Chapter 14
A week has passed.
In the meantime, instead of accepting the request from Jenny right away, Lennok delayed the period and proceeded with the bounty hunt a couple of times.
It was to see if there were still any assistive shooting magic that had not yet been used in actual combat.
Except for [Bloody Chase], which is used to track down bounties, instead of electric shock magic, restraint, or magic with strong destructive power, I tried to actively use only shooting assist magic.
It was possible because he was so accustomed to dealing with the bounty that he felt less pressure without having to rely heavily on magic.
The results were satisfactory.
As soon as they approached the inside of the range, they simply pulled their feet and hit both thighs, and the bounty criminals had to crawl on the floor without doing anything.
With [Aim Correction], as long as the range of the revolver allowed, it was possible to capture other bounty criminals alive and hand them over to Jordan.
If you add the [Silence] magic to that, it’s not difficult at all to subdue the target without even noticing it.
It was simple and effective, and Lennok was able to earn an extra 10 million cells in 10 days.
However, it is not entirely without drawbacks.
The combination of the revolver and the sub-magic has upgraded the gun’s specs a few more steps, but the shooting combo made in this way clearly has its limitations.
In the end, no matter how much the shooting assist magic was used, it was bound to be able to shoot the gun faster and stronger.
This is because it is a magic that assists the act of shooting itself rather than giving any effect to the gun fired.
The number of auxiliary magics that a gun can handle is limited, but the efficiency is concentrated in a narrow field, which is a problem.
Considering these limitations, in order to maximize the efficiency of the shooting combo magic, it is necessary to select and concentrate on a method that specializes in one side rather than raising the specs of the gun in all areas.
And that was difficult, at least with a revolver this ordinary.
In the end, in order to perform better than now, a new path was needed, whether it was a better gun or a more powerful auxiliary magic.
Even if it is said that the gun itself is solved by investing money, in order to find a more powerful auxiliary magic, you must eventually find a unique magic system.
Even if it is a relatively low-value auxiliary magic series, is it possible to obtain unique magic using the money he has?
And is it worth it?
‘…I need to find a related case.’
Lennok thought as he walked down the street.
In the world’s magic system, auxiliary magic related to shooting existed only within the common magic system.
In the first place, it was natural because the job itself as a horse musketeer could not learn its own magic.
Because of this, after obtaining a more powerful auxiliary magic system, Lennok was thinking of remodeling the shooting support magic of the common magic he knew inside the system.
But what if this world’s auxiliary magic is different from what he knew? What if there is no room left to modify the shooting support magic?
‘I have to think about it as much as possible.’
Nothing is certain. So, I had to be more careful.
It’s important to understand the power of the shooting assist magic, but for that reason, you shouldn’t be obsessed with it.
There was a lot to do. Right now, Lennok struggles to maintain the precarious balance of life.
If my ankle got caught in one place, I couldn’t resist and it wasn’t strange even if I fell.
When he enters the bar, Jenny is waiting for him, smoking a cigarette.
When I first met him, I didn’t put anything on my mouth, but now I live with smoke.
He seemed to have been holding back until he and Lennok were properly acquainted with each other.
Jenny met his eyes and slowly stood up from the bar she was leaning against.
“Now you are here. Did you enjoy your vacation?”
As she said that, she held out her hand as if asking for something.
“Amnac Pharmaceuticals, right? Hurry up because there is no time.”
“How did know?”
When Lennok took out the papers from his arms and handed them over, he asked, and Jenny laughed.
“That’s the only request with a deadline left until this day. And half of you are strangely interested in medicine, so it seemed like that for some reason.”
“Um…”
Lennok nodded calmly, not saying it was wrong.
“Anyway, contact them. Do I have to make a separate appointment or is the briefing possible here?”
When I asked while sitting on an empty bar chair, Jenny immediately picked up the receiver.
“Wait a minute. Maybe someone in charge will come this way.”
“You’re in such a hurry?”
Lennok muttered that, but Jenny seemed already busy talking to someone over the phone.
I had no choice but to open a bottle of liquor on the counter when someone sitting across from me spoke to Lennok.
“That’s the new customer Jenny talked about.”
A dignified gentleman dressed in a suit. It looks younger than Jordan, but it has a heavy face that looks old enough.
Lennok asked, staring blankly at the man tilting his glass with his back straight.
“Do you know me?”
“You know. Isn’t it the lightning magician of the topic? There are already rumors on this floor. A very vicious bounty hunter who is crazy about bounties and chasing petty criminals.”
“……..”
Certainly, there is nothing to say about being called that since I have been repeating the business of making money by tracking down and catching bounty criminals.
Compared to the various abilities Lenok could do, catching the bounty was fairly easy and effortless, and above all, he had the advantage of being able to choose his opponent himself.
Rumors of this sort of thing had spread before I knew it, as I was chasing after guys with somewhat satisfactory bounties while avoiding involvement with large-scale organizations as much as possible.
“It doesn’t mean bad. In the first place, there are two types of bounties in this city.”
“Two types?”
“Pyramids that no one will care about when they disappear. Or the big guys who wouldn’t even bother with a shot for their neck.”
“…It’s very extreme.”
“yes. The people in between are trying to live while keeping a certain level of goodness. The same goes for Area 49 here. A day goes by without a murder or a robbery, and there’s not a day without the sound of gunshots, but still, everyone tries to keep the line and move. Am I wrong?”
Certainly, there are some unwritten rules that can be felt through the skin even without words.
Various requests that are carried out through the existence arranger of freelancers who move in exchange for thorough indifference.
The man’s words were pleasant enough to be taken lightly, but serious enough to make one think about them.
“so. Who are you?”
“You’re asking too soon.”
He smiled faintly and took a business card out of his pocket and flicked it with his fingers.
Lennok inadvertently raised a finger to pick it up, then hesitated.
The business card the man had bounced off was floating very slowly in the air.
Psychic
A transfer that clearly deviated from the laws of physics. However, Lennok’s sharp senses did not hold any magic.
The man pinched his hand as he watched Lennok grab the business card with two fingers.
“Call me Sebastian. I am doing something similar to Jenny.”
If it’s similar to Jenny, it means that he is also running a business that connects clients and freelancers on this floor and receives commissions in return.
In other words, he was her partner and competitor.
But Lennok was more focused on thinking about what had just happened.
The number of abilities that can be used without magical power is not small, but the number of abilities that work the way Sebastian showed me is limited.
Intuitive and visible results. A transfer without any premonition. Considering that it doesn’t seem to have any special consumption value, it’s probably the type that consumes mental power.
The answer was fixed.
“…He must have been a psychic.”
It is also a class that exerts quite a popular telekinesis.
At Lennox’s words, the man burst into laughter with a pleasant expression.
“ha ha ha!! I showed it openly in front of my eyes, isn’t it natural?”
“……..”
“It seems that the rumor that he came to the city after training somewhere else is true. Normally, there wouldn’t be that many cases of being surprised by supernatural powers. In terms of rarity, in fact, there are far more young wizards like you than old men like me.”
In WORLD, psychic powers had the advantage of being very intuitive, but to be honest, it was not a skill that had great applicability or was good for digging deep.
Because of this, there were few players who chose psychic powers as their main focus, but… psychic powers were only innate abilities, so it was natural that such common sense would not work.
“When will Sebastian come back and play tricks on my clients?”
In the meantime, Jenny, who finished the call, strode over and raised her voice.
Her sharply raised eyes were bloody, but he leaned back leisurely and waved his hand.
“It was just a brief conversation. Don’t get too excited.”
“Somehow, I thought I wouldn’t see you for a while, so I thought it wouldn’t be fun to come out like this.”
“Of course, it’s true that I gave the business card to that wizard friend, but I came because I had something to give to our confident lady
.”
As soon as Jenny received it, she unfolded it on the spot and started reading through it. It was her behavior.
It didn’t take long before a look of bewilderment appeared on her face as she read through the documents inside.
“draft call? Is this supposed to come out now?”
“It is proof that the fire has fallen on the feet of the city government. Didn’t you watch the news?”
Sebastian’s words made Jenny annoyed.
“They said there were more than two months left before the Philenom Dominion’s delegation would visit. A proper response team hasn’t been formed yet, so does it make sense that orders like this are already coming down?”
“Certainly not common.”
He leaned slightly into the bar and spoke in a low voice.
“Rumor has it that one of the city council members is pushing this bill very hard.”
“…Is that because there wasn’t enough money to feed them?”
“It is unlikely. Isn’t it between holding each other’s weaknesses and putting arms around each other’s shoulders? There’s a lot of speculation that you want something other than that.”
Lennok listened to the conversation between the two as he tilted his glass.
The two of them were talking as they were, leaving him nearby as if they had no intention of hiding it from Lennok.
Listening to what he said, it seemed that the city government issued a separate call-up order to private business owners in response to the visit of the delegation from the Philenom Autonomous Territory, which was the news he saw yesterday.
Judging from the fact that Sebastian, who is said to be doing something similar to Jenny, came with such news, it seems that the brokers on this floor were called separately, but judging from the expressions on the faces of the two, it didn’t seem like a light issue.
His expression was serious, but the conversation ended quickly.
Even if the two of them try this and that in this place, they know that no conclusion can be drawn right away.
Sebastian gulped down the rest of his glass and stood up to shake Lennok’s hand.
“Then let me go. If you want to try something different from what Jenny arranges, please feel free to contact me. I’ll be able to give you a different reward in a different way from her.”
With that said, he telekinetically picked up the briefcase and left the bar empty.
Jenny, who was crossing her arms while looking at her back, grunted.
“Anyway, I’m a dark-hearted person.”
“Is this someone you knew from the beginning?”
“Sebastian? You settled on this floor before me. He pretends to run a company in District 45, but he and his customers are all similar. It’s nothing like a turtle.”
Judging from what they were saying, it didn’t seem like they were just acquaintances, but Jenny continued to grumble as if she was offended.
Lennok listened moderately to her words while pretending to drink. Somehow, as time went by, she was becoming more and more useless.
“Well, I can admit to tongue-in-cheek with rich people and business people. If you want to receive a request from an individual, it wouldn’t be bad to go there at least once.”
Even so, Lennok was slightly surprised at Jenny’s words, which seemed to acknowledge Sebastian.
If we were competing for the same freelancer, it wouldn’t be strange to block him from going, but Jenny didn’t seem to be obsessed with that fact.
When Lennok asked her about it, she shrugged.
“Does the customer not leave because the merchant told the customer not to go? I just do what I can.”
“I see…”
If Jenny said that, it wouldn’t be bad to get a job from Sebastian once in a while.
The requests from companies and other organizations she handed over were flawless, but to be honest, the requests coming in on an individual basis were often not good.
If Sebastian could present conditions that would make Lennok’s ears appealing in that respect, Lennok could also go about looking for work with an open mind.
“Anything about him, how about the request?”
He must have come after talking with the Amnac pharmaceutical company, but there has been no word or response yet.
The proposed deadline is today. Could it be that they have already found a separate client?
It’s just that Lennok needs to find another job, but it’s an unpleasant ending for Jenny, who has been culling the request for a long time.
But instead of being annoyed, she answered with a strange frown.
“I will be back soon.”
“what?”
“When I called, he said he would come to see me. So I just left it alone.”
As soon as he finished speaking, someone pushed the door of the bar and came inside.
A worn-out suit, a tired-looking face, an old bag in his hand, and an awkward expression in the dark light.
It gives the impression that it is far away from this bar with hazy smoke.
When Lennok first came here, he probably didn’t look too different. He wasn’t one of those people on Earth who liked pubs and bars like this.
However, humans are animals of adaptation, and we have only gotten used to it as we periodically set foot in this place to make money.
He looked at Jenny leaning over the bar and hesitantly approached and asked.
“There’s someone I’m supposed to meet here…”
Jenny blurted out a single word.
“Amnak?”
“Ah yes… that’s right.”
“I am Jenny. This is half.”
He finally discovered Lennok’s presence and bowed his head in amazement.
“Nice bar. My name is Luan Seiji, Sales Manager of Amnac Pharmaceuticals.”
“Half.”
After greeting Seiji, he didn’t even sit down and sighed as if he was trying to get something out of his bag.
Jenny looked at him and shook her head.
“I’ll give you a separate room, so let’s talk over there.”
It was definitely not a good place to host clients.
Jenny took the two of them up the stairs behind the bar to the second floor of the building.
“……If there was a room like this, shouldn’t you have told me earlier?”
When Lennok, who saw the room with a clean and static atmosphere that seemed to have been brought back to the drawing room of a sophisticated hotel, let out a voice, Jenny snorted.
“What are you talking about when you run away after receiving requests every day?”
“…….”
Lennok kept his mouth shut, as it was true that he always had no choice but to go back to his hotel room to rest or study magic when he got a job.
Seiji sat down with a much improved complexion, probably familiar with the atmosphere of this room.
“Since we don’t have much time, can we get straight to the point?”
As he said that, without waiting for an answer, he immediately pulled out a piece of paper from his bag and handed it to Lennok.
“The fact that you accepted our proposal means that you have already been familiar with this request to some extent.”
“I did look over the contents.”
As Lennok replied, he recalled the contents of the request proposed by the pharmaceutical company.
Currently, Amnac Pharmaceuticals is developing a tranquilizer through small-scale crowdfunding.
It is full of positive prospects that it will far exceed the current net profit of the company, as it has produced more tangible results compared to the size of the company.
The problem is that pressure is coming in to hand over the patent of the drug under development, centering on the district councilors in the district where their head office is located.
The district council member is one of the district maintainers, and is closely related to one of the gangs in the back world, and is using that connection to put pressure on the pharmaceutical company.
Amnak tried several methods to prevent this, and one of them was to spread his hands on the same floor.
“So what exactly am I supposed to do?”
“Contrary to what is known externally that it is under development, the current development of the new drug is completely finished.”
Seiji said in a calmer voice.
“When the district councilor thought that the development of the drug was not completed, he thought of secretly submitting a sample to the Korean Intellectual Property Office, but it has become difficult since the information leaked inside the company.”
“You mean there is a spy.”
It was also common on Earth for companies to plant spies and steal information from each other.
A company with a large scale can prevent this even a little bit as the system, not the person, does the work, but in the case of a pharmaceutical company that is still small, it will be helpless.
Seiji nodded and took out a photo from his bag and handed it to him.
A warehouse located in a remote alley. Judging from the location of the surrounding buildings, none of them were very high, it seemed closer to the outskirts of the city rather than downtown.
“After realizing that there is a spy in the company, the president moved a sample of the new drug developed here. This is because the district councilor was concerned that the sample would be robbed by coercive means. The problem is that it is almost certain that this information itself has also been leaked.”
From what he was saying, security at Amnac Pharmaceuticals seemed meaningless, but Lennok understood.
In a small company, it would be insufficient to silence employees with a relatively loose system.
If you give enough money and promise that there will be no remorse, there will be not a few people who will open their mouths.
“There’s no point in moving samples around anymore if information is leaking out anyway.”
Lennok picked up the photo and flipped it over. Area 54. No. 8. The address of the warehouse was written in light cursive.
“I contacted the Patent Office and was approved to submit a sample the day after tomorrow. I would like to entrust the Wizard with the task of recovering the hidden samples in this warehouse and submitting them to the Patent Office on our behalf.”
Saying that, Seiji stared at Lennok with a nervous expression.
Lennok, who was quietly looking down at the picture of the warehouse, suddenly opened his mouth.
“Did you say Sage?”
“…..yes.”
momentary silence.
Lennok stared into his eyes, then smiled.
“If you want to entrust the work, you have to speak clearly.”
Seiji
swallowed his saliva at the bloody tone.
“What do you mean by that…”
Lennok didn’t reply, but instead held up the commission outline in his hand and shook it.
“Are you writing down everything you want here and then pretending? It wouldn’t be a matter of just collecting and submitting samples.”
Before you start working, you need to clearly point out the parts that you are reluctant to do.
It wasn’t that he doubted the authenticity of the information he gave Lennok, but that didn’t mean Sage had told him everything.
Sage’s eyes fluttered here and there, but in the end he didn’t say anything.
He knew exactly what Lennok was talking about.
Jenny wedged beside him.
“The gang.”
“…….”
“You forgot about the gang. If they know that you have found a freelancer, of course the news will reach the ears of the district councilors, but is there any guarantee that Van will not collide with the gang then?”
The district councilor won’t put his hands on the floor here, but the gang he’s holding hands is different.
If they find out that the pharmaceutical company has entrusted Lennok with the role of collecting and submitting samples, of course the gang will intervene from the other side as well.
“I could really go into hiding and just submit a sample to the Patent Office. do you want that?”
Lennox asked, but there was no answer.
No, Seiji answered that question by remaining silent.
In the end, what Amnac Pharmaceutical Company wants is not a simple errand boy, but an agent of force that can deal with the ward councilor’s gang.
The words were slick, but in the process of recovering the sample, Lennok clashed with the gang and came here hoping to deal with them.
Even so, the dubiousness of not saying it in front of his face was enough to irritate Lennok.
‘…Certainly different from Balitz.’
Considering the dinosaur company that accurately communicated the desired purpose, set different commissions for each purpose, and even paid additional allowances in consideration of unexpected variables, Amnak Pharmaceuticals’ work is at an absurd level.
Lenok also guessed that due to the nature of a venture company, there could be a part where things are handled in a rough-and-tumble way, but does it make sense to try tricks from the moment outsourcing is entrusted?
Looking at the complacent mindset of vaguely taking care of gang members while collecting samples, I didn’t know that it might be better to just give the sample to the district councilor.
Seiji’s shoulders shrunk in an instant, and he began to break out in a cold sweat, as if he was unaware of the atmosphere that had suddenly turned violent.
Lennok held back the urge to get the tobacco out of his arms and glanced at Jenny.
Even if he took his anger out on Seiji right here and now, nothing would come back.
It seemed better to decide whether or not to accept this request after discussing it with her.
Sensing Lennok’s gaze, Jenny grinned knowingly.
“Hey customer.”
“Yes yes!”
At Seiji’s nervous answer, Jenny snapped her head.
“Do you still want to entrust us with the work?”
“That’s right….”
“Then I think you need to negotiate a fee. First of all, he was simply trying to get our mage to run errands no matter what he was thinking, but the risk we thought was different. Do you understand?”
Sage nodded.
Jenny then smiled contentedly and pointed at something with a long candle.
It was Sage’s cell phone that was lying on the table.
“Then call your boss and ask. How much money can you invest in this person and how much money should be given to Ban to grow his mind to beat up the gang he encounters while running errands.”
“………”
“We’ll be out for a while, so feel free to talk on the phone.”
With that said, she very casually took Lennok out of the office.
As soon as the door closed, Jenny said.
“What do you want to do?”
“what?”
“It’s true that he played tricks on the other side, but actually, this level is cute when I see it. If they really tried to trick us, they wouldn’t have even written the story of the district councilor or the gang in the commission outline.”
“…….”
It is not wrong.
It was because of the information written in the summary of the quest they sent that Lennok was able to notice that Seiji hadn’t stated all of his purposes.
“Of course, when I receive a request, I cross-check on my side as well, so I won’t fall for a lame lie, but in this case rather than stab me in the back…” “
Rather than hit me?”
“…I wonder if they were trying to lower the ransom.”
After saying that, Jenny glanced at Lennok and quickly continued.
“Of course, this is just my opinion, and it’s no wonder that you feel bad about it. It’s annoying when someone tries to trick me. It’s your freedom not to accept requests. It doesn’t matter if I send that old man back right now. No money on this floor, no work? It’s enough if I get another request from tomorrow.”
Lennok laughed as he watched Jenny pour out his words like water.
Even though she must have figured out what kind of personality Lennok is now, her attitude of always approaching with prudence was enough to earn Lennok’s favor.
She even seemed to have some idea that Lennok was quite wary, contrary to his own temperament.
“What do you think the difficulty of the request is? Is there a possibility that the district council will directly intervene?”
“It won’t be difficult. I’ve been looking for it separately This is for sure.”
said Jenny.
“The gang that Councilman Mayer joined hands with is a gang consisting of about 100 people, and it is not a large-scale gang even in the 50th district. Except for the boss, who is said to be a unique half-blood, the others are said to be no different from scavengers. It won’t be difficult to deal with.”
Considering that it has the name of a gang, it must be an organization with at least dozens of people, but I don’t feel any pressure from Jenny’s words.
He already thought that Lennok was not at the level of being bound by simple numbers.
In fact, Lennok was also thinking that if it was that level, it would be possible to deal with him in a non-dangerous way.
The battle with the scavengers that you dealt with with the Krimgal Mercenary Office.
There, various magics including [Chain Lightning] used by Lennok had the potential to enable individuals to deal with groups alone.
Maybe it wasn’t a bad thing to turn that possibility into certainty once again in this quest.
Lennok, carefully choosing his thoughts, nodded.
“…..good. Instead, I want to raise the commission fee more than this.”
As long as it wasn’t to avoid gang battles, it wouldn’t be unconscionable to receive a little more risk pay.
At Lennox’s words, Jenny grinned.
“Leave it to me. Did you see that I already threw rice cakes?
After she finished speaking, the door to the office opened terribly.
Seiji carefully held the cellphone with both hands as if she were holding her master.
He looks at the two and nods his head wordlessly.
Lennok silently shook his head as he watched her mouth tear open right next to him.