The three guards cautiously moved forward in the tunnel, meticulously inspecting the ground.
"Careful!"
One guard had just taken a step, his foot pausing in mid-air before slowly retracting.
The three guards looked at the tunnel floor. A silver thread was hidden beneath their feet. If they hadn't noticed it and stepped on it carelessly, they would have immediately hooked and snapped the silver thread. The outcome would have been unimaginable.
"Booby trap..."
The guard who had almost stepped on it turned pale, secretly thinking how close a call it was, that he had walked a mile on the death line.
"What's wrong?"
Caesar saw them stop and not move forward, so he stepped up and asked.
"Sir, we've discovered a booby trap set by the target. There should be many similar traps ahead."
The guard who discovered the booby trap reported, feeling somewhat troubled in his heart. Disarming booby traps in such a narrow tunnel was no easy task.
"Leave two people here to disarm the booby traps."
"You go outside and organize a team to conduct a wider search with me."
"Yes, sir."
Caesar commanded, taking one person and leaving two, plus the remaining active personnel outside. The two formed a small team and began searching in the four surrounding directions.
Julius and Caesar each chose a direction.
After a long while.
"Snap..."
In the quiet, dense forest of the summer night, Caesar's foot snapped a withered branch. He stopped, looking at the small cabin in the forest ahead.
"One kilometer, huh..."
Caesar estimated the distance. He had been lucky, choosing to search behind the villa.
"They left by car."
Caesar arrived in front of the small forest cabin, looking down at the two tire tracks on the ground. The front door was open, and the interior was empty, with nothing inside.
"The tunnel is around this wooden cabin."
Caesar walked around the wooden cabin and indeed found the tunnel entrance, covered by a pile of leaves.
"No need to search anymore, I've already found it."
"Get back in the cars and prepare to withdraw. The police should be arriving soon."
Caesar pressed his left hand to his wireless earpiece and said.
"Understood, sir."
Responses from the other small teams came through the earpiece. They all turned and headed back the way they came. Half an hour had already passed since the explosion.
Even if the forest paths were difficult, the police should be arriving soon.
If the losses this time hadn't been so severe, they could have continued, but several people had been killed by the explosion, and the rest were injured, making it difficult to continue the pursuit.
Immediately, four multi-purpose SUVs started their engines and chose another direction, leaving the ruins.
"How's the situation?"
On the way back, Irumi's slightly low voice came through the earpiece, traveling hundreds of kilometers from headquarters.
"We caught the reporter and one of their accomplices, but Kōsuke Tenshin escaped."
"Did something unexpected happen?"
Irumi was silent for a moment, then continued to ask, his voice still calm, as if the failure of the mission didn't bother him at all.
Caesar also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He used the most concise language to explain what had happened.
"Since the losses are severe, bring the two captured individuals back first," Irumi instructed.
"Yes."
Caesar responded without any hesitation. He was a subordinate, and Irumi was his superior, a smart and powerful one.
Following such a person, often one only needed to obey orders, without needing too many personal thoughts or conjectures.
"Rustle rustle rustle..."
Above the forest on the outskirts of Barán City.
As dawn faintly broke, the sound of rotating rotor blades came from the horizon. Above the endless sea of trees, a black helicopter suddenly swept by.
Ten minutes later, the pilot pulled the control stick, and the black helicopter slowly descended onto an empty clearing in the forest.
This clearing wasn't large; it had just been temporarily created by Caesar and his team to allow the helicopter to land.
Four black multi-purpose SUVs were parked not far away. Caesar, in his tattered black trench coat and black sunglasses, awaited the helicopter's arrival.
Four guards stood behind Caesar, holding assault rifles.
After the helicopter landed, four fully armed guards leaped out and jogged to Caesar, standing at attention and saluting.
"Sir, Boss sent us to take over the targets."
Caesar nodded. The guards behind him immediately handed over the two targets, a man and a woman, to the four guards. They supported the unconscious targets and lifted them onto the helicopter.
Then, amidst the whirring of the helicopter's rotors, it slowly ascended and disappeared into the horizon.
As for Caesar and the remaining guards, they burned and buried the bodies of the dead security personnel on the spot. It took them an hour to finish before they continued driving back to headquarters.
An hour later, at the Umbrella Corporation Headquarters.
Inside a laboratory bathed in pure white light, two figures lay on two operating tables, their hands and feet bound by metal restraints made of special alloy.
"Wake her up."
Irumi looked at the two figures in the laboratory, giving his command through the one-way glass.
At his command, a staff member pressed a button on the instrument. Dannica on the operating table immediately began to convulse, and saliva dripped from the corner of her mouth.
"Ahhh~!!!"
The first thing she did when she woke up was to scream.
Her memory was still stuck at the moment Caesar shattered the window and his palm reached for her face.
After screaming, she was bewildered. She first lifted her head and looked around, discovering that this was a strange room. Inside, apart from her and Austin, there was no one else.
Then, she realized that she was bound to an operating table.
"Austin, wake up..."
Dannica's face was filled with terror, and tears streamed from her eyes.
She didn't know why Kōsuke Tenshin was gone, and why she and Austin were in such a place.
What had happened while she was unconscious?
She struggled ceaselessly, trying to break free from the operating table.
"Dannica Bhatia, as a reporter for the Independent Press, what do you have to say about the current situation?"
Irumi's voice echoed through the laboratory's intercom.
"Wuwu..."
Dannica's face was covered in tears. She shook her head desperately, sobbing.
"Let me go, please let me go. I'll give you all the photos, I'll never dare again, wuwuwu..."
"Photos? No, no, that's not important."
Irumi refused. Dannica's phone and computer passwords had long been cracked, and all the recordings and photos on them had already been deleted.
"Ms. Dannica, I wonder if you still remember your classmate, Johnny?"
Irumi's low, mysterious voice rang out, causing Dannica, who was crying, to pause.
"Johnny? What did you do to Johnny?"
Irumi's lips curved slightly, and he nodded towards Dr. Barad beside him.
Then, at Dr. Barad's signal, laboratory researchers escorted a figure of exaggerated bulk, a full three meters tall, into the laboratory.
"Clink~"
The laboratory door opened. Dr. Barad took a tablet from his subordinate. The screen displayed various physical data and brainwave states of the Avenger.
"Drip... drip drip..."
Dr. Barad swiped his finger across the tablet. The bulky Avenger stepped forward, standing in front of the operating table.
At the same time, Dannica's operating table slowly rotated, and the Avenger's ugly and terrifying face came into view.
"John... Johnny..."
Dannica's mouth slightly agape, her lips trembling, her face pale as she looked at the muscular monster standing before her. From its distorted face, she could vaguely make out its former appearance.
"It's not called Johnny. Its current name is UB-009 New Avenger Soldier."
"We injected large amounts of special spores into its body through human potential activation experiments."
Dr. Barad's slightly excited voice echoed in the laboratory. At the same time, he controlled the Avenger's movements with the tablet in his hand, making it raise its hand when commanded, and lower its head when commanded.
"This special spore stimulates human potential, but it has a slight side effect. However, once the subject endures the onset period..."
"Brain scans can reveal that the subject's cerebral cortex has lost its self-defense function."
"Their potential is stimulated, and their physical capabilities reach the human peak."
"The nerve clusters in the cerebral cortex completely lose function. They feel no pain, no fear, and know no good or evil."
"Their dictionary has no regret, no self-blame, only absolute obedience."
Dannica looked at the bulky figure standing emotionlessly before her, performing various meaningless movements. Tears continuously streamed down her face.
"As for you, we have never conducted experiments on females before."
As Dr. Barad's words fell, dozens of black and red plant tentacles slowly emerged from beneath the operating table.
"Hiss hiss..."
The slender plant tentacles swayed continuously around Dannica's entire body.
"No, don't..."
Dannica immediately struggled violently, her face filled with terror. Tears and snot flowed together as she let out terrified cries.
"Ugh, so noisy..."
At this moment, Austin on the other operating table frowned, seemingly annoyed by the noise. He complained with a frown.
"Austin, Austin, quick save me, wuwuwu..."
Dannica saw Austin wake up, as if she had found hope, and looked at him.
Austin, with his eyes closed, frowned, then opened his eyes and subconsciously looked towards Dannica, the source of the sound. His eyes instantly widened.
"Damn it! What the hell is this!?"
Austin was startled by the black and red plant tentacles swaying around Dannica's entire body. Then his gaze shifted, and he saw the Avenger Soldier standing in front of the operating table.
"Holy cow! Is this hell!?"
Austin's gaze continually shifted between the Avenger Soldier and the plant tentacles. Only then did he realize that he himself was bound to an operating table.
"You are Kōsuke Tenshin's friend?"
At this moment, Irumi and two guards entered the laboratory. They approached Austin, looking down at him from above.
"What the hell are you?"
Austin spat disdainfully. Irumi's body immediately emitted black shadows to block it. He frowned slightly and chuckled.
"Your friend is very capable. He killed several of my soldiers and escaped pursuit repeatedly. He truly lives up to his title as an Investigative Hunter from the Hunter Association."
Irumi praised. That man named Kōsuke Tenshin was indeed not simple, able to escape from Caesar and Julius.
It wasn't that he looked down on Hunters from the Hunter Association. Every single person in the Hunter Association was indeed an elite, standing out from millions of people worldwide each year.
But Caesar and Julius were carefully selected by Iksanpe and Gin Bradley, elites among elites.
Even Hunters from the Hunter Association, not every one of them could escape from Caesar and Julius.
If it were ordinary Hunters, let alone Caesar and his team, even his ordinary soldiers who cultivated Nen could take them down.
It was precisely because of this that he developed a slight interest in the man named Kōsuke Tenshin; he was a truly rare talent.
"Hmph, I advise you not to bother."
Austin sneered, as if seeing through Irumi's thoughts, and said.
"Kōsuke Tenshin is not alone. Before long, you and your company will be plunged into endless trouble."
"I advise you, it would be better to release me and that woman. That way, there might still be room for negotiation."
"Oh~?"
Irumi's face showed a surprised expression, and the corners of his lips curved into a slight arc. He chuckled uncaringly.
"If you say that, I'm even more interested in you."
Irumi's narrow eyes narrowed slightly. He took the tablet handed to him by a guard behind him and lightly swiped his finger across it.
"Hmm, your friend is quite capable."
"In just one day, he's already boarded a ship bound for the Kakin Empire. The police and agents of Pegurose are all useless."
Austin sneered at the words.
"Give up. You'll never catch Kōsuke. Once he returns to the Kakin Empire and regains his strength, he'll make you suffer."
Irumi handed the tablet back to the guard behind him, then clasped his hands behind his back and looked at Austin, his eyes narrowed.
"If he escaped, then so be it. He's just a mosquito after all. He'll always come back following the scent of blood."
"The trouble he can cause me is extremely limited. My interest in him ends there."
"As for now, I'm quite interested in you."
Irumi looked at Austin lying on the operating table, revealing a mysterious smile.
Austin had maintained a sneering expression at Irumi's previous words, but when Irumi's last sentence came out, his expression drastically changed, and he cursed out loud.
"Damn it! If you bastard dare to pull down his pants, I'll never let you off even if I die!!!"
"?"
A question mark appeared above Irumi's head. He then understood Austin's meaning.
Immediately, his eyelids dropped, looking extremely displeased, and his eyes radiated a cold, chilling light.
"What I mean is, I'm very interested in your identity as an Investigative Hunter. Don't cause extra trouble!"
"You wouldn't want to turn into him, would you?"
Irumi looked at the Avenger Soldier beside him. Austin followed his gaze and looked at the Avenger's ugly, distorted face. His cheek immediately twitched.
"Damn, you guys actually do such human experiments!"
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