Once I regained my balance, I quickly left the room. The way was clear as researchers scrambled back into rooms and the guards congregated by the entry points.

I carefully approached a group of guards from behind who were fortifying their position against the staircase I had entered from. There were six of them ‌divided into two groups to form a crossfire.

Once their sergeant finished giving out commands, their attention was entirely on the entry point. I took the opportunity to close in with two new toys in hand.

I grasped the tops of the toy and sprung them open like a childproof bottle, then threw the first one at the trio furthest away from me. I gently lobbed the second one without delay at the other group near me before taking cover behind the contours of the corridor.

As soon as I had gotten into cover, the sound of an explosion rang out, swiftly followed by another.

From behind the cover, I saw the six experience prompts.

+10 EXP

+10 EXP

+10 EXP

+10 EXP

+10 EXP

+10 EXP

That was a lot easier than I thought. I should definitely stock up on a few more explosives just in case, even if it doesn’t go well with stealth…

Searching the bodies, I found two usable submachine guns and strapped them to my back, along with the chest rigs that carried several spare mags. I double-timed it back to the head researcher’s office and issued the command to unlock all the rooms that held the test subjects.

I raced toward the room where Leo was. On the way, I saw several doors slightly opened with people peeking out who quickly hid when our eyes met.

It was the same at the door to room two, where Leo was located, though they thankfully didn’t slam the door on me.

The person at the door retreated further in and chatted with the residents of the room while I entered.

“---ones coming.” The teenage red-haired girl closest to the door said.

“Calm down, Claire.” A voice from the back replied.

The room was only furnished with six beds, with three on each side of the room. There were four other people standing around the girl, and the last person in the back was still in bed. The man turned to face me as I entered.

“So Flo did call in another team for this shit hole.” He scanned me from top to bottom.

“I’m not much of a team by myself, but yes, Flo did send me. I’m Rollo.” I approached and offered my hand.

“The new guy she met?” He gave me a doubting gaze, though he still shook my hand.

“Leo, as I’m sure you already know. What’s the plan?”

“Flo and your team are upstairs—”

“Heh, so I’ve heard… go on.”

“They are upstairs fighting their way down, so we’re going to make our way up to meet them. You know how to use one of these?” I said and threw one of the submachine guns at him.

“As if anyone in this city doesn’t, proficiency, on the other hand…I’m more of the computer guy than a fighter.”

“Well, they shouldn’t be expecting us from behind, so just point and shoot.”

Leo fidgeted with his new gun as I looked over to the other five, who were eavesdropping off to the side.

“You guys, go gather up everyone else on this floor. We’re all leaving…unless you want to stay.” One of the older boys, who was about sixteen with short brown curly hair, nodded immediately and dashed out of the room.

In the meantime, I connected a call with Lana.

“I’m with Leo. What’s the situation up there?”

“Little busy here, they’re past the control room,” The sound of her mechanical keyboard continued clacking at a rapid pace.

“Ok, we’re heading up from here.”

“Roger, stay on the call. I’ll keep you updated.”

Seeing that Leo was ready, we exited the room and headed toward the stairs. We found a crowd of people wearing white gowns gathered there.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I spotted the one who was in Leo’s room earlier and walked up to him.

“Is everyone here and ready to go?”

“Well, almost everyone… Thorne and Claire are still in there.” He pointed to a nearby room off to the side that was visible through the glass walls, showcasing what seemed to be an operating room.

At the center of the room was the operating table with a few moveable hospital beds off to the side. Standing still by one of the beds were the teenage boy and girl from earlier. The boy’s lively expression was completely gone and the color from his face had been drained.

As I approached him, he continued to be motionless despite my attempts to draw his attention with loud footsteps.

With a better view of what he was looking down at, I grimaced. It was an unzipped body bag with the face of a middle-aged woman poking out. Her features resembled the boy’s, though I couldn’t say if their eyes were similar as the body was missing eyes.

“Thorne and Claire right? I’m sorry for your loss, but we need to get out of here. Now.” I placed my hand on his shoulder.

Thorne replied without looking back, “I don’t have anywhere to be… I’ll stay here.”

“... You think that’s what she wanted, staying here with no future?” The girl cried out.

It seemed like the girl who was called Claire had the same objective as me, to convince Thorne to leave.

“...I have no future even if I leave… I wouldn’t survive alone…not without Mom. I’d become a beggar at best…and I have nothing to live for.” Thorne’s voice grew quieter as he went on.

“Idiot! You won’t be alone. I’ll stick with you, and we’ll make it work somehow. As long as we are alive and free, we’ll have opportunities. Come on, do it for me. Let’s go,” Claire said as she started dragging Thorne.

“Well, I just happened to be planning on hiring to start a business. Come work for me. As my employee, I’ll make sure you live a life that will make her proud,” I offered my hand to him as he glanced over.

----------------------------------------

“This floor is clear too. I’ll go check out the next one now. Shouldn’t be long before we rendezvous with Flo.”

“Okay! No worries, I can protect everyone!” The red-haired girl cheerfully replied while lifting the submachine gun in one hand.

I was talking to Leo, but I decided not to bother with it and proceeded to the next floor. I gave Thorne and Leo one last look before I headed out.

All the cameras were destroyed by now as they realized someone had breached their security. I made my way up the stairs to the next level and found two guards posted up on the other side of the door.

Lana the hacker had informed me that Flo’s team had just made it to this floor, so it made sense they had guards stationed here in case the intruders tried to sneak by. Too bad their communications were a mess and never found out about the intruders from below. We had them sandwiched now.

From where I was, I could hear sounds from the ongoing fighting. Wasting no more time, I slammed open the door, right into one guard, and immediately shot the other. Just as the dazzled guard turned to face me, I sent another bullet right into his eye.

+10 EXP

+10 EXP

As I peeled my eyes away from the experience text, a sword poked out around the corner down the hallway. I brought my Suri up and aimed at the corner when a seven-foot-tall man came into view. From all the visible cybernetics, it was safe to say the man was a genuine cyborg, as all his limbs were cybernetic replacements.

I reflexively unloaded my entire clip at him, only to see it deflect off his armor and synthetic skin.

He grinned and dashed straight at me with inhuman speed. I threw myself back into the stairwell and closed the door behind me. I retreated down to create more space between us.

Just as I made it down the first flight of stairs, a loud impact rang out, and the walls around the door I just closed cracked.

Changing ammo as I made my way out of the stairway, I spotted Leo and Claire down the corridor with their guns at the ready. I double-checked that my connection with Lana was still good.

“Lana, I’m going to need your help really soon. Get ready for a new connection that’ll open up in a second. And you two, stay back!”

“What’s going on?” Claire said, confused, while Leo glared behind me cautiously.

I ignored them and continued, “Lana, you hear me?”

“Yeah, yeah. Just busy getting the corpo nerds outta the security system, but sure, I definitely can help you out even with my hands full. I’ll just have to use my third hand.”

Standing at one end of the corridor, I aimed at the door to the stairwell on the other side. I took note of Leo and Claire, who hadn’t listened to me. They opted to remain, but I didn’t have time to care or rebuke them right now.

As I expected, the cyborg showed up behind me, ramming the entire door in my direction as he came into view. He once again dashed forward as soon as he saw us, the three of us unleashed a hail of bullets in response.

This time, he zig-zagged around despite our bullets simply dinging off his body even when they struck.

Once he was halfway toward us, I stopped shooting and tapped on both my ally’s shoulders.

“Move back. We need to buy some time.”

We sprinted away from the incoming cyborg while sending a text via my SAID to my hacker, *Lana! Did you get the connection?*

We dashed into an empty room because we would’ve led the threat to the rest of the group if we continued any further down the hallway.

The cyborg followed right behind us, ripping open the door from the hinges and holding it in one hand, like a makeshift shield.

“I’m working on it. It should just take a second. You’re lucky this baby corporation’s security sucks.”

Right when the cyborg started his dash, he seemed to suddenly lose steam before he tripped over himself and fell face-first into the ground.

“I locked his chrome. Hurry, before he restarts his soft.” Lana’s voice cried out.

Pushing down my instincts that told me to stay away from the menacing cyborg, I quickly unsheathed my dagger and plunged it into the back of his head.

There was some resistance when the vibroblade made contact with him, but it couldn’t stop it from piercing through.

+20 EXP

We collectively released a sigh of relief as we stepped over his body and exited the room.

Leo spat at the body as he walked by, “Cyborg fucker. Lucky I don’t have any of my gear on me right now.”

Thank the heavens I bought the EI rounds and had a hacker on the hotline, because I definitely didn’t have the skills or equipment to do any hacking in the middle of a fight.

I swapped my ammo back to my regular rounds and split off from the group again to check on the floor above, but as I was halfway up the stairs, Lana spoke out to me, “Flo’s team cleared the floor, I let her know you’re on the way.”

That was the kind of good news I liked to hear.

Now let’s hope the rest of this outing will be smooth sailing.