Genius Wizard Takes Medicine [EN]: Chapter 660

“W-What the…!! Get back to your cell right now!!”

Two soldiers, who had surrounded Lenok, shouted harshly, aiming their guns at him.

“Damn it, why is the communicator out of service at this moment…!!”

Not only was communication with the outside cut off, but the firmly closed barrier also showed no sign of opening.

At this rate, they weren’t guarding him; they were trapped in a cell with an extremely dangerous mage.

The two soldiers, sweating profusely, tensed their entire bodies as if they were about to pull the trigger on Lenok.

“D-Don’t come any closer…!!”

“If you move even a little, I’ll shoot!!”

“Instead of that, why don’t we talk for a bit?”

Lenok, leaning against the cold corridor wall with his handcuffs on, chuckled.

“I’m bored sitting here alone. I want to go outside, but there’s no one to pass the message along.”

“Alone…? There were definitely doctors in the cell with you…”

The soldier, who had been speaking, stopped when he saw the doctors collapsed behind Lenok.

“They all seemed tired. I’m sure they’ll wake up soon enough.”

“…”

What idiot would believe that in this situation?

The soldiers refused to talk any further, their expressions showing extreme caution towards Lenok.

Lenok tilted his head slightly, as if troubled, looking at the two men.

‘I want to refrain from using excessive magic… Was I a bit hasty?’

It was true that his condition had improved more than expected, thanks to the doctors who had diligently cared for him under the guise of research.

However, it wasn’t as if his condition had improved enough to engage in combat.

This was because, in the process of partially overlaying the Ascendant’s image to face Oroknier, he had far exceeded his output limit.

Since it had not even been three days since that ordeal, he should have been in a period of complete rest for at least fifteen days.

He had come out of the cell now purely to find traces of Kaise.

‘All I can use without strain is Davi’s hacking and simple common magic. I could recover my condition if I rested a bit more, but…’

Lenok, having somewhat organized the possible means and methods in his head, looked at the soldiers and nodded lightly.

‘There won’t be another opening like this. I’ll push through now.’

The lax security, with only two soldiers guarding the cell after he had left, was not the result of coincidence or incompetence.

It was a temporary gap that had occurred because Nasisa Solmer and the executioners had been visiting the cell alternately, disrupting the internal personnel deployment.

Originally, Lenok might have had to face dozens of soldiers simultaneously the moment he opened the cell.

Lenok knew that now, when his condition had not improved, was the most opportune time.

If he needed to refrain from using magic for the time being, he had no choice but to use his other abilities to navigate the situation.

Fortunately, he had several ideas in mind.

“The gun barrels are quite clean. Even though they’re military-grade, there’s hardly any wear on the magazines.”

Lenok, who had been carefully observing the soldiers’ appearances and the guns pointed at him, opened his mouth.

“Your fingernails are excessively short, and your skin is meticulously cared for. You also consciously keep your body hair short… You’re very particular about cleanliness.”

At Lenok’s calm words, the soldier on the right, who was aiming his gun, flinched.

“N-Nonsense…”

“I thought it might be a germaphobia, but the different lengths of the knots on your shoes suggest it’s not an obsession. It’s cleanliness for others, not yourself…”

After a moment of thought, Lenok looked closely at the soldier’s face and nodded.

“You have a child, don’t you?”

“…!!!”

“Caruso, snap out of it!!”

The other soldier yelled when he saw the gun in the soldier’s hand trembling, but Lenok didn’t stop talking.

“It’s not a mental or dietary issue. Skin? That’s right. The fact that the areas that need to be touched by hand are well-maintained suggests a high possibility of a skin condition.”

Lenok, having quickly found the answer by throwing out keywords one by one, nodded.

“The habit is ingrained because of regular care. It’s very old. A pre-existing condition you’ve had since birth.”

“…I heard you were also active as a skilled artisan in Makina. Can high-ranking mages see through even such secrets so easily?”

“Caruso, what are you doing!!”

The other soldier turned his gun, but Caruso didn’t care, answering Lenok’s words so readily.

He just opened his mouth, looking as if he had aged a dozen years in that short time.

“I heard you did consulting work as well, not just artisan work. Do you perhaps know about my child’s skin condition? Is there a way to cure it?”

“This crazy bastard is…!!”

The other soldier, unable to hold back, was about to hit Caruso on the head when Lenok spoke to him as well.

“There’s a bar you’ve been going to frequently lately, isn’t there?”

“…!!”

“It seems you’ve invested some money in a business the bartender recommended, but it’s best to pull out right away. It’s a pyramid scheme.”

“D-Don’t talk nonsense.”

The other soldier stammered, desperately denying Lenok’s words.

“That can’t be. There’s no way you could know that…!!”

“But that investment, it’s not your money, is it? It’s embezzled funds from somewhere else?”

The soldier couldn’t answer, clenching his teeth.

Lenok pointed to the soldier’s chest and said,

“The fact that you’re carrying a cell phone, breaking the internal regulations of the detention facility, is proof that you have to receive real-time communication. It’s a characteristic of people involved in the financial sector.”

In reality, he had only hacked the phone with Davi’s ability and scanned the accounts, but the soldier couldn’t refute Lenok’s words at all.

The secret that he had embezzled funds from another organization and invested them on his own was undeniably true.

“There’s only one thing I want to ask of you.”

Lenok, who had casually offered the two men an unspoken mix of persuasion and threat, said,

“There are several guard teams operating in pairs in the detention facility, right? Request a change of duty every time you meet another guard team and switch your posts.”

“…”

“It shouldn’t be difficult now that Nasisa Solmer’s visit has disrupted the work system.”

Beep, beep, beep!!

At that moment, the communicator, which had been out of service, connected, and another soldier’s voice echoed from the other end.

-Lieutenant Caruso. The medical equipment in the cell has stopped working. Is there something wrong?

“…”

-Report immediately if there’s anything wrong. Also, check on the doctors’ well-being.

Caruso, who had picked up the communicator, glanced at Lenok, who smiled silently and nodded.

Caruso, closing his eyes tightly, pressed the communicator button and answered.

“No… there’s nothing wrong. It seems they’re just taking a break to recover their condition.”

-I see. There doesn’t seem to be any problem on the surveillance screen, but I opened the communication network just in case. Is that okay?

“…Of course.”

He hadn’t thought about it in the sudden escape, but there were surveillance devices everywhere inside the facility to monitor Lenok.

Even though it was obvious that the mage was outside the cell, no one outside had noticed anything wrong.

Caruso, feeling a chill down his spine, looked back at Lenok with a hint of fear.

“You can deceive the entire Makina special detention facility, so why us…?”

“It’s easy to spread the cracks, but I have to make the first one myself.”

Lenok smiled.

“It’s a necessary task, even if it’s bothersome, to adjust the direction.”

He had used Davi’s hacking ability to deceive the surveillance equipment, but that was only temporary.

Considering Makina’s excellent security system, which changed the encryption pattern in real time and rebuilt the system, the deception would be discovered soon enough.

Of course, if Lenok stayed here and assisted Davi, he could continue to deceive the surveillance equipment, but that wasn’t what he needed to do right now.

“Your son’s skin condition is likely a form of curse.”

“…A curse?”

“There’s a faint residue of magic that isn’t yours. And it’s quite twisted and tingling.”

“…”

“If he hasn’t awakened such a sinister magic at such a young age, then the cause is somewhat determined, isn’t it?”

“But there was no mention of that in Makina’s hospital…”

“If it’s a curse that was placed at birth, its power will become stronger over time, and its traces will become fainter.”

“…”

“Makina’s researchers are as knowledgeable in magitech as they are uninterested in pure spellcasting knowledge.”

Lenok muttered casually.

“It would be better to visit a shaman or a military diviner. A curse caster wouldn’t be able to help with this kind of problem.”

“…You don’t intend to kill us.”

The soldier standing next to Caruso muttered.

“According to the rumors, we should have been a bloody mess by now.”

“Why, do you want to die?”

Lenok, raising his handcuffed hands, smiled.

“I’m not one to hesitate if that’s what you want.”

“N-No…!! We’ll be going now!!”

The soldiers, realizing the meaning of the nonsense they had just uttered, hurriedly opened the barrier and began to move away.

Lenok also crossed the open barrier and immediately started walking down the corridor.

As Lenok had recommended, the movement of life signs in his sensory range was active, as they used the excuse of shift changes to switch posts.

If he had knocked down the soldiers from the start and taken a hardline approach, he would have had to repeat combat repeatedly until he escaped the detention facility.

However, by partially neutralizing the system and persuading the guards to create a small gap, his range of activity had expanded significantly.

“How comfortable.”

All Lenok had to do was temporarily paralyze the surrounding surveillance devices and escape to another corridor, avoiding the approaching presences.

However, the Makina soldiers wouldn’t be fooled by this simple trick forever, so it was important to use this gap as effectively as possible.

As if that prediction was correct, he turned into the right corridor, avoiding the presences he felt.

All the lights in the corridor went out, and instead, red warning lights began to flash.

Whyyyyeeeeng!!!

[An inmate has escaped from the special detention facility. Code Red alert initiated.]

[All units are to return to the facility to form a perimeter.]

[Security system encryption pattern updated. All corridors and rooms are being isolated and put under protection.]

[Execution agency call completed. Mechanized corps escort 9th legion moving in!!]

A sharp voice boomed from the speakers in the corridor.

It hadn’t been long since Lenok had left the cell, and the guards had already noticed the anomaly.

Even though the screens displayed by the CCTV and all the surveillance equipment showed no abnormalities, they had noticed that the confusion was increasing and the guards were not on alert during the shift changes.

It was much faster than he had expected, but Lenok wasn’t too surprised.

The special detention facility where Makina’s worst offenders were detained before trial.

It was only natural that its security and judgment didn’t rely solely on surveillance equipment and systems.

Clang!!

A loud noise and shouts could be heard from afar.

At the same time, clear signs of magic, enough to be felt by Lenok’s senses, began to be felt everywhere.

“A mage has escaped. Catch him!!”

“I don’t know what he did, but he deceived the surveillance devices. All the doctors are unconscious!!”

It seemed that as soon as they realized that the soldiers protecting the detention facility had been subdued, they had begun to deploy a large number of high-level magic users.

“How could he do that without taking off the magic-blocking restraints…!!”

“There are no signs of him changing clothes or removing his handcuffs. He couldn’t have escaped far!!”

It seemed they were planning to isolate the entire facility with barriers and search for Lenok one by one.

Their judgment was that Lenok would be uncomfortable and unable to move well since he hadn’t fully recovered his magic.

Their response, which had devised the most certain and quickest extreme solution to track him down under that assumption, was flawless.

Lenok nodded, leaning against the corridor wall, thinking that.

“Davi, are you ready?”

[Special detention facility 3D blueprint 88% reproduced. Control room location secured.]

The moment the psionic spirit that had landed on Lenok’s head twitched its tail and drew up magic.

[Temporary Ascendant Gate database random parallel connection. Security system overload 15%…!!]

At that moment, the steel barriers that had been firmly closed on all sides began to vibrate wildly and move roughly up and down.

Kugugugung!!!

In the narrow and long corridors, dozens and hundreds of barriers, surrounded in layers, opened and closed, flying around in all directions.

At the end of it, the faces of the executioners and soldiers were briefly visible and then disappeared again in a bizarre scene.

“The ‘Iron Wall’ is over there!!”

“Catch him!!”

The moment Lenok disappeared through the open door, the door closed, and the executioner who had followed closely slammed the barrier roughly.

Clang!!

“Damn it…!!”

The executioner cursed harshly, looking at the barrier that had only bent halfway forward.

Even though he had slammed it with magic, it was so strong that even most superhumans would have difficulty breaking through it.

This detention facility itself was one of the essences of Makina’s magitech, created to isolate high-level superhumans inside the facility.

Therefore, the fact that the barrier control system had begun to go berserk was a disaster.

Whirr!!

The barrier opened again, and they rushed inside, but Lenok had already disappeared through another door.

“Why is the internal security system of the detention facility in this state?!”

“I-I don’t know. We manage the barrier control permissions differently to avoid hacking or interference…!!”

-The amount of information far exceeding the processing capacity of the security system is flowing back through the database.

The operators, who had grasped the situation, quickly replied through the communication.

“Information is flowing back into the database, causing the system to go berserk? Do you think that makes sense?”

-After checking the source, it’s from the medical equipment attached to the ‘Iron Wall’s’ body. It seems that he has tampered with the devices that were attached to check his magic and biological reactions.”

“…”

The executioners, realizing the meaning of what the operator was saying, fell silent.

The medical equipment that had been allowed to be brought in to grasp and study the magic and condition of the extreme-level mage.

Naturally, the numerical values recorded through the medical equipment were also being stored in the highest-grade security database inside the detention facility.

The mage had been flooding the detention facility’s security system with dummy data by feeding it into the medical equipment that was measuring his body.

If Lenok had tried to escape using force from the beginning, it wouldn’t have been difficult to detect, track, and restrain him.

He had psychologically pressured the soldiers to disrupt the patrol shift, and overloaded the system through the medical equipment.

The most dangerous mage in this city was, ironically, throwing the entire system of the detention facility into chaos without using any proper magic.

“We were wrong from the start. We should have kept our distance and not given him any room…!!”

“Get a grip. We don’t have much time!!”

“From now on, we’ll track the ‘Iron Wall’ and share his destination and direction of movement as much as possible.”

“We need to spread out, share information, and narrow down the direction!!”

The executioners quickly regained their composure and began to share the communication network with the other soldiers.

They quickly gathered information and tracked Lenok among the barriers that were constantly opening and closing.

The executioners, with their unique sharp senses, quickly found a pattern in Lenok’s movements.

“He’s periodically increasing his altitude. He rarely goes down.”

“It seems the ‘Iron Wall’ is heading towards the rooftop on the top floor of the detention facility.”

“What’s on the roof? There’s no escape route there in the first place?”

“There’s a park facility and a store for the inmates, and…”

“And?”

One of the soldiers muttered as if he had belatedly realized something.

“There’s a helipad.”

* * *

Whoooosh!!

A strong wind was blowing on the rooftop of the detention facility.

Lenok, with his hands cuffed, was standing on the corner of the rooftop, which was surrounded by thick wire mesh, wearing only his patient gown, silently looking at the sky.

Click!

“D-Don’t move!!”

A man slowly approached from behind Lenok, aiming a pistol at him.

Lenok glanced back, identified the man’s appearance, and said,

“You’re the rooftop caretaker.”

“M-Mage… stay still.”

The caretaker, sweating profusely, said,

“The executioners are coming up. Calmly go back to your, c-cell…”

“Pistol. You haven’t used it in over three years, have you?”

Lenok asked with a smile.

“It seems you’ve been cleaning the gun regularly, but you should have participated in mock shooting training consistently. No matter how well you maintain it, it’s a thing that breaks if you don’t shoot it.”

Lenok, knowing that he was being aimed at, calmly moved his feet.

The caretaker closed his eyes tightly and pulled the trigger towards the sky, but as Lenok had said, the gun didn’t fire.

The caretaker, who had helplessly lowered the gun that wouldn’t fire with the sound of the spring breaking, muttered,

“Where do you think you’re going to escape dressed like that… You’re crazy, you’re crazy!!”

“I’m not trying to escape.”

At that moment, a strong wind swept in from the invisible sky.

As if a helicopter was landing, it pressed down on the rooftop with heavy pressure, pushing everything around it downwards.

“Uwaaack!!”

The caretaker was also helplessly pushed away by the wind, and in that instant,

Lenok’s body, clutching something with his handcuffed hands, slowly rose from the spot.

At the same time, the form of a pitch-black night raven appeared as if it was being eaten away from the empty air.

Kuoohhhh!!!

“W-What is that!!”

Lenok, looking at the caretaker who was retreating with a terrified expression, stably climbed onto the raven’s wings.

“Davi, how’s the condition?”

[It’s much better than when we were in the underwater barrier, right?]

“It seems Mauzer took good care of it.”

Before entering the workshop tower and finishing everything, Lenok had asked Mauzer to repair the broken night raven.

Mauzer had been fulfilling the request to repair the night raven with the Grazia ore mined from the deep sea, even after the work was done.

Lenok had regained control of the night raven using Davi’s ability and then moved to the detention facility using stealth.

He was planning to escape by breaking through the detention facility’s air defense network at the same time as his escape.

Whoosh!!

At the same time as the night raven flew high into the sky, the executioners appeared one after another from below.

He flew leisurely into the sky, avoiding the snipers who were firing magic and bullets with a sharp attitude.

[The security system of the special detention facility will be normalized soon.]

Davi said.

[There’s only one chance to get out of the air defense network before that. I think we need to set the direction now?]

“Nasisa Solmer and the X-Makina committee members are afraid because they don’t know what I know.”

Lenok answered, bowing his head to the wind.

“That fear is based on my actions, not what I’ve experienced. Among the places related to this incident, there’s a secret that X-Makina wants to hide.”

They didn’t know exactly what that secret was, or what was hidden.

They only vaguely recognized the fact that such a secret existed.

That was why, even though they had detained Lenok, they had been carefully caring for him, paying attention to his condition, rather than treating him harshly.

“The blueprint Kaise left behind. If there’s a candidate location where such a secret could exist, there was only one place from the beginning.”

Lenok smiled, grabbed the night raven’s wings, and muttered,

“The workshop tower of the Furnace General. Let’s go to the ruins we destroyed ourselves.”

[They say the culprit always returns to the scene of the crime, and seeing you, Master, that’s not wrong.]

“…”

Lenok silently raised his hand and pulled the unnecessarily sharp spirit’s ear.