As he neared the corner, Jackie suddenly quickened his pace and slipped into the darkness.
Behind him, Joseph bared his teeth in a savage grin and surged after him.
Jackie waited silently just past the corner, listening to the approaching footsteps. He had no intention of striking first.
The next moment, he raised his arm in front of him.
As expected, Joseph wasn't a complete fool. He swung a punch straight toward the corner where Jackie was waiting.
A dull thud rang out. Jackie might not be able to take on this modified monster head-on, but one punch was nothing he couldn't handle.
At the Devil's Boxing Club, even the drug-pumped Animals thought twice before stepping into the ring with him.
Catching the incoming punch, Jackie shifted his body to redirect the force.
Then he crouched low, slipped inside Joseph's guard, and slammed his shoulder hard into the man's chest.
Joseph, still off balance from the chase, was knocked clean off his feet and crashed to the ground.
What greeted him there was a sharp roundhouse kick from Jackie, cracking against the back of his head as he landed.
The blow wasn't lethal, but the effect was undeniable.
"Looks like even among pigs, you're the dumb one."
With that, Jackie turned and started back the way he'd come.
"Ah! Ah!
You bastard, don't let me catch you!
I'll rip your head off and shove it straight up your ass!"
Blinded by rage, Joseph roared. His prosthetic arm punched into the wall, dragging him upright again.
This time, though, Jackie's pace had slowed. Clutching one arm against his chest, he staggered forward unsteadily.
Joseph noticed—it was the same arm that had blocked his punch.
Grinning with cruel delight, he picked up speed.
But Jackie wasn't hurt.
Thanks to the way he had redirected the impact, his arm wasn't feeling any pain at all.
He was doing this for two reasons: to buy Arthur more time, and to convince Joseph he was desperate and had fled into that room.
When Jackie reached the room, he collapsed against the wall near a broken hole, groaning as if in agony.
Joseph sneered, then drove a punch that sent Jackie flying inside.
Jackie raised his arm with all his strength, barely blocking the blow.
He was hurled backward, crashing into a pile of junk that muffled the faint crackling sound in the dark.
Taking two long strides forward, Joseph's voice rasped like torn steel as he shouted, his excitement barely contained.
"Ready, scum? Ready for me to rip your head off?"
Killing was always a pleasure to him. All the better when it was this rat that had been darting around in front of him nonstop.
Standing over his prey, Joseph raised both arms high, ready to smash Jackie's skull.
"Oh, right. What about that smaller rat with you? Did it run off and leave you behind?"
Apparently still not satisfied with his taunts, he threw in one more.
But the words rang hollow.
Up in the debris overhead, Arthur's expression twisted as he saw the man's arms nearly reaching his own hiding place. Looking for him?
Pushing aside the clothes draped over the cable, Arthur pressed the sparking wire straight into Joseph's palm.
A raspy voice whispered in Joseph's ear.
"I hear you've been looking for me."
Before Joseph could react, something was forced into his prosthetic hand.
The next instant, everything went black.
Joseph toppled backward, both arms spitting sparks. Arthur darted aside.
Still gripping the cable's insulation, he yanked its tip free from Joseph's hand, leaving it dangling loose again.
Drawing the Prelude from his waist, Arthur fired three shots into the rigid figure at his feet. Each bullet tore through the forehead, sending bursts of blood flying.
Then he looked up, found the cable's root, and severed it with his last three shots.
The cable went limp, flopping to the floor, while fresh sparks crackled above.
"Jackie, you okay?"
With the fight over, Arthur walked toward him.
But there was no answer.
A chill gripped him. The smile vanished from his face as he rushed over.
Jackie lay stiff across several data cabinets, unmoving, only his eyes rolling frantically.
Arthur's mouth twitched, then he broke into laughter.
Jackie must have been standing too close, the current running through the floor and into his body.
Luckily, it wasn't serious—just full-body paralysis that would wear off.
It took Jackie great effort to get to his feet, his movements and speech still sluggish.
Arthur patted his shoulder, and together they moved on to the next level.
Fortunately, no fortress-like blast door separated the first basement from the second.
In fact, there was no door at all—just a staircase behind where the brute had fallen, leading downward.
Blinding white lights gradually replaced the darkness, clearly powered by a grid independent from the main factory.
Several men in spotless white lab coats stood guard at the stairwell entrance. Unarmed, but brimming with false confidence.
The young man at the front stepped forward as Arthur and Jackie descended, his voice loud and firm.
"This is company property. Unauthorized entry is forbidden. Don't make a mistake."
Arthur squinted at him, unable to fathom where his confidence came from.
"Permission? From who? You?"
Drawing the Prelude again, Arthur regarded him with interest.
"Our chief supervisor, Dr. Bain. Only he has the authority to grant access."
The man spoke seriously, as though explaining official policy.
Arthur raised the revolver halfway, spinning it in his hand like a butterfly in flight. His tone was flat.
"Then who gave you permission to hide here and run human experiments?
Me?"
The revolver stopped cold, its dark muzzle pointing straight at the man's forehead.
"You wouldn't dare! I'm a Biotechnica employee, I—"
The gunshot cut him off.
As for the corporation he trusted—so obsessed with secrecy, they hadn't even given him a trauma team detail.
Arthur glanced at the rest, who finally panicked. He didn't waste words, just sent them all to hell.
Moving with calm, deliberate steps, Arthur and Jackie searched room by room.
With each pull of the trigger, Arthur's hand grew steadier—angrier.
The first lab was designed to strip out a human nervous system in its entirety.
They used high-energy rays, chemical reagents, every tool imaginable—binding living people to machines and peeling their flesh and nerves away while they were still alive.
It was delicate work, requiring precision.
But considering who the test subjects were, one could imagine what that "precision" truly meant.
The following labs were no less twisted.
The sheer cruelty left Arthur and Jackie in grim silence.
Only when they found the girl behind a locked reinforced door did their heavy hearts ease, if only slightly.
"Don't try to trick me, you bastards! I'll die before I open this door!"
The little girl's tearful voice carried both fear and resolve.
Arthur sighed and answered patiently.
"Calm down. Your dad really did hire us to find you."
"How can you prove it? Forget it, I don't believe you.
My dad doesn't have money to hire Edgerunners this strong."
She clearly knew at least a little about the outside world.
But the fact she was talking meant she was hesitating—unsure whether to believe them.
That was a good sign. It lowered the risk of tragedy.
"Jessica, right? We know your name. Doesn't that count as proof?"
From behind the door, the girl shouted back:
"No! Those bastards stole my netrunning pod— they already know all my info!"
Then Arthur's hoarse voice came again.
"Then there's nothing we can do. What do you suggest?"
Hearing this, she broke down crying again.
Jessica couldn't forget the bloodcurdling scream she'd heard when she was first brought here.
But what if it was true? What if she really could see her dad again?
Biting her lip, she wiped her tears and shouted again.
"Then back off! If you come any closer, I'll… I'll kill myself!"
In her neural link, she was in the middle of coding an overclocked Overheat plugin, ready to end it all if the door was forced open.
But she hadn't finished before this sudden turn. She had no choice. Running headfirst into the wall would hurt like hell, but it was the only hope she had left.
She glanced at the wall beside her, eyes filling with tears.
...
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