"Question two..."

  Hengen tightened his grip. It wasn't a human hand pressing against the guard's jaw; it was a vice mimicking the density of cold industrial steel.

  "Is Elias Vandrom here?"

  The guard's eyes trembled, tears mixing with cold sweat on his face. He couldn't speak, but the instinct for survival forced an answer. He slowly shook his head downwards (No), then his terrified eyes darted upwards, looking through the large window... towards the dark sky.

  "He left..." Hengen deduced coldly, his shifting eyes gleaming with deadly disappointment. "Good. Question three: Did he leave because of me?"

  The guard froze. Sweat poured profusely. How could he tell the monster holding him that he didn't know?

  "If you don't know, shake your head down now," Hengen said in a calm voice, reading the terrified body language before him like an open book.

  The guard nodded his head down in hysterical speed.

  "Alright..." Hengen narrowed his eyes, bringing his face closer to the guard's. "The last question... and the most important one. Do you know where he went?"

  This time, the guard stopped. His movement froze. The fear in his eyes changed qualitatively. It was no longer the fear of immediate death at Hengen's hands, but the fear of a "worse fate" if he divulged the secret of the 'Fourth Curriculum'. He shook his head 'No' very slowly, his eyes begging for mercy.

  "In either case, you are dead," Hengen whispered with boredom. "But one is faster than the other."

  He tightened his steel grip slightly.

  Crack!

  He didn't kill him. Instead, he broke his lower jaw with brutal surgical precision, the angle of the fracture calculated to hit the nerves directly without causing unconsciousness. The guard let out a muffled, blood-gurgling scream.

  "I don't like repeating questions," Hengen said, his tone unchanged, as if asking for salt at dinner. "But since you insist... where is he?"

  The guard nodded his head with manic speed, the pain having broken all his loyalties. With a trembling hand stained with the blood of his jaw, he pointed towards the keyboard in front of him.

  "Type."

  With fingers slippery with blood, the guard tapped on the screen.

  [Destination Update: The Second Restricted Island - Stellaris - Special Visit.]

  Hengen paused, his eyes reading the name.

  "Of all places... Stellaris?" Hengen whispered, releasing the guard's neck. (It will be a complicated problem if I head there.)

  The guard's body fell to the floor like a puppet with cut strings, crawling away while weeping and clutching his shattered jaw.

  "Listen, before you pass out..." Hengen lightly kicked the guard to flip him onto his back. "This is a curious inquiry: How did you know there was a 'fake Arno'?"

  The guard looked at him with glazed eyes, shaking his head weakly, denying knowledge.

  "So, you don't know." Hengen left the guard crawling towards the corner, beginning to analyze the situation rapidly. (Was there something specific Arno possessed, or an action he had to perform at the station?) Hengen shrugged. (Whatever it was, this means they didn't suspect me. They believe someone disguised as him or possesses an ability affecting the scanning system, or even a biological manipulation ability... But it's only a matter of time before they realize my ability allows me to do this.)

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  Hengen's analysis had barely settled when a sudden, sharp sound echoed throughout the building. The overhead lights flashed a pulsing red, and the alarm voice screamed through the corridors: "ALERT! Danger Level: FAILED STAR!"

  Hengen stopped thinking and looked back to ask the guard. "Failed Star? Do they mean a Proto Star that failed the Realization Phase?"

  But the guard had already stripped off his tactical vest, tearing his jacket to tie a piece around his head. His life was about to end here; he didn't care about the warning.

  "I could kill you right here, you know," Hengen said sarcastically.

  "No," the guard answered, his eyes watering from the pain. There was a deformation in the shape of his lips as he spoke.

  "So, a term for one of your projects," Hengen concluded.

  The sounds of thunderous explosions began to occur below. Hengen headed to the screen, seeing the front doors—which were supposed to be a trap for him—now working not against him, nor against those entering, but against those trying to exit.

  A man was crawling, his body so covered in blood one would think his hair was red. His body was pierced, with a glowing crystal shard embedded in every pore. One of his legs wouldn't lift off the ground, while the other struck the floor with force to propel his body.

  Hengen closed his eyes and sighed, then walked towards the screen, ignoring the guard who was clutching a first-aid kit and hiding in the corner.

  (There are likely surveillance cameras here. I didn't enter with a secure disguise, but it was expected that I would head here. But what about the fake? I just have to do it this way.)

  Hengen touched the bottom edge of the screen. It wasn't a violent contact, but more like a passing touch. But beneath his skin, the molecules of his hand began to mimic the properties of a powerful neodymium magnet.

  The effect wasn't immediate. The screen began to flicker gently, as if suffering from minor interference. Then, one by one, the windows began to close on their own.

  Hengen stepped away from the disabled screen and headed to the door. Before exiting, he spoke: "I have fulfilled my part of the agreement. Now he can enter and do what he wants. But his trick... if the disguise is blown, he better hope the person he wants to save is here."

  Hengen smiled as he walked towards the door that had rejected Karras's card earlier. This time, he opened it from the inside without a card.

  After exiting...

  The corridor was illuminated in red, while scientists—some fleeing, others fallen and injured—were crawling away.

  Hengen stretched his body while looking at a surveillance camera, then picked up a stone from the shattered floor.

  He threw it with force at the camera.

  He began doing this with every camera from a distance.

  "What does the fake want... and what does the Fourth Ranked want? If the Fourth Ranked's goal is to kill Elias, then the fake's goal must be sabotage." Hengen smiled as he walked towards the testing areas. "Hengen failed to kill his target, but the fake Arno... his target wasn't Elias." Hengen raised his hand, smashing another camera.

  "Fake Arno... let's borrow the title of 'Hero' for you, whatever you are."

  The sterile white corridors turned into a chaotic arena. Red lights spun, and the sound of sirens mixed with screams.

  Hengen walked (now in his true form, his grey coat fluttering behind him) against the current.

  He wasn't running. He wasn't afraid. He looked like an orchestra conductor inspecting his players before the final performance.

  He reached Containment Sector "B".

  The glass cells here were different. Some were shattered by the "Failed Star" that passed through here, while others were still locked.

  He stopped in front of an intact cell.

  Inside, there was a teenage boy, strapped with leather belts, his eyes wide with terror as he watched smoke seep from the vents.

  Hengen looked at the boy, then at the electronic lock panel.

  "You are afraid..." Hengen muttered. "Fear is good. Fear means you are still holding onto yourself... or at least you know how to act."

  Hengen placed his hand on the electronic lock. His fingers mimicked the frequencies of a "high-voltage electric key."

  Bzzzt!

  The circuit fried, and the door opened with a click.

  "The door is open," Hengen said coldly without looking at the boy. "Run. Or stay here to burn. Your choice."

  The boy shot out like an arrow, shoving Hengen aside as he ran for his life.

  Hengen smiled a sarcastic smile and continued walking. He freed two others in the same way; a girl crying in the corner, and a man pounding the glass with bloody fists.

  "Temporary freedom or permanent... the result is one. Your voices won't be heard tomorrow, but at least there is still a possibility—if you understood how to live as Nyctopolis—that you remain as you are." Hengen's voice echoed as he continued his way.

  But his steps stopped at Cell 404.

  Inside, there were no restraints.

  A man was sitting on the bed waiting, staring at the door eagerly. When he saw Hengen (or saw the door opening), he jumped up and screamed: "Is it time? Is the next dose ready? Where is the doctor? He promised I would become a Stable Star today!"

  Hengen looked at him. His shifting eyes scanned the man from head to toe. He saw the addiction in his eyes, the desire for easy power for which he had sold himself.

  "The door is open," Hengen said.

  "Where is the dose?!" the man screamed, indifferent to the fires or the alarm.

  "Look for it," Hengen replied with boredom, then kicked the control panel hard, not to open it, but to smash the manual opening mechanism, causing the door to jam in a "semi-open" but stuck position.

  "Wait! Help me!" the man screamed, trying to open the jammed door.

  "You aren't wrong, but you aren't useful," Hengen whispered as he walked away. "Try your best."

  Hengen continued walking, ignoring the screams of the stupid volunteers.

  Finally, he reached the "Deep Isolation" area.

  There, he saw the source of the alarm. The "Failed Star".

  It was a deformed mass of flesh and explosive energy, crawling in the corridor, emitting random waves of heat and projectiles. It was no longer human. It no longer had a mind. It was just a biological "error" in pain—at least its appearance suggested so.

  Hengen stopped in front of it.

  The monster (The Failed Star) didn't attack him. It was crawling slowly, as if looking for a place to die.

  (No point in freeing you, and no point in killing you,) Hengen analyzed coldly. (You are alive, but I am not a healer... however.)

  Hengen passed by it cautiously, avoiding contact with its unstable body, while he pulled a glowing crystal from its flesh.

  "Minutes, mostly," Hengen muttered as he crushed the crystal.

  "Burn them well," Hengen whispered to the monster as he passed it towards the rear emergency exit.

  Hengen opened the exit door leading to the external cargo yard. He was greeted by the breeze of polluted, cold air.

  He looked back one last time at the laboratory that the flames (from the Failed Star) had begun to devour, and at the dozens of fleeing Espers he had released to fill the yards and distract security.

  "Fake Arno's mission... successful."

  Hengen didn't take out any vial. He didn't change his form. He began walking towards the station, not as Arno or Karras.

  But as the Fourth Ranked, Gamma Class.

  The Nova Event, Hengen.