Weak Class of Anti-Hero
Chapter 41: The Ghost of the Prometheus Lab

Chapter 41: The Ghost of the Prometheus Lab

I was on the roof of the Daesung Building before she was. The night wind was cold at this altitude. The city of Seoul spread out beneath my feet, an endless carpet of lights. You could see the Han River, a glittering black serpent, cutting the metropolis in two.

I heard the rooftop door creak behind me.

Yoo-Na appeared. She wasn’t wearing her combat gear, but a long black coat that billowed in the wind. Her face was an expression of impatience and contempt.

"Nice view," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "You have expensive taste for a burger cook. Can we get this over with? I have better things to do."

I didn’t turn around. I kept looking at the city.

"We’re going to establish a few rules before we go any further," I said, my voice calm and carried by the wind.

"Rules?" she laughed. "Who do you think you are?"

"Rule number one," I continued, ignoring her. "No more lies. No more manipulation. We tell each other the truth. All the information we have, we share."

"Rule number two. I make the plan. You’ve proven you’re not reliable. You follow my orders. Without question."

"Rule number three. This is a mission, not a vendetta. We are partners, not enemies. At least, until the job is done."

I finally turned to face her.

"And rule number four. If you break any of these rules, I’ll leave you behind, finish the mission alone, and I will explain to the Director exactly why our ’partnership’ failed."

Her face was contorted with fury. "You dare give me orders? To me? Do you really think I’m going to take that from a..."

"Your pride, or the mission?" I cut her off. "Decide. Now."

She stood there, silent, her rage fighting against the cold logic of the situation. She was trapped. And she knew it.

After a long silence, where the only sound was the wind whistling between the skyscrapers, Yoo-Na let out a sigh of contained rage.

"Fine," she hissed, the words scraping her throat. "Your rules. For this mission. But let’s be clear: as soon as this is over, everything goes back to the way it was."

"Works for me," I replied.

Now that we had established the ground rules, we could get down to business.

"So, let’s share our information," I began. "What do you know about this lab that I don’t?"

She hesitated, then took out her terminal. She projected a hologram of the prison island.

"The Prometheus Lab is run by a renegade scientist from the academy, Dr. Aris Thorne. He was expelled ten years ago for conducting unethical experiments."

She zoomed in on the building.

"Security is threefold. An Aura barrier that surrounds the entire island. Patrols of heavily armed guards, Awakened mercenaries. And inside, the ’failures’ of his experiments, unstable monsters he uses as watchdogs."

"And Dr. Thorne himself?"

"We don’t know. Information on him is classified. The Director thinks he may have used his own research on himself. He could be anything."

I looked at the blueprint. It was a fortress.

"A frontal infiltration is suicide," I said.

"Obviously," she retorted sarcastically.

I pointed to the cliff facing the island. "What’s the distance from here to the island?"

"About five hundred meters. Why? You’re not planning on jumping, are you?"

"No," I said, a plan beginning to form in my mind. A crazy plan, but one that might just work.

"I plan to fly."

Yoo-Na looked at me as if I had gone insane. "Fly? Your power isn’t levitation."

"Not physically," I said.

I closed my eyes and focused. It was the first time I had tried to do it in front of someone.

I dissociated my spiritual body.

The sensation was as strange as ever. My consciousness split in two. My physical body remained motionless on the roof, eyes closed. And next to it, a version of myself, translucent and made of flickering black Aura, appeared.

I opened the eyes of my spiritual body. I could see my own physical body, still. And I could see Yoo-Na.

Her face was a mask of total astonishment. She could see me.

"What... what is that?" she stammered. "Is this an illusion?"

"It’s my spiritual body," I explained, my voice echoing strangely.

I took a few steps. I could move. I could even float a few inches off the ground.

Yoo-Na stared at me, dumbfounded. "I didn’t even know this was possible."

"The Director doesn’t teach you everything in the Top 10," I said, a little smugly.

The fact that she could see me was amazing. Normally, only individuals with an extremely developed Aura perception could perceive a spiritual body.

"In this form, I’m immaterial," I continued, my strategist’s mind taking over. "I can pass through walls. Aura barriers. I can be invisible to most people. That’s my plan."

I looked toward the horizon, in the direction of the prison island.

"I will infiltrate the lab in this form. I’ll scout for traps, guards, Dr. Thorne’s location. I’ll listen to their secret conversations, find their weak points."

Yoo-Na understood. "A perfect reconnaissance mission."

"Exactly. And that’s just the first step." I smiled, a smile only my spiritual body could make. "There is still a higher stage. The astral body. In that form, I would be completely erased from physical and spiritual existence. I could see the world in four dimensions. See the past, the present, and possible futures. But I haven’t mastered that yet."

For now, the ghost would have to do.

"You... you can really do that?" Yoo-Na asked, her arrogance completely replaced by an almost scientific curiosity. "Pass through walls? Be invisible?"

"Watch," I said.

My spiritual body floated to the small concrete shack that housed the access to the rooftop stairs. I simply kept moving forward.

My form passed through the wall without the slightest resistance. For a second, I was inside the structure, seeing the cables and concrete from within. Then I passed through the other side.

I came back to her.

"Okay," she admitted, visibly impressed. "That’s a good plan."

"There’s a risk," I specified. "While I’m in this form, my physical body is vulnerable. Completely defenseless. It will be here, on this roof. I’m going to need you to protect it."

She nodded, her expression turning serious again. "Understood. No one will touch it."

I reintegrated with my physical body. The sensation was like diving into cold water. I opened my real eyes.

"This is going to take me some time," I said. "Maybe all night. The island is big."

"Do what you have to do," she replied. "I’ll stand guard."

I found a spot sheltered from the wind, near the stairwell door. I sat in a lotus position, as if to meditate.

"If I’m not back by sunrise..." I began.

"You’ll be back," she cut me off, with a firmness that surprised me.

I closed my eyes. I calmed my breathing.

And once again, I let my spirit leave my body.

My spiritual body rose into the air, above the roof. I looked down at my own body, sitting vulnerable below. I looked at Yoo-Na, who stood beside it, scanning the surroundings, her expression focused.

For the first time, we were a real team.

I turned my spectral form toward the open water and began to fly through the night, toward the prison island.

The reconnaissance mission had begun.

Flying in spiritual form was an incredible experience. I wasn’t limited by gravity, only by the speed of my own thought.

I crossed the five hundred meters separating me from the island in just a few minutes, a silent ghost gliding over the black waves.

The first defense, the Aura barrier, was exactly where Yoo-Na had said it would be. It was a dome of invisible, crackling energy that surrounded the entire island. For a physical body, it would have been an impassable wall.

For me, it was nothing. I passed through the barrier as if it didn’t exist.

I reached the island’s coast. The mercenary patrols were there. Heavily armed men, with powerful and unstable auras. They walked the perimeter, their senses sharp, but they couldn’t see me. I was on another plane of existence.

I floated toward the main building, the laboratory-penitentiary.

I passed through the outer concrete wall.

The interior was exactly as you would imagine. Sterile white corridors, lit by cold fluorescent lights. Steel doors. Surveillance cameras everywhere.

I began my exploration.

I passed through the floors, one by one. I saw the labs, filled with cages and strange equipment. I saw the guards’ spartan dormitories. I saw the detention cells.

And in those cells, I saw the "test subjects." "The Stagnant." Men and women, kidnapped, waiting their turn to undergo horrible experiments. The fear and despair were so thick in this area I could almost touch them.

My rage began to build.

I continued downward, deeper and deeper.

And it was in the lowest levels that I found the "failures." The monsters. Deformed creatures, half-human, half-Beasts of the Abyss, locked in reinforced cages. They growled and slammed against the bars.

It was a nightmare. A very real nightmare, hidden from the rest of the world.

All that was left was to find the last piece of the puzzle.

Dr. Aris Thorne. The master of this house of horrors.