One By One, They All Fall Down

As Cyanide descended the staircase, he soon arrived at the bottommost level of the entire building, and was faced with the familiar two doors he had went through not long ago. He couldn't see any mutants inside, but he knew better thanks to last time's experience.

'Radar'.

Activating his active skill, he immediately detected several enemies up ahead using the radar that appeared in his mind. He counted 10 in total — just as expected of a large company like this one, especially since it dealt with highly-advanced and expensive equipment for the purpose of scientific and technological research.

But if all 10 of those guards had guns, that would be somewhat troublesome for Cyanide. No matter how fast he was now with his AGI stat of 50, he still could not outrun a bullet headed directly for his head.

If he wanted to do this, he needed to single them out — or at least, most of them. That should be easy with his three different variations of Stealth Takedown — one from above, one from behind, and one from below. Depending on Cyanide's position with relativity to the target, one of those three will be used.

'Now then… last time I came here, opening the door slowly seemed to work. The guard still ended up walking out of its room, but that didn't seem to be triggered by the sound of the door closing — it was just it wandering naturally.'

Slowly, gently, Cyanide opened the door and activated his Invisibility. Then, he closed the door behind him, making sure to do so as quietly as possible.

Turning to his right, he saw the room he had escaped from last time he was here. According to his Radar — which was about to run out soon — there was one mutant in there, right around the half-open metal door. Swiftly, Cyanide slipped inside and saw his target staring at a wall like an idiot, having no idea its existence was about to go from 'is' to 'was'.

'Inspect.'

Immediately, a holographic list of stats appeared beside the mutant, a screen only Cyanide could see.

[Name: Security Guard Mutant (Stage Two)]

[Level: 15]

[HP: 750/750]

[Class: Humanoid]

Stage Two Mutants had a higher HP multiplier than Stage Ones, which was understandable — for each level, they gained 50 HP, while Stage Ones only gained 25. With this total health of 750, however, there was a chance Stealth Takedown would not kill it directly.

Since Cyanide was behind the target, the first variation of Stealth Takedown was used. He wrapped his arms around the mutant's neck and stabbed it with a knife, erasing its HP immediately before it could even scream, then plunged its body with his crowbar a few more times just for good measure. As the life from the mutant's white eyes faded away, he let the body fall softly onto the bed.

'That's one.'

Not wasting any time before his Invisibility wore off, Cyanide dashed to the next room across. The mutant here was staring straight at the door, which made it impossible for Cyanide to perform a Stealth Takedown on it even with his invisibility. He couldn't sneak around behind or get on top of it either, since it was blocking the entire doorway with its large frame.

'In that case… I'm left no choice.'

Cyanide leaped like a cougar onto his prey, stabbing his knife deep down into the mutant's throat to render it unable to roar.

"G-GRR…!" It gurgled, but the sounds were muffled enough that the other mutants, not in Overdrive, should not be able to hear.

The mutant stumbled backwards a few steps, refusing to topple over, and attempted to reach for its gun. But Cyanide twisted his knife and pushed forward, tearing through the back of the mutant's neck. Unfortunately, this caused the mutant to move backwards and crash into the back wall, making a loud noise.

'Shit…!'

Cyanide hurriedly leaped off of the mutant he had just killed and slid its body underneath the bed, then found his hiding spot as he heard the sound of the other security guard mutants rushing over.

The cyborgs arrived with their weapons drawn, but they saw… nothing. No dead mutant, no alive human.

"… Ragh?" They growled in confusion, but after a few seconds, they split up into two teams, four entering each room.

Bad idea.

Immediately after the first mutant entered the room Cyanide was hiding in, he jumped down from above the door he had been crouched on and performed a swift and deadly Stealth Takedown, the second variation.

"GRAGH?!" The other three mutants immediately fired their pistols, but Cyanide was already out of the doorway's angle and rolled onto the floor with the mutant using [Dodge] while simultaneously ending its life.

It was too easy. This, at its core, was very similar to all those assassination missions Cyanide had been on before. Most involved taking down several guards by isolating them without getting caught by the others, so it could be said that Cyanide was an expert at this.

One by one, they would all fall down.

The rest of the mutants immediately flooded into the room, but by then, Cyanide had already activated his cooldown-refreshed [Invisibility] and was nowhere to be seen.

Confused and frustrated, the mutants roared in anger. They knew an enemy was here, but they couldn't catch him.

Cyanide, watching this from the next room down, chuckled softly and thought:

'This situation is certainly not ideal, but in any case… that's three.'

The remaining seven mutants stuck together as they searched the rooms, thinking that would help them. Being Stage Twos, they had the intelligence to know basic strategy like this. Since they were part of the same security guard team, they had innate teamwork from when they were still human.

Unfortunately for them, however… them being grouped up like this actually worked in Cyanide's favor. He didn't just have stealthy, single-target attacks in his arsenal. He made sure to learn a few AoE skills as well, dedicated to dealing with situations like this.

He stood behind the wall patiently, like a falcon stalking its prey. Waiting to hear the mutants' footsteps get closer to him. Waiting for the perfect opportunity.

And then, as he heard the shuffling and low groans of the cyborg zombies nearing him, that opportunity came.

Cyanide stepped out of the room he had been hiding in and faced the mutants head-on.

"Hrngh-?!" They immediately drew their weapons and aimed, but it was already too late.

With dark teal eyes that glimmered like the Grim Reaper's scythe, Cyanide smiled.

'Petrify.'