Allen crouched in an abandoned subway tunnel in Washington, D.C.
The management panel was zoomed in full screen.
The surveillance grid of three New York underground cities filled his field of vision.
The Brooklyn ruins, Fort Coffin, and the Rust Tide—three sets of real-time images flashed side-by-side.
Every pipe and every wall 370 kilometers away was projected as a blue outline on his retina.
His fingers tapped on the virtual keyboard.
A three-way encrypted voice channel opened.
Jason connected first. Lena was half a second later.
"Describe the device." Jason's breathing was low, his voice strained: "Cylindrical, about forty centimeters high, fifteen centimeters in diameter. Dark red runes flow on the surface. Three devices are arranged in an equilateral triangle around the perimeter of the warehouse."
Lena continued: "It just covers the boundary of the underground city's energy field in the Brooklyn ruins. A standard layout for targeted demolition. I've seen similar ones in the military." Allen pulled up the accelerator's energy signature data on the management panel.
He cross-referenced the GWA's internal frequency signals intercepted in Washington with the real-time scans from New York. Parameter input.
Result pops up.
The device requires a 48-hour charging cycle from installation to activation.
The energy accumulation curve, calculated backwards from the installation timestamp, shows approximately six hours ago.
Remaining window: 42 hours.
Enough.
However, if the dismantling process triggers the anti-tampering mechanism, the management panel contains no technical data on this type of device.
Not a product of the natural dungeon.
Neither standard GWA military equipment.
A hybrid of human technology and supernatural energy.
Origin unknown.
"Jason. You dismantle it. Lena, provide cover in the shadows. Scan the internal structure of the device first."
Two seconds of silence in the corridor.
"I'm a B-rank soldier, not an engineer."
"You're from Black Serpent."
Jason's words trailed off.
"VictorStone's elite squads have all received battlefield bomb disposal training. Don't pretend." The ambient sound on Jason's end changed from the sea breeze outside the warehouse to the muffled thud of a confined space.
He shrank into the shadows of the containers.
Three seconds.
"You investigated me."
"I did on my first day." Allen zoomed in on the surveillance footage from the north side of the warehouse to full screen. "Your Black Snake ID is Sigma-7. Specialization: High-risk environment infiltration and device disposal. A member of VictorStone's shadow unit. You came to me not just because of the forum message."
"Victor sent me." A metallic scraping sound came through Lina's channel.
A crescent dagger was drawn.
"He told me to monitor your capabilities and protect you if necessary." Jason's tone was steady. "His exact words were, 'This man is more valuable than the dungeon; don't let him die.'" VictorStone was making its moves.
Jason was a double agent.
But the bomb still had forty-two hours to fully charge.
Spies weren't a top priority right now.
"We'll settle accounts after we dismantle the device. Let's move." The surveillance footage switched to the north side of the warehouse.
Jason emerged from the shadows.
He crouched beside the first device.
He took off his gloves. His ten fingers touched the surface of the cylinder.
The dark red runes pulsed faster beneath his palm.
Twice a second, then five times.
The device sensed external contact.
Level B perception penetrated the device's interior.
The data sharing channel projected the scan results into Allen's vision.
A three-layered nested structure.
The outer shell was made of industrial-grade titanium-aluminum composite material. Four millimeters thick.
The second layer was a crystallized extraordinary energy. The internal lattice spiraled, converging energy towards the center.
The innermost layer.
A miniature fragment of a dungeon core.
Pulsating.
"The core is alive," Jason said. "Fragment level. Incomplete, with a self-preservation instinct. Forcibly removing it will detonate."
Allen flipped through the blueprint library.
A gray icon.
[Energy Resonance Suppressor (Basic Type)]
[Construction Cost: 2,000 BP]
"Jason, step back three meters."
Jason instantly retreated.
Allen remotely selected the coordinates directly below the device.
Confirm.
BP balance jumps from 5,700 to 3,700.
The ground on the north side of the warehouse cracks open.
A flat metal component rises, its base wedging into a cylinder.
Blue light spreads.
The dark red rune pulsations slow.
Stop.
The core fragment's self-preservation instinct is suppressed.
Jason reaches out.
His five fingers grip the top seam of the outer shell.
Spin. Pull out.
The outer shell detaches.
The second layer of crystal loses its support, the spiral lattice collapses.
The crystal shatters into white powder and scatters.
[Device #1—Deactivated.] Allen doesn't pause.
"The second one. East."
Jason moves. Around the corner of the warehouse, heading east.
Lina's green dot stops behind the roof drainpipe.
Covering the field of fire.
The second device.
Jason crouches.
Allen deploys a suppressor at the corresponding coordinates.
BP balance: 1,700.
Blue light spread.
The dark red runes suddenly turned white.
The pulsation frequency surged.
Twenty times per second.
The surface temperature of the cylinder rose sharply.
Jason's palm was scalded by the heat.
A red warning popped up on the management panel.
[Warning: Anti-tampering protocol triggered!]
[Device #2 enters accelerated charging mode!]
[Estimated detonation time: 120 seconds!]
"This is a decoy!" Lina shouted in the channel.
Two bombs and a trigger.
Touching the trigger accelerated the detonation of the remaining devices.
Allen looked at the panel.
Three hundred BP short of building the second suppressor.
Jason's physical destruction would trigger the core detonation.
His finger hovered over the unit dispatch bar.
Brooklyn Ruins.
Room 80.
Abyss Watcher.
Target: East side of the warehouse perimeter.
Instruction: Clear marked target.
Confirm. A yellow warning box popped up.
[The Watcher leaving the Boss room will create a defensive vacuum. Confirm execution?]
Confirm. East side of the warehouse.
Jason retreated ten meters away.
White runic light illuminated his face.
Cracks appeared on the surface of the cylinder.
Internal energy expanded.
The ground cracked.
From below.
A dark red metallic hand reached out from the crack.
Grabbing the edge of the ground.
The Abyss Watcher burst from the ground.
Soil slid from the seams of its armor.
The greatsword dragged on the ground.
The tip of the sword sparked as it ground against the concrete.
Sea breeze rushed into the gaps in its visor.
The dark red patterns on the armor danced in the moonlight.
For the first time, it stood outside the dungeon.
Jason's back slammed into a container.
The Watcher's dark red eyes locked onto the second device.
The greatsword was raised high.
The tip pointed vertically downward.
Piercing.
Piercing through the outer shell and crystalline layers, it reached the core fragment.
The white runic light exploded with a piercing shriek upon contact.
Jason and Lina felt a sharp pain in their eardrums.
The management panel flickered.
Adaptation counter: 8.
The sword tip spun.
The fragment was completely extracted.
A thumb-sized, dark red crystal rested on the sword tip, emitting a blinding white light.
The Watcher turned.
A flick of the wrist.
The fragment detached from the sword tip.
It landed fifty meters away in an open area.
Explosion.
A shockwave radiated.
Three empty shipping containers overturned.
The warehouse remained intact.
[Device #2—Core Removal, Explosion Threat Averted.] The third device lost signal connection and automatically went into hibernation.
Jason walked over.
He unscrewed the outer shell.
He removed the fragment and crushed it.
All three devices deactivated.
Allen leaned against the damp brick wall.
The Watcher issued a retrieval command.
The crimson figure walked back into the fissure and sank into the ground.
Back to Room 80.
The greatsword was driven into the mirror.
He stood up straight.
Allen prepared to close the passage.
"Boss," Jason spoke.
This was the first time he'd used that title.
"I just scanned the core fragment of the third device and read a code. Manufacturer identifier." Allen's finger paused.
"The code prefix is OG-3."
"Omega-3," Jason continued, "These devices were manufactured under authorization from the highest level of GWA." Allen stared at the code on the panel.
To the person who issued the classified asset designation.
The person who begged him to stop the outbreak three days ago.
Signature.
Authorizer.
The same code.
In the lower left corner of the management panel, the crimson pupils of the Abyss narrowed to slits.
No one spoke in the passage.
The sea breeze blew in through the microphone.
The person who manufactured the accelerator, and the person who begged him to dismantle it.
Used the same key.