The Extra's: Accidental Rebirth.-Chapter 65: The Price of Safety (3)

Lee remained quiet for some time, then pulled out his communicator and began typing rapidly. "I’m contacting every asset I have who’s not compromised by the Council, people I trust personally, and having them investigate any individuals with perfect memory or unusual information processing abilities."

"Don’t tell me you’re, looking for other Witness fragments?" Zhao asked.

"Looking for potential allies who might not know what they’re carrying but could be convinced to help once they understand." Lee sent the message. "If we’re going to fight a cosmic entity, we need more than four conscious people and hope."

"Five conscious people," a new voice said, and they all turned to see Subject 12—the Diamond 52 voluntary participant—sitting up with careful movements. "I’ve been awake for about five minutes, listening, and I have questions."

"Join the club," Ji-yeon muttered.

Subject 12 looked around the room, taking in the situation with eyes that were sharp despite recent sedation. "My name is Park Jin-woo. I volunteered for Crucible’s ritual because they promised my family financial security if I participated, and based on what I just heard, that was a significantly worse decision than I realized."

"Probably," Yoo agreed.

"So what happens now? Do we hide here hoping that the Serpent doesn’t manifest? Try to gather more Witness fragments? Or even attempt some desperate plan to close whichever location is connected to the Serpent?" Park stood with the kind of controlled strength that came from decades of combat experience. "Because hiding seems to me like it just delays the inevitable."

"We need more information before we can act," Lee said. "Specifically, we need to know what the Serpent actually wants, because entities that operate at that scale don’t just manifest randomly—they have goals, plans, purposes, possibly thinking years ahead what most of us could ever live for."

"It wants to feed," Zhao said quietly. "That’s what the mark showed me during those moments on the Daedalus before you rescued us, I saw fragments of its nature, and it’s hungry in a way that transcends normal hunger, it consumes concepts and possibilities and potential futures."

"So it’s not just coming to exist in our reality, it’s coming to devour parts of reality itself," Ji-yeon said. "That’s... significantly worse than I thought."

The room fell silent as that particular piece of dreadful information settled over them, and Yoo was lost in thought, specifically thinking about the convergence timeline—two days and twelve hours now until the barriers thinned enough for full manifestation—he wondered if that was enough time to do anything meaningful.

He caught sight of movement outside: the outline of a person approaching the facility from the south, multiple signatures moving with coordinated precision that gave out his potential hubackground, either military training or hunter-team tactics.

"We have company," he said quietly.

Lee immediately moved to the window, staying to the side to avoid being visible from outside, and after three seconds of observation, his expression went grim. "That’s a Serpent’s Fang advance team, three operators, probably sent to track me after I went rogue."

"How did they find us this fast?" Park was already moving toward the door, taking up a defensive position with the kind of automatic competence that came from muscle memory.

"Seriously?, I wish I had been more careful," SIGHS "they probably put a tracker on my vehicle without me noticing, or they’ve been monitoring my communication channels and triangulated based on my last known position." Lee pulled out his weapon. "Either way, we have maybe three minutes before they’re at the doors."

"Can we fight them?" Ji-yeon asked, shadows already beginning to pool.

"Three Serpent’s Fang operators are all Diamond-rank minimum, we have one Diamond-rank conscious, one Platinum injured, one Silver injured, and one fifteen-year-old with shadow powers who can barely stand." Lee’s assessment was brutal but accurate. "Fighting is suicide."

"Then we run," Yoo said, forcing himself to stand despite his leg screaming in protest. "Ji-yeon, can you make a Shadow Gate to somewhere random, anywhere that’s not here?"

"I said twenty-four hours—"

"I know what you said, but unless you want to find out what Serpent’s Fang does with captured seed recipients, you need to try."

Ji-yeon looked at the three remaining unconscious people—Subjects 19, 28, and Zhao who’d somehow fallen back asleep in the last few minutes—and her expression showed the same calculation Yoo was making.

We can’t carry them all and fight simultaneously.

We have to choose.

"I can take two people through the Gate," she said finally. "Maybe three if I push it, but that’s my absolute limit and I’ll probably pass out on the other side."

"Then you take Zhao and Subject 19, they’re both critical for different reasons." Yoo looked at Lee and Park. "You two can handle Subject 28?"

"Where are we meeting?" Lee asked.

"I don’t know yet, I’ll contact you when I figure it out." Yoo pulled out the communicator Lee had given him earlier. "Just get him somewhere safe and away from anchor points."

Park was already lifting Subject 28 with the kind of ease that came from Diamond-rank strength. "This is insane."

"Completely insane," Yoo agreed. "But it’s the best option we have in the next ninety seconds."

Ji-yeon’s shadows spread across the floor like spilled ink, darkness pooling and deepening until it became three-dimensional, a hole in reality leading somewhere else, and she grabbed Zhao’s unconscious form with strength that shouldn’t exist in someone her size but adrenaline provided anyway.

"Subject 19," she said through gritted teeth.

Yoo lifted the Platinum woman—lighter than expected, almost fragile—and passed her to Ji-yeon who caught her with shadows that wrapped around both unconscious bodies like living rope.

"See you on the other side," Ji-yeon said, then stepped backward into the darkness and vanished.

Whooomph.

The Gate collapsed.

"East exit," Lee said, already moving with Park following close behind carrying Subject 28 like the man weighed nothing.

Yoo moved to follow them, but his leg finally gave out completely, his knee buckling in a way that suggested something important had torn, and he hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs.

No

Not now.

He tried to stand, couldn’t, tried again with the same result, and through the window he could see the Serpent’s Fang team approaching the building’s entrance with weapons drawn and the kind of professional caution that meant they expected resistance.

Thirty seconds.

Lee appeared in the doorway, saw Yoo on the ground, made a split-second decision, and came back.

"I can’t carry you and provide covering fire," he said bluntly.

"Then don’t carry me, just go." Yoo pulled himself against the wall, using it to prop himself upright. "I’ll slow them down, buy you time to escape."

"You’re Silver rank with a destroyed leg, you can’t slow down three Diamond-ranks."

"I can try." Yoo’s hand moved to the data chip reader still in his pocket, fingers closing around it. "The Damascus Protocol has information they might want. I can use that as leverage to negotiate, delay, or something."

Lee looked at him for two seconds that felt much longer, then nodded once and disappeared back down the corridor.

The sound of running footsteps faded.

Yoo was alone.

The front entrance exploded inward—not with explosives, with pure Gi force—and three figures entered through the smoke and debris, moving with the synchronized precision that came from operating together for years.

They spread out immediately, covering all angles, weapons tracking potential threats, and the lead operative’s gaze locked onto Yoo sitting against the wall with his destroyed leg stretched in front of him.

"Subject 47," the operative said, voice distorted by tactical mask. "You’re coming with us."

"Can’t really walk right now," Yoo gestured at his leg. "Kind of a mobility issue."

"That’s not a problem."

The operative moved forward, fast enough that Yoo barely tracked the motion, and grabbed him by the collar, lifting him off the ground with one hand.

The world tilted and Yoo’s vision grayed at the edges from pain as his injured leg dangled uselessly, and then they were moving, the operative carrying him like luggage through the ruined facility toward wherever Serpent’s Fang had set up their extraction point.

This is bad.

This is very bad.

Through his fading vision, Yoo caught glimpses of the facility’s exterior, morning sunlight painting everything in gold that seemed inappropriate for how terrible the situation had become, and he saw their transport—not an Association vehicle, something private, expensive, the kind of transport that suggested serious funding behind Serpent’s Fang’s operations.

They reached the vehicle, and the operative opened the rear door, preparing to throw Yoo inside like cargo, and in that moment, before being tossed, Yoo saw something through the tinted windows that made his breath hitch.

Someone was already in the vehicle.

A figure in expensive clothes, face partially shadowed, but Yoo’s enhanced perception caught enough details to recognize—

Director Kwan.

"Hello, Subject 47," Kwan said as Yoo was thrown into the seat across from him. "We need to talk about your future, which is unfortunately going to be quite short."

The door closed.

Clunk.

The transport started moving.

And Yoo understood with perfect clarity that he’d just been captured by the person who’d orchestrated everything from the beginning