Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: The Fake Mage
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Anecdote.
Kalifa, whom he'd met again across a long table, cut straight to the chase.
"There's an item I need you to retrieve for me."
She slid a binder toward him.
As Jin's eyes scanned the neatly organized documents and the photos clipped inside, Kalifa continued.
"It's a data chip. As it says there, it contains the Solard family's secret spells."
Jin happened to be reading that very part.
He spotted an emblem shaped like flickering flames.
And below it, the words "Solard."
"Secret spells? Doesn't that mean it's something amazing?"
Even with his limited knowledge, Jin knew the immense status of 'families' in this world.
Mighty organizations made up of Purists.
Heirs to swords and magic, rejecting the cutting-edge era.
Jin regretted not being born into a family every other day instead of a Street Rat, so corporations were just another step down.
Unaware of his circumstances, Kalifa replied.
"It is impressive. But what's leaked is just a few basic spells. Of course, even that's humiliating for the Solards."
"Hm."
Naturally, Jin's eyes drifted back to the documents, and Kalifa pressed on.
"While the Solards were investigating the leak route, they caught signs that the data chip had been copied. One of those ended up here in Downtown, and someone got their hands on it."
"This guy's the one?"
Jin muttered as he checked a mugshot.
A man with half his face covered in tattoos. Piercings reminiscent of a bull's nose ring. He glared murderously toward where the camera lens must have been.
"Edmund Nielsen. A guy who illegally implanted a Mana Circuit into his body. He was already notorious on the Blacknet for peddling cheap public spells. Ended up twisting his personality into a psycho who murders at the drop of a hat."
Mana Circuit?
The term sounded straight out of fantasy, but the fact that it could be surgically implanted gave Jin a strange feeling as he kept reading the documents.
"Even his gang kicked him out. And he was their number three, no less."
"It's tied to a family. Loyalty, brotherhood—none of that crap lets them cover for him. Makes it easy for us, though."
Kalifa added that they just needed to recover the data chip from the guy's head, one way or another. She twirled her glass idly as she spoke.
"Success fee is two million credits. Brokerage is capped. What do you say?"
Two million.
The same amount Jeki had offered to save his sister. Enough to eat meatballs and spaghetti three meals a day for 333 days, with cash left over for waffles.
More than tempting enough for Jin.
Plus, taking down this fake mage named Nielsen would net him a hefty chunk of XP.
He was already short on experience for the next perk unlock. The answer was obvious.
"Sounds good. I'm in."
Edmund Nielsen.
According to Kalifa, he'd implanted the data chip directly into his head and had been holed up in his hideout for days.
That hideout was an old hallway-style apartment building, a monstrosity plastered with chaotic graffiti. Up close, it reeked from piles of uncollected trash.
Jin climbed the roughly welded rebar stairs.
Room 402.
Scratching his head in front of Nielsen's door, Jin pondered.
Should he just break in?
With his current strength, smashing a door lock was child's play.
He'd considered pretending to be a lost delivery guy at first, but a sloppy act might tip the guy off.
Better to go in fast and hard. As Jin reached for the door lock with resolve—
"...Who the hell are you?"
He turned at the wary voice. A bald man clutching black plastic bags in both hands stared awkwardly at him.
Half his right face covered in tattoos.
For a split second, their eyes met in the air.
Brief silence.
Then both moved at once.
"Shit!"
Nielsen hurled the plastic bags at the charging Jin and reached out.
"Boom Light—!"
The next instant, Jin reflexively squeezed his eyes shut against the explosive flash.
"Urk!"
Like a flashbang going off right in his face. In games, it just whitened the screen, but in reality? Tears and spit streamed down as a matter of course. His body staggered, struggling to keep balance.
But that lasted only a moment.
His unnatural recovery stabilized his rattled nervous system, and Jin snapped open his bloodshot eyes.
Canned goods, toilet paper, razors—
Essentials spilled from the bags and rolled across the floor. In the distance, Nielsen bolted down the stairs.
Jin vaulted the hallway railing and leaped after him.
His leg strength surpassed Olympic medalists.
Hang time like he was flying. And he didn't lose sight of his target. Nielsen's eyes widened as he hurriedly descended the stairs.
Boom!
A cloud of dust erupted on the landing between the second and third floors.
A brutish landing.
"What the—?!"
As the panicked Nielsen found his escape blocked, Jin closed in. A fist slicing through the air. A frantic shout echoing.
"Shield!"
A force field like tightly linked fish scales blocked the punch. It shuddered violently from that alone, then shattered under the follow-up barrage.
But by then, Nielsen had pulled back.
Now the mage fled upward, with Jin in pursuit.
"You bastard! Quit chasing me!"
Realizing he'd get caught like this, Nielsen yanked a gun from his coat and fired blindly behind him.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
Jin grimaced as stray bullets sparked off the rebar.
This was a mage?
But for Nielsen—who'd learned magic via illegal surgery, not as a Purist—a gun was just another weapon.
He emptied the magazine.
One ricocheted bullet lodged in Jin's shoulder.
Its trajectory had veered suddenly off the rebar, too fast to fully react. He'd barely twisted to take it in the shoulder instead of the heart.
Lucky bank shot for Nielsen, but no time to celebrate. Jin, who had faltered for a split second, accelerated again.
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!! What the hell are you?!"
Nielsen spat curses through gritted teeth.
He'd reached the rooftop. No more places to run. He turned, resigned to go all out, and began chanting.
Real magic, leagues beyond the cheap public spells floating on the Blacknet's surface.
Despair had hit when he realized even this was beginner-level. Techniques too taxing for his level—using them once strained his body to the limit.
Guaranteed combat incapacity after use.
But cornered like this, no other choice.
"I'll roast you, you little shit."
As Nielsen muttered with blood trickling from his nose—
Jin sensed the change.
Something indescribable gathered in one spot.
That amorphous energy coalesced into a blazing fireball rotating above Nielsen's palm, radiating intense heat even from afar.
The whole process took two seconds.
"Diiiie—!"
Nielsen hurled the fireball like a baseball.
At the same instant, Jin powered his thigh.
Overdeveloped fast-twitch fibers contracted with explosive force, propelling him forward in a final stride.
He closed the gap in a flash, crossing his arms in an X and ducking his head. The heavy fireball slammed into him.
Kaboom!
The shockwave flung Nielsen onto his ass. He was close enough to feel it too.
Crawling away from the choking heat, he inwardly cheered. No way anyone survived a direct hit—bones would be ash.
"...Got him?"
As he spoke too soon, a raspy voice answered from the black smoke.
"Don't count your chickens before they hatch."
"...?!"
A leg burst through the smoke and kicked Nielsen in the side.
His body launched like it'd been hit by a dump truck, tumbling wildly before crashing into a water tank.
Jin emerged from the smoke.
His face, slapping out flames on his shoulder, was lobster-red.
"Magic's such bullshit."
He winced at the searing pain.
Burns hurt worst at second-degree, right before nerve damage—exactly his state now. Blisters and pus would erupt soon.
But Jin endured, as always.
More pressing matters first.
"Guh... guh... stay back."
Even gasping for air, Nielsen clawed backward with his heels, as if foreseeing what came next.
"Th-this is mine. Mine, I tell you."
Looking down at him curled like a pillbug, clutching his temple, Jin sighed.
"Still haven't learned, huh."
He pried away the resisting arm and inspected the neural socket's access port. Amid the densely packed chips, one glowed red.
"Flame emblem... This is it."
"Hey! You fucker! Don't pull it out, please! Download's not done. Yanking it now fucks me up! You bastard!"
"Ugh. Shut up already."
Thwack!
Jin smashed a fist into the screaming face.
With Nielsen finally quiet, Jin fumbled to extract the chip from his temple. He accidentally pressed the end, popping the whole thing out, and scratched his head.
"...Like a floppy disk. Should've figured."
As Jin rose, mission accomplished—
Nielsen, limp like a corpse, suddenly grabbed his ankle.
"...?"
Jin's brow twitched.
Not just the quick recovery—
The grip strength was unnatural.
His body reacted instinctively to the threat.
Stomping the wrist with his other foot, Jin yanked his ankle free from the loosening grasp and kicked the half-risen Nielsen in the face.
The sensation through his instep said it: face crushed flat. It should have been.
"A’hhh!!!!!"
Nielsen's head snapped back, then dropped. Ink-black eyes fixed on Jin.
"A’hhhhhh!!!!!"
Roaring again, Nielsen charged like a beast, his earlier panic gone.
But Jin stayed cool amid the surprise.
He created distance, dodged the lunge, swept the ankle fluidly.
The momentum slammed Nielsen headfirst into the ground. Jin hammered down on the skull like a hammer, stomping repeatedly.
A sharp thrill surged in his mind.
Satisfied with the XP haul, Jin wiped sweat from his chin and slumped to the floor.
He alternated stares between the fallen Nielsen and the red data chip in his hand before speaking slowly.
"What the hell is this?"