System X: Bloodline Awakening System

After some time, a group of men arrived at the site where M. Boss had made his supposed-to-be greatest discovery. However, these men bore no resemblance to the team he had been summoning all along. Their uniforms and badges bore the inscription Workers of Iniquity (WOI), setting them apart from the bike-riding men.

The Workers of Iniquity were a notorious and mysterious bloodline group infamous throughout the city for armed robbery and identity theft. They were known for stealing from their victims and then impersonating them to achieve their objectives.

Keaton's growing suspicion that this man wasn't truly M. Boss—his employer of over a decade—suddenly clicked into place. How could he fail to recognize the man he had worked so closely with for so many years? This green-blooded individual must have shape-shifted into M. Boss, likely to steal something important—something Enzox had evidently discovered before Keaton did. But that begged the question: where was the real M. Boss?

History had proven time and again that the Workers of Iniquity, notorious for assuming others' identities, operated with chilling precision. Their victims were either drugged or kidnapped, left unconscious and without any memory of the events during the time their identities were stolen.

The rumble of large engines echoed as the machines relentlessly dug into the ground. Despite reaching a significant depth, they had yet to uncover any sign of the underground lab. It was as if the discovery M. Boss had once boasted of was now nothing more than a phantom hidden beneath layers of earth and mystery.

One of the workers approached the figure who had been posing as M. Boss, only to now reveal his true form—a man entirely different in appearance.

"What's going on?" M. Boss asked.

"The machines have reached their limit. We have to stop. Besides, there's no sign of the lab here," the man replied, frustration evident in his voice.

As their conversation continued, another man approached from behind, interrupting them. "M. Boss, I have to tell you something."

"What is it?" Sulan growled, his voice thick with irritation. As he turned, his face momentarily morphed between his true form and the identity he had been impersonating.

"T-the lab… it's disappeared. There's no sign of it anymore," the man stammered, projecting a screen in front of him as proof.

"Disappeared?" Sulan echoed, disbelief lacing his words. His hope drained away, replaced by a simmering anger that burned in his eyes.

Unbeknownst to Sulan, what he believed to be his greatest discovery had already been detected by a handful of other researchers, both within the state and beyond. These researchers, using instruments similar to his, had tracked the mysterious lab. However, this phenomenon was not new. Each time the lab was detected, it would vanish shortly after—like a mirage, always just out of reach. Sulan's fury grew as the realization hit him: the lab was not just elusive but perhaps intentionally so, slipping through their grasp time and time again.

Typically, the lab would remain visible for nearly an hour before vanishing. However, this occurrence was different. The lab had disappeared far sooner than usual, defying previous patterns. It was widely speculated that either a human or an alien was trapped inside the lab, controlling its operations. Others believed the lab's system had locked its occupants within, preventing their escape whenever it shut down.

This anomaly baffled Sulan. His team had arrived in less than fifteen minutes and immediately started excavating the top layer of soil, digging down nearly a thousand feet. Yet, despite their swift action, the lab had already vanished.

Unbeknownst to Sulan, the man in charge of surveying the system had noticed the lab's sudden disappearance the moment they arrived. But excitement—and fear—kept him silent. He didn't want to dampen his boss's mood or risk Sulan's infamous wrath. He knew all too well how angry and outraged Sulan would be if, out of the blue, he revealed that the lab Sulan had been so confident in locating had vanished into thin air.

As expected, when the man finally broke the news, Sulan's fury erupted. He grabbed the surveyor by the neck, lifting him effortlessly off the ground, and hurled him against a nearby tree.

"How dare you lie to me!" Sulan snarled, his voice thick with rage as he closed the distance, his grip tightening around the young man's throat.

The man, pinned against the tree, couldn't utter a single word. Instead, he gasped desperately for air, his lungs burning as his hands clawed at Sulan's iron grip. His legs kicked helplessly in midair, searching for some leverage. In a desperate attempt to free himself, his feet found the tree, and he pushed upward trying to outgrow Sulan and perhaps loosen the choking hold.

For a brief moment, it worked—the grip around his neck slackened. But his relief was short-lived. To his horror, Sulan was suddenly on the same level as him.

The terrifying realization hit him: Sulan had raised himself above the ground, levitating nearly three feet to maintain his chokehold. The pressure on his neck returned, more crushing than before. His face turned pale, then a deep, blotchy red, his veins bulging, and his eyes darkened to a bloodshot shade of crimson as the life seemed to drain from him. He realized, with growing terror, that this was no ordinary man. Sulan was something far more dangerous.

"He's... a superhuman," the man pinned against the tree thought with mounting dread as the realization hit him.

This man wasn't anyone extraordinary—just a regular employee working for B-Tech, the country's leading tech company. The same company where M. Boss and Enzox worked. He had always prided himself on keeping his head down, minding his tasks, and avoiding unnecessary trouble.

However, things had started to feel off. He had noticed strange, coded communication among some of the men, particularly the workers. Their appearance and behavior had struck him as unusual, but he had dismissed it, assuming they were specialized employees imported from another country.

He had buried himself in his computer earlier, trying to determine if the radar could pick up anything else—perhaps the lab's security system had detected their intrusion. But despite his efforts to stay focused, he couldn't ignore the oddities around him.

And now, as Sulan's grip tightened, the truth became undeniable. "They're all superhumans… or aliens," he thought, his mind reeling as he fought for his life.

Just as he was on the verge of succumbing, his vision darkening and his body giving out, Sulan abruptly released him. He fell to the ground in a heap, coughing violently and gulping in air as though his life depended on it—because it did. The searing pain in his throat was a brutal reminder of how close he had come to death.

Sulan froze as a notification echoed in his mind, the voice assistant announcing an incoming call from the ID Master Zorin. The name sent a jolt through him. This caller was someone he couldn't afford to ignore—not after informing them earlier about his discovery of the elusive lab. And now, with the lab vanished without a trace, the stakes were higher than ever.

The moment the notification registered, a question weighed heavily on his mind: "What do I tell him now?"

His sharp features twisted in frustration as he turned away from the man still gasping for air on the ground, his back to the pitiful figure. Sulan walked a few paces, each step deliberate, as he wrestled with how to handle the conversation. The call was inevitable, and he knew it.

Taking a deep breath, Sulan tapped into the neural interface to connect the call. The line clicked, and just as he was about to speak, a voice from the other end demanded answers. Sulan's jaw tightened as he prepared to respond, still unsure how to explain the disaster unfolding around him.

"What's happening?" Zorin's voice came through, calm yet laced with a subtle threat that sent shivers down Sulan's spine.

Sulan knew exactly why the tone unnerved him. This man had a grip on him like no other. Every move Sulan made seemed to be under constant surveillance, as if Zorin had planted a spy within his ranks—someone always ready to report his every action. Alternatively, Sulan had considered the possibility of hidden cameras tracking his movements, though that seemed far-fetched even to him. Whatever the method, the result was the same: there was no escaping Zorin's gaze.

"We are on it, BOSS," Sulan replied, his tone steady and confident. He sounded composed, almost indifferent, a skill he had mastered over time. Sulan had been in tight situations like this before, and he knew how to put on a convincing front. Yet, deep down, his nerves were frayed. Beneath his calm exterior, he was scared out of his wits.

"Are you hiding something from me?" Zorin asked after a brief pause, his voice sharper, more probing.

Sulan felt a knot tighten in his chest, and his breathing grew uneven. He was under immense pressure, and regret began to creep in. He shouldn't have reported the discovery so soon. But what choice had he really had? Even if he had tried to keep it hidden, Zorin would have found out eventually—especially after Sulan requested reinforcements and summoned the team.

Now, standing under the weight of Zorin's scrutiny, Sulan struggled to maintain his composure. He knew that one wrong word could unleash consequences he wasn't prepared to face.

Sulan was speechless. The tension between him and Zorin thickened in the silence, neither willing to break it. Sulan's mind raced. He made a decision—he would report everything that had happened, no matter the consequences. Whatever punishment Zorin decided on, Sulan vowed he would exact the same on the man who had fooled him. He could only hope the punishment wouldn't cost him his life. If it did, he wouldn't live to see that man pay.

"The—" Sulan began, but his words faltered as another voice cut in.

"The lab disappeared... just like before," said a deep, unfamiliar voice.

Sulan froze, his brows furrowing in curiosity and suspicion. That voice wasn't Zorin's, but it was speaking as though it had firsthand knowledge of the situation. A spy, Sulan thought, his long-standing suspicions confirmed. There was someone here—or watching from a distance—reporting directly to Zorin.

The line went silent again, leaving Sulan puzzled and uneasy. What did the voice mean by "just like before"?

As he mulled over the words, fragments of overheard conversations between Zorin and his associates surfaced in his mind. Those talks about the lab vanishing now seemed less cryptic. The voice he'd just heard sounded eerily familiar, though Sulan couldn't place it with certainty.

One thing was clear: Zorin was searching for the lab for something far more significant than he'd let on. And Sulan knew, deep within himself, that Zorin wasn't human. Every encounter with the mysterious figure had been shrouded in secrecy—always masked, always separated by a barrier.

Why doesn't he want anyone to see his face? Sulan wondered briefly, but that thought was quickly overshadowed by more pressing concerns.

His current goal was clear: redeem himself by finding the lab. He had already failed the briefcase mission, and the sting of that failure still lingered. Perhaps finding the lab could help him regain Zorin's favor. After all, Kaiza had escaped into the lab with the briefcase.

But how did that kid even get in? Sulan thought, his frustration mounting. He's definitely... something.