Zevran stared at the smoldering wreckage, the last flicker of his composure snapping completely.
He snapped his pistol up.
Keran raised his power armor arm slightly.
An energy bolt hit him square in the right forearm, nearly severing it clean off, hanging on by only a thin strip of skin and muscle.
Blood and torn flesh sprayed in all directions.
Zevran stared blankly at his ruined arm, stunned and disoriented.
Keran fired again, shattering his leg.
He crumpled to the ground hard.
Keran took his time, double-checking his remaining energy, then methodically broke every other limb Zevran had left.
Zevran lay there helpless, his eyes blazing with poisonous hatred, boring straight into Keran.
“KERAN!!” The howl was ragged and guttural, like a dying beast.
“Too loud,” Keran said, stepping forward and kicking his jaw clean off.
“You know why I saved you for last? Some debts you settle personally.”
Zevran could not speak.
All that came out of his broken jaw was gurgling, whimpering noise.
He twisted weakly on the ground like a broken puppet, blood pouring from the stumps of his limbs.
Just then, the tactical terminal lying on the ground flickered to life.
The Leader’s hologram appeared, his tone flat.
“That is enough, Keran.”
Keran frowned.
He said nothing.
“I am the leader of Undercurrent.” The voice carried the unshakable weight of absolute authority.
“Desertion is a death sentence. You cannot outrun the organization. No matter how far you run, we will find you and bring you to justice. Every second you stay alive will be spent looking over your shoulder. But I can offer you a way out.”
Keran’s face was blank.
“What way out?”
“Come back. Surrender. Accept your judgment. And I will give you a position higher than Zevran’s.” There was unmistakeable curiosity in his voice.
He wanted to understand what made this Otherworld Lifeform tick.
If he could replicate it, Undercurrent would gain an entire army of soldiers just like him.
Zevran’s eyes bulged with unbridled fury at those words.
Why should Keran get a better position than him?
He had served the organization for years.
And this fugitive, who had killed countless of their men, was being rewarded?
Keran saw the look on Zevran’s face.
He asked with a dry smirk, “I killed this many of your people. And you still want to recruit me?”
“A few disposable assets. Their lives mean nothing,” the Leader answered bluntly, like the bodies scattered across the ground did not even exist.
Zevran shuddered.
The last flicker of hope died in his chest.
“What makes you think I would ever work for you?”
The Leader spoke like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Undercurrent is the future of this world. We are building something great. Serving us is only natural. What is there to hesitate about? Oh, I see. You think you were treated unfairly? Do not be petty. Great men overlook small slights. A little humiliation is nothing compared to what we will achieve.”
Keran spoke evenly.
“I do not care about your grand cause. You killed people who showed me kindness. From that moment on, we were enemies. There is nothing to talk about.”
The Leader’s voice turned icy.
“If you refuse me, there will be nowhere in this world you can hide.”
“You will regret every word you just said.”
Keran meant it.
Undercurrent could not be reasoned with.
They felt no guilt.
The only way to answer violence was with greater violence.
The Leader let out a cold, mocking laugh, as he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
“Destroy Undercurrent? You? What do you think you are? Next to the organization, you are an ant I could crush under my boot. Killing a few low-level Operatives has gone to your head. You think one man can stand against an entire organization? You are delusional. You have no idea what you are up against.”
“We will see,” Keran shook his head.
“And for the record? Your world is too small.”
He picked up a pistol from the ground and fired three times into Zevran’s chest, every bullet punching straight through his heart.
Zevran’s eyes went dull and lifeless.
Wiped out.
The Leader’s expression was hidden behind his mask, but even through the hologram, the suppressed rage was almost palpable.
“You will regret this,” he spat coldly and cut the connection.
[You have killed Zevran, Senior Inspector of Undercurrent. Gained 2000 experience points]
[Blood Debt mission complete. Gained 20,000 experience points]
….
Keran glanced down at his power armor arm.
A faint overload warning beeped from inside the energy emitter, then went silent.
The fight had drained almost all of its energy reserves.
The outer plating was covered in scorch marks and dents.
The power arm had done its job.
For now, at least.
The EMR-7 electromagnetic sniper rifle he had taken from the Black Hound Squad could only be used by the Black Hound captain.
Keran had already stripped it for parts and integrated them into the power armor arm.
He knelt, checking what little energy he had left, and stuffed every usable part from the wreckage into his backpack.
The experience from destroying the bio-weapon and wiping out the squad was far more than he had expected.
Including the mission reward, it came out to just over thirty thousand points.
Now that he had burned every bridge with Undercurrent, he could not just keep running.
He had to find a way to hit them where it hurt.
Taking on Undercurrent by himself was impossible.
But he had a head full of knowledge and information they did not have.
That was his real weapon.
To use that information, he needed allies.
Someone powerful enough to stand toe to toe with Undercurrent.
That left only six nearby city-states.
Dawn, Ember, Ironvein, Mistveil, Tirius, Ophion.
Dawn was the closest to his current position.
Compared to Mistveil’s ruthless brutality, Ironvein’s bureaucratic stagnation, Tirius’s cutthroat greed, Ember’s short-sighted ambition, and Ophion’s shadowy intrigue, Dawn had the most reasonable internal culture.
And they had a long-standing blood feud with Undercurrent.
From every angle, Dawn was the best choice right now.
…
It was dawn by the time Undercurrent’s aircraft finally arrived.
The Leader and his cleanup crew stood over the site of the squad’s total annihilation.
The Leader’s gaze fell on Zevran’s twisted corpse.
He was silent for a long time.
A soft sigh came from behind his mask.
It did not sound angry.
It sounded almost regretful.
“A waste,” he said quietly.
“All those years of training. Gone just like that.”
The researchers moved the bodies of the squad into a pile.
“They are all dead, sir.”
The Leader stood with his hands behind his back, staring out at the distant valley.
He was silent for a long moment.
“Issue a bounty on Keran across the darknet. On behalf of the organization. Dead or alive. One million energy credits.”
Everyone stared in shock.
Undercurrent was a giant of the underworld.
They had not issued a bounty this high in three years.
Was it really worth it for one escaped test subject?
“You seem to be overestimating him, sir. Keran is just running for his life. What real damage can he do to the organization?”
“Hmph. If he is bold enough to declare war on us, he needs to learn exactly how small he is. I want that ridiculous resolve of his crushed completely.” The Leader’s voice was cold.
He paused.
“If Keran is captured alive, I do not care how you do it. Interrogate him. Experiment on him. Find out what makes him so strong. If he dies, bring the body back for dissection.”
The researcher nodded at Zevran’s corpse.
“What about him, sir?”
“What is the status of the mutagen project?”
“Basic theory is complete. Next phase is cell and animal testing. We estimate human trials without side effects in eight months.”
The Leader cut him off.
“Skip cell and animal testing. Move straight to human trials.”
“That is extremely high risk. According to our simulations, survival rate is less than five percent at this stage.”
The Leader’s voice was unreadable.
“Ordinary experiments just make cannon fodder. Obsession is what makes a real monster.”
He glanced down at Zevran’s body.
“He is the perfect material. Losing to someone he considered beneath him? That stings worse than death for a man like him. That rage. That resentment. It will be the most stable power source we have ever had.”
“Understood, sir.” The researcher nodded.
…
[You have unlocked Undercurrent faction reputation]
[Undercurrent reputation decreased by 1000]
[Undercurrent: Hated (-1000), Fugitive Test Subject]
[System Notice: You have triggered A-Rank Mission: Enemy of Freedom]
[Mission Description: You have broken free of your cage, but in doing so you have made yourself Undercurrent’s number one target. The organization will never let a valuable test subject escape. Countless hunters will track you down. True freedom requires more than just running away.]
[Mission Description: This is a long-term mission. Rewards will be calculated based on the total damage you inflict on Undercurrent.]
[Current Progress: 0%]
[Note: Undercurrent’s power and influence will constantly change. Mission progress is not a fixed number. You may claim the reward at any time, but progress below 20% counts as failure.]
Keran stared silently at the notifications in front of him.
The conflict between Undercurrent and the Hundred Cities Federation was one of the biggest upheavals in the Northern Reaches in recent years.
They had been fighting a shadow war for years, over resources, over otherworldly technology, over control of Otherworld Lifeforms.
Undercurrent would not be destroyed easily.
Crippling an organization that big would take more than just one faction.
The Hundred Cities Federation, wasteland mercenary companies, underground groups, even other strange beings from other worlds would all have a part to play.
But none of their damage would count toward his mission progress.
Twenty percent damage.
That meant the impact he made alone had to be big enough to shake Undercurrent to its core.
Bullshit was the only word Keran could think of to describe it.
Even so, he accepted the mission without hesitation.
From the second Garron and Lyra died, there was only ever going to be one way this ended between him and Undercurrent.
One of them had to die.
“Guess that is the road ahead of me.”
Keran let out a long, slow breath.
Over the last few years, as cross-dimensional summoning technology had advanced, every major power had scrambled to find new otherworldly coordinates.
The Hundred Cities Federation was summoning.
The three great empires were summoning.
The big corporations were summoning.
Even the shadow organizations were running their own secret experiments.
More and more Otherworld Lifeforms were being pulled into the Star Abyss every day.
Some awakened incredible combat talents or superpowers.
They could throw lightning, heal wounds, even summon demons.
They were taken in and pampered as top-tier weapons the second they arrived.
Some brought knowledge or technology no one in this world had ever seen.
They were locked up in research facilities and milked for every last drop of value.
Most of them ended up just like he had six months ago.
Written off as worthless failures.
Strapped to operating tables.
Experimented on.
No one cared what these Otherworld Lifeforms wanted.
To the summoners, they were just another resource.
Another possibility to exploit, use up, and throw away.
“I wonder if other Otherworld Lifeforms have a System Panel like this.”
“Or am I the only one who gets these missions?”