In the deepest hours of the night around 3 am, a secluded scientific research facility sat hidden within the K Forest, known to the outside world as a lab studying endangered species.
But beneath the guise of conservation, there hid an inhumane covert government underground laboratory.
Inside the lab, filled with advance equipment, vials and monitoring devices a girl had gone missing. The only evidence that she had ever been there was the narrow lab bed, it's corners now decorated with four bloodstained restraints hanging on the four corners of the bed, an eerie scene in the cold blue glow of the monitors.
"She...Specter Zero is gone!"
The words sent shockwaves through the staff watching the surveillance feed.
The disappearance of the girl on the bed in the surveillance video plunged the staff in front of the screen into panic.
They scourged every corner of the lab on hundreds of small screens,but no trace of the girl could be found. Guards, laying there looking dead, previously knocked unconscious along the corridors, made them even more nervous.
"Activate every tracking protocol! Lock down the facility! She must not be allowed to escape, otherwise none of us will survive!" the lead scientist barked. "Do not let Specter Zero escape."
The system hummed to life. A massive holographic projection appeared, streams of complex data flashing in midair like an electric cast net from above.
"Quick, release the NT34 neuro smoke.Do everything necessary to contain her! No matter the cost, take all feasible measures to catch her."
As soon as the order was given, spray devices appeared along the walls hissing, releasing toxic gases into the hallways. Armed personnel in gas masks moved carefully, guns drawn, as the room filled with choking smoke.
A series of bone cracking sounds of necks being twisted came from the smoke, sending shivers down everyone's spine.
Under the invisible smoke, piles of corpses accumulated.
"Immediately notify Dr. Sang to enter the protection zone."
"Zizi." The equipment suddenly made a few electric current sounds.
Suddenly, the lab's main console sparked violently, electronics frying in a cascade of blue arcs. The instruments gave off a unpleasant burnt smell, scaring people to retreat again and again, away from the console.
The monitoring screen was completely destroyed, and the entire laboratory lost the most basic monitoring and control, and alarms went off.
Everyone was shocked.
"Dr Sang is... missing," one technician whispered, voice trembling. "Everyone else... they're dead."
"Dr. Sang must have died at Spectre Zero's hands already."
The leader gritted his teeth. "Take all critical data and evacuate. Prepare to destroy the lab. The project's orders are clear: Specter Zero won't survive, not after the gene extraction was almost complete."
"Let's retreat. No one here is Specter Zero's opponent. Most of the genes have been extracted successfully. We can start afresh with this data."
"Let's move quickly before Spectre Zero finds this place."
A deafening explosion shattered the reinforced metal door of the control room. Flames and shards of metal rained down.
The entire laboratory shook with it. The explosive sound temporarily deafened everyone. The raging flames mixed with metal fragments scared them to crouch down and take cover.
The door had become ruins.
Amid the smoke and debris, a single figure emerged.
With an aura of destroying the heavens and annihilating the earth.
As the thick smoke dispersed, everyone saw the person standing at the now barely recognisable entrance clearly. She looked like an asura from hell descending to take their filthy mortal souls.
"Specter Zero..." Someone stammered, unable to move.
The girl slowly raised her face, and looked at the group of people in the control room who were too scared to move with bloodthirsty eyes.
Her long, dark hair hung loose around her face, smeared with blood. Eyes cold as obsidian scanned the terrified people. She had been at the end of their experiment earlier and these people did not care how many times she screamed from the heart-wrenching pain her head was going through.
She lifted her hand casually, tossing what she had been holding like mere debris, Dr Sangs' head rolled across the floor, eyes still wide with disbelief.
The leader, shaking, held up a black detonator. "Your neural implant...if I press this, you'll be reduced to ash in thirty seconds!"
Specter Zero's voice was icy, and calm devoid of any human emotions. "Thirty seconds is more than enough to kill you all."
panic ensured. "We were merely following orders! It was the investors behind project Helix who wanted more..you have to spare us!"
She chuckled darkly, a hint of mockery in her bloodied gaze. Project Helix, the organisation that had raised her, nurtured her, and pushed her to the pinnacle of human capability...now sought to replace her with cloned copies, even willing to sacrifice her in the process. All for profits!
After thirteen years of perverted training, she started taking on one extreme mission after another since the age of fourteen.
At the age of seventeen, she successfully took the No. 1 spot on the world assassin leaderboard with the title of "Specter Zero, known and famous as one who could take lives and also bring the dead back from hell", and no one had shaken her position since.
Even those retired old men in the organization were no match for her, but her terrifying growth rate still aroused the organization's greediness.
Because her powerfulness made the organization reap many profits from her, bringing her own demise.
She did not come here under duress, but voluntarily.
Only because she was grateful for the organization's years of nurturing, she was willing to provide some of her genes to strengthen the organization.
But she did not expect that they would try to extract all of her genes, completely wanting to clone her and get rid of her at the same time.
Noticing that she was somehow in a daze. The leader pressed the detonator in secret, hoping to catch her off guard. With a single glance, she made him stumble back in fear. Calmly she retrieved her own detonator.
"Familiar with explosives?" She asked coldly. "Maybe you forgot all the masters here had once been my teachers. Dr . Sang taught me well. Let's go to hell together. "
The girl's voice was cold and indifferent like it was not her own life she was talking about ending.
Under their frightened eyes, she pressed the detonator.
The lab erupted in fire and steel, flames climbing skyward as the fortress collapsed. In the chaos Specter Zero vanished, leaving behind only smoke and ruins.