The atmosphere inside the P-Type command hall was cold enough to raise goosebumps. The moment the sliding doors parted, Nicolas stepped in with a severity that sharply contrasted his usual demeanor, followed closely by three unidentified officers in full uniform whose very presence radiated unmistakable menace.
Outside the dome, the public continued to praise the successful seizure of two hundred million credits' worth of contraband. But behind the fortified walls of Biotope Research Center No. 5, those in power were seething over the mission's failure to apprehend Sven. The enormous budget poured into high-grade weaponry had been utterly outmatched by the crude, ruthless tactics of the Out Law, a group the government had once dismissed as nothing more than lawless trash.
Worst of all, their primary target, Sven, was now firmly in Out Law's hands. The risk of genetic data leaks or further modification of the experimental subject had become a thorn lodged deep in the side of both the government and its financial backers, something they could no longer afford to ignore.
"What the hell were you thinking! I gave you full autonomy, poured money into this operation, gave you everything you asked for, even that ridiculous billiards table. And this is the result?"
Nicolas' voice cracked through the room as his glare swept over every single one of them.
"They walked off with Project 12… Do you have any idea how much I've had to cover for this disaster?"
"How were we supposed to see that coming… and then Project 29's allies show up out of nowhere on top of it. We had nothing in place to handle that kind of interference."
23 fired back, his tone controlled but tight with irritation, his gaze fixed low without the slightest trace of submission.
"We misjudged them, sure. But no one expected the Out Law to come in armed like that."
Lloyd added, rolling his injured shoulder, the abrasion still fresh from the fight.
"They weren't there for a skirmish. They came in to level the place."
"That's rich coming from you! Lloyd, weren't you the one who disappeared on us?"
Lewis snapped, his temper flaring as he shifted his broad frame, the bruises from the .50 rounds still visible across his body.
"Disappeared? Or are your muscles so big they've squeezed out your eyesight?"
Lloyd shot back instantly, his eyes gleaming with open contempt.
"You think those two railguns just blew themselves up? If I hadn't taken them out, your head would've been gone a long time ago!"
"Oh yeah? If you're such a crack shot, then why didn't you finish off the rest of them!"
Lewis pressed on, refusing to back down.
"Because I couldn't see a damn thing! Once they opened up with the heavy machine guns, the dust got so thick it swallowed everything. If I'd started firing blind, I would've taken out our own people!"
Lloyd barked back, his voice tight with frustration.
"And the worst part? We've got dead weight on this team."
Lewis dropped the bomb, his gaze sliding over to Roxanne and Sophie with open irritation.
With Sophie, he could at least understand. Her body wasn't built to take punishment, no matter how terrifying her actual ability might be. But Roxanne… he knew exactly what that girl was capable of. She could've wiped the Out Law off the map in seconds. Instead, she'd been sitting there, clapping and munching on cookies, watching the chaos unfold like it was some kind of show, caring about nothing but her own amusement.
"Enough. That's enough… You've got something planned, don't you, Nicolas."
23 cut through the pointless argument, his gaze fixed sharply on the project head, waiting for an answer.
"Damn right I do! From here on out, these three will be taking over."
Nicolas barked, turning toward the three stone-faced officers standing by.
"They're senior officers. They'll be overseeing you and handling the planning from now on… and let me make this clear, if anyone here can't pull their weight, I won't keep them around."
With that blunt declaration, Nicolas turned on his heel and strode out of the room without another word, leaving behind a suffocating silence that settled over the P-Type unit and their new overseers.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Colonel Pierce Hildebrand."
The man in uniform stepped forward, his voice dry and authoritative.
"I head the tactical division, specializing in combat planning for high-risk zones, particularly the Outlands. From this moment on, I will be personally responsible for planning your operations."
"Planning? We already have a plan, don't we?"
Gareth shot back with a mocking edge, raising a brow at the officer.
"Then let me ask you this. The last time you were deployed, what exactly was your mission objective?"
Colonel Pierce replied in the same even tone, though the pressure behind it was unmistakable.
"The objective was to capture the escaped experimental subject from the research facility."
Gareth answered, his voice deliberately stiff, forcing a level of formality he clearly didn't care for.
"That's not a plan… Do you even know what your worst mistake was?"
Colonel Pierce said, his gaze boring into each of them in turn. 23, Lewis, Lloyd, and Gareth met his stare with open hostility, and the tension in the room spiked instantly.
"You didn't plan anything. The information you had was barely sufficient, and your execution was careless."
Pierce continued, his tone utterly devoid of sympathy.
"You charged in like animals, chasing instinct, without the slightest regard for how well-prepared your enemy might be."
"I don't question your abilities, not in the slightest. With all due respect, ability only matters when it's backed by coordination and a solid plan."
Colonel Pierce spoke in a composed tone, one that gradually drew everyone's attention.
"It's clear from the reports… Project 12 was taken by the Out Law, who are, at their core, just ordinary humans. In a one-on-one fight, I would put everything I have on Project 12 without hesitation. But in reality, war isn't decided by raw power alone."
His gaze swept across the unit, noting how their hostility had begun to fade.
"If I were the one planning your operations, you'd be able to carry them out with far greater ease. Your chances of success would increase, you'd have contingencies for the unexpected, and most importantly… it would allow you to bring out your true potential in the most effective way possible."
The strategist's logic carried weight. 23, Lewis, and Gareth fell silent, each of them reflecting on their past mistakes. Hesitation began to surface in their eyes. Only Roxanne remained untouched, idly flicking at her eyepatch without a care in the world. But for the others, the proposal was starting to sound… reasonable.
.....
The atmosphere inside the alliance's hidden base was noticeably more relaxed than at the research center. Even after a brutal battle, the camaraderie among them made the debrief feel less like a formal report and more like a group of friends sitting in a loose circle, talking things through.
"I don't know… those P-Type guys didn't seem all that scary to me."
Chloe said, leaning back in her chair with an easy, casual air.
"Not really… it felt like they weren't even using their abilities to the fullest. Maybe they're just too confident in their superiority and ended up underestimating us."
Jenkins cut in, his tone serious as he recalled the heat signatures he had observed during the chaos.
"That's true… we are beyond ordinary humans. Not trying to put anyone down, it's just what we were made for."
Drago added, glancing at his arm where the wound had already healed without a trace.
"Take me, for example. My ability might not look flashy, but the fact that I can't die… that's a curse in its own way. Think about it, if you had to fight someone who never goes down, it's like punching a wall that will never break. In the end, the one who runs out of strength and dies… is the opponent."
Drago's words made Edward, who had been quietly listening, begin to grasp the true horror of the experimental subjects. If they ever united and planned their actions more carefully, the world beyond the dome would become a battlefield no one could stand against.
"But it's not just confidence. If you ask me, what they're really missing is teamwork."
Jenkins added, analyzing what he had experienced firsthand in his encounter with Gareth.
"That's true. You could see it with that guy, 23. When he gave orders, there was nothing backing them up. And the way he spoke… he didn't sound like someone with real military experience either. What was he before this?"
Chloe asked, curiosity creeping into her voice as she probed into the unit leader's past.
"I've got no idea… All I know is he was assigned Project Number 23. Never gives his name, and he makes everyone call him 23. Real mysterious type, keeps to himself. Comes off a bit authoritarian too… though, to be honest, he's all style and no substance sometimes."
Drago let out a faint scoff, recalling the cold expression of his former comrade.
"Hmm… and then there's the numbers. How many of them are there in total, anyway? According to the reports, nineteen escaped. One's already been taken out, seven are with P-Type, and eleven were eliminated on the day of the escape… so that makes…"
Chloe began counting on her fingers, carefully working through the numbers in her head.
"Thirty-seven…"
Darius's voice cut in, his figure appearing in the doorway of the meeting room at just the right moment.
"In truth, this project involved thousands of participants. But the other segments were complete failures. Every last one of them died… The only ones who made it to the final stage were the thirty-seven from our segment."
He spoke while leaning against the doorframe, completely unfazed by the sheer scale of the losses.
"Wait… thousands of people died?"
Jenkins blurted out, his expression caught between shock and horror. He didn't want to imagine the piles of bodies that must have been left behind to create power like this.
"Yeah… they don't care who dies in the process. There's always fresh material coming in. Volunteers, people desperate enough to sell themselves for money, even death row inmates with no other choice."
Darius replied coolly, as if he were reciting gambling statistics he knew by heart.
"As for power… every single one of them is far from ordinary, just like Drago said. What you've seen so far, beautiful… that's only a fraction."
Darius added, a faint, unreadable smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
"Only a fraction of their power? You're saying what we saw wasn't even the real thing?"
Chloe pressed, her mind flashing back to the speed and raw strength they had just witnessed.
"That's about right. But no matter how dangerous an ability is, everyone has a blind spot… especially when it comes to energy."
Drago cut in, letting out a quiet sigh.
"The baseline for people like us is already double the daily energy consumption of a normal human. I need around six to seven thousand calories a day just to keep going. And someone like that musclehead Lewis… he'd probably burn through twenty thousand in a single day."
"But even if you run out of energy, you don't die, right?"
Chloe asked directly, turning to Drago as she probed the limits of his immortality.
"That's true. I don't die… but it's torture."
Drago replied, his eyes dimming.
"Being so hungry it feels like your insides are twisting in on themselves, with nothing to eat… feeling like you're about to die from it, but never actually dying. I've never pushed myself that far, but just thinking about it is enough to make your skin crawl, isn't it?"
Drago's confession made Edward, and the others, begin to understand the true horror behind what looked like a gift. In a place like the Outlands, where supplies were never guaranteed, that kind of power could just as easily become a living hell that trapped them forever.
"That's exactly why I needed a secure place to stay. When I said I needed a bed and food, I wasn't lying about any of it."
Darius said, adjusting his suit with a practiced motion.
"Because if I have to gamble out there without supplies, my chances of dying go way up… I'm not built like Drago, I don't have that kind of endurance."
"By the way… what exactly is your ability?"
Connor, who had been silent for a while, finally cut in, his gaze sharp with curiosity and a clear demand for answers.
"Hm? Didn't Drago tell you already?"
Darius raised a brow, glancing sideways at his fellow subject.
"He did… but what he knows and what you say yourself are two different things. I'd rather hear it from the one who actually has the power."
Connor replied in a low, steady voice, locking eyes with the young gambler as if trying to pry out the truth hidden beneath that teasing façade.
"Man… gamblers don't usually show their hand, you know. But since we're on the same side now, I'll let you in on it."
Darius let out a long sigh, a knowing smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
"My ability is deception. I use brainwaves to emit a certain kind of energy that interferes with the sensory perception of anyone within a limited range. They see what I want them to see, hear what I want them to hear, even taste, smell, and feel exactly what I decide."
He paused, sweeping his gaze across the room as everyone stared in stunned silence.
"But the more people there are, the harder it gets to control. Everyone perceives things from a different angle. Some are behind me, some are farther away. No two people are seeing the exact same thing… and that's the most annoying part."
"What about sensors? You can fool those too, right?"
Edward asked, excitement creeping into his voice as he recalled how his mask had malfunctioned and lost all sense of direction.
"Exactly. Same principle. I emit a certain kind of signal that throws off machine perception completely. Honestly, if I just walked straight into the dome right now, no one would even notice."
Darius replied with quiet confidence, exhaling a stream of pale smoke.
"Wait… then that means… you could get all of us into the dome without being detected?"
Kelly froze, her fingers halting mid-typing as her eyes lit up with sudden hope.
"Well… yeah. Why… I mean, No, No, No!!... that's not what I meant! I'm not saying I'd take you in there!"
Darius stumbled over his words, suddenly flustered as he realized he had just let something slip that could come back to bite him.
But it was already too late. Every gaze in the room locked onto him as if they had just uncovered a long-lost treasure. A plan that had once seemed impossible began to take shape in their minds the moment those words left his mouth.