Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Emul woke up, clutching his throbbing head.
"...Damn, I slept a lot."
Checking his scattered device, the time was closer to night than evening.
He had spent half a day like a corpse, paying back the sleep he'd put off.
He used to sleep at dawn anyway, but with his day and night flipped, his biological clock seemed slightly off.
Besides, the things he needed to do going forward were only possible late at night, so maybe it was for the best.
After finishing his short excuse, Emul exited the sewer.
The sleet that had been falling since last night showed no signs of stopping, soaking the ground.
Pulling his hood up, Emul headed straight for the Dead Zone.
*
Past the flickering streetlights, piercing gazes poured down immediately.
Perhaps because he'd been here a couple of times and gotten used to it, Emul ignored them and walked until he stopped in front of a building.
A swing door layered with spray paint. At the very top, a wide, smiling face was painted.
Looking closely next to the doorknob, there was a sentence written as if someone had pressed down hard with a pen.
[ If you don't know if I'm open, push and come in. If it's closed, just leave. ]
Things that didn't seem to catch his eye before were starting to stand out.
It would be fine if the direction of that interest was a good one, though.
Udeuk-.
Emul, having forcibly pried open the locked doorknob, stepped inside with long strides.
"W-w-w-what, what the hell. I didn't say you could come in! And before that, how did you even get in?!"
Ignoring the nagging pouring out from the camera, he scrutinized the interior.
Rather than a futuristic feel, it had an old-school vibe, like a memory of the era Emul used to live in.
Thinking that, it felt a bit of a waste to destroy it, but he couldn't just let it slide depending on his mood.
Uung-.
Emul, about to get into position, pulled out his device.
"Ahahaha. Hello. You're that mage from last time, right? What are you here to sell today? Ah, are you here to buy? Then I'll give you a discount. A special service from yours truly."
Ignoring the chattering Fence, he checked the notification that popped up on the display.
[ Camellia-nim has sent 50M chips. Would you like to see the attached message? (Yes) (No) ]
Without delay, he pressed the 'Yes' button, and the screen changed rapidly.
[ Greetings, Zen-nim. Regarding yesterday, I was somewhat rude. The deposited amount is a token of sincerity separate from the transaction, so please do not decline it. If you need anything else, please feel free to contact me at any time. However...(Read more) ]
At the text, which was dense enough to create a scroll bar, Emul shoved his device into his pocket.
'As expected of a precious family scion, the formality is no joke. But the name Zen is....'
He was about to tilt his head, but remembered that the registered owner of the burner phone was 'Zen'.
He didn't intend to hide his real name, but he didn't feel like going through the trouble of correcting it, either.
Having finished his brief business, he stared directly at the camera in the corner of the ceiling, which was filming him.
"Hey, did you think of something you want to buy? I'm in a good mood. Half price. I'll give it to you for half price. How about that?"
"Any last words?"
"You know that sounds really ominous, right? Mage! Ah, no. Mage-nim?"
Emul aimed at the opaque glass pane and gathered mana.
"If you stab someone in the back, you should have known you'd get stabbed in return."
Pajijijik——!
The moment the physical enhancement magic was cast in one breath, wrapping around his entire body, followed by the Qi that tears through the earth gathering.
Jiing, jiing-.
The camera shook wildly from side to side.
"Waaaaait——!"
"It's too late for that."
"A mage of your level can reclaim it, right! Um. Ummm. I'll give you something you need. A promise. So, please don't destroy it. This place... is precious to me. I'm begging you."
There was no time to figure out the truth behind those words.
"You'd better keep that promise."
Clicking his tongue, Emul accepted the deal that hadn't been in his plans. Calming his faint anger, he hurriedly twisted his shoulder.
Bang!
He kicked the half-closed door roughly and aimed at the only empty space: the sky.
"Hey! I told you it's a precious space......? Is that thing even working right? Uh-oh. It's, it's, it's gonna blow!"
His fingertips flickered. Due to the intense vibration, he grabbed his arm with his other hand.
'If I leave it like this, it'll explode.'
It would be nice if he could 'reclaim' it as the Fence said, but he didn't even know what kind of concept that was yet.
Just as he was about to fire the magic he had been holding back to its limit into the air.
His time began to flow slowly.
An accelerated thought process kicked in unconsciously. The shooting data from a few days ago was quickly dismantled and reassembled.
A massive bullet fired from a thick sniper rifle.
The explosive power of gunpowder, the rotation created by the rifling, the destructive power caused by the collision of mass.
The blueprint that had begun to sprout, however faintly, since he picked up the shell casing. If only he could bring that blueprint into reality.
"...Aero Bolt."
Adding the final spark to the two fiercely burning magics, the three magics were finally woven together and shot out like a flash of light.
Piing——.
A sound so thin it felt futile compared to the precursor.
Emul, who slowly lowered his outstretched hand, turned his head and calmly stared at the camera inside the shop.
"...Did you just scam me?"
"Depends on how you look at it."
Kureureureung——!
"Yikes, you scared me. What's with the thunder in midwinter... Phew. You were a more interesting human than you looked. Fine. Being deceived is a sin, and I made a promise, so. Tell me what you want."
As Emul smiled faintly, words burst out from the camera.
"Wait. Things like the Red Heaven Jade from last time are obviously off-limits! And this shop too. Within reason."
"You're picky. Then prepare something yourself."
"...Huh?"
"And deduct the cost of the broken doorknob."
Adding one last word, Emul turned around without hesitation.
"———!"
A broken shout came from the low-quality microphone that couldn't distinguish gender, but he hurried his steps without even looking back.
He had come to give a clear warning to the Fence who had sold him out.
Since he had managed to extort some stolen goods unintentionally, he couldn't call it a losing business.
If that were all, there would be no reason for Emul to return in such a hurry.
Currently, the mystery he had crafted was still vividly repeating in his eyes.
'It doesn't make sense. It shouldn't, but....'
Simultaneous casting of magic, which was impossible under the game system.
Techniques that had no connection whatsoever had unexpectedly fused to open up a new horizon.
A feat that seemed like infinitely carving up techniques from other jobs and melting them into the category of magic.
Emul vaguely realized what the source of this incomprehensible recreation, which overturned common sense, was.
'I have to pull out that faint possibility somehow.'
He muttered with only his lips so the sound wouldn't leak, and walked as if running toward the undeveloped district.
Passersby looked at him as if he were a madman, but he didn't even notice.
The footsteps he had taken indifferently were soon heading toward a place that was more familiar and cozy to him than anywhere else.
Splosh. Without even feeling his pant legs getting wet in a puddle, Emul soon leaned his back against a pile of boxes.
She threw off her AR goggles and scratched her head vigorously.
"Damn it. Mage bastards are all the same in the end."
It must have been that a realization had suddenly struck.
She had seen mages walking down the street muttering incantations, but that was the worst experience.
Because the magic they couldn't control would deploy nearby and mess up the street.
Kkoreuk-.
She hadn't been able to eat because a customer had come during mealtime. She glared at the light cluster rising from the side while rubbing her stomach.
The device she had set to silent was sending notifications like crazy.
"What's with all the fuss?"
Checking it, the private network was heating up noisily.
A place where topics that couldn't be shared on the open internet were frequently discussed.
Unable to resist her curiosity about what kind of dopamine it would bring today, she tapped the screen.
[ What just happened in the Dead Zone. If you don't watch this video, you're missing out on life as much as not buying Kerbel stock. ]
The title alone caught her eye. The Dead Zone was where the shop she inherited lived and breathed.
After activating the vaccine she used by paying five million chips every month, she played the video.
[ WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! ]
One piece of malware was caught immediately.
"Damn it! These trashy hackers. I should just chew them up...."
She was about to press the back button, but as if possessed by something, she pressed the play button again.
[ Aaaaaah! I'm flying, look at me! Uhihihi, it feels so good, so good! Uhihihihiha! ]
A scavenger biker flying as if swimming through the sky. It seemed to be recorded on the dashcam attached to the vehicle.
"That's a Belisco hoverboard, isn't it? Where did they steal this expensive thing, they've got guts."
Intrigued, she lay face down on her bed and watched the video.
The scavenger, perhaps bored from flying slowly, circled around a building and showed off some acrobatic flying.
The skyscraper, which had cracks here and there, didn't seem to have any residents, typical of the Dead Zone, and lacked vitality.
Soon, the moment the building was zoomed in on, a very fine strand appeared on the screen.
She stopped her two legs that had been shaking excitedly.
"What the. Is there a hair stuck on it... Huh. It disappeared?"
The scavenger in the video, also curious about that strand, approached the building.
[ Wow, fuck. What kind of crazy bastard fired a military-grade laser here? ]
A thin hole that had pierced the building. The surroundings were red-hot, as if melted by ultra-high heat.
[ The precision is insane. It's like they used a ruler to aim it—— ——Kwajajajajajajang! ]
The Fence's turquoise eyes widened as if they would tear.
All the glass that was left on the building shattered, and the upper part began to tilt.
[ ———faaaack!!! ——don't want to die!! ]
Perhaps the recording microphone had broken due to the shockwave a moment ago, only a voice mixed with noise could be heard.
The scavenger tried to escape by stepping on the hoverboard's accelerator, but perhaps panicked, flew in the wrong direction.
"No, what is this guy doing! If the building is falling that way, you have to run vertically...... Ugh."
With a crunching sound, the video went black.
She calmed her pounding heart.
Such cruel media was openly uploaded to the private network.
She could just not watch it, but it was similar to the context in which people in the past used to look for horror movies.
"Ugh. Lost my appetite."
She was about to close the device when she suddenly remembered the scene just before the disaster.
"...Uh. Wait."
The Dead Zone and the skyscraper. Looking at the familiar appearance of the building, she accessed the map.
After deducing for a moment while looking at the multi-angle photos taken by ultra-high-precision satellites.
'It's near my shop...?'
The post had been uploaded just 10 minutes ago. It was the time when a mage customer had visited her shop and made a threat disguised as a transaction.
On top of that, the broken doorknob. Even though it had been imbued with spells with various stacked resistances, considering the special nature of the Dead Zone.
A customer who had broken in and twisted it like twisting a child's wrist.
To relieve her anxiety, she stroked her chubby tail.
"No, it couldn't be. No way...... Let's just take a quick look. Just for a second. Since I don't know when that mage will come back. Yeah."
Muttering to herself, she jumped up from the bed and began to rummage through her stolen goods catalog.