Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 446

Fwoosh…!! The acceleration of consciousness ended, and the slowed-down spacetime around them began to return to its original speed. A black-haired man appeared in the truck’s cargo area, accompanied by a surge of seething, dark mana. “Things in this world don’t always go as planned.” “Myung, you…!!” Dressed casually in a black shirt, as if he were out for a stroll, the young man sat on the opposite chair. At the same time, Lenok jumped up from his seat. Lenok sharply scanned Myung’s entire body, noticing an anomaly, and his expression hardened. The mana, which seemed to boil up from the abyss, and his vivid presence were still there, but there was a faint sense of incongruity. It was a strange sensation, as if he were present and absent at the same time. Realizing that it wasn’t just a simple illusion, but that his transcendent mana sensitivity was accurately perceiving Myung’s condition, Lenok asked, “You didn’t come here directly. You’re just projecting your consciousness here, aren’t you…?” “Hmm, you’ve reached the point where you can tell that now.” Instead of answering Lenok’s question, Myung gave a strange smile. “It seems you’ve made significant progress since I saw you in the labyrinth.” “……” “Well, it’s not a story that needs to be told right now. Shall we talk about what we need to talk about first?” When Lenok didn’t answer, Myung chuckled and casually changed the subject. “This truck. It’s driven by severe drug addicts. They’re so high that they don’t care who’s going where.” Myung grinned, leaned back in his seat, and crossed his legs. “As long as the fare is paid upfront, it’s a very popular means of transportation in the Western Continent.” “A transportation business that uses drug addicts as drivers…” “Dominic Cavaro created it and spread it throughout the Paragini Republic, and now it’s an item that’s spreading throughout the entire Western Continent.” Myung raised a finger and pointed at the driver. “As you can see, no matter what we talk about or what happens in the back of the truck, they don’t care. They’re just drug-consuming machines, except that they move as they’re paid to.” They were just gathering drug-addicted criminals to use as truck drivers, and paying them with drugs in return. The criminals, whose bone marrow was already saturated with drugs, couldn’t remember the faces or identities of their customers, and just stepped on the gas to their destination after receiving the promised payment. Only then did Lenok realize why the truck driver hadn’t reacted to Tucker’s corpse, and he nodded with a dumbfounded expression. “The drug king was no ordinary man. He found a way to exploit his customers in any way possible.” “His talent as a businessman was considerable even within Pandemonium [a chaotic realm]. That’s why they’re still keeping his body alive in the Republic, isn’t it?” “……” He must know that Lenok had directly killed Dominic Cavaro’s consciousness and put him in a vegetative state, yet he spoke so nonchalantly. Lenok sighed, adjusted his mask, and asked, “So, what’s the matter? I didn’t think you’d contact me here.” From the moment he met Hairea in District 21 and received the mission, he didn’t think he would encounter Myung. The fact that he had entrusted the selection of the operation personnel to someone else indicated that he had no intention of getting involved in this matter at all. Therefore, Lenok thought this would be a time to see if he was willing to cooperate with the affairs of the Demon Realm. However, Myung ignored Lenok’s words and asked, “The Tears of the Archangel. Why didn’t you take it?” “What?” “I deliberately chose and prepared a time-series elixir that you’ve been searching for since you started your freelance work, but if you don’t take it, my sincerity won’t be properly conveyed.” “I was wondering what you were talking about…” So, the operation to steal the Tears of the Archangel was Myung’s arrangement from the start. Lenok let out a hollow laugh and replied, “Even if we put aside the consequences of stealing and consuming such an elixir, there’s a high chance of losing consciousness the moment you take it.” A relic of the Old World. A treasure that could shake a city. An eternal elixir that extends human lifespan. It was only natural that the user’s consciousness would go haywire if they carelessly consumed such a thing. Considering that he had been sick for a whole day when he first took the elixir Stemmonia, which was of much lower quality than the Tears of the Archangel, it was a natural concern. “I see… That’s true.” Myung nodded, chuckled, and shook his head. “The Archangel series is among the top-tier relics of the Old World in terms of origin and performance. The faction that created these relics was said to be the closest to an organized ascension in the Second World.” “Organized ascension…” Lenok quietly closed his mouth at Myung’s words, which openly mentioned the Old World before ascension. It was probably a world related to the WORLD 2.0 that Lenok knew. And unlike this 3.0 world, about which Lenok had no knowledge, he remembered some things about the 2.0 game. According to his memories of playing the game as a Magic Marksman, there were about four factions that maintained their power until the end in the WORLD 2.0 worldview. Among them, there was only one faction that could have created an item with a name like Archangel. ‘The Church. There was an organization called the Church that believed in multiple gods back then too.’ The relic Lenok possessed, the Archangel’s Compassion, was an item he had obtained from Irina Pesfield, the leader of the exploration team. And Irina Pesfield was a plunderer who had obtained the Archangel’s Compassion under the tacit cooperation of the Church. It might not be uncommon for a specific religious group to wield power beyond their simple numbers. But was it a coincidence that relics that spanned the Old World and the current world were being managed under the name of the Church at this point? Until now, he hadn’t thought about it because the knowledge of the Old World hadn’t been of much help, but there might be useful information in Pandemonium. While Lenok was organizing the knowledge of the game he remembered in his head, Myung turned his gaze and muttered. “If you have any thoughts, it would be better to take it in advance. The place we’re going to now is a demonic realm where you won’t easily have such leisure.” “…What?” Only then did Lenok realize why Myung had appeared at this time, and his face hardened. “Wait, then the stopover that the truck driver said we had to make…!!” “I always like how quick you are to catch on.” Myung chuckled with a pleased expression and turned his head. “I told you earlier? They don’t care where the destination is as long as they get paid.” Snap! At the same time as he snapped his fingers, the window in front of the truck turned black, and the truck plunged into the huge tunnel. The surrounding scenery changed in an instant. Even as the terrain and scenery around them rapidly changed, the driver didn’t care. Myung looked back at the driver and smiled faintly. “There’s something I can only show you with a friend like this. I thought it was a good opportunity.” “……” Thud thud thud!!! The truck shook violently, then sped through the endless darkness towards the light. The moment they plunged into the brightly shining light beyond the windshield, a completely different landscape came into view than the field they had been driving through just a moment ago. KWAHAAAAA!!! The sight of a huge canal so vast that the other side couldn’t be seen. Compared to its overwhelming width, which seemed to be at least several hundred meters, the amount of water flowing below the canal seemed woefully insufficient. But even so, the overwhelming sound of water pouring down echoed incessantly from all directions. Lenok, who was holding onto the back of the truck’s cargo area and sticking his head out, muttered, “It’s a strange sight. How can such a canal be created without any signs of a city around it…?” The existence of a canal itself was the result of construction to draw water to the vicinity of a city. Naturally, there should be signs of people overseeing this construction, construction equipment, or civilization. But not a single person was to be seen on the withering fields. Myung, who was sitting with his legs crossed behind him, listened to his words and laughed. “A canal? Now that I think about it, it might look like that. That’s a rather fresh interpretation.” “…You’re saying this isn’t a canal? Then is this not the scenery you wanted to show me?” “Half. I wouldn’t waste your time just to show you a pit like this.” Myung chuckled and stood up. “What I was talking about wasn’t this pit, but the being that’s moving in real-time and creating it.” “Someone is changing the terrain on this scale all by themselves…?” Lenok shook his head, understanding the meaning of his words. The width of the huge canyon that Lenok thought was a canal was at least several hundred meters, no matter how short it was. Was he saying that the act of changing the terrain on this scale was not a one-time destruction, but merely a trace of moving in real-time? Lenok might be able to create a canal of this size if he poured all his mana into it, but he didn’t have the confidence to do this kind of destruction as if he were breathing. If that was the case for Lenok, who had already surpassed the Saint-level, then a single entity with a physique and destructive power that surpassed him- “It’ll be faster to see it directly than to explain it. Get ready. It’ll be harder to breathe the closer we get.” “What the hell are you…!!” There was no need to think long about what Myung was saying. Before Lenok could ask again, the sky above the truck, which had been running along the canal, began to turn black. At the same time, unknown, eerie energies began to pour down on Lenok’s shield from all directions. It was as if they were melting the shield at the cellular level and coveting the flesh inside. “…!!” The moment he recognized the danger, he quickly formed hand seals and drastically increased the strength and range of his shield. Even though he reacted with utmost agility, the driver, who was outside the range of the shield, was already too late. “Guh, guh-eeek… Ugh-gegek…” For the first time, an unknown groan leaked from the mouth of the driver, who had been holding the steering wheel with a blank expression and saying nothing. At the same time, hundreds of black age spots spread across the driver’s skin, covering it in black. “Ugyagyagyagyak…!!! Keheeeeek!!!” The driver, who had been scratching his drug-addled body in agony, eventually let go of the steering wheel and convulsed wildly. The driver, who had lost his reason as a human in an instant, roared fiercely and turned his head towards the back of the cargo area. “Kuhhaaaaak!!” Instead of the driver, who was banging on the glass-separated cargo area and going berserk, Lenok naturally grabbed the steering wheel with his mana and maintained the direction. Neither Myung nor Lenok reacted much, even though the driver, who had been fine just a moment ago, had turned into a monster. Instead, they only slightly frowned at the air that had begun to break down in an instant. Even within Lenok’s sensory range, which spanned several kilometers, the presence of something far ahead on the other side of the canal began to be detected. Despite the noise of the monster pounding on the window, Lenok muttered with a thoughtful expression. “I don’t feel a strong mana reaction… It’s hard to call it a life reaction. A sense of incongruity, or a terrible sense of otherness… Only that terrible feeling is felt.” “That’s accurate.” “Judging by how the driver changed like that, is it a type of disaster related to disease or infection?” “It’s a disaster, but that’s not the theme.” Myung said that and looked back at the driver, who had suddenly stopped banging on the window. “Judging by the signal, we’re almost there… Ah, that’s it.” “Kyaak!!” At that moment, the driver, who had been staring blankly at the two of them, turned his head with his body blackened. He turned towards the canal, twisted his limbs strangely, and then smashed the truck with his bare feet and began to run towards the canal. Crack!! Even though he was staggering as he ran on the bare ground, he had already far surpassed human strength. The moment the monster jumped down to the bottom of the canal and stretched out his arms towards the front, screaming. Clatter!! A black chain that flew from the front instantly wrapped around his neck and took his body away. “Kyahak!! Kyahahahak!!” The driver, who was being dragged helplessly, let out a monstrous cry as if he was happy. As if he had been hoping for this from the beginning, he began to crawl on all fours, following along while being dragged by the leash. “You’ll see it soon. Once you see it with your own eyes, you’ll know it even if you don’t want to.” Myung said quietly, looking at Lenok, who was speechless at the sight. “Because that’s what Gyebaek is.” Thud thud thud thud thud!!! The noise grew louder and louder. The majestic sound of water that he had thought was flowing through the canal. Lenok realized that it was not actually the sound of water, but the sound of someone digging into the ground with their bare hands and crawling forward desperately. [Haaaaaaaak!!!] It wasn’t the sound of one person. Tens, hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands. A black sphere made by tens of thousands of people, whose entire bodies were blackened, like the driver who had just disappeared with the chain. A gruesome sphere of human flesh, made of living human bodies, was digging into the dirt and creating the canal with tens of thousands of arms stretched out from it.