Chapter 187
Chapter 187
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 187
Chapter Title: Flames in the Forbidden Depths
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The US First Headquarters, which could be called the heart of GHO.
Its basement housed a laboratory known only to a select few.
It was a space of resistance against a world utterly transformed by the Gate era.
A break from hunters who gained skills, mana, and transcendent physical power.
Humanity's most potent weapon.
The resistance called science, born of curiosity, grew its strength relentlessly at GHO's US First Headquarters, day in and day out.
Sub-level 3, inaccessible even by elevator.
Deeper than the underground parking on levels 1 and 2, sub-level 3 buzzed with experiments and research as always.
Then, an alarm blared from the office of the Gate Research Director overseeing all labs.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The shrill, piercing sound echoed through every lab.
Caught off guard, the researchers halted their work and stared at the ceiling.
An announcement crackled from the ceiling speakers.
The researchers, bound by nondisclosure agreements, all knew B4 existed.
They also knew the hypersensitive sensors on its door could trigger alarms like this even if the director just brushed past.
Assuming the bumbling director had wandered too close again, they waited out the grating alarm and refocused on their tasks.
Familiarity with glitches breeds oversight of the real thing.
Those frequent alarms from the long-overdue-to-fix B4 sensor.
They failed to draw any researcher's notice, even as everyone in the director's office lay knocked out from an assault.
The researchers simply did their jobs, eager for the noise to end.
Even now, as Yong-un strode through the wide-open B4 door.
Roar.
Flames surged in the B3 lab.
The sudden scorching heat yanked every researcher's focus.
At the center stood a red-haired man, utterly unfazed.
Ignito, hands jammed in his pockets, advanced as the dying flames parted like a path.
A stranger's intrusion, yet not one researcher called security or summoned hunter staff.
"Long time no see~"
Because Ignito was one of the precious few cleared for sub-level 3 access.
Exchanging greetings with researchers as he went, Ignito reached the corridor's end, flanked by dozens of labs stretching left and right.
Above the sealed door: [Leader]
Planting himself before the director's office, Ignito spun on his heel and bellowed down the long hall.
"Research over! Everyone out!"
His mana-laced shout drowned out the lingering alarm.
Researchers, ears covered, cracked their doors with baffled looks, one after another.
Gazes converged once more.
"What the hell were you doing? You might not have noticed, but..."
Ignito tsked, seized the director's door handle, and yanked it wide.
Exposing the sprawl of unconscious hunter staff to every eye.
Mouths gaped behind hands at the unforeseen scene.
One word burned in their minds.
'Assault.'
An incident never once occurred since they'd joined, beyond imagination.
Even in a world rife with superhuman hunters turning powers to crime, assaulting GHO Headquarters—the nexus of all authority—seemed unthinkable.
Yet here it unfolded before them.
"As you can see, research is done. Director's precious little geniuses? Scram."
Ignito swirled one arm to his chest in gentlemanly fashion and bowed like some British lord.
At his gesture, researchers clutched racing hearts and bolted out one by one.
Ignito smirked at their frantic exodus, then pivoted back to the office.
Nearly forty fainted hunters.
Elite guards, their mana far from feeble.
"Whew~"
Subduing forty hunters soundlessly, unnoticed by any researcher—even a civilian couldn't pull that off.
Ignito offered silent applause to the audacious intruder.
Clap clap clap.
"Got me wondering. Could even that hotshot Light of guy manage this?"
Playful and impatient as ever, Ignito settled on an answer quick.
"Eh, I'll ask later."
The intruder's prowess didn't faze him one bit.
Amused, even—Ignito eyed the open stairs to B4, lips curling slyly.
"Alright, time to see that face."
Down the dim stairwell.
His blazing red hair lit it like a beacon.
Like a walking torch, Ignito descended step by step into the 'No Entry Zone' of B4.
Rumble.
The sole access to sub-level 3.
Researchers poured from the door at the base of the stairs to level 2.
"What's this?"
Hunter staff, minding the emptied lobby past hours, approached the hundred-plus evacuees.
From level 3, Tusin watched, frowning as he leaned against a pillar.
"You really kicked the hornet's nest."
A spectacle new even to Tusin.
The round-the-clock lab grinding to a halt. He shook his head.
Stepped out on a hunch.
And there it was—his worst-case playing out.
'Figures. Even Yong-un can't solo-infiltrate without tripping the lab's defenses.'
GHO prized the labs above all.
Hence the heavy deployment of elite hunters.
Slip past while neutralizing a swarm of mana-attuned elites?
Impossible, even for the Yong-un Tusin rated so highly.
"Sigh. Gotta sneak in clean, no suspicions."
Eyes confirming the hunch, Tusin scanned the quiet surroundings and turned to head back.
One step in.
"That..."
A researcher's voice snagged his heel.
"Ignito warned us sub-3 got hit, so we all bailed."
"What!? Intruders in sub-3? Wait—no, Ignito's here?"
Tusin's head-shake halted, eyes bulging from his 'knew it' smirk.
Snap gaze to the level 1 lobby.
"Yeah, Ignito tipped us off. We'd be clueless otherwise."
Ignito? What the—
Tusin's body locked; his mind raced double-time.
「Didn't summon Ignito.」
VIP room chat with Charlie, vice-director, resurfaced.
'No way...'
Charlie swore no call.
If not him, then who...
Tusin scowled fiercely, biting his lip.
"Lies."
Only three in GHO could summon Ignito on a whim.
Supreme Director.
Number-two vice-director.
GHO Crisis Management Committee Chair.
Any summons needed ironclad bait for Ignito's ear.
'Ignito showing means...'
Every word from Charlie in VIP was gospel truth.
A new Royal Class.
Bait too juicy to ignore.
"Damn..."
Puzzle snapping together, comprehension ignited deep worry—anxiety erupting like inferno, torching his thoughts.
Save one.
'Yong-un!'
Concern for the intruder consumed him.
Worse than a GHO red alert.
Grimmer than Tusin's nightmares.
'Stepped in deep shit... fuck.'
Tusin reversed course at a sprint, brain into overdrive—a month's gears in a day.
To aid Yong-un.
To claw free of this clusterfuck.
"I really hate this place."
No Entry Zone.
Sub-level 4 hit Ignito with acrid dust from years of neglect, wrinkling his nose.
Uncleaned, unmanaged.
Yet GHO barred it utterly for cause.
'This is GHO's shadowy vault—all its dark deeds since inception.'
Sub-4 mirrored sub-3: endless corridor, labs lining both sides.
Dust-caked defunct gear mingled with library-worthy bookshelves.
Thousands, tens of thousands of files and tomes crammed in.
GHO's pitch-black history, post-founding.
Not one could leak.
Dark tech unknown to the world.
Ignito swept eyes over the stacks and paced the hall.
Arms flung wide.
Roar! Burst!
Monstrous flames bloomed from him, blanketing all of sub-4.
Mana vast beyond one man.
It birthed his will: an impenetrable fire wall, sealing in and out.
"Damn impressive. Like hanging with Uncle Spero."
Impressive, sure—but familiar faces would've raised brows.
Ignito's style shunned mana waste like this spray-and-pray.
Precision strikes: crush, incinerate. Royal Class efficiency.
But this antithesis had purpose.
Precisely.
"Not a whiff."
No trace of the intruder's presence or aura. Nada.
The Royal Class he'd name-dropped.
That Light of guy.
Like Spero.
"Hey, I know you're there."
Ignito halted mid-corridor.
Fingered floor ash, smirking.
"That blaze you sparked? My clone."
His voice boomed the void.
No comeback, intruder-style.
"Quit screwing around, show. Can't bolt anyway—this spot twists space-jump skills all weird."
Prime intel dropped. Zilch response. Ignito dug pinky in ear.
Sudden flame-shift: gone from spot, reborn in left-end lab.
Crimson inferno spat him out; he compressed, flung flames wide.
Roar.
Scorching menace ignited everywhere his hands gestured.
But he tsked regret, flexing empty fists.
"Slipped? Meh."
Shrug, grin thickening.
"Told ya. No escape. How? Grazing my flames means..."
Roar.
Vanished anew—erupted from adjacent lab's core blaze.
Fresh inferno everywhere.
"I pop up."
Empty strike again.
Two misses, smile only deepened.
Arms splayed grandly.
"Fun game of hide-and-seek. I'm the seeker."
Grin.
"Choices? Cohabitate here eternally... or..."
Roar.
"Bare your hideout, smash the wall, charge straight."
Royal Class.
World's six transcendent lights, beyond hunter bounds.
Their might unveiled in GHO's sub-level 4.