novelraw Chapter 13 : Chapter 13
Chapter 13 : Chapter 13
Chapter 13. Alex (1)
The cause of this fight, Riman's final prey for the day.
Alex Boyman.
The man was on the 5th floor.
In truth, the man's name wasn't important to Riman.
The only thing that mattered was the 80 million Credit bounty on his head.
Of course, even if he caught the man, Riman would only receive 5%, which was 4 million, due to his contract.
Still, money was important.
The pardon and freedom he would gain through these hunts were also important.
But the most important thing right now was…
“I'm dead tired.”
Riman let out a ragged breath.
Fatigue was accumulating quite significantly, and quickly.
It was only natural, since he had smashed his way up from the 1st to the 4th floor without a break.
‘It’s a good thing the number of members decreased with each floor I went up.’
Of course, Riman wouldn't run out of mana even if he spammed magic.
But his stamina was a different story.
Because using magic consumed stamina as well.
One could think of it as a machine gun with infinite ammunition.
No matter how much you fired that machine gun, the bullets would not run out.
But the recoil, heat, and noise would cause fatigue to build up in the shooter's body and consume their stamina.
In short, if mana was a direct resource for using magic, stamina was an indirect one.
Meaning, for long-term and stable combat, it was necessary to build up stamina.
On top of that, his current body was in an even worse state since it had not been long since his release from prison.
In any case, there was no way to build up stamina immediately in the current situation.
In times like these, he had to use a temporary remedy.
Riman took a vial out from his pocket.
A bottle containing a red liquid.
It was a portion of the stamina recovery potion that Ji Byeong-seo had given him.
Gulp-
The potion began to take effect as soon as it went down his esophagus.
As expected of a potion created by the future King of Medicine.
The effect was remarkably fast and certain.
His stamina recovered in just a few seconds.
After pulling himself together like this.
Riman stared quietly at the stairs leading to the 5th floor.
Alex was up there.
But he couldn't rashly climb those stairs.
Because the moment he went up without a thought and opened the 5th-floor door—
‘This hunt will fail.’
In fact, it would be fortunate if it ended with just a failed hunt.
He could actually die if he was not careful.
Alex Boyman.
In the game, he was a boss notorious for being quite ‘unreasonable’.
The difficulty of facing this man wasn't hard, it was unreasonable.
Because if you went to catch him without any information, you would die instantly upon encounter.
Alex Boyman's unique pattern.
His special move was a wide-area, instant-kill attack that he fired off the moment you faced him.
This pattern was impossible to dodge.
Because the instant-kill attack would fly at you the moment you opened the 5th-floor door and entered the boss fight.
Alex Boyman's ability was ‘Void Emission’.
The activation organ for the ability was his vocal cords.
Simply put, it was the ability to fire a high-powered shockwave from his mouth.
Its range was fundamentally quite wide, and its destructive power was immense.
It had enough power to crumble a thick concrete wall like a sandcastle.
With this ability, Alex would sometimes perform executions with a kiss.
The so-called kiss of death.
It was to kill the opponent by kissing them and then releasing a shockwave.
It was a gruesome sight and a cumbersome method that forced the executioner to be covered in the victim's blood, but Alex enjoyed it for what it was.
In any case, upon entering the 5th floor, Alex's boss room, a shockwave would immediately fly at you.
At maximum output, no less.
Since it was a wide-area attack and he was inside a building, evasion was impossible.
Even Riman's [Protection] magic couldn't defend against it.
Because the shockwave itself was a wave of mana, the [Protection] magic itself would disintegrate upon impact.
Therefore, for gamers to catch this guy, they had no choice but to deck themselves out with all sorts of equipment and potions.
Things like a massive shield that was almost like an iron wall and defense-increasing potions.
But Riman had neither of those.
He obviously didn't have a shield, and the only potion he had was for stamina recovery.
But Riman had a strategy.
A strategy that couldn't be executed with normal play, one that was only possible with Riman's body.
Riman closed his eyes.
And he activated a spell.
[Detection]
But its aspect was different from the [Detection] he had used just before.
He narrowed the range to increase precision and focused all his senses to their limits.
Because the area he needed to detect this time was the 5th floor, beyond the ceiling.
Of course, the waves of [Detection] could not pass through the ceiling.
But he could somehow pick up the sound waves, the vibrations, generated from beyond the ceiling.
Alex was drinking right now.
When you drink, you get excited, and your voice naturally gets louder.
Riman crossed the 4th floor with [Detection] activated, searching for Alex's voice.
And soon, Riman stopped.
‘Here.’
Directly above his head, beyond the ceiling, was Alex.
They were in the same location on the map, but on different floors.
Riman put his hand into the inner pocket of his coat and thought.
‘If I had gone up to the 5th floor and opened the door, I would have been hit by Alex's shockwave.’
If so, the most logical way to attack such an enemy was…
‘To attack without opening the 5th-floor door.’
In the game, this was impossible due to the system.
You had to open the door for the boss fight to begin.
But this place was reality, after all.
Systemic constraints did not exist.
Ssk-
What Riman took out from his inner pocket was a blue potion.
A mana recovery potion from Ji Byeong-seo.
Originally, it was a potion that Riman didn't need.
Since Riman's body did not experience mana depletion.
So Riman decided to use it for a different purpose.
Not for mana recovery, but…
‘For a mana boost.’
Gulp.
Riman swallowed 60ml of the blue potion in one gulp.
Three times the recommended single dosage.
The medicinal effect began to exert itself fearsomely.
Shwaaaa……!
An enormous amount of mana began to be sucked into his body.
Of course, this mana would flow out like an ebbing tide in a few seconds.
But what if, before this large amount of mana escaped, he used it all up to cast a spell?
‘It becomes possible to cast a high-output spell momentarily……!’
An output level that was impossible to achieve with his current body's condition.
‘The tip of a rusted needle, an overturned meteor.’
The magic created by the superposition of these images was [Electric Bullet].
A mass of mana, converted into electricity, gathered at his shoulder.
Bzzzzzz……!
A density and amount of energy he had never felt before.
A mass of extremely high-energy electricity was generated within his body.
Riman stretched his arm above his head and aimed his fingertips at the ceiling.
The target was set.
The aim was complete.
All that remained was to fire.
‘Say goodbye to your ass, Alex.’
[Electric Bullet]
The magic was cast.
Thwak!
An electric sphere was fired from Riman's fingertips.
Towards the ceiling, no, more accurately, towards the target that would be beyond that ceiling.
* * *
Upstairs.
Alex's expression grew more and more sour as he stared at his empty glass.
His subordinates grew increasingly anxious.
They knew all too well what kind of disaster would unfold if Alex started to get angry.
Alex picked up the empty glass and muttered.
“Did the bastard who went to get the booze break his ankle….”
His neck was severed, not his ankle, but there was no way for Alex to know that.
Then, one of his subordinates shot up and said.
“I'll go get it!”
But there was no need to get up.
He was scheduled to fall to the floor below even if he stayed put.
KWAAANG!!
The floor shattered with a deafening roar.
A jet-black lightning bolt shot up from the floor below and fried them.
Including Alex, of course.
The [Electric Bullet] that Riman had fired from below had engulfed them.
“Kkeoheoeok!”
“Keok…!”
It had enough power to pierce and shatter even the concrete floor in a single blow.
Originally, the average power of [Electric Bullet] was not this high.
In the first place, it was a magic with excellent stopping power against people, but very low piercing or physical destructive power.
However, with the addition of a momentary mana boost through doping, such a feat became possible.
Because with any magic, the output would rise as much as you poured mana into it.
KWAGAGAGA!
Fragments of the shattered ceiling rained down, and Alex and his subordinates fell to the floor below with them.
The subordinates were already corpses.
But Alex was not.
He had taken far more electricity than his subordinates, but he was alive.
He wasn't an ordinary person either.
“You… son of a bitch….”
But his body was in no condition to speak.
His mind was dazed due to muscle stiffness and burns from the electric shock.
Because of that, even if he tried to fire a shockwave from his mouth, his body wouldn't listen properly.
Above all, the thick dust created by the collapsing ceiling.
Because of it, he couldn't get a grasp on which bastard had done what.
‘Which bastard is it….’
The moment he thought that.
He saw a human figure moving beyond the thick dust.
If it was moving in this situation…….
‘It’s that bastard…!’
Alex gathered all his strength and focused mana into his vocal cords.
His intention was to wipe him out completely by unleashing a maximum-output shockwave.
But Riman's magic was faster.
[Incision]
Slice!
The blade of wind accurately sliced Alex's throat.
Alex's eyes wavered, and blood splattered.
But…
‘It’s shallow.’
[Incision] failed to completely sever his neck.
It was because just before the magic reached him, Alex had quickly pulled his neck back.
He had landed a fatal wound, but had not taken his life.
Riman looked at the inside of Alex's throat, which was cut open and gaping from [Incision].
The organ inside the skin of his neck was slightly exposed.
Even to someone who hadn't studied anatomy, the appearance of the organ was strange.
That was because its material was metal.
Inside Alex's neck, an artificial vocal cord made of biomechanical metal was installed.
An organ that had been newly transplanted after excising the original vocal cords.
This artificial vocal cord was the very organ that enabled his vaunted ‘Void Emission’.
Those who had undergone such modifications to their bodies were collectively called ‘Enhanced Humans’.
After magicians and superhumans, another type of mana user, the Enhanced Humans.
They enhanced their bodies by implanting machines or undergoing biological procedures such as genetic manipulation.
Alex, who had received an artificial vocal cord transplant, was a case of the former.
In any case, this vocal cord, which he had spent a large sum of money to transplant over a decade ago, was now broken.
‘Damn it…!’
Alex thought as he clutched his bleeding throat.
‘But the vocal cords aren’t completely broken…!’
The vocal cords were on the verge of breaking.
Therefore, he could still use Void Emission just one more time.
Of course, they would be completely ruined afterwards.
But for now, there was no other method left.
Alex quickly racked his brain.
And he soon decided.
Where he should use this precious last shot.
Kiiiiing-
The man's vocal cords began to vibrate.
Riman, guessing that the man was about to let out his final struggle, immediately cast his next spell.
[Electric Bullet]
Zap!
A black electric sphere was shot towards Alex.
And at almost the same time, the final void was emitted from Alex's mouth.
BOOOOOM!!
A deafening roar erupted, shaking the entire floor.
A moment later, when the dust settled, Alex was nowhere to be seen.
And for some reason, there wasn't a single scratch on Riman's body.
Instead, a window that had been fine before was shattered.
“…Ha, look at this bastard.”
Riman instantly noticed where Alex had gone.
The man had escaped through the window.
By means of the void he had just fired.
‘That guy, he shot the void at the floor.’
If you shoot a void with appropriately controlled output at the floor, the floor doesn't break; instead, Alex is launched by the recoil.
He had used that to break the window and escape outside.
“You’re trying hard, you bastard.”
Naturally, Riman had no intention of letting his prey go.
Riman climbed onto the windowsill.
And—
Whoosh!
He jumped straight down from the window.