Yoon Tae-ha entered the central administration building through the hatchery in Building 2.

Everything was quiet. There was no trace of people or chimeras. After a moment, Yoon Tae-ha turned a corner and entered a wide corridor, stopping her breath. A fishy smell wafted strongly.

And in front of her, employees who appeared to have escaped lay dead in the corridor. It was a massacre that didn’t distinguish between researchers and security guards. The situation wasn’t any different in the monitor room or the break room. Yoon Tae-ha tried to empty her mind as much as possible.

‘Kill Echidna and save the doctor.’

She left only that thought and drove everything else out of her head. Her desire to finish quickly and return grew stronger.

Reaching the end of the corridor, she saw a heavy iron door half-open. She suppressed her presence and went inside. After passing through a disinfection facility about 10 meters long, an open space appeared.

Various sizes of culture chambers resembling aquariums were sparsely arranged along the walls. Hoses of different thicknesses were densely plugged into the back of the culture chambers, and all of them were empty. There were no signs of chimeras forcibly breaking out of the glass.

She raised her head and looked at the ceiling and walls. A structure installed to overlook the culture chambers from above was attached to the wall. Researchers probably watched the birth of the chimeras from there.

‘Where would they have locked up the doctor? They said he was a person whose loss would be a great disadvantage for Orca if they killed him immediately.’

As Yoon Tae-ha moved her gaze and filmed with her special goggles, a chain filled with killing intent attacked from above. She dodged with teleportation and then took a stance to swing her sword.

At that moment, a clear voice reached her ears.

“You’re late!”

Echidna, wearing a blood-soaked researcher’s gown, smiled and landed on the floor.

Wavy red hair and sharp, upturned eyes. The arrogant downward gaze was eerily similar to a red snake. So much so that it made her think that the woman’s childhood appearance might have been like that.

“Judging by your reaction, it seems you understand me? Pretty blue eyes……”

“Palmer. Hand him over.”

Even though she was using a voice modulator, there was no benefit to engaging in a long conversation. When she pointed her sword at Echidna, the chimera burst into a lively laugh.

“I watched you coming. I couldn’t see from the middle because the camera broke…… You were very agile. The thing you’re holding, that’s Moglei, right? My younger sister died by that! Don’t worry too much. That kid was a failure. She would have died by my hand anyway. But if you’re using Moglei, you must be quite close to that man? Will you give him my regards?”

It’s chaotic. Scattered.

Yoon Tae-ha intuitively realized that this chimera would annoy her.

“James Palmer.”

“Why are you looking for the doctor? You came to play with me, didn’t you? How boring. But since you’re curious, I’ll at least tell you where he is right now.”

Echidna manipulated something that looked like a remote control in her hand. Whirring. Then, a mechanical sound was heard, and the floor in the center split open. A rectangular culture chamber made of glass rose from below.

Looking inside the culture chamber, her mind went ice-cold. A terrified man was trapped there. He banged fiercely on the reinforced glass, indicating that he hadn’t entered willingly.

“He said he was scared, so I sent him to a safe place. But look how noisy he’s being? Mother told me not to leave anyone alive who could cause problems.”

The chimera wore a dazed expression.

“If I don’t listen to her, I can’t rest in the cradle. Mother loves us, but she’s strict as much as she loves us. You know that too if you have a mother.”

Echidna chattered happily and slowly approached Yoon Tae-ha. Yoon Tae-ha held Moglei and moved slowly, maintaining distance from the chimera.

“This scene seems to be in Mother’s simulation too. Mother tries to tell us all the variables. We get punished if we can’t memorize them.”

While the chimera was rambling incoherently, the operations team contacted her. They said that Eagle Team would be coming up to the 1st ground floor soon. They planned to move to Building 6, the research building, to collect data, and asked if she could keep Echidna tied down in Building 7 until then.

“I can.”

Yoon Tae-ha replied to the operations team.

“What else can you do?”

But Echidna, mistaking it as being said to her, widened her eyes. Yoon Tae-ha pulled a large machine nearby with psychokinesis. And used it to block the entrance she had come through.

The metal mass, difficult even for a human to lift, crumpled like a milk carton, sealing off the only way out. Echidna clapped her hands in admiration.

“You can even do that!”

Crossing the space barefoot, Echidna stroked the culture chamber where the doctor was trapped.

“Doctor, did you see that?”

Echidna pressed a button on the device in her hand. Then, a transparent liquid began to fill the culture chamber where the doctor was trapped.

He recoiled in horror and clung to the wall. The liquid soaked the doctor’s trouser legs. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to be an acidic solution. The doctor scratched at the wall with his fingernails and cried out, begging for help. Echidna asked innocently.

“Why are you scared of nutrient solution?”

The chimera, a step away from the culture chamber, smiled sweetly at Yoon Tae-ha.

Looking back and forth between the doctor and the chimera, complex emotions swirled in Yoon Tae-ha’s eyes. She probably had more in common with the chimera than with the doctor. The thought made her stomach churn.

The chimera, reading her expression, spread her index finger and shook it from side to side.

“Breaking it with psychokinesis is cheating. If I see any sign of you trying to rescue him, I’ll press this black button here. If I press this, a liquid that cleanly decomposes any living thing, not nutrient solution, will come out.”

Echidna scratched the surface of the black button with her fingernail. Seeing that, the doctor’s face turned as white as a sheet of paper. It seemed to be a button that threatened his life. Echidna tucked the remote control deep inside her clothes.

“You know it’s also cheating to touch the remote directly, right? Kill me and save the doctor. Ah! Now that I think about it, this is a game too? How fun!”

She clapped her hands together. At the same time, sharp blades like shark fins sprouted from her smooth back of her hand. Echidna rushed in an instant. Yoon Tae-ha blocked the first attack with Moglei and flung the chimera into the air.

Spinning gracefully in the air, Echidna spread her arms like a gymnast and landed. Then she threw the chains lying on the floor at Yoon Tae-ha. The chains writhed as if they had a will of their own and wrapped around Yoon Tae-ha’s ankles.

“I think I saw a girl with a similar build to you in the simulation. Could that have been you?”

Before she could cut them with her sword, Echidna grabbed the ends of the chains and swung them. With the recoil, Yoon Tae-ha was roughly slammed into the wall. A strong impact hit her waist and neck. It hurt terribly. If she hadn’t had physical enhancement, her skull would have been crushed a long time ago.

Immediately, a follow-up attack ensued. She levitated the debris of the collapsed wall in the air to block the chains that rushed at her like harpoons.

“Your head didn’t break?”

A hazy dust scattered in all directions. Echidna happily tore off a machine in the lab with her slender arms and began to throw it haphazardly. Yoon Tae-ha avoided them, almost running along the wall.

A container filled with an unidentified liquid exploded right behind her. The wall melted grotesquely.

Having teleported behind Echidna, who had picked up a spear, she swung Moglei with the intention of cleanly severing her neck. But at that moment, a snake with sharp fangs burst out of the chimera’s neck.

‘It grazed me.’

She teleported quickly, but the fangs slightly scratched the back of her hand. Echidna giggled and turned around. The snake was tightly wrapped around the neck of a girl who looked no older than her late teens. Yoon Tae-ha frowned at the disgusting sight.

“It’s my scarf. Isn’t it pretty? The doctor planted this too. I think a scarf like this would suit you too. Let’s make the color different. How about blue?”

Echidna was serious. The red-haired chimera seemed to want to catch her and make her one of her companions.

‘I need to know what will pop out of her body to attack accordingly.’

Even the data Knox had given her had little information about the chimera in front of her. It only contained information about her appearance and the subject she was modeled after. Everything else would be in the head of the doctor, who was the head of the lab.

“Let’s leave together. Hmm?”

Echidna rushed in again, holding the spear. Her spearmanship had many unnecessary movements, but her superhuman agility and strength were threatening. Every time she blocked her spear with Moglei, the impact and vibration made the muscles all over her body scream.

“You smell similar to us too.”

Bat wings from her shoulders, mole claws from her hands, scorpion tail from her waist. Parts of various monsters’ bodies appeared from Echidna’s body. She even breathed fire from her mouth.

‘Is she a dragon or something?’

Yoon Tae-ha hid behind a pillar, dodging the flames and taking a breather. The combat footage was being properly recorded through her equipment.

A moment ago, she had seized an opportunity to snap the chimera’s neck, but Echidna had cheerfully returned her broken neck to its original state. It was a scene straight out of a horror movie.

Glancing at the culture chamber, Yoon Tae-ha confirmed that the doctor’s body was floating. The chimera was standing firmly in front of the culture chamber, blocking access.

One minute and thirty seconds left.

Assuming that an untrained adult male can hold their breath in water for about a minute, there were two minutes and thirty seconds left. Then, the awaited communication came.

— We have secured the researchers who were hiding in Building 6. We will immediately deploy Eagle Team’s leader and 3-5 to Building 7. If you have confirmed the content, look at the doctor trapped in the culture chamber now.

Echidna attacked the pillar with her scorpion tail. Yoon Tae-ha, moving away from behind the pillar that was about to crack, turned her head and looked at the culture chamber as instructed by the operations team.

— Entering in ten seconds.

“Is hide-and-seek over?”

Echidna’s spear flew menacingly towards her. Now the doctor was struggling to take his last breath. Yoon Tae-ha focused on the communication and swung her sword vertically, cutting the shaft of the flying spear in half.

— ……3, 2, 1. Entering.

No sooner had the communication ended than a tremendous explosion sounded, and the entrance she had blocked opened. Everything in her vision passed by slowly.

Through the gap, she saw Mago’s golden spell being fired. Echidna, with her black wings spread wide, tried to fly up, but familiar ice grabbed her ankles like shackles.

At the same time, the culture chamber filled with liquid. Yoon Tae-ha quickly shook the glass of the culture chamber with psychokinesis. As the culture chamber shattered into pieces, the doctor slumped down like a fish and rolled on the floor.

“That’s mine!”

Rage spread across the chimera’s face as she saw it. Once again, Mago chanted a spell, and chains made of light bound the chimera’s body.

“Kaaaaaa!”

Echidna screamed as if burned by fire. A sharp scream that seemed capable of tearing apart human limbs continued for a long time.

Yoon Tae-ha, who had been rushing to cut her throat, couldn’t endure the scream and knelt down. It felt like her eardrums were melting away. It hurt. She felt like she was going to die. Like the guiding deficiency phenomenon, shortness of breath came in an instant. Her vision blurred, and she collapsed to the floor like a broken doll.