The human figure in front of the machinery worked with an efficiency that suggested familiarity. He didn't seem surprised by our presence, which put us even more on alert.
"Who are you?" I asked, my voice echoing in the silence of the warehouse.
The man stopped, but didn't immediately turn around. "That's none of your business," he replied in a cold, authoritative voice. Finally, he turned, revealing a serious, weathered face with a penetrating gaze that appraised us from head to toe. The gun he was holding seemed to shoot out a pale blue light.
"We're investigating this place," Min-ah said firmly. "We know there's Trouble activity here."
The man smiled sarcastically. "Troubleshooting is my specialty. You two should leave. This is none of your business."
"We think so," I replied. "We saw the modified Troubles. Are you connected with them?"
The man was silent for a moment, his gaze fixed on us. "You're asking questions you shouldn't be asking," he finally said, his voice now tinged with menace. He raised his weapon, and the blue light intensified.
We didn't hesitate. Min-ah unleashed a gust of wind that staggered the man, while I focused on a series of metal tools on a nearby table. I levitated them and launched them toward him like projectiles.
The man reacted quickly, moving with surprising agility for someone his size. He dodged the blast of wind and fired his weapon. A beam of blue energy struck the wall behind Min-ah, leaving a scorched mark.
The fight had begun. The man was fast, and his weapon looked dangerous. Min-ah kept him at bay with gusts of wind, while I tried to attack him with metal objects. But he seemed to anticipate our movements, dodging our attacks with ease.
At one point, the man fired his gun at me. I managed to protect myself by lifting a metal plate, but the impact knocked me backward, causing me to lose my balance. The man took the opportunity to run toward a door on the other side of the room.
"He's getting away!" Min-ah shouted.
I tried to stop him by throwing more tools at him, but he fired his weapon at them, destroying them in midair. He reached the door and disappeared through it before we could reach him.
We approached the door and peered through the gap. The man was running down a dark hallway. We chased him, but he had already disappeared.
"He's gone," Min-ah said in frustration. "He was fast."
We returned to the room where the machinery was. The man had been fiddling with a control panel. We noticed a small device connected to the machine that we hadn't seen before. It looked like a transmitter.
"What is this?" I asked, examining the device.
"It could be how they communicate with the Troubles or how they control the machinery," Min-ah replied.
We took photos of the device and carefully disconnected it, storing it as evidence. As we searched the room for more clues, I found something on the floor, near where the man had been standing. It was a small identification card, engraved with a symbol: a circle with three lines radiating outward, the same symbol we had seen on the nameplate of the machinery. Beneath the symbol was a name: "Agent Thorne."
"Agent Thorne," I murmured. "So you work for someone."
This encounter had left us with more questions than answers. Who was this Agent Thorne? Who was he working for? And what was his connection to the modified Troubles? We knew we were on the right track, but we also knew we were facing a more organized and dangerous threat than we had imagined.