Chapter 91. Iro (1)
Swallowed by Eun-Ho, the liquid from the flask slid down like warm milk. Occasionally, soft granules were squished between his teeth, but it didn’t choke him.
“You son of a bitch!” the shaggy-haired man cried, clawing at hair that had gone nearly white.
“What now? It’s all gone,” he asked, then forced down the last of the gritty residue.
Very quickly, his stomach lurched.
Fwooosh—!
[You have consumed the genius researcher’s awakening agent!]
[Your brain’s maximum potential has been unlocked!]
[Duration: 1 hour.]
“Perfect! Brain potential...” Eun-Ho said under his breath.
There had always been that old myth about people only using ten percent of their brains. He’d always figured it was nonsense.
Is there actually any basis to that?
[Your unparalleled potential will push human limits!]
[All of your stats have increased tenfold!]
[Your Stamina has rapidly increased!]
[You have acquired reflexes beyond comparison!]
[Exceptional dynamic visual acuity allows you to read enemy movement!]
[Your skin has toughened!]
[Your Defense has increased tenfold!]
...
Man... this is amazing.
Messages poured in so fast that they were hard to take in and absorb. Normally, he’d postponed reading them later, but now he could read everything easily.
Perhaps the dynamic acuity helped him process them. Whoever had designed this stuff had done a good job.
There are a total of eleven effects. My physical abilities have increased dramatically.
“This stuff is great,” he said. “Do you have another?”
“What?! How dare you! You’re just a mere test subject!” the enraged researcher snapped.
Eun-Ho’s thoughts were clear as a sky after a storm. He felt a thrill unlike anything he had known before.
“Shit!” Iro yelled and lunged in fury.
Eun-Ho wondered what was the point now that the awakening agent was gone. Still, he decided to humor the attack for a moment.
Wait, did I use Acceleration just now? Eun-Ho wondered.
Iro charged a ridiculous sluggishness, like a bus slowing as it approached a stop.
Swoosh—!
Quick as that, Eun-Ho stepped aside to the left, then a step back. While Iro pitched forward in that sliver of time, Eun-Ho spun behind him and faced his back. Even without his Acceleration skill, the relative time between them was noticeably different.
Wham!
Then, he kicked the man squarely in the back.
Thud!
Iro toppled awkwardly to the floor and mumbled, his face shoved into the wall. He opened and closed his lips, a tiny motion Eun-Ho had already anticipated. He’d read the words the man hadn’t yet managed to form.
“Are you asking if the drug has already kicked in?” Eun-Ho asked, a laugh escaping him without meaning to. “It feels incredible, like being born again.”
Iro’s face had drained to a pale, ashen white, just like his hair. The same arrogant face that once watched them like lab rats from above, calculating and planning, now seemed small and vulnerable.
“I’m going in,” Eun-Ho said.
“Waaaaait—” Iro spat, but before he could finish, Eun-Ho threw a punch.
He launched a bare fist, carrying nothing but his will.
Swish—!
The punch cut through the air.
Boom—!
Not even a tenth of a second later, Iro crashed into the rear wall. As he tried to curl up in defense, the concrete crumbled like a sandcastle.
“That didn’t even hurt.” Eun-Ho blurted a laugh. “Hah.”
The sheer absurdity of his own strength brought a hollow chuckle. Iro scrambled away on all fours, dragging himself out of the debris.
“G-get a hold of yourself, Eun-Ho!” Iro shouted. “You’re just a subject! You haven’t even joined the company yet! If you dare lay hands on a full employee, you’re done for!”
“What?” Eun-Ho asked flatly. “A full employee?”
He hadn’t expected to hear that word in a place like this.
“I-I didn’t do anything wrong!” Iro insisted.
“Really?” Eun-Ho replied.
“I only worked hard, that’s all!”
“You know... This whole restructuring process...” Eun-Ho said quietly.
Crack!
Then, Eun-Ho yanked the man’s long white hair, jerking his head back. Strands tore at the scalp as Iro was dragged to his feet.
“It isn’t just the guilty who suffer, you know,” Eun-Ho said.
Iro’s eyes bulged, fear flooding into them, while his limbs shook uncontrollably.
“You should know that better than anyone, shouldn’t you?” Eun-Ho asked.
Thud!
Eun-Ho twisted Iro and drove his fist into the man’s abdomen.
“Urgh!” Iro choked, his torso folding as he collapsed.
Just then, a piercing alarm screamed through Eun-Ho’s skull, stabbing into his head like a blade.
Beeep!
[Caution!]
[Researcher Iro’s defense system has been activated!]
[Brace for impact!]
A jolt shot up from his fist where it connected with Iro.
[Electric Surge has been activated!]
Fwoooosh—!
A blinding surge of light flooded his vision. For an ordinary person, that instant bombardment would’ve fried them alive. Thankfully, Eun-Ho Stamina remained intact.
“Urgh,” Eun-Ho gritted out.
[Your tenfold Defense has absorbed all shock damage!]
[Your status effect, Stun, has been converted to Dizziness!]
Iro tore his fist free, steadying himself and shaking his head to clear the haze.
“N-next time!” Iro shouted as he slipped away. “I’m coming back for you!”
The man bolted in a panic, running for his life.
However, the hunt was only beginning. The rat-chase had started.
“Acceleration,” Eun-Ho muttered.
***
Oh shit! Iro went pale.
Electric Surge had been a suit of armor he’d painstakingly built to protect himself. The web of new technologies enveloped him with meticulous care, preventing tech leakage. It was also powerful enough to stop even most combat teams from headquarters.
Even the Center Director had assured him personally, saying, “This should be safe enough.”
“Ugh.” Iro thought about Eun-Ho’s reaction, incredulous.
Just how powerful was that awakening agent? How could a mere test subject shrug it off so casually, enduring the overload and all?
How much was it amplified? Five times? Six?
He stared at Eun-Ho. Even though he’d expected the subject to have potential, the situation was much worse than he’d imagined.
[27F - Trap has been activated!]
[Toxic gas dispersal has been completed!]
...
[Target elimination - fail.]
The poison he unleashed could make even Giant Insects vomit blood within ten seconds.
[6F - Trap has been activated!]
[Hungry Lizard King has been deployed!]
...
[Target elimination - fail.]
Even headquarters staff would normally form teams to handle the hordes of monsters he sent.
[19F - Trap has been activated!]
[Extreme Cold Room has been opened!]
He even opened the freezing chamber that chilled organs on the inhale and shattered them on the exhale. It was a deathtrap that would reduce anyone’s insides into a mess.
[Target elimination - fail.]
Yet, even those had failed to get rid of Eun-Ho. Eun-Ho fought on with the survivability of a cockroach. To make matters worse, Eun-Ho kept chasing after him.
How does he keep tracking me?! Iro thought.
Iro’d equipped the spire with a portable elevator system that allowed him instant travel to any floor within the tower. Yet, despite running on foot, Eun-Ho always chose the exact floors Iro happened to be on. His precision was unnerving, like some relentless ghost.
As panic edged into fear, the faint, keening sound of those ghostly footsteps seemed to echo around him.
Tap!
Iro felt his head swim.
“Activate trap on the tenth floor!” he shouted desperately, but the system answered coldly.
[Error!]
[No trap has been prepared.]
[Would you like to enter new settings?]
The traps died as neatly as his frayed composure.
“Damn it!” Iro roared, enraged.
At the same time, he realized he had brought this on himself. The Sky Island spire wasn’t designed for outside infiltration. In trying to outrun Eun-Ho, he had overused traps on every floor, leaving him with nothing.
If he catches me, it’s over. I’ll definitely lose if I face him one-on-one, but calling reinforcements will take too long. What did I bring with me... Anything useful here?
He thought and circled his options.
The experimental reagents have too severe side effects...
His forehead burned as if his frontal lobe were on fire from the furious calculations. At last, he landed on one final plan.
“Yes. That’ll do,” he muttered.
He flipped through the interface.
[Select the floor to move to.]
“Floor ten,” he said.
He was going to return to the lab, the place where Eun-Ho had taken the potion from him.
***
Tick!
Eun-Ho dodged the freezing gust plunging from the ceiling. Immediately, he heard where Iro was heading to.
[Your target’s location has been detected!]
[Tracking target: Iro]
Iro was heading to the tenth floor, where Eun-Ho had first met him.
So he intends to finish this where it started, Eun-Ho thought.
Crack!
He strode forward, gripping the blood-smeared Flame Sky-Shattering Blade. The sight of the man, who had been running like a rat, now cowering without moving was oddly unfamiliar. The tenth floor greeted him with a heavy silence.
“Hup!”
Only the muffled breathing of the rat hiding in the back broke the stillness.
Ten seconds left, Eun-Ho thought.
The Acceleration skill would be usable in ten seconds. Eun-Ho swung his blade instead.
Wham!
The blade’s innate power met the awakened strength inside him and exploded outward.
Wow!
Muscles rolled and organs and veins throbbed, swelling with a pressure that felt like molten force welling up.
Kaboom!
The wall shattered.
Swoosh! Kaboom!
Then, the next wall went with it. The shaggy-headed man peered out from behind the ruined wall, hunched like a frightened rat.
“He came fast,” Iro muttered, frantically tapping at a screen filled with numbers.
“Found you,” Eun-Ho said.
“W-wait!” the man begged, fingers moving hastily over the panel.
Swoosh—!
Before Iro could finish his panicked fumbling, Eun-Ho cut off his hand. It took less than a second.
Plop!
Iro’s right hand hit the floor and rolled away, and whatever unfamiliar object he’d been clinging to fell with it.
A syringe?
Eun-Ho grabbed the man’s white nape and demanded, “What is this?”
“Gah! Nothing!” Iro wheezed.
His face twisted in pain. Like a desperate animal, he clawed at Eun-Ho’s hand with his remaining hand.
Tightening his grip on the man’ throat, Eun-Ho reached for the syringe lying in the dust. However, a grotesque sound made him freeze. It wasn’t the wheeze of a dying Iro, but a howl from within the collapsed rubble.
“... Examiner?” Eun-Ho muttered.
“Gyaaaaah!”
It was a sound no rational, thinking being should make.
The Examiner in the debris began to writhe and convulse. His left arm, right leg, and neck were bent at the wrong angle. His spine was folded, all twitching at different speeds and in different directions.
“What the hell?” Eun-Ho whispered.
The Examiner whom everyone had dismissed as a kindly, incapable long-time manager began to bloat.
Crack!
Joints bent, snapped then inflated.
Crack!
Next, his limbs lengthened to Eun-Ho’s height, then twice his height, then long enough to touch the floor above, finally tearing through it.
Rattle! Rattle! Rattle!
Then, growths that shouldn’t have existed sprouted from the Examiner.
Arms? Eun-Ho thought.
Where hands should have been, saws, blades, horns, awls, whips, and other instruments of destruction appeared. Hundreds of arms grew in lengths, from one meter to dozens of meters, varying wildly in thickness.
“Heh! Now this is worth looking at!” Iro shouted.
The syringe Iro had carried, the uncanny transformation and the level of tech needed to brew such a potion—all the clues pointed to one conclusion.
Modification, Eun-Ho thought.
[Defeat the Multi-Attack Type Chimera!]
A fist the size of a man, bristling with spikes, launched itself toward Eun-Ho and Iro. Then, a hose similar to Iro’s syringe slithered up behind Eun-Ho. It coiled, its tip dripping an unknown black fluid. Eun-Ho instinctively felt that he had to avoid touching it.
I have to dodge! Eun-Ho thought.
Boom!
He avoided the attack, but shards from the Examiner’s smashed fist sprayed like embers, striking him.
“Ugh!”
[Severe injury sustained!]
[Due to awakening effects, your status effect Laceration has immediately resolved!]
Despite being slammed against stone and shredded, Eun-Ho’s bones held up, and only his skin had been scraped raw.
Seizing that moment, Iro leaped onto the chimera’s flank.
“Hey, you bastard! What did you do?!” Eun-Ho shouted.
“Just gave a little enhancement. He was useless before,” Iro said, almost nonchalant.
Enhancement?
Iro, who’d boasted he could strengthen someone with a capsule, now showed what his real ability could do.
“Chase him!” Iro ordered.
Eun-Ho ran, weaving past the Examiner’s snapping appendages and Iro’s assaults. Questions spun in Eun-Ho’s head.
Isn’t that guy an ally?
Swoosh—!
Blades, axes, and saws slammed in from all sides. A whip that had grown from the Examiner’s forearm lashed and struck Eun-Ho.
“I don’t befriend idiots,” Iro hissed.
Boom!
Then the next moment, a metal whip split the ground. The floor collapsed beneath them, and Eun-Ho fell with nothing to grab. As Eun-Ho looked up from the pit, he saw Iro looking down on him, smiling from ear to ear.
“But Eun-Ho, you’re an exception. You’re the only human I’ll acknowledge, so be my special companion,” Iro said, grinning radiantly. He spread his arms wide, just like when they’d first met. “Of course, you’ll be a brain in a jar most of the time, but doesn’t it help to have someone to talk to? So come!”
***
Three, two, one, Eun-Ho thought.
The moment the cooldown ended, he shouted, “Acceleration!”
Tick.
This is way too high even for the tenth floor. If I was going to awaken anyway, couldn't it have been something cool, like flying or reading minds?
Eun-Ho didn’t feel like he’d die from the fall, but life was too precious to gamble recklessly.
“Summon! Activate!” Eun-Ho ordered.
A steel door conjured from using the green card. He managed to summon a rope and hung onto it for a moment before falling.
Thud!
[High defense has absorbed all impact.]
His condition was ridiculous. The problem was the thing below.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
How am I supposed to catch that?
“Grrr—!”
The researcher’s ability seemed monstrous, even if his character was questionable. He’d turned his harmless-looking comrade into a one-man army, with one-thousand men worth of force.
Only five seconds remained on Eun-Ho current skill.
“Blade Wind!” Eun-Ho shouted.
He swung the sword as he ran. A crescent of wind lanced outward, effortlessly severing one of the chimera’s saw-toothed arms.
Tick.
Time snapped back to the moment he’d started from. In that exact moment, the torn flesh and red sinew surged, knitting and lengthening until a fresh, terrifying saw-tooth rose again.
What the! It just regrows?!
“Resistance is useless! Come to me, Eun-Ho!” Iro bellowed.
The field was horribly tilted. This wasn’t a one-on-one, but a one-against-a-thousand fight. Still, Eun-Ho had a plan.
It takes about a second to regrow.
If Eun-Ho could find a second or a quarter opening, he could split his time with Acceleration and land dozens of strikes. In his current state, he could probably manage thirty, maybe fifty hits. Perhaps even more with training passes and bonuses.
I can’t use the Counterattack skill, but if I don’t have teeth, I’ll bite with my gums!
He was ready to fight and win. He was ready to bring Iro down, or whoever that stood in his way. A dozen crazed arms, carrying mad shouts, lunged overhead.
“Just die already!” Iro screamed. “I will disassemble your organs one by one and display them!”
Whoosh! Clang! Click! Rattle!
Eun-Ho calculated the flight paths, timing, and impact of every attack.
To sever a head... I’ll have to sacrifice at least one of my arms.
Eun-Ho was short by a hair. Still, weighing what he could save and what he couldn’t, he leapt forward.
Then came the sharp cry, “Mold!”
A wall of mud sprang up. The ground rose like a fist, and the soil that should’ve been underfoot tickled his nose. The earth shield folded around him like a massive palm, bracing as it absorbed dozens of arms.
“Is it my turn to help?” asked someone breathlessly.
Eun-Ho remained silent, startled.
A figure had run up and stood slightly to the side of the mud wall, avoiding eye contact as she said, “Oppa.”
Eun-Ho said nothing. He only noticed the lavender hair that curled around her, along with the faint grass scent that brushed his nose.
“Seems right. It’s your turn,” he said with a half-smile.
His ambiguous reply made the grim savior grin, cat-like eyes folding like crescents at the corners.