The Armory.
The word burned into Mizuki Han's eyes like a crimson mark branded with a scorching iron onto a pitch-black canvas.
He took the blood-soaked, stiffened parchment map from Haku's trembling little hands. His gaze darted between the skull symbol labeled "Armory" and the glaring "72 hours" countdown on the black scroll in his hand.
Two pieces of information that seemed entirely unrelated were forcibly connected in that instant by an invisible thread of the cruelest logic.
Despair, like a rising tide, silently flooded every inch of air in the cavern.
Three days.
In three days, the neurotoxic gas known as Blood Banyan Mist would fill every corner of this underground world.
This was no purge targeting a handful of people. It was a total extermination, one that would leave no survivors.
Every exit had been physically sealed and was guarded by Genji's elite unit, Sharp Tooth Unit. That meant every conventional escape route had been completely cut off. Trying to force their way through would be no different from smashing their flesh and blood against a wall of steel.
A dead end.
A perfect dead end, designed from the start to leave no way out.
The wound in Mizuki Han's lungs, forcibly sealed beneath a layer of ice, throbbed faintly as his breathing grew more rapid. The numbness from the painkillers was gradually fading, and a new wave of agony began gnawing at his nerves like a bone-deep parasite.
Yet harder to bear than the physical pain was the helplessness of having his fate toyed with at someone else's whim.
In both his past and present lives, that was what he hated most.
"Firepower... Not enough firepower..."
He murmured unconsciously, his intact right hand brushing over the ninja tool pouch at his waist. Three Kunai, five shuriken, and a few low-quality Explosive Tags they had taken from their enemies.
That was all the "firepower" he had.
Could he really use that to fight an elite Anbu ninja lockdown squad and blast open an exit that had been physically sealed and reinforced with a barrier?
A fool's dream.
He needed power—absolute power capable of flipping the board in an instant.
And in this underground prison, there was only one place that could provide it.
His gaze fell once more on the tattered map, locking onto the menacing skull symbol.
—The Armory.
A thought so mad it bordered on self-destruction sprouted like a poisonous vine in the abyss. In an instant, it wrapped around his heart and began to grow wildly.
If there was no way out, he would blast one open himself!
If the exits were sealed, he would create unprecedented chaos—a massive explosion powerful enough to shake the entire Anbu base, tearing open an escape route no one could predict amid the turmoil!
To carry out that plan, he needed a vast supply of Explosive Tags and powerful custom-made ninja tools.
And the only place that had them was the Armory.
The logic was simple and crude, yet dangerously tempting.
To stay alive, he had to get his hands on explosives.
The explosives were in the most heavily guarded, most dangerous place.
So he had to storm that den of danger.
This was no longer a choice. It was the only answer.
Take a desperate gamble and fight for life in the face of death.
Deep in Mizuki Han's icy eyes, a flame called "madness" blazed to life. His soul, afflicted with severe Firepower Deficiency Phobia and Persecutory Delusion, was not crushed by despair. Instead, it was driven into an extreme, almost pathological elation.
The more hopeless the situation, the bigger the gamble!
"Big Brother Han..." Haku watched the ever-shifting expression on Mizuki Han's face and called softly to him, her voice full of unease.
Mizuki Han ignored her. He carefully stowed away the black scroll and the map, then handed Haku the entire bag of Soldier Pills. In a tone that brooked no refusal, he ordered, "Eat all of them. Every last one. We need our strength."
Haku didn't dare disobey. She could only swallow the strange-tasting pills one by one, forcing them down with dirty water.
Mizuki Han swallowed three himself, forcibly squeezing the last of his body's potential. When he was done, he grabbed Haku and pulled her up without pausing for a moment.
"We're going here."
He pointed toward the Armory on the map, his voice hoarse but unshakably firm.
Haku followed his finger and saw only the crookedly drawn skull, radiating menace. She didn't know what kind of place it was, but she could feel the resolve emanating from Big Brother Han as he made his decision. It was colder than any ancient ice in the underground cavern.
"Stay close. Don't make a sound, and don't ask questions."
Mizuki Han offered no further explanation. He took Haku by the hand and plunged into the deeper darkness.
Time passed, second by second.
The 72-hour countdown hung over his head like a guillotine, its icy blade already pressed against his neck.
He didn't choose the broadest, most convenient main route on the map. Based on the intelligence he had cross-referenced, those areas would undoubtedly be the main focus of Sharp Tooth Unit's search.
Instead, he chose a network of abandoned, narrow maintenance passages and wastewater tributaries.
The places were dark and damp, rife with unknown dangers. Rotten muck swallowed their ankles, filling the air with a nauseating stench. Every now and then, they spotted mutated fungi and moss glowing a faint green in the darkness.
Haku nearly slipped several times, but Mizuki Han's strong right hand held her fast each time.
Like the most experienced hunter, he navigated the vast underground maze with animal instinct and the logical reasoning he had honed in his previous life, precisely avoiding one patrol of Anbu ninja after another.
His perception had undergone a qualitative leap after he reached the Chunin level. Not a single trace of chakra within a hundred meters could escape his notice.
Several times, they passed within a hair's breadth of a squad of Anbu ninja, separated only by a thin wall of rock. Haku could even clearly hear the footsteps and voices on the other side. Each time, terror made her feel as though her heart would stop.
But Mizuki Han remained expressionless. His heartbeat didn't quicken in the slightest.
He simply calculated calmly and waited.
As they went deeper, the surroundings began to change noticeably.
The air grew less damp, replaced by a dry, oppressive atmosphere. The passages, once made entirely of rock, were now reinforced with steel. Every ten meters, a dim red rune flickered on the wall, serving as a warning.
The defenses here were clearly stronger than those on the outskirts.
They were approaching the base's central area.
After crawling through a narrow ventilation duct for nearly half an hour, Mizuki Han suddenly stopped.
He signaled Haku to stay put, then silently poked his head out like a gecko and peered beyond the duct.
The space beyond opened up before him.
It was an incredibly wide corridor, broad enough for ten carriages to travel abreast. The floor was laid with huge slabs of obsidian, smooth as a mirror and gleaming with an icy sheen. The ceiling soared high overhead, studded with dozens of Moonlight Stones that cast a soft white glow, illuminating the entire corridor as bright as day.
At the far end stood a gigantic steel gate, larger than anything he could have imagined.
The gate stood at least twenty meters tall. It was made entirely of some unknown black metal, its surface etched with densely packed Sealing Jutsu marks as intricate as circuit boards. The markings slowly shifted, radiating a visible, pale-blue chakra glow that made the gate look like a divine wonder.
This was the Armory's entrance.
Yet it wasn't the magnificent gate that made Mizuki Han's pupils contract.
It was the two figures standing before it, motionless as statues.
They wore the standard uniforms of the Mist Anbu and pale masks, just like the others. But the chakra emanating from them was on an entirely different level from that of every enemy he had encountered before.
It was concentrated and heavy, unfathomable as the deep sea.
Elite Chunin.
And not just any Elite Chunin—they were among the very best, just one step away from becoming Jonin!
They stood like two guardian deities, one on either side of the gate, utterly still. The aura of menace radiating from them was enough to make anyone with ill intent think twice.
And those were only the guards outside.
Who knew how many traps—or even stronger enemies—waited beyond that great gate, shimmering with chakra?
Mizuki Han slowly withdrew his head into the darkness of the duct.
At some point, his back had grown slick with cold sweat.
This was the target he had chosen.
An impregnable steel fortress, so heavily guarded that not even a fly could get inside.
And he had only one maimed left arm and a seven-year-old girl.
The 71-hour countdown continued to tick mercilessly in his mind.
Mizuki Han leaned against the cold wall of the duct and closed his eyes.
His mind, as powerful as a supercomputer, began racing faster than ever before.
Charge in? Certain death.
Create a diversion? There was no chance of getting away with even the smallest trick in front of two top-tier Elite Chunin.
Infiltrate? The chakra seal on that gate probably wouldn't let even a mosquito through.
It seemed every path had been cut off.
Then, just as he thought this, an overlooked detail flashed through his mind like lightning.
Water.
This underground world had no shortage of water.
And water... under the right conditions, could change its physical state.
A completely new idea—crazier, bolder, and more outrageous than any plan before it—broke through the soil of his mind.
Mizuki Han snapped his eyes open. In his dark pupils was reflected a mad plan so terrifying that even gods and demons would tremble.
He stared at the impregnable steel gate in the distance, the corner of his mouth curling into a cold, cruel smile.
Where ninjutsu couldn't get through, science would open the way.
Beyond the gate sealed with chakra, what kind of defenses awaited him?
Before you continue