The eye embedded in the Hazard Driver suddenly trembled, as if it had sensed something.
Its golden pupil narrowed, then slowly dilated… not like it was looking at anything—
but more like it was listening.
The man in red froze.
"…What?"
His brow furrowed, a flicker of malice flashing across his eyes.
Bracing one hand against the floor, the professor slowly pushed himself upright and leaned back against the wall. Blood still seeped from his left shoulder, soaking through the sleeve of his white coat.
He wiped the smear of blood from the corner of his mouth.
Behind his cracked glasses, his eyes glinted with something unreadable.
"It seems… some of my assistants—and even a few of my esteemed colleagues—have been keeping a close watch on every step I take whenever I visit the Dawn Research Institute."
He smiled.
A faint smile, but laced with sharp mockery.
"Did you really think… you were the only ones doing the watching?"
The man in red clenched his fist.
A brief hesitation flickered in his gaze.
"Oh? So the professor knew all along, yet pretended otherwise? How very… subtle of you."
His voice stretched lazily, like he was toying with a caged animal.
But behind the fractured lenses, the professor's eyes lifted slightly,
a thin smile forming at his lips.
Standing nearby, Lam Huy Trường felt his heart pounding.
What was the professor planning? Why would he deliberately allow himself to be followed?
A flood of questions rose in Trường's mind. If trying to save Eva went against the will of the organization backing this man…
then why had the professor gone out of his way to expose his own movements?
The professor looked straight at the man in red.
"You've always believed you held a guaranteed ticket to becoming a god… a savior far beyond humanity… haven't you?"
He pushed himself off the wall and stood, his body swaying slightly.
His right hand instinctively pressed against his bleeding shoulder.
The man in red didn't reply.
But in his eyes, a flash of killing intent ignited—
as if he didn't want to hear what came next.
The professor adjusted his glasses.
"Let me tell you an interesting secret about the Hazard Driver…"
He paused, his voice calm and steady.
"Consider it my way of repaying you… for revealing your organization's intentions toward Eva."
"The price… that the user of a Hazard Driver must pay is—"
Whoosh.
The man in red vanished.
In the next instant, he was standing right in front of the professor, his hand clamped tightly around the professor's throat, lifting him off the ground
"That's enough."
His voice turned cold.
"Professor, if you're planning to stall me with some ridiculous secret—"
He let out a soft chuckle.
"—then you might as well leave your last words instead."
His gaze dropped, icy and merciless.
"After all… there's no one coming to hear them."
"I've already taken care of those useless fools."
Tilting his head, his voice sank into a near whisper:
"Well?"
"Is that truth… more interesting than your little 'secret'?"
The professor gripped the arm that was strangling him. For a brief moment, it looked as though he was thinking about something—then he burst out laughing.
The man in red frowned.
Still suspended in midair, the professor spoke again, his voice low and calm.
"You laugh at the foolishness of the world…"
"…yet in the end—"
The smile at the corner of his lips deepened.
"—the true fools…"
"…are you."
The sound of grinding teeth echoed sharply.
The room fell silent.
Only the faint hum of machinery remained… along with the frantic pounding of Lam Huy Trường's heartbeat in his ears.
The air grew thick, suffocating.
Trường swallowed. It felt as though he and the professor were playing with molten steel, daring to toy with fire directly.
The atmosphere became increasingly oppressive.
"What exactly are you trying to say?!" the man in red roared. A crimson blade slowly began to form in his right hand, red crystals converging and condensing into a sharp edge.
The professor's gaze drifted toward the arm being encased in those red crystals.
With eyes that seemed to smile, he raised his voice.
"Zero, you will become a monster long before you ever become a god—"
"—or anything else."
Zero's hand froze midair.
His eyes darkened.
"…What?"
The professor enunciated each word deliberately.
"You think the Hazard Driver… is already complete?"
Zero narrowed his eyes.
Trường could see his hand… trembling ever so slightly.
The professor suddenly raised his own hand.
His index finger pointed straight at the golden eye on the Hazard Driver mounted on Zero's chest.
"I wonder if you've prepared yourself…"
he said in an even, almost casual tone,
"…to become my next test subject."
A chill shot down Trường's spine.
A terrible premonition welled up in his chest.
The professor reached forward, gently brushing the eye on the Hazard Driver as though he were stroking a pet resting in his palm.
Blood from his hand smeared across the device's eye.
The man in red stared at him.
The professor continued, his voice calm.
"A terrifying power…"
"But unfortunately… it's nothing more than a defective product."
A crooked smirk tugged at his lips.
"…Those who dare to set foot in paradise—"
The man in red tightened his grip on the professor's throat, forcing a harsh cough from him.
"What the hell are you trying to say, professor?" he snarled. "I should've sent you down to join your idiot colleagues from the start so you could entertain them with your jokes."
He extended his right hand; the crimson blade had fully formed now, light running along its edge.
Yet the professor kept speaking, his tone carrying a strange, unsettling delight.
"Zero—who is controlling your body right now? You… or the Hazard Driver?"
Zero looked at him, then down at the device on his chest.
"Of course it's—"
The professor cut him off.
"For now, it's you…"
His voice lowered, slow and measured, like a lecturer addressing a classroom.
"…but give it some time, and who knows?"
The eye on the Hazard Driver flashed.
Crimson sparks burst forth, racing across the device like living veins.
Then suddenly—
Zero's arm jerked violently.
His grip around the professor's throat loosened.
"—!"
Zero immediately grabbed his right arm with his left hand.
The muscles beneath his sleeve twitched as though something were crawling inside.
A flash of pain crossed his face.
And yet—
he still smiled.
"Another one of your tricks, professor?"
Still gasping for breath, the professor merely smiled faintly.
"Tricks?"
He tilted his head, his tone light.
"That's a safeguard… I installed to protect myself from people who use the Hazard Driver."
Zero's smile had just begun to widen—
when it abruptly froze.
"…And it's also the thing—"
The professor paused for a beat.
His right hand slowly rose, his fingers brushing lightly against his own temple.
"…that keeps what's inside you…"
"…from reaching your brain."
For a moment, silence lingered—then the professor's laughter echoed through the room.
He raised his hand toward the Hazard Driver again, slowly closing his fingers before snapping them open.
"…If you're so desperate to become a god…"
He shaped his hand like a gun,
aiming straight at the Hazard Driver.
"…then I'll help you remove those shackles."
Snap.
A sharp snap of his fingers.
The eye on the Hazard Driver convulsed.
Lam Huy Trường watched as the Hazard Driver reacted to the blood the professor had smeared across its eye.
Crimson electricity erupted—
then surged outward, engulfing Zero's entire body.
"What the—AAAAA!"
Zero released his grip.
His body convulsed violently, as if he were fighting something clawing its way up from deep inside him.
Trường instinctively clenched his fists.
Nice one. The professor's trump card really was something. This time, Zero was definitely going to suffer.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, the professor coughed harshly but forced himself upright and staggered toward Eva.
Cold white light from above reflected off his cracked glasses, scattering into warped glints.
"Eva, hold on. I won't let anyone hurt you."
Trường felt a wave of relief. Eva was going to be saved—
But then, when the professor was only a few steps away—
Thud.
The dull, wet sound of flesh being pierced echoed through the room.
The professor's body jolted.
He slowly lowered his head, staring at the center of his chest.
A crimson blade had pierced straight through him from behind.
Blood sprayed in a long arc, splattering across the professor's shadow on the floor in front of Eva.
Behind the cracked lenses, his eyes widened in shock.
Behind him, Zero was still wrapped in crackling red electricity, yet his gaze remained clear as he whispered,
"I am perfect…"
Blood seeped from the professor's mouth as he narrowed his eyes and glanced back at Zero.
"Monster…"
He spat out a mouthful of blood, a red stain spreading across the dull gray concrete.
"I will become a savior… nothing can stop me."
With a casual motion, Zero pulled the blade free.
The crimson electricity flickering across the Hazard Driver seemed to lose power, fading away until nothing remained.
"It's over, professor," he said coldly.
The professor struggled, forcing himself onto one knee so he wouldn't collapse completely.
The smile at the corner of his lips twisted from the pain, yet it still carried a trace of mockery.
He tried to say something.
"…It's almost fully fused…"
Trường blinked, looking back and forth between the professor and Zero.
And then he saw it.
Zero's right arm—what should have been a blade formed from red crystals—now looked as though it had become flesh and blood, fused directly to him.
Even the Hazard Driver on his chest had begun to sink into his body, embedding itself like part of his own flesh.
The man in red seemed to notice as well. He shouted in alarm,
"My arm… what's happening to it?! Why is it like this?!"
The professor let out a hoarse laugh.
"Save yourself…"
He coughed again, blood spilling from the corner of his lips.
"…before you truly turn into a monster."
"No… impossible…"
Zero's voice cracked.
"Tricks… deception…"
He slammed his hand against his chest where the Hazard Driver was embedded.
"Damn it—why can't I deactivate it?!"
Trường felt his throat go dry.
He's not about to self-destruct, is he…?
Scenes from movies flashed through his mind—ambitious villains meeting tragic ends.
The Hazard Driver was like a noose already hanging around the necks of those who dared to call themselves saviors.
So this was the price the professor had meant.
But the satisfaction in the professor's eyes lasted only a fleeting moment.
Because the instant he finished speaking—
his body collapsed forward onto the floor.
Lam Huy Trường froze.
"Professor…"
Zero, meanwhile, was still screaming madly, struggling against the Hazard Driver's control.
The golden eye on the device dilated and contracted in a frenzy.
Trường had the eerie feeling…
that it was enjoying this.
Not pain.
Not anger.
But… excitement.
A bizarre crimson aura erupted around Zero's body.
His hood finally slipped off, revealing a sharply defined face beneath. His hair flickered erratically between blue and silver, as if someone were spraying random colors across it.
Crimson arcs of electricity crawled over his body like pulsing veins.
He staggered backward, flailing wildly, waves of pressure bursting out around him.
"No… no… this power is—AAAAA!"
His voice twisted, rising and falling as though two people were speaking through the same mouth.
The red blade lashed out in all directions—
BOOM!
A row of containment tanks behind him was cleaved apart, glass and fluid exploding across the floor.
The incomplete monster corpses inside dropped heavily, twitching within pools of viscous liquid.
Amid the spreading blood, the professor lay there, barely breathing, his gaze fixed on Eva.
He murmured something in broken fragments, too faint for Trường to make out.
Lam Huy Trường looked around desperately, as if searching for a phone booth or anyone he could call for help.
In the distance, Eva finally stirred. The smell of blood and the chaos around her must have woken her.
She rubbed her eyes, her small feet turning toward the scene—
And when she saw what lay before her, her trembling gaze locked onto the professor's blood-soaked body.
Her lips quivered.
"A… brother…"
Her voice cracked.
"A… AAAAA—!"
She reached out toward him, the black chains around her wrists clattering together with each desperate movement.
In the distance, Zero's screams continued, but gradually they began to grow steadier, more controlled.
"I am the one in control…"
"Don't think you can control me…"
"I won't become… some lowly monster…"
His voice suddenly dropped.
"…No one can stop me from becoming a savior."
"…No one."
His oppressive aura continued to swell, bursting outward and destroying everything around him.
Trường saw dark red veins pulsing along the blade fused to Zero's arm, beating like a living artery.
Please… just disappear already, Trường cursed inwardly.
Zero was now wrapped within a sphere of crackling crimson electricity. His breathing was heavy and ragged, echoing like that of a cornered beast.
The Hazard Driver stood out starkly on his chest.
Trường could see it beginning to change.
Dark red veins crept outward from the device, spreading along Zero's skin like roots burrowing through soil.
That thing…
was merging with his body.
Everything seemed to compress into a single point—like the moment before a Big Bang—
and then it erupted.
A massive explosion burst outward from Zero at its center, blasting in every direction.
Trường gasped as flames from the blast rushed toward him. He barely had time to throw his arms up to shield his face.
But the fire swept straight through him, while the shockwave tore everything else apart.
At last, silence fell.
Trường glanced around.
The containment room had been reduced to nothing but ruins.
---
Faint rays of dawn began to peek over the horizon.
The devastated landscape seemed to wait for the sun's arrival. Yet in the midst of the wreckage, something like a blood-red sun—or perhaps a figure—was slowly descending.
A blazing crimson aura surrounded him, red currents swirling in the air. Long silver hair fluttered in the wind, and his torn clothing revealed patches of toned muscle. The eerie red glow around him gave him an otherworldly presence.
Trường swallowed.
Zero…? That was Zero, right? Why wasn't he dead? Or was that the form of some SSS-class monster?
No… please. Handling Eva alone was already more than he could manage. If another boss showed up, he'd be screaming his lungs out.
In his mind, a ridiculous image surfaced—himself wearing nothing but a torn shirt, with Eva on one side and monster-Zero on the other, both tugging at his clothes while he sobbed like a helpless girl in some over-the-top adult movie.
"Yamate kudasaiiii…"
But the creature in Zero's form suddenly moved, snapping him out of that horrifying daydream.
It still stood there, tall and unmoving, both arms hanging at its sides.
No—its right arm was no longer an arm at all.
Trường swallowed hard.
The right hand had elongated into a dark crimson blade, thick with sinewy veins and pulsing as if it had a heartbeat of its own. Two golden rings floated around it, slowly orbiting the weapon.
The creature tilted its head, rolling its shoulder with a series of loud cracks.
Then, before Lam Huy Trường's horrified eyes—
a streak of crimson blade-light slashed across the sky, as though it were declaring its presence to the world.
A deep trench tore across the ground, the cut extending ten meters—perhaps even farther—before finally fading into the distance.
A low, satisfied groan escaped the creature's throat.
Its eyes had turned murky and unfocused.
"Professor…"
Its voice dropped, layered with two overlapping tones, cold and no longer human.
"You see now? I control it. I have complete mastery over it. The Hazard Driver."
Lam Huy Trường collapsed onto the ground, smacking his own forehead with his palm.
Zero… evolved? And now he was actually controlling the Hazard Driver? This world had truly gone insane.
Zero's feet touched the ground, and he began walking slowly toward a cluster of white tubes that had been coiled around something.
He raised his left hand and casually swept it aside. The tubes were blown away instantly, revealing a body in a white coat lying in a pool of blood.
Trường could see the professor there, barely clinging to life.
Each step Zero took crushed debris underfoot, leaving deep footprints in the broken floor.
"I'll dissect you."
He raised the crimson blade, red light reflecting in his dilated pupils.
"You should feel honored to be the first to witness the power I've just obtained…"
"…and consider it punishment for insects who dared to toy with a god."
A cold shiver ran down Trường's spine.
This was bad.
Everything happened too fast.
He only had time to see—
one step,
then two.
Zero's body blurred into a dark red afterimage, dragging that veined blade behind him as he shot straight toward the professor lying on the floor.
Trường wanted to shout.
But his throat felt like it was being strangled shut.
The blade rose—
the two golden rings around it flared brightly, gathering light from the surroundings.
A shrill whistle tore through the air as the blade began its downward arc.
Just before it could fall—
a white blur swept across the scene.
BAM!
A white tentacle lashed out from behind, smashing into Zero's side and knocking his strike off course at the last possible instant.
He skidded several steps sideways, his shoes screeching against the floor.
Lam Huy Trường jerked his head toward the source.
Eva.
The black chains around her wrists had snapped, their broken lengths scattered across the ground like the severed remains of a snake. One cuff still clung to her wrist, cracked and dented.
Behind her, pale tentacles extended outward, trembling but resolute as they formed a barrier between Zero and the professor.
Another tentacle erupted from beneath the ground—
wrapping tightly around Zero's body from his legs up to his waist, then continuing to coil upward like a constricting serpent.
It squeezed.
The sound of bones creaking echoed faintly.
Zero let out a low growl.
"Eva."
His voice darkened, tinged with anger.
"Don't get in my way."
A sharp hiss rang out as the two golden rings spinning around the crimson blade began to rotate faster. From them, crescent-shaped waves of blade-light shot outward in all directions, as if guided by a will of their own, slicing toward Eva's tentacles.
SHRK! SHRK! SHRK!
The tentacles binding him were severed instantly, their pieces dropping to the floor and twitching like fish flung onto dry land.
Lam Huy Trường sucked in a cold breath.
Too fast.
Eva clenched her teeth and thrust both hands forward.
A new barrage of tentacles burst from her back, surging toward Zero like a crashing tide.
Zero simply raised his left hand.
The crescent blades converged, forming a glowing X before blasting straight into the incoming mass.
Within a few breaths—
everything was cut to pieces.
Chunks of pale flesh rained down onto the floor, dissolving into thin wisps of smoke.
Amid the falling fragments, Zero's voice rang out—cold and dripping with contempt.
"Weak."
He stepped down hard on a twitching piece of tentacle.
It dissolved like foam under his boot.
His finger lifted, pointing directly at Eva.
"You disappoint me, Queen."
Lam Huy Trường froze.
Queen?
Zero tilted his head, a warped smile spreading across his face.
"An A-rank Nightmare… should be capable of far more than this."
A chill crawled down Trường's spine.
Had Zero already surpassed Eva? Please—someone, anyone, stop this guy.
Zero lowered his gaze, staring at the fragments of tentacles dissolving into smoke beneath his feet.
A soft chuckle escaped his throat.
"Stop suppressing your power."
He lifted his head again.
A sick, excited gleam flickered in his eyes.
"Show me what you can really do."
Trường felt his stomach twist.
He… was provoking her.
But Eva didn't respond.
She turned her head.
Her reddened eyes locked onto the professor's motionless body lying in a pool of blood.
"…brother…"
She staggered forward.
The broken lengths of black chain dragged behind her, clinking weakly with each step.
Zero paused.
The smile on his face froze.
Trường clearly saw the change.
In the blink of an eye—
Zero vanished.
BOOM!
The air in front of Eva exploded as his figure reappeared, blocking her path to the professor.
His leg whipped out in a sweeping kick.
Eva hastily raised her tentacles to shield herself.
BANG!
The impact was overwhelming.
Her small body was hurled backward, rolling across the floor before slamming into a metal pillar and finally coming to a stop.
Trường gritted his teeth.
The difference in strength… was too great.
Zero rolled his neck, his joints cracking, then casually walked toward the professor once more.
"Almost forgot about this little rat."
The crimson blade in his hand lowered, its edge resting just above the throat of the dying man.
He turned his head toward Eva.
His voice was laced with vicious mockery.
"He's important to you, isn't he, Queen?"
He narrowed his eyes.
"Then come save him… show me the power a monster is supposed to have. Or else…?"
The crimson blade slowly lifted again.
Its bloodstained surface reflected the pale light of the rising sun.
Lam Huy Trường held his breath.
Eva lay amid the rubble, her body trembling, but her eyes remained fixed on the blade poised above the professor's neck.
"A… brother…"
Her voice was hoarse, barely more than a rasp.
Zero chuckled, glancing down at the professor.
"Goodbye, professor."
He swung his arm—
the blade descended like the scythe of death, cutting toward its prey in a single, merciless arc—
just as Eva's scream tore through the air.