Prologue

“Ga... to... answer me!”

Inside the headquarters of one of the most powerful corporations on the continent, something was amiss. The president's office, normally decorated with beautiful marble, had been completely turned on its head. The walls were filled with bullet holes and craters from explosions, and the ornate furniture was reduced to rubble. Scattered around the room were countless bodies, all with bullet wounds to the head. Truly, it was an absolutely horrifying sight to behold.

But among the carnage, one man was still moving. He was clad from head to toe in protective gear. He tried to get up several times, but continued to fall over. Eventually, the man gave up on trying to get up; he chose to crawl to a nearby wall in order to catch his breath. Then, he hit the small button on the mic in his ear.

“Hello? This is code Accel.”

“Are you okay?! Give me a status report!”

Among the pile of bodies, one elegantly-dressed corpse stood out. This man didn’t simply have a bullet wound to the head—there were bullet wounds scattered throughout his body, as well as deep wounds from explosions. He had been the living man’s target.

“The target is... down. Just clean-up left I suppose? Cough.”

“What? Save that for later! Hurry up and get out of there first!”

“H-Haha, that’s... not happening.”

The man looked down at his own body. His abdomen had been peppered with bullets, and his left foot shot clean off. The feeling in his left arm was all but gone, and doing something as simple as talking felt excruciating. With his only working arm, he took out a small device from his pocket and released the safety on it. In his hand was a detonator which would set off explosives placed throughout the entire building when pressed. It would wipe everything in the near vicinity off the map—including the man himself.

“We’ll come get you right away! Hey, is the chopper ready?! Permission?! I’ll get that later, this is urgent!”

The man’s partner desperately tried to act from the other side of the mic, but there was simply no time left. The man opened his mouth in an attempt to stop his partner from trying, only to pause at the sound of a door flying open in the background.

“Instructor!”

The sound of his students reached his ears.

“Instructor, don’t give up!”

“There’s still so much you need to teach us!”

“Please, instructor! D-Dad!”

They had all been briefed on the mission and agreed, but they still refused to accept the situation. While hearing their protests made the man worried they were all still too immature, it also filled him with joy. As their teacher, he felt obligated to leave them with some final words. Summoning his final strength, the man spoke up.

“Line up!”

“Yes?!”

The students all replied in unison, perhaps reacting out of instinct that had been drilled into them from training.

“You guys know what I’m going to say... right?”

“Don’t stop moving forward!”

“Good. You guys will do fine on your own. Man up, and live.”

“... Roger!”

He could hear them all choking up. They were probably all crying, he thought. He spoke to the mic.

“Sorry... hey, about my students...”

“Of course, they’ve earned it. But... are you sure there’s no way out?”

“You already... know the answer to that...”

“Right.”

The reply was filled with worry and pain.

“I’ve... left my mark... so I can go out... smiling.”

“I’ll handle it from here on out.”

“I’m counting on you. It was... a fun ride.”

“Right back at you.”

With that, the man brought his finger to the switch. He had lost too much blood and was on the verge of passing out. He knew he had done his job. There was only one thing left to do. With the last of his remaining strength, he hit the switch. A distant crash could faintly be heard; it grew louder by the second until it caught up to the man and caused the roof to crash down. A hail of rubble and steel—that’s the last thing the man saw.