I Became the Final Boss in the Game

Chapter 87 : Chapter 87

Chapter 87 World of Art (7)

SIZZLE...!

"ARGHHH!!"

The guard struggled and resisted against the burning sensation covering his face.

He tried to pull Riman's hand off with all his might, but he couldn't.

Because Riman's grip was tightly clutching his face.

The overall physical strength enhanced by taking had a significant impact on his grip strength as well.

"What is that crazy bastard...!"

The other guard in the back urgently reached for the pistol at his waist.

But the speed at which Riman drew his pistol was much faster.

BANG!

The first strike ensures victory.

The guard collapsed with a hole in the center of his forehead, and Riman lowered his gun barrel.

Riman looked down at his hand holding the pistol for a moment.

'...I definitely got stronger.'

Even though he held and fired the pistol with one hand, the aim didn't waver and he absorbed the recoil cleanly.

If it were his old body, his arm would have stumbled from the recoil of the shot.

He definitely felt that his physical power and muscle strength had increased.

'Now, this is probably the floor where the studio is located......'

However, there were three visible doors right away.

He couldn't tell which door led to the studio just by looking at them.

Riman looted the key cards from the waistbands of the fallen guards and examined the doors in detail.

The result.

'...I can't tell just by looking.'

Then there was only one way.

Riman tapped a key card on each door.

BEEP.

BEEP.

Door number 1, door number 2, consecutive failures.

Now only the last door, number 3, remained.

Riman brought the key card to it.

CHIME-

The door opened with a cheerful signal sound, different from the previous ones.

Riman entered through the door and......

"Oh, shit......"

He was lost for words.

Because he saw what was beyond this door.

This place was the room of the so-called 'Black Water'.

Victims kidnapped by Francis are thrown in here.

A room long and narrow like a hallway.

Since one side is blocked, it is a room where one is forced to move forward.

And in the middle of it, water containing corpses was sloshing around.

Francis forced victims to experience this room to amplify their despair and fear, using those emotions as ingredients for her painting.

'...How do you have to live to come up with such an idea?'

Francis Appel.

She was a villain he had seen many times in the game, but her mindset was shocking every time he saw it.

'Ugh......!'

Riman covered his nose.

It was because of the smell of corpses spreading from inside the door.

It was the stench emitted by the decomposed bodies submerged in the water.

Riman endured the stench and entered the room.

One thing was certain.

Francis's studio was beyond this black water.

Since this room served the role of dragging victims to the studio, the studio had to be at the end of it.

So Riman stepped onto the black water containing the corpses.

At the same time, he emitted mana altered to be cold from his toes.

[Freeze]

CRACKLE...-

The water surface he stepped on froze cold.

Turning the water surface into ice, Riman crossed the black water.

He reached the end of the room.

There was a single door there.

And what lay beyond the door was surely Francis's studio.

Riman opened the door.

CLANK-

The door opened with a light metallic sound.

Indeed, beyond that threshold lay Francis's studio.

Lined up mannequins, limbs displayed in rows and columns.

Knowing what materials they were made of, Riman felt bile rising inside him.

But the important thing right now was......

'...Where is Francis?'

Riman spread out [Detection] to examine the interior of the studio.

The first thing caught by the detection was the iron plate laid right in front of his feet.

An iron plate placed in a position one would naturally step on when entering the studio.

It looked like just an iron plate on the surface, but in fact, high-voltage electricity was flowing through it.

Therefore, victims who entered here after passing through the black water were bound to step on this plate and be electrocuted.

"Mmph, mmph......"

At that moment, a low groan came from the corner of the studio.

Riman turned his gaze there.

There, a person was squirming with a black bag over their head, hands and feet bound, and even a collar around their neck.

Riman approached him and took off the bag covering his head.

Inside the bag was a young man's face.

However, it was covered in tears and saliva, and his eyes were out of focus.

Of course, Riman understood.

He could roughly imagine what the man had gone through here.

And above all, it was a familiar face.

Before coming here, Lee Gyeong-ho, the leader of the Park Gang, had shown him a photo on his phone.

Riman asked the man.

"You're Woo Yeong-tae, right?"

The man stared blankly for a moment, then soon nodded while trembling.

"Then you know who Lee Gyeong-ho is too?"

"...Our boss?"

"Yeah. I came to save you at his request. So stop shaking."

"......"

His body, which had been shaking almost convulsively, gradually regained stability.

Once he was in a state fit for conversation, Riman asked another question.

"Do you happen to know where Francis is?"

"That... that bitch... she went out."

"Out? Where?"

At that moment.

CREAK-

The door at the far opposite end of the studio opened.

And a woman walked in.

Riman's expression hardened upon seeing her.

Because he felt he knew who it was.

"...Francis."

"Hm? What is that?"

Francis looked at Riman with a puzzled expression.

A look as if she had seen something unexpected.

The fact that she made such an expression meant she didn't know what had happened on the lower floors of this building.

Riman said.

"...You haven't received a single report from the guards."

It was something he had expected.

Francis's personality was basically arrogant.

Especially when she was in the studio, it became even worse.

At such times, she ignored whatever reports her subordinates brought up.

That was why she had absolutely no idea even though the security forces on the first floor were completely wiped out.

Francis spoke toward Riman.

"What are you? Did the Mayor perhaps send you?"

"...Right, the Mayor was among your patrons."

Francis's paintings were basically traded at considerable prices.

Therefore, Francis had connections with various high-ranking officials through sponsorship relations.

The city's Mayor was one of them.

Francis spoke toward Riman.

"Aha, I see. An intruder, dammit."

RUMBLE-

As soon as she made her judgment, Francis went into action.

Something huge raised its body from beside Francis.

Riman knew what that was.

"...Death Puppet."

It was a puppet Francis created using the dead.

A puppet made by extracting the remaining thoughts of the dead in the form of thoughtography, and weaving the dismembered parts of corpses together with that thoughtography.

The worst insult to the deceased, preventing the dead from even properly dying.

Riman quietly stared at that terrible thing.

"Grrr......"

SLITHER...-

Black lines extending from one corpse bound and pulled together other bodies scattered nearby.

The corpses clumped together, and the black lines wove those pieces into a single mass.

The pale and gigantic giant, created in an instant, raised its body.

"Groan......"

"Ughhh......"

"Grrrk......"

Various kinds of groans flowed endlessly from here and there in its body.

The groans flowing from the mouths of dozens of corpses entangled in that single Death Puppet.

Hearing that, Woo Yeong-tae began to tremble and shed tears.

Riman said to Woo Yeong-tae.

"Close your eyes and cover your ears. You can't endure that with a sober mind."

"......!"

The sounds emitted by the dead, especially those who died very terribly and miserably, were not something an ordinary person's mind could withstand.

Woo Yeong-tae urgently closed his eyes and covered his ears.

On the other hand, Riman just stood there.

A Mage's reason was too cold and hard to collapse at such sounds.

There was only one thought filling Riman's mind right now.

It was about how to deal with that Death Puppet.

'Of course, if I defeat Francis, the Death Puppet will stop too, but......'

But in this space, there was no way to attack Francis while avoiding just that puppet.

Eventually, dealing with the Death Puppet first was the top priority.

While Riman was formulating a strategy.

The dozens of eyes attached to the Death Puppet's head turned toward Riman.

From now on, every action the Death Puppet took was based on Francis's will.

Francis gave a concise order to the Death Puppet.

[Eliminate the intruder.]

"Kill!"

WHOOSH!

The Death Puppet swung its fist at Riman.

A massive fist made of a dozen entangled arms.

It was heavy and powerful, but slow.

Riman turned his body to dodge the bastard's blow and simultaneously sliced the arm with mana.

[Incision], 5-shot burst.

SWISH!

The thick arm was instantly chopped into several pieces and tumbled away.

"Cheap tricks......!"

Rough words popped out of Francis's mouth.

Anyway, with this, the arm was neutralized.

...Or so it seemed for a moment.

SLITHER!

Black lines spewing from the cross-section of the severed arm began to weave the chopped arms back together and regenerate them.

The arm and fist were restored to their original state in an instant, faster than when Riman cut them.

That fist flew toward Riman again.

CRASH!

Floor tiles were ripped out, and furniture was smashed and scattered.

However, Riman did not take damage thanks to his barrier.

Except......

'The barrier can't hold.'

There was a fairly large crack in the barrier.

It easily blocked things like bullets or explosions, but it was difficult to defend against attacks that pressed down with sheer mass like this.

'Terrifying regeneration speed, wide range, and on top of that, attacks that are hard to defend against.'

Even the combat space, the studio, was an enclosed area.

There wasn't much space to dodge, and there was even a person to protect behind his back.

Truly a difficult enemy.

Francis seemed to know this too, as she was baring her teeth and laughing.

However, Riman, who had fought Death Puppets several times in the game, knew this bastard's weakness.

Although it is a giant puppet, its base is an organism made of human bodies.

Then......

'I just need to paralyze it.'

[Electric Bullet], 10-shot burst.

Ten electric bullets were ejected from Riman's palms.

ZZZT!

The [Electric Bullet]s directly hit the Death Puppet's arm.

Electrocution burst out, and at the same time, the arm became paralyzed.

No matter how huge it was, the components of that arm were muscles.

When exposed to intense electric power, muscles were bound to contract and stop functioning.

"Grrrk......!"

The bastard could not easily recover from this paralysis.

Its ruthless recovery function was strictly limited to the reattachment of severed parts.

There was no mechanism to recover parts that were merely paralyzed.

And that was the Death Puppet's weakness.

'Block its movements with electric magic and find a way to destroy the core.'

Especially in a situation like now, blocking the Death Puppet's movements was even more important.

Because Woo Yeong-tae was in this room as well as Riman.

Honestly, Riman could survive and get out no matter how much the Death Puppet

rampaged, but an ordinary person like Woo Yeong-tae was different.

He would become a piece of meat if even grazed by the Death Puppet's fist.

For the same reason, Riman couldn't carelessly use large-scale magic.

Whether crushed by a fist or swept up in magic, it would be the same for Woo Yeong-tae.

'Magic that can completely repel it while blocking the Death Puppet's movements.'

While recalling that, something caught Riman's eye again.

The iron plate he saw when entering the studio earlier.

Looking at that iron plate where electric current still flowed, Riman's eyes sparkled.

'...Right, there was that.'

Riman stepped onto the iron plate without hesitation.

Onto that iron plate where high-voltage electricity still flowed.