Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 48

She probably said that out of concern for him. Lenok knew it.

The ‘Ban’ that Jenny imagined was likely just some mage from the backwoods.

However, Lenok couldn’t help but chuckle humorlessly at her words.

Where in this place would he have time to prepare?

The environment around him was always harsh, and Lenok had always made his own choices to move forward.

From the moment he pulled the trigger on the supervisor’s forehead, he resolved not to stop.

Even if it meant embracing the contradiction of risking death to live—

“Once you start running, you have to see it through to the end.”

“…Ban?”

“Tell them I’ll take the job.”

The encounter with the Ascender had greatly changed Lenok’s thinking, whether he wanted it to or not.

Prioritizing safety and minimizing risks alone wouldn’t get Lenok what he wanted.

Precious artifacts, rare elixirs. Those weren’t things that could be obtained simply with a lot of money.

Eventually, he would have to climb higher, and Lenok just needed the opportunity.

He wanted greater fame and qualifications.

The growing grudges, the dwindling time, the approaching danger.

He didn’t have enough time to assign meaning to all of those things and be afraid.

Let’s not overthink it. If the potential reward is greater than the risk, then jump in.

That was the only justification he needed to care about in this district.

Perhaps she read something in Lenok’s expression.

The two of them didn’t say anything more.

Harbor

As soon as Lenok expressed his willingness to accept the job, things moved quickly.

Panoa, as if she had been waiting, sent Lenok information about the first target.

Jenny, who had entered the office, gave a briefing, and Lenok quietly took a drag of his cigarette.

“The first target set by Dyke is Paul Ackerman, a drug dealer operating mainly in the 48th district.”

A photo immediately appeared on the screen.

A middle-aged man with a plump build, red hair, freckles, and a full beard.

“He started operating two years ago and quickly expanded his business by opening up sales routes. There was a lot of talk about his source of capital, which was unknown, but there are rumors that he’s one of Juice Master’s henchmen. If that’s true, we need to be careful.”

Drug lord Dominic Cavaro, commonly known as ‘Juice Master’.

He was the head of a massive cartel that directly controlled drug trafficking between cities and even sold drugs to the defense forces.

Recently, his name was even mentioned in connection with the Demon Realm, and there was much speculation as to whether he had taken his cartel directly into Pandemonium [a realm of demons].

“Because of that, the personal guards that Paul Ackerman has are quite formidable. It seems he’s using a war mercenary who used to be a big shot in that world as his guard. His name is Jude Russell. He’s quite a well-known figure among mercenaries.”

A very young-looking black man’s face appeared next to the screen. A sharp yet rugged impression. Quite handsome, with a large sword strapped to his back.

“According to the information provided by Dyke, Paul Ackerman is scheduled to hold a meeting with distributors at the harbor in the 48th district in three days.”

“Is the information reliable?”

“We’ve cross-checked it, and we’ve heard that access to a specific harbor is being blocked, so it’s probably accurate.”

“Hmm…”

Lenok silently looked over the request outline sent by Dyke before speaking.

“I’m curious why they want to kill a drug dealer while also being involved in the weapons industry.”

“It seems they’re continuously investing the money they make from selling drugs into illegal arms deals. He’s one of the bigger investors there. I guess they’re planning to cut off the source of money first. It’s not a bad plan.”

“What about the others?”

“There are five people participating in this job. They probably picked people with similar evaluations to you. They’ve been given the time and place. Everyone will meet then.”

Understood. It wouldn’t be possible to succeed in this project with just Lenok alone.

They were probably hiring additional people in similar situations or with similar treatment to Lenok to change the situation all at once.

“The primary target is Paul Ackerman himself. They’ve notified us that they’ll pay an additional bonus if we kill Jude Russell as well. An advance payment of 20 million cells, and a success fee of 20 million. They’ll pay an additional 10 million cells to the team member who kills Jude Russell.”

“Why do they want Russell dead?”

He would have to clash with him anyway to kill Paul Ackerman, but what was the intention behind specifically requesting his elimination?

Jenny didn’t seem to know that either, and just shrugged her shoulders.

“Anyway, that’s all the information Dyke has given us. To be honest, since they’re a company that grew by digging into industrial equipment, the quality of the information they provide isn’t that great. This is definitely different from Valitz.”

Considering that Valitz presented detailed scenarios and commissioned jobs even for requests that didn’t specify a client, it was certainly true.

However, Lenok nodded as if that was enough and got up from his seat.

Since Lenok’s mobility was limited, the tactics he could use were fixed.

Unless it was about drawing the overall picture, it was much better for Lenok to decide on the detailed strategy himself and start the operation.

“Are you leaving?”

“If it’s three days, I need to start preparing little by little now. Especially if the opponent is a war mercenary, I can’t take them lightly.”

Of course, a monster like Kroken wouldn’t appear, but even someone at Dylan’s level would be threatening enough for Lenok.

Until now, he had been carefully calculating the expected risks and being careful not to overexert his body, but it seemed necessary to pack a little more equipment than usual.

“Okay. You’ll be fine on your own, Ban.”

Jenny picked up a cigarette and lit it, smiling.

“See you alive, mage.”

“That’s obvious.”

Lenok immediately left the bar.

He needed to hurry to buy the things he had in mind.

Three days later.

It’s dawn, with the cold night air stinging the tip of his nose.

Lenok, who had walked all the way to the 48th district under the unusually bright night sky, exhaled a plume of cold smoke.

He had a long leather bag slung over his back, and a cigarette in his mouth.

The bag was a bit heavy, so he needed to forget his fatigue by smoking on the way.

“Hoo…”

It was true that he felt nervous as he arrived at the harbor and breathed in the cold air.

Especially when he thought about what he had to do from now on.

Lenok lightly tapped both cheeks, sent a text to Jenny that he was starting, and immediately headed to the agreed location.

“You’ve arrived. You’re the last one.”

The four people who had gathered earlier and were hanging their heads slowly turned their heads.

One skinny woman, one man with a bandit-like physique, and two people with pale blue iron masks covering their faces.

The two masked people were covered in thick cloth from head to toe, making it difficult to tell their gender or physique.

‘There are all sorts of people here…’

As Lenok approached them without saying anything, the four people quickly took a step back.

They clearly looked wary.

The team members didn’t seem to have a lax attitude before the operation.

The mask on the far right spoke first. A deep voice. Definitely a man’s.

He seemed to be the one in charge here.

“Everyone knows the general outline, so we’ll just briefly summarize the details and go in.”

He said that and manipulated a device on his left wrist, then projected a simple hologram in the middle of the group.

It was a technology that Drey Creamgal had also shown in front of his mercenaries.

“There are a total of seven entrances to the harbor in the 48th district, which is currently blocked by Paul Ackerman’s private soldiers. If we exclude the exclusive entrances used by sailors and cargo handlers, they are neatly divided into five places. Each of you will take one entrance, suppress the soldiers, and wait.”

The idea that each person must do their part thoroughly. Not bad.

His tone was quite overbearing, but everyone nodded without much complaint.

“The distributors and Ackerman will move through different routes to have their meeting. When the meeting place is identified, the one who confirms it will start the operation first, and the rest will join immediately.”

Five small earpieces popped out from the masked man’s pocket, and the other team members took one each.

“This is a disposable communicator that can be used for contact. It’s designed to have its circuits break down after one night, so don’t keep it for long. Let’s start.”

Judging by his tone, the masked man didn’t seem to have high expectations for the other team members in the first place.

His attitude was blatantly that they should just fight moderately and buy time.

Lenok understood his feelings to some extent.

If you gathered five strangers and asked them to work together on an operation, it would be stranger to trust them.

Rather, the more simplified the operation, the more room there is for individual excellence to shine, so it’s not necessarily a disadvantage.

“But you guys are really careless.”

Just as everyone was about to disperse after roughly understanding the plan, another mask standing next to the first mask spoke.

“Are you not even thinking about covering your faces when coming to a place like this? Dyke may have a lot of money, but he won’t be responsible for your safety.”

A relaxed yet high-pitched tone, different from the masked man. This one was a woman.

Did they accept this request as a male-female pair? It was an unusual combination.

At the masked woman’s words, Lenok and the other three looked at each other silently before chuckling.

The skinny woman retorted with a strange face as if mocking them.

“You guys aren’t people who work in this world.”

“…What?”

“If you want to raise your value in this world, you have to work with your face and name revealed, whether you like it or not. Unless there’s a special reason, do you think we’d care about having our faces exposed?”

A special reason… Could there be such a reason behind Dylan’s bizarre mask?

Lenok suddenly recalled the first time he took on the factory bombing request and was lost in a nostalgic memory.

The masked woman seemed momentarily flustered by the skinny woman’s words, but quickly regained her composure and turned her body away.

“Hmph, it doesn’t matter as long as you do your job well. Just don’t hold us back.”

‘Judging by her attitude, she really doesn’t seem to be from this world.’

Lenok watched the masked people disappear among themselves and roughly narrowed down the pool of candidates that Dyke might hire.

Mercenaries, gangs, freelancers, soldiers… It wouldn’t be surprising if they brought in corporate security personnel or even criminals.

Meanwhile, the bandit-like man tapped the skinny woman on the shoulder.

“Hey, which way are you going?”

“…I don’t care. Anyway, I wasn’t chosen here because of my fighting ability. I’ll take care of my own business.”

“Really? That’s a shame… If you’re a skinny guy like that, I wanted to go with the lady.”

Looking at the man with a lewd smile, the woman ignored him with a cold face.

When the woman didn’t react, the man turned to Lenok and grinned.

“You don’t look like the type to use your strength either… Don’t die and follow me to the harbor. If you make me struggle because we’re short on numbers, I’ll tear your limbs off.”

Lenok didn’t respond and immediately turned his body away.

He was so tired of these petty provocations that he was bored.

It wasn’t too late to properly determine the superiority after the job was done.

That is, if that man was still alive by then.

[Three, two, one. Going in.]

A dry voice coming from the earpiece. The masked man insisted that they at least match the timing of the entry.

He took a deep breath of the cold air and entered the harbor.

There was no sound around him, and only the low noise of the waves hitting the edge of the harbor echoed in the distance.

A chaotic cement street with hundreds and thousands of containers arranged.

Even if he turned his head, all he could see were steel containers that looked like cardboard, but Lenok already knew that there were many people gathered around this area.

His vast magic detection ability accurately captured those who were hiding in various places and watching in all directions.

They were all holding thick rifles in their hands and wearing solid bulletproof vests on their bodies.

Even the masks they wore on their faces and the sharp killing intent emanating from their bodies.

They must be the private soldiers that Paul Ackerman hired and brought with him.

No doubt about it.

The people gathering here today would never be the type to walk around with their faces held high in broad daylight.

‘It seems Paul Ackerman hasn’t arrived yet. It was worth arriving early.’

No one could withstand the illusion magic that was embedded in the eyes and ears of the soldiers.

The sounds of the other team members entering the harbor in their own ways could also be heard.

[Crack!! Crunch!]

Frontal breakthrough.

[Ah, can you hear me? Jayden, everything’s fine here. But I’d like to change the patrol route, please cooperate.]