Weak Class of Anti-Hero
Chapter 42: The Director’s Betrayal

Chapter 42: The Director’s Betrayal

I found Dr. Thorne’s private quarters in the lowest basement. It was a stark contrast to the rest of the laboratory. A luxurious office, with thick carpets, a dark wood library, and a large, reinforced bay window that offered an underwater view of the ravine.

And he was there.

Dr. Aris Thorne was a thin man, with greying hair and eyes that shone with a cold, cruel intelligence. He wore an immaculate lab coat.

He was not alone.

He was in holographic communication with someone. The hologram was blurry, the transmission encrypted, but I could make out a figure sitting in an armchair. A familiar figure.

The Director.

My blood ran cold.

"The delivery arrived as scheduled, Director," Dr. Thorne was saying, his voice calm and professional. "The new subjects are of good quality."

"Excellent, Doctor," replied the Director’s voice. A voice I knew so well. "Project Prometheus is our most important insurance policy. Continue your work. The academy will continue to provide you with the necessary resources... and subjects."

Subjects. The kidnapped "Stagnants." It was the Director who was sending them here.

My world had just been turned upside down.

The man who had recruited me, who had given me this purpose, who had sent me here to "clean up"... was the head of it all.

This wasn’t a renegade organization. It was a black-ops mission by the academy itself. They were creating monsters, using innocents as guinea pigs, to fight other monsters.

The communication ended.

Dr. Thorne stood up and walked over to the bay window. He stared into the dark depths.

And he spoke, alone.

"Soon..." he murmured. "Soon, I will no longer need you, Director. My final creation will be ready. A perfect artificial Awakened. A god. And he will be completely loyal to me."

He smiled. A smile of pure, demented genius.

I had seen everything I needed to see. And it was far worse than anything I could have imagined.

It was time to go back. And to prepare for war.

I left the laboratory, passing through the walls and floors, my mind swirling with rage and betrayal.

The Director. It had been him, all along.

I passed through the Aura barrier, flew over the ocean, and returned to Seoul.

The city was just beginning to wake up. The first light of dawn was breaking on the horizon.

I reached the roof of the Daesung Building.

My physical body was still there, sitting cross-legged. And Yoo-Na was still there, standing, keeping watch. She hadn’t moved all night. She had kept her promise.

I re-entered my body.

The sensation was violent. All the emotions I had suppressed in my spiritual form—the rage, the shock, the disgust—crashed down on me.

I opened my eyes.

Yoo-Na looked at me, worried. She must have seen the change in my expression. "Ji-Hoon? What happened? Did you succeed?"

I nodded slowly.

"I succeeded. I saw everything."

I got up, staggering a little. I looked at the horizon, where the sun was beginning to rise.

"The mission has changed," I said, my voice hoarse.

She looked at me, confused. "What do you mean?"

I turned to her. My gaze must have been terrifying.

"We’re not just going to infiltrate this lab. We’re not just going to stop Dr. Thorne."

I thought of the prisoners. Of the monsters in the cages. Of my own manipulation.

"We’re going to raze it to the ground. We’re going to burn everything. And we’re going to free everyone."

"But the Director..." she began.

"The Director is the primary target," I cut her off, my voice icy. "We don’t work for him anymore. We work against him."

I looked her straight in the eye.

"So, tell me, Yoo-Na. Are you with me? Or against me?"

Yoo-Na remained silent for a long moment, digesting the enormity of what I had just told her. To turn against the Director was to turn against the academy, against the entire system. It was treason.

She looked out at the waking city. She probably thought about her family, her position, everything she had to lose.

Then, she seemed to think of something else. The lies. The way the Director had used her, too.

She raised her head. Her expression was hard, determined.

"I’m with you," she said, simply.

A weight lifted from my shoulders. I was no longer alone in this war.

"Good," I said. "Dr. Thorne mentioned a ’delivery’ that just arrived. That means he’ll probably start a new round of experiments soon. We have some time. Probably a day or two to prepare a plan."

We stood there, on the roof, as the sun rose, discussing the first drafts of our assault. The weaknesses in security. The number of guards. The layout of the facility.

Finally, the adrenaline began to wear off, giving way to total exhaustion.

My stomach rumbled. Loudly.

Yoo-Na stopped mid-sentence and looked at me, one eyebrow raised.

I shrugged.

"I’m going home," I said. "I’m hungry."

She rolled her eyes, but for the first time, there was a hint of amusement in her gaze. "You just declared war on the most powerful man in the country, and all you can think about is your breakfast?"

"Vengeance works up an appetite," I replied with a tired smile.

She shook her head, a small smirk on her face. "You’re really impossible."

"I know."

We left the roof, descending into the waking city.

We parted ways at the foot of the building, each going our separate ways.

We were allies now. Conspirators.

The war had been declared. But first, a good bowl of ramen.

I hailed a taxi. The exhaustion from my astral night was so profound that the thought of taking the subway felt like a superhuman effort.

During the entire ride, I kept thinking about the conversation with Yoo-Na. It was strange. In a few hours, my sworn enemy had become my only ally in the most dangerous mission of my life.

When I finally arrived in front of my building in Itaewon, I noticed something was wrong.

The door to my apartment, on the first floor, was ajar.

My body tensed instantly. I paid the taxi driver and went up the stairs, without a sound, my mind already in combat mode.

Who could have gotten in? The organization? Men from the Director?

I pushed the door open gently, ready to summon my dagger.

And I stopped dead in my tracks.

Sitting on my couch, eating my chips and watching an old action movie on TV, was my father.

He didn’t even turn around.

"Took you long enough," he said, stuffing a handful of chips into his mouth. "I was starting to think you forgot to pay your rent and got kicked out."

He turned to me, a big smile on his face.

"So, that young lady, Ha-Yoon, is she nice? I saw your messages on your terminal. You have to be careful, young people these days move fast. In my day, we took our time, we went to the movies, we..."

I stared at him, completely stunned, my killer instinct evaporating to be replaced by immense embarrassment. He had gone through my terminal.

"Are you prying into my private life?" I managed to articulate.

"Just making sure my son is in good hands," he replied without a shred of shame. "And change your passcode. 1-2-3-4, seriously? That’s the first thing the bad guys try."

I sighed, closing the door.

My father was back. And he was even more embarrassing than I remembered.

My father turned off the TV, his expression becoming more serious again.

"It’s already been a year since you started this new life, Ji-Hoon," he said. "I stopped by to leave flowers on your mother’s grave this morning. I figured I’d drop by and see you."

A year. Time passed so quickly.

He looked at me intently. "I heard the Director assigned you a new mission. A big one. With the Kang girl, the Ice Queen. So, how’s it going? Are you two managing to work together?"

I sat down in the other armchair, trying to appear casual. I couldn’t tell him the truth. Not about the Director. My father was part of this organization. Telling him their leader was a traitor... it would complicate everything.

"Wonderfully," I lied, my voice calm. "We had a rough start, but we found our rhythm. We’re just finalizing the plan to dismantle this laboratory."

My father smiled, looking relieved and proud. "That’s good, kid. This is the kind of mission that legends are made of. Keep it up. Cleanse this world."

He had a dreamy look in his eyes. "Who knows? Maybe one day, when we’ve solved all the problems on Earth, we can finally start exploring. Crossing the breaches not to fight, but to discover. To see other worlds. Other stars."

I nodded, a bitter taste in my mouth. He didn’t know. He didn’t know that the biggest monster wasn’t in another dimension, but right at the top of his own organization.

"I have to go," he said, getting up. "I have my own hunt to attend to. But I just wanted to see how you were doing."

He stopped at the door. "Be careful. And don’t forget to change your password."

And he left, leaving me alone with my lie and the weight of a secret war he couldn’t even imagine.