“Just how strong am I right now?”
Hayashi Makoto had to admit, this was a topic worth researching.
He knew that the current him still could not directly confront a modern army head-on.
What he was curious about was whether he was now stronger than those superpowered modified humans from The Witch world.
…
Location: The Witch movie world, South Korea.
Time: A certain day in 2017.
“The year of this world is roughly the same as the main world. On the surface, the technology level also looks about the same.”
Makoto smiled.
“It’s just that the pharmacology and biotechnology are a little too mad-science.”
Inside a certain high-ranking official’s residence, the pungent smell of gunpowder after a bomb explosion still lingered in the air.
Mixed with it was the even thicker scent of blood.
Since this was his first time entering The Witch world, Makoto naturally had to help his other self take revenge.
The special forces and security personnel who had ambushed him had already become broken corpses scattered across the residence.
Makoto sat comfortably on a luxurious chair in the hall and crossed his legs.
He flipped through the documents in his hand.
After reading one, he tossed it aside.
He did not care in the slightest how confidential these files were.
Scattered across the floor were drawings of primitive people, reliefs of Mayan pyramids, murals from Egyptian pyramids, excerpts from Dante’s Divine Comedy, fragments from the Bible, and then various human-experiment records starting from the Nazi period of World War II.
These things seemed to describe humanity’s exploration of genetic editing and modification.
In 1980, a parent company called “Genetic Editing” was established.
It built seven subsidiary research institutes in seven locations across the world and began a thirty-seven-year exploration.
In 1997, the company carried out genetic editing on the brains of adults and produced the first batch of genetically modified humans.
As a result, many side effects appeared.
And the representative product of that batch was…
“Oh, Mr. Choi. You seem to be a first-generation modified human?”
Glancing at the scar-faced man under his foot, Makoto revealed a mocking smile.
“The military and our company have always had such a loving cooperative relationship.”
“As the general’s representative, you’ve always been so arrogant.”
“So why are you giving a full prostration to a little company nobody like me?”
“That won’t do, Mr. Choi.”
Mr. Choi’s arms trembled.
His expression twisted as he tried to get up.
But no matter how much strength he used, he was pinned firmly to the ground.
For a military representative like him, this was an extraordinary humiliation.
“Shi… shibal…”
Blood mixed with fragments of viscera spilled from his mouth.
His bloodshot eyes were filled with anger and disbelief.
Recently, the gap between the military general and Genetic Editing Company had grown deeper and deeper.
Although they had not openly fallen out yet, both sides were already competing in secret.
Starting from April this year, the company had dispatched Bat Team to eliminate several biology experts one after another.
Now, it had begun assassinating faction officials as well.
That general felt fear.
At last, he made up his mind.
That was why assassin Makoto’s failed assassination had turned into an ambush instead.
And that was also why the moment Makoto entered this world, he “had no choice” but to kill all of them.
“You…”
Mr. Choi could accept defeat and death.
“How are you… this strong?”
The company’s Bat Team was nothing but a group of defective modified humans.
How could one of them injure him to the brink of death with a single look?
He did not understand.
Nor could he accept it.
Makoto ignored him and continued reading the files.
“In 1999, Mother Zero gave birth to Individual One.”
“The company used Individual One’s genes to replicate a batch of modified humans.”
“This batch of genetically modified humans all shared the same trait: violent and bloodthirsty.”
“But they also had a flaw.”
“They needed regular medication to suppress brain overclocking.”
“Mother Zero…”
That mother body had only appeared at the beginning of the second movie.
Makoto only knew that she was the biological mother of the two generations of witches.
She was being kept asleep somewhere.
But as for exactly where, he did not know.
The movie had not explained it either.
As for Individual One…
He was very certain that it was the protagonist of The Witch.
The first-generation witch, Gu Ja-yoon.
She was also the punching bag he had come to find this time.
If he wanted to confirm his own strength, he naturally had to find an expert for a “friendly spar.”
Although that cunning woman probably had no interest in sparring with him.
However, as the saying went…
Since I’m already here!
“In 2007, on Individual One’s eighth birthday, Dr. Baek received orders from headquarters and launched a purge of the modified children.”
“Other than a few survivors, all of them died.”
“During the chaos, Individual One escaped the laboratory.”
“Her whereabouts remain unknown to this day.”
“Ten years later, 2017, October 7th, at the audition finals of Birth of a Star, an eighteen-year-old girl named Gu Ja-yoon from the South Chungcheong regional competition advanced into the top sixteen with her singing and magic performance…”
“The microphone levitation magic she performed onstage is suspected to be telekinesis.”
“Based on a comprehensive investigation, the preliminary judgment is—”
“The probability that Gu Ja-yoon and Individual One are the same person is as high as ninety-eight percent…”
“Headquarters wants to recover the ‘property’ they lost ten years ago.”
“And you military people have also set your eyes on her.”
Makoto sighed.
“Poor Miss Gu Ja-yoon. She finally spent ten stable years in an ordinary family, yet now she has to be dragged back into brutal killing and conflict.”
Makoto rolled the documents in his hand into a tube and struck Mr. Choi hard on the head with it.
“You idiots. You stinking soldiers!”
“It’s already 2017!”
“How can there still be such an idiotic plot like ‘living in seclusion for ten years, then accidentally exposing her whereabouts’?”
“Do you really think she’s that stupid?”
“Use your pig brain and think properly!”
Mr. Choi could no longer think properly.
Because he was already dead.
Makoto had stepped on him to death.
Makoto moved away the foot that had crushed him and said apologetically, “Oops. Didn’t notice…”
His purpose in coming to this world was very simple.
First, a friendly spar, to confirm his current combat power.
Second, academic exchange, to see which pieces of this world’s crude black technology could be useful to him.
Third, after spending too long in a gentle land, he wanted to vent his desire for slaughter and sadism.
The main world was where Makoto intended to settle.
Most of the time, he unconsciously maintained restraint there.
Only in a movie world like this, where he would not live for long, could he completely release all psychological restraints.
He could do whatever he wanted.
He could pour out the dark desires accumulated in his heart without concern.
Going to find Gu Ja-yoon right now would be useless.
That woman was currently pretending to be an ordinary girl with amnesia in order to lure out the company and Dr. Baek.
After she deliberately let Dr. Baek capture her, then tore away her disguise, he could go find her for a spar.
Before that…
“Since things have come to this, I’ll go chat with that general first.”
Makoto was not a battle maniac.
Nor was he an ascetic monk.
Unless it was a special situation like the Sengoku era of the Demon Slayer world, no matter which world he went to, he would never mistreat himself.
Food, clothing, housing, and daily luxuries all had to be the best.
Underlings and women were also necessary.
Enjoyment!
And it had to be the best!
He planned to throw a grand party.
There had to be petite Japanese girls.
There had to be voluptuous Western beauties.
There also had to be a local girl group with regional flavor.
…
Night.
In October, Seoul had already entered the dry season.
There was little rainfall, and the autumn air was dry and cool.
In a manor somewhere outside the city, the noisy and passionate girl-group performance had already ended.
A talented musician from an ancient nation sat with long hair flowing like a waterfall.
Her slender fingers pressed the strings with one hand and plucked with the other.
Threads of heavenly sound that stirred the soul flowed from her pale fingers.
The beautiful woman playing the instrument wore a sheer, one-piece silk outfit that was thin as a cicada’s wing and nearly transparent.
Playing music was clearly an elegant matter.
Yet dressed so lewdly, her performance of Guangling Melody gained a trace of resentment.
What should have been played in the jue mode suddenly rose high and turned into the gong mode instead.
Not far away, Makoto’s eyes lit up.
Keeping time with that tragic and heroic melody, the rhythm of his thrusting hips became increasingly rapid.
On the long table in front of him lay a short-haired girl from the earlier girl-group dance.
She had been the one who smiled the sweetest and danced the most energetically.
Now, she was still extremely energetic; her body convulsed as she screamed at the top of her lungs.
…
…
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