The Author's POV

—TSSSSS!

The static sound of the radio transmitter echoed throughout the area.

Bringing the radio transmitter towards my mouth, in a deep voice, I said.

"This is unit 19 speaking. Do you copy?"

[...Unit 19? Copied, what's the situation?]

After a couple of seconds, someone responded.

"We've captured the target. I repeat we've captured the target"

[You've captured the target?]

"Roger."

[Understood. I've relayed the information to units 8,13,21,and 29. They are on their way, please be patient.]

"Copy that. How long till they arrive?"

[Given their location, around five minutes.]

"Understood, I'll be waiting."

—TSSSSS!

"Five minutes..."

Turning the radio transmitter off and turning around, my eyes paused on the four individuals on the ground. They were 19th unit members.

Each of them, although passed out, were still alive. Even though they were fairly skilled, it didn't take long for me to knock them out.

Just their captain alone didn't take much, let alone them who were far below him in strength.

Unlike their captain, I kept them alive. There was a reason for this.

"...6mg, this should be enough."

Taking out a couple of syringes from my dimensional space, carefully measuring the dosages on each of them, I removed any distracting thoughts inside of my mind.

'From what I remember, 2mg is enough to render my mind numb, whilst 10mg is enough to knock me out completely.'

The syringes that I was currently holding were things that I had gotten from Joseph's dimensional space after I killed him.

They were all filled with the serum that I had been injected with for the past eight months. It was now time I used it on someone else.

'I hope this works.'

Since I was pressed for time, I couldn't care less about being delicate and careful. Stabbing one of the guards in the shoulder, I quickly injected him with a dosage of the serum.

—Squeq!

A squeaking sound came out from the syringe.

"huuuk!"

The moment I pushed the serum into the guard's body, the guard's eyes shot wide open. For a brief moment, his eyes turned white. His body then started convulsing madly.

'Shit, did I put too much?'

Grabbing the guard by the shoulders, I pressed him to the ground.

"Guuuuahh"

'Shit, please work.'

I cursed as I pressed him onto the ground.

The reason why I injected the guard with a dosage of the serum was because I wanted to numb his mind. Numb it to the point where, for a brief moment of time, he would fall into a drunken state and listen to my commands.

However, I knew all too well that this plan had a lot of flaws.

Too many variables were out of my control. For example, I didn't know what was the perfect dosage to use as well as the amount of time the serum would need to take effect.

It had to be noted that it took around 2 months to create a single super-soldier out of the thousands of subjects.

Though I wasn't trying to create a supersoldier myself, I still knew just how difficult this operation was. If it failed, I was done for.

Therefore.

"Come on, come on, work!"

Pressing onto the convulsing guard with both hands, I clenched my teeth.

"Ghhh.."

After a couple of more seconds, to my relief, the guard stopped convulsing. Thereafter, opening his eyes, the guard dully looked at the sky without saying anything.

"Haaa..Haa...Can you hear me?"

Breathing heavily, I asked whilst waving my hand in front of his face.

"..."

Unfortunately, I was met with no response. Frowning slightly, I helped him up. Waving my hand at his face again, I repeated.

"Can you hear me?"

"..."

Once again, he didn't respond. Lowering my head, I looked at the syringe in my hand.

"Did I put to—Oh?"

Just when I was about to despair, to my surprise, the guard who I thought was motionless, followed my movement with his head. Instantly my eyes lit up. Moving my hand towards the right, I watched as the guard turned his head towards the right. Taking a step back, the guard took a step forward.

"hahaha."

A laugh involuntarily escaped from my lips, and my fists clenched.

Even though he wasn't saying anything nor following my orders, this was enough for now. As long as they looked like they were under my command everything was fine.

'Alright, 6mg it is...'

Turning my attention towards the other guards on the ground, I did the same thing as the first guard. This time, I didn't waste any time and moved on after each injection. Since it worked, I didn't need to worry about them.

Just like the previous guard, upon injecting them with the serum, their bodies convulsed.

Fortunately, just like before, it stopped after a couple of seconds.

'Next.'

After injecting three more guards, turning my attention towards the last guard on the floor, bending down on one knee, I tapped on my bracelet.

Alongside a small dagger, a small hexagonal glass bottle appeared in my hand.

—Plop!

Opening the bottle and covering my dagger with the contents of the bottle, I first injected the individual with a dose of the serum, this time 10mg, and then slashed his face with the dagger.

"Guuuaah-mhhmmmm"

A blood-curling scream resounded across the forest. Using my hand to cover his mouth, the muffled screams of the guard continued to echo throughout the forest.

Despite his screams, I continued to slash his face. In fact, I sped up.

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to bear with it for just a little bit longer..."

I understood his pain all too well.

I too went through that pain not so long ago. It was the worst pain thing I've ever felt throughout my entire life. But I didn't feel any guilt. If this was the necessary step that I needed to take in order to escape this hell-hole, then so be it.

"mhhmmmm! mhhmmmm"

For the next minute, the muffled scream of the guard continued to resound throughout the forest.

This did not last for long as the guard soon passed out from the serum that I had injected in him.

"Haaa...haaa...Done."

Panting heavily, I slumped on the ground.

Putting my dagger back in my dimensional space, I moved towards the guard and wiped the blood that was on his face.

Then, taking out three healing potions that I got from the dimensional space that I took from their captain, I moved forward.

'This should work.'

Lifting his head slightly, uncapping the lids of the potions, I opened his mouth.

—VRRRRR! —VRRRRR!

"Hm?"

Just as I was about to feed the guard the potion, in the distance I could hear the faint sound of vehicles quickly approaching my location.

"Shit!"

Opening my eyes widely, I cursed.

Without wasting any time, taking three potions at the same time, I forcefully shoved them down the guard's throat. Almost instantaneously, I could see the guard's face healing. Even then, as his injuries healed, the scars on his face remained.

Letting go of the guard's head, I took out two mana recovery potions from my dimensional space.

—Gulp! —Gulp!

Shoving down the two potions down my throat, I quickly put the mask on my face. Wiggling around my face and covering it whole, my face changed that to the 19th unit squad captain.

Moments after I defeated the group, I copied their captain's face, replaced his clothes with mine, and punched his head to the point that it became unrecognizable.

I had done this in preparation for what was to come next.

Grabbing the passed-out 'scarred' guard by the collar, I moved forward. Behind me were the three other unit members.

—Screeech! —Screeech!

At the exact moment I moved forward, three large vehicles stopped before me.

—Clank!

Stepping out of the vehicle, were over fifteen individuals all wearing similar uniforms. Standing at the forefront was a tall muscular man with a black mustache under his nose. Wearing a pair of sunglasses, a wild and suffocating aura exuded from his body.

'Commander, Luther Black'

Reading the tag by the side of his uniform, sweat trickled down my cheeks. The moment I saw the words 'commander' I knew that I couldn't fight him. If I was caught, I was done for.

Stepping forward, I sternly greeted.

"19th unit captain reporting."

Calmly nodding his head, Commander Luther's eyes paused on the individual in my hands. Pointing at him, he asked.

"Is this the suspect?"

"That's correct."

With my back straight, I confirmed.

Studying the scarred individual from top to bottom, Commander Luther massaged his mustache.

"Hmm, scarred face just like the descriptions say."

Every second that Luther spent examing the body in my hands felt like an eternity to me. Many questions such as, 'Did he find something? Did he notice the fact that I am not the captain? Did he notice something wrong with my unit members?', passed by my head.

I knew that these were useless worries, but I couldn't control myself. To make matters worse, my mana had still not recovered. Within two minutes, the mask would start losing effect.

Each second that the commander used to examine the corpse felt agonizing to me.

Thankfully, the commander did not examine the body for too long.

"To think that this man has caused so many problems for us...he's still alive too?" Turning his attention back to me, the commander flashed a toothy grin. "You've done great."

"I was merely following orders." I humbly replied.

"Humble, I see."

Caressing his mustache, the commander showed a satisfied look. Turning around, he chuckled and ordered.

"Hur, Hur, let's get back to the headquarters and report the situation. Everyone get on the vehicles."

"Understood."

Unanimously, all of the people present shouted.

"Over here."

Motioning with his hands, one of the guards gestured for me and my unit to enter the vehicle he was in. To my luck, it was the one without the commander.

Just as I was about to follow the individual into the car, the commander abruptly halted his footsteps. Turning his head, squinting, he asked.

"Ah, I only count four members here. What happened to your other one?"

For a split second, my heart stopped, and a chill ran down my spine.

Thankfully, this was a question I had the answer to.

Lowering my head, I pointed towards the distance where one could see the outline of a corpse.

"...He, unfortunately, did not make it."

"I see...you have my condolences."

Staring at the corpse, the commander lowered his head slightly and boarded the vehicle. After that, helping 'my unit' members climb onto the back of the vehicle, I followed them into the vehicle.

—VRRRRR! —VRRRRR!

A minute after I boarded the vehicle, the car picked up its pace and sped into the distance.

"Khh..."

The moment the car picked started moving, my mind started spinning uncontrollably. Lowering my head towards my knees, the mask fell off of my face.

"Haaa..haaaa..."

Covering my face with my arms, I had a hard time breathing.

'That was too close.'

I had overexerted my mana way too much.. Had another minute have passed, I was sure that my identity would've been exposed.