Episode 3
Episode 3
"I want to be introduced to someone strong."
Marvin, trying to understand the meaning of the question, recalled the guest's identity.
A superhuman walking around in broad daylight despite carrying deadly poison. That's impossible unless they're a martial artist who has reached the peak.
If they were just a drifter, they would've already met King Yeomra in the afterlife.
Such an extraordinary person is out looking for a strong individual in the Undeveloped Area.
If so... the purpose is simple.
'Bounty hunting.'
But why ask him, a body expert, and not a broker?
'Thinking too deeply about it only gives me a headache.'
The reason he, who had fled the city as if chased out, was able to run a hospital in the Undeveloped Area for a long time was simple.
It was because he didn't jump to conclusions about the thoughts of the unusual guests who rarely visited.
"U-uh, guest-nim. Please wait a moment. I'll check quickly."
Marvin operated the terminal he pulled out from inside his coat. There are plenty of legal targets wanted on the public network.
As soon as he connected, the personal profiles, updated in real-time, filled the screen.
'Who on earth should I recommend....'
What caught Marvin's eye while he was agonizing was the new data that had just been added.
[ Chadric/Impersonating Myeonggyeonghoe/Uses Magic/Mainly spotted in District 27/Dead or alive/Reward and rank TBD ]
"Keuheok-."
Marvin, having choked on his spit, scrubbed the saliva off the terminal.
Unless you're a complete moron, you wouldn't go around impersonating a major criminal organization.
Especially those types called mages; they only make thoroughly rational decisions. That means this isn't a bluff.
Chadric, someone powerful enough to provoke Myeonggyeonghoe.
Marvin asked, gauging the quiet guest's reaction.
"G-guest-nim. How about a mage?"
For a fleeting moment, the guest's lips twisted.
Did he make some kind of mistake?
Just as he was about to desperately smooth things over.
The guest, wearing a faint smile, parted his lips.
"Thanks. I'll reward you when I get back."
"District 27, Chadric... what a menacing-looking guy."
Muttering, Emul flipped the paper over.
Even a rough read told him it was someone's medical record. Using paper with personal information on the back—isn't he a clumsy doctor?
Putting that aside, however.
His heart is beating faster than ever.
He had thought he would only be able to learn techniques for handling swords or guns.
"He said mage...."
Magic actually exists.
If so, there's no need to bother with physical labor.
Not only is the rear safer than the vanguard, but magic can also actively deal with ever-changing situations.
The problem is whether the magic of this world shares the settings from the game.
'Whether I can learn it is one thing, but I'll have to try to know.'
The worry is that once he starts, it will grow endlessly.
Emul, having cleanly cast aside his anxiety, boarded a taxi waiting on the main road.
According to Marvin's explanation, District 27 wasn't a place you could walk to.
He was briefly flustered by the lack of a driver, but then a phrase popped up on the display in front of the seat.
[ Please enter your destination. ]
Right, this was a future city.
As soon as he entered the characters 'District 27', the taxi started moving.
The car, which didn't even make a sound, glided smoothly along the chaotic road.
Even the traffic lights he saw occasionally didn't have lights on, but the vehicles grazed past each other narrowly.
Most vehicles had no one in the driver's seat. Occasionally, he saw someone manually turning the steering wheel.
Except for the excessive tuning or futuristic exteriors, it didn't look much different from the Earth he used to live on.
Even at the time he possessed this body, autopilot was a fairly common technology.
Emul leisurely enjoyed the scenery passing by beyond the broken window.
*
Pshhh, pshhh.
Emul, watching the smoke billowing from the circular chimney, turned his feet.
Considering it was still a time when the sun should be high in the sky, the amount of sunlight was terribly minimal.
'Smog replacing clouds. What a crazy neighborhood.'
Emul shook his head and moved with lighter steps.
Since he had squandered all the chips in his hand on the taxi fare, the actual weight had decreased as well.
'It started moving right away. Was it designed so you have to pay to get off?'
He wondered what would happen if a brutishly strong person forcibly pried the door open.
But since it wasn't really any of Emul's business, he quickly moved his thoughts to the next topic.
Now, all he had left was a small folding knife and painkillers.
He has to find this person named Chadric somehow and get even a small result in his hands.
Whether it's magic or not.
'Before that, I need to secure at least a minimum amount of funds.'
The moment Emul, who had followed a passerby like a shadow, turned around, his hoodie pocket became slightly heavier.
Until yesterday, he had to physically bump into someone to use his technique, but it was gradually becoming more covert.
It was a step up from the original 'Emul's' method.
And it wasn't just his sleight of hand that had improved.
Emul's pitch-black eyes quickly scanned for the next mark.
'That guy... no. The feeling is really bad.'
If it were him from a few days ago, he would've reached out without knowing anything and gotten beaten to a pulp.
Just from trying it a few times, his eye for judging targets had improved.
It might be a delusion, but he felt a strong, inexplicable conviction.
Emul trusted that intuition.
He only has himself to trust.
'That guy looks like he's loaded.'
After finishing a few more jobs like that, Emul went around to shops to gather information.
"Do you know a guy named Chadric?"
"Chadric? No. I don't really know. More than that, want to hear about this? It's the latest rifle from Kerbel Co., though...."
"I see. Thanks."
Emul, cutting off the owner, left the gun shop. He was interested in guns, but not right now.
'Are strength and fame not proportional? If I knew this, I would've asked for the exact address.'
A slightly exhausted Emul went looking for the next shop.
A bar with a fairly decent-looking sign. The interior was close to a pub with a table bar, nothing special.
As Emul sat down, the bartender asked for his order with his eyes.
"Vodka, shot."
He had never touched alcohol, so he made up a vague excuse and observed his surroundings.
Maybe because it was broad daylight, there weren't many customers. A total of three, including Emul who had just entered.
Tak.
Just as the small glass was placed in front of him, Emul asked.
"Do you know a guy named Chadric? I heard he's a mage."
The bartender, having put down the glass, turned his gaze away without a word.
Instead, the old man who was tossing dice at a round table behind Emul spoke up.
"First time I've seen your face. Chadric? Don't know a name like that."
The corners of his mouth were smiling, but his eyes were not.
Emul, who was staring blankly at the glass again, placed chips on the bar table and left the shop.
'Something's up.'
His survival instinct, honed by pickpocketing, was telling him so.
The gaze he had felt since entering the bar was not his imagination.
And the owner of that gaze definitely didn't feel friendly.
Using the map he had drawn in his head while visiting the shops, he passed through the alleys.
He was moving forward without hesitation when he soon faced a dead end.
"I was wondering what kind of brat was looking for me. It was just an empty shell, huh?"
At the slurred voice, Emul turned around.
The other customer who had been in the bar, excluding the old man and himself. It was the man who had been watching Emul the whole time.
He was wearing a thick leather jacket and had a cigar in his mouth.
"Empty shell?"
"Yeah. An empty shell with no ability. What are you trusting to go around poking your nose into things when you have nothing?"
"There seems to be some misunderstanding. I just...."
Tuk.
The cigarette the man flicked hit the hem of Emul's hoodie and fell.
"Who sent you?"
"Sent? I said it was a misunderstanding. I just have business with a person named Chadric."
"Ha. What kind of business?"
"Why should I tell you that?"
He let out a deep sigh and pulled a cigar from his jacket's front pocket.
"Sss-ha... I am Chadric. Chadric of Myeonggyeonghoe. The one you've been looking for so much."
Emul recalled the photo on the printed paper.
'He looks a bit different... but the vibe is similar.'
"I was recommended you by Marvin."
"Marvin?"
"An old man who works as a doctor... a body expert in the Undeveloped Area. Don't you know him?"
"I see. So that's how it is."
Having finished speaking, Chadric wore a mocking smile.
Swish-!
Emul, who lightly dodged with his palm, let out his annoyance.
"What is this for, all of a sudden?"
"You psycho bastard. Telling lies that won't even work. What kind of body expert gives out requests?"
"It's not a request, it's a recommendation... geez."
This time, a roundhouse kick. Emul, who easily dodged even this, furrowed his brows.
"...Are all mages like you?"
"No way. There aren't many mages who use their bodies like me, you!"
Emul, who slipped past the off-beat kick, stepped back.
He had come to inspect magic, but he had gotten tangled up with the wrong person, and badly at that.
'...Next time, I'll have to ask for someone without mental issues.'
He lowered his stance and rotated his shoulders.
He had no intention of apologizing, and even if he did, it didn't seem like the guy would let him go.
"Are you just going to keep running away like a coward!"
Chadric, engulfed in rage, rushed in. His momentum was no joke.
If a mage chose to engage in close-quarters combat, wouldn't there be a reason for it?
Ppaak!
Emul shook his stinging fist and looked down at Chadric, who was hunched over.
"Keueuk......."
Since it landed properly on his solar plexus, he must be seeing stars.
When hesitation took hold in his dejected heart.
"Keue. Fuuuck. Why did the force field... this bastard...!"
Chadric, his face turning red, pulled something small out of his pocket.
Emul reflexively stepped back and pulled out his folding knife.
His feet, which had been about to leave in a hurry thinking it was a firearm, came to a dead stop.
"A terminal...?"
A device that looked similar to the model Marvin used.
Why, suddenly, that?
The moment Emul had that question.
Piiing——!
Along with a high-frequency sound that felt like it was tearing his ears apart, a stinging burning sensation struck him.
"Keup......!"
Emul gritted his teeth hard.
The pain was so intense it felt like his mind was flying away, and he even dropped the knife he was holding. Every time he breathed, a pain like his lungs were being torn apart rushed in.
Before he could even have the question, his legs moved first. He leaned his back against a cover and looked at his wound.
Blood was flowing endlessly from a hole that had clearly pierced through from his shoulder to his shoulder blade.
It wasn't a gun. Clearly, Chadric had no weapons in his hands other than the terminal.
'Magic....'
He already knew the fact that he was a mage, so why hadn't he run away?
Arrogance. Oversight. Conceit. It wasn't a choice born from those kinds of emotions.
It was as if he had drifted into the alley of District 27 just for this moment.
A sensation he couldn't refuse, and didn't want to refuse, held him.
Piiing——!
The box he was leaning on exploded. There was no time to focus on the warm liquid flowing down his cheek.
The moment Emul, who was timing it, exposed his body.
"Bang."
Piiing——!
Emul, whose legs momentarily lost strength, couldn't overcome the inertia and crashed into the wall.
"Keueuk......."
He, who had fallen among the trash bags, hurriedly turned his body.
Chadric approached with a fishy smile. The terminal he had taken out was, at some point, strapped to his wrist like a watch.
"Keuhe. Does it hurt? Of course it should hurt. You loser bastard."
Kwaak, Chadric's shoe pressed down on his thigh. The blood that burst out gurgled and soaked Emul's leg.
A terrible agony, which couldn't be expressed with the word 'hurt', surged through him.
Even so, Emul couldn't utter a single word.
"What would it be like if it hit your head? Tell me. What do you think it would be like? You'd die. Die. You'd croak. A hole, pop."
The blue energy gathered in Chadric's grasp, who was running his mouth.
Emul's every sense was fixated on his fingertips as if possessed.
Chadric, looking at such an Emul, mocked him.
"Did you forget how to talk because it hurts? An empty shell, and now a mute too...... you boring bastard."
Chadric aimed precisely at Emul's glabella. The energy that bloomed from his whole body gathered into the terminal on his wrist.
Magic, which tears apart the soft human body so easily, was about to manifest.
"Just di——"
That short time when the death sentence was about to be passed.
Emul, without realizing it, reached out his hand just like Chadric.
The trajectory of his arm, the contraction of his muscles, the point where the intangible force condenses.
All that information remained as an afterimage on Emul's retina, creating a clear path.
Dukung, dukung.
A cool chill rising from deep within flowed down his arm.
Widening field of vision. Expanding senses. A new world unfolding.
Emul's sixth sense, which had just begun to stir, started to accept strange things he hadn't been able to feel before.
And soon, having understood everything, he finally wore a faint smile.
Ppaang——!
The compressed Air Bullets canceled each other out, sending up thick dust.
In the heavy rain of trash piles scattered by the strong wind.
"——Uh, what the fuck. What did you do. What did you do!"
Emul didn't even pay attention to Chadric's vulgar shouting.
He just stuck out his finger and repeated the sequence.
Pulling up the magic power, and firing it.
Piiing——!
"Kuaaaaaaagh!"
Chadric, clutching his leg, finally fell backward and writhed.
Emul, who stood up limping, aimed his finger gun again.
"Keuk. Keueuk. S-save me. Please save me...... Mage-nim. Mercy......."
Chadric, begging for his life, crawled on the ground. The trail of blood was imprinted on the concrete like a footprint.
It was a pathetic sight that might have stirred sympathy, but Emul didn't even give it a glance.
If he hadn't been able to steal the ability, it would have been him crawling in such a disgraceful manner.
His indifferent gaze turned behind Chadric.
Immediately after gaining enlightenment about magic, the source of the unpleasantness that had dominated his mind.
He realized its true nature.
"The usage is wrong. Shooting it straight isn't the only way to use magic."
Piiing——!
Before Chadric could even react, a bullet that flew from his blind spot struck the back of his neck.
"Keuhak......!"