"You're too confident, Bastard!" Arsenio replied weakly.
From behind his swollen, blood-covered eyes, he focused entirely on his right wrist. Beneath the skin tissue installed there was an emergency circuit array he had secretly assembled a long time ago.
Arsenio pressed his thumb inward at a very specific angle. That small movement activated a micro-switch embedded beneath his flesh. Within seconds, a high-voltage capacitor inside his wrist released a shock of thousands of volts directly into the air.
A massive electrical arc leaped from Arsenio's wrist, striking the barrel of the metal pistol and Vance's body standing right above him. Blue sparks exploded with a loud buzzing sound in the quiet room.
"Argh!" Vance screamed hysterically as the electricity struck his arm and threw his body backward, crashing into an iron server rack.
Vance's subordinate standing near the door was also shocked by the electrical current spreading through the puddle of blood on the concrete floor. The submachine gun in his hands slipped and fell with a clatter to the floor. Both criminals lay temporarily incapacitated as their muscles spasmed violently from the electric shock.
Arsenio didn't waste a single second. Even though the pain in his crushed fingers felt like being stabbed with glowing hot needles, he forced his body up. All his joints trembled and his chest felt painfully tight, but the drive to survive was far stronger than the pain.
He immediately turned around and ran with all his might through the darkness of the server room. His footsteps swept through the thick dust on the Sub-Level 4 floor. The sound of his own breathing sounded harsh and ragged in the middle of the city's total blackout.
"Shoot him! Don't let that rat get away!" Vance screamed in a raspy voice from behind.
The sound of gunshots echoed several times inside the room. Sharp bullets pierced through the old server racks beside Arsenio, sparking fire and showering dirty plastic shards. Arsenio leaned his body, leaping through the gap of the half-open steel door at the end of the hallway.
In front of Arsenio lay the entrance to Kaelen City's underground sewage channel. Without second thoughts, he kicked the rusted iron cover loose and immediately jumped down into the darkness of the sewer.
Arsenio's body slammed into the filthy, foul-smelling wastewater. Toxic water filled with industrial chemical waste instantly burned the open wounds on his fingers and neck. Arsenio let out a muffled scream as excruciating pain spread throughout his nervous system.
"I have to keep moving," Arsenio whispered to himself while holding his crushed left hand.
Blackish-green waste seeped into the dirty cloth shirt he wore. The foul stench penetrated his nose, making Arsenio's head grow dizzier and more nauseous. Yet, he continued to crawl and walk along the extremely narrow circular concrete tunnel.
Behind him, the shouting of Vance's subordinates could still be heard faintly above the channel. They were trying to locate where Arsenio had fallen by shining flashlights on the wastewater from above.
"Search along the lower channel! He couldn't have gone far with injuries that severe!" a subordinate's voice called out from a distance.
Arsenio pressed his body tightly against the slick, mossy wall of the drain. He turned off all the small indicator lights on his wrist so they wouldn't emit even the smallest glint of light in the darkness of this underground tunnel.
As he walked slowly while enduring the overwhelming pain, Arsenio's brain began to work hard. An infection from this wastewater could kill him in a matter of hours if left untreated. However, the burning rage in his chest kept Arsenio's mind focused on one thing: revenge.
"They think I'm just trash that's easily destroyed," Arsenio muttered softly with heavy breaths. "They don't know that I hold all the secrets to their lives."
He remembered the ledger containing billions of creditors' illegal transactions that he had successfully copied and hidden in a secure private server. Vance and his corporate bosses assumed Arsenio acted alone without a backup plan. That was the biggest mistake they had ever made.
Arsenio stepped deeper into the drainage tunnel, wading through dirty water that reached his waist. His broken finger bones rubbed against each other inside his bruised flesh.
"I have to endure this a little longer," Arsenio told himself to stay motivated. "I need a safe place to treat these wounds and formulate a strategy."
After walking for nearly an hour inside the dark, winding water channel, Arsenio saw a dim light at the end of the tunnel. It was the exit leading to the lower district's garbage disposal area, a place far beyond the reach of Vance's squad patrols.
He crawled out from the end of the large pipe and collapsed onto a pile of dry recyclable materials. His body trembled violently from hypothermia and a high fever that began to set in from the bacterial infection in the wastewater.
Arsenio rested his back against the dull concrete wall. He stared at his left palm, which had turned bluish and swollen to twice its normal size. The wound on his throat also made every attempt to swallow saliva feel like a sharp stab.
"Step one is making them think I died in this sewer," Arsenio whispered while wiping dried blood from his chin.
He pulled a micro-scanner device from his soaking wet pants pocket. Although the device's screen was cracked, the internal components were still functioning properly. Arsenio began quietly accessing the lower district's local data network through a low-frequency connection.
In his mind, revenge scenarios began to take shape neatly. They had to pay dearly for every drop of blood that drained from his body tonight. Arsenio wouldn't attack them with firearms or hit squads. He would tear down their power from the inside.
"Geonino," Arsenio uttered softly. The name of his former colleague who had told Vance to torture him echoed in his head. "You're the one who sold my information to the corporates. You're the very first one who has to feel the consequences."
Arsenio knew that Geonino was probably celebrating his downfall up there right now. Geonino had always considered Arsenio a weak hacker who lacked the courage to fight back. That underestimation was the greatest weapon Arsenio possessed right now.
While enduring the pain in his body, Arsenio began typing several lines of command code on his micro-scanner using only the fingers of his intact right hand. Those codes were the initial seeds of a system trap he would scatter into the corporate network over the next few days.
Suddenly, the sound of hurried footsteps approached from the end of the garbage disposal alley. Arsenio quickly hid his scanner inside the folds of his jacket and prepared to attack or flee once more.
A shabby-looking boy from the slums emerged from behind a pile of cardboard boxes, carrying an old toolbox in his hands. The boy was scared half to death when he saw Arsenio lying covered in blood and sewage mud.
"Hey! Are you still alive?" the boy asked, his voice trembling with fear.
Arsenio looked at the boy with a sharp yet exhausted gaze. He shook his head gently to calm the child down.
"Don't shout," Arsenio replied weakly. "I need antiseptic medication and bandages. I have digital currency I can transfer to your account right now."
The boy hesitated for a moment, staring at the horrific wounds on Arsenio's body before finally nodding his head slowly.
"I have some makeshift medical supplies at my place," the boy said softly. "But you have to promise not to bring trouble to my home."
"I'm not bringing trouble," Arsenio replied while attempting to stand up by holding onto the concrete wall. "I'm bringing a storm that will destroy this city."
Arsenio stepped slowly, following the boy toward a safer hiding spot behind the ruins of the lower district. The fever in his body grew worse, but his mind was crystal clear. The first stage of his revenge plan had already begun in his heart.
He would fix his body first, treat this infected wound, and let his enemies feel victorious for the time being. When the time came, Arsenio would reappear where they least expected it without leaving a single trace.
In the dark night of Kaelen City, where power was slowly returning, Arsenio smiled faintly. The pain in his fingers no longer felt like suffering, but as a reminder of the promise of vengeance he had to fulfill.
"Enjoy your sweet victory tonight, Geonino," Arsenio whispered to the cold night wind. "Because when I return, you won't even know who took your life."
The boy looked back upon hearing Arsenio's whisper, staring at the wounded man with deep wonder and fear.
"Who are you actually going after?" the boy asked curiously while opening a small iron door leading to his underground hideout.
Arsenio paused for a moment at the threshold, staring at the lights of the corporate towers towering high in the distance.
"I'm going to tear down all those grand buildings from their very roots," Arsenio answered firmly.
Aksara