The world felt like it was splitting in two.
Han-Jun stared at the sand. Jun-Seo was standing five meters away, his body vibrating from the God-Speed Serum, his eyes glowing like neon sapphire. But his shadow… the second shadow didn't follow the light of the rising sun. It moved independently, a tall, distorted shape creeping across the dunes toward Han-Jun's feet.
Analysis: Optical interference detected. Error. Error. Neural link unstable.
"Don't trust your eyes, Han-Jun!" The voice in his earpiece—the Ghost—was urgent, cracked with static. "It's not a ghost. It's Hard-Light Projection. They're using the fog as a screen!"
Han-Jun didn't have time to process the science. The second shadow suddenly lunged. It didn't strike with a fist; it swung a curved blade made of shimmering, dark pixels.
Han-Jun threw himself backward, performing a frantic back-handspring. The blade hissed through the air, leaving a trail of ozone. Where it touched the sand, the grains turned into glass from the sheer heat.
"You're fast, Zero," Jun-Seo said, his voice overlapping with a digital echo. "But you're fighting two opponents at once. One of flesh... and one of data."
The Dual Assault
Jun-Seo didn't give him a moment to breathe. He charged.
Thanks to the serum, Jun-Seo's movements were a blur of black and blue. He delivered a high roundhouse kick that Han-Jun blocked, but the impact felt like a car crash. Simultaneously, the "Shadow" swung its blade at Han-Jun's waist.
Han-Jun was caught in a lethal pincer. He dropped to the ground, spinning in a Capoeira-style sweep. He tripped Jun-Seo, but the Shadow's blade sliced through the shoulder of his jacket, searing his skin.
"Ugh!" Han-Jun hissed, rolling away. His left shoulder was scorched, the smell of burnt fabric and flesh filling his lungs.
HEART RATE: 165 BPM.
ADRENALINE OUTPUT: 92%.
WARNING: UNCHAINED STATE REACHING CRITICAL PEAK.
"You can't win," Jun-Seo said, standing up effortlessly. "The Shadow is controlled by the First Apex himself, from the Inner City. He sees what I see. He strikes where I cannot."
Han-Jun stood up, his blood dripping onto the sand. He looked at the Shadow. It was flickering.
"Hard-light," Han-Jun muttered. "If it's a projection, it needs a source."
He looked around. The fog was thick, but he noticed a small, humming drone hovering twenty meters above, hidden in the grey mist. It was casting a lattice of invisible lasers—the "bones" of the Shadow.
"Found you," Han-Jun whispered.
The Dirty Tactic
Han-Jun didn't attack Jun-Seo. Instead, he sprinted toward the giant he had defeated earlier—The Anchor. The massive iron chain was still lying in the sand.
"Running away?" Jun-Seo mocked, blurring forward to intercept him.
Han-Jun grabbed the chain. It was heavy, at least thirty kilograms of solid iron. He didn't swing it at Jun-Seo. He began to spin it above his head like a helicopter blade, faster and faster, until the metal whistled.
"Pointless!" Jun-Seo yelled, jumping into the air for a finishing strike with his iron bokken.
Han-Jun released the chain.
He didn't aim for Jun-Seo. He aimed for the Drone in the fog.
The chain flew through the air, trailing behind it a cloud of sand and salt. It hit the drone with a spectacular explosion of sparks. The machine tumbled from the sky, its stabilizers destroyed.
Instantly, the Shadow flickered and vanished.
"What?!" Jun-Seo gasped, mid-air.
Without the Shadow to protect his flank, Jun-Seo was wide open. Han-Jun didn't wait for him to land. He met him in the air with a Flying Knee directly to the chest.
CRACK.
The sound of Jun-Seo's ribs breaking was louder than the waves. He hit the sand hard, the blue glow in his eyes fading as the serum's side effects began to kick in. He coughed up dark, thick blood.
Han-Jun walked over to him, his eyes cold. He didn't feel triumph. He only felt the burning in his shoulder.
"The First Apex... is a coward," Han-Jun said, looking down at the defeated disciple. "He sends a boy and a hologram to do his work."
"He... he wanted to test your... limits," Jun-Seo wheezed, his body beginning to convulse from the serum's withdrawal. "You... you passed. But the 'Culling'... it was never about the tags."
Han-Jun narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
"The tags... they have... trackers," Jun-Seo whispered. "Every time you collect one... you upload your combat data... to the inner city. They're... they're building... a Counter-Zero."
The Inner City Gates
Han-Jun looked at the seven tags in his hand. He realized with a jolt of horror that they were glowing with a faint, red light. They weren't just IDs; they were data-thieves, sucking out every detail of his movements, his heart rate, and his "Unchained" state.
He threw them into the ocean.
"So-Mi was right," Han-Jun muttered. "The System is a trap."
He looked toward the center of the island. The fog was lifting, revealing the "Inner City"—a nightmare of rusted steel and glass. The skyscraper loomed over everything like a tombstone.
Suddenly, a massive siren echoed across the island.
ATTENTION ALL CANDIDATES.
ROUND 1 IS OVER. TOTAL SURVIVORS: 12.
INNER CITY GATES: OPENING.
MISSION: 'THE ASCENSION'.
NEW RANKINGS UPLOADED.
Han-Jun checked his phone. His name was no longer at the top.
1. THE CHIMERA (POWER LEVEL: ???)
2. KANG HAN-JUN (POWER LEVEL: 1200 - UNSTABLE)
"Chimera?" Han-Jun said to himself.
He started walking toward the gates. As he reached the edge of the forest, he saw the other survivors. They were all battered, bloody, and desperate. But one of them stood out.
It was the small, pale boy from the classroom—the one Cain had ignored. He was standing near the gate, holding a bag filled with over twenty tags. He wasn't even sweating.
The boy looked at Han-Jun and smiled. It wasn't a friendly smile. It was the smile of a scientist looking at a lab rat.
"Nice fight, Zero," the boy said. His voice was deep, way too deep for his small body. "The Alpha data was 87% accurate. Your heart is stronger than we calculated."
"Who are you?" Han-Jun asked, his fists clenching.
"I'm the one who sent you the messages," the boy said. "I'm the 'Ghost'. And I'm also the one who's going to kill you in the final round."
The boy pulls out a remote and presses a button. A massive steel door in the ground opens, revealing a hidden elevator.
"My name is Han-Seol," the boy says, his eyes flashing with a familiar, terrifying light. "Well... I have your brother's memories, his voice, and his DNA. But the Aegis Protocol made me better. They made me the Chimera."
Han-Jun feels his heart stop. Not from the Red Zone, but from pure, unadulterated shock. His brother isn't just dead... he's been recycled.