novelraw Chapter 27 : Chapter 27
Chapter 27 : Chapter 27
Chapter 27. Night Raid and the Truth (2)
Thud! Pshh! Thwump!
The bed became a honeycomb, the dining table was shattered, and the TV was turned into scrap metal.
The inside of the hotel room was instantly devastated by the ceaseless barrage of bullets.
However, none of the numerous bullets managed to injure Riman.
[Protection]
It was because he had deployed a defensive barrier and was holed up in a corner of the room.
Ting-ding-ding!
The incoming bullets ricocheted off the barrier, punching countless holes in the walls and ceiling.
In the meantime, Riman quickly organized his thoughts.
‘Who the hell are those guys?’
Who, and why, were they attacking him?
And how did they find out his location here?
‘Did they tail me?’
But no matter how much he thought about it, it didn't seem like he had been tailed.
If he had really been tailed, there was no way his senses would have missed it.
In any case, for now, there were no obvious clues in these areas.
So Riman shifted his line of thinking.
For now, to how he would resolve this situation.
‘Should I just take care of those snipers?’
It was difficult.
He didn't know how many there were, nor how far away they were.
Even if he found their location, if they were out of range, his magic wouldn't reach them.
So, the best thing he could do now.
Was to get out of the snipers' range.
But he couldn't just leave here empty-handed.
Riman quickly grabbed his phone and belongings from the nightstand next to the bed.
Then he shifted his gaze to something in the opposite corner of the room.
What was there was…….
‘My money bag……!’
Nearly half of the money Riman had was in that bag.
He had to take that with him, no matter what.
“Saya!”
Riman controlled Saya to retrieve the money bag.
Swoosh!
Saya quickly crossed the room and grabbed the money bag.
So, Riman was about to leave this room, but…….
‘Wait a minute, there's no way they only deployed snipers.’
If the target escaped into the hallway, sniping from outside would become impossible.
There was no way they wouldn't know this.
‘There must be troops deployed in the hallway as well.’
Riman activated [Detection].
Whoom!
The expanding web of mana began to gather information from the surroundings.
Among them, what Riman focused on was ‘vibrations.’
The footsteps and voices coming from the hallway.
To figure out what was happening outside the door through these, Riman strained his senses.
‘They're coming.’
The sound of several people moving quickly together was detected from outside the door.
‘Four of them.’
The footsteps were low and heavy.
The sound wasn't from ordinary sneakers, but from shoes with thick soles like military boots.
Those making those footsteps were definitely not ordinary hotel guests.
‘I'm sure of it. They're soldiers.’
Just then.
Clang!
Suddenly, the window shattered and something flew into the room.
It wasn't a bullet.
It was a much larger and heavier projectile than a bullet.
Riman's [Detection] instantly recognized what it was.
‘A flashbang……!’
A flashbang in the form of a grenade.
Usually, the standard response was to close one's eyes and cover one's ears.
But Riman, on the contrary, snatched it with his bare hands.
It was a dangerous act.
A flashbang itself was a non-lethal weapon, but it had enough explosive power to blow off a hand if it exploded in one's bare hand.
Nevertheless, Riman grabbed it with his bare hands.
Tzzzzzz-
He could feel the fuse inside the flashbang burning down almost completely.
When the fuse burned out, the flashbang would explode.
Riman hurriedly applied magic to the fuse.
‘A drawn-out silk thread, an oil-soaked brush.’
[Coloration]
Tzzz-
The flame that was burning the fuse instantly subsided.
The combustion of the fuse was temporarily stopped.
If [Ignition] was magic that created fire where there was none, then [Coloration] was magic that controlled existing fire.
Riman used this magic to stop the fuse's combustion and delay the flashbang's explosion.
And at that moment.
Click-clack.
A metallic sound came from outside the door.
It was the sound of a shotgun being loaded.
‘They're here.’
THOOOM!!
With a heavy gunshot, the hinges of the front door were blown off.
They were destroying the door, hinges and all, to open the locked door.
CRASH!
The door, having lost its hinges, fell helplessly with a single kick.
Four soldiers equipped with firearms and body armor used the door as a stepping stone and rushed into the room.
At that moment.
Toss-
Riman threw the flashbang he was holding at their feet.
The fuse of the flashbang that left Riman's hand instantly flared up.
And—
BOOM!!
“Guk!”
“Gahk!”
The soldiers screamed.
Even with body armor, they couldn't block the flash and bang that struck their eyes and ears.
A momentary paralysis of sight and hearing.
Riman didn't miss that opening and jumped into their midst.
And again, magic.
[Discharge]
Crackle!
Black electricity erupted from Riman's body.
The soldiers instantly lost consciousness and collapsed.
Thus, Riman escaped into the hallway.
Saya, with the money bag in its mouth, followed suit.
There were no additional troops in the hallway.
Moreover, by coming out into the hallway, he was completely out of the sniper's range.
Riman took a moment to catch his breath during this brief moment.
‘But really, who are these guys?’
Riman looked at the soldier collapsed on the floor.
There were no marks or emblems on his clothes, so his affiliation and identity were unknown.
Then, suddenly, Riman felt a certain familiarity with one of the soldiers.
Riman removed the mask and helmet from his unconscious body.
“…Aha.”
He knew as soon as he took them off.
Who these guys were.
The face of the one whose mask was just removed was one Riman had seen before.
A few hours ago, at the entrance of Heosan Village.
This guy was one of the Ork Corporation's private soldiers who had been standing there with a gun.
“Ork……”
This confirmed it.
Ork was behind the attack on Riman.
‘These bastards… was the money I gave them that much of a waste?’
Riman muttered to himself as he looked at the money bag Saya was holding.
‘If so, I can't let them take it back.’
You bastards are never getting this money.
Thinking so, Riman thought about how to get out of here.
Going down to the first floor through the hallway and stairs, or going up to the roof and jumping to the next building to escape.
Several methods came to mind, but this was the best.
Riman picked up the shotgun the soldiers had dropped.
The shotgun they had used to break down the door.
After quickly reloading, Riman approached the door across from his room.
THOOOM!
Riman shot and blew off the hinges of that door without hesitation.
Then he knocked down the door and entered the room.
The person sleeping in the room screamed.
“Hwaaaargh!”
“Sorry.”
Riman crossed the room and headed for the window.
And then, another shot.
CRASH!
Riman fired the shotgun and shattered the glass window.
The windows in this hotel were not designed to open completely, so to get out through the window, he had to break it like this.
Tap.
Riman climbed onto the window frame.
This was the 13th floor.
The dizzying street of dawn spread out below his feet.
Riman took a light breath.
“…I've never jumped from this high before.”
Still, there was no other way.
This was the best option.
Step-
Riman jumped out of the window.
At the same time, he activated his magic at maximum output.
[Gust]
Whoooosh!
He used the wind to slow down his falling speed.
But the height he had fallen from was considerable, so this alone was not enough.
So, just before hitting the ground, Riman added one more spell.
‘The stargazer's dream, the center's deconstruction, the materialization of illusion.’
Three images, three concepts, overlapped to become a single incantation, and the incantation brought forth magic.
[Anti-gravity]
Whoooosh!
Magic that reversed the direction of gravity.
Riman's falling speed momentarily slowed down.
Tap-
Finally, Riman landed softly on the ground.
He had succeeded in not dying after jumping from the 13th floor.
‘…Done.’
To be honest, he had been a little nervous.
[Anti-gravity] was a gravity spell like [Weight], but it was much trickier to activate.
The amount of mana required was also much greater.
The reason was simple.
It was much more difficult to reverse the origin of a property than to enhance an existing one.
In any case, with this, the escape was complete.
He had only managed to grab a set of pajamas for clothes, but he had his phone, money, and Saya with him.
He had managed to bring all the important things, but…….
‘What do I do now?’
Ork Corporation had even sent an assassination team.
That giant corporation was on his tail.
With them on his tail, his activities in this city would become quite troublesome.
He had managed to shake them off for now, but he didn't know when another assassination team might strike.
Riman's head began to ache.
Above all, the problem was that he had never encountered this situation in the game.
Of course, depending on the play style, he could have antagonized Ork.
But it had never happened this early in the game.
‘What should I do about those Ork bastards?’
No, before that……
‘Why are they really doing this to me?!’
There was only one reason he could think of.
Money.
The 540 million Riman had extorted.
He couldn't think of any other reason.
But honestly, even if that was the reason, it was absurd.
‘A corporation the size of Ork would send an assassination team after me for a measly 500 million?!’
Ork was not some neighborhood corner store.
It was a bona fide multinational conglomerate.
500 million was by no means a small amount of money, but it wasn't a huge burden for them either.
‘…Could there be another reason besides money?’
If not money, then what could be the reason…….
“Wait a minute.”
Riman stopped walking.
Because the alarm in his head had started ringing again.
His intuition was warning him.
Something was coming.
Something huge……
‘Behind.’
Riman rolled to the side.
And at the same time—
CRASH!
A huge lump of something flew and crashed where Riman had been standing.
It was……
“…A car?”
It was a car.
And a 12-seater van at that.
It had drawn a parabola in the air and flew towards Riman.
“What the hell……!”
But this wasn't the end.
Whoooosh-
CRASH!!
Another car flew and crashed where Riman had been.
Another one, and then one more.
A truck, a sedan, and an SUV.
Vehicles that should never have floated in the air were drawing parabolas and pouring down.
CRASH!
Fortunately, Riman was not hit by a single one.
He had dodged them all before they even reached him.
But that didn't mean he could relax.
It meant that a monster with the strength to casually throw these cars was approaching him.
Tzzzzzz-
Riman deployed [Detection] to its maximum to identify his opponent.
At the same time, he commanded Saya.
“Saya, run away.”
“……?”
Saya shook its head.
To this, Riman explained.
“I’m not just telling you to run. Hide somewhere and protect that money. I’ll come back for you.”
“……!”
Swoosh!
Saya flew into the sky with the money bag in its mouth.
With this, there was no chance of losing the money.
All that was left was to fight and win.
Riman turned his gaze towards the enemy approaching him from a distance.
The enemy was coming this way.
And soon, the enemy entered Riman’s [Detection] range.
He had figured out its location and size.
But, he couldn't sense its detailed appearance.
Whether it was a man or a woman, with long hair or short hair, he couldn't grasp the detailed appearance.
It was as if there was noise.
‘It’s emitting mana to interfere with my [Detection].’
It meant he was a considerable expert.
Riman felt a faint tension run down his spine.
And finally.
Step-
The figure revealed itself under the streetlight.
“What, you're not dead?”
The moment he heard its voice, the moment he saw its face.
Riman immediately knew who he was.
“…Damn it.”
The moment he saw him, cold sweat trickled down Riman’s temple.
The opponent was an escaped convict from Mugan, Jade Tutlock.
Bounty: 300 million Credits.
And an opponent Riman couldn't defeat at his current level.