The Author's POV

The moment I stepped out of the elevator and tried to get out of the laboratory, my mana which was depleting at an alarming rate, finally ran out. The mask fell off of my face, and the effects of Monarch's indifference ran out.

"Hey!"

"Shit!"

The moment my face was revealed, and I regained control of my body, the first thing I saw was three guards glaring in my direction.

Standing in the opposite hall to me and taking out their weapons, they all rushed towards me.

"We've found the suspect, I repeat, we've found the suspect. We're currently engaging him at the entrance of the laboratory."

They of course didn't forget to alert the other units.

Without wasting time, taking out another bomb from my dimensional space, I pressed on a small button at the top of the bomb.

—Click!

'1...2...3...4...'

Re-entering the elevator, and hiding by the side, I closed my eyes and silently counted inside of my mind. The moment my count was about to reach five, turning around, I threw the bomb towards the guards.

Without looking, I hid by the side of the elevator.

—BOOOOM!

"Huaaa!"

"Ahhh!"

Two seconds after throwing the bomb, a massive explosion ensued and the blood-curling screams of the guards rang out throughout the whole upper floor. Standing behind the elevator, I could feel the heat from the explosion brush past me.

—WHIIIII! —WHIIIII!

Shortly after the explosion rang, smoke-filled my vision, and the alarms rang.

Covering my nose with the sleeve of my shirt, squinting, I moved out. The moment I turned around and looked at the aftermath of the explosion, the first thing I saw was the corpses of the guards on the floor.

With blood and limbs splattered everywhere, the scene looked extremely gory. Even so, firming myself and moving through the broken glass, and pieces of flesh on the floor I quickly made my way towards the exit of the facility.

—Clank!

"Haaa..."

Opening the doors and exiting the laboratory, I involuntarily squinted my eyes and covered them with my arm. The side of my eyes teared up slightly.

'The sun.'

After eight months of being locked up inside of the facility, I was finally able to see the sun.

Never in my life would've I have expected myself to miss the sun so much. For a brief moment, I just dazedly stood at the front of the laboratory. My emotions were a bit erratic, but I was able to quickly snap myself out of it.

"Now's not the time to get emotions..." Turning around, I wondered. 'Where am I?'

Looking around, I noticed that I was currently in the middle of a forest. Behind me was the laboratory. The laboratory was hidden inside of a forest, and although it was still within the Monolith, for the obvious reason it had to be moved a bit further from the actual headquarters.

'I can't waste time standing here.'

still not in the

***

at the entrance of the

—WHIIIII! —WHIIIII!

of the laboratory, they could hear the blaring sound of the alarms ringing

—Clank!

members of

in the world

standing at the entrance have been

one responsible

me that the surveillance

"What about professor Joseph?"

only grew as time passed. Listening to the live reporters coming from the other squad units downstairs, they couldn't

his captain, of the members of the

Unit 7 who are downstairs have reported Joseph as dead. Furthermore, unit 15 has

"What!?"

guards let out a breath of cold air. Cold sweat ran down

looking at the

said anything about the identity of the

"Yes."

"Continue."

one of the test subjects that Joseph was working on...from reports, he seems to

the effects of the serum? How could they have escaped? And isn't there a chip installed in their head? How

the ones who had gone downstairs, would they have also been killed like the other two

"What now, captain?"

no reason. Despite the situation, he was able to quickly recollect himself. Looking at his squad members,

at the state of the upper floor, the captain continued. "From the looks of things, the target seems to have already escaped into the forest...I want you all to notify the other units of the situation. Tell

"Understood."

communication devices, they quickly informed the other units and

where should we

captain, he had a lot of experience under his belt. Surveilling the forest and noticing a small irregularity in one of the bushes in the distance, he was able to quickly infer the location of where

"Over here."

he along with his team members

***

"Haaa...Haaa..."

my cheeks. Even so, mustering every last bit of strength inside of my body, I continued

—Gulp! —Gulp!

was running, taking one mana recovering potion and one stamina recovering potion from my dimensional space, I

my wrist. Tapping on the screen of the watch and loading it up, I fiddled with it

—Fwa!

of me. Staring at the map, unknowingly my running speed slowed down significantly.

I'm not wrong, I should be running

obvious reasons, the laboratory that I had just come out from

right now was to infiltrate the actual headquarters of

was the only way

where the Monolith was located on the world map, I knew

and with me having over 2000 of them, I knew that as long as I could get to the portals, I would be able to make it safely

'There's only one problem...'

doubt, this was going to be

—Rustle!

"Huek!"

in the distance. Turning around, I noticed a silver streak of light quickly headed towards my direction. Ducking down, by a hair breath, I was able to dodge the incoming attack. Rolling on the ground, I lifted my head

"I've finally caught up."