SSS-Class Profession: The Path to Mastery-Chapter 183: Saturation Point

The first attacker didn’t even groan as he stood again.

His neck was bent at an unnatural angle, shoulders slack, and yet—his body moved, limbs jerking with eerie purpose as he lunged toward me a second time. Anthony met him halfway with a brutal elbow to the jaw, knocking him back into the grass.

But he wasn’t alone anymore.

From the shadows between the trees, from the forgotten benches, from behind the cracked fountain—figures emerged. Slow at first, then faster.

They didn’t scream or speak. They just moved.

All of them toward me.

"Anthony!" I shouted, drawing my sidearm.

"Already on it!" he yelled, dropping the attacker again with a sharp kick to the chest. "What the hell is this, boss?!"

I didn’t have an answer. Not a real one.

Another figure—a woman with grey hair and jogging shoes—lunged at me from the left. I ducked under her arms and swept her legs. She hit the ground, twitched once, then started crawling.

"Elliot!" I barked, glancing back.

"I’ve got her!" he was kneeling beside Anika, holding her body down with his arms from behind, one hand gripping her shoulder tightly. Her eyes were wide, the blindfold forgotten on the ground. She trembled with each mutter that slipped from her lips. Her body pushing forward with what looked like bloodlust.

"Reynard... Vale..."

I turned back just in time to block a tackle from a teenaged boy. He couldn’t have been older than sixteen, but his strength didn’t match his age. I twisted, throwing him over my shoulder and slamming him into the nearest bench.

More and more came, entering the fight.

They didn’t flinch or hesitate. All their attention was completely on me.

And I couldn’t help but think: Why?

How could this many exist out here? The Cain Protocol was supposed to be experimental. The wanted it to remain a secret. A handful of twisted test subjects, maybe a hundred across multiple countries at most.

Not this.

This was saturation.

My mind worked in flashes between movements, dodging, striking, disarming. Blood pounded in my ears, but not from fear. From focus.

These people... they weren’t like Anika. They weren’t scarred, wary or haunted by what had been done to them.

They were normal.

They had lives.

Joggers. Grandmothers. Teenagers.

Living amongst others like nothing had happened.

And yet at the sight of me, they turned.

What kind of experiment had no visible trauma? No awareness of tampering?

Unless...

Unless they didn’t remember.

My heart sank as I swept a heavyset man’s legs and drove my knee into his chest to keep him down. "They wiped them," I muttered.

Anthony ducked a swing and slammed his pistol against a woman’s temple. "What?!"

"They wiped the subjects," I said, kicking off another attacker. "Their memories were erased and with that they started releasing them."

"To what? Spy on you?"

"No," I said darkly. "I think it was to hide a mistake."

It was the only thing that made sense to me and my Deduction skill. If something happened, some facility failure, or internal sabotage, they couldn’t contain the subjects anymore. They couldn’t kill them all either, not without questions.

So they did the next best thing.

They made them forget.

Let them blend in.

And then...

They left the switch on.

I punched an approaching man square in the throat. He dropped, but not for long.

"Anthony," I grunted. "This is escalating."

"No kidding!"

"They don’t feel pain like normal. They don’t care about the surroundings. They’ll trample children if I stand behind one."

"I noticed!" He caught one by the arm and threw her into a tree. She stayed down. For now.

We weren’t going to win by knocking them down.

Not unless we were brutal.

And I didn’t want to be brutal.

I didn’t want to destroy these people who’d already had their minds hijacked, their memories stolen.

But every second we waited, the circle grew tighter. I could see more moving in the distance now, dozens. Maybe more. All of them converging.

We had to draw them away.

I turned toward Anthony, eyes sharp, using Command Presence.

The world seemed to still. The air thickened. My voice came out like a blade, impossible to ignore.

"Take Elliot and Anika to the train station. Blindfold her. Keep moving. Meet me later."

Anthony blinked. Then nodded once. "Got it."

Elliot looked up, confused, but Anthony was already pulling him up.

"Wait—what about you—"

"Go!" I barked.

Then I turned, took three steps toward the trees...

...and ran.

The moment I crossed into the forest edge, I knew it was working.

Footsteps behind me multiplied. Shouts—no, not shouts—murmurs.

"Reynard... Vale..."

They followed.

Just me.

Only me.

I didn’t slow.

Branches whipped across my face and coat. The forest floor was uneven, dotted with roots and jagged stones. But my footing held thanks to my Endurance Boost.

In fact, I felt nothing.

No ache. No fatigue. No burn in the lungs.

Only motion.

I ducked under a low branch, leapt over a stream, weaved between the trees as the sounds behind me grew louder, then quieter, then louder again.

I didn’t look back.

I couldn’t risk even a second of hesitation.

I was the target. The beacon. I had to get far enough... far enough that they’d stop seeing me.

Because if I didn’t...

They’d never stop.

Ten minutes passed. Then thirty. Then an hour. Maybe two.

It felt endless. But I never once lost speed.

And in that relentless sprint, I had time to think.

The Cain Protocol was more dangerous than I ever imagined. They hadn’t just built killers. They’d built contingencies. Sleeper agents who could pass as everyday citizens.

Why?

Why risk it?

Why not keep them locked away like Anika was?

Unless something went wrong.

Unless a facility failed.

Or worse... was compromised.

I leapt over a fallen log, slid down a muddy incline, caught a tree branch, and pulled myself up the other side.

I was starting to piece together what I believed the truth to be. They likely had to a problem at a facility, but they assumed that Connor had captured me. Knowing that, they likely thought that as long as the subject’s memories were erased, they had no reason to worry about them being activated in public without their supervision.

But I was never captured.

I was still alive.

Still visible.

And suddenly... all their ghosts woke up when they saw me.

I pushed harder, faster. My coat caught on a thornbush—I tore it loose without a second thought.

Branches blurred past. Sweat clung to my skin, but my breathing remained steady.

Endurance Boost truly was a blessing in situations like these.

I’d forgotten how powerful a skill could become when it became level 10.

When I had time... I’d need to level more of them. It wasn’t just advantage. It was transcendence.

Eventually... finally...

I slowed.

The sounds behind me were gone. There was no voices, footfalls or movement.

Only wind.

The trees had thinned a little. Sunlight filtered in through the canopy above, painting the forest floor in shifting gold and green.

I exhaled. Just once.

Then turned.

Nothing.

Not a single follower.

It had worked.

I was far enough.

A sharp breath left my lungs. My hands trembled for the first time.

I stood alone.

And then...

A low, heavy growl came from behind me.

The hairs on my neck rose as Instinct warned me.

I turned, slowly.

A shape emerged from the brush—massive. Mottled brown fur, thick paws, black eyes like river stones.

A bear.

Not a subject.

Not a soldier.

Just nature.

It stepped forward, slow, deliberate.

Sniffed the air.

And stared directly at me.

I reached down, fingertips grazing the hilt of my blade.

My shoulders straightened. My gaze sharpened.

"...of course."

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