We kept exchanging fires for ten seconds before I took cover to reload. A plasma rifle was clearly deadlier than my pulse rifle, and his one was better quality than normal. Luckily, there were a lot of pillars around the hall for me to use as a cover.

Gosh, the EMP fried every electronic! The booster and dimensional storage still work though, since they didn’t rely heavily on those. Damn! If it wasn’t for my pinnacle 1st rank Warrior strength and this Exo Suit that amplified my power, I would have died there and then. Hmm? Why’s my qi isn’t replenishing?

Zssh! Zssh! Zssh!

Oh, shoot!

The pillar — where I used as a hiding place — began to turn crimson as plasma after plasma was shot at it. Swiftly, I jumped to another pillar at the side as the former pillar collapsed and the middle part of it melted away.

That was a close call! This is a no solution; at this rate, I’ll be killed sooner or later. I need to close the distance between us to launch ‘that’.

With that in mind, I took out the All Cut Sword and activated the booster. Closing the distance between us while using the pillars to avoid the plasma bullets. Just when I was about a pillar away from him, his plasma rifle ran out of energy. Chance!

Not wasting the chance, I drove the limited qi on my body to the leg and burst out with a bolt speed. Swinging the radiator-on All Cut Sword to him. Despite my enhanced speed, Graham managed to react fast and used his plasma rifle to block. Although It was cut in half, it gave him time to back 10 meters away.

“Jiahaha! Interesting. Are you a gene-modified soldier? It’s rare to see one as strong as you.” Graham took a fusion energy blade out and continued, “It’s a shame though, you’re fighting with ME—”

He launched to me with a speed that almost couldn’t be perceived. I pointed my pulse rifle to him and was about to fire, but what came next made me stupefied. His blade’s front part enlarged multiple times with energy which then he swung it to me. I took a few step backs to dodge it but my rifle was cut in the process.

“Hah! Now, you only have that toy.” Graham showed a sinister smile, confident of his victory.

“A toy or not, this is enough to kill you.” Oh, shoot! To begin with, this was a sword used as an ornament or a simple tool for training at most.

“Heh?! What a gut. Jiahaha! You’re strong. Submit to me and I’ll make you my right-hand man!” He opened his hand wide and gave an opening.

“Not even in your dream!” Without wasting that opportunity, I rushed and thrust my sword to him.

Clang!

Our sword met in a sparkling clash. To my surprise, he didn’t even budge in the least despite using all my strength. As I tried to use my two hands to push harder, he just smiled without minding it too much.

“Is this all that you got? Eat this!” He had his other hand punch me in the stomach, making me thrown quite far away.

“Agh!” I held my stomach and found that there was a crack on my Exo Suit.

What kind of strength is this? A pinnacle 3rd rank no… a 4th rank Warrior… His strength equaling that of a 4th rank Warrior… True, he was using an Exo Suit to amplify it, but how could he get that strong by just having his gene-modified?

“Jiahaha…. Why is your face that stunned? Don’t you know that there are multiple levels of gene enhancement? You’re obviously between the 1st and 2nd level, while I’m on the 3rd level.”

Levels? It’s the first time that I hear this phrase… So, does that mean that normal civilians are at level 0?

“In any case, let’s end this. I’ll be sure to give you the most pleasant torture for you to experience.” Graham smiled and rushed to me which was still trying to get up.

In my desperate attempt, I used my sword to block his charge but it was sliced in half by him as easy as cutting a paper. At that moment, he strangled my neck and I no longer could feel the ground. With his 2-meter-tall body, my body was lifted without issue.

“Hmm…?” He squinted his eyes and gazed at me thoroughly.

“Hoo… Aren’t you that brat, Victor? Jiahahahaha… It’s been a month and I still haven’t thanked you for what you have given me. Here, let me give it to you.” Unlike what he said, his clenched grew stronger. Ackk… Being strangle… feels like having a big pill stuck in the throat…

I tried to struggle and flail around, but it was to no avail. His strangle was just too strong. Over time, my vision began to fade in and out, feeling like I was dreaming. NO!!! I cannot die here just yet! There are still so many things I need to accomplish. There also… Lillie…

When that thought came across my mind, I gritted my teeth and ignored the suffocating pain. Shit! Almost forget my initial plan. I flicked my wrist and took out a weird needle injection. Driving the last strength that I had, swiftly injected it in one of his arms.

“Ahhhh!! You son of a bitch!” He threw me away to the pillar, frantically taking out the needle, and covered the wound with his other arms.

“You… What’d you just inserted to me…?” He held his head, painfully closing his eyes, which then opened slowly. His eyes were unlike before, unfocused and blank.

Did it work? I should test it…

“Graham!”

“Yes, Master!” He kneeled with a subservient look.

It does indeed work… The Advanced Nanobot Liquid’s indeed able to control someone’s mind. Scary…

“Tell me… Did Hussein betrayed me and sold me out?”

“Yes… But that was after I threatened to kill his family.” Graham’s facial expression turned sinister and he smirked satisfied.

Huh? So, the liquid didn’t change his personality, it just affected the mind. Shit! So, he betrayed me after all! I know that it was for the sake of his family, but still…

“How could you locate my location so swiftly?” This has been bothering me a lot… I mean… It should be quite unlikely for him to set up an ambush so quickly… There were also no other patrol ships when that happened.

“It was Lester. That sly snake informed me about Master. Master's VIP card also contained a very advanced hidden tracker, so I could prepare the ambush in a perfect location.”

“I… He… You!!” Unable to hold my anger any longer, I raised my half-cut All Cut Sword and was about to hack him. However, I hesitated a bit and asked a final question, “Give me a reason to not kill you! No… What was the last horrible deed that you did?”

“Jiahaha… it’s killing and torturing the family members of the engineers that build this space station. They still don't even know that their family is dead! I cannot forget the feeling of skinning them ali—”

Thwack!

Graham’s head was dislodged as my blade was covered with red liquid. His neck ruptured out with blood which then dropped to the ground, lifeless. Freak! This man is insane!

“Is this what it feels to get vengeance?” I gazed at my trembling hand, clenching it and looked at the ceiling. “It sure feels empty inside…”

Unexpectedly, exhaustion exploded from all over my body, and I helplessly dropped to the ground. Unable to move much, I tried to lean back on a nearby pillar.

Out of the blue, a static sound rang out from my helmet, [Zzzttter… Master~! Can you hear me?]

“Huh…? You’re back, ATHENA?”

[Yes~, if it wasn’t for the advanced resistor blocking some of the EMP and the A.I. enhancement… It might mean goodbye, Master.] There was shook in ATHENA’s cheerful voice.

Hmm? it feels almost no different than talking to a human. I wonder, would she be able to go fully sentient?

After recuperating for a few minutes, I stood up and looked at Graham’s headless body. Despite being disgusted with him, I forced myself to take his wristlet dimensional storage before looking at my broken radiator sword.

“I’ll need a replacement for now… Guess, his fancy fusion energy blade would work…” Subsequently, I grabbed the fusion blade from his hand and stored it.

[Host. All the pirates and personnel in the station had been locked. Also, I found a group of engineers. What should we act?] ATA’s frosty voice echoed from the corner of the room shortly after.

“Handle them as you see fit… Wait… what day is it right now?” Graham said that it had been a month since the last time we met...

[From the atomic clock on the space station, it was 11 p.m. at 3 November 3153.]

Wait! Isn’t that about the same as what my clock is? Does the wormhole make the flow of time between the two universes to be the same? Anyway, there’s no need to confirm this further without enough data.

“ATHENA, could you move the Warrior Robots?”

[It should be no issue since only their chips were fried.]

“Good. Chain all the personnel on the station and divide them.” I suppose that having the bad pirates to be used as an experiment object is… fine? In any case, I'm not that evil… so sparing the not so evil one is okay…

“Well, the matter here’s done… vengeance has been done. As for Hussein, it wasn’t totally his fault so… there’s no need to pursue this matter. Time to move to my real objective. Oh yeah, before that…” I took out a certain silver VIP Card before crushing and setting it ablaze.