Xie Jingchen's private base was located deep beneath the city streets, completely isolated from the bustling clamor outside. Soft cyan fluorescent lights illuminated a sprawling space packed with supercomputer arrays, giant glass test tubes, and state-of-the-art technological equipment.
Inside the lab, Loona was busily adjusting a microscope, her side-tied ponytail swaying gently. Occasionally, she let out a small sigh and glanced toward the main entrance:
— "I wonder if the big brothers who went out recruiting have come back yet..."
Fiddling around with no response, Loona turned back to her unfinished biochemical formulas. Not far away in the common area, Xie Jingchen remained stretched out on the leather sofa, breathing evenly in a deep sleep after days of grueling work.
CLICK.
The lab's heavy metal door unexpectedly slid open. A hearty voice echoed across the room:
— "New member Roxy is back!"
Shin's eyes scanned the silent room, scratching his head in confusion:
— "Huh? Where is everybody?"
Hearing Shin's voice, Loona immediately set down her test tube and dashed out excitedly from the technical area:
— "Brother Shin is back!"
Shin smiled, stepping aside to wave at the girl walking behind him to step forward, happily introducing her:
— "Roxy, meet my little sister—Loona!"
Roxy took a step forward, the dog ears atop her head twitching slightly in a friendly greeting, and smiled gently:
— "Nice to meet you, Loona!"
Loona's eyes instantly blazed as if she had struck gold. Jumping forward, she circled Roxy with undisguised delight:
— "Look at you! Those ears look so incredibly cute!"
Loona suddenly remembered something and turned her head toward Shin with a mysterious grin:
— "Seeing how natural you look... seems like that experimental injection I gave Brother Shin this morning worked out pretty well, huh?"
The moment Shin heard the word "experimental," he jumped in shock, frantically waving his hands as his expression paled:
— "Whoa, whoa! I surrender, no more testing! Sure, it was interesting, but I don't want to keep being your guinea pig. Why don't you find Kento instead? He's strong as an ox and takes a beating real well!"
Loona clicked her tongue, giggling playfully:
— "Heehee, don't worry! Everyone gets a turn; no need to push it onto each other!"
The innocent yet terrifying implication of his little sister's words gave Shin goosebumps all over. Coughing lightly to regain his composure as leader, he hastily changed the subject:
— "By the way Loona, where's Jingchen?"
— "He's sleeping in on the sofa over there!"
Loona pointed toward the corner of the room.
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Shin nodded and walked over, using his foot to shake the sofa to wake Xie Jingchen up.
Meanwhile, Loona enthusiastically took Roxy by the hand, taking her on a tour around the lab and proudly showing off the biotechnology equipment and peculiar inventions she had personally crafted.
Xie Jingchen rubbed his eyes as he sat up, letting out a long yawn before looking up at Shin:
— "You're back..."
Shin patted Jingchen's shoulder, puffing out his chest with pride:
— "Just like you said! I successfully recruited Roxy!"
Jingchen snapped fully awake, nodding in satisfaction:
— "That's great then. What about Ling Mo and Brother Kento?"
Shin sat down on an adjacent armchair, letting out a sigh as he took off his jacket:
— "Beats me! No idea how those two hotshots are doing. I actually thought I'd be the last one back!"
Just as the two were wondering if Ling Mo's recruitment leg had run into trouble, a mouth-watering aroma of Gochujang sauce and melted cheese suddenly wafted in from the entrance of the underground lab.
— "Piping hot tteokbokki here! Who wants some tteokbokki!"
A hearty voice called out. Shin and Jingchen turned around at the same time, spotting Ling Mo carrying several large bags of food, walking side-by-side with a burly young man exuding the distinct aura of a martial artist.
Jingchen cheered:
— "Awesome, Ling Mo succeeded too!"
Ling Mo brushed back his hair, which still clung to a few raindrops, laughing:
— "Glad we made it back in time, or else we'd be soaked like drowned rats out there!"
Ling Mo hastily introduced Kwon Tae-Joon to Shin and Xie Jingchen. However, before the introduction could even properly begin—
BANG! CRASH!
The heavy metal door of the lab was suddenly kicked wide open by a terrifying force, flying directly inside!
— "Watch out!"
Ling Mo and Tae-Joon reacted with lightning speed, springing back to opposite sides simultaneously. The door, weighing hundreds of kilograms, whistled right between them and smashed heavily into the stone wall with a deafening screech.
A tall figure stepped inside. Kento appeared, completely drenched from the torrential downpour outside. His tattered shirt hung loosely, with dried blood still staining his chest. But most horrifying of all were his hands: Kento was casually dragging by their collars two battered, blood-caked, completely unconscious bodies—the Mikami brothers, Ren and Rei!
Kento casually tossed the two gang leaders onto the floor with a THUD, tussling his wet hair before speaking nonchalantly:
— "Someone patch up our two new patients, will ya?"
Ling Mo and Tae-Joon stared at each other bug-eyed before rushing over to check their injuries. Shin also hurried over in alarm, nudging the two barely breathing bodies.
Meanwhile, Xie Jingchen clutched his head, letting out an agonizing roar as he stared at his shattered lab door:
— "MY DOOR! THAT COST ME TENS OF THOUSANDS OF COINS!"
Hearing the massive commotion, Loona and Roxy dashed out from the inner room.
Kento ignored Jingchen's cries over his property, leaning over to pat the young master's shoulder:
— "I'm soaked through. Borrowing your shower for a bit, Jingchen!"
With that, Kento turned around and strolled straight toward the bathroom. Jingchen was so furious steam almost blew out of his head, shouting after him:
— "Hey, you bastard! Look at the door! You're just gonna take a shower like nothing happened?!"
Tae-Joon quickly opened the lab's first-aid kit, examining the Mikami brothers' bones before offering reassuring words:
— "They're fine! Just a few broken bones; patch them up and bandage them, and they'll snap out of it in no time!"
Helping with the bandaging while looking at their faces, swollen up like beat-up old rags, Shin shook his head in resignation:
— "Let's wrap them up quick then. Seeing them laid out flat like this is enough to tell what a horrific scene just went down..."
Some time later, thanks to special medical care and Xie Jingchen's high-speed recovery technology, the Mikami brothers crossed out of critical condition. Wrapped in bandages from head to toe like a pair of Egyptian mummies, they lay asleep on auxiliary hospital beds.
Kento emerged from the bathroom, his damp hair combed backward neatly. Looking over his two "masterpieces," he clicked his tongue:
— "How on earth did you guys fix them up to make them look like two Egyptian mummies?”
Shin crossed his arms, shooting Kento a glare that could burn holes:
— "It's because of you that those two turned out half-dead in the first place!"
Kento nonchalantly lit a cigarette, smirking:
— "I was holding back big time!"
Setting aside the chaos Kento had caused, before long, all the core members of Zero Horizon were assembled around the central sofa area (with the exception of the recovering Mikami brothers). The fiery aroma of Tae-Joon's tteokbokki drifted through the air, making the atmosphere surprisingly cozy.
Xie Jingchen tapped his fingers lightly on the glass tabletop, drawing everyone's attention:
— "All potential new members have been brought in. Shall we move on to our next main topic then?"
Roxy raised an eyebrow at Jingchen while taking a bite of rice cake:
— "You gathered surprisingly detailed information on me..."
Tae-Joon nodded in admiration as well:
— "I was way out in some remote street corner, yet you knew my Muay Thai record inside out. I've got to hand it to you—Zero Horizon's brain is terrifying!"
Xie Jingchen waved his hands dismissively, pulling out a disc-shaped holo-projector and placing it on the table:
— "Come on, put that aside, you two. Now hear me out…”
The surface of the holo-disc emitted a blue beam of light, projecting a spatial schematic of a magnificent, massive structure.
— "In this city, an illegal underground auction of the largest scale to date is taking place soon. I want everyone to coordinate and breach the venue to rescue the alien species being put up for auction! However, be extremely careful..."
Jingchen's eyes darkened, his expression turning terrifyingly serious:
— "I can't say for sure which big shots will show up this time, because the guest list has been almost entirely scrubbed by the Federation's high command."
Shin frowned, rubbing his chin thoughtfully:
— "So how long until the auction takes place? And how did you get such detailed intel on such a classified event?"
Xie Jingchen smirked with a mysterious grin, answering nonchalantly:
— "Quite simple... Because I received a personalized invitation to attend myself!"
Kento let out a quiet whistle beside him, nodding:
— "Not bad at all, kid!"
Xie Jingchen continued adjusting the holo-interface:
— "It's scheduled to officially take place in about 5 months. But between now and then, we still need to recruit more high-level combat power!"
Everyone in the room turned their eyes toward Xie Jingchen in unison. Roxy asked curiously:
— "So the next target... who is it?"
Xie Jingchen tapped lightly on the keyboard. The holo-projection instantly retracted, yielding to a classified file glowing in vibrant crimson, displaying a photo of a man whose sharp, sword-like eyes pierced through the dark.
Beneath the photo, gold lettering lit up with crystal clarity:
— KAMISHIRO SEIJURO!
End of Chapter 40