Two kilometers away from Zeus' location, two men took off their virtual reality goggles and stared at each other in shock.
"How did he do that!?" one exclaimed. "This guy isn't wearing a power combat suit, and our equipment didn't detect any energy tools other than the protection ring and the bike!"
"It must be a piece with exceptional stealth properties to avoid common detection tools."
"What do you say we go after him? A device like that would be worth a fortune. That's free treasure."
"Forget it. The boss gave us strict orders to leave immediately after eliminating the tracker."
"Why do you care? The boss's aircraft just left."
"Listen, I think we should leave. There's a good chance this guy contacted the police. And if he's telling the truth and really is from the Raktes family, we're going to be in deep trouble."
"We'll kill him and leave immediately. Besides, do you really believe he's from a noble family? Anyone can claim that with a gun pointed at their head."
"I'm not taking that risk. If you're going after him, do it alone. I'm taking the truck down the designated route. You can catch up with me."
The other man, who had a scar on his neck, frowned, grabbed his control goggles, left the truck, and put the goggles back on to command the robot to walk in the direction where Zeus had flown.
Meanwhile, the other man drove the truck away.
---
Elsewhere, Zeus stood on his feet, showing no visible signs of the minor injuries he'd sustained earlier — including the muscle tear in his back. The only thing likely left was internal bleeding.
He inspected his body with a wide grin on his face. Once he calmed his excitement, he looked back toward the direction of his destroyed bike. In a sudden burst of movement, Zeus darted forward with incredible speed, making sharp, almost unnatural turns to dodge the trees ahead.
Previously, the energy storage rune Zeus had drawn on his foot had managed to absorb the energy generated from his body's internal pathways — the same part of his energy system that had been destroyed in the mysterious injury that caused his memory loss.
That was the reason why Zeus had lost his power, despite his body and genes being equipped with an energy absorption and transfer system.
But what excited Zeus more than the return of his genetic energy was the fact that the runes he drew didn't conflict with his internal energy — they actually merged with it.
That meant Zeus could create energy pathways and apply abilities directly to his body — unlike the common method of using combat suits that house energy paths and complex mechanisms to channel the absorbed energy from the wearer's body through the suit and convert it into strength and defense.
Some gene warriors with higher internal energy can wear enhanced combat suits with thermal, electric, or more advanced muscle and defensive features than standard suits used by first- to third-tier gene fighters — whose suits usually only offer enhanced movement and defense.
Zeus found that his genetic energy could sustain 5 energy runes or 10 movement runes.
To simplify things, Zeus created the term "Endurance Points" for the pressure each rune exerted.
Energy storage runes consumed 2 points each.
Movement runes consumed 1 point.
Zeus, as a second-level gene fighter, had 10 endurance points total.
He had previously placed three energy storage runes on his chest and deactivated the energy rune on his foot. Then, he added four runes to his foot: two for full-discharge movement to allow him to leap or dash tens of meters instantly, and two for burst-dash movement to help him maneuver quickly during high-speed motion — completely maxing out his endurance points.
The blue energy stored in his body reached 300 units (100 per energy storage rune).
Each full-discharge rune consumed 25 energy units per burst.
The burst-dash rune could use between 0 to 5 units per short burst, depending on strength.
So when Zeus was moving fast, he used low-power bursts and saved full consumption for intense maneuvers.
One important thing Zeus noted: Using movement runes while touching the ground or solid objects greatly increased their effectiveness — something he couldn't fully explain in terms of physics.
---
The remote robot reached the location where Zeus had fallen but found nothing, which puzzled it.
Meanwhile, Zeus, having recovered his spinning disk weapon, decided to enter the valley to find the truck. He had no intention of engaging in a fight he'd likely lose from a stray bullet. Targeting the brain behind the operation was far more efficient.
"I might not remember being a gene fighter, but my muscle memory and brain still hold the experience of using combat suits… This familiar feeling is really something else."
---
[On the main road at the same time]
A white flying mecha landed near the site. Using its sensors and AI system, it traced the vehicle's off-road path and launched after it.
Within twenty seconds, the mecha spotted the vehicle and landed in front of it with force.
It activated an electromagnetic field to disable the vehicle's energy systems, causing it to float slightly.
The sensors scanned the vehicle — it was completely empty.
The pilot, a young woman, pushed it aside and sent the location to the police operator she was connected with via open call — so investigators could come examine it for clues.
"Has Zeus still not answered your calls?"
The operator went silent for a moment, then spoke with a concerned tone:
"I'm sorry… I had to lie to you."
"What are you talking about!?"
"We lost Zeus' signal a few minutes ago."
"You bastard! Send me his last known location immediately."
She received the coordinates and flew the mecha at full speed to the specified point.
After a minute, she reached the spot and detected the destroyed bike and a remote-controlled robot standing still at the valley entrance.
The mecha stopped directly in front of it and ran a deep scan.
The system returned the location of the remote controller, and the mecha flew off to track it.
Just ten seconds later, she arrived at a location where she found a man's corpse, three-quarters of his head blown off, and a massive hole in his stomach — his guts and organs scattered.
Because the entrails were spread out in front of the body and brain matter was behind it, the young woman concluded the man had suffered two attacks from the same weapon — one from the back and one from the front.
But what she couldn't understand was why someone would shoot him from the back, then go around and shoot him from the front again — it made no sense.
In reality, Zeus had thrown his spinning disk, which pierced the man from behind. On its return, it sliced off his head from the front and landed back in Zeus' hand.
The young woman ignored the body and focused on tracking the truck's trail.
Soon, she detected it parked near a river — but it was empty. There were many small footprints leading to the riverbank.
"Did they escape by boat!? Right or left…? Thinking is a waste of time."
She decided to go left first, believing that with the mecha's immense speed, she'd catch them if they took that route. If not, she'd quickly double back.
After thirty seconds without results, she returned to the site and flew in the opposite direction along the river, creating a huge gust of wind and spraying water high into the air.
Ten seconds later, she reached the end of the river where it met the sea.
"I lost them."
"You need to pick a random direction out at sea and try to find them."
"Sorry… Tell your boss I'm breaking protocol. I'm going back to search for Zeus in the area."
...< Call disconnected >...