Chapter 104 – The Assault (Part Four)

Having passed through the entrance without any resistance, the three trucks slowly moved forward.

The facility, a complex of four or five connected white buildings, was enclosed by barbed wire fences on all sides. They headed for a passage in the corner that led underground.

Song Jun-ho carefully surveyed the surroundings, even leaning his head slightly out the window.

Marcus, gripping the steering wheel beside him, grew anxious, wondering what they would do if caught. But Song Jun-ho paid him no mind, his gaze piercingly fixed on everything, even the empty ground.

‘I’d heard as much, but there are still a lot of them.’

Il-hyeon, too, was glancing outside, trying his best not to be conspicuous. His first priority was to assess the number of organization members.

The number of members on patrol alone was considerable, and when he factored in those visible on rooftops, in windows, and at entrances, the total grew even larger.

The peculiar thing, however, was that not many of them were Awakened.

He wasn’t sure if it was just the exterior, but at least among the members Il-hyeon could see, nearly half were non-Awakened, with no discernible flow of Ether.

Considering how they continuously threw their Awakened forces into one terrorist attack after another, and the importance of this facility, it was a baffling observation.

‘Ah… perhaps it’s because they don’t use the surgically created Awakened for guard duty.’

A thought crossed Il-hyeon’s mind.

Since this was where the Awakened procedure took place, witnessing it might have an unstable effect on their brainwashing. Or perhaps, being such a crucial facility, it was staffed only with completely trusted members.

They would surely be armed with anti-Awakened weapons, but whatever the reason, fewer Awakened meant they would be relatively easier to handle.

Meanwhile, the trucks passed through the corner entrance and descended underground, pulling into a space that looked like a moderately sized garage.

From the peeling paint near the walls and the thick cobwebs, it was clear the place wasn’t well-maintained or recently built.

“Hey, get out. Now.”

Five members waiting below hurried them along.

They were there to unload the cargo from the trucks. Everyone opened their doors and stepped out.

At that moment, Song Jun-ho and a woman named Cha Yeon-hee, disembarking from either side, swiftly drew silenced pistols from within their clothes.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Every member in the garage was hit squarely in the head and heart, dying instantly.

Marcus, startled by the swiftness of it all, belatedly flinched and ducked his head, but the situation was already over.

While remaining vigilant for any other approaching members, they began retrieving the equipment stashed under their seats.

The first thing they all did was find the white communicators and fit them into their ears, then fastened watches to their wrists.

Then, they slipped on Defensive Coats over their clothes.

Outwardly, they looked no different from ordinary Defensive Coats, but these were special models used by Raven, equipped with a function that offered some protection against EMP rounds designed for Awakened.

Since Defensive Coats were also made of Ether, they couldn’t withstand damage beyond a certain threshold, but they were far better than nothing against enemies armed to the teeth with anti-Awakened weapons.

Once they had all their gear, Il-hyeon, who picked up his sword last, reverted everyone’s transformed faces back to their original appearances.

But as he did, a scream suddenly pierced the air.

“Aaargh! My leg…!”

“Oops, sorry.”

Marcus was clutching one of his legs as blood gushed from it.

While restoring his team members’ faces, Il-hyeon had accidentally reverted the healing on Marcus’s wound as well.

As a result, the wound from being pierced by a metal skewer during his interrogation suddenly reopened, and a wave of pain washed over Marcus.

Realizing his mistake, Il-hyeon apologized and quickly healed the wound again.

Il-hyeon extended an arm, and the wound on Marcus’s leg healed completely. He then gagged Marcus with tape and bound him tightly with rope, immobilizing him.

They couldn’t bring him along on the mission, and it would be safer for him to appear as if he’d been captured by them rather than being carelessly hidden somewhere.

Then, to ensure he couldn’t leak any information, Il-hyeon struck him on the neck, knocking him unconscious.

While Il-hyeon dealt with that, Song Jun-ho took out a tablet and connected a brainwave detection sensor to his own forehead.

His C-Rank ability, [Clairvoyance], allowed him to see through even the thickest walls. The facility’s layout, now clear in his mind, began to reconstruct itself on the connected tablet.

Before long, a 3D map of the facility’s structure was transmitted to the watches they had all just put on.

Il-hyeon, too, carefully examined the map transmitted to his watch.

The buildings on the surface were already sizable, but an incomparably vast facility lay hidden underground.

After removing the sensor, Song Jun-ho operated the tablet, and four targets appeared on the map.

These were the locations of their primary targets.

Among them, Il-hyeon’s objective was to secure the procedure site and its machinery.

They had to secure them before the enemy could destroy them, in order to figure out how the Awakened procedure worked.

But before that, they had something else to do first.

“Just as we thought, there’s a security room below. It’s on the third basement level, as marked on the map. To avoid being spotted by the surveillance cameras everywhere, we need to take care of it first.”

Song Jun-ho said.

As Marcus had told them, the garage was free of surveillance cameras, but the rest of the facility, especially the underground levels, was blanketed with them.

The entire facility was monitored from a central security room on the third basement level, where members watched the screens in shifts.

The cameras were so densely packed that moving stealthily without neutralizing that room was impossible.

The moment a single member watching the monitors spotted them, an alarm would sound, and everyone would know about the intruders in an instant.

Just then, a member suddenly threw open a door from deeper inside and walked in.

“Hey, are you guys still— Wha- what is this!”

“Whoops!”

The moment the man realized what was happening and opened his mouth to shout a warning, Cha Yeon-hee whipped her arm around and pulled the trigger.

The member collapsed backward with three bullets in his forehead, not even managing to make a sound.

“We don’t have much time.”

“I just need the exact location.”

Jeong Jin-seong said, carefully studying the holographic map that emerged from his watch.

He knelt on one knee and placed his palm flat on the floor.

Then, slowly closing his eyes, he focused his power and projected his ability to the distant location.

“No more problems now.”

Jeong Jin-seong said, his eyes fluttering open.

It meant, quite literally, that they no longer had to worry about the surveillance cameras.

He had used his ability to freeze the space of the security room deep below.

“Given the distance, I can’t maintain the spatial freeze for long. You’ll have to hurry.”

“Understood.”

Using his freezing ability on specific targets like people or objects was far less taxing, but stopping an entire space within a certain range was physically draining.

Before departing to secure his objective, Il-hyeon summoned a familiar to protect Jeong Jin-seong, who would be immobile while using his ability.

They had anticipated this situation, and leaving a familiar to protect him was part of the plan.

But as the fluorescent lights flickered and dimmed, the surrounding light coalesced, and the familiar that appeared left Jeong Jin-seong and the other two team members wide-eyed in astonishment.

“You can summon people now, too?”

Appearing within the brilliant light was a blonde woman holding a spear—a Valkyrie.

The Valkyrie, who had two forms, had taken her tall, adult shape, ready for battle at a moment’s notice. To Jeong Jin-seong and the others, she looked completely human, not like a familiar at all.

She was a rather draining familiar to summon, but considering Jeong Jin-seong couldn’t move an inch from this spot, it was a necessary precaution for his peace of mind.

“You know what to do, right?”

“You may entrust him to me.”

Il-hyeon asked lightly, and the Valkyrie replied with a solemn air.

Unlike before, when he had to choose between linguistic ability or combat prowess for her two forms—child and adult—he could now summon her in her adult form with the ability to speak.

“Hmm… We’ll have to talk about this later. Good luck.”

“Let’s get moving.”

With their concerns for Jeong Jin-seong allayed, the other three Awakened moved out as quickly as possible.

They stepped over the corpse of the man shot by Cha Yeon-hee, his blood pooling on the floor, and moved through the door into the hallway. Free from the worry of surveillance cameras, they headed for the elevator.

Along the way, they encountered more members in the corridor, including two Awakened. The non-Awakened were gunned down before they could react, slumping against the walls and leaving trails of blood. The two Awakened were dealt with just as swiftly, their necks snapping as they rounded a corner.

They also made sure to destroy every surveillance camera they passed.

Each time Il-hyeon extended an arm and clenched his fist, a camera would crumple like a tin can and drop to the floor.

Crack!

The head of a member subdued by Song Jun-ho slammed hard against the wall, caving in.

Moving swiftly without breaking their pace, they finally paused before an elevator.

Everything had been relatively smooth so far, but the real challenge began below.

Even Marcus, their informant, hadn’t been deep inside, so they would have to proceed without detailed intelligence.

Fortunately, with Song Jun-ho’s clairvoyance, they wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost.

Screeech!

Song Jun-ho forced open the heavy elevator doors. He leaped into the shaft and clung to the wall, precisely at the level of the third basement floor.

Cha Yeon-hee, who was next to descend, seemed a little worried about Il-hyeon going alone. She hesitated for a moment, then spoke.

“Be careful. Don’t get hurt.”

“Thanks.”

Il-hyeon replied with a smile.