power of the exoskeleton, I forced open the hardened fingers.
Crack. Snap.
When the dead man’s hand opened, something glittered inside.
“What is this…?”
White powder.
A crystalline white powder clung to the palm like grains of salt.
“Drugs?”
Lee Jinwoo asked while peering closer.
But to my eyes it looked different.
This was not ordinary powder.
Each tiny grain was emitting an unusual density of mana.
“Picker. Analyze it.”
“Yes! Beginning scan!”
Picker’s lens flashed red.
I rubbed the powder between my fingers.
It was sticky.
Not a simple crystal. It had adhesive properties.
“B-Boss!”
Picker shouted as if screaming.
“I figured it out! This is insane!”
“What is it?”
“This powder… it’s alive!”
“What?”
“It’s absorbing the surrounding mana and increasing its mass! If we leave it alone, it will grow like a snowball and become a core!”
My eyes widened.
A core, something that normally came from the heart of a mutant, was growing on its own?
It sounded impossible.
But after observing the powder for a moment, I realized something.
Picker was telling the truth.
This white powder was growing by absorbing the surrounding mana.