246. Post-processing (2)
tumble tumble.
Every time Oliver and Wallace moved, brown powder crumbled to the floor.
The true identity of the brown powder is none other than blood.
It was what Oliver and Wallace wore when they fell into a pool of blood.
“…that doesn’t make sense.”
“Iknow, right.”
Wallace, who had regained his energy forcibly, said as he looked at himself, and Oliver agreed. He’s not picky, but Oliver likes clean things too.
Then a huge metal door appeared in front of them.
It’s the only entrance to the chimera lab, and a closer look reveals something like a lever inside.
In order to enter, I had to touch the metal door to authenticate ‘fingerprint’ and ‘magical flow’, but fortunately, I only had to pull the lever to get out.
‘I’m glad. You can avoid a difficult situation.’
Oliver thought as he looked around the crowd outside with the eyes of a warlock.
Wallace put his hand on the lever.
“Check again before opening. Was the world tree okay?”
“Yes·····. At least when I checked.”
Oliver answered, recalling the moment he had access to the World Tree.
As the female warlocks said, the secret lab in the lab was finished so that the World Tree could not be seen, and measures were taken so that other floors also did not leave records.
Except for one.
One of the man-made Root Nets secretly hid and recorded everything in the lab, which Oliver erased.
Thanks to this, there was little chance that a trace would remain within the reach of Oliver’s ability.
“Of course, there may be things that I haven’t been able to check because of my lack of ability.”
Wallace thought for a moment, then answered.
“Well, it could be…. In the first place, the world tree itself is a short-lived thing, so it would be impossible to completely deal with it. But don’t worry too much.”
“······?”
“Somehow, it seems that there is nothing that you miss.”
Wallace said with sincerity rather than simple consolation.
There was no reason to say so, but he was sure, and Oliver was unwittingly persuaded by that conviction and nodded his head.
“thank you.”
“Okay, then open the door. Remember what you said to match me.”
“yes.”
“great.”
As soon as he heard the answer, Wallace pulled the lever, and with a heavy sound, a huge piece of iron split left and right, and the fresh morning sunlight came into the laboratory.
surprised voice.
“Hey, what the fuck…”
***
In front of the Chimera Research Institute affiliated with the School of Life.
There were about twenty people gathered there.
All of them were wizards, and they were employees of a nearby laboratory.
Except for a few cases, we do not have frequent exchanges with each other, so we did not meet like this, but because of the unknown commotion that occurred last night, everyone flocked to this place.
“What are you doing here?”
“Because of the commotion last night. We’re the lab upstairs.”
“Ahh···.”
“It sounded like an earthquake, but didn’t you feel it?”
“We felt it too. That’s why I came here.”
“Damn it. What is happening in this village?”
“That’s what it means…. By the way, doesn’t the professor from the tower show his nose?”
“professor? didn’t you hear me? I heard that they sent an assistant professor instead of a professor.”
“Professor staff? No what…”
They’re not friendly, but thanks to the limited space called Mountain Face, they got to know each other, and maybe it was because of the homogeneity that was lost in the competition for advancement in the horse tower, people started talking to each other.
Most of the story was about complaints and commotion last night.
After all, it wasn’t usually a fuss.
Shocks reminiscent of earthquakes and violent noises from deep in the ground.
It would be difficult to pass it up normally, but since it overlapped with the time when missing persons occurred, the heads of each research institute reacted sensitively.
So I guess they sent the researchers at the bottom to find out.
Oh, and it wasn’t just the junior researchers who came here.
Some people came to check it out, like Sophie, director of the Herb Research Institute.
“Whoa….. Why did the knight yangban come here?”
Sophie spoke to the truck driver in the corner, holding her breath like furniture. In one hand was a smoking pipe cigarette.
“Will… No, I’m here at Zenon’s request.”
Xenon. An employee who came on behalf of Kevin. Sophie remembered him.
“Please?”
“Yes. I brought you here last night.”
Sophie felt awkward in her words.
“Here, you brought Xenon?”
“Yes.”
“But you came earlier, didn’t you?”
“Because he said he had left something behind and asked me to bring it. It was late, so I asked him to go to sleep and come in the morning.”
“So. Xenon last night. Heard here and sent you down.”
“Yes.”
“Hmmm…. What did you ask me to bring?”
As the driver struggled to answer the increasingly interrogative questions, he heard the sound of a gigantic structure moving.
Taken from n̲o̲b̲l̲e̲m̲t̲l̲.̲c̲o̲m̲
Naturally, everyone’s eyes turned to that direction, and the eyes of the people gathered in front of the Chimera Lab were all at once.There was no response when I pressed the pager, so I wondered what had happened.
“Hey, what the fuck…”
One of the people who was looking at the iron gates that opened on either side said without realizing it.
It was rude, but it was somewhat understandable considering that the first thing I saw when the door opened was a pair of men covered in blood.
Researchers murmuring at people who don’t get paid for their dubious teeth. Some of the dogs were preparing magic.
Seeing them like that, Oliver opened his mouth very calmly and politely.
“We are by no means suspicious.”
‘Wonderful. Very suspicious.’
Most people thought so.
Eventually, when someone was about to have an accident, Sophie, who was talking with the driver, interrupted.
“Xenon, right?”
Sophie comes forward, smoking a pipe.
Everyone knew who she was, so they paved the way, and at the same time, the prevailing tension was relieved.
Oliver, noticing the change, greeted her warmly.
“Oh, right. Chief Sophie. It’s nice to meet you like this.”
“I am embarrassed. I thought you died in town.”
“I went back. On the way, I met a researcher at the Chimera Lab and came here late at night.”
“Well, it could be. There are many coincidences in the world… But, it’s not a coincidence that you have blood all over your body, can you explain it to me? understand?”
Researchers around Sophie agreed and looked at Oliver in unison.
It was a reasonable question, and she had the highest position among them, so she had already become the representative of this place.
What’s even more surprising is that it didn’t happen naturally, but that Sophie intended it.
‘But there is no malice whatsoever. Rather, I’m trying to help.’
Oliver thought through Sophie’s feelings.
tuk-
Wallace tapped Oliver’s back as he thought about Sophie’s actions and feelings.
signal to act. Oliver suddenly came to his senses and decided to focus on the situation in front of him.
“Well·····. It’s long to explain, but is it okay?”
“Of course. From the looks of it, time doesn’t seem that important…”
Sophie answered, and everyone agreed. Oliver began to explain.
***
“Crazy, nonsense…”
As Oliver gave some explanations, a researcher said:
He rejected Oliver’s words, but with it or not, Oliver was calm.
“I’m sorry, but it’s true.”
“Don’t be silly!”
Another researcher shouted.
“The Magic Tower, and also the Institute of the School of Life, was robbed by a warlock? . . . to make funny noises!!”
They sincerely denied Oliver’s words. As absurd and humiliating.
In a way, it could be said that it was normal.
He claimed to be a Hanjik himself, but nevertheless, this is the area under the jurisdiction of Matop.
That such a place was occupied by a single warlock without even a mouse or a bird was a story that was difficult to accept with their common sense and emotions.
To them, the warlock was nothing more than a low-level being who mimics magic.
‘I thought so too…’
As Oliver looked at the excited researchers and pondered how to calm them, Sophie raised her hand to calm them all.
“Come on, everyone, calm down. Hey. Xenon. Do you have any evidence? A warlock secretly raided and occupied the Chimera Lab?”
“Yes.”
Oliver answered right away.
All the researchers, who were excited by such a dignified answer, stared at Oliver in surprise.
“Can I show you?”
“If only I could do it?”
Oliver immediately took out a pocket watch-shaped mechanism from within. It was an unusual item with delicate magic.
“Is that a storage device made in the Ilmarinen workshop? Do you record things around you?”
“yes? Ah yes. you’re right.”
“It’s a precious thing, but it’s amazing.”
Sophie asks with her eyes wide open. Oliver felt a bone in her words, but didn’t bother answering.
Instead, he skillfully operated the machine and turned on a video.
The machine, which turns on without a sound, spreads the stored magic particles around it, creating a huge 3D image.
It can be said that it is a device that can store images from several meters to several tens of meters in a radius around itself.
[It can be… bite!]
What the storage device showed was right after Oliver and Wallace first entered the Chimera Lab.
As soon as the woman in the outdoor uniform spoke, the video cast shadows, and the bodyguards around Oliver and Wallace rushed in, screaming like beasts.
All the researchers were surprised at the sight and called out their names.
“…rena?”
“race····?”
“Louis? . . . the damn thing….”
It seemed that everyone was shocked and that the shock was considerable.
Their appearance is out of the norm by anyone looking at them.
In particular, the climax was when Wallace wrapped his long sword in flames and cut off the arm of female researcher Lena.
Lena, who had her arm amputated by Wallace, terribly torn off her own shoulder to extinguish the flames that could not be extinguished, and then used blood to create a new arm.
Anyone who sees it is far from a wizard. It was not enough, and he admitted his identity.
[For a warlock, he is quick-witted. If I had been a little late, my whole body would have been burned.]
[I don’t think you’re a normal solver either?]
[Seeing that you regenerate your body like a lizard’s tail, I guess you’re also not an ordinary warlock… Through blood, is it the Bathory family?]
[You think we’re warlocks?]
[No, I think of him as a dirty warlock who sold his soul to the devil. I’ve heard rumors, but we’re going to meet like this. nice to meet you. Did the wizards creep in to steal research materials?]
[Kick. kick. On a subject I don’t know anything about… [Lightning Chain]]
Lena, a female researcher. No, the warlock disguised as Lena recognized her identity, and the video was cut off there.
The people were silent, and Oliver looked around at them and asked.
“Is there anyone you would like to see one more time?”
***
Afterwards, Oliver recounted what happened at the Chimera Lab.
Excluding sensitive topics such as the Biology School and the Batori family’s supremacy and the secret experiment conducted at the Chimera Lab,
The part where Oliver defeats Bathory was also adapted by Wallace.
Taken from n̲o̲b̲l̲e̲m̲t̲l̲.̲c̲o̲m̲
Note that this was Wallace’s suggestion. To tell the truth, it can be very painful. Oliver agreed.Thanks to this, Oliver naturally hides his identity and at the same time does not get any accusations.
The researchers, who had heard the story, seemed surprised that one of the solvers had done so well, but they managed to accept that they did not dare to think that Oliver had done it.
There was also the virtue of having already persuaded them once through evidence.
Suddenly, I thought that persuading people is similar to dominoes.
If you give trust to the first, the second and third times were a little sloppy, but it was a feeling of trust.
There are people who aren’t though.
“Incredible. Defeating Bathory alone. There must have been subordinates.”
Sophie, the Herbal Research Institute, said with a mysterious gaze, as if she were looking at Wallace or Oliver.
“I was lucky.”
“It seems like you are usually lucky.”
Sophie once again spoke with bones. However, as I said before, I did not delve into it any further to see if there was any malicious intent or intention.
It was the same with the other researchers, but it seemed that Bathory didn’t really notice how great a warlock was, rather than being as considerate as Sophie.
‘Well, maybe not that strange. Even for wizards, their fields of expertise are divided. Research, combat, education, etc.’
Then, a researcher interrupted and said:
“Look. Solver teacher.”
“Yes?”
“Which broker do you deal with? Or wherever you belong.”
“Why are you asking that?”
“This is not normal. A very serious attack on the School of Life Lab.”
He was sincere when he looked at his emotional state, but Wallace was mean.
“…the point?”
“I want to verify your identity to see if you are someone you can trust. I don’t mean to insult you, but-“
“-You’re still insulting me.”
Wallace cut his words off at once. People were nervous when the unique pressure was mixed.
“First of all, to answer the question, I am a solver with no affiliation. I mainly work in the Northin community.”
“Are you helping North Koreans?”
Sophie asked cautiously.
“Yes, I need someone like me. So, there is no one there who can give you the guarantee of identity you want.”
“Well then-”
“-Of course, I have no intention of waiting for someone to come to see me at the tower.”
“Why?”
“Why? I am a free man, and you have no right to stop me.”
The researcher who was talking was perplexed.
“Wow, we hired you?!”
“This person hired me, not me. Dare, don’t play with words.”
Wallace pointed to Oliver and everyone looked at him. Eyes telling you something.
But Oliver’s answer was already decided.
“The contract has expired at the end of the day.”
Oliver replied calmly. he can’t do anything
Wallace pointed to Oliver once as if it was the correct answer and moved.
From now on it was important.
A few proud-looking researchers blocked Wallace’s front, but they cringed at Wallace’s eyes.
Wallace was a real warrior, whereas they were researchers.
Several researchers turned to Sophie for help.
‘Are you a magician with pretty good skills?’
Oliver also looked to Sophie to hear her answer.
She shrugged.
“That man is right. We have no right to stop this person, and we have no obligation to stop it. It is his duty.”
Sophie pointed to Oliver.
It was a very natural statement, but the researchers who had forgotten about it due to their pride finally turned aside, and Wallace trudged on.
After Wallace left, everyone’s eyes turned to Oliver.
“How did you come to hire such a person?”
“That will be revealed when I post a report on the tower.”
“okay?”
“Yeah, I’ve just said it out of consideration for all of you who live here, but I have no obligation to say more than this.”
“It’s not wrong.”
Sophie said with a smile instead of being angry.
“Do you really need to write a report?”
“Thank you for your concern.”
After the conversation, Oliver bowed his head slightly to say hello and left. Now it was time to return to the tower.