Chapter 21 - Loss, Opportunities, New Destination
Thud! Thud! Thud!
I swung the foldable shovel over and over at the exact same spot on the reinforced glass.
"Whoever made this thing seriously hated thieves."
Ten minutes later...
Crk!
A tiny fracture finally appeared.
Encouraged, I continued striking the same crack with even greater enthusiasm.
Sweat dripped from my forehead.
Twenty minutes after the first swing.
CRACK!
The reinforced glass finally shattered inward.
I couldn’t stop myself from grinning.
"My luck’s actually pretty good."
No alarms or killer robots appeared.
Maybe the laboratory’s security system had deteriorated after all these years.
"Looks like I worried for noth–"
The instant my fingers wrapped around the sword’s hilt.
BEEP.
The display pedestal beneath it suddenly glowed crimson.
"...Fuck."
Every instinct in my body screamed at me.
RUN.
I shoved the sword into my backpack so quickly that only the hilt remained sticking out of the zipper.
The foldable shovel?
Forget it.
That thing had served its purpose.
I abandoned it on the floor and sprinted toward the exit with flashlight.
RING! RING! RING!
Red emergency lights flooded every corridor.
A mechanical voice echoed throughout the underground facility.
[WARNING. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED.]
[WARNING. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED.]
Somewhere behind me, machines began moving as I guessed that from the noise.
CRASH!
The sound echoed through the dome.
I didn’t dare look back.
Unfortunately, the crashing sounds grew louder.
’Just a little farther!’
The narrow escape corridor was already in sight.
The submerged hatch waited only a few dozen meters ahead.
"I can make it!"
I practically threw myself toward it, throwing the flashlight.
Then, a cold electronic voice echoed behind me.
[LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED.]
I spun the hatch open.
WHOOSH!
The pressure difference violently sucked water into the corridor.
Without hesitation, I jumped through the opening.
The freezing water swallowed me instantly.
Good.
I turned around to close the hatch.
Then I saw them.
"Oh!"
Floating through the crimson corridor, half a dozen metallic spheres emerged.
Each was roughly the size of a basketball.
Their polished surfaces opened like mechanical flowers.
And their glowing red lenses focused on me.
’They’re drones.’
One of the lenses brightened.
My instincts screamed at something horrifying.
I shoved the hatch shut with all my strength.
PZZZT!
A blue beam shot through the narrowing gap.
"AHHHHH!!"
Agony.
Pure, blinding agony.
The laser sliced straight across my left hand.
For a instant, I didn’t even understand what had happened.
Then I looked.
My fingers, were gone.
My little finger and ring finger had completely disappeared.
Most of my middle finger vanished with them.
There wasn’t blood.
The laser had simply evaporated them.
’SHIT! SHIT! I need to close it!’
Ignoring the pain, I slammed the hatch shut using my right hand.
CLANG!
With trembling fingers, I forced the handwheel to rotate.
Click.
Locked.
The drones slammed against the opposite side of the hatch, but the seal held firm.
I was still underwater and I was dying for a breath.
My lungs burned and my vision blurred.
The pain threatened to overwhelm every thought.
’Move!’
Instinct took over me as I kicked upward with everything I had.
The world became a blur of bubbles.
Darkness crept into the edge of my vision.
Just when I thought my chest would burst.
Splash!
"HAAAAAA!!"
I erupted onto the lake’s surface, coughing violently.
Fresh air flooded my lungs.
"Agh!"
My entire body shook uncontrollably.
The adrenaline that had kept me functioning vanished almost instantly.
Now, the pain truly arrived.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!"
The scream echoed across the empty lake.
I swam toward the shore as fast as I could using one arm.
Each stroke felt weaker than the last.
By the time I crawled onto land, I was barely conscious.
"Haa... Haa..."
My body trembled as I slowly raised my injured hand.
"No-no-no-no..."
Two fingers were completely gone.
The middle finger remained only up to the first joint.
Everything beyond that point was gone
"Ah... fuck!"
Surprisingly, almost no blood flowed from there now.
The wounds had sealed themselves under the tremendous heat.
Even then, I knew that wasn’t the only reason I was still alive.
Rejuvenation.
Without that ability constantly supporting my body, I would’ve likely blacked out underwater.
A normal person would’ve drowned before reaching the surface.
I laughed bitterly.
I can’t even blame the villain here, because I was the one who got slightly greedy and decided to rob his old research facility.
"...What a shitty conscience."
Using my remaining strength, I threw the backpack beside a nearby tree before collapsing.
I was still wearing nothing but soaked shorts.
My spare clothes remained inside the backpack.
Unfortunately, changing now sounded like the hardest task in the world.
My eyelids grew heavier.
I knew sleeping here was a terrible idea.
But exhaustion and pain were stronger than my reason.
The last thing I saw before darkness claimed me.
Was the orange glow of Rejuvenation faintly pulsing beneath my injured arm, desperately trying to heal what should have been impossible to heal.
Then, everything went black.
***
"I’m alive."
That was the first thought I had when I opened my eyes again.
The second was considerably less pleasant.
My left hand.
"Fuck!"
Judging by the time, less than an hour has passed.
And my wounds had already stopped bleeding thanks to Rejuvenation, but they looked no less horrifying.
I genuinely wanted to cry.
But I took a long breath and forced myself to calm down.
I reached into my backpack and pulled out my spare T-shirt.
Using that, I carefully wiped away the dirt and mud that had accumulated during my desperate escape.
Every touch sent a sharp pain shooting up my arm.
Still, it looked considerably cleaner afterward.
Satisfied, I quickly changed into dry clothes.
Thankfully, the lakeside remained deserted.
The only witnesses to my spectacular day were a few squirrels curiously watching me from the nearby trees.
I also couldn’t help feeling fortunate that the family from earlier hadn’t reported the suspicious half-naked teenager repeatedly diving into the lake.
Explaining that to park rangers would’ve been awkward.
Once everything was packed away, I finally reached for the reason this entire disaster had happened.
The sword.
"You better be worth two and a half fingers."
Slowly, I drew the blade.
Shing.
A pitch-black sword emerged from its sheath.
Its surface seemed to absorb the surrounding light instead of reflecting it.
It was elegant and beautiful.
I casually swung the blade toward a patch of tall grass.
The grass remained standing.
"Huh?"
Then, the upper halves quietly slid off.
Every single blade had been cut cleanly in two.
"Now, that’s impressive."
My attention shifted toward the small metallic button embedded near the guard.
I pressed it.
Bzzzt.
Crimson electricity danced across the blade.
Thin red lines spread through intricate grooves carved into the sword until the entire weapon glowed with a deep blood-red radiance.
I stared.
Then looked at my mutilated hand.
Nearby stood a thick pine tree.
I cautiously thrust the sword forward.
The blade sank into solid wood with almost no resistance.
It felt less like cutting timber and more like pushing a knife through soft butter.
"This is ridiculous."
For the next several minutes, I experimented with the weapon.
Soon, the crimson aura faded completely.
"Battery depleted?"
I frowned.
The blade had returned to its ordinary black appearance.
"That would make sense."
This laboratory had belonged to a scientist.
If he designed an energy weapon, it would naturally require an external power source.
"I if my guess is correct the source is Monster Crystals."
Monster Crystals were expensive.
But they were infinitely easier to obtain than some mysterious proprietary energy cell from a secret underground laboratory.
I sheathed the sword.
Then, my eyes drifted back toward my left hand.
The excitement faded almost instantly.
"Just how much is reconstruction surgery going to cost?"
I had medical insurance.
But regenerating missing fingers wasn’t the same as treating a broken bone.
Modern medicine had advanced tremendously after humanity learned to manipulate life energy.
Lost limbs could be reconstructed.
Given enough money and time.
Then another problem occurred to me.
"If I go through official channels Mira will know."
As my legal guardian, she would automatically receive the notification, even though I am technically an adult.
I could already imagine the conversation.
I sat beside the lake for several minutes, silently considering every possible solution.
Prosthetic fingers existed.
But, I didn’t want prosthetics.
I wanted my own fingers back.
"The Elixir is far too expensive."
The legendary healing elixirs capable of restoring lost limbs cost more money than I would likely earn with a decade of monster hunting.
Then there were divine healers who could perform miracles that modern medicine couldn’t replicate.
"Absolutely not."
That option was even worse.
I now possessed memories from another world.
I had no intention of drawing the attention of beings powerful enough to call themselves gods.
Excessive use of divine power always left traces.
And miracles of that magnitude weren’t performed for strangers.
Not without enormous donations or favors.
"There really isn’t another choice."
The plans I had made over the past few weeks quietly rearranged themselves inside my mind.
Some opportunities would have to wait.
I slowly stood, slinging my backpack over my shoulder and hid my sword aligning it with my spinal cord.
Though I looked walking unusually straight, that was fine for me.
"Looks like I’ll have to leave the country."
That sounded ridiculous.
An eighteen-year-old who had barely awakened as a Hero, already planning to travel abroad.
’I’m still not officially a hero yet’ I thought in bitterness.
But if my memories were correct, there was an opportunity overseas that could solve more than one of my current problems.
I looked one last time at my damaged hand.
"There are still a few things I need to finish here first."
With that, I began walking toward the road, the setting sun casting a long shadow behind me.
For better or worse.
My original plan had just changed completely.