Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 051
Chapter Title: Ancient Ice Dragon
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Suddenly, intense currents surged along the chains, racing into every corner of the warehouse as if they'd been waiting for this moment.
"Grraaah...!!"
"Gaaah!"
The sensors glitched from the shock, briefly revealing the assassins who had been hiding in the darkness.
Kyle let out a small sigh of admiration at the sight.
'Oh, optical camouflage.'
Meanwhile, their leader—charred black but barely escaped from the Bolt Pulse's range—shouted.
"Don't let him get away!!"
"Yes, sir!!!"
The chains tightened even more around their limbs.
Watching this, Kyle thought to himself.
'They look heavily implanted, but they've got decent countermeasures against lightning magic.'
There was no helping it now.
'Better to use it than let it go to waste.'
Kyle boldly invested his skill points.
Right then, an assassin materialized behind him, swinging a plasma cutter at Kyle.
"?!"
The assassin’s eyes widened in shock as Kyle vanished from in front of him.
"What?!"
The chains clattered emptily to the ground, having lost their target.
"Where the hell...!"
"Right here."
"...!!"
Crunch!
In that instant, the assassin's jaw dropped as a hand pierced through the implant in his chest.
"Guh, hack... H-how...!"
These chains were magic artifacts that bound harder the stronger the victim's physical strength—like on a bearwolf.
And the magic circle on the floor? That was a trap made with rare darkness-attribute artifacts.
It was a vicious debuff that gave darkness itself mass, crushing the victim harder the more they struggled.
'B-but he escaped it this easily...?!'
No matter that he was a bearwolf—this didn't make sense...
Kaboom-!!
But Kyle slammed him into the ground, and the assassin's consciousness cut off there.
"......"
"......"
A heavy silence followed, different from before.
Kyle activated [Nebula's Super Sense] to detect the still-invisible presences around him.
Suddenly, he felt them closing in from all sides.
"Figures."
He let out a hollow chuckle at the obvious trap.
"No wonder the alarms were too quiet."
"Attack!!"
The assassins shot forward at unbelievable speeds.
Kyle was slightly surprised—it surpassed the military implants he'd seen on Noble Gibson before—but that was it.
Their blades whiffed past him by a hair's breadth with every strike, leaving the assassins bulging their eyes in disbelief.
'What the hell...!'
Then the massive shockwave from [Internal Force Fist Punch] engulfed them.
Kaboom-!!
"Damn it!"
"Get it together!!"
The masked leader trembled at the unbelievable sight.
'Sh-shit, it's the bearwolf after all...!'
This was in pitch darkness, with optical camouflage to boot.
Reacting to blows he couldn't even see was ridiculous enough.
But counterattacking too?
The overwhelming gap in 'skill' made him grit his teeth.
'It's those beastly senses!'
It wasn't far off, actually.
'What do we do?'
The gray-haired leader stared down at his shattered magic sword.
'What do we do?'
From the moment the sword infused with the wraith king's grudge failed, their plan had gone off the rails.
They should've had a Plan B, normally.
'Plan B my ass...!'
What Plan B works against a bearwolf?
If you couldn't kill it even after slashing its soul, it was over.
Right now, the wolf was just toying with them. The moment he got serious...
With their forces, they couldn't kill the monster—or escape it.
Then he recalled the contract with the Marshall Family.
-In the unlikely event of mission failure...
"Damn it...! No choice now...!"
His body shook as he shouted.
"All agents! Initiate emergency protocol...!"
"!?"
Kyle's eyebrow twitched at the words.
'Emergency protocol?'
The startled masked assassins quickly fell back.
A HUD message popped up in front of their cybernetic eyes.
Nebula's Super Sense stabbed into his mind like a needle. Instinctively, Kyle triggered Shadow Backdoor.
At the same time, the assassins collapsed in unison, as if their power had been cut.
The gray-haired one was about to format his own brain when—
"Where do you think you're slinking off to?"
"?!"
'Wha—how...!'
Kyle's hand clamped his nape like a hunting dog's claws and ripped.
"N-no!!"
Crunch! The neural data chip popped out.
Kyle shoved his fingers into the exposed gap without hesitation.
Blue lightning crackled up.
No matter their countermeasures, a high-voltage surge from inside was unavoidable.
Kyle whispered in his ear.
"We'll talk later."
"...!!"
The gray-haired man's eyes nearly bulged out.
Krzzzt! Sparks flew, and his consciousness faded.
*
The gray-haired man came to amid a flood of error messages before his eyes.
"Your name's Nikola Roze, huh."
Faint voices began filtering in.
"From the assassin guild 'Viper,' right?"
"Assassin guild?"
"They didn't want to use an inside knife, so they outsourced. Viper's security protocols are solid."
"But looking at this mess, even they have limits. Meat, you done restoring?"
"One sec... Yeah, almost finished."
A masked figure approached the gray-haired Nikola and slapped his face a couple times.
"Hey, hey. Open your eyes."
This was an intel agency's stealth chopper.
Once the hub terminal in District 12 was confirmed as a trap, Kyle and the response team opted for a quick withdrawal.
There was nothing more to gain from the factory.
But they weren't empty-handed.
Kyle had dragged back the assassins' leader alive.
"You actually managed to bring him back intact."
Lena clicked her tongue softly, looking down at the man with a cable plugged into his neck, being hacked in real-time.
The Viper assassin guild prioritized client security above all.
Their protocols were ironclad: data wiped on knockout, data wiped on death.
Yet Kyle had captured their leader with data fully intact.
'They were even gonna format their own brains if cornered.'
Shorting the system from the inside to neuter all protocols.
Unbelievable judgment.
'The more I see, the more he's a monster.'
Her past self, messing with a guy like this? Guts the size of her head.
"Alright. Recovery's done, at least."
The mask slapped Nikola's face again.
"Hey, your name."
"...N-Nikola. Nikola Roze."
"This okay?"
"At least he's answering."
"Tch."
The mask grunted and pressed on.
"How'd you know we were targeting the District 12 factory?"
"......"
"Who's your employer?"
"......"
He scowled and glanced at Meat.
"Hey, he's not answering now!"
Meat added defensively.
"N-no, I broke the security, but..."
He tapped furiously at his keyboard, then scratched his head.
"It's like there's an unconscious protect lock. Weird."
"Not a suggestion implant?"
"Huh?"
Lena sighed softly.
"Heard about it once. Viper assassins have mental suggestions on top of electronic protects—to counter truth serums and such."
Not every brain part was mechanical, even with cyberbrains.
The mask muttered in disbelief.
"Damn, those guys are ruthless..."
"Maybe we should learn a thing or two."
"So how do we break the suggestion?"
Kyle asked, and Lena pondered.
"Well... Probably overlay a stronger one, or hit 'em with conscious shock strong enough to affect the subconscious."
"More specific?"
"Severe trauma, extreme panic, terror—something like that?"
"Panic, terror."
Kyle nodded and turned to them.
"Mind turning around for a bit, all three of you?"
"...Huh?"
Meat's dumbstruck question got him yanked back by the mask grabbing his collar.
"Turn if he says turn, asshole!"
"Yeah, Mask's right."
Lena, already turned, added.
"Nothing good to see anyway."
Chilled by the advice, Meat plugged his ears and turned fully.
"We're all turned. Do what you gotta do."
"Got it."
Kyle nodded, gripped Nikola's drooling jaw—eyes still open—and pried it.
"Nikola."
"......"
"How'd you know we were targeting the District 12 factory?"
"Answer."
"A-ahh..."
"Who hired you."
Nikola shuddered violently as Kyle repeated.
"Nikola."
"Answer."
"!!"
Nikola's mouth opened in under ten seconds.
"D-done?"
The three peeked back warily. Kyle nodded.
'F-for real?'
Meat stared at Kyle in disbelief.
"What the hell did you even do...?"
"Wanna know?"
The whole team shook their heads at Kyle's question.
"Nope."
Kyle chuckled and relayed what he'd heard.
"The leak came from the intel agency's forensics team."
"...!!"
"And the employer..."
He let go of the soulless Nikola.
"...was someone named Edinger."
"Edinger?"
"Ring a bell?"
Lena nodded.
"Saw it in the support team's briefing materials."
Context pointed to one person.
The narrowed eyes turned sharp.
"...Probably Marshall Congressman's chief of staff."
The name was.
"...Max Edinger."
*
Meanwhile, in the lower village of the Mage Tower.
In the northern district, home only to Mage Tower humans, stood an old manor.
It was the main house of the Reberk Family—one of the five founding families.
Deep inside, a vault held family heirlooms meticulously maintained for centuries.
A forbidden place few direct descendants could enter.
Usually silent, now unrest lit the darkness.
Leading boldly was Reberk family head, Walter Reberk.
Chasing him was his heir, son Otto Reberk.
Otto grabbed Walter's hem frantically, stopping his father.
"Father! Please calm down!"
"......"
"You'd hand over centuries-old heirlooms to summoners over one heretic mage?!"
"Shut your mouth!"
Bang! Walter glared at his son after roughly disabling the security barrier.
"Don't you get it? He carries Reberk blood. Son. The blood of mighty Reberk!"
"But Father, even so—this is too much!"
Otto pointed to the golden staff highest in the vault among treasures.
"That's... the dragon relic from our first patriarch! Reberk's living history—how can you use it as mere summoning bait...!"
"So what if it's the first's relic?!"
"!!"
Walter bellowed, eyes bloodshot.
"Everything from the first was for Reberk's revival! What's the difference from what I'm doing? He'd understand!"
"Father!"
Walter ascended the stairs unheeding, standing before the altar's dragon staff.
Once a gift from the ancient ice dragon, legend said, as proof of friendship with the first Reberk. A magic artifact.
He stroked it silently, then spoke.
"Son. Reberk's era is at hand."
"...!"
"But Father Girion's sudden death, then Anton missing—doubts grow in the Tower. Understand?"
Walter's eyes flashed as he turned.
"We don't have much time!"
"F-Father...!"
"We must eliminate Kyle Clark ASAP to handle the Sage and Fleetwood!"
"But why him so badly...!"
"Still don't see?"
His brows twisted.
"He's the Sage's grandson!"
"What?!"
Otto gaped. Walter swept his face.
"Wasn't sure at first... Confirmed after Anton's death. No back-alley mongrel beats Tower mages that well!"
His lips quivered.
"Damn it, that black hair, those eyes... Just like the dead Sage's daughter...!"
"B-but Father, if so..."
"The elders already whisper of mage-tower-worthy talent like the Origin Mage."
Walter gripped tighter unconsciously.
"Imagine if he's confirmed as the Sage's grandson. Think Reberk gets a shot?"
Even without the blood, that talent alone would make him next Tower Lord candidate.
Mages admiring it would flock to Kyle Clark.
Walter gnashed his teeth.
'Under that bastard, not this Reberk...!'
Thus, Kyle Clark had to go—even if it meant overreaching.
"As long as he lives, we never fully claim this Tower."
"...Does the Sage know?"
"Doesn't seem so. That's our chance."
He lifted the dragon staff with both hands.
"With this relic, even those 'Akiyo's Torch' scum could summon an ancient dragon."
That would end it.
Dragons, with extreme magic resistance, were mage-killers like the Luthers.
Piercing their hide required Tower mages weaving high-order mass spells.
"No way a lone Mafia Butcher beats a dragon."
"But Father."
Otto swallowed hard.
"Summoning a dragon in central 8th District—the Sage might notice. Dragon catalysts aren't common in Dun City."
"...A risk worth taking."
Walter Reberk's eyes gleamed darkly.
"If it kills the Butcher for sure."
And all this.
"For the great Reberk revival."