[What's life, anyway? You just live as you live]

The container truck drove for over an hour with us inside before finally coming to a stop.

"The location is roughly... outside of Gangwon-do... maybe near Guri City? I don't really know the name of the neighborhood, but it seems like a quiet place."

They're conducting human experiments, and a test subject even escaped, so they need fewer witnesses to keep things quiet. Naturally, they'd need a pure research facility with no residential areas nearby.

I smell water. Judging by the location, it's the smell of the Han River.

Is there any reason for a research lab to be near a river? To supply drinking water?

Anyway, I arrived at the research lab. I spread out my Ki-sense to grasp the general structure of the facility.

And I was quite surprised to see that the facility was built dozens of meters underground. No, are these bastards Umbrella or something? Why are they trying to build Raccoon City in Guri?

It looks like there are 20 floors underground. Before even questioning if it violates building codes, bastards with nothing to be proud of always dig underground.

"I'll go from here, so you get lost."

"A-are you sparing my life?"

I gestured for the man who had served as my informant and camouflage companion to get lost.

"You've spilled all the info, and I've used you as much as I needed to. Stay if you want to die."

"N-no! I'm going, I'm going!"

The man trembled and stepped backward, sneaking away as if to run at any moment.

You ask if it's unfair to kill everyone else but spare this guy?

Well, I'm the type of guy who thinks being alive is more painful. I guarantee you, that man will choose suicide not long after he runs away.

Do you think his mental state will be fine after everyone else died and he's the only one left alive? Even for a Force User, mental fortitude in the face of murder is a different issue.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Let him have as many nightmares as possible and suffer before he kills himself. That's the most painful way to die.

The man ran away, and I stood before the research lab. Before storming in, I put on the Raccoon Man mask again and contacted Sion.

"Yeah, it's me."

[Did you kill someone again?]

".....Sorry."

[Never mind. I don't really care about people who deserve to die anyway.]

Even though she says that, Sion is soft-hearted for a Transcendent. She even feels sympathy for those who deserve to die. That's why she rarely harms others herself.

That's why killing and harming people is my specialty. If Sion had tried to solve this, it would have taken a lot of time, money, and effort.

"I'm about to storm the lab. Did you find the location?"

[There is a place registered as a research lab at this location. It's not that big, but it's not small either, and the research being conducted there isn't anything particularly unusual.]

"It's a lab belonging to Leverage Inc., right?"

[That is correct.]

Leverage Inc. is a company based in the United States. This lab is probably just one of many branches, and if I wanted to deal a blow, I'd have to attack the headquarters in the U.S.

But I can't do that. Even if they did human experiments, they're still a U.S. company. That would be considered an act of terrorism and could make the country of the United States itself hostile toward me.

Of course, I don't think I'd lose even to a superpower like the U.S. It's just that in the process, most of the wealth Sion has built would vanish, the social order would collapse, and... anyway, it would ruin the Earth.

Let's think about the rest later and deal with what's in front of me first.

"Any precautions before I storm in?"

[If you hack from the inside, I can steal the information. If you can't break in from the outside, you just have to break in from the inside.]

"Aha? You want to dig in from the inside?"

Sion is vulnerable to technology combined with supernatural abilities, but that just means she can't break in from the outside; it doesn't mean she can't get in if someone opens the door from the inside.

If I attempt to hack from the inside, Sion can collect information from this place.

[Once you're inside, there will definitely be computers for research or analysis. I don't know what kind of computers they'll be, but first, you need user privileges...]

"Quick and easy."

[Just beat up a researcher to get access permission, then plug in the USB attached to the left ear of your mask.]

"Okay."

I casually touched the left side of the ear on top of my mask. The triangular ear spun around and eventually popped off. At the end of it was a USB-like terminal, ready to be plugged in.

[But are you just going to walk in? You'll be mistaken for a terrorist later.]

"The place I'm mainly going to trash is the basement here, so if they want to bitch about it being terrorism, let them try."

The place I'm going to smash isn't the camouflage lab on the surface, but the secret labs underground.

They're going to call it terrorism because I trashed the place? What got destroyed? If they try to press that issue, they're the ones who will be in trouble. Not me.

I jumped over the fence and infiltrated the lab.

Big Brother is here, you assholes.

According to my Ki-sense, the only way to go down to the secret underground lab was by elevator. It seemed like the first and second underground floors were the area for the camouflage lab, but after a slight gap, there was a secret lab even further underground.

I guess it's a system where you can't go to the secret lab without authentication. But you know what?

"If your body is bad, your head suffers."

Having snuck in, I forced the elevator doors open. And down below, I could see a space so deep it didn't look like just the first or second basement floor.

I threw my body down and fell. After a few seconds of airtime, I landed on top of the elevator car.

I must have already been lower down, as I arrived at a fairly deep spot. Roughly one-third of the way into the entire secret lab. It's still just the entrance, but I can see a path going down further from here.

I smashed the ceiling of the elevator car, entered the elevator, then pried the doors open again to enter the secret laboratory in earnest.

The interior has a pretty clean design. A hallway with a white and bright sky-blue base welcomes me, but my mood is just as shitty.

First, let's find a computer. Before that, I needed to beat up a researcher.

There weren't as many people as I thought. No, the people were mostly in the deeper labs further down. There aren't many people on the upper floor, so it looks like there isn't much to gain here.

I have two purposes for coming here.

One is to get information about these bastards.

The other is to exterminate them all.

"No need ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to hide when you're exterminating."

Assassination, by definition, is just killing all the witnesses.

I walked down the hallway a bit and looked at the ceiling, where there was a surveillance camera. There was probably one by the elevator too, but since it didn't react, maybe it's managed by the surface lab? Anyway.

I gave them a thumbs-down gesture across my throat to tell them they were fucked, and went further inside.

"Huh? Who...?"

And that was the first person I met in this lab. The reason I don't call them human is that most of the bastards here aren't worth calling human.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He saw my face, looked at the Raccoon Man mask, and expressed confusion. I quickly ran over, grabbed him by the hair, and slammed him against the wall a few times to make him easier to talk to.

"Ugh, uhhh..."

"You're an employee here, right? Do you have access rights to the computers used in the facility?"

"Th-that's held by the researchers..."

"Is that so?"

Grrrrk!!

I dragged his face against the wall and ground it down. A straight red streak was drawn on the wall. He tried to scream at first, but it soon faded away as he lost consciousness.

If you ask if that was too harsh, let me ask you the opposite.

Do you think a bastard working in a place like this wouldn't know anything?

Maybe the camouflage lab on the surface, but a guy working in a secret lab hidden underground? I'd rather believe that a grown adult still has their childhood innocence.

Just as I was wondering what to do with the half-corpse, an alarm started ringing throughout the lab.

Ah, now it's really starting.

Whirrr, click!!

Covers opened in the ceiling and walls, and intruder repulsion equipment popped out. Things that looked like gun barrels aimed at me, and red dots from laser sights appeared all over my body.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!

And without giving me a moment to delay, they fired. The barrage of bullets fired from all sides was enough to easily turn a person into a rag, and the body of the man I was holding went from a half-corpse to just a corpse.

The bullets they were using seemed to have excellent stopping power, as the impact was no joke. But it wasn't enough to pierce my Force Field. I tossed the rag-doll corpse aside and walked down the hallway where bullets were flying everywhere.

Rat-tat-tat-tat!!

If it were threatening, I'd smash it, but since they can't even pierce my Force Field, there was no need to pay attention. They were just wasting bullets.

[Attention to all staff inside the laboratory. An intruder has been detected. Modifying alert level from C to B.]

The broadcast echoing throughout the lab announced a higher level of alert. And the hail of bullets stopped.

It seems they judged that guns were useless. In the normal world, guns are the pinnacle of weaponry, but here, it's different.

Force Users are people who can exert greater power than firearms, even when mainly using cold weapons. It's said that general Force Users are weak against firearms, but that doesn't mean they are weak.

I felt the presence of people rushing toward me, and decided to move to achieve my two goals.

Even without a blueprint of the building, I can roughly grasp the structure; this facility is largely divided into 3 zones.

You can at least reach the upper levels by elevator, but to go to the middle level, you have to move through a passage in the upper level, and to go to the lower level, you have to go through a passage in the middle level again.

If I were to smash everything, I wouldn't need to worry about passageways, but since I have a need to prioritize collecting information, that method won't work.

I am at the very bottom of the upper level. There is a passage leading to the middle level here.

"I'm a bit uneasy about why they made such a cumbersome structure..."

Even if information leakage is a concern, it's a very inefficient structure for a research lab. However, if an intruder were to enter, it would be difficult to both enter and escape.

It seems the full-scale research facilities start from the middle level. I quickly found the elevator going down to the middle level.

Likewise, I forced the doors open and headed down. From here, I can go down to the very ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bottom of the middle level.

Now, the middle level. There are quite a lot of people here. There are researchers and Force Users. Among them, the Force Users were tracking me, coming up from both above and below.

"Wow, these guys must have a lot of money. Hiring this many Force Users."

They probably hired them for research purposes on paper, but in reality, most of them are doing dirty work like this.

At the end of the straight hallway, a team of Force Users kicked open the door and blocked my path. Then, they spotted me and each grabbed their weapons.

"There he is! Raccoon Man!"

"Oh, what a warm welcome!"

There were ten of them. Looking at the guys I saw at Duryusan, it seems there are ten in a team. Judging by the squad size, I estimate there are at least a few more teams.

They blocked the straight hallway with shields, and from the back, Force Users with long-range traits or weapons attacked toward me. There were simple things like fireballs, but also cold weapons like arrows.

Things like fireballs exploded with a 'bang!' when they hit near me. They scorched a significant part of the hallway, and arrows flew toward my head, cutting through the flames behind them. I caught them reflexively, but soon electricity discharged in all directions.

"I've been wondering for a long time, why don't Force Users use guns?"

Strictly speaking, I'm not a Force User. So I don't really know what Force Users would know. A Force User who uses guns... I've heard there's one person in the U.S. who uses firearms, but I've never heard of any others.

Boom!!

I rushed at them and pushed the guys holding shields, shields and all. In an instant, their formation collapsed, and the rear personnel behind them became defenseless.

I stomped on the limbs of the fallen shield-bearers to neutralize them and threw a punch at the guys behind them.

First, the guy who was throwing fireballs earlier.

"Gack?!"

The guy's chest caved in, and he vomited blood. Coughing up blood is common in fiction, but in reality, internal bleeding is a very serious injury.

I knocked down the rest, and finally grabbed the collar of the Force User holding the bow to ask what I was curious about.

"Hey, why do you use a bow instead of a gun? Isn't a gun better?"

"Uh... uh?"

"Honestly, guns look cooler than bows."

How should I put it? Bows have a traditional, antique coolness, but guns have a tactical coolness. Personally, guns look cooler.

So, back in the day, I even tried shooting machine guns in both hands like Rambo.

"Th-that's because not just anyone can imbue enough Force into a small object like a bullet..."

"Ah, was there such an unexpected problem?"

Come to think of it, the Origin Species disposal squad used firearms, but that's because Origin Species don't have physical resistance like Enemy Species, so it's effective.

Intruders are first filtered out by the defense system attacking with firearms like before, and if they still can't be repelled, Force Users are deployed as a secondary measure to deal with them. Because, honestly, a sword swung by a Force User might be more effective than a gun.

"Thanks for answering, I'll kill you nicely in return."

"W-wait. Spare me."

Snap, I twisted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his neck and killed him instantly. His nerves are shot, so it won't hurt.

I killed the whole team of Force Users and started walking again. And I found a rather suspicious door.

Inside... there's a human presence, but they aren't thinking of coming out of the room? Most people who hear the alarm and hide are researchers, and the people coming to find me are Force Users, but this one feels like a Force User who is constrained in the room.

I smashed the door and went in, and inside, like a psychiatric ward, there were doors at regular intervals on both sides of the hallway. The doors looked thick and sturdy even from the outside, and even the small windows on the doors were made with thick iron bars. It's just like a prison.

I pressed various buttons on the side, and one of them responded. With a beep, the window on the door opened, allowing me to see inside.

There was a person inside, but no active signs of life were visible. A person who was only alive because they were alive, the type who wouldn't even resist if you killed them, was just sitting leaning against the wall. They didn't react even though I was looking at them.

What on earth do you have to do to make a person turn out like that?

First of all, the people here don't seem to be involved parties but victims, so I decided to rescue them. But in my opinion, there's no point in rescuing people who don't react. Even if I rescue and help them escape, they have no will to live, so they'll just end up in a mental hospital.

It's uncertain if they even have any intelligence left in the first place.

"Hey mister! Look here!"

".........."

There was no reaction. Seeing that they don't react to being called, they have no will to live, so I think it's better for them to die here.

Just in case, I checked all the rooms in this area. The people constrained were both men and women. The gender ratio was roughly half and half, but I didn't see anyone with a sound mind among them.

Looking at the people who escaped from the department store fire incident or kidnapping cases I encountered, what should I say... is it because of a lack of firm will? It's not my place to judge, but they look like people who have abandoned all hope and given up.

Meanwhile, I found the only survivor in one room.

"Hello?"

"......!!"

When I asked, the woman who had been still lifted her head and looked at me. Then, she hurriedly approached the door and knocked on the iron bars.

"E-excuse me?! Excuse me? Mister, you're Raccoon Man, right? The one who was eating tuna sashimi in Busan back then!"

".......Ah, why of all things are you bringing up me eating sashimi instead of me saving people?"

"Anyway, please save me! I was kidnapped here!"

"First, get away from the door. I'm going to smash it."

The door was extremely thick. It was made of a special metal, not iron, about a hand's breadth thick, making it impossible for most Force Users to escape. The walls were probably the same.

This time, I struck the door a bit harder. A heavy metallic sound rang out, and I smashed all the security, shattering the door completely.

Along with the scene looking almost like a bomb had gone off, the woman who had been trapped inside came out.

She didn't look very old. At most, around Ruri's age? At best, she's just an adult, and if young, around high school age.

"Mister Raccoon Man, did you come to save us?"

"No, I just came to beat up the bad guys."

"Jeez, can't you just say you came to save me there?"

"Lying is bad. But how old are you?"

".......I'm a sophomore in high school."

"Still a kid."

She's a minor. Seeing a minor kidnapped in a place like this, I could get a glimpse of the influence these bastards here have.

This kid is also a Force User. She doesn't look like she awakened more than a few months ago, but the amount of Force she possesses seems to be more than Baek-ri's.

"How did you end up here?"

"I don't know. I was walking down the street at night, and suddenly some strange men kidnapped me... when I opened my eyes, I was here."

"How long has it been since you were kidnapped?"

"It hasn't been that long. About 2 or 3 weeks?"

Almost a month. She seems to be a kid who was kidnapped after the Yeongdeungpo Department Store incident.

"What about your parents?"

"......I don't have any. I'm an orphan from a facility."

"During the Great Depression?"

"No, after that."

20 years ago was a chaotic time when Enemy Species and Force Users appeared simultaneously. Naturally, there were many casualties back then, and because of the orphans created by that, they set up separate national facilities.

Although they are on a downward trend now, orphans are still occasionally created by Enemy Species. A portion of the 20-somethings in current society are from facilities.

"Are they kidnapping orphans because they don't have parents and there's no need to worry about the aftermath? Look at what these bastards are doing."

"Mister, how about we escape first? I can hear the sound of people rushing here..."

She must have an Enhancement trait, as she seems to be able to hear footsteps from a bit far away by enhancing her body. I have one burden now, but it's not something to worry about. One or two is the same.

"I'm going to steal the information here first, and then we'll leave."

"Uh... if it's that, it should be further down than here. Sometimes I've been dragged away for experiments and stuff."

"Experiments?"

"Yes... they would inject strange shots or something."

There were needle marks on her arm. Force Users have high physical regeneration, so marks like that would disappear quickly, but there were reddish marks as if she had an allergic reaction, and discolored blood vessel marks around them.

I grabbed her wrist and quietly observed the inside of her body.

.......Deeper inside than the Gaia Force, a foreign energy was filling it up. It wasn't much, but it's equally dangerous if left alone.

I focused my mind for a moment and decided to get rid of that energy. Thinking about this, I'm glad I started the Infinite Force Core. No matter what other energy it is, the Infinite Force Core accepts and absorbs all supernatural abilities. And it converts them into my power.

I absorbed all the foreign energy in her body and let go of her wrist. Taking a deep breath, she expressed relief at her lightened body.

"Huh? Huh? Mister, my body feels comfortable now. What did you do?"

"I absorbed the strange energy inside you. I know because I've seen it, it wouldn't be good if you left it as is."

The foreign energy inside her was more similar to the power possessed by Enemy Species than Gaia Force. What was it called... Raf Energy? I heard that's what the power possessed by Enemy Species is called.

I'll have to dig through the research data to know the details, but if you fuse the power of a Force User and an Enemy Species, a quite terrifying result pops out.

Enemy Species are immune to physical attacks, but Force Users can attack them.

Force Users beat Enemy Species, but firearms work on them.

Then what if you mix Enemy Species and Force Users half and half?

A perfect being is born that is immune to physical attacks but still possesses superhuman abilities like a Force User.

I don't know what they'd use such a being for, but the moment they start human experiments, they're disqualified. First, let's hack the information about this facility and then find the person in charge. They're probably at the very bottom.

"Let's escape together after I'm done with my business. Don't worry, I'll take you home."

"......My home is the facility."

"Who said I didn't know? I'm from a facility too. They're stingy bastards who only give you 20,000 won on school field trip days, but it's still better than here."

"Ah, they gave us 30,000 won."

"Your facility is at least better."

Since I said I was from the same facility, she seemed to relax a bit and had a relieved expression. Even though she looked tired and anxious, she had quite a pretty face, as is often the case with handsome men and beautiful women among Force Users.

Compared to Ruri, who is around the same age... if Ruri feels like a cute puppy style, this one has an atmosphere like a kitten.

"What's your name? I need to know what to call you."

When I asked for her name, she answered.

"I'm Cheon Ye-jin."