novelraw Chapter 70 : Chapter 70
Chapter 70 : Chapter 70
Chapter 70. The Intangible Killer (4)
Gong Jae-byeok went completely blank just like that.
Because his humiliating past, which he wanted to hide, popped out of Riman's mouth out of nowhere.
Riman continued speaking in a mocking tone.
“Isn't that the first thing you did as soon as you realized your invisibility ability? Following the girl you liked into the restroom and peeping.”
“……!”
It was even detailed.
The dark past he had never told anyone, no, strictly speaking, anyone except his prison mates, flowed out from Riman.
From the mouth of a guy he didn't even know.
Riman continued his mocking.
“If a person likes a person, you punk, it's normal to appeal or at least confess. Hiding in a restroom and observing the act of defecation? You real pervert bastard.”
At those words, Gong Jae-byeok bit his lower lip hard.
Blood rushed to his head and his hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
And Riman's mouth did not stop.
“Then you got hit in the forehead by a high heel and got arrested, that was your first imprisonment, right? Amazing, truly amazing. Being a Superhuman and getting beaten by an ordinary person, geez.”
“……!!”
Riman scratched Gong Jae-byeok's mentality without pause, wagging his tongue.
A mental attack only Riman could perform in this world.
With just small vocal cords and a three-inch tongue, Riman was shaking the heart of a strong enemy.
Driving a nail into the mentality before the fight even started.
Gong Jae-byeok.
From a psychopathological perspective, the worst symptoms the guy had were bloated self-esteem and selfishness beyond the limit.
Furthermore, the guy's ego was built on that very sick foundation.
Riman was destroying that foundation with his tongue.
By pointing out in detail how pitiful everything supporting the guy actually was.
“You think you are something, don't you? You pride yourself on being perfectly moral, mastering reason and nature, and having the ability to clearly distinguish right from wrong in everything, right?”
It was actually so.
Being infinitely generous to himself while applying absurdly strict standards to the people of the world.
That was the way Gong Jae-byeok viewed the world.
My killing an innocent guard was inevitable, but the guy who didn't accept my greeting is a guy to kill.
Committing a sin grave enough to be in Mugan is merely a past deviation, but the one who shoulder-checked me and didn't apologize is a guy to kill.
Committing a massacre of tens or hundreds in a moment of anger is unavoidable, but the greeting ‘Work hard’ is the utmost rudeness.
And other escapees are merely sinners, but I alone am a rehabilitated good person.
Selfishness twisted endlessly to an absurd level, bloating of the ego.
At this, Riman smirked as if mocking.
At the same time, veins bulged on Gong Jae-byeok's temples.
He wanted to refute, but no refutation came to mind.
Thus, the moment the overflowing rage finally began to spread to his face.
Riman finally drove in the wedge.
“Gong Jae-byeok, you are nothing. Just a selfish and pitiful pervert sexual offender bastard.”
“This son of a bitch……!”
“You were there?”
“……!!”
Heup.
Gong Jae-byeok immediately covered his mouth.
Even if he used invisibility, he couldn't hide his voice.
Therefore, the curse he just shouted revealed his location intact.
So a complete smirk appeared on Riman's mouth.
Because it became certain that invisible Gong Jae-byeok was really here.
In fact, seeing Joseph fall, he was 99 percent sure, but honestly, he was a little anxious.
Because Gong Jae-byeok's invisibility couldn't be caught even by Riman's [Detection].
But judging from the distance and direction the sound came from, it became certain that the guy was still here.
Grasping Gong Jae-byeok's location, which even a detection ability user couldn't find out, using only his tongue.
And Gong Jae-byeok also realized this situation.
That his location and existence were completely discovered.
Moreover……
‘Probably that guy can detect me.’
This was, of course, Gong Jae-byeok's misunderstanding.
Even that misunderstanding was intentionally planted by Riman.
Anyway, the tide of battle tilted toward Riman in an instant.
In this situation, the most rational method Gong Jae-byeok should choose was one.
Escape.
Since his ultimate technique, and furthermore, his past he wanted to hide were exposed to the opponent, there was no chance of winning.
But Gong Jae-byeok did not do so.
His bloated ego did not allow escape.
Above all, the anger rushing to the top of his head forced his body to move.
Kill that guy.
Stab a knife into the heart of that arrogant black-haired skinny bastard.
Like that, anger paralyzed reason.
Like that, he moved exactly as Riman intended.
Tat!
Gong Jae-byeok's body sprang toward Riman at a fierce speed.
‘I will kill you……!’
Up to that point, Gong Jae-byeok thought he could kill Riman.
Because no movement of mana was felt around Riman.
No traps were installed around, nor was a barrier put up.
A complete defenseless state.
Killing such an opponent was easier than cutting butter.
And finally, the distance between the guy and Riman was 1 meter.
Gong Jae-byeok thrust the dagger tip toward Riman with all his might.
At that moment, the speed of the knife tip was almost reaching the speed of sound.
At this distance, at this speed, and in a situation where the opponent had set up no defensive measures.
He had no choice but to stab.
But at that moment.
Pakang!!
“……!”
An unbelievable thing happened.
A suddenly appearing barrier deflected Gong Jae-byeok's knife tip.
A barrier that hadn't existed even 0.001 seconds ago.
‘Wha……?!’
Casting speed transcending common sense.
The knife tip bounced off, and that recoil shook Gong Jae-byeok's body intact.
The positions were reversed.
Now the one in a complete defenseless state was Gong Jae-byeok's side.
Furthermore, due to the collision just now, even his location was revealed.
Riman's gaze turned toward Gong Jae-byeok.
“You came?”
Due to the bounce just now, Riman could be certain.
That Gong Jae-byeok existed within a 2-meter radius of him.
Then there was no reason to hesitate.
He spewed out mana refined in the form of cold with all his might.
[Frozen Earth Critical Point (Dongto-imgye)]
The area all around Riman froze in an instant.
Kagagak!
Pitch-black ice covered the surface of everything within range.
Even the surface of the invisible man.
An invisible man is merely transparent, but his substance exists.
Therefore, if covered with pitch-black ice, his silhouette was bound to be revealed.
Like that, a human-shaped ice sculpture suddenly appeared in the empty air where there was nothing.
Riman looked at Gong Jae-byeok, who finally revealed his form, and said.
“Caught you, you pervert bastard.”
* * *
The trickiest point in dealing with Gong Jae-byeok.
That was the fact that there was almost no method to detect the guy.
Even Riman couldn't figure out magic to detect the guy.
To that extent, the technical perfection of Gong Jae-byeok's invisibility was at a crazy level.
Of course, theoretically, there were a few possible detection methods.
Spraying paint or fine powder densely in the area where the guy appeared.
Since the guy's silhouette would be revealed if covered in paint or powder.
Naturally, it was a method with zero feasibility.
It was excessively inefficient, and if the guy noticed first and hid inside a building, it was a method immediately neutralized.
So spray paint or powder even inside the building?
That was truly an act no different from burning an apartment to catch a cockroach.
Another method was to shower the entire area where the guy appeared using wide-area skills or shelling.
A method usually used to catch snipers on the battlefield.
But this was a downtown area teeming with civilians.
Therefore, this was also a method fundamentally unusable.
Then only one method remained now.
Making the guy reveal his existence himself.
For example, inciting the guy's emotions to induce curses and attacks, like that.
This was possible for Riman.
Because he knew Gong Jae-byeok's past to some extent, and also knew the guy's unstable mental state.
Once this method was used, he could hold the guy without using physical force.
Holding him was important.
Because the most perplexing situation when trying to catch an invisible man was the guy just running away.
However, just holding him was merely half the success.
To catch the invisible enemy completely, he had to make the guy walk into a trap himself.
Since attacking by seeing the guy directly was impossible.
But making him fall into a trap wasn't an easy task either.
Gong Jae-byeok, the guy is a master of killing.
Therefore, if he feels even a little suspicion, he doesn't approach at all.
Just as he didn't attempt an attack at all on Joseph who had a barrier turned on.
Then the conclusion came out.
Setting a trap so covert that the guy wouldn't notice.
That was the only answer.
For that, Riman invented a new form of magic.
Inspiration obtained from Wong Chen's corpse.
Knowledge acquired from magic theory books.
Innate sharp senses.
And tattoos engraved on the body.
Riman created magic using these four things.
First, when he went to see Wong Chen's corpse at the police station the other day.
What Riman found most interesting was the characters engraved on Wong Chen's arms.
Although he only knew after seeing the theory book, those were characters and symbols forming a formula.
‘Can one use magic just by engraving a formula on the body surface?’
Then the tattoos engraved on his own body approached him anew.
‘Then I can calculate magic using a part of these tattoos too?’
The magic characters and symbols engraved on Riman's body numbered in the tens of millions.
Picking only necessary characters and symbols from there and connecting them to construct a formula was entirely possible.
Of course, some research was needed.
If successful in this method, he became able to use magic additionally without brain calculation.
‘Then the magic worth applying as a test is…….’
He decided on [Protection (Bangho)].
Because it was the magic used most frequently and had high utility.
But Riman didn't stop there.
Riman constructed the formula for [Protection] by connecting the characters of the tattoo, then linked it with his senses.
With his absurdly sharp senses.
As a result, ridiculous magic was born.
The moment Riman's senses detect danger, [Protection] activates automatically regardless of Riman's will.
Previous Riman decided on/off of [Protection] according to his will.
But this past method had to be done consciously, so there was a high probability of delayed response or waste of mana.
However, this new method was not so.
Riman's senses distinguish the danger coming to him just by the vibration of air.
And unconsciously at that.
At the exact necessary moment, high-speed barrier deployment became possible without utilizing brain resources.
Defensive magic catching two rabbits, efficiency and accuracy, at the same time.
An ultimate automatic defense system was implemented in a human body.
It was impossible for other Mages.
Because it was a technique established only by being born with abnormal senses at Riman's level.
And Riman demonstrated this for the first time in the fight with Gong Jae-byeok.
Gong Jae-byeok confirmed that Riman had no barrier and rushed in at full speed.
And just before that knife touched, the automatic defense system activated.
The next result was naturally, bang.
The guy ended up crashing into a stone wall at full speed while driving a car.
This, this situation itself was exactly the trap Riman set.
Gong Jae-byeok was caught perfectly, and thus became a live ice sculpture.
However—
Jjeo-jeok.
This fight, couldn't end yet.