Chiiiiiik.

The capsule’s mouth lifted. Steam burst out with a hiss alongside the hydraulics, spreading thinly through the air.

An arm pierced through the white vapor. It grabbed the slowly rising lid and capsule separately. The metal crumpled like aluminum at the point of contact.

“Th-that’s superalloy…?”

Director Ryu muttered in shock.

Forcing it open produced ominous sounds from the rear locking mechanisms. Even that was superalloy that cost hundreds of millions per gram.

The Mental Accelerator injected an enormous amount of oxygen directly into the brain. Oxygen activated the brain cells and summoned tremendous focus. Since the core process involved high-concentration oxygen infusion, every single component was vital—and expensive.

The Mental Accelerator wasn’t meant for recycling, as per the agreement with Lee Taebaek. That had been the deal.

But the parts themselves were innocent. The plan was to preserve the originals for use elsewhere.

Lee Taebaek was personally crushing them. As if declaring no one but me could touch even a hair of the Mental Accelerator.

They didn’t even consider the possibility of the parts being damaged.

It was a material created by pooling Daesung’s scientific prowess. No matter how Ten-Wing class someone was, destruction should have been impossible.

Even that confidence was shattered by Lee Taebaek.

Click.

Finally, his head emerged, followed by his feet ripping free of the wires. Lee Taebaek stepped out of the capsule, steam draping him like velvet.

“Haa…”

Lee Taebaek tilted his head back slightly and exhaled hot breath. The monitors encircling the area began to shut down, like an old man’s teeth falling out.

The last two screens glowed with reptilian slit pupils. The vertical irises bored into Director Ryu before vanishing with a fuse-like pop.

Yu Dahui patted Director Ryu’s shoulder lightly as she passed. Director Ryu grimaced even in her astonishment. That bitch had been deliberately bumping and prodding her and being a fucking pain since earlier.

“How’s your condition?”

Yu Dahui approached and asked. She was a renowned doctor in the Resistance and one of the top physicians in the City as well.

“Good. Perfect, really.”

Lee Taebaek said, clenching and unclenching his fist.

“It’s an old-fashioned expression, but I get what they mean by ‘brimming with energy.’ And it’s not just physical strength… My whole body just feels different in every way.”

“Give me your hand for a sec.”

Lee Taebaek cocked his head but extended his hand. Yu Dahui examined his palm lines intently.

The next moment, numbers slid across her glasses lenses. They interpreted biometric signals in binary and relayed them to her.

Based on the data, it instantly derived his physical condition.

Yu Dahui’s hand slipped from Lee Taebaek’s wrist.

“Lee Taebaek, you…”

Her lower lip trembled faintly.

“What happened in there…? How can a person change this much? No, wait. You were already evaluated as having peerless potential… Does that mean… you’ve unlocked almost all of it now?”

“What’s going on?”

Kang Hyeonseong and the other team members asked Yu Dahui. She hesitated for a long moment before glancing at Director Ryu.

“That woman’s here. Can’t say.”

Yu Dahui was unintentionally(?) scratching at Director Ryu with every word and action. Director Ryu wasn’t one to miss the subtle tension.

“I…!”

The accumulating frustration finally erupted from her.

“I’m on Lord Taebaek’s side!”

Fumito sneered at Director Ryu’s shout.

“The City has no ‘your side’ or ‘my side.’ It’s just people moving together when interests align.”

“Th-that might apply to someone like you.”

“Oh? You know about me?”

“…Fumito Shohei… How could I not know the brother of the most infamous cult leader in the upper layers…”

“Woman.”

Fumito sliced her words like a blade. All expression vanished from his face.

“I thought educated ladies had manners… Didn’t they teach you at the Academy to watch your mouth around Resistance folks? You could die, you know?”

Fumito approached, his blade dangling loosely. The hem of his combat suit tapped his shins in time with his strides.

“Fumito, don’t kill her. We need to avoid all-out war with Daesung if possible!”

Kang Hyeonseong shouted at his back. Fumito replied without turning.

“Won’t kill her.”

His voice was cold enough to flay skin. Was this really the same Fumito who usually brimmed with playful, almost foolish energy?

“Just gonna slice off twenty fingers and toes—”

Someone cut off his trailing words.

“That won’t do.”

Executive Director Ryu leaned lazily against the doorframe, smoking a cigarette. He flicked the short butt away with his fingers.

“She’s my one and only daughter. If I die, she’ll inherit Daesung. Fingers and toes can be replaced with prosthetics, but if torture leaves her mentally crippled, there’s no fixing that.”

“You’re Executive Director Ryu.”

The silent Kang Hyeonseong stepped forward. Executive Director Ryu pulled Director Ryu’s shoulder back and advanced to meet him.

“You’re Kang Hyeonseong, right? I can tell just by your build. Quite reliable.”

“No one who starts with flattery doesn’t have an ulterior motive.”

“You’re Korean, so you know. You have to hear Koreans out to the end.”

“…What are you getting at…?”

Executive Director Ryu shrugged.

“Isn’t every one of those massive muscles built on human lives? That’s what I wanted to say.”

Kang Hyeonseong fell silent. Veins crossed like an X on his bronze temples, standing rigid.

“Of course. One-Man Thousand Kill Kang Hyeonseong, haha. After joining the Resistance in the City, you might’ve updated it to One-Man Three Thousand Kill by now.”

“…Old man. I can tell where your daughter picked up her speech patterns from.”

Kang Hyeonseong cracked his neck side to side.

“But hasn’t your deal with Lee Taebaek wrapped up? Taebaek handled ‘processing the disappearance’ of the madam at the Haragusa Festival, and you—the Executive Director of the planning and development division—gave him this Mental Accelerator. Seems settled.”

“Good eye.”

Executive Director Ryu’s eyes gleamed meaningfully.

“What are you trusting in, mister…?”

He backed two steps away from the door. Before Kang Hyeonseong could finish, a group surged in like a wave.

Their disciplined movements stunned the 9th Battalion members. They frantically counted heads.

A wall of people filled the edges of the vast cave and then some.

Click.

Executive Director Ryu raised his hand, and they stood at ease with hands behind their backs. Among them, a woman with a particularly conflicted expression hung her head. It was Team Leader Seong Hayun.

She led Executive Director Ryu’s dedicated Security Team 1. Obeying his orders was a given.

Moreover, Executive Director Ryu had swept up all of Daesung’s security teams and assembled them here. He had swiftly reorganized the group hierarchy and silenced internal dissent.

Before taking over the entire Daesung Group, he had filled key security positions with his own people. Those who grumbled about the biased appointments had died of heart attacks in the lowest district’s red-light area.

Now, the entire Security Team he had painstakingly commandeered was here. In Daesung’s intelligence office, where only a handful in the group even knew of its existence.

Lee Taebaek easily inferred the implication. Executive Director Ryu intended to see things through—to a Lake City-style conclusion.

“Lee Taebaek.”

Executive Director Ryu lit another cigarette. He never let one leave his hand for long.

“Father…!”

“Step back.”

Executive Director Ryu coldly glanced at his daughter.

“You allowed outsiders to infiltrate. This place, which could be considered Daesung’s core.”

“…I’m sorry… But Lord Taebaek is our ally…!”

“What have you been listening to? That Japanese guy said it: the City has no sides. From the moment Lee Taebaek filled this place with his own people, it’s as good as declaring war on Daesung.”

Lee Taebaek snorted at that.

“The City changes fast, but this is a lot even for here. So much so that I’d believe you were someone else in a full prosthetic body.”

“…”

Executive Director Ryu’s cheek twitched. Lee Taebaek drew his Para Blade and advanced.

“There needs to be just the right amount of dissonance.”

Pale frost spread across every surface his feet touched, rippling like waves on water.

“Eat too fast, and you get indigestion. Change too suddenly, and people get sick? But you, Executive Director Ryu—no such thing.”

“Wh-what do you mean.”

Director Ryu glanced between Lee Taebaek and her father. Lee Taebaek ignored her and continued.

“Sure, preparing to seize real power took time. Being quick fits a Korean. But the Executive Director Ryu I knew at least had a sense of loyalty. He took care of his people. That’s why I cooperated with you—because I felt it in your words. But ‘you’? You’ve scraped together the entire Security Team for this.”

“Lee Taebaek…”

He glared as if ready to devour him.

“Think a bunch charging at once can even scratch me? No. You want to test my performance while you’re at it.”

Lee Taebaek brought the mask to his face.

“You know numbers mean nothing against someone overwhelmingly stronger. So this is your chance to clean house in the Security Team.”

“What are you waiting for—get him!”

“And decisively.”

The mask tightened to fit his slender jaw. His modulated voice finished the thought.

“Executive Director Ryu smokes domestic cigarettes.”

As the impostor hurriedly checked his cigarette pack, Lee Taebaek stomped the ground.

The Security Team fumbled before aiming guns at Lee Taebaek. Hundreds of red dots bloomed across his body like measles. Heat rays sparsely formed a net around him.

Every gun in the Security Team locked onto Lee Taebaek. Even Team Leader Seong Hayun reluctantly placed her finger on the trigger.

They instinctively knew. In this space, the most dangerous being was Lee Taebaek. He had to be dealt with first.

Lee Taebaek extended his front foot to kill momentum, then raised it high and smashed the stone slab.

Tadadadadadadad!

Rumble—the chamber shook, monitors plummeting like stalactites. Screens shattered, spiderwebbing with bullet impact marks.

Bullets halted at the barrier. The Security Team swiftly reloaded and fired again, aiming to wear it down. But.

A pale, ashen wind howled between the monitors. As soon as their hair fluttered wildly, they were trapped in ice.

Team Leader Seong Hayun’s eyes shook within the ice. She had witnessed Lee Taebaek’s true power before. This was incomparable to then.

The cave became an igloo. Lee Taebaek crunched across the fresh snow, thrusting his blade.

“Guhk—!”

The ‘man’ whose chest was pierced let out a shrill scream. Lee Taebaek twisted the hilt.

“Want me to kill your son too?”

Cold deadlock.

Director Ryu’s bewildered expression crumbled.