Chapter 83 : Chapter 83
Chapter 83. World of Art (3)
Riman thought looking at that man pretending to know him.
Is he someone I know?
No.
Then how should that man's reaction be interpreted?
‘…Don't tell me he noticed my intentions?’
Riman quietly sucked in mana.
‘I intended to handle it quietly, but to stand out like this…….’
That moment when he concentrated mana at his fingertips while thinking so.
The man looking at Riman said.
"It's you! The guy who applied for the model part-time job!"
"……?"
The man said while approaching Riman.
"Wow, as expected, looks are striking. Handsome, huh? Right, one should be at this level to think of volunteering for a model part-time job."
Saying looks are striking, saying handsome.
Words he hadn't heard even in his previous life.
‘But… I’m not that handsome even now?’
Thinking so, Riman inadvertently looked at the building's show window.
And immediately understood.
Why that man said he was handsome?
Because actually, Riman's appearance had improved much more than before.
Cheeks that were sunken unsightly were smoothly filled, and the bony physique was also balanced to some extent.
Furthermore, the dry skin was also smooth and well-organized.
As physical specs increased due to Physiquesio, appearance improvement also occurred together.
So that man naturally mistook Riman for the figure drawing model part-timer.
‘…This is another unexpected side effect.’
Well, nothing bad about it.
Since there's no disadvantage to see from becoming handsome.
Furthermore, luckily using this appearance, he even induced the other side's misunderstanding.
‘…Anyway, things are working out easily.’
Riman approached the van with a smile for external use as much as possible.
"Yes, that's me."
"I knew it. Name is Johnny, right?"
"Yes."
Skillful lie.
The man opened the van door and said.
"Get in. Let's go right away."
"Yes."
Like that, Riman got into the burgundy van.
The car started to go toward Francis's studio.
And Saya followed the car from a distance.
5 minutes after the car left like that.
"What the, where is the car?"
The real model Johnny stood by the roadside searching for the car aimlessly.
The burgundy van that would never come.
"Damn it, where did they go after making an appointment?"
He muttered curses.
Of course, Johnny did not know.
The fact that the misfortune he faced right now was actually the greatest luck of his life.
* * *
Screech-
The van stopped.
The place where the car stopped was in front of a building not so high.
It looked ordinary, but looking closely, the appearance was a bit bizarre.
Because all windows were blocked, and even the open windows were narrow enough that a person couldn't escape.
Of course, considering the things happening inside, it was an understandable structure.
Rumble-
The building's shutter began to go up with a heavy sound.
Not an ordinary commercial shutter, but a thick shutter door likely to be used in military facilities.
A door boasting strength that wouldn't budge even if a dump truck rammed it.
A level requiring at least anti-tank weapons to penetrate that.
Starting from the fact that such a thing was installed in a general building, it was evidence that this building was doing suspicious things.
‘…As expected, thanks to connections with high-ranking officials. They installed such an expensive door well enough.’
The van entered inside the shutter door, and soon the door closed again.
Now the inside of this building was completely cut off from the outside.
The van stopped.
"Get out."
Including Riman, three men got out of the van.
The man said.
"Go inside first. We'll pack some luggage and go."
To enter inside the building, one had to pass through a large door.
A door that looked like nothing special outwardly.
But Riman recognized the device installed on that door.
‘It’s a mana detector.’
Equipment determining whether the passing person is a mana user or not.
‘Indeed, if the person brought is a mana user, it would be difficult to commit the crime.’
In short, that was a kind of filter filtering people.
At the same time, it was an object Riman had no reason to care about at all.
Riman passed under the mana detector with nonchalant steps.
Ding-
A green light turned on at the corner of the mana detector.
The men from the van who saw that whispered.
‘A normal person.’
‘Good.’
The three of them also passed under the mana detector soon.
However, as they passed, the color of the light changed.
Beep-
The corner of the detector shone red.
These three were mana users.
One of them whispered to the others.
‘Then now…….’
‘Let’s handle him.’
One secretly took out a taser from his bosom.
And sneakily approached from behind so Riman wouldn't notice.
Of course, Riman was seeing clearly what the guy was doing with [Detection].
‘Sigh, predictable bastard.’
Now if an attack comes in, he just had to deflect it with a barrier and counterattack as it is, but…….
‘…No, since it came to this, shall I test something.’
It was a technique he had conceived from before, but there was one defensive technique he couldn't attempt due to physical limitations.
Riman decided to use that now.
Because he felt like it would be possible with his current body condition.
So Riman intentionally turned off the barrier.
Huuk!
The man swung the taser toward the back of Riman's head.
The taser plugged into the precise location properly.
A location capable of knocking one out immediately the moment it plugs in.
However, such a thing did not happen.
"Uh……?"
The taser was dead.
It was strange.
Because the taser was working properly.
The green light on the taser was informing that.
But Riman had no reaction at all.
And the strangest point above all.
Not a single spark was flying from the taser either.
Even if operated against an insulator, sparks flying is normal.
"Why is this……!"
"Are you looking for this?"
Crackle-
The man saw.
Sparks flying inside Riman's palm.
Electricity flying pitch-black.
It wasn't electricity Riman generated with mana.
It was capturing the current of the taser that flowed into the body as it is with mana and sending it down to the hand.
Capturing and seizing the attack the opponent applied and changing it into his own weapon.
Riman said.
"I'll return it."
Riman thrust the electricity held in his hand into the man's abdomen just like that.
Zzzt!
"Keok……!"
The man rolled his eyes back and collapsed just like that.
Riman picked up the taser the man dropped and held it.
Seeing their colleague getting done in, the other men immediately went into combat stance.
"That bastard……!"
"Get him!"
Pshhh!
A blade spouted from one guy's arm, steam from the other guy's arm.
Both were Enhanced Humans with modified arms.
Riman pressed the button of the taser looking at the two.
Zzzt-
Blue sparks flew from the taser.
However, that was also momentary.
The sparks started to degenerate into pitch-black gradually.
The current of the taser was being encroached by Riman's mana.
Pababa……!
Riman pushed mana long toward the end of the taser.
Following this, the black spark started to increase its length gradually.
Soon a long whip made of current was created in Riman's hand.
"Yiaaaah!!"
Toward the guys rushing in screaming, Riman swung the electric whip.
Lightning taking the form of a whip struck the guys.
Zzzt!
"Aaaack!"
"Fuck……!"
One fainted just like that.
On the other hand, the other one with a big build barely endured the electrocution.
Riman swung the electric whip again toward the guy who endured.
Chwarak!
Whip wrapping around the guy's mechanical arm at once.
The moment the whip touched, it scorched the surface and internal circuits of that arm.
Crackle!
"Kkeuaaaack!"
The joint area of the mechanical arm and shoulder was scorched almost as if fried.
This guy also rolled his eyes back and sprawled on the floor.
And the taser also stopped together.
"What, battery ran out."
Riman threw the taser on the floor.
It was a simple battle, but there was a harvest.
Because he completed a new defensive technique in actual combat.
Just a moment ago when the guys tried to plug the taser into Riman's body.
Riman intentionally turned off his barrier.
And that moment when the electricity of the taser was about to touch his body.
Riman snatched the electricity using mana and flowed it elsewhere.
Furthermore, even returning that snatched electricity as it is.
This was, in short, a technique that could be called magical parrying.
In the sense that it flows the opponent's attack instead of blocking or deflecting it.
‘With this method, I can wield much more effective defensive arts than now.’
Until now, Riman's defensive arts were only two.
Blocking through barriers, or evasion using senses.
But barriers were strong against physical attacks but weak against mana attacks, and evasion was disadvantageous against wide-area attacks.
But if he uses even this magical parrying, he could respond much more effectively to magic attacks too.
‘If necessary, I can even make the opponent's power my own.’
Actually, the principle itself was a simple technique.
Since he had often used techniques like snatching fire from a flamethrower or controlling pooled water with mana.
But to use this for defense, reaction speed and casting speed had to be raised tremendously.
So a technique that was impossible in the past.
But now it became possible.
Because through battles so far, mana circulation speed increased tremendously, and thanks to physique improvement, the body's reaction speed rose further.
It was the moment a new defensive art was born.
‘Then shall I go into search in earnest.’
[Detection]
Whoong!
Riman's [Detection] spread to every corner of the building's 1st floor.
‘Total number of CCTVs in this space is seven.’
Riman spread his palm.
At the same time, he superimposes images in his head at once.
Thought was shaped at a much faster speed than before.
‘Winged meteor, debris of starlight.’
[Firefly Fire (Hyeonghwa)]
Whoosh!
Seven small fireballs bloomed above Riman's palm.
And assigning one target per fireball.
After laying a path with mana between CCTV and fireball, Riman released the fire.
Fireballs ejected all at once.
Piiing!
Pop-pop-pop-pop!
The fireballs smashed the CCTVs in the blink of an eye.
With this, all 1st floor CCTVs were silenced.
At the same time, an emergency was raised in the CCTV room.
"What?!"
"1st floor CCTVs are all down!"
"It's an intruder!!"
They weren't paying attention when Riman was frying the trio with electricity, but only looked into the CCTV when the screen went off.
They realized instinctively.
That something was going wrong strangely.
The building's security forces started moving hurriedly as if to make excuses for negligence of duty.
Taking firearms, forming ranks, dividing by movement paths, they went down to the 1st floor quickly.
Blocking all accessible passages, they pressured into the entire 1st floor.
Although they were negligent, they were people who knew the structure of this building thoroughly.
There was no place for Riman to hide from them.
And that was the same for them too.
None among them could go outside Riman's grasp.
Chijik-
"Uh?"
Kwaaaang!!
Along with an explosion sound, one squad was swept away.
It was due to an explosion that burst suddenly under their feet.
[Flame Seed (Yeomhwajong)]
Before the security forces came down, Riman had planted seeds of fire in every entry path of theirs.
Furthermore, he intentionally set the mana structure of Flame Seed unstable to explode if shock was felt.
Security guards not knowing this fact were swept into explosions one by one as a price for stepping wrong.
Kwagwagwa!
Furious explosion sounds swept the building's 1st floor.
Riman stood still listening to the explosion sounds.
He intended to go up to Francis's studio immediately after processing here ends.
And a while later, the explosion sounds stopped.
But Riman did not move.
‘…One didn't explode.’
For some reason he didn't know, one of the planted Flame Seeds didn't explode.
This means one enemy squad survived.
Cheujeu-
Riman quietly sucked in mana and prepared for the next battle.