The laboratory was no longer a place of glistening test tubes or cold scientific equipment. It had become a true battlefield, a small hell deep underground in Evil Town. Saulus's thick green blood stained the concrete floor everywhere, blending with my fresh red blood and that of his dead minions. The gray concrete walls were corroded in patches by the remaining radiation pus from shattered containers, forming black ulcers like leprous skin. Shards of glass and metal from broken lab tables scattered underfoot, sharp like the broken bones of hell itself trying to bite into anyone's flesh who dared step through. The air was suffocating, each breath carrying the acrid chemical stench, the foul of torn raw flesh, and the singed smell from short-circuiting wires still weakly hissing in the corner. I stood there, still maintaining the Kid Jack form – a small body, only about 1.2 meters tall, but taut like a string stretched to its limit. Sweat and blood sticky on my skin, soaking through tattered clothes, making me feel like wearing armor made of pain. The Jack Knife was still embedded deep in Saulus's heart, the blade vibrating slightly from the invisible field spreading from the blade throughout his body, preventing the wound from closing. Thick green blood foamed from his mouth, dripping to the floor with a ghastly sizzle like acid corroding metal. I clenched my fist, heart pounding in my small chest. "He… must be dead now," I thought, trying to convince myself that everything that had just happened – from the bloody hunt in Section B, from the mutated bikers I tore apart, from the five-day nightmare in this world – would end right now. But then, Saulus's body convulsed violently, not a sign of approaching death, but the awakening of something even more horrific, darker than the hell we were standing in.
From his pierced chest, countless tentacles emerged like wriggling living cords, dark green-black glistening under the flickering neon lights remaining. They were long and sinuous, surfaces covered in tiny sucking mouths opening to spew faint green toxic smoke. They shot out with terrifying speed, whipping through the air with ear-tearing hisses like hundreds of venomous snakes charging. I dodged immediately, the Kid Jack body sliding left with a small but perfectly precise step, thanks to instincts honed through dozens of previous battles. One tentacle whipped the air beside me, smashing another remaining test tube on the lab table. Glass shards flew everywhere, grazing my shoulder, leaving shallow stinging cuts like fire. But they weren't aiming for me. They clustered like a pack of starving snakes after days of hunger, charging straight into the scattered corpses of minions on the floor – the muscular bikers and mutated freaks I'd killed just minutes ago. The tentacles wrapped tightly around each body, sucking mouths latching onto flesh like hundreds of giant leeches. Wet flesh tearing sounds rang out, bones cracking like dry branches snapping. Green and red blood was sucked out like rushing stream water, drawn so forcefully that the bodies convulsed violently before withering dry. I stood frozen, horror spreading from my stomach to my throat, making me swallow bitter saliva. "It's… absorbing them to revive," my inner thoughts screamed. Each body drained dry in a flash, withered like shriveled banana peels then crumbling to fine black dust. Saulus was literally devouring them, his body convulsing in ecstatic spasms, muscles bulging as if pumped full of energy from his comrades' deaths.
In that moment, the Jack Knife's field seemed to pull the last memories from the monster's mind. Saulus's memories flooded the space around us, like hazy images projected on the lab's stained walls. Before becoming Mad Saulus – lord of Section B with hands stained in hundreds of victims' blood – he was Madoka Saulus, a talented young scientist only twenty-eight. He worked at Kanto's underground research center before the great earthquake turned the world to hell. Madoka had a wife – a woman named Yumi, with a gentle smile and long black hair always smelling of jasmine. They lived in a small apartment in the shopping center's basement, where sunlight only filtered through narrow windows. His daughter, little Aiko, just five, with big round eyes and laughter crisp like silver bells. Madoka often held her on his lap every evening, telling stories of distant stars and hopes that science would one day save humanity from radiation diseases. He was experimenting with a radiation-stabilizing liquid, hoping to create a vaccine for victims infected from prior small nuclear leaks. The day of the great quake, he was in the main lab, holding a glistening green liquid test tube. The earthquake hit like divine wrath, floor shaking violently, concrete ceiling cracking, containers shattering. His wife Yumi was crushed under the apartment basement rubble, her body mangled between concrete and steel, fresh red blood soaking the floor he once called home. Daughter Aiko heavily radiation-poisoned, skin blistering, screaming in his arms, her little eyes now bloodshot and full of fear. In ultimate despair, Madoka injected the experimental liquid into her vein, hoping it would save her. But instead of healing, the liquid turned Aiko into the first monster – a tiny being with cracking skin, tentacles sprouting from back, eyes no longer recognizing her father. She growled, lunging to bite his arm. In indescribable pain, Madoka killed his own daughter with trembling hands, lab knife stabbing deep into her heart, his tears falling mixing with blood. Then he drank the remaining liquid, hoping to die with her. But instead of dying, he survived – and transformed. From then, Madoka Saulus was no longer human. He became Mad Saulus, ruling Section B with the most brutal violence. He ate comrades to maintain power, believing only becoming a monster could dominate this hell. He built an empire from fear, killing hundreds of innocents, turning them into food or slaves. Those memories flooded his mind like a raging flood, making him laugh maniacally through the thick green blood foaming from mouth: "I… lost everything… my wife, my daughter… so I'll take everything from you… from this world… from your very souls!"
His body began changing dramatically, a horrific transformation I witnessed every second. His over two-meter giant height shrank rapidly, bones cracking repeatedly like fireworks, flesh writhing contracting to normal human size, only about 1.8 meters but exuding multiplied power. Outside flesh, a biological armor grew from cells, dark green-black glistening like oil on water, covering 100% his body like living suit. Armor thick with tiny sharp spines and small sucking mouths opening breathing, constantly spewing toxic smoke. Right hand fully deformed, bone and flesh elongating into long sharp blade, curved like living scythe, tip dripping green toxin. His voice rang from armor, distorted but full cold killing intent: "Now… I am perfect. No weaknesses anymore, kid. You killed my minions, but now I'll devour your very soul!"
I didn't wait for him to finish. Both hands gripping Jack Knife till knuckles white, will surging pushing invisible field to maximum Violence Jack gene allowed. Field exploded into brilliant red aura, enveloping my body head to toe, red light like fresh blood spreading space around, vibrating air violently. Temperature surged immediately, sweat evaporating into small white clouds, but this new power made senses sharp to painful. I heard each heartbeat of Saulus under armor, smelled pus toxin from his blade arm, felt every radiation dust particle floating air. "This is all I have," I thought, memories of old Saigon with noisy streets, Aiko's village with green rice fields, Kato and Mika – new comrades – flashing like final flame warming my orphaned soul. "If die, die as human, not monster like him. For Saigon, for Aiko's village, for all remaining humanity!"
We charged each other in brief moment but long as lifetime. Time seemed stop. In less than second, both unleashed thousands strikes, each carrying destructive power. He swung blade right arm, curved sweeping horizontal aiming neck with terrifying speed, wind howling like beast roar. I dodged tilting head millimeters, red aura touching blade creating screeching metal clash mixed sizzle as field corroded armor. Simultaneously, I swung Jack Knife back into chest, blade cutting into biological armor with terrifying force, red aura spreading cracking armor long, green pus gushing hot like boiling acid. He spun fast as lightning, blade sweeping upward from below aiming gut, I leaped high, foot lightly stepping blade changing flight direction, then landing shoulder with two continuous punches left hand, each cracking armor more, bone under armor shaking like war drum. He spewed green pus from armor mouth like toxic stream, I dodged right hair's breadth, pus hitting lab wall corroding large patch, white smoke rising thick blurring vision.
We moved attacking, no stop second, spreading battle everywhere like firestorm. From cramped lab, we charged long hallway, my body like red shadow through darkness, him like black living armor chasing speed no less. Blade arm slashing continuous, each creating ear-tearing wind whistle, I dodged small flexible steps, red aura clashing creating bright red sparks flying everywhere. I countered hundreds Jack Knife slashes, each with brilliant red aura, cutting biological armor making him stagger, green pus splattering hallway walls, corroding concrete into deep pitted scars like hell's wounds. We smashed heavy metal door, charging old storage area – once shopping center warehouse, now rotten wood crates and rusted metal barrels. Wood crates shattering under feet, splinters flying like rain. He swung blade horizontal with terrifying power, I leaped ceiling clinging fingers, then releasing landing back with powerful spinning kick, back armor cracking long, him whipping blade stabbing up from below, I dodged low, blade embedding deep floor with screeching metal clash cracking concrete.
The battle did not stop there. It spread to the main center of Evil Town – the large hall that was once the bustling heart of shopping, now in ruins with half-collapsed concrete pillars, high piles of rubble, and shattered counters. We destroyed the entire area in an uncontrollable fury. He slashed his blade into a giant concrete pillar, the pillar shattering completely, the ceiling shaking and dropping debris on my head like hail. I dodged by rolling, then charged in, stabbing the Jack Knife into his gut, the red aura spreading and melting a large patch of armor, him roaring in pain, green pus gushing like a hot fountain. Simultaneously, I swung my left hand in continuous punches into the face armor, each one cracking the armor more, the metal clash echoing like thunder in a storm. He countered with the blade arm sweeping horizontally with terrifying speed, I dodged close, the blade cutting another pillar, an entire section of the ceiling collapsing, dust billowing making us cough and choke. We rolled on the debris-filled floor, punching and kicking nonstop, the red aura clashing with the biological armor creating continuous small explosions like deadly fireworks, my red blood mixed with his green staining the floor, forming ghastly puddles reflecting the weak neon lights.
Both of us were severely wounded after hundreds of strikes. My shoulder had a deep gash from the blade, bone exposed white, blood flowing despite the red aura trying to staunch and heal. His leg was stabbed through twice by the Jack Knife, the armor cracked exposing raw red twitching flesh. Our breaths were heavy, panting like two severely wounded beasts, but neither would stop. He charged with the blade arm stabbing straight at my heart, I dodged by tilting, the blade embedding in the wall behind shaking the building. Then I swung the Jack Knife horizontally cutting deep into the neck armor, the red aura spreading melting the armor like wax, him retreating and spewing green pus into my eyes. I covered my eyes with my hand, stinging like fire, but still charged with an uppercut series into his gut, the organs under the armor shaking violently, making him cough a lump of thick green pus.
In the decisive moment, when both faced each other in the ruined hall under flickering neon, I felt the Violence Jack gene's limit fully broken. "Surpass… for all that's left," I thought, memories of my orphaned life in Saigon, Aiko's village with lush green rice fields, Kato who died saving me, Mika with her last smile – all surging like a raging river. The red aura exploded stronger than ever, the Jack Knife vibrating like alive, emitting a low roar. I charged with speed beyond the threshold, beyond human and monster limits, the Jack Knife swinging a perfect slash – the blade severing the entire head and upper shoulders of Saulus, the biological armor shattering like thin glass, green pus gushing like a toxic waterfall. The slash's force was so strong it destroyed the entire ceiling of Evil Town, concrete and iron debris flying everywhere, a large patch of sky exposing above. The moonlight shone down gently, soft and cold like the final judgment from a heaven swallowed by hell.
Saulus fell, his headless body staggering a few steps, green blood and pus foaming from the neck like a stream. Before fully vanishing, his final memories flooded clearer than ever, like a slow film. He remembered holding his mutated daughter in his arms, tears falling as he stabbed the knife deep into little Aiko's heart, her screams echoing forever in his mind. He remembered his wife Yumi, radiant smile in the small kitchen pre-quake, the burnt rice smell from the old gas stove spreading warmth. He remembered his initial ambition – a scientist saving the world from radiation – now ashes and torment. "I… was wrong… but no regrets," he whispered through the shattered armor, voice weak as a breeze. His body convulsed violently one last time, then the red aura from the Jack Knife spread, burning his entire body to fine black ash. The wind from the broken ceiling blew strong, swirling the ash under the moonlight, like a farewell for a soul lost too long.
The fifth day in this world ended. I stood there, the red aura fading, body exhausted beyond standing. The wounds on my shoulder and everywhere ached fiercely, blood nonstop flowing, vision blurring from fatigue and blood loss. "I… did it," I thought one last time, memories of all the battles, losses, faint hopes flashing like a final lamp. Then I collapsed on the ruined floor, darkness swallowing everything, only the hellish moonlight shining down as a reminder that the battle was not truly over.
Sunlight filtering through the shattered ceiling hit my face, warm and blinding, making me squint. Ache spread through my body like a heavy lead coat, left shoulder burning where Saulus's blade wound still oozed blood, chest tight from the final punches. I tried to sit up, the concrete floor beneath my back ice-cold, the smell of smoke and dried blood lingering in the air. My body had returned to its original state – tall and heavy, 2.5 meters with rippling muscles and a fierce face – the red aura had faded long ago, Kid Jack retreating to make way for the true form of the Violence Jack gene. The tattered leather clothes stretched tight over the giant frame, each small movement pulling sharp pain from the shoulder but I gritted my teeth and endured.
A cool hand placed on my forehead. Mika sat beside, her long hair disheveled and sticky with dried blood, eyes red-rimmed from lack of sleep but gaze steady. She was using clean cloth to bandage the wound on my shoulder, her fingers deftly tying the knot, dilute salt water dropping onto my skin carrying a bitter taste. "You're awake," she whispered, voice hoarse from fatigue. "Don't move too much. The wound is deep, but you heal fast… faster than anyone I've ever seen."
I looked around. The central hall of Evil Town was now completely different. Daytime sunlight shone through the large broken ceiling, turning the suffocating darkness into a half-light, half-dark space, dust floating in the rays. Dead bodies had been somewhat cleared, black ash from Saulus's body still scattered on the floor like fine dust. Kato stood not far away, directing a few survivors to pull a large iron beam to brace a collapsing concrete pillar. No more monster roars, instead the steady pounding of hammers and people whispering. "Saulus… really dead?" I asked, deep voice echoing.
Mika nodded, her hands continuing to bandage. "Completely. His ash was blown away by the wind since you fainted. The remaining minions either scattered and fled deeper, or surrendered. We control most of Evil Town. Survivors are starting to return from the nooks and crannies, they say they're no longer being hunted." She paused, looking at me with eyes full of gratitude mixed with deep worry. "You saved us all, Long. Without you, Saulus would continue to devour everything. Now… rest. We'll take care of you for two days. After that, if you want to go, we'll help prepare."
I lay still, letting Mika wipe the wound with clean water from a reserve flask. The giant body made me feel heavier than ever, but the pain gradually subsided thanks to the gene's recovery. My inner thoughts were chaotic: defeating Saulus brought relief mixed with bone-weary fatigue. I'd killed a true monster, but the price was two days lying here, in the hell I'd just partially destroyed. "Two days," I muttered. "Enough to heal and find the way to continue."
The first day passed in the slow rhythm of rebirth. Mika helped me sit up, bringing a bowl of thin porridge cooked from grains found in an old storage. The porridge was bland but the warmth spread from throat to stomach, dispelling the gnawing hunger after the battle. I stood up, the giant body lightly shaking the floor, then began to help. With superior strength, I lifted shattered concrete blocks weighing tons, placing them in positions to brace the ceiling. The concrete clashes echoed dryly, dust billowing but sunlight filtering through the gaps. Kato beside me guiding: "Place it a bit over there, Long. The main pillar needs to be solid first." I nodded, sweat pouring down my back, each lift pulling sharp pain from the shoulder but I gritted and endured.
At noon, I sat with the resistance group in a cleared corner of the hall. Mika detailed the situation: "Saulus is dead, Section B shattered. The captives are now free, we're distributing food from his reserves. But Evil Town is still dangerous – deep areas still have radiation, and some mutated monsters are wandering. We need to rebuild fences, dig new wells." I listened, my hand unconsciously touching the healing scar on my shoulder. My inner thoughts turned to the journey: one month to leave Kanto, now five days passed, twenty-five left. I can't stay forever.
That afternoon, I helped clear the bodies and bury them. The giant strength allowed me to dig deep pits with just a few hand strikes, damp earth clinging to my large hands. The survivors – gaunt men, women with sunken eyes – looked at me with fear mixed with awe. An old woman trembling gave me a water flask: "Thank you… you're not a monster like Saulus." I smiled lightly, deep voice: "I'm just someone wanting to survive." Through short conversations, I began to gather information. Kato led me to a safe storage room deep in the maze, the iron door still intact. Inside were old iron cabinets, yellowed paper maps stored from pre-quake.
I squatted by the cabinet, giant fingers flipping the map pages. Kato pointed to a faint line: "This is the north exit. But it goes through the wasteland – ruined desert, where Slum King rules. He's the true lord of Kanto, with giant biker gangs and fortresses made of bones. The map details water points, shelter caves, and areas to avoid due to heavy radiation." I stared intently, memorizing each line: the vast wasteland full of dust and old wrecks, where Slum King built his empire through violence. "I need this map," I said. Kato nodded: "Keep it. We'll add notes from escapees."
Late in the evening, I sat alone on a high concrete pile, looking at the sky through the broken ceiling. The moonlight appeared again, gentler than before. Two days in Evil Town were not just for healing, but a pause to prepare my mind. Mika came over, giving me a small leather bag with dry food and a short backup knife. "Be careful, Long. That wasteland… I've heard it's more horrific than here." I nodded, inner thoughts surging: from an ordinary office worker to a victor over monsters, now to face Slum King. But I'm no longer the old self. Tomorrow morning, I'll leave, map tucked in the bag, with determination to survive.
Those two days ended as dawn of the third day broke. I stood up, the giant body full of life, shoulder only a faint scar. The resistance saw me off to the tunnel mouth leading outside. Kato shook my hand strongly: "Good luck." Mika hugged my arm lightly, eyes red-rimmed. I stepped out of Evil Town, map secure in the bag, heading toward the north wasteland – where Slum King awaited. The next journey begins, and I'm ready.