The masked man named Muhammad walked towards the door with bomb in hand.

"Wa-wait! Stop! Stop! What are you guys trying to do!?" shouted John in a panic, attempting to stop the men.

The men turned their attention to John, but Ivan told them to resume in doing their tasks.

"John. I said 'no questions asked'," coldly said Ivan while observing the task of the four other men.

"But this is wrong! We might hurt people!"

The desperate John tried to reason with the men in an attempt to stop them from doing something irreversible.

Ivan glared at John. Meanwhile, the rest of the men just minded their own business.

"I know you are worried. But trust us. We have a good reason for this. Or would you rather have us 'get rid' of you?"

Ivan emphasized the last line, causing John to tremble in fear.

"O-okay. But please, try not to hurt too many people," said John in a weak voice while avoiding eye-contact.

"Don't misunderstand, John. We're not here to--"

A loud explosion interrupted Ivan's words.

A puddle somehow formed right below John's feet.

Except for John, everyone else did not show any signs of being shaken by the explosion despite being so close to it.

"Alright, this is it! Let's go, men! John, you come with us too! Don't refuse since it's not safe being away from us right now!" shouted Ivan while looking around as he pointed towards the recently blasted door. His eyes often went above as if he knew that something or someone might be there.

"Y-yes, sir!" replied John, unable to think straight as he walked towards the wreckage of the door Ivan pointed at.

And so, the men stormed inside the door. John followed them from behind, not even daring to defy them.

When John and the team entered the door, they first saw a spiral stairway connected to all the floors in the 30-floor building.

Ivan and his men quickly went up the stairs without hesitation.

Meanwhile, for John, moving just five floors up already tired him out.

John could not help but think about the difference in strength and stamina between him and the men carrying heavy guns and suitcases while climbing the stairs.

This made John even more fearful towards them.

"Remember, our target is on the 13th floor," Ivan spoke to everyone without looking back as he kept climbing.

What!? Give me a break! I can't go that high without rest!

Despite John's internal whining, Ivan and his men wanted to reach the 13th floor as soon as possible, so he did not have a choice but to catch up as much as he could. What Ivan said about "Not safe being away from them" worried John.

<><><><><><><><>

A hallway somewhere on the 13th floor...

Even with multiple rooms and surveillance cameras, only silence filled the entire hallway. Also, one man stood there like a statue.

Dean Hardy, or at least that's what his ID says, guarded the room behind him, gun in hand.

Inside the room he watched over, one will see his Boss playing with a new 'toy'.

Because the Boss does this whenever he feels like it, Dean got randomly assigned as the only guard during such times to prevent letting too many people know about the Boss's strange hobby. No, perhaps this hobby could not be considered as 'strange' when it comes to underground-related things.

The wealthy and powerful Boss owns an underground-business organization, so no matter what he wants, no one can disobey him.

And one such member of the said organization stood as a guard in front of the door, Dean.

Anyone can consider Dean's job as something very simple.

No matter how important or urgent it is, no one else is allowed to go 6 feet within the door's vicinity until the Boss is finished having his fun with the 'toy'.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Dean sometimes gets nightmares from his job not because he could see what happens inside, but because of the fact that he hears the screams of the 'toy' from time to time and that whenever a 'toy' comes out of that room, they would only be inches away from death's door but still manage to miraculously survive long enough just to feel more suffering.

Whatever the Boss did with the 'toys' inside, only the Boss and Dean himself knows.

"Everything's fine. After this, there will be more money for me. It's really tiring doing nothing but standing after all. Uhehe," said Dean to himself in a low voice as he showed a disgusting smile on his face.

Dean heard the sound of something metallic chopping down, clashing against another metal.

"S-stop... *sob* Please.... Ugh, hic... N-noo... No more... Hurts... *sob*" the voice of a crying young woman came from behind the door.

Ohohoh! It sounds like the 'toy' is quite young this time. I wonder if Boss will let me 'comfort' with her for a while just before she croaks. But... She's likely the same age as my sister. And that makes me feel bad. Just a tiny bit, hehe.

With Dean busy thinking about things that he wanted to do to the 'toy' like this and that, he did not notice the loud beeping noise going faster every second.

The next instant,

A loud explosion occurred.

"What the--! Argh!"

The door facing him just a few meters away, the one leading to a spiral stairway, suddenly burst out with an explosion and flew towards Dean, hitting and luckily just pushing him against the wall while knocking him unconscious in the process.

<><><><><><><><>

Using a powerful bomb, the door got blasted open.

John, Ivan, and the team then abandoned the suitcases they carried and went into the hallway of the 13th floor with guns in hand.

"Move in, now! Go! Go! Go! Check inside the doors carefully one by one!"

Ivan's shouts were so loud that it reverberated throughout the hall.

What should I do? I can't just stay silent right now. They're about to kill people! ...Huh!? That on the door over there... OhMyGod, Is that a dead bod--

While John thought about panicking again, Ivan suddenly spoke to him and interrupted his thoughts,

"You, stay back. Things will be extremely dangerous from now on."

Then why even bring me here in the first place! You guys are really thoughtful.

John kept his thoughts to himself since he could not dare to say some sarcastic comments towards Ivan. He just calmed himself down and followed the orders.

He remained standing near door to the stairs, the one where they came from.

As the four masked men ordered opened the doors one by one as ordered by their leader, John felt restless.

He could not help but think that something bad will happen soon.

And of course, something bad is already happening right now, but that's beside the point.

The men opened the doors in a rapid fashion.

Open, point gun inside, empty.

Open, point, empty.

Open, empty.

Open, empty.

Open, empty.

The same pattern happened with all the doors they opened.

All the doors except for one.

A person laid unconscious near that door. A gun also laid near the person, but John did not want to even touch it, thinking that Ivan might shoot him if he does so.

John alternated his gazes between the person on the floor and the only remaining closed door, the door no one else tried to open yet.

"I guess no one wants to wake that guy up. And besides, this is the only door left..."

As John muttered that, the five muscular men finally finished checking all the other doors and went to position themselves in front of the only closed door.