Chapter 41 - Black flames
A strange sensation—like the ground had disappeared beneath him.
Jin's eyes widened as his vision opened up.
Damn!
That's high!
The distance between the transport aircraft and the rooftop was roughly 30 meters.
Considering that the typical height of an apartment floor was about 2.7 meters, he had essentially jumped from the 11th floor.
For the record, Jin had never gone bungee jumping in his life.
Why?
Because it was terrifying!
Even when his ex-girlfriend had begged him repeatedly, he had never agreed to go.
And now, here he was…!
Without any safety gear.
Throwing himself into gravity's embrace with nothing but his own body—pure, unadulterated free fall.
They say those who fall have wings.
Well, he sure didn't.
If he continued accelerating at this rate, the best-case scenario would be severe injuries, and the worst?
Unconsciousness.
Of course, he wouldn't die.
He'd recover in a day or two.
But that wasn't the point.
So, Jin focused his mind.
All of this had happened in just a single second.
From the moment he had leapt from the transport, only a single tick of the clock had passed—
His ash-gray eyes locked onto his target.
A floodlight, tilted skyward.
A lone, watchful eye staring down intruders.
Jin paid the toll of mana to reach it.
The next instant—
He flashed through the air, his outstretched hand gripping the floodlight's body.
Creeeak—
Unable to withstand the weight, the fixture bent like a bow.
As soon as his fingers released, Jin used the momentum to land smoothly on the rooftop.
Rain pounded around him as he glanced briefly at the fallen corpses, then swiftly moved inside the building.
The first thing he noticed was the heat.
The air was thick, suffocating—like stepping into a charcoal kiln.
Jin wrinkled his nose and dashed down the stairs.
Bodies littered the stairwells and landings at regular intervals.
Every single one of them had their heads engulfed in white-hot flames.
Other than their burning skulls, their bodies seemed in better shape than the ones on the roof.
Even as he moved, Jin took note of their attire and equipment.
And before long, a particular insignia caught his eye.
Scattered in various positions but all bearing the same design—
A skull clenching a cigar between its teeth.
And beneath it, the words: [Death Harbour]
Death Harbour?
Well, it wasn't Actavis.
Which meant they weren't corporate security.
So, a private military contractor?
A security firm?
Either way, it was excessive for a simple data chip manufacturer.
Clearly, something was going on here.
Jin kept running, mulling over the implications.
Ssssshhhhh!
Sprinklers sprayed water in all directions.
A countermeasure against the suffocating heat and flames filling the building—
The flood outside had found its way inside, too.
Wait, how far down have I gone?
Jin's brows furrowed.
He had already descended nearly ten floors, yet there was no sign of Anna.
Was she not using the emergency stairs—?
Thunk! Bang!
Jin, rounding a landing, instinctively ducked.
A bullet whizzed past overhead, embedding itself deep into the wall.
It might have seemed like he reacted to the gunshot—
But in reality, bullets traveled faster than sound.
Dodging after hearing the shot?
Impossible.
There's a reason they say, if you heard the shot, you survived.
No, Jin had moved before the bang!—
Because he had first heard the thunk! of the stairwell door being flung open.
And in the brief moment between thunk and bang!—
He had already drawn Gravis.
BANG—!!
A blast at least twice as loud as the previous gunshot erupted—
And the shooter staggered backward, clutching his chest, before collapsing.
Jin finally turned his head.
He approached the man, crouching to meet his gaze.
The bulletproof vest had saved him from an instant kill,
but the sheer impact had ravaged his internal organs.
Jin could see it in his fading eyes, his weakening breaths.
The man had only moments left.
"Hey. Hey. Lemme ask you something.
Answer properly, and I'll make this painless."
"F… fuck… you…"
"Hmm. Yeah, figured."
Lightning crackled around Jin's right hand.
Now that his mana circuits had grown, wielding it was much easier.
It still crackled defiantly—bzzt! bzzt!—raising its bristling energy like an angry cat, but it was undeniably useful.
And this was good practice.
After all, progress was made little by little.
Maybe one day, he'd pull off some insane feats like Anna.
Damn
A lightning storm engulfing the rooftop… would be pretty badass.
Like a psionic storm.
Damn, I wanna play some Starcraft.
Then a sudden thought hit him.
Wait.
Did I overdo it?
Jin withdrew his hand from the dying man's cybernetic port and muttered—
"So, have you changed your mind?"
"Guh... Haa, haa... ugh."
Fortunately, the negotiation worked well enough that a few rounds of questioning and answering took place in a relatively civil manner.
"So, you guys are mercenaries stationed in the building under contract, acting as security? But your designated area is only the ground level, and you don't know what's in the basement?"
No answer came.
It would be terrifying in its own way if a corpse suddenly started talking.
"So weak."
Clicking his tongue, Jin stood up.
Still, it wasn't a complete loss.
At the very least, he had a good guess about where Eanna had gone.
With that, Jin moved toward the elevator.
He would have loved to simply press the (↓) button, wait a moment, and ride it all the way down.
But every elevator in the building had already been shut down.
There was a reason Jin stood before the unlit elevator doors regardless—
BANG!!
Without hesitation, he kicked the doors, the metal bending and warping under the force.
After a few more strikes, the battered doors finally collapsed inward, revealing the dark shaft beyond.
"Unbelievable..."
Staring down the vertical black tunnel, Jin let out a sigh and took off his jacket.
He wrapped his flight jacket around the nearest rail, gripped it firmly, and—without hesitation—descended!
Just like in the movies.
Applying every bit of practical knowledge he had learned from action films,
Jin silently paid his respects to his mentors.
Thank you, Ethan Hunt.
Thank you, James Bond.
(Not that either of them had ever done anything quite like this.)
Of course, it wasn't as smooth as in the movies.
He stumbled a few times along the way, but he still made it to the bottom much faster than taking the stairs. From there, he smashed the doors open from the inside and stepped out.
What greeted him was a blazing inferno in the lobby.
The entire space had been reduced to scorched ruins, with mercenaries sprawled about like discarded scrap.
The culprit was too obvious.
As he draped his jacket back on and followed the lingering traces of mana across the lobby—
Twitch.
Sensing movement nearby, Jin instinctively pulled the trigger.
BANG!
A mercenary, just beginning to push himself up on one knee, was sent flying.
Even then, his upper body trembled as he tried to rise again, despite the gaping hole in his face.
Jin sprinted over and kicked him square in the head.
That's when the noise erupted from all directions.
"A'aaah!!!!"
Jin narrowed his eyes at the sight of mercenaries rising from the flames like zombies.
He had already figured out what was wrong with them.
Berserkers.
Not all the corpses had reanimated.
Only the relatively intact ones—specifically, those whose heads hadn't been consumed by the white flames—let out their damned howls and bared their fangs.
Jin moved before they could.
Gravis roared, muzzle flashing repeatedly.
One by one, the howling mercenaries' heads burst apart.
He kept firing until the magazine was empty.
Click.
The moment he felt the slide lock back, Jin ejected the magazine and swung his arm.
At the end of that arc—a mercenary was there, poised to drive a dagger into his face.
CRACK!
With the sickening crunch of a skull shattering, the mercenary collapsed.
Jin grabbed the twitching corpse by the collar and slammed his forehead into it.
Even in that brief moment, another mercenary had already lunged from his blind spot.
Shielding his body with a "body bunker," a large defensive shield, the enemy fired through a small gap at its center.
One of the bullets grazed Jin's shoulder.
The rest were absorbed by the limp, twitching corpse he held up as a shield.
In the next instant, Jin blinked above the bunker-wielding mercenary—just high enough to bring his heel down like a guillotine.
The execution was swift.
CRUNCH!
The helmet caved in, blood spraying from the mercenary's nose, eyes, and mouth.
His body crumpled, and Jin landed atop his skull, crushing it further underfoot.
He picked up the abandoned shield.
Just in time—
RATATATATATA!
Bullets slammed into the shield's surface as Jin hid behind it.
As the barrage subsided, he took a short breath, then charged.
Using his momentum, he slammed the shield upward, catching an enemy's jaw as he reloaded his rifle.
SCHLURK!!
Blood gushed from the half-severed neck.
Releasing the shield, Jin turned to the last remaining mercenary and delivered a devastating punch.
A Russian Hook.
Like a fastball pitch, his fist slammed into the enemy's head, driving him face-first into the floor.
"...Tch."
Spitting on the ground, Jin reloaded Gravis just as—
BANG!
The emergency exit door on the far side of the lobby burst open violently.
Click.
Jin instinctively aimed his gun toward the entrance—
And found himself staring at a familiar helmeted figure.
[Jin?]
Filling the entire visor with massive letters, Eric's body was covered in blood.
However, given the way he walked without issue, it was unlikely to be his own.
"You sure took your time."
[???? ???? ?????]
Ignoring the question marks that seemed almost resentfully exaggerated, Jin glanced at the mercenaries sprawled on the floor, gesturing toward them with his chin.
"They were all infected too."
[How many did you run into upstairs?]
"A lot? This place is a complete mess."
[But something feels off.]
"What?"
[There are no staff members.]
"…Huh?"
It was only then that Jin realized—throughout his descent in this building, he hadn't encountered a single employee.
A chill ran down his skin, despite the fact that it shouldn't have.
"Let's keep moving."
Standing around wouldn't provide any answers.
As he picked up his pace again, Jin shared what little information he had with Eric, who was walking beside him.
Not that it was anything particularly useful.
"There's definitely something in the basement. But they said you can't access it through the emergency stairs or elevators. There must be another way in."
[→ → Anna's mana → →]
"Right. That's our best lead. Let's hurry."
And so, the two of them ran.
Anna's mana was…
How should one describe it?
Transparent yet scorching?
Soothing yet destructive?
Either way, it had a distinct presence, making it easy to track.
Even if that weren't the case, it was like a twisted version of Hansel and Gretel, rated 29+.
Every few meters, charred corpses marked the way, providing a secondary confirmation that they were headed in the right direction.
Of course, there were a few complications—some of the mercenaries they had taken down reanimated and blocked their path.
But no matter how many of them there were, they couldn't possibly stop the advance of two solo fighters.
Through the repeated clashes, Jin began to get a vague sense of Eric's abilities.
Body acceleration?
And did he open his mana circuits too?
But… something about it feels artificial.
As these thoughts ran through his mind, a new entrance revealed itself before them.
It had likely been hidden behind a semi-transparent veil at some point, but now, the surface had burned away, exposing the passage.
Without hesitation, the two of them stepped inside.
The sound of their hurried footsteps echoed through the long, slanted, and narrow corridor before suddenly fading as their field of vision expanded.
And in the next moment—
A vast space bathed in a soft blue glow imprinted itself on Jin's senses.
The stinging scent of alcohol.
An eerie atmosphere.
The cold fluorescence.
The sluggish hum of machinery.
And at the far end, there was Anna.
The very person who had been moving so far ahead that catching up had seemed impossible—
Now, she stood still, staring at something.
As if her feet had taken root in the ground.
Shit, what's with that unsettling stance?
Feeling uneasy, Jin quickly rushed toward her.
Rather than ask what was wrong, he simply lifted his gaze to see what she was looking at.
Uuuuuuung—
A massive glass chamber connected to dozens of tubes stood before them.
Inside, submerged in a bubbling, pale green liquid, was a man wearing a respirator.
His long, flowing hair drifted in the liquid like waves, his eyes shut as if in deep slumber.
And wrapped around his body was—
A sinister, writhing force.
It would surge and subside, over and over again.
Black flames.