[LSB] Chapter 95: The Mutant Strikes

“MEGAN?”

Julian tried again, and yet there was no response at all. MEGAN had always been her eyes in his world, which was surrounded by darkness, and the only time he had not heard her was when he transferred his consciousness to his clone for the first time.

But that didn’t count at all, as she was still literally right beside his real body.

This time, however, he couldn’t hear her at all—it was silent, completely so. The white noise that barely made any sound that was coming from his mechanical eyes was nowhere to be heard, and that only meant that MEGAN had shut down.

One would think he would be panicking here, but quite the opposite. He had never been this calm before, as his thoughts were only centered on hearing her again and nothing else—and he already knew where she went.

MEGAN told her how powerful the femto-tech particles were, and without an AI to guide them, they were probably, in a sense, starved. Very much like how they reached out for the dead avatar spirit because of the energy it released, they were drawn to MEGAN.

Or in this, perhaps MEGAN was the one drawn to it.

MEGAN… was currently inside his shadows. But of course, all of this was merely speculation, and the one who happened to have the answer was MEGAN. He plunged his hand through the shadow to retrieve the femto-tech particles, but he couldn’t find it, or her.

They should have been in the Shadow Vault, but they weren’t—Julian was fully aware of how the Shadow Blacksmith’s system works now as most of the basic information was injected into his mind.

He knew that he would instinctively know what items were inside it, and yet no matter how many times he tried to plunge his hand in and out of the shadows, MEGAN was nowhere to be found.

Maybe now, he should panic a little.

He would have entered the Shadow Forge immediately in any other circumstance, as it was the only other place that she and the femto-tech particles could be. But unfortunately—

[Mana (MP): 2/135]

—He was not in the condition to do so. The Shadow Forge cost one MP per minute, and two minutes should be enough to check if they were there—

[Due to your drastically low MP, access to the Shadow Forge is currently locked for your safety. Please recover at least 25% of your MP to enter the Shadow Forge.]

—but the Guidance of Artemis seemed to be withholding information from him still, considering he was not aware of this condition at all.

“Hmm.” He hummed and tapped his foot on the floor, letting his senses scatter for no reason at all but to know his surroundings. He contemplated on what to do next, as without a mana potion, it would take a few hours for his MP to get to 25%.

“Hmm.” He hummed and tapped his foot on the floor again, sending out ripples of vibration that only he could feel—he did this several times before he finally stopped to grab his cane that was on the side of the bed.

And without any more thoughts lingering in his mind, he headed out to the hallway and said,

“Victoria. You are listening, right?”

[Of course, Mr. Winters.]

Victoria’s voice resounded across the hallway, responding less than a second.

“The group you said that has my LinkGear—”

[The Hatter family.]

“Yes.” Julian lightly gripped his cane, “Let me go talk to them.”

[Of course, Mr. Winters. A vehicle is ready for you. Do be careful, these people have weapons that could pulverize you.]

“Hmm.”

There was only one thing left to do in this situation for him—he needed to recover his MP as fast as possible, and he could only do that through his clone in Artemia. He could Humanity Engineering to retrieve it, but it was best not to owe them even more than he already has, at least that would be what MEGAN would say to him.

While Julian was making his way to the asteroid’s hangar, Victoria was glued to him, watching him from the surveillance directly installed in her eyes.

“Are you still not going to tell me why we are supporting him this much, Master?” She said, once again talking to no one in her room, “He almost caused the entire asteroid to collapse, killing my staff, the brightest 0.001% of the universe—I believe you at least owe me an explanation for that, with how long I have been serving you.”

No one answered her, not until she was about to open her mouth again.

“In time, I will let you know.” The voice interrupted her.

“Tell me now, please.” Victoria’s frustrations rose, “We are spending an astronomical amount of money for him, and I do not know why—even his clone cost us a hundred times more than normal. What is so special about Julian Winters?”

“In time, I will let you know.” The voice did not change tone at all.

“Please, just let me know something. One thing.” Victoria shook her head, “Or I will quit, Master—and I assure you I will get the severance pay I deserve after working for you for a thousand years.”

“You can’t quit, that is impossible. You are Humanity Engineering itself.” The voice reasoned.

“Then maybe it is time I actually regain my humanity, don’t you think? I just need one thing from you. Just one thing, and I will never question you again.”

“Very well.” The voice sighed, pausing for a bit before saying, “Then I will tell you one thing—I am the one who personally created his clone.”

“You?” Victoria’s eyes widened in disbelief. The CEO of Humanity Engineering, the one who she addressed as Master, came down from the clouds to do something that any of the scientists of their company could have done?

She wanted to ask why, but she knew that the CEO would not tell her anything anymore. The only thing she could do now was bow her head, finally understanding the actual weight of Julian’s importance.

But the biggest question still remained: Why?

Why was he so important to the point that the CEO had to personally get his hands dirty? What was the CEO trying so hard to hide from everyone else? Her eyes narrowed as all sorts of thoughts raced inside her mind—and soon, a single thought won everything else.

“Is Mr. Winters not a mutant!?” She could not help but ask. Sadly for her, even after an entire minute, there was no response from her boss. But that, in itself, might as well be an answer.

“Oh…” Victoria’s legs lost their strength, almost causing her to drop to the floor if it wasn’t for the bed behind her. Her lips started to tremble, and only covering her mouth was able to stop it.

And then, a smile slowly crawled on her face.

How long? How long has it been since she was this excited?

“Mr. Winters,” she whispered. “What are you, really?”

Right there and then, Victoria decided to put even more budget into supporting Julian. If the CEO was paying this much attention to Julian, then that meant that Julian wasn’t merely a client of the Otherworld Project…

…He is the next part of the project.

***

He was only gone for a few days, but it felt like it had been so long since he stepped back on Earth. To be fair, the vehicle brought him straight down to the Below—and he couldn’t even remember the last time he was here.

Immediately after getting out of the vehicle, he heard the constant and natural noise of the under city—chaos. The loud music, the old flickering neon signs that hadn’t been replaced for years, the holographs that were inviting him to go inside the clubs… but most importantly, the stares.

Heavy enough that it felt like he could hear them. Well, some he could actually hear since they had cyberware modifications in them.

No one could blame them for staring, however, as Julian just stepped out of an obviously luxurious and expensive car. Julian paid them no mind at all, his focus was on the nightclub right in front of him.

 From the information he received while he was in the car, the Hatter crime family are using several establishments as cover—ranging from nightclubs, all the way to more demure things like clothing stores.

And right now, the nightclub in front of him was a front for their main base of operations, and where his LinkGear is.

“Hmm.” Julian hummed as he adjusted his long black coat and leather gloves, making sure that the Mark of Searadyn wouldn’t be accidentally exposed to what he was about to do. He left his cane, of course—he was not here to kill anyone.

But there will be violence.

“Oi, where’d ya think yer going, lad?”

As he stepped toward the club, however, several people quickly blocked his path. 

Expected.

“Y’ look quite familiar. Where’d ya reckon I seen your mug before, ey?” One of the men stood awfully close to him, leaning his face closer to Julian’s… and the smell was not something he really appreciated.

Unfortunately for these people, Julian had been informed of their true nature.

All of them were criminals—dangerous ones, involved in heavy and serious crimes. Worse than the people who had threatened Ellie.

The man in front of him opened his mouth to speak—

Crack.

Before another word could leave his lips, Julian’s hand clamped down on his jaw. And without a moment’s hesitation, he ripped it clean off.

“Grgh!?”

The man staggered back, hands clawing at what remained of his face. But there was no blood. No torn flesh.

Because his jaw had never been real in the first place—just cold, lifeless cyberware.

That also meant it was supposed to be stronger than normal, and yet the man in front of him ripped it apart like it was nothing. He stared at Julian, and as he focused on his face even further, he finally realized who it was.

How could he not, when Julian’s face had been on every single news media outlet for the past few days?

“You… you’re the mutant!?” The man shouted. The other people who had their eyes already wide from what they witnessed, widened them even further as they heard their friend’s words.

Without thinking about it any further, all of them turned around and started screaming because they knew exactly why he was there.

All of them knew about the LinkGear. It was a huge score, after all. And although they didn’t know exactly where they got it from, there was a rumor going around that it was actually from Julian Winters.

They all laughed nervously when they heard that a few days ago, they were scared. Very much so.

But the days passed, and Julian Winters did not knock on their door. They thought the rumor to be false…

…but now, he was here.

“We’re under attack by the mutant!” They all screamed in unison, not even bothering to look back—that was a mistake, of course, as Julian was already chasing after them.

The only thing they could do was listen as one of them screamed. The sound of cyberware being ripped out from their body, whispering in their ears as well.

In the end, none of the people who blocked Julian’s path reached close to the door. They all found themselves on the ground, all gritting in pain.

“Hmm.” Julian hummed as he casually dropped a cybernetic arm, patting his hands off the dust and debris that stuck to his gloves.

Upon seeing this, the other people who were there who either wanted to join or were just curious about what was to happen, all decided to flee. Julian paid them no mind, he was only here to get his LinkGear back and talk to the ones in charge.

Victoria said they had been planning this for a long time, and that meant they had also been following him for a long time—perhaps they even knew that he was the one who killed the loan sharks.

If so, they were a threat to Ellie.

“Well…” He whispered to himself as he made his way toward the building, “...Let’s just get this over—!!!”

Before he could finish his words, however, Julian leaned and stepped to the side. The ground he was standing on just moments ago, now riddled with several holes—smooth, as if pierced by something extremely sharp… or perhaps as Victoria warned him earlier, vaporized.

“Well, well… ain’t ye a fast one.”

Julian tilted his head as he heard a voice moving closer to him from above—someone who leaped from a window multiple floors up.

And from the soft thud that whispered in Julian’s ears, it would seem the man was able to land gently despite the fall. Odd, as from what Julian could tell, the man was holding a rifle that was almost as large as his own body.

The man held his rifle tight, his eyes scanning Julian from head to toe.

“This should be fun.” He said with a smile before pointing the rifle at Julian, “Well…

…maybe not for you, mutant.”

[LAST CHAPTER] <-----> [NEXT CHAPTER]

AUTHOR NOTES

Will we finally get to see someone with strong cybernetic enhancements actually put up a fight with Julian? Find out on the next chapter of... please do holler if you find any mistakes.

And next chapter would be a very... very violent chapter. It will be a Julian without a MEGAN watching him, so... yikes. Even in Artemia, MEGAN was somewhat there since she could watch his stream, but right now... Julian's totally alone and without his moral compass.