Chapter 9
As Max released his Psychokinesis, the water that had formed the shape of a spear splashed onto the floor.
Riding the momentum, he immediately counterattacked.
Invisible Psychokinesis reached out toward the opponent.
[Death Roll]
The Mage realized that an unknown magic power was interfering with his clothes.
He wrapped his entire body in water infused with magic power to protect himself.
“It takes too much magic power to directly interfere with and twist the physical body…”
He had to distribute it well.
There was a reason he went out of his way to use clothes or strings to suffocate his targets.
“Huu.”
Max used Psychokinesis to move the rebar piled up in the factory.
At the same time, the minigun fired, and he fired the grenade he’d boasted about from his left palm - Thump! The grenade slipped right through the black smoke billowing from the shutter explosion.
However, no explosion occurred in the garage.
“Fuck, it’s a dud! Mage! Detonate it yourself!”
“Fucking idiot…”
At the minigun’s request, Max crumpled his expression and shot the rebar at the Mage.
Flustered by the sheer volume flying at him, the Mage took cover behind a pillar before revealing himself again.
He seemed to be trying to buy time, realizing things hadn’t gone as planned on his side.
“Once the objective is achieved, we just need to pull out.”
Whether the grenade’s failure to detonate was intentional or truly a coincidence was a matter to be judged after this was over.
Right now, Max is facing off against the Mage, and the hood is fighting the Spearman who broke through the window.
The two 2nd-Tier Mercenaries who hadn’t shown themselves were still out there somewhere.
His right hand aimed the minigun to support the hood.
The water controlled by the Mage clung to the minigun’s face.
“Ah, damn it! You’re being a pain in the ass!”
The water rushed into his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears like loaches. Having to push it away with magic power was appalling.
It was a ridiculous sight to discuss lethality, but if left alone, he would drown.
‘I’ll take care of him before the rest show up.’
Max made his decision and dashed toward the Mage.
The opponent looked flustered at the sight of him closing the distance even though he was a Mage.
“He must have figured out Severing and Psychokinesis by now.”
The only branch the opponent didn’t know about yet was Impact.
He was certain that if he just closed the distance, the advantage would go to him, someone who was sick and tired of dogfights.
“Uraah!”
“What the hell is with this bastard.”
He knocked down a Mercenary who suddenly rushed at him with a punch.
Max pursued the Mage who had fled into the Ghost Logic building.
“Y-You bastard…!”
Water gathered around him and shot out like arrows.
It was a monotonous attack and a simple application of his magic.
‘He’s the type who isn’t used to using his body. His running is slow.’
Max used the building’s pillars as shields to dodge while drawing up his magic power.
Paang!
Psychokinesis shattered the building’s windows, sending glass shards flying.
CRACK!
He ripped off all the doors attached to the corridor and sent them flying at the Mage.
“Son of a bitch!”
He was keeping his eyes on the Mage who was moving the water while spitting curses.
Max applied Impact Magic and kicked off the floor.
Thud! The distance closed in an instant.
Floating in the air in a parabolic arc, Max aimed his palm at the Mage who looked back a beat too late.
“Nice to meet you.”
The compressed Impact exploded.
2nd-Tier Impact Magic.
[Impact Shell]
“Keheok!”
The Mage, hit directly by the magic, vomited blood.
His chest was caved in as if struck by an iron ball. He was definitely dead.
‘That’s one taken care of.’
Max didn’t stop.
He went straight up the stairs.
‘Since I’m already inside, I’ll release the Neon Shade too.’
It was still squirming in his arms. It was tough, befitting a creature deemed impossible to exterminate.
He headed to his destination with the blueprints in his mind.
“Here.”
With Psychokinesis, Max tore off the cable ties binding the box and started recording a video.
“Squeak? Squeak squeak!”
When he opened the box, a flashing rat crawled out.
It had been trapped for hours in a narrow box where even breathing was difficult, yet it moved perfectly fine.
“Go eat your food.”
As if it had caught the scent of wires, the baby Neon Shade climbed the wall and burrowed into the ventilation duct.
“Good. The Personal Request is done.”
After sending the video to the Association, he checked the situation outside.
The hood and the minigun were trying to corner the Mercenary with the spear, but Ghost Logic’s 1st-Tier Mercenaries were forming a formation and using hit-and-run tactics, making the task look like a hassle.
It seemed the five 1st-Tier Mercenaries who were on their side were already dead.
“Or they ran away.”
This was an important crossroads.
Should he join the battle, kill the Spearman, and wipe out the 1st-Tier Mercenaries?
Or should he head straight to the garage and destroy the truck and the dud fired by the minigun?
“In principle, the mission comes first.”
Now, when the two 2nd-Tier Mercenaries expected to be at Ghost Logic were nowhere to be seen, it was the perfect opportunity.
The moment Max made his judgment.
A man holding a large hammer staggered out from the end of the corridor.
He was presumed to be one of the unseen 2nd-Tier Mercenaries of Ghost Logic.
“Where were you hiding, only to show up now?”
Closing the distance at an unbelievable speed, the man slammed his hammer down.
The blunt weapon fell, spewing sparks.
“!”
The empty space between Max’s hands.
He caught the hammer with the void where his Psychokinesis was intensely concentrated.
“Grrrrr!”
Even though he caught it perfectly, it felt like his hands were going to shatter.
Max’s expression crumpled.
“This bastard?”
Pitch-black blood vessels bulged on his face like spiderwebs, and his eyes were nothing but whites. He was drooling and even muttering to himself.
“…White Rampage.”
An Illegal Doping Agent, it contained powerful narcotic components.
Its addictiveness was so severe that it was impossible to overcome with personal willpower.
“This is dangerous.”
When used, reason flies away, pain is forgotten, and physical abilities skyrocket madly. But the skeletal structure breaks down, unable to withstand the movements, and the muscles undergo necrosis.
Because mental derangement also follows as a side effect, it’s considered cheap despite its good effects.
‘No matter how cheap it is, it’s not something you can easily get your hands on.’
Of course, there must be various routes.
But the biggest route Max remembered was Cheonmyeong Pharmaceuticals supplying it to the subcontractors of their subcontractors who were involved in disputes.
“Kihit!”
Another guy, similarly high on drugs, appeared at the end of the corridor. It was a guy with four prosthetic eyes embedded in his face.
He was holding in one hand the corpse of a woman in a suit. Looking at the corpse’s clothes and the ID card hanging around her neck, he realized she wasn’t a Mercenary but an Employee of Ghost Logic.
‘Aren’t they mercenaries hired by Ghost Logic? What is this?’
Holding a sword dripping with blood, he jumped outside to where the hood and the minigun were.
Because they were unable to even distinguish between friend and foe, their screams echoed from outside.
‘I don’t know about anything else, but I do know their entry was delayed because they were high on drugs.’
Max twisted his body, deflecting the hammer to the floor.
With an explosive sound, the corridor collapsed. In the moment of falling, a man moved his magic power.
[Wire]
‘This bastard’s raw strength is close to the 3rd-Tier.’
However, the lack of reason, the dulled senses that couldn’t feel pain, and the madness became his weaknesses.
“Uwaaaah!!!”
Covered in dust, the guy who fell down with him swung his hammer.
The blunt weapon flew at the wall beside him, smashing it like styrofoam.
[Shield]
Clang!
The Shield, compressed to the size of a plate, shattered instantly.
It was a reverberation like being rolled up in a mat and beaten with an iron pipe.
“Keugh!”
Max was launched into the air and flew out the window.
At the same time, the Wire connected to his body and to the wall pulled taut like a bowstring nocked with an arrow.
Piiiing!
The head of the guy holding the hammer popped off cleanly.
Max got up only after rolling over and over on top of the garage.
“Ptooey! Ah, this really isn’t something a Person should do.”
He spat out the regurgitated blood. His stomach churned, and his entire body ached.
He rummaged through his pockets, but there was no candy to wash away the taste of blood.
“…”
Standing on top of the garage, he looked down.
“Ki, kihihit!”
One Bladesman who had entered a state of frenzy from doping.
The hood and the minigun, as well as Ghost Logic’s Mercenaries, were all dead.
He was playing around, repeatedly stabbing the corpses.
‘He has quite a few wounds, but they aren’t effective enough against a guy high on drugs.’
He quietly carved out the area beneath his feet with Severing.
He swept through the garage with Psychokinesis.
“There it is.”
The grenade that had ended up as a dud.
He lifted it with Psychokinesis and threw it.
“Kyaaak!”
The guy who was playing around reacted with uncanny speed while slicing corpses with his sword.
He turned his body to slash the flying grenade.
“Heup!”
Max clenched his teeth and moved his magic power.
[Bind]
2nd-Tier Psychokinesis increases the density to compress the target.
It was only for a very brief moment, but it fixed the opponent in place, bringing it to a halt as if it were taxidermied.
“Kiaaaah!!!”
“Stay still… for a second!”
Just holding onto the thrashing guy caused blood to leak from between Max’s lips.
And the thrown grenade arrived.
This time, it exploded without a problem.
Booooom!!!
Just as the minigun had boasted, it was an explosion worthy of pride, cleanly blowing away even a bulletproof car.
The junkie’s torn limbs and crushed prosthetic eyes fell from the air with a thud.
The battle was over.
“…”
Suppressing the urge to lie down right then and there, Max went down to the garage.
The back door of the target truck was open.
What was packed tightly inside without a single gap was a familiar item.
“White Rampage? How many are there?”
Were they trying to help with another Corporation’s dispute?
Ghost Logic, which couldn’t even take care of itself properly?
‘It stinks to high heaven. I’ll pretend I didn’t see it when I report.’
Max headed to the Driver’s seat.
After fiddling with the navigation and skimming through the documents piled on the passenger seat, he found exactly one destination.
“Gaia Food.”
It was a food Company that Max also remembered.
It was no exaggeration to say that a Company that targeted the poor rather than the Upper Class as its customers took Responsibility for the Lower District with its cheap food.
Even if they were small now, one of their food products would hit the jackpot and increase their size.
‘It’s a place that didn’t really have any disputes in the past, though?’
He didn’t know the reason Gaia Food would need White Rampage.
And in such massive quantities, too.
‘I’ll just keep it in mind.’
Max searched the pockets of the minigun guy, whose body was split in half, and found grenades and sticky bombs.
He used Psychokinesis to push the explosives into the garage.
When he threw the grenade in, a firestorm erupted in the garage, melting everything away.
Max was satisfied and called the Association.
“…Yes. Please send a vehicle. One will do.”
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Returning to the office, Max spent his time recuperating and organizing.
The day he had promised to meet Flora dawned.