The smell of rust, suffocating cement dust, and the stench of rancid oil wafting from the concrete floor.To Garou, this wasn't just a workplace, it was a minimum wage hellhole. "Garou! Move it! Block C needs extra bracing! Don't slack off, the boss is watching us!". The foreman shouted from the end of the factory corridor, his voice muffled by the roar of an old, dilapidated industrial shredder. Garou just snorted, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his grimy sleeve. "Yeah, yeah, keep your shirt on. My life isn't just yours to squeeze dry," he muttered under his breath, though he didn't slow his pace. The factory was a death trap. The walls were cracked like an old snake’s skin, and the steel support beams in the ceiling creaked every time a strong wind blew. Garou hoisted a wooden support beam onto his shoulder, his back aching under the weight that should have been handled by a crane that had been dead since last month. He approached the area of Block C that was underg

The cold night air pierced his skin, but that sensation was nothing compared to the roar of Garou’s heartbeat, now thudding like a turbine engine. He landed on the roof of his apartment building in a crouch. The sound of his feet hitting the concrete which should have echoed loudly was strangely muffled, as if his body weight had been mathematically perfected.Below, police sirens wailed, slicing through the silence of the slums. Red and blue lights swept across the building's exterior walls. Garou didn't have time to daze out. His instincts screamed a prickling sensation at the nape of his neck that usually only prey feels when hunted by a predator.Scrape.The sound of metal sliding came from behind the roof access door. Garou turned, his eyes catching the silhouettes of three figures in pitch black tactical gear emerging from the emergency stairs. They didn't move like cops. They moved with lethal efficiency, short barreled rifles raised, with suppressors integrated into the weap

The sensation of being pulled into Irae’s shadow felt like being forced through a sewer pipe filled with shards of glass and cold waste. Garou’s lungs felt as if they were shrinking; holding his breath was the only instinct he had left as the pressure of the dimensional space squeezed his ribs. Seconds felt like hours; every inch of his body rubbed against something slick and dark, as if he were being forcibly shoved through a narrow crack between two realities.Suddenly, gravity slammed back into him with a vengeance. Garou collapsed onto the cold, damp concrete floor. The thud of his body hitting the ground echoed through the vast, stifling room. The air here was heavy, smelling of rust, expired chemicals, and something sickly sweet like meat left to rot under the sun."Get up. Don't be dramatic," Irae’s voice cut through the silence. She stood several meters away, her dark cloak still vibrating as if the shadows around her hadn't quite settled yet.Garou panted, his chest heaving w

The air around Garou suddenly felt like liquid mercury heavy, dense, and crushing. The silence surrounding his breath wasn't an absence, but an accumulation of suppressed kinetic energy. The Helix helicopter above roared, its blades slicing through the air with a deafening whirring sound, while the spotlight swept over the cracked asphalt of the old factory, searching for their target.Dark figures slid down using rappelling lines. They were professionals. Their movements were synchronized, calculated, and lethal. However, when they hit the ground, they didn't attack immediately. They stopped. The visual sensors behind their tactical helmets blinked red, as if their computer systems were detecting an anomaly in Garou's heartbeat which impossibly wasn't there."Target isolated. Vitality Null Anomaly detected," a distorted voice came from one of the units, a cold sound modified by electronic devices.Garou opened his eyes. His pupils were no longer their normal black there was a faint b

That streak of shadow wasn't just a metaphor. As Garou triggered the energy reserves stored in his muscles, the air around him seemed to compress, creating a small sonic boom that cracked the asphalt beneath his feet. The drones overhead detected an impossible energy surge; their thermal sensors flashed red because Garou's body no longer emitted human heat, but a cold, static radiation.Two mini-missiles launched, leaving trails of white smoke in the night air. Garou didn't dodge. He leapt, a single fluid motion that defied the laws of inertia. His right hand gripped the hull of the first drone, crushing the titanium metal like an empty soda can until its internal components exploded in a shower of sparks. He used the remaining momentum to spin in mid-air, his foot smashing into the second drone's body with a force that left the machine twisted and shattered before it could even detonate its missile.He landed on the roof on one knee, his breath coming in a strange rhythm not an ordina