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In Oro City, inside a normal house, Mark stared at the computer screen, examining the information about that laboratory.
With dark eyes, he muttered, "Even though I can't destroy every lab in the world, I have to destroy this one."
"I must kill everyone inside so they can't conduct any more experiments in this building."
He sighed, "My brother really doesn't care about anything… he only cares about getting stronger."
**Mark's perspective:**
I was a child living in the alleys, surviving only on the kindness of strangers. Life in the alleys was harsh; there was no mercy for the young or old. Hunger slowly killed me.
But one day, when I was five years old, a group of people wearing strange clothes came and took children between the ages of 3 and 7. I was one of them.
They made us sleep and took us to a place I didn't know, locking us in separate rooms.
I was terrified. I didn't know why I was there or what to do.
It didn't take long before the brutal experiments began. They were excruciating—hellish pain. I wished I could die to escape it.
I don't know how much time passed, but the number of children decreased until only three remained from the original group subjected to experiments:
* One child with snow-white hair
* One child with sky-blue hair
Even though we never spoke to each other, we suffered the same pain. I tried resisting the lab personnel, but they would beat me severely whenever I did.
One day, they led me to a room, tied me up like always, and brought the other children. The child with blue hair couldn't endure it and died that day. I looked at him, imagining myself in his place.
Then I looked at the other child. He stared at me with cold green eyes. Despite his icy expression, I somehow felt trust toward him. I didn't know why; we hadn't spoken yet.
Suddenly, he spoke in a beautiful yet cold voice:
"Do you want to escape?"
Even though it was a small sentence, I felt trust toward him. I asked in surprise and hope,
"Can we escape this hell?"
Although I expected failure, it didn't matter as long as we tried. His cold expression made my body shiver. He looked around and said,
"Yes, I have a plan."
I don't know why, but when he said that, it felt real. Tears welled up in my eyes. I asked him if it was real or if it would fail. He assured me it wouldn't fail and told me to wait until the next time we came here.
He asked me about the "Status Window." I didn't know what it was, but when he said the words, a blue panel appeared in front of me. I was shocked. He asked me to tell him what skills were listed in it. The old man who raised me had taught me some words, so I could read a little. He told me to wait for the next time we met to start the plan.
That night, I spent my time anxious, wondering if we would succeed, since all my previous attempts had failed. Then I realized I hadn't asked his name. The next day, when they took me to the room, I was nervous, but the doctor didn't notice.
Soon, a man in lab clothing entered alone. The other child wasn't there. I was surprised and wondered why he hadn't come. But the man's actions were strange; he stabbed another man and suddenly transformed into a child himself—it was him! Amazing!
I asked him how he did it. He ignored me and asked my name. I said, "Mark." He remembered and told me his name: Stephen.
I was excited about the plan, but when I asked him, he said we would sneak into the monitoring room. I asked if he knew where it was. He coldly told me we would have to find it ourselves.
I felt a little guilty for all this excitement. It didn't matter; trying was enough. I prayed we would succeed.
When we escaped, I got to know him a little. He was calm, spoke few words, and had the same cold expression. We left that lab, and he let me eat delicious food I had never tasted before in my life. I cried a lot because I finally escaped that hell.
He was like a hero to me. I could never repay him. I wanted to call him my brother, and he agreed. I felt immense happiness.
After that, he went somewhere unknown and came back with clothes for me. I didn't know where he got the money. I asked, "Who did you kill?" I was shocked—how did he have the time to take money from their bodies? I hadn't even seen them!
I didn't think about anything except escaping. My brother was smart and amazing, despite his few expressions. We went to the forest to train. That rabbit was kind, and it caused trouble for my brother—I didn't want to cause him trouble again.
I decided to train seriously, even if I failed or stumbled.
One time, my brother laughed when he killed a powerful monster. I was so surprised! I had never seen him show any expression, yet he laughed. Goosebumps ran over my body.
During that month, many situations occurred. It seemed his expressions were slowly softening. Once, when we left the forest excitedly, I stumbled. I looked at him in embarrassment and saw his mouth curve slightly, but it quickly returned to normal.
I realized he was laughing at me. I told him not to mock me. He said he wasn't, but I didn't believe him. It didn't matter; progress was being made. He started opening up to me, somehow.
It seemed my brother had registered in the guild. He tricked them with his adult-transforming skill. Regardless, he was amazing—better than all adults.
Over time, he bought me technology books. It seemed he wanted me to develop my skills. He even improved my reading and writing abilities. Our relationship grew during this time.
He was the one who cooked our meals. Strangely, his cooking was better than the food from restaurants. I learned a lot about technology, hacking, and other skills. My skills improved greatly. But I wanted revenge on that lab. I accessed their information, and what I read made me furious. Why are these scoundrels continuing their experiments? They even tightened security! Damn them. I want to destroy them. I told my brother, but he didn't seem interested.
I had developed my skills during this period. I could do it with the information I had about their security system. They were foolish to put it in a way that prevented children from escaping. Heh, wait for me.
My brother went on his journey, and I began my preparations.
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Even though Mark was only nine years old, over these three years, thanks to the mana skill Stephen taught him—which was the best technique for controlling and storing mana—he improved his mastery of the Ghost Dagger skill.
During these three years, Stephen completed many missions, gradually increasing his reputation in the guild due to his rapid progress and never failing any mission. He earned a lot of money and even bought a skill to increase speed, which he gave to Mark. Of course, Stephen didn't forget to buy him a useful skill from Rank C.
During this period, Mark was very grateful to Stephen. He also trained diligently so as not to be a burden. He entered virtual reality, learning how to kill without being noticed, thanks to the Stealth skill. It was very useful.
Mark devised his plan. He knew that this lab was just a branch of a larger, more heavily guarded location. He couldn't hack them yet; if he did, they would discover his location, causing chaos.
The lab was located a distance from Oro City, in an isolated, forgotten forest.
Mark sneaked at night. The night sky was filled with stars scattered like shining jewels, surrounding a silver moon that illuminated the darkness.
He moved silently through the forest between the trees, holding his dagger and wearing black clothes that covered his face, looking like a real assassin.
Mark knew the lab's layout. Contrary to what he thought when escaping with Stephen, it was small, shabby, and cursed.
The lab contained several cell-like rooms, a few white rooms for the surviving children, corridors, a monitoring room, a shared lab, and a private room. Mark discovered that in the private room, there was a C-rank guard and three E-rank personnel, based on his research. Outside the lab, there was an armory guarded by two E-rank guards.
Mark sneaked behind one of the guards and used the Ghost Dagger skill to silently stab him in the back of the neck.
"Ugh!" the guard exclaimed. Mark quickly attacked the second guard before he could sound the alarm.
"Ughh!" he stabbed him, cleaned his dagger, and sneaked inside the lab.
He carried his laptop and tampered with it for a few minutes, then shut it down. He moved to the children's holding area. Since it was a group of children, they were confined in cell-like rooms resembling a prison.
Mark looked at the cells, guarded by two guards. He sneaked and killed the guards silently, took the key from them, and opened the cell. Inside were children with pale faces and empty eyes.
The children looked at the open door in fear, finding no one there.
A brave child stepped forward, saw the dead guards, shouted in fear, then gathered courage and said to the other children,
"The guards are dead. There's no one. Let's escape."
The children hesitated, but when they looked outside and saw no one, they ran to leave.
The monitors saw the children trying to escape. They didn't hesitate and reported to the person in the private room.
That person mocked the children but remained cautious due to the incident three years ago. He pressed a red button, which released a sleeping gas throughout the lab, except in the private room.
As he pressed the button, he felt dizzy and leaned on the table, saying fearfully,
"H-How!?"
A shadowy figure appeared before him—it was Mark.
He mocked Mark, saying, "Today, I will destroy this lab."
The man was shocked and fell under the gas's effect. Mark approached and killed him and the three others. He searched their pockets and found a storage ring containing D and E rank monster stones. He also found a small amount of money in the other guards' pockets.
It seemed he had learned from Stephen to loot bodies.
Mark's plan was simple: make the children escape, use the sleeping gas on the guards to stop them, manipulate the gas device to spread into the private room, then kill the guards and let the children escape.
"By now, I think the children have gone," Mark thought.
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