‘Damn it…’

How long has it been?

Ryder estimated it had to have been at least 3 hours since he was stuck in his crouching position. He had severely underestimated the talking ability of the officials.

Even after training his lower body, his knees were starting to become numb due to the restricted blood flow.

Switching between the kneeling position and the crouching position helped a little, but the pain was starting to become more and more unbearable.

He also couldn’t lay down since that would mean removing the higher ups from his sight. If someone were to leave the lounge all of a sudden, Ryder would be exposed right there and then.

When someone did leave, however, he would have to stealthily hide behind a large counter to avoid detection.

Finally, after nearly half of the people had left, the man Ryder was after stood up and began to take his leave.

‘Thank god!’ Ryder sighed relief.

But when the man left, he also brought two more researchers along with him.

Together, the trio talked even more at the entrance to the main chamber, with the conversation never-ending.

Ryder cursed under his breath, what could they be talking about for long?

When the man finally left, Ryder followed along, careful not to make any noise.

He always made sure to stay at least 50 feet behind him to remain at a safe distance. This was easily doable since he could hear the man’s footsteps.

After a couple of minutes of walking, the man stopped in front of a chamber. He used the key card around his neck to swipe at a scanner before entering the room.

Ryder quickly followed behind before the door could shut on him.

‘So the key card also functions as the key to their rooms?’

He wondered about the possibility of also stealing Dr. Krugal’s key card and accessing his room for more information on bloodlines. But he quickly dismissed the thought since it would take far too long and the risk just wasn’t worth it.

Inside the room, the man was taking off his coat and other devices he had on his body. He didn’t seem to be aware of the possibility that someone had followed him back to his room.

Perhaps he was confident that no one would dare to touch him due to his high position.

Ryder stealthily crept up onto him before tapping him on the shoulder.

“Who dares-”

The man quickly spun around before getting met with a punch in the jaw. Since Ryder didn’t know how much strength to use, he put in half of his power into that punch. But he still underestimated his current strength.

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The man’s jaw became crooked beyond belief, snapping to the side with an audible crack. He quickly crumbled onto the ground, clearly unconscious.

Ryder stood there, breathing heavily, still shocked by his strength. He hadn’t expected to knock someone out that quickly and that too with a serious injury.

If he had used his full power in that punch… he didn’t even want to imagine it.

The anger Ryder felt towards the man faded away and he even felt a little sorry, but it is what it is. Since time was limited, he quickly unwrapped the key card from the man’s neck and stuffed it into his pockets.

Following that, he took a quick look around the room, taking in his surroundings. To his surprise, there were books and articles about bloodlines scattered throughout the chamber.

Now, Ryder was not a big fan of stealing especially if the consequences were huge. But since he was going to escape anyway, it would be a shame if he left such valuable knowledge behind.

“Sorry about this.” Ryder apologized to the unconscious man before taking several books that seemed important to him and placing them on a table.

He then looked for anything around the room that could be used as some sort of storage for the books. He didn’t want to risk having the books falling when he ran.

But after looking around, there wasn’t anything he could find. Ryder could only settle for placing the books in a cardboard box.

At last, it was time to get out of here.

Ryder had already mapped the entirety of the floor he was on, so finding the teleporters was a simple job.

As he ran there, Ryder considered his options after escaping.

Since he knew nothing about the world, his first thought was to find his way to the nearest city where he could obtain more information.

There, he could work his way to find out the reason why he was thrown into this world and maybe even find a way back to Earth.

His other options include finding a way to activate his genes to get stronger faster or maybe even creating a lab of his own.

But he quickly shrugged off these thoughts since his first priority was to escape.

After he arrived at the teleporters, Ryder pulled out the key card before pressing it onto the keypad. This instantly lit up a teleporter, which he assumed was activated using mana.

As he walked into it, a range of options appeared on a transparent screen in front of it, almost like a projector.

He tapped on the option that had the words “Top Floor” written on it and was instantly met by a blinding light.

Just a couple of seconds later, Ryder immediately dropped onto the floor in front of him and threw up. His head was assaulted with nausea, and his whole body coursed with pain. With sweat dripping down his head, Ryder looked back at the teleporter.

Whatever that was, he never hoped to experience it again.

It took a couple of minutes for him to recover before Ryder stood up and started to cautiously walk forward, carrying the cardboard box in along.

He was now in an entirely unfamiliar area, so he perked up his senses in case there was any danger nearby.

However, contrary to his expectations, the top floor was unexpectedly empty, as there was nobody and nothing around.

Everywhere he looked, white stainless walls greeted him. There were barely any security cameras as well, which weirded him out.

But Ryder considered this lucky as escaping would be much easier than he thought. He soon arrived at the main exit, which looked like a large garage door.

‘This is a bit too easy…’

Ryder grew a little suspicious. Why was there no security around even on the top floor? Even after walking to the exit, there were still no one in sight.

Nevertheless, he opened the front door using the key card and waited for the door to open.

But never could Ryder have expected what greeted him outside.

Right as he stepped into the open, Dr. Krugal and at least 20 other guards stared at him with weapons raised.

“Shit…”