Breath of the Idle King

Chapter 7: The Second System

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 blue glow pulsing there, synchronized with every fiber of his tensing muscles. He didn't need to think. The system inside him was no longer just a measuring tool, but a second nervous system taking the helm.

One of the mercenaries, a large man with an exo-frame covering his right arm, took a step forward. He didn't waste time. With speed far exceeding that of an elite athlete, he lunged forward, his metal reinforced fist aimed straight for Garou's ribs.

CRACK!

It wasn't an ordinary punch. It was an impact designed to crush concrete. But Garou didn't dodge. He simply tilted his body slightly, letting the fist graze his shoulder. The sound of metal clashing against bone sounded like a small thunderclap. Garou took a step back, his boots scraping the asphalt, leaving deep gouges behind.

"Combat System: Activation Phase," the soldier muttered. Garou could see an orange glow emanating along his enemy's arm.

Garou smirked, though the corners of his lips felt stiff. "Your system... is so noisy," Garou hissed. His voice sounded raspy, like the scraping of stones inside a cave.

Without further ado, Garou lunged. There were no elegant martial arts techniques here. No aesthetic kung-fu moves. There was only brutal efficiency. Garou used the momentum from the previous impact, twisting his waist and driving his elbow straight into his opponent's exo-frame chest piece.

CRACK!

The metal dented. The man staggered, but he was a veteran. Quickly, he activated a pulse shock from his wrist. High voltage electricity surged into Garou's body, causing his muscles to spasm. Normally, this would knock someone unconscious or at least cause heart failure. However, for Garou, this only triggered a deeper surge of breath.

"Too weak," Garou said. He grabbed the man's robotic arm with his bare hands. His nails dug into the metal joints, tearing through hydraulic cables like they were paper.

"Crazy! He’s crushing a titanium alloy frame with his bare hands?" another soldier shouted from behind. They began to open fire. Large caliber bullets rained down on Garou's position.

Garou didn't run. He did something illogical. He stood there, letting every bullet strike his skin. Ting! Ting! Ting! The bullets bounced off, leaving small burns that closed instantly in a matter of seconds. The cellular regeneration driven by the System worked like a factory machine that knew no fatigue.

He didn't use techniques he just used his overflowing stats. Garou charged through the group like a storm. He slammed into a second enemy, sending him flying until he smashed through the building's wall. His movements were erratic unpredictable to the enemy's algorithms. While the mercenaries were locked into structured attack patterns, Garou moved based on a survival instinct that had reached its boiling point.

His main opponent, the man with the exo-frame who was still trying to repair his hydraulic system, pulled out a thermo-plasma knife. "You're no ordinary Vessel! You... you are a predator!"

The man moved in a sequence of beautiful motions, slashing with high precision. Garou took a slash to the arm, letting his blood spray, only to catch his enemy's wrist mid-swing. Garou squeezed harder; the man's wrist bone shattered under the pressure of his grip.

"Why are you so stiff?" Garou asked, his face only centimeters away from the enemy's helmet. "Life is about breathing. If you can't breathe, you die. Your system is useless if you don't have a rhythm."

Garou slammed his head into the man's helmet. Once. Twice. The helmet's visor cracked, and the man fell to his knees, his breath gasping due to excessive system feedback.

Within minutes, the area turned into a mini war zone. Garou stood in the center, surrounded by the remnants of the scattered squad. He wasn't unscathed; his clothes were in tatters, his back was riddled with holes from gunfire, and blood flowed from his temple. However, he felt no pain. All he felt was an overwhelming hunger not a hunger for food, but a hunger for energy.

The man with the exo frame, now lying helpless, let out a small laugh from behind his shattered helmet. His voice was broken, trembling between groans of pain.

"You think you won?" the man spat, fresh blood leaking from behind the cracks in his helmet. "You only triggered everything. Your system... it's not a gift. It's a seal you just opened."

Garou grabbed the man's collar, lifting him with one hand until his feet dangled. "What do you mean?"

The man looked at Garou with what remained of his consciousness. "Look around you. Look at what happened when your heartbeat stopped for a moment earlier. The 'Idle King' protocol has been activated. The moment you take your next breath, you are no longer the hunter. You become the prey for the entire world. They aren't coming to capture you now, kid. They're coming to harvest you."

Garou felt his heart beat again. Thump. Thump. Thump. The rhythm was different. Deeper, more resonant, as if every heartbeat sent a signal across the entire city. A signal that invited death.

"Idle King?" Garou repeated, the man's voice echoing in his head.

"The throne is never empty," the man muttered before his head slumped lifelessly, his energy completely drained by a failed system overload.

Garou dropped the man's body onto the asphalt. He turned toward the darkness of the night. From a distance, he could hear the wail of police sirens, the roar of another helicopter engine, and something worse the sound of heavy footsteps in great numbers. They were no longer trying to hide. They were coming in force, and he could feel their presence even before they appeared on the horizon of city lights.

Garou took a deep breath. This time, the air entering his lungs felt different. Cold, sharp, and thick with the scent of ozone. The system before his eyes brought up rows of glowing red text he had never seen before.

[GLOBAL WARNING SYSTEM: 'IDLE KING' PROTOCOL DETECTED]

[YOUR LOCATION HAS BEEN SHARED ACROSS THE ANOMALY NETWORK]

[STATUS: HIGHEST PRIORITY TARGET]

[TIME UNTIL CONTACT: 00:03:45]

Garou stared at his blood-stained hands his own blood and the blood of his enemies. He no longer felt confused or afraid. Something had shifted within him, a cruelty born of extreme exhaustion.

"So this is the game?" Garou whispered to the empty night.

He didn't wait for them to arrive. He began to run, no longer in flight, but toward the direction where he sensed the strongest concentration of energy from his pursuers. If he was indeed prey, then he would ensure that for anyone trying to harvest him, he would be the most poisonous prey they had ever swallowed.

His steps shattered the asphalt beneath him. Each breath created a small shockwave that swept away the surrounding dust. He was no longer the Garou trapped beneath the factory ruins. He was an anomaly forced to grow in a lethal environment.

In the distance, a massive searchlight beamed down on him from atop a skyscraper. Not just one, but ten. Twenty. The entire city was now staring at him.

"Come on," he whispered, his voice now calm yet deadly. "Let's see who falls first."

However, mid stride, a shadow appeared directly in front of him. The figure stood atop a utility pole, still as a statue, watching him with an indecipherable gaze. It wasn't a Helix squad. It was something older, something with no mechanical signs on its body.

"Poor heir to the throne," the figure spoke, his voice soft yet capable of piercing through the helicopter noise. "You think you're free because you won against those Helix dogs? You've just stepped into the lion's den, and the lions are very hungry."

Garou stopped. His breathing was steady, but his muscles were ready to explode at any moment. "Who are you?"

The figure leaped down, landing soundlessly in front of Garou. He wore a gray cloak that blended into the darkness. "I am a reminder that in this world, power without knowledge is merely a delayed death sentence. And you, Garou... you are marching toward your own execution."

Garou frowned. "I don't need a sermon. I need a way out."

"There is no way out of the throne, boy," the figure smiled faintly, a smile full of bitterness. "There are only two choices: Sit upon it and let the world burn, or be destroyed by those who want the throne for themselves."

Before Garou could reply, a heavy artillery shell struck the building beside them. A massive explosion shook the ground, throwing dust and fire into the air. Garou was knocked down, but his eyes remained fixed on the figure.

"This is only the beginning," the figure said, his voice fading into the blast. "Remember my name if you manage to survive tonight. I am the witness to every fallen king."

The figure vanished in the smoke. Garou stood up, ignoring the heat of the fire burning his back. He stared at the forces now pressing into the perimeter. He could feel a pressure in his chest a pressure that demanded to be released.

His system chimed once more, a low tone that vibrated through his ribs.

[WARNING: COMBAT ESCALATION DETECTED]

[INITIATING 'IDLE KING' PROTOCOL: STAGE ONE]

[ADAPTABILITY: 200%]

[WARNING: EXCESSIVE USE WILL REPLACE CONSCIOUSNESS WITH 'AUTHORITY PROTOCOL']

Garou didn't care. He clenched his fists, and for the first time, a thin black aura began to envelop his fingers. He was no longer just a man with a system. He was the center of a storm that would shatter the world order.

He stepped forward, right into the middle of the enemy encirclement now closing off every side. There were no more words. There was only breath, a heartbeat, and the desire to no longer be a pawn.