Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
A red pickup truck raced down the country road. It filed through the traffic like a fish racing downstream.
Inside the pickup truck, Keith had his brows tightly clenched together. He glanced at the rearview mirror and gritted his teeth before stomping down on the gas pedal.
“Bang!”
There was a sudden loud crash. The pickup truck rammed into the car in front that refused to make way for the pickup truck. Keith was flung forward by the sudden change in momentum. He held onto the steering wheel with all his might so he would not be flung out through the windshield into the traffic.
The vehicle that was rear-ended lost control and stopped by the side of the road. A furious red-bearded old man emerged from it. He raised his fist and cursed at Keith’s pickup truck that was already slowly fading out of view. It was around this point when he noticed another dazzling headlight rapidly advancing toward his position.
Seemingly sensing something, the old man with the patch of red beard slowly turned around and saw two huge headlights inches away from him. It was so close that the license plate was almost right in his face like a beast baring its jaws at him!
“Ah-!”
The red-bearded old man instinctively put his arms up to defend himself. The very next second, the roaring behemoth rammed into the old man with a deafening roar and created a cloud of red mist in a split instant as the old man was obliterated into pieces!
“Bang!”
More cars on the road ahead that could not get out of the way in time were hit by the behemoth and thrown to the side of the roads like mere toys. None of them managed to thwart the heavy truck’s momentum.
Keith could only let out a somber sigh when he saw what had become of the old man. He continued focusing on what was in front of him…
Waves of fatigue started to wash over him successively. It had been two nights since he last slept. Thanks to the stubborn hunters that were trailing right behind him, his body continuously pumped adrenaline to keep him awake and alert at all times.
There was nothing Keith could do but sigh.
Ever since he invented the drug known as AD-001 and accepted the task given to him by Professor Irwin, he felt as if his life had fallen into a spiral.
A mysterious organization came after him relentlessly ever since.
Originally, he was planning to spend a romantic night with his beautiful colleague and then deliver the drug to Los Angeles the next morning. It all started during that night in the dance hall when he found himself on the wrong end of a pursuit for the first time in his life.
If not for an unlucky passerby who happened to block a bullet for him, he would have been shot dead already.
Unfortunately, his beautiful colleague, Ella Jennifer, was taken away by the mysterious organization.
After that, he snuck back into the research center in hopes of contacting Professor Irwin. When he reached the research center, he found that not only everything in the research center including the research reports had been emptied, even the professor and another colleague of his had vanished without a trace.
Keith had a hunch that they were met with misfortune.
The mysterious organization was after the AD-001!
Keith immediately digested the situation and realized that the AD-001 under his possession was the catalyst to everything. The mysterious organization would never let him off the hook as long as he had the drug with him.
Keith was graced with a unique sense of justice since birth. The more his opponents wanted him dead, the stronger his will of survival and pure conviction. He managed to survive every ambush and attempt at his life by the skin of his teeth.
Over the course of the pursuit, several members of the mysterious organization had even sustained major injuries and were decommissioned shortly after.
Even till now, he had no idea who or what they were…
A wipe of gloom appeared in Keith’s eyes as he thought of this. As much as he hated to admit it, the daunting physicality and sheer fearlessness of those members of the mysterious organization had left a heavy impression on him. No matter what injuries they received, they kept their stone-cold expression. He had never seen them display any other emotions at all. It was as if they were robots.
What was even more baffling to Keith was that no matter where he went or hid, they would locate him again usually within ten minutes. He had no choice but to keep running continuously.
After several confrontations, Keith noticed another pattern. In addition to them being completely devoid of any form of expression, they always wore the same jet black belt and gloves even if they may switch out their other articles of clothing.
Also, he spotted a glimpse of dark fabric underneath the shirt they wore. It seemed they always wore the same black-colored uniform underneath whatever other disguise they had on.
One more thing Keith was certain of was that these people were not governmental agents since there was no way governmental agents would endanger the lives of common civilians just to hunt down one person like himself.
Keith mumbled to himself as he combed through the possibilities, “They don’t look like special agents of any other continents. They can’t be the FBI either so that means…”
Another possibility came to Keith but this explanation seemed to have only brought up more questions. “Could it be just as Professor Irwin said, that it’s the African company ‘Blacklight Biotechnology’ that harbored ill intentions when they purchased a majority of our company’s shares?”
He debunked the theory as soon as he came up with it. “How’s that possible… Real life isn’t a movie. How could a mere company possibly have access to such terrifying and meticulously trained private forces? This would make them capable of trumping any other elite forces of any other continents…”
No matter how Keith juggled the facts, he could never figure out the identity of his opponents. He only kept his head down and continued running in hopes of arriving at the Osmond Biotech Headquarters as soon as possible so he could deliver the drug to the shareholder named Parker.
Now, he was almost there…
“Bang!”
He heard more tremendous crashes from behind him. The heavy truck had picked up speed again and was drawing closer toward Keith’s pickup truck. In a matter of seconds, it was going to catch up and crush the pickup truck.
Keith only grew ever more determined when he looked at the bright lights across the horizon. After a full day and night of running, he arrived at the suburbs of Los Angeles. He only needed to advance another ten kilometers before arriving at the Osmond Biotech Headquarters.
Another strange thing to note was that no matter how many vehicles on the road the heavy truck behind him had demolished, not a single police responded to the scene. This sort of efficiency was completely unprecedented in a place like Northern America. Something must have happened in Los Angeles.
Besides, even if he were to successfully deliver the drug to its destination, were these people going to let him live?
Or a better way to phrase it would be would this person named Parker protect him at all?
Judging by how ruthless these enemies were, Keith found himself doubting the likelihood of his protection. Still, there was no turning back since he had come this far already.
Either Keith delivered the drug successfully or he got killed by this mysterious force before he could pull it off.
Keith set his heart on his goal when he thought of this and continued advancing toward the Osmond Biotech Headquarters.
It was at this point when the situation seemed to finally turn around. Just as Keith was approaching the Osmond Biotech Headquarters, he noticed that the enemies pursuing him suddenly vanished.
The heavy truck that had followed him down the road for several hundred kilometers had disappeared without him even noticing. Somewhere along the lines, the only vehicle that remained in the darkness was his beaten-up pickup truck that was driving down the lonesome road, blaring the sound of its engines.
Keith started to reexamine the situation. When he passed by a gas station, he made a sudden turn and went into a desolate alleyway.
After driving a short distance down the alley, Keith abandoned the vehicle and walked back to the previous main road.
After he stood by the side of the road for a while, he finally spotted an old-school black car approaching. He quickly flagged the car down. Fortunately, the driver stopped by the side of the road.
“Need a ride, young man?”
A middle-aged man with a large patch of unkempt beard who smelled like a mixture of sweat and grease poked his head out of the car window. He smiled quite unkindly, revealing a row of yellow teeth as he said, “I’m heading to the Western region of Los Angeles, where are you heading? If it’s along the way, I can give you a ride.”
“I…”
Keith was going to tell this person his destination but decided against it. “I’m just heading to the city, Sir. Just give me a quick ride and I’ll tell you when I need to get out.”
“In that case, come right in.”
The middle-aged man grinned and waved Keith in as he unlocked the door on the passenger’s side.
Keith hesitated for a moment. After he had ensured that there was no dark-colored fabric underneath this person’s collar or sleeves and gave the gun he had concealed in his pocket a firm pat, he entered the car.
An hour later, Keith parked the car on the corner of a street nearby the Osmond Biotech Headquarters with the gun in hand. His expression was grim.
A bullet had been lodged into the forehead of the original owner of the vehicle. The body was put in the backseat with fresh blood still dripping out the dead man’s forehead.
It turned out that this man was never a good Samaritan in the first place and was planning to rob Keith. Unfortunately for him, Keith, who appeared like a gentle-hearted individual on the outside, made a swift judgment and executed him on the spot.
Keith did not exit his vehicle right in front of the Osmond Biotech Headquarters because judging by how ruthless their methods were, they could probably ambush him when they saw him appear at the headquarters and take him away.
He got out of the vehicle somewhere close by and went up to the rooftop of another building where he had a higher vantage point.
The Osmond Biotech Headquarters was only several hundred meters away from his position. Right next to it was another building of nearly parallel height. There was only a distance of no more than ten meters separating the two buildings.
Keith was delighted to see this. He immediately descended from the rooftop and found himself a hemp rope. He carried the hemp rope with him and ascended to the roof of the building next to the headquarters.
The sky was very dark at the time but fortunately, the floors in the headquarters were illuminated with ceiling lights. Keith used the shadow projected from the building to make sure his figure could not be caught by anyone on the ground. After he tied the rope into a slipknot, he tossed it into the opposite building!
After several attempts, Keith managed to hook the knot to one of the railings. With a forceful yank, he managed to fasten the rope tightly around the railing.
After that, Keith fastened the rope to a railing on his side as well, instantly creating a passage that connected the two buildings.
After taking a deep breath, Keith climbed onto the railing and then wrapped his arms and legs around the rope. He took his time moving to the other side.
After what seemed like forever, Keith managed to make it to the rooftop of the Osmond Biotech Headquarters using this unconventional method.
Keith did not let his guard down even after making it this far. He cautiously traced down the stairs that connected to the rooftop and entered the corridor where he saw rows of offices. The signboard on the first office read “Chairman and General Manager’s Office”.
Arrived at last…
Keith sighed. He slowly approached the door. It was the height of midnight but he could still see a faint light coming from under the door, implying that someone was inside. He pushed open the door without sparing a moment of hesitation.
The dimly lit office was immediately presented in front of Keith.
The decoration of the office was highly distinctive of the person’s personality. It was not very large and the furnishing was intricate, most of them alternated between black and white color. Only a minimal amount of light was turned on in the office at the moment.
Positioned directly opposite the entrance was a large mahogany desk with a middle-aged man sitting on the opposite end.
This man was none other than the founder of the Osmond that the professor once mentioned – Parker.
“Mr. Parker.”
Keith felt a weight taken off his chest when he saw the head of the corporation. He promptly stepped inside and locked the door behind him. “Allow me to introduce myself, I’m…”
“You’re Rowling Keith.”
The middle-aged man was not surprised by the sudden intrusion of this guest as he displayed a slightly bitter smile. “I’ve heard from Irwin that you’re here to deliver something to me.”
“That’s right!”
Keith immediately stepped forward. His hand reached into the pocket to present a sealed bottle wrapped in bubble wrapping along with a USB drive. He placed them on Parker’s table. “These are the items. This is the AD-001 created by Professor Irwin. He wanted me to deliver them into your hands.”
“Excellent.”
Parker nodded and received the sealed bottle wrapped in bubble wrapping. His finger grazed over it gently for a brief moment before he suddenly stopped as if he just recalled something.
Keith watched as the founder suddenly took a deep breath as if he made up his mind on something. The founder proceeded to get up with the two items in hand and stepped backward.
Keith could not help but note the strange behavior of the founder. For some reason, even after he had delivered what was supposed to be the long-awaited drug, he did not sense the slightest note of surprise from the founder but instead an inexplicable somberness.
It seemed like a mixture of regret and frustration.
While Keith was filled with these puzzling thoughts, he saw that Parker had stepped in front of a window and passed the two items through the window…
‘Hold on!’
Keith was taken by surprise. It was only now when he noticed that there was somebody else standing behind the window at the furthest end of the office!
It took him so long to notice it!
Due to the dim lighting inside the office, Keith could only make out a faint silhouette of this mysterious person. He saw a pair of hands reaching through the window to receive the items. Then, the person disappeared from behind the window and soon, he heard the shuttle of another door located at the back end of the office being opened. The man appeared from behind and started to slowly approach Keith.
As the shadowy figure stepped under the light, Keith finally managed to get a closer look at this person. It was a young Chinese man.
“Mr. Keith, thank you for your delivery.”
The corner of the young man’s lips curled into a smile as he extended his hand out.