novelraw Chapter 64 : Chapter 64
Chapter 64 : Chapter 64
Chapter 64. Backflow (Yeok-ryu)
“Kue-a-a-a-ack!!”
As the black flash exploded, a scream also burst from Wong Chen's mouth.
And Riman's consciousness also returned to normal.
“Heot……!”
Only then did Riman realize he was killing Wong Chen.
The guy he had to capture alive.
“Oh no……!”
Riman hurriedly pulled out the hand he had thrust in.
And he withdrew the black light he was emitting.
Riman muttered while looking at the black light emanating from his hand.
“…But couldn't I not use Light magic……?”
He pondered for a moment about what on earth had happened, but for now, he couldn't know anything immediately.
Anyway, the fiercely bursting black light subsided.
Wong Chen's figure came into Riman's view.
Riman unwittingly clicked his tongue inwardly and said.
“…Oh damn, I should have kept him alive.”
For now, one thing was certain.
Wong Chen was dead.
Because no heartbeat was felt at all.
Riman looked down quietly at Wong Chen's corpse.
He was a formidable enemy.
And the worst formidable enemy he had faced so far.
He even surpassed Riman's level at the last moment.
‘Magic that interferes with space itself…….’
Even in the setting of
Riman also couldn't handle space magic with his current skills.
For reference, the mysterious teleportation technology that released prisoners worldwide during the Great Breakout was also space magic.
The magic Wong Chen cast was magic of exactly such a level.
Although it was speculated that he paid a considerable price for it, reaching that point itself was a tremendous thing.
‘If he had survived, he would have probably risen to a higher level.’
Because Mages usually rise to a higher level when they achieve a deed that was impossible for them.
Anyway, the problem was the way Wong Chen looked dead…….
Pajiji—
The black light Riman thrust had completely cauterized his abdomen.
No, rather than cauterized, it was completely pierced through.
Because there was a large hole where the abdomen used to be.
But the cross-section of the hole was a bit strange.
“Mm……?”
If there is a hole in the body, usually the cross-section of organs or muscles should be revealed.
But nothing like that was revealed in the cross-section of Wong Chen's body.
What was revealed at his body's cut surface was……
“…Noise?”
There was no word to explain it exactly other than this.
Crackling remnants like a television screen with a cut signal covered the cross-section.
“What is this……?”
Even Riman, who had dug into
He could only know that it was a trace of being hit by that pitch-black light earlier.
Chijiji……
Anyway, that black-and-white noise was spreading little by little and encroaching on Wong Chen's corpse.
Like fire on paper.
It seemed like his entire body would be consumed by the noise before long.
Then suddenly, one thing to do flashed through Riman's mind.
“Ah, I should loot.”
Riman first took off Wong Chen's shoes.
Leather walker-style shoes coming up long above the ankle.
Judging from enabling direction changes in mid-air or sudden high-speed movement, it was clearly a magic tool engraved with some formula.
“Okay, and where is anything else…….”
S-eung—
Riman spread [Detection] narrowly and densely to scan Wong Chen's body thoroughly.
But other than the shoes, there wasn't really any object from which mana was felt.
Searching inside his clothes, a wallet and a phone were everything.
For now, he took all of those too.
However……
“Uh……?”
Momentarily, sudden exhaustion assaulted Riman's body.
His vision blurred and his head became blank.
The fatigue of battle began to rush in all at once.
Chijijiji—
Furthermore, noise began to appear all over Riman's body as well.
That black-and-white noise that appeared on Wong Chen's body's cut surface.
“…Why is this happening?!”
Come to think of it, Riman was also hit directly by the black light.
When breaking the egg and escaping, he exploded the black light altogether.
And the part where the noise appeared most severely was the palm.
The very hand that was holding the lump of black light.
“…Is this also almost a self-destruct skill?”
Light that destroys the foundation of high-level formulas and annihilates what it touches, Heuk-gwang (Black Light).
Although he couldn't know its principle and application in detail yet, one thing was certain.
If used incorrectly, the caster himself also takes considerable damage.
“…What do I do about this?”
Riman looked down at the noise appearing on his palm.
Along with the noises cauterizing various parts of his body.
But there was nothing he could do.
Because his consciousness was gradually fading away.
“…Damn it.”
Thud.
Riman collapsed on the floor just like that.
* * *
Riman opened his eyes.
It's an unfamiliar ceiling.
What, why is it unfamiliar.
“Here is…….”
Riman looked around.
It was an unfamiliar room.
And he was lying on an unfamiliar bed.
Riman unwittingly muttered.
“Did I possibly return to my original world?!”
No way.
Saya, coiled up and sleeping at the foot of the bed, was denying that possibility.
Riman sat up and put his feet out of the bed.
Tuk—
Something hit his foot.
A pair of shoes placed next to the bed bumped against his foot.
The very leather walkers Wong Chen was wearing.
Riman looked at it and muttered.
“Then what on earth is this place……?”
“Oh? You're up?”
At that moment, Ji Byeong-seo opened the door and entered.
Holding a medicine bottle in one hand.
“Excuse me, where is…….”
“It's Mr. Ha Myeong-yeol's house. Saya discovered you collapsed, so Mr. Ha Myeong-yeol and I moved you.”
“Ah…….”
“How is your body? You slept for two days straight.”
“…I slept for two days?”
“Yes.”
“Uh…….”
Riman roughly examined various parts of his body with his eyes.
Contrary to worry, unexpectedly there were no major external injuries.
Riman asked.
“Excuse me, by any chance, when I was discovered, wasn't there anything strange on my body?”
“Like what?”
“Like a crackling phenomenon or something…….”
“Ah, there was such a phenomenon all over your body.”
“By any chance, what did you do with that?”
“There was no way to deal with it, so we just left it alone, well. Still, it disappeared after a few hours.”
Riman pressed the parts where the noise had been embedded with his hand.
‘Ugh……!’
The moment his fingers brushed, a stinging intense pain raised its head.
There were just no visible external injuries, but the damage was accumulated intact.
“Here, drink this medicine first.”
Ji Byeong-seo put the medicine bottle he brought down on the bedside table.
“Since there seemed to be no external or internal injuries, I made it focusing only on fatigue recovery effects.”
“Thank you.”
“Ah, and that muscle enhancement potion I mentioned last time, once the ingredients are ready, we can start production right away.”
“Yes?”
“We can use the laboratory here at Doban Brewery starting yesterday. The contract with Mr. Ha Myeong-yeol is all finished too.”
“Oh……!”
A look of joy was circulating on Ji Byeong-seo's face as he said that.
The purpose for which Riman and Ji Byeong-seo came here was finally achieved.
“Ah, and what are those shoes?”
Ji Byeong-seo asked pointing at Wong Chen's leather walkers placed next to the bed.
“Seeing that you were hugging those shoes tightly even while unconscious.”
“…Did I do that?”
“Yes. What on earth is it that…….”
“That… it’s because it’s expensive.”
“If it’s expensive, it can’t be helped.”
Ji Byeong-seo nodded.
Riman asked.
“Come to think of it, what did you do with that Mage guy's corpse?”
“The police took it. I think they said they would do an autopsy.”
If the police took it, there probably wouldn't be a big problem.
Currently, the powerful figure in this local police station is Inspector Park Jae-il.
He had conducted the Ha Do-yeol sweep operation with Riman, and since he is also Ha Myeong-yeol's best friend, there would be no problem.
“Anyway, wash up and come down to the first floor. We'll have lunch in a bit.”
“Thank you.”
Ji Byeong-seo left the room, and Riman drank the medicine in one go.
After a sensation of heat swept through his entire body, strength slowly began to rise.
“Phew… it’s good.”
As expected of the future Medicine King.
The drug's effect was killer.
After warming up his body with medicine like that, Riman entered the bathroom.
Swa-a-a-a—
His body soaked in sweat from being stuck under the blanket for two days straight.
He washed away that smell and grime under running water.
Showering like that, Riman looked down at his body.
A body densely tattooed with all kinds of symbols and characters all over.
Although he saw it every time he washed, it was a visual he couldn't quite get used to.
‘What on earth did this human Riman get tattoos up to this extent for…….’
Just as he came out of the shower booth and was about to dry his body.
“……!”
Riman unwittingly looked in the mirror and froze just like that.
Because inside the mirror, someone else's face was reflected along with his own.
The face of a man bleeding with a large hole in his upper body.
Hwaek!
Riman looked back.
But no one was there.
Only himself was in the bathroom.
And when he looked at the mirror again, that person had disappeared.
Riman muttered that person's name.
“…Wong Chen.”
Simultaneously with saying that, Riman was surprised at himself.
Because although he fought and won against Wong Chen, he didn't actually know Wong Chen's name.
But as soon as he saw the face, Wong Chen's name naturally came to mind.
Normally, it was an impossible thing.
But after a moment of pondering, Riman could know the reason.
“…This guy’s memories flowed into my head.”
Wong Chen and Riman's consciousness were connected once.
At that time when Wong Chen was absorbing Riman's memories.
But Wong Chen failed, and Riman regained his memories intact.
At that time……
‘At the moment the memories returned, even Wong Chen's memories flowed back into my head as a backflow.’
Thanks to that, he naturally came to know the name of a guy he had never heard of.
Wong Chen's figure reflected in the mirror just now was something like an afterimage created by the backflowed memories.
‘Wait, but if I took all of this guy’s memories……?’
Wong Chen is a Mage who formally studied at a Magic Tower.
He was someone who knew the things Riman wanted to know most.
About the theory of magic, that is.
‘…Doesn't that mean I obtained this guy's knowledge intact?’
Originally, knowledge he could barely obtain by catching a Mage and interrogating him.
But that rolled into Riman just like that.
Riman's heart began to beat fast.
Forgetting even to dry his body, Riman sat on the bathroom floor and closed his eyes.
And concentrated all his nerves on the thoughts in his head.
Wong Chen's memories backflowed into his head.
He intended to dig up all that knowledge and make it his own.
* * *
“…It doesn't work.”
30 minutes into meditation.
Riman stopped digging into Wong Chen's memories.
Because he couldn't obtain much meaningful information even by digging.
It was due to the nature of memory.
Human memory wasn't a data file neatly organized chronologically or by category.
It was closer to a pile of fragmented information mixed up here and there.
Imagine a thick book without page numbers.
And imagine tearing that book page by page and binding it by randomly pasting them together.
Context evaporates.
Therefore, unless you are the owner of the memory, you will find almost no meaningful information there.
That is memory.
Of course, there are those who can intuitively restore such memories.
Naturally, that was a talent.
Talents possessed by guys like Seol U-seok, who can look into the memories of Demonic Beasts, or Wong Chen.
And Riman did not have such talent.
Riman let out a long sigh.
“…I obtained a Mage's memories with great effort, but I can't use them.”
Being droopy like that was brief.
“No.”
One method flashed in Riman's mind.
“I just can't use this guy's memories, but I can access other information through these memories, right?”