At the same time, in the area where the explosion occurred.
Francis, who had just learned about the explosion in the lab immediately rushed over to the scene, followed by more than a dozen guards, all of whom were holding fire extinguishers, trying to extinguish the surrounding fire.
Looking at the messy scene, Francis walked with a gloomy face.
After walking a few steps, Francis saw an opening in the oxygen chamber in the corner, and Wade, who was supposed to be lying unconscious in it, had disappeared.
BOOM~~
Suddenly, a figure rushed out of the thick smoke and rushed towards the guards standing at the edge of the line.
With a sharp broken piece of glass in his hand, he slashed the guard's throat.
The strong smell of blood quickly spread in the air. The guard covered his neck in astonishment, wanting to ask the others for help, but he could only moan lowly.
It didn't take them long to figure out that the person who just appeared was Wade.
At the moment, Wade was naked and his face and body could be seen. It was covered with rotten scars and none of the skin was intact. It looked like it was fished out of sulphuric acid.
"Francis!!" Wade stared fixedly at Francis, his hoarse voice filled with endless anger made everyone shiver.
It was right as Derrick had previously expected.
After Francis took Wade, he began to abuse Wade more cruelly than ever.
Perhaps in retaliation for Wade's unstoppable laughing, Francis locked Wade in a device that could control oxygen, leaving him in a state of hypoxia for a long time and tortured Wade repeatedly.
As a result, Francis' crazy behaviour caused the heightened secretion of adrenal hormones in Wade's body, accelerating the stimulation of the serum in his body, giving him the healing Ability and getting rid of the threat of cancer.
But the cost of this power was huge. It left Wade with a disfigured face and horrific scars all over his body forever.
Seeing his face, even Wade himself couldn't accept it.
After Francis had left the lab previously, Wade detonated the instrument with a stolen match and caused a horrible explosion with the inflammable substances on the side; he only survived by the virtue of his healing power.
Even after the explosion, instead of escaping the lab, Wade chose to stay here and lie in wait for Francis to come again.
…
"It turned out to be you." Seeing Wade's appearance, Francis finally understood how the inexplicable explosion came about.
Without hesitation, he immediately issued an order to the guards: "Shoot. Kill him!"
Wade, however, was faster than Francis' orders.
At the same time as Francis opened his mouth, Wade had already taken the rifle from the dead bodyguard's corpse, opened the safety, raised the muzzle of the gun, put his shoulder against the gun's end and pulled the trigger.
His movements were smooth and seamless as if this set of movements had already been etched into his muscles' memory.
BANG BANG BANG~~
There was a loud gunshot, the bullets hit the heads of three guards.
The other guards were taken aback by Wade's aim. After Wade shot again and killed two more guards, they finally set up their rifles and shot in Wade's direction blindly.
Flame spurted out from the muzzle as several magazines were fired.
The howling rain of bullets hit continued.
Wade tumbled dexterously, hid behind the barrier, and continued to shoot at the guards in all directions with the rifle he took.
The smoky surroundings did not affect Wade's aim in the slightest. As an extremely experienced mercenary, such an environment is more conducive to his style of combat.
The fierce gun battle went on.
As for Francis, he didn't participate in the shootout but hid in the wreckage of a large instrument around the corner.
Francis didn't interrupt the situation and sat there silently as if he was waiting for something to happen.
At this moment, there was a faint sound of footsteps treading as the sound of gunshots continued.
Immediately afterwards, Francis saw a guard coming and turning over the wreckage of the instrument he was covering himself with his hands and sitting next to him with a rifle.
As if he sensed Francis' gaze, the guard turned his head and looked over.
The eyes of the two met.
The atmosphere suddenly became awkward.
Derrick, who was sitting there, mistaken as a guard, felt that he was unlucky. Not only could he not find the exit of the research institute, but accidentally broke into the epicentre of everything.
Once he looked around, he saw Wade slaughtering a group of guards with glass in his hands.
Derrick was worried that he would be involved in this fierce gun battle and wanted to go back, only to see the roof fall down right behind him, leaving him only with the option to go ahead. He then found a place to hide but he never expected that he would run into Francis there.
Francis looked at the dusty Derrick, thinking that he was one of the surviving guards.
Francis frowned slightly: "What are you doing? Fight."
Seeing that Francis did not recognize him, Derrick let his identity stay hidden and said under his breath, "It's too dangerous right now. I have to protect you!"
"I don't need protection," Francis said without any bother.
Derrick nodded vigorously and then proceeded to ask Francis, "...Then, can you protect me?"
"???"
Francis immediately knew that something was wrong and asked, "Who are you!"
"I know what I understand, and it's useless to talk about what I don't know. How can I tell you who I am if I myself don't know the answer to it?" Derrick asked helplessly.
"It's you!!" Francis shouted. Hearing the familiar sentence pattern, his pupils shrank suddenly.