I noticed how Shin Chul's dying face turns to me, laughing as he catches his breath because of the pain. "You're also here for the hard-drive, aren't you? Sorry old man but it's not here. It's never been here. You're just both wasting your time here and you can't do anything about it!"
Nolan's expression darkened, "Is that true, Mr. Valentine?" His eyes couldn't look away from me, "you're also after the hard-drive? Answer me!"
Dammit. Seeing this person in this kind of place was a very bad move after all. "It is not what you think, Nolan."
"Oh yeah? Prove it. What else are you here for? Huh? This guy is a syndicate, we've been searching for him for so long and that hard-drive was the only thing I needed to prove who he really is. And then there's you. Convince me that you're not here for something sinister, Mr. Valentine. Convince me."
I gulped. I'm trapped. I can't think of anything to avoid this situation at all. So this is what a criminal's perspective feels like. I'm really not suited to be one.
I took off my mask and sighed, "I'm... I'm here for the hard-drive." I confessed. There's no point other than face the truth.
Shin Chul glared to Nolan. "So unlucky. Sounds like you have a competition after all. What a complete shame. We've been friends for at least three years and you're the one who still managed to betray me."
I blink multiple times. Nolan's eyes widened. Glared at Shin Chul like a wild animal as he pointed the gun at him again. "You're running your mouth too much." he then pulled the trigger as another bullet was fired.
It penetrated the guy's skull, it's speed was too much that breaks even the wall behind.
I immediately stepped back. "Nolan. What the heck?!"
He groaned in annoyance as he pointed the gun back at me, "This is worst than I expected. This is not part of the plan."
"Nolan, what are you doing? Put the gun down, right now!" I shouted. I surely did not misheard it. So he's also one of the syndicate, that explains why he also wanted the hard-drive.
And staring at him now, It's finally clear that this is not the first time he did this kind of thing.
"You're not supposed to be here." He said as he pulled the trigger numerous times.
"Nolan!" Three bullets was fired toward me. But they stopped midair before hitting me.
When Nolan saw it, he shoot me again rapidly but those bullets flew out of my way. "So you're not lying about it. Your power really came back."
The bullets flew anywhere. Pipes, floor, door, ceiling and the pole. "Nolan, stop this right now!"
"I can't, Mr. Valentine! I need to kill you now!" His magazine ran out. So he released it from his hand, and both of his palm fired up as if his hands are big torches.
"Why? Because of what I heard from that guy?! Fuck it, Nolan, he's already dead!" I shouted, trying to make some sense out of it.
"But you are alive. And I don't like witnesses." He released a tremendous amount of flame to my direction, making me defend myself with magnetic field covering around me.
"Nolan!" I screamed as the surrounding area started melting as it catches fire in less than seconds. The walls cracked as the pipes explodes around us.
This basement's too old to withstand this enormous amount of heat. Shin Chul's body burned and I only saw bones before losing sight of him completely.
"Just die, old man!"
I gritted my teeth as I flicked my fingers from both hands, making a huge ball of shockwave releasing from my body.
The surroundings cracked even more as the fire disappeared as Nolan flew backwards. He hits the wall making a huge crack because of it.
He vomited blood as he tried standing up. Staring at me with much more hate. "What the heck, old man? Never expected you to pull that off."
I stretched out my palm at him, "Nolan. We can still talk this through. There's no need to fight."
He smirked as more blood escape his lips. "It's too late, Mr. Valentine. You already heard my secret."
Dammit, he's not listening. As much as possible, I don't want to end this with one of us dying. I don't like him, yes. But I don't want to cross the line where I need to kill him, no matter what the reason is.
"We can help each other," I still tried to explain to him my intention, "I'm looking for the hard-drive same as you. We can search it together."
"We can't find it. He's already dead."
My lips tightened as I took one last glimpse of Shin's toasted body, "Yeah. You just shot him." I said raising my eyebrows in disappointment.
"And now you're going next." He said as he pulled out a knife from his suit pocket, covering it in fire as he throws it at me.
He's far more barbaric than I thought. But it stopped midair, inches away from my hand.
But with the same tactic, he throws multiple burning knives toward me. I dodged most of them. Deflected the others as I gradually steps closer at him.
"Stop this already!" I released a palm push shockwave through his chest. But he shockingly dodge it. The wall took the hit with such unimaginable impact.
With his fast movement, he turned to my back, tried to blast me with the touch of his flame and it exploded. The smoke covered me but not a single burn was made as I covered my body with magnetic field.
I gazed back at him. Grabbed his collar before pinning his back on the cracked wall, making the damage more wider and deeper.