Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 575

“Agent.”

Virgil muttered.

“They’re out of their minds. To dare deploy field agents to the headquarters…!!”

His eyes turned bloodshot with rage, and thick veins bulged on his forehead.

“Was the condition that you wouldn’t interfere in the dispute with the Agents at all?”

Lenox glanced at Virgil, then subtly turned away.

“Just tell me where the Machina ticket is, and I’ll get it myself. You can handle your own affairs.”

“…Wait a minute.”

Virgil quickly suppressed his anger and grabbed Lenox’s coat.

“Let’s cancel the conversation we had here earlier. I misspoke.”

“I don’t know what you mean. You clearly asked me with the condition that I wouldn’t interfere in this situation, right?”

Lenox chuckled and shook his head.

“It seems like the special task force directly under the city government wants to pick a fight with the Tri-Heads [a powerful corporate alliance], but that’s none of my business.”

Lenox didn’t know why the Agents were attempting a raid on the Cartel headquarters at this time.

Since Ivelin Marcia was fired from the Agents, Lenox had not contacted them separately.

He would be willing to talk to field agents like Deputy Director Pallad O’Con or Hina O’Neil, who had participated in the defense force incident together.

According to Virgil, the one currently leading the Agents is Greta Witherhild, a person Lenox had never even met.

As Murphy said, there was no reason to get involved in a dispute between other organizations at this time when his condition was not good.

Just as Lenox was about to leave without any regrets before the Agent operatives completely surrounded the place.

“You wanted to know about Kaise. While I’m not comparable to the Chairman, I also know a few things about him.”

Virgil said quickly.

“I know how Kaise Bajur’s body was handled. To be precise, I can introduce you to someone who knows about it.”

Lenox, who was about to disappear down the hallway, stopped in his tracks.

“Ban, I’m not asking for much. I just need time until the other presidents who went out on business return.”

Virgil added in a slightly urgent tone.

He knew that even at this moment, the operatives who had infiltrated the headquarters might be searching through the company’s internal archives.

“The innermost underground vault of the headquarters. The server room that stores internal data is inside. The ticket to the Machine City extracted from Cansoa’s body is also stored there.”

“……”

“I’m not asking you to completely turn against the Agents. It’s enough if you just hinder their operation from being delayed.”

Instead of answering, Lenox took out a cigarette from his pocket.

Lenox, who lit the cigarette with a flick of his finger, smiled as he exhaled smoke.

“You’ll have to settle separately for not telling me that fact sooner.”

“…Of course.”

Upon hearing Lenox’s answer, Virgil quickly returned to the president’s office and threw open the closet.

Virgil’s expression as he looked at the red gauntlet displayed in the showcase was nothing short of murderous.

* * *

Thud thud thud!!

A fierce wind raged through the night sky.

The outer hangar of a transport ship cruising through the cloudy nightscape.

Hina O’Neil, who was looking down at the streets where the Cartel’s high-rise buildings stood like mushrooms with a complicated expression, turned her head.

An elderly woman leaning against the transport ship’s chair, wearing an eye patch and sleeping soundly.

It was hard to believe that she was the person who had planned and directed this operation from beginning to end.

Hina, who was holding her glasses tightly with both hands as they were shaking in the wind, asked.

“Director, is this really the right thing to do?”

At her words, the director, Greta, finally slid her eye patch up with one finger.

“Agent O’Neil. What are you so dissatisfied with again?”

“The fact that our Agents are touching the Tri-Heads at this time is itself…”

Hina sighed.

“If things go wrong, we could all be held responsible and end up in special prison.”

The corporate alliance known as the Tri-Heads of the underworld, the Cartel.

The existence of the board of directors and the president’s office, led by the level 8 monster, Oliviera Ron Maze, was certainly threatening, but their true value was not in the Cartel’s military power.

Their influence, which had a hand in most of the underworld businesses through hundreds of subsidiaries, was more than what was apparent on the surface.

The underworld’s industrial and economic structure, which was driven by the Cartel, was more noticeable than the evils caused by the Cartel’s existence.

Moreover, the mega-city of Vulcan had a unique environment where the light and dark sides had grown while opposing and coexisting with each other since its inception.

Among the power holders of the Central Council, there were many who had secret connections with the Cartel.

If they were touched carelessly, it was not unusual for the Agents to be targeted by the light side’s checks rather than the underworld’s retaliation.

Hina O’Neil knew that this operation could lead to the worst possible situation.

Greta looked at Hina with an interesting gaze, then shook her head with a smile.

“You’ve been working in the field for a long time, so your insight in this area is quite good. I’m glad I brought you along.”

“So, now is not the time to be saying such things…”

“But your guess is wrong. It’s precisely because it’s now that we can openly cause a ruckus at the Cartel’s headquarters like this.”

Greta left Hina speechless and looked at her wristwatch to check the time.

“The current time is 11:37 PM on Friday night. It’s also the month when the fiscal quarter of the year is completely over. Small companies are sweating over the settlement of quarterly sales.”

“Huh?”

“On the other hand, large dinosaur corporations have relatively late settlement schedules, so they are rather free during this time. Do you know why I’m saying this?”

Greta grinned.

“The complex particularity of the Cartel as a corporate alliance. The large Cartel headquarters is free, but conversely, the subsidiaries that make up the Cartel’s limbs are busy at this time. Perhaps the other presidents and board members are also busy organizing their respective business divisions and company sales.”

Only then did Hina’s expression change as she understood the meaning of what Greta was saying.

“Now that Dead Rise hasn’t returned and the Eight Cardinal Fortresses have fallen, we can’t miss the opportunity to exploit the Cartel’s growing vulnerabilities. If we can extract internal data by targeting either the Cartel’s top president’s office or the lowest underground vault, it’s a success.”

Greta said that as she picked up something from the end of the transport ship and slung it over her shoulder.

Clank!!

Hina jumped up from her seat when she realized that it was a huge bazooka that was comparable to Greta’s own size.

“W-wait a minute…!! If you shoot that here, the other operatives’ infiltration into the headquarters will be exposed…!!”

“Hina.”

Greta, who suddenly called her name in a friendly manner, smiled.

“If things have progressed this far, it’s already been exposed anyway. Why are you trying to deny it?”

“……”

Greta, who had shoved a long missile upside down into the bazooka’s muzzle, chuckled.

Hina felt speechless as she looked at Greta.

If the Agents succeeded in their operation against the Cartel headquarters, the organization’s status would rise to an unbelievable extent.

Even if the operation failed, Greta would be able to quickly spread the fact that she was aggressively changing the Agents’ internal policy under her own responsibility.

Maximizing the benefits that could be gained from the success of the operation, while somehow reducing the risks to a manageable level.

She was throwing a series of reckless moves that were close to gambling, while also thinking about the aftermath organically.

This was how Greta Witherhild, who had been reinstated as the director of the Agents, handled things.

“Then, shall we fire a big celebratory shot right away!!”

Greta laughed heartily and pulled the trigger, and the missile that shot out of the bazooka sped straight towards the top floor of the Cartel headquarters.

The explosive, with enough firepower to blow away half of the building district, detonated on the spot, accurately targeting the president’s office.

The collision created a ring of fire, turning the ground into a sea of flames.

Kwaaaang!!!

* * *

In the dark corridor of a high-rise building where the lights were off.

A series of figures, like spiders, swept across the walls of the corridor, where only the noise from the ventilation shafts echoed.

The Cartel’s assault forces, who had noticed the external intrusion, and the Agents’ operatives clashed violently in various parts of the building.

Kwaaang!!

“Hey, old man. They’re stronger than I thought. The Cartel’s trash isn’t bad at all.”

A fierce-looking man with a shaved head and unknown tattoos roughly loosened his tie and said.

His fists were covered in blood, as if he had already fought several members of the Cartel’s assault force with his bare hands.

A middle-aged man was being held by the collar by the man, covered in blood.

The middle-aged man, who looked like he was about to die, gritted his teeth as he glared at the bald man.

“Agent. You will pay a very heavy price for this…!!”

The momentum flowing from the middle-aged man’s body was considerable, but the battle situation had already tilted to one side.

The managers who led the Cartel’s military force and the members of the board of directors.

Even though most of them had returned to their subsidiaries, the superhumans who remained at the headquarters were somehow resisting.

However, only corpses and blood remained in the places where the Agents’ elite forces had swept through.

“Pay?”

The bald operative with tattoos on his face grinned and raised his hand.

“From my experience, the guys who say that always go first.”

Thwack!!

He ruthlessly struck the middle-aged man’s jaw, and his eyes quickly began to lose focus.

“Looking at our current situation, it’s not exactly wrong, is it?”

“Kkeuek…!!”

The body of the Cartel director, who was trying to hold on somehow while swallowing blood, slumped, and the man who threw the body away with a flick smiled and turned his gaze.

“It’s so fun to deal with the trash of the underworld. There’s no aftermath, and no one says anything.”

“Hieeek…!!”

“Being on the side of justice isn’t a bad title in times like this.”

The Cartel employees who were hiding near the office corridor trembled at his gaze.

Unlike the Cartel’s assault force, the general employees in charge of administrative work at the headquarters had remained without being able to escape.

They did not possess any magic or combat power, so they could not easily escape from this place.

The bald operative smacked his lips and raised his magic power towards those employees.

“How about letting those who can’t fight go?”

A man walked out of the darkness of the corridor in the distance.

“We don’t have enough manpower to subdue only those who resist. Don’t waste your strength on unnecessary things.”

White hair and a bushy beard. Shoulders bent with wrinkles all over his face.

Only a thin sword was hanging from the waist of the old man, who looked like he was about to collapse.

“Old man, what are you talking about?”

The bald man turned to the old man and smiled sharply.

“These guys didn’t kill people directly, but they’re trash who have been feeding on all sorts of bugs in the underworld. They’re accomplices.”

“Is that so?”

The old man replied calmly.

“I’m old, so I don’t know much about such complicated things. But when I was working for the Agents, I didn’t touch even the powerless people.”

He walked slowly towards the bald executive with his hands behind his back and laughed heartily.

“Young people these days have no compassion. Don’t you think so?”

“Ha, I wondered what you were going on about, coming all the way here…”

The bald man, who smiled crookedly, turned his gaze away.

“I know that Director Greta has made a place for old folks like you, so mind your own business. Got it?”

The bald man was also an Agent operative who was in charge of breaking through the operation area with his squad.

Although his mood was ruined, he had not forgotten what he had to do.

“I’ll just continue what my subordinates and I were doing…”

However, the man’s words were immediately cut off as he turned his gaze to find his subordinates.

Because his subordinates, who were secretly enjoying being abused under the authority of the Agents, were all passed out with their eyes rolled back and foaming at the mouth.

The old man shook his head as if he was sorry.

“That’s why I told you.”

“…Old man. Did you do this?”

The bald man turned his head with bloodshot eyes.

“Did you knock out all my subordinates?”

If all of the man’s subordinates were knocked out in the order of the direction the old man had come from, there was only one reason.

However, the old man looked at the man with pity and clicked his tongue.

“You still don’t know what happened. How could Greta think of deploying such an ignorant person in an operation?”

“This bastard is really…!!”

Kilik!!

The moment the man yelled and tried to rush at him, the old man’s hand was instantly on the man’s temple.

Such agile hand movements that the trajectory of his arm was not even visible.

However, the old man’s hand on the man’s temple was not to subdue him.

The old man slowly withdrew his hand and held it out in front of the man’s eyes.

“Do you feel it now?”

Pzzzt…!!

A current the size of a finger, sparkling with a bright blue magic power.

The man’s face turned pale as he realized that the silent electric fragment had almost pierced his temple.

“Wh-what…”

“There’s no sound, no trajectory, no speed. It just appears in that spot.”

The old man said calmly.

“Your subordinates were also hit with a similar feeling. Do you know what I’m talking about now?”

“……”

“An incredibly powerful mage is occupying this space. A monster capable of precision sniping through space jumps.”

“C-crazy…”

“Oh, you shouldn’t fall away from me.”

The old man smiled.

“Do you think you can perceive and avoid the magic power by yourself?”

Thud!

There was no answer.

Instead, the electric shock that grazed the man’s forehead swept through his head, completely stealing his consciousness.

“Keok…!!”

Leaving the man convulsing and collapsing with his eyes rolled back, the old man immediately turned his back.

Swish!!

He didn’t even show the act of drawing his sword.

The moment a silver-white flash crossed the dark corridor, the electric shock that had been struck down from above the old man’s crown was cut in two and fell down.

Zzzt!!

Even with the second electric shock that targeted him, the old man only stroked his chin with a calm expression.

“You’re incredibly arrogant. Are you thinking of holding back even after coming this far?”

None of the operatives who were hit by the electric shock that had jumped through space had died.

That was proof that the opponent who was firing this mysterious electric shock was thoroughly controlling the power and holding back to the point where they wouldn’t die.

However, the old man was rather convinced that the opponent was a monster who had killed countless people from his skillful handiwork.

The eerie handiwork that knew exactly how much to hit a human being to break and damage them, and stopped just before that point.

That was proof that the opponent had an overwhelming magic power manipulation ability, as well as an arrogant nature to match it.

“There wasn’t a mage of this caliber on the list of presidents I was notified about in advance.”

The old man muttered as he moved without hesitation.

“Is it the intervention of a third party who is neither an enemy nor an ally… I should at least check their face.”

* * *

“I see. Was this not enough?”

Lenox, who had been monitoring all of the old man’s actions through magic power detection, let out a faint smile.

In the middle of a vast, empty underground space, he was kneeling with a large sniper rifle.

A huge, wing-like shape that stretched out from behind Lenox gently wrapped around the muzzle of the rifle.

“It seems like there were more skilled people on the Agent’s side than I knew…”

Lenox muttered as he removed the magazine from the rifle.

Click!!

The name of the common magic [Lightning Bound] was scribbled on the bottom of the removed magazine.

[Lightning Bound cartridge detached.]

The clear voice of the cyber spirit echoed from inside the rifle, which was wrapped in heavy iron armor.

[Scanning of structures within a 1200m radius completed. 3D design implemented. Calculation of firing angle reviewed. Automatic firing algorithm secured.]

[Confirmed that all captured shooters can fire at the current time.]

A huge 3D map of the Cartel headquarters’ underground facilities unfolded before Lenox’s eyes.

Intense presences were gradually closing the distance from all directions of that space.

Kkirik…!

At the same time as slowly pulling the trigger, a faint ink-colored glow descended on the long barrel of the rifle.

[Aim Correction]

[Trajectory Correction]

[Ricochet Shot]

[Projection Magnification]

[Friction Reduction]

……

Charrrr…!

More than a dozen types of shooting assist magic poured down on the rifle.

At the same time as the HUD that had risen above the barrel shone brightly, the space in front of the heated muzzle began to crack and open little by little.

[Shooting assist algorithm ver4.0 activated.]

[Center coordinates set. Firing path optimized. Spatial index diversified.]

[Spatial transition assimilation rate 58%. Designated coordinates recognized.]

Click!!

At the same time as the sniper rifle’s magazine opened, a soft magic power wrapped around the barrel.

Without even taking his eyes off the scope, Lenox picked one of the dozens of cartridges that were circling around him without even looking at it.

Lenox was not shooting bullets at the Agent operatives who had infiltrated the headquarters.

He was chanting magic and imbuing it into the form of a cartridge, then shooting the power of that magazine fully into the rifle.

He was then transferring the magic power he had shot to the designated coordinates in the air using the compassion of the archangel and the sense of space jump.

The name of the new cartridge that should be used against the old man who seemed particularly strong among the operatives.

Click!!

[Confirmation of insertion of the Constant Thunder cartridge.]

[Unique magic space transition jump shot preparation complete.]

Woo woong…!!

“Shall we see if you can withstand having a unique magic directly hammered into your temple?”

[Here comes the electric massage that will make your heart flutter!]