Yuriko felt like she should rush in and rescue the captives as quickly as she could. They weren’t in immediate danger, however, so she cooled her heels and took in as much information as she could first. Alexis and Lilibeth’s grandfather said that RuiNation kidnapped people to run their eugenics program, or in blunter terms, an Altered Human breeding program. 

Most of the captives were female, but that was by a slim margin, so it couldn’t just be for that reason. Though it occurred to her that if someone were trying to breed a trait, it would be easier if the main contributor was male since they’d be able to sire as many children as they could find females for. 

It also meant that all of the captives were Altered, and it was telling that all of them were completely ordinary in appearance, with perhaps minor changes to their physiology. She wasn’t about to examine them closely, however, as that would be a further affront to their privacy. 

But since there were attempts at a breeding program, it meant that Alteration could be affected by heredity, just like the Imperial Path, huh? It meant that whatever caused Alteration was merely a catalyst rather than the source. Or perhaps that was just the current theory. But it probably also meant that RuiNation had a way to induce Alteration, just like the Unfettered did. 

And if her grandfather knew about it, did it also mean he knew the cause? Did it mean the Republic knew as well? The tangled webs were too thick to see through, but they also made her insanely curious. What lay behind the veils and mystery? 

Well, she could speculate about it later, but perhaps a better use of the favour would be to ask about the catalyst or the source of Alteration. She’d been blinded by her desire to investigate on her own. 

Hmmm. But wouldn’t it be more satisfying to find out for herself rather than be handed the answer? Or perhaps they only knew a single facet of the truth anyway? Hmm, there was no reason to decide on a course of action now. 

She was flying a bit too high to scout the entirety of the basement levels, she thought, once she discovered the stairs leading deeper into the earth, since her perception became more limited when she pushed through solids. She hovered just a pace above the roof deck when the second basement level became visible and things became a bit more complicated than she expected. 

Most of the second level was filled with assorted electrical components, as well as machines. She didn’t know what they were called, but the person handling them used them to shape metal into cylinders the size of flashlights. She was certain they weren’t torches, however, considering the complexity of the electronics and other components arrayed across the benches. Of more interest was the crafter herself. 

The woman—girl really—looked tired. Dark bags under her eyes, dark hair in greasy clumps. More telling was the hostile look she shot towards the door, where a burly woman in dark clothes sat. A pistol rested on the table in front of her, with easy reach, though most of the guard’s attention was on her smartphone. 

The mechanic seemed about finished with her current project when Yuriko spied on them, but it was only when she started putting all the components together did the guard became alert. The woman held the pistol, not quite threateningly, but her finger hovered near the trigger guard, and her eyes were trained on the mechanic. The girl shot the other a dark look, but didn’t do anything other than finish her project. Her fingers tightened on the cylinder while the woman brought up the pistol and pointed it at the girl. The mechanic growled, then sighed. She placed the cylinder on one end of her workbench, then moved away. The guard didn’t move, but she pressed some on her waist, a radio communicator, Yuriko thought. 

About a minute later, right when the mechanic girl started up a new project, which looked like it’d end up the same as the previous one, the door opened and a broad-shouldered man entered. It was one of the people stationed at the entrance of the basement levels,  and he took the cylinder, examined it, but didn’t do anything else. Yuriko couldn’t tell what was actually on the device, whether it had switches or buttons, since the metal began actively repelling her Anima perception as soon as the mechanic completed it. Curious. 

The man put the device in a box, sealed it, then brought it out of the room, though not before yelling at the mechanic girl, “Make three more before break!”

The girl flipped a rude gesture at the man, but only received a scoff. The guardswoman broke a mean laugh, then sat back down. Mechanic girl continued on her next project. 

The guardsman brought the cylinder into another room, one that looked like a small shooting range with lanes and targets, then he brought it out of the box. He pointed it towards a target, then pressed a button near one end. There was a beam of light that she only detected because it went through her perception aura, and a hole the size of a copper penny appeared on the paper target, followed quickly by charring around the edges, then small tongues of flame. The target burned up quickly and left ashes fluttering down the range. The man fiddled with the cylinder, a weapon clearly, then placed it back into the box. 

Part of her attention hadn’t shifted from the mechanic, and she felt the woman frown. With a start, Yuriko realised she’d let her perception aura actually touch the girl, as well as the guardswoman, and both reacted to the light pressure. She didn’t think she’d been that heavy-handed, but perhaps the girl was just sensitive. The guardswoman didn’t really react and had just gone back to browsing her phone. 

The guardswoman, the tester, and the mechanic all feel stronger in her senses than the others in the building. Nothing all that concrete, but she suspected all three were Altered Humans as well as being significantly stronger than those who were freshly empowered. Although if so, the mechanic didn’t look to be happy with her circumstances. 

Her attention was suddenly caught by a thin man on the second floor, who had been perusing a laptop computer during the entirety of her reconnaissance. The man twitched when Yuriko’s perception touched him, and his eyes started darting about. He grabbed his smartphone, frantically opened the lock screen and stabbed his thumb into an application. A moment later, nearly every person in the building received an alert on their phones. 

“I guess the jig’s up,” she muttered as the ‘tenants’ all picked up weapons from hidden places. Then they rushed out of their quarters and took holding positions along the stairwells. Someone jabbed a button on the lift controls and locked it down. At least, the lift stopped immediately, even if it was in between floors and someone was inside it: an older man who immediately pressed something on the control panel, crouched down and forced the doors to open, then crawled out through the minimal opening. 

“Well, how did it breach?” Yuriko muttered. She could try through the roof access, but most of the opposition was concentrated on the stairs. She could go through the lift shaft, enter through the car and exit the same way that guy did. She could enter through the ground level, the front door basically, and just handle the defences. She was unsure if any of the Altered had any offensive capabilities or if they were stuck using weapons, though either way, she didn’t think they were capable of overcoming her protections. Plus, her rescue targets were in the basement levels, and entering through the ground floor allowed her to reach them with the least time wasted. 

There was another entrance to the lower level than through the lobby, though steel shutters blocked the way. It also opened into the street, so it was exposed to the public. The mission called for a bit of discretion, or rather, to avoid collateral damage, if she could. 

On the other hand, she could try a spell. Enforced Slumber would have been the ideal five-circle spell, but unfortunately, that was something she had trouble casting. The Truths encapsulated within the spell didn’t resonate with her at all, and she had better luck using her Mien to command someone to sleep than using a spell. Which meant she couldn’t sneakily create the runescript components of the spell wherever she needed them to be within her aura. On the other hand, she could directly smack everyone on the chin with an Animakinetic punch. 

Hmm, yes, that was the simplest way to do it, especially for the gun-toting gangsters. After her alpha strike, she would charge through the front door and head directly to the basement. Whether it would be through the stairs or through the lift’s shaft depended on where the heaviest concentration of enemies was. But then, if she had to rescue all of the captives and keep them safe enough for the police to get here, she’d have to incapacitate everyone anyway. Now, how many people could she hit on the chin at once with enough force to knock them out, but not enough to kill them? 

Hmmm, if they were all Altered Humans to some extent, then a simple blow to the chin might not be enough to keep them down anyway. Well, she’d play it by ear, and they had enough time by now to finish their preparations. 

She stretched her arms wide, then dropped down towards the street level. At the same time, she formed fists with her Animakinesis and struck. Each blow had to be directed individually, which meant her limit was the number of strands of consciousness she had, twelve. But she needed at least three to focus on her flight as well as her perception, so she could only form and direct eight fists at a time. Each punch was lightning quick, so she downed most of the fighters lingering near the top floor in a few seconds. Unfortunately, even though she was quick enough that none of her targets saw anything, the place was covered by security cameras. 

Already alert to begin with, their security officer triggered the alarm. She only managed to clear the top two floors by the time she arrived in front of the main doors, but she took down a couple of dozen more by the time she kicked the oak wood off its hinges. 

The act barely startled the defenders waiting in the lobby, for all that the doors slammed into a couple of them and knocked them on their backs. She casually flew inside, her Anima glowing visibly. 

“Oh, fark! Cape!”

“Shoot ‘em!” 

The yell was followed by the harsh click of triggers pulled, followed by the explosive report of powder burning. Bullets broke past the speed of sound in their short flight, but all was for naught. Yuriko let the leaden projectiles smash against her aura armour. They flattened without a sound, and not even a ripple across the surface of her field. She barely felt the impact of the base material, and she couldn’t help but smirk. Her face was obscured by her helmet’s visor; otherwise, the mortals would have quailed in fear. Fists of golden light formed a couple of inches from vital points: untucked chins, untightened cores, and some, she struck across the ear.

There were fewer than ten gunners in the lobby, and all it took was a single blow each to knock them flat. Not all were unconscious, and of those who bore the first blow and struggled to fight back, Yuriko simply looked at them and commanded, “Sleep.” 

And they all fell down.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep