novelraw Chapter 131 : Chapter 131
Chapter 131 : Chapter 131
Chapter 131. Stirring (1)
SIZZLE, SIZZLE.......
The researchers in the shelter were all killed by Riman's hand.
Fried black by the black lightning.
A massacre without any hesitation.
However, not all the researchers were gathered in this shelter.
Because some had chosen the route of the laboratory's secret underground passage.
“Is everyone in?”
“We’re in. Go.”
VROOOM-
A car departed from the underground.
The car soon entered the passage entrance disguised as a warehouse door.
A smuggling passage made a long time ago when this laboratory building was used for a different purpose.
Since it was a facility created through remodeling and expansion after the building's completion, it was a passage that did not even exist in the blueprints.
Naturally, only a few people in the laboratory knew about it.
And only the five people riding in this car that just departed were people who knew the secret of this passage.
“We will return directly to the headquarters now and report to the Chairman. And then.......”
“W, wait a minute! What on earth is that......?!”
“What? Why?”
SCREECH!
The driver stepped on the brake urgently.
The superior riding in the back got angry abruptly.
“What is it?!”
“No, well, there is a kid in front.......”
“A kid?”
“O, or not......?”
This was the middle point of a long tunnel.
For a child to be there was something that made no sense.
“You bastard, suddenly seeing things... Wait.”
“Th, that......!”
There was no child.
But something was indeed flashing on the other side of this dark road.
It was an impossible occurrence.
Because no lights were installed in this tunnel, in this secret passage.
The only things flashing should have been the car's headlights.
Then what on earth were those two flashing gleams?
“...Did this passage get discovered too?!”
“No way! This is a place even the Director doesn't know!”
“Then what on earth is that... It is coming closer!”
WHOOSH-
It swam through the air and approached the car rapidly.
A gigantic black snake.
However, unlike a general snake, it was floating in the void and also had a horn sprouting from its head.
It was Saya.
Having received Riman's instructions in advance, he was guarding the entrance of this secret passage.
“What do we do about that?!”
“Isn't that a Demonic Beast?!”
“Step on it! Just run it over!! Quickly!!”
VROOOOM!
The car rushed straight toward Saya.
And mana began to gather in Saya's mouth.
That moment when hot mana repeated condensation and filled the oral cavity.
“SHHAAAA!!”
Saya vomited black fire from his mouth.
ROAAAR!!
This fire was spewed by Saya, but the fire itself was created by Riman.
Magic transmission.
Saya received the magic formula from Riman and spewed it out using his own mana as the fuel for that formula.
Black flames fired in a direct line.
The flames engulfed the vehicle with a force that almost pierced through the car window.
CRASH CRUNCH!
“Aaargh!”
“Aaaargh!!”
“Save me......!”
The fire burned the interior of the vehicle cleanly, and the car body heated up bright red.
The melted tires spat out air like a sigh with a PSSSH sound, and the car collapsed as it was.
It was the end.
Everyone died.
With this, the killing of everyone trying to escape this laboratory was completed.
And Riman watched this spectacle to the end through his shared vision with Saya.
“...It's all over.”
In the days of playing
This passage was a route used to perform the infiltration mission for this laboratory.
But a passage is something that if you can enter, you can also exit.
So he had placed Saya in this passage on purpose, and the prediction had hit the mark exactly.
‘Then now.......’
There were two things Riman had to do.
First was to release the children trapped in the confinement room.
And the second was to retrieve the ‘Seed’ that was in the laboratory.
A weapon crafting material evaluated as absolutely top-tier among existing items.
This was the very item that provided the starting point for this laboratory to commit large-scale biological experiments.
For reference.......
-And we will also hand over our research institute’s best result to you, Sir.
...The item the Research Institute Director mentioned was this very seed.
Riman decided to get his hands on this seed first.
A corner of the laboratory, a certain point disguised as a flat wall.
Riman tore off the wall with magic.
CRUNCH!
What was revealed when the thick wall was torn off was a small safe.
What was inside the safe was a small glass cylinder.
Inside that cylinder made of an alloy frame and reinforced glass, a single seed was sealed.
A pitch-black sphere slightly larger than 2cm in diameter.
However, the glistening metallic texture on the surface and the ominously flowing mana informed him that it was not an ordinary object.
Furthermore.......
“...It has already even sprouted.”
The surface of the seed was slightly cracked and a sprout had even grown.
A black sprout growing from a pitch-black seed.
This sprout was the problem.
To bloom this single strand of sprout, this laboratory had killed so many people.
This seed,
In other words, it meant that a tremendous number of test subjects were sacrificed for the single sprout growing here.
Riman let out a shallow sigh and packed the cylinder containing the seed into his coat pocket for now.
With this, the seed retrieval was complete.
Now, only one task remained.
CREAK-
Riman went into the room next door, the confinement room.
That place where dozens of test subjects were still waiting only for death.
Riman pressed the door open button.
HISS-
The glass door confining the children went up.
However, the children could not move hastily.
Because for them, the door opening meant either being dragged out to die, or a new victim being admitted; it was one of these two.
So Riman spoke to them.
About a third option that had never been placed before them.
“Come out, you have to go home.”
* * *
After escaping the children like that.
The 3rd Research Institute burned down and disappeared by Riman's hand just like that.
And accordingly, Riman's prestige spread rapidly.
Because the fact that he defeated that thick security force of the laboratory single-handedly was broadcasted live as it was.
The public immediately became noisy.
Guesses about Riman's ability were rampant, and based on this, they entered into ranking him with other famous strong people.
And those strong people themselves began to pay attention to Riman.
Especially Kim Bong-sik watched Riman quite closely.
Ork Corporation's number one combat power, the strongest Enhanced Human in history, Kim Bong-sik, that is.
“Leman White... Wow, this friend has become much stronger than when I saw him back then?”
Kim Bong-sik smacked his lips without realizing it and muttered.
“...If he fights me right now, I wonder how many minutes this guy could last?”
Of course, not everyone accepted news of Riman only with such excitement.
Because the upper echelons of Parakel Company, having heard the news that the laboratory was completely destroyed, were truly turned upside down.
“Leman White?! What does this bastard do?!”
“T, no matter how much we investigate, he only comes up as a mere Headhunter.”
“Why wasn't a guy of this level caught in our information network until now?!”
“...I apologize.”
“Phew.......”
“Then... what shall we do?”
“Gather information first. Where he is from, what his ability is, what his battle record is; gather every single piece of information related to that bastard!”
“...And after that?”
“It's one of two things. Either eliminate him, or recruit him.”
“Understood.”
Like that, the massive corporation called Parakel also began to move targeting Riman.
The annihilation of Cha Hak-jun's faction.
Pyo Seok-jung's return to the political world.
And the rookie rising anew behind that, Leman White.
The composition and flow of power were gradually changing.
At that time when such heavy ripples were spreading into society.
Riman's prestige was naturally spreading to the people around Riman as well.
“Oh my, I knew my big brother would become like this! Kuhaha!”
Luger of Noksan bragged like this, and
“No, just how high are you going up in such a short moment.......?”
Ji Byeong-seo offered praise mixed with bewilderment, and
“...I ask you to take care of me in the future as well......!”
Bart was anxious that Riman might perhaps cut off the contract with him.
Meanwhile, there was someone who strengthened his resolve once again while watching Riman's exploits.
“...Power.”
Inside a certain alleyway.
Woo Yeong-tae was watching the news of Riman on a static-filled TV screen.
Woo Yeong-tae.
The young man who was kidnapped by the lunatic artist Francis Appel and went to the brink of death before being rescued by Riman.
After that incident, Woo Yeong-tae had left his gang.
Woo Yeong-tae stroked the TV screen with a blank gaze and muttered.
“Power.......”
The image of Riman sweeping away dozens of troops with a single hand gesture was vividly displayed on the screen.
“I also... power... power.......”
Strength gradually entered his hand placed on the screen.
Pressure was applied to the glass screen.
A moment later.
CRASH!
The thick glass screen shattered from his grip strength.
Glass shards crunched and were clenched within his hand.
Blood trickled down from his palm, but Woo Yeong-tae did not care.
Because his eyes were already looking at a distant place.
“Power.”
Muttering only that single word, Woo Yeong-tae rose from his seat.
At his feet, the corpses of dead thugs were tumbling around.
* * *
At that time, a dilapidated building somewhere in Seoul.
A small building whose purpose could not be guessed at all as not a single signboard was attached.
That place was a corpse morgue and dismantling room.
This building was a workspace used jointly by the Intestine Hunters of this district.
It was a place where bodies from the streets were moved to be stored, and work such as organ extraction was performed.
Bodies come in here every day and are divided into several pieces to spread out to the whole world.
And just a short while ago, bodies had come in.
Some rather famous bodies.
“Aren't these guys wanted criminals?”
“Right. And wanted criminals from Mugan at that.”
Chae Hong-gyu, Johnny Paul, and Sven.
All were those who died in the fight with Riman and Knox.
However, Kim Eun-tae was not in that place.
Because Riman had buried Kim Eun-tae's body underground.
“Wow, how on earth did he say he killed them?”
“Well, can't you guess? If you look at the scene where they fought.”
“...True, I thought some bombing raid had swept through.”
At that moment, one person's eyes suddenly sparkled.
“Ah, wait a minute, these guys are wanted criminals. Then perhaps.......”
“I checked it all. It says the bounty payment has been completed. There is no money for us to eat.”
“Tch, what a waste.”
“What is a waste. Would the Headhunter who killed these things be crazy enough not to collect the bounty?”
“Still, you never know. Last year, a body with an unclaimed bounty actually came in too.”
“Back then, the Headhunter's corpse came in together. We only get a chance if both the wanted criminal and the Headhunter die.”
“True.”
“So let's just do our work.”
SLIDE-
They opened the drawers of the refrigerator containing the bodies.
Chae Hong-gyu, Johnny Paul, Sven.
The Intestine Hunters moved Chae Hong-gyu to the operating table first.
“Now, shall we serve this gentleman first.”
They skillfully finished the preparation for organ extraction.
Soon, a sharp scalpel sliced straight through the skin.
Blood bubbled up along the path the knife passed.
The gushing blood soon formed thin streams and flowed down along the surface of the flesh.
TRICKLE.......
The bloody water flowing from Chae Hong-gyu's body pooled on the floor.
And the Intestine Hunters who saw that froze just like that.
“...What.”
“W, what......?!”
In front of an impossible occurrence, they could not move.
Because a corpse's blood could not flow.
The reason blood flows is that the heart beats and pushes the blood.
Therefore, the blood of a corpse whose heart has stopped only pools inside the body.
It cannot flow out of the body openly like this.
So what this phenomenon was saying right now was simple.
Right now, something wrong was happening.