Chapter Fourteen: Search and Infiltration

"Regardless of the actual situation, there is definitely something strange going on beneath the underground of Nnyberteh." K nodded slightly and said, "We must go in and investigate."

At that moment, K's communicator suddenly rang. K quickly answered it, and after hanging up, cast a solemn look toward Jin. "That fellow S has already infiltrated Nnyberteh. We must rush over immediately to provide backup."

The two exchanged glances and quickly set off, preparing to head toward Nnyberteh's headquarters.

Meanwhile, down in the underground structure of Nnyberteh's headquarters, S, clad in a sleek black trench coat, leaned against the wall, her gaze fixed on the metal door beside her. During her last infiltration, the signal she transmitted had been cut off right here; there had to be something peculiar about this place.

Grasping her laser gun tightly in her right hand, S aimed it at the keyhole on the door. Just as she was about to fire, a flash of wariness crossed her beautiful face. Her eyes darted sideways, and her entire body leaped sideways and downward.

Almost simultaneously as she vaulted away, a laser beam blasted against the metal door, sending dazzling sparks flying.

Before she had even steadied her stance, S flicked her wrist, and a laser beam shot forth, piercing directly toward the rear.

"Whoosh!"

The scorching laser grazed the edge of President Tazaki's wrist, knocking the laser gun right out of his hand.

"So that's how it is. You're an accomplice of those two fellows."

President Tazaki looked at S and raised his wrist, where the laser had burned a piercing, smoking hole, and fresh blood was dripping down his fingers onto the floor.

"The human body is truly fragile."

Looking at the bright red blood on his hand, President Tazaki let out a strange sound from his throat.

S walked toward Tazaki cautiously, asking with a cold and stern voice, "You fellow, could you be a Parasite?"

A bizarre smile appeared on Tazaki's face as he slowly backed away and replied,

"We parasitize human brains. If you attack now, the human I am parasitizing—the host—will also die at the same time."

Through his lenses, his eyes cast an eerie yellow light, appearing exceptionally terrifying and ferocious.

Just then, a female employee carrying a stack of documents walked out from the nearby corridor. Catching sight of the glow in Tazaki's eyes, she screamed uncontrollably, and the documents in her hands scattered all over the floor in a flutter.

S hurriedly stepped forward, using one arm to shield the female employee while pointing her other hand at Tazaki. Cautiously retreating into another corridor, she sprinted away with the woman.

Having escaped the underground level, S looked at the woman beside her and said hurriedly, "Go quickly and tell the people in the office to hide outside!"

However, no reaction showed on the woman's face. She merely gazed coldly at S.

That icy look gave S an instinctive sense that something was wrong. Before she could react, Yamane suddenly stepped out from the side, raised the long club in his hand, and smashed it fiercely onto S's back.

Struck violently from behind by the club, S stumbled and fell to the side. The woman immediately ran forward, unfastened the portable mobile computer from S's wrist, and then went to stand right beside Yamane.

Enduring the aching pain in her back, S climbed to her feet, only to see more employees emerging one after another from the offices, lining up beside Yamane. Both before and behind her, parasitized individuals had blocked her path. The vast majority of people in this entire company had actually taken that so-called Shiner 5.

"You trusted me so easily..." The woman played with the device in her hand, sneering at S.

"You are all already..."

The woman didn't care in the least. As she closed in on S, she said, "How about you? Will you join us? Our bodies in the basement are about to be completed!"

S stood up, pulling a pair of sunglasses from her clothes pocket as she replied:

"No, I suppose not. I think I rather enjoy being a human."

As her voice trailed off, she abruptly ripped off the necklace from her neck and hurled it violently onto the ground.

"Boom!"

With a muffled sound, a blinding light burst forth. Taking advantage of the brief moment of blindness among the crowd, S dashed out from the encirclement.

Looking at the empty ground, Yamane angrily swung his long club and roared in fury:

"Damn it, don't let her get away!"

In the dim stairwell, S raced upward along the stairs. A glance to the side revealed that no lights were on in the adjacent rooms, indicating that no parasitized employees were inside them.

Without time for hesitation, S hurried inside. However, before she could even find a hiding spot, a strange noise from a corner made her already tense nerves snap to attention.

"Who's there?!"

At the sound, a person poked their head out from against the wall and said nervously:

"I... I wanted to steal some Shiner 5 here, but the president and everyone else mutated!"

Walking over cautiously, S realized this was none other than the delivery guy who had visited the company twice before. Seeing his panicked expression, he clearly didn't look like someone who had been parasitized, so she hurried to help him up.

"Over there!"

Yamane's voice soon echoed from afar, making it clear they were already searching the area.

With no time to overthink, S urged, "Quickly, get up and come with me."

This floor seemed devoid of anyone else; the doors were tightly shut. Opening an office door at random, she quietly slipped inside along with the delivery guy.

It was impossible to tell how long they could hide here. The most pressing matter now was to convey the situation inside to S and Jin—she trusted they must have already arrived outside the company to provide backup.

Picking up pen and paper from a desk, S hastily scribbled a note in the dim environment and handed it to the delivery guy beside her.

"I'll draw them away first. Once everyone is gone, you escape through the outer stairs. There will be two men waiting outside to meet you. Give this to them."

Looking at the young man trembling with fear, S let out a soft sigh of grief. The situation at Nnyberteh's headquarters had far exceeded her expectations. If only a scattered few employees had been parasitized, she could have relied on her exceptional martial skills to fight her way out, but the odds of that now were exceedingly slim.

As for this man, since they hadn't discovered him yet, it meant his cover wasn't blown. His chances of slipping away unnoticed were still quite high.

"Click."

The room's door was suddenly pushed open. Yamane stepped in first, raising his baton to scan the surroundings warily while switching on the lights, mocking as he spoke:

"Hiding in a place like this, trying to pull some little trick, are you? Search the rooms."

As the lights blared on and the sounds of rummaging echoed around her, S sighed and was the first to stand up from behind the desk.

"There's no need."

Lowering her laser gun, S picked up a cup of water from the desk and said calmly,

"I've already figured out what to do."

Taking a deep breath, S produced the capsule of Shiner 5. The pale yellow pill rattled against the container as she shook it, and she then removed it and dropped it straight into the cup of water.

The pale yellow pill dissolved rapidly in the water, turning the liquid a faint, yellowish hue. S took a gentle sniff—it was odorless.

Was this the very thing people desired so desperately?

The so-called drug capable of unlocking human brain potential, the so-called ultimate assistant in life—who could possibly know what kind of alien ambitions lay hidden beneath it all?

Shiner 5 was selling like wildfire across the globe. Just how many people worldwide were taking this stuff? At a conservative estimate, it had to be at least a million.

If their ambitions truly succeeded, it would mean the lives of millions of human beings.

Jin, K, I leave the rest to you!

Swirling the cup, she watched the yellow liquid spin in circles, and then she drank it down in a single breath.