Bad Born Blood Chapter 187

Chapter 187

I entered Jafa Corporation’s headquarters and made my way up step by step.

Srrrk.

Sensing a presence, I silenced even my footsteps and drew my auto-tracking pistol. It had been a while since I last used my auditory vision to detect enemies in blind spots.

My auditory vision wasn’t sharp enough to fully replace my eyes. That was because I hadn’t done anything insane like replacing my spinal fluid with coolant this ti. Still, even just perceiving shapes and positions provided imnse tactical utility.

‘Two of them.’

Two intruders were beyond the corner. I opened my eyes.

The duffel bag slung over my back was as silent as an inanimate object. Even though we were on the verge of combat, Ragnata remained still. She, too, held her breath and concealed her presence.

Well, that was only natural. If she got in my way, I’d snap her neck. She was only alive because of my pity.

I drew my auto-tracking pistol and barely peeked out the barrel. The pistol’s built-in computer registered the two intruders and calculated the kill trajectory.

The intruders hadn’t even realized I was there. There weren’t many warriors in this world capable of reacting to bullets fired from beyond their perception.

‘Wait for it...’

I listened closely for gunfire and explosions. The mont an appropriate noise rang out, I pulled the trigger.

Bang! Tang!

The tracking rounds curved beautifully through the air, piercing straight through the eye slits of the intruders’ helts. Even an Imperial Guard wouldn’t have been able to pull off such precision shooting unless they were a marksmanship specialist.

“Fancy weapon you got there.”

Ragnata whistled softly.

“Not worth the price. It’s only good as a backup.”

“But it’s the perfect weapon for you. You don’t have to waste your focus or ntal energy on shooting. Excelling in a field outside your specialty requires greater effort and concentration. Besides, you wouldn’t use firearms against a truly formidable opponent anyway.”

I started to wonder if bringing Ragnata along was a mistake. Her insight was sharp. She saw through as if she had known for years.

I stepped forward and examined the intruders I had just taken down. Their armants were as uniform as those of soldiers. Not all rcenaries had chaotic gear, but sothing about this felt off.

‘A multi-species rcenary unit, yet their equipnt is standardized...?’

My lack of information made it hard to reach a conclusion. While I hesitated, Ragnata offered a suggestion.

“Listen in on their comms and see what language they’re speaking.”

I removed an intruder’s helt. The exposed face revealed a saurian—a reptilian alien species with hard, scaly skin. It was my first ti seeing one up close.

- Kese, Alta! Orde Thea.

A foreign language spilled out from inside the helt. I wasn’t well-versed in alien languages, so I held the helt closer to Ragnata.

“It’s the language of the Tajirun. Saurians aren’t very bright. Without a translator, it’s difficult for them to speak other species’ languages. And Tajirun’s language is notoriously hard to learn. If my guess is right, the other one is also communicating without a translator.”

I checked the other intruder’s helt. Even before removing it, I could tell their species. Their combat suit couldn’t fully conceal their distinct physique—they were a Crawler.

The sa language flowed from the Crawler’s helt. I didn’t know many Crawlers personally, but... take Boyan’s father, Regor, for instance. Despite living in Border City for years, he never spoke a human language. Or maybe he simply refused to.

“Saurians and Crawlers communicating in Tajirunese... That ans they’re noan Guards. A foreign legion. More precisely, they’re like the Janissaries or Mamluks of old Earth.”

I gave her a look that said I didn’t understand the ‘precise aning.’ Ragnata elaborated.

“...Slave soldiers. Private troops raised by the noa family of the Tajirun.”

So the noa family was the house Jafa was born into.

“You figured that out right away. Must be a famous na. You’re not a Tajirun expert, are you?”

I stepped over the corpses and ascended the stairs.

“noa’s main business is human trafficking. Because of that, they have a unique tradition that other Tajirun families don’t. They select promising children from their stock and train them as soldiers. The training is brutal, but they’re well-treated, so despite being slaves, their loyalty runs deep.”

Hearing that, I was reminded of the Imperial Guard. In fact, conscription-based armies like the noan Guard or the Imperial Guard weren’t uncommon.

“They don’t seem all that strong for such a famous force.”

“If they were truly exceptional, they’d be sold for a high price rather than used as noa’s own soldiers. But the unit commanders in the noan Guard are a different story. They’re so exceptional that they’re even considered part of the family.”

The more I heard, the more familiar it all sounded.

‘...?’

A lowly origin, chosen for my talent, accepted as part of the family.

Guess I wasn’t the only special human in this universe.

“The Tajirun are a rchant race. Do they actually rent out their private army as rcenaries for money?”

“The Tajirun have a reputation for being deceitful and cunning, but they don’t actually like violence. Their species isn’t physically suited for combat, and they generally prefer to resolve conflicts peacefully.

There are a few industries they avoid, and one of them is the rcenary business. In that market, the Tajirun are strictly consurs. But if the noa family is deploying their private troops, that must an Jafa is an enemy of theirs on the level of a mortal foe.”

Ragnata was useful. She obviously had her own reasons for cooperating, but for now, she was freely providing information I lacked.

‘Jafa was born into the noa family but was exiled for so reason. The family tried to have him killed, but a non-aggression pact was later established, maintaining a state of peace. And today, that pact was broken, leading to this attack.’

That sumd it up.

‘For now... I need to check on Lapis’s safety first.’

It would be a relief if Lapis had managed to evacuate in ti, but there was a chance she was still in the chanical workshop or had been caught in the attack while sleeping in her room.

As I moved forward, I encountered a staircase that had been destroyed by an explosion. It wasn’t the intruders’ doing—Jafa must have preemptively rigged the building with explosives. Even when I tried other routes, the paths leading to the upper floors were blocked or destroyed. Each obstruction was placed in a way that was almost too precise.

“Ghhhhh...”

The corpses of intruders caught in the traps were scattered around. Those who were still barely breathing—I finished them off myself.

Reloading my auto-tracking pistol after using it for execution shots, I searched for another way up. Forcing my way through was an option, but I had no intention of getting caught in traps my own allies had set.

Besides, slowly advancing while pressuring the enemy from behind could shift the tide of the battle in our favor.

‘So Jafa had explosives planted all over the building even on a regular basis? That’s... insane.’

The thought of having walked over bombs all this ti sent a chill down my spine.

As I inspected the collapsed stairs and blocked routes, I blinked. Jafa Corporation’s headquarters was a building I had co and gone from like it was my own ho.

With the pieces of information coming together, my mind opened up, and my thoughts expanded outward.

An internal map surfaced in my head, and as I observed the blocked pathways, alternate routes beca clear. The intruders, who had entered from multiple directions, would be funneled into specific floors.

‘No way...’

I looked up at the ceiling. Directly above was a banquet hall that took up an entire floor.

With most of the building’s pathways blocked, the intruders were forced to advance in a single-file line. Moving up sequentially like this only increased their chances of being picked off one by one.

If I were the commanding officer, I would have the troops regroup in the banquet hall, reorganize, and carve out alternate routes to advance to the upper floors simultaneously.

And that was exactly what Jafa had planned.

Kiiiiing!

I hastily drew my Firelight Saber. Ragnata looked at , puzzled. No matter how sharp she was, she didn’t know the layout of Jafa Corporation’s headquarters, so she couldn’t anticipate what was about to happen.

Kwaduduk!

I wielded my Firelight Saber like a cutting tool, forcing its blade into the floor and pressing down to slice through.

Soon, I had created a hole just large enough for a person to fit through. The surrounding steel frawork and concrete edges sizzled from the residual heat.

Whoosh!

I tossed the duffel bag down first, then jumped in after it. The space below was a break room.

Tak!

I landed smoothly, imdiately grabbing the duffel bag and rolling to the side.

‘Should I go down another floor?’

There was a chance that all my assumptions were wrong. No—doubt wouldn’t help . My intuition had saved countless tis before. It would do so again.

I knew Jafa. I knew this building’s layout inside and out. From the placent of the blocked paths, I could sense an "intended design." There was no room for doubt.

My eyes darted around until they landed on a refrigerator. I swung the door open. Inside, it was stocked with food from Jafa’s franchise.

Kwaduk!

I smashed one of the fridge drawers, forcefully yanking it out. Then, I stuffed the duffel bag containing Ragnata inside and shut the door. She must have realized what was about to happen.

And then...

KWA-AAAAANG!

An explosion erupted. This was on an entirely different scale from anything before. Naturally—it had to be powerful enough to obliterate an entire floor.

Kwaang! Bang!

The detonations continued in rapid succession.

No one would have expected Jafa to have rigged the entire middle section of the building with explosives. If there had been any miscalculations in the setup—or if the building had been poorly constructed—the entire structure could have collapsed.

Creak!

I wrenched a steel table from the floor and propped it up over myself. I needed to shield myself from the falling debris. An explosion strong enough to wipe out one floor would impact at least two or three floors above and below.

Zzzzzzt!

The entire building shook, and cracks spread in all directions. Groaning, trembling, breaking apart.

Kuuuuuurrrr!

The blast’s aftershock swept through like a storm. My ears rang. The smaller sounds had already faded into silence.

Crunch! Thud! Boom!

Debris rained down endlessly onto the table I was holding up.

Before long, I found myself trapped beneath a small pile of rubble.

It took a long while for the echoes of the explosion to fade. A thick cloud of concrete dust lingered in the air like smoke. Every breath scraped my throat raw.

Creak, creak.

I increased the output of my prosthetic arm and shoved away the debris along with the table. The place was a disaster, as if an earthquake had torn through it.

And this was two floors below the blast site. The floor where the explosion actually occurred must be a hellscape.

Clunk!

I yanked open the refrigerator where Ragnata was stored.

“The Tajirun are supposed to be nonviolent and prefer peaceful resolutions?! Well, that was one hell of a peaceful solution!”

I snapped at Ragnata despite her having nothing to do with it.

“There are always exceptions. Judging by your reaction, I take it this was Jafa’s trap?”

I slung the duffel bag over one shoulder and climbed up the rubble.

‘The building didn’t collapse from the explosion. Jafa must have accounted for this when it was constructed.’

As I stepped onto the debris and made my way back to my original floor, I looked up. The explosion had taken place just above .

Thud, thump.

The outer layer of the ceiling had crumbled away, revealing a thick tal plate separating the floors. Unlike the other levels, this one had a solid, seamless tal plate inserted between them.

Screeech, skreee.

The tal plate wasn’t destroyed by the blast—just warped and swollen from the heat and pressure. It had to be a custom-ordered special alloy designed to absorb explosive force. Judging by its structure, the banquet hall was reinforced with tal plates in the ceiling, floor, and walls.

‘He basically detonated a bomb inside a sealed tal box.’

The explosion’s force would have doubled. Almost no one could have survived a trap like that. Bold—no, reckless.

I found myself reevaluating Jafa. I had sensed it before, but he was a Tajirun far removed from self-preservation. He was willing to risk his own safety if necessary.

Crunch, crack.

I forcefully cleared the wreckage blocking the staircase and climbed to the floor where the explosion had occurred. A crimson wasteland stretched before , shrouded in a haze of dust and pulverized debris.

“The noa family may be a great house, but they’ve suffered a major loss. An entire unit just got wiped out.”

Ragnata comnted.

With each step I took, I kicked aside scattered limbs. My boots squelched as they pressed into spilled entrails beneath .

Judging by the scattered body parts, I estimated that there had been around eighty intruders on this floor.

Considering casualties in other areas, it seed that approximately a hundred attackers had stord Jafa Corporation’s headquarters.

Srrrk.

I set down the duffel bag slung over my shoulder and drew my Firelight Saber once more. The blade shimred with a sharp, radiant glow as if absorbing the surrounding heat.

Kiiiiing.

My gaze settled on a mound of corpses, an unnatural pile seemingly arranged to shield soone from the blast. A fortress of flesh.

Twitch. Twitch.

The mass of bodies stirred. The charred corpses at the top tumbled away, revealing fresher, blood-red remains underneath. As more layers peeled back, bodies that had suffered less of the explosion’s force ca into view.

“Ghhhk...”

A severely wounded survivor crawled out of the heap, groaning in pain. I paid him no attention.

Shattered corpses, less damaged bodies, critically injured survivors... And next, of course, would co the living.

“Like a Matryoshka doll.”

Ragnata muttered an obscure term behind .

Kiing.

From the very core of the mound, soone rose. He stood amidst the corpses and wounded, his breath heavy. His face, shrouded in shadows, glead with piercing blue eyes.

This must be Lukaus noa. A slave-born warrior who had climbed his way to the heart of the noa family through sheer violence.

“I’ll give you ten seconds. Catch your breath and co at . You should at least avenge your fallen n, right? They threw themselves forward to protect their leader. Mmm, mmm. Such admirable subordinates.”

I extended my Firelight Saber forward. The blade hissed and crackled as specks of dust evaporated upon contact.

Jafa’s Equessian rcenaries were likely on their way down here right now.

But I intended to finish this fight before they arrived.

This one—I wasn’t going to let anyone else take him from .