Chapter 37: The Flame of the Yeon Family (6)
"Where are the Rankers? Where are the Rankers?!"
"T-The Rankers assigned to this Workshop… all their contracts expired yesterday…!"
"Damn it! Patrol! Activate the Patrol series!"
At the director's shout, the Workshop researchers scrambled to activate the Patrol units. Dozens of machines lit up with blue, menacing eyes as they booted up to eliminate the intruder.
Pathetic.
"Descend."
With a majestic sonic boom, the Shinsu swords dropped one after another from the sky.
The first sword fell directly onto the cluster of Patrol units—thirty-two of them, still in warm-up mode, were reduced instantly to scrap metal.
"Wh-What is that…?"
"P-Please… spare—!"
Every time a sword fell, the ground shook violently.
It didn't matter whether someone stood frozen in shock or tried to flee in panic—each and every one was obliterated without distinction.
Honestly, he wanted to detonate the swords and obliterate the entire area—but multiple living signals still remained somewhere inside the laboratory.
So he endured.
Five giant Shinsu swords still hovered in the sky over the Workshop.
Plenty of trash still needed disposing.
All five fell at once, aimed directly at the Workshop itself.
No matter what—this disgusting facility would not be left standing.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
"S-Stop! Aaaagh—!"
"G-Gahh!!—"
Judgment rained from the heavens, and the sinners died in droves beneath it.
Blood and screams filled the air—a sight he once believed would disgust him.
But for the first time, it felt… satisfying.
Finally, the last sword swept away the final remnants of the Workshop.
When the shockwave and thunderous roar faded, not a trace of the building remained—only ten massive craters scarred the land.
A satisfying sight—yet he frowned.
There were still survivors.
He folded his wings and descended to the ground.
"D-Don't come any closer! I—I am the Workshop Director! If you harm me, even you won't get away with it, no matter how strong you are!"
"Who said I was a Ranker?"
"…What?"
He knocked the director unconscious and flung him into a distant wall.
There might still be useful information inside the man's head—but first, he needed to check the vault-like structure that housed the life signals.
Placing his hand on the metal door, he pierced it with Gongpa Art and stepped inside.
Inside was a giant cage. And—
"…"
Dozens of pairs of eyes stared back at him.
Every single one filled with terror, discomfort, despair.
A group of children—clearly from the Ten Great Families—chained by their arms and legs, bodies limp as if drugged.
"…Oppa?"
A word he didn't expect froze his heart for a moment.
Whipping his head toward the voice—thankfully, it wasn't what he feared.
A white-haired, white-eyed girl stared at him hazily. An Arie child. She must have mistaken him for someone else.
"…Wh-Who are you…?"
She finally regained enough clarity to realize he wasn't the person she hoped for.
The hope in her eyes instantly shattered, replaced once more with fear.
"Don't be scared. You're safe now. I'll get you out."
Hearing his words, the Arie girl's trembling lips wavered before she burst into tears.
He gently patted her back until she calmed, then crushed the metal bars imprisoning her and the other children, setting them all free.
"Hic… hngh… uaaaah… Those scary people… th-they kept saying… they'd melt me… uuuu… Some of my friends here already… hngh…"
"You don't need to worry anymore. Stay here for a moment, okay? I'll be right back."
The girl clung desperately to his clothes, refusing to let go, but he gently put her to sleep before stepping outside again.
The director had regained consciousness by now.
Maintaining his composure, he grabbed the man by the collar.
"Ugh—w-wait! I achieved great accomplishments here—!"
"Shut up."
He glanced around.
Strange corrosive fluid was eating away at the surrounding ground—the same solution Hwarang had been submerged in.
"…Dissolving solution. I see."
The bastard.
Noticing his expression turning colder, the director panicked.
"W-Wait—Let's make a deal! I'm creating a living ignition weapon! If you spare me, I'll melt the specimen and make you one! A living ignition weapon! Doesn't that sound rare—?"
"Oh, I'm sure it would be."
When he answered, hope lit up in the director's eyes.
He opened his mouth to speak further—but no one wanted to hear any more of his madness.
"What weapon do you think you get when you melt garbage?"
"W-Wait—no—!!"
Lifting the director effortlessly, he threw him straight into the acidic pool.
The man's clothes and flesh dissolved instantly, and he screamed in agony.
"GYAAAAAH! HOT! HOT! P-PLEASE! HELP ME—!"
"When the children begged you the same way… I doubt you cared."
He picked up the flask containing the unfinished weapon and threw it into the solution as well.
The screaming stopped soon after.
The director finally achieved the "living ignition weapon" he wanted so badly.
He destroyed the weapon completely—down to the last fragment—and walked back toward Hwarang and Luf with the sleeping Arie girl in his arms.
Luf was severely injured but alive, unconscious.
But the real problem was Hwarang.
He was a mess.
Wounds everywhere, a gaping hole through his abdomen, chemical burns covering his entire body—some areas eaten down to the bone.
"You're… okay— No, that's impossible. You're not okay."
"…I mean… I want to say I'm okay, but honestly? I'm not. It hurts like hell."
"Haha… let's go home."
Seeing Hwarang crack a joke in that condition made me snort.
Together, we headed toward the hospital.
.....
21st Floor – Test Area A
"…I've come up here, but I don't see him anywhere. Any contact from the Gate Team?"
"None, sir. Well… actually…"
"What?"
"It's not that they didn't contact us… they're simply not responding at all."
"…What?"
The FUG Ranker and the capture team immediately took control of the Gate and moved to the location they had lured the target to.
But all they found were dozens of corpses—test candidates mutilated, limbs torn off.
The real target had slipped far away long ago.
"Damn it!"
"Should we pursue?"
"No. He's already gone to the test-taker zone. I can't exert my strength properly there. And judging by this scene… even if you tried, you'd end up just like these fools."
Besides, moving through the test zone risked the Yeon family noticing.
So the FUG Ranker and the candidates he brought retreated back to their respective areas.
'We secured the Yeon boy and the Tu Perie child anyway. That alone is enough gain.'
That was what the Ranker thought.
Until a few days later—
He read the newspaper reporting that the entire Workshop branch on the 21st floor had been annihilated.
And he could only sit there, stunned.
....
Somewhere on the 21st Floor
"What? Yeon Hwarang is alive?"
"He's heavily injured, but expected to recover soon."
The Yeon family Ranker could hardly believe it.
How could anyone escape from that place?
The Workshop had tighter security than anywhere else.
"How did he get out?"
"Rather than escaping… it seems he was rescued by a fellow test participant. Here—take a look."
His subordinate handed him a photo.
The Workshop research facility was a total ruin—flattened, reduced to ten enormous craters.
"…Did Hwarang have a Ranker acquaintance?"
"It was a test participant. An Arie candidate, one of his teammates."
Whether a test participant could cause that amount of destruction was a question he shoved aside—there were other things that made even less sense.
"How did he even find the place?"
The Workshop never left loose ends.
No traces, no clues. Their special facilities were shielded against Shinsu detection—even by Ten Family heirs or Zahard's Princesses. Normally, even after Hwarang died, his teammates would never have known.
"I'm not certain, but… it seems FUG targeted Hwarang's teammates. Including the Arie candidate. Since FUG had a contract with the Workshop, they must have tracked them—and in the process, the Arie kid probably traced them back to Yeon Hwarang…"
CRASH!
"Aaagh!! Damn FUG bastards! Why now?!"
His perfect plan—ruined by a single mistake from FUG.
Rage surged through him, but there was nothing he could do.
....
21st Floor – Hospital
"Oh… your flame is interesting."
I stared in genuine awe at the flame covering Hwarang's body.
Once a mix of red and pink, his flame now shimmered with a beautiful blue glow.
According to him, he could use both crimson flame and blue flame.
"It seems the properties of your flame are accelerating your recovery. At this rate, you should be fully healed within a week."
The doctor's assessment matched what I saw—the flame was slowly mending Hwarang's body before our eyes.
"And Luf?"
"Compared to this patient, his injuries are mild. As expected of a Ten Family member, he's recovering quickly. He should also be healed within a few days to a week."
"But… the Arie girl's condition is quite bad.
Her external wounds aren't severe, but the internal damage is significant. We detected unknown drugs—and even narcotics. Honestly, her body is…"
Both the doctor's expression and mine darkened.
Seeing my reaction, the doctor quickly forced a reassuring smile, telling me she'd recover in a few months and not to worry.
He must've thought we were siblings.
"Hoaquin, what will you do now?"
"Hm? Oh…"
"There's no guarantee this won't happen again.
On floors governed by the Yeon family, things like this may repeat. No—they will repeat."
Hwarang looked at me with a solemn expression.
"Oh, that? Don't worry."
"…What?"
Hwarang didn't seem to understand—he lived far away from family politics.
But an Arie direct descendant had been attacked.
With what happened here, our justification was more than enough.
From here on… it becomes an adult's problem.
I opened my Pocket's voice-call feature—scrolling down until I found the name I wanted.
— Administrator of the Arie Sub-Branch Floating Castle, 99th Floor
Connections exist for moments like this.
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