Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 11



Only Noblemtl

Exchange (2)

A ponytailed woman who didn’t hide the fact that her right arm was prosthetic bowed her head to Novak.

“Have a nice day, boss.”

“While I’m away, you’re the senior, so take good care of the kids. Well, I’m not going on a business trip for a few days, and I’ll be back by dawn or morning, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“We will handle it well so that there are no problems.”

“Yeah. If you work hard enough, you’ll be able to graduate, so work hard.”

The woman was at a loss for words at the president’s compliment. Her smile was so bright that even the assistants who came up to the first floor to see Noh Bak off could see it.

Novak set off for the party on board, and his assistants went underground, leaving only the watchmen behind.

Alan and Vito gathered in a dark hallway and talked quietly.

“Did you see that? That disgusting bastard.”

After learning all the facts, Vito stopped calling Novak “Boss.” He always used foul language, as if trying to express his anger.

And contrary to his initial sharp impression, Vito was more talkative than expected. Or maybe it was a way to relieve his anxiety.

“If I didn’t know, I would have fallen prey to those eyes. That guy just now has to bow down to us. He’s obviously the next target, but he’ll survive thanks to us. What’s the plan?”

“Let’s wait a bit. It would be good to wait until after the boat leaves before Nobak joins the cruise ship. That way, if something happens, there’s a better chance that he’ll come back alone.”

“Anyway, the collaborators are all like lynxes who are always looking for an opportunity, so they’ll probably try to solve it themselves. Besides, that bastard is a researcher after all, so he probably doesn’t want to show the fruits of his labor to anyone else.”

“That could be the case.”

“Look at my hands. They’re shaking. How about you? They look the same to me as usual.”

At Vito’s question, Alan looked at his own palm. There was no tremor to be found anywhere in his white skin and long fingers.

“You’re also poisonous. You keep your cool even in times like this. Are you perhaps a golem pretending to be human?”

“well.”

There are pros and cons to everything. Calmness is a virtue of a magic engineer, but it was a wound to Alan because he gained it after the death of his parents.

I closed my eyes, feeling my heart beating faster than usual. I had to calm it down first. A hot head doesn’t help in solving problems quickly, let alone in a fight.

Alan, who was trying to keep his composure by mentally counting the minutes, opened his eyes to a sense of subdued excitement.

“Let’s get started now.”

“Whew. I’m shaking.”

By now, Novak would have either just boarded the boat or was on his way, and if there was any disturbance he would receive a signal and return. Everything had to be done before then.

Alan moved towards the power room with long strides, not running.

“You only get one chance.”

“I know, too.”

Alan charged the iron plate with [Flame] and sprayed it in front of the engine room door, and Vito sounded the fire alarm nearby.

Why!

Sirens filled the basement, and red lights flashed everywhere. The peaceful basement quickly became noisy.

“Where are you? Where is the fire? Find it quickly!”

The assistants and workers moved as they had been trained to do. They held fire extinguishers and ran toward their respective areas.

Shadows stretched out across the hallway leading to the power room. The sound of urgent footsteps grew louder.

However, the assistants and workers who came running quickly stopped when they saw the fire.

Normally, they would have rushed to put out the fire, but unfortunately, it was in front of the power room. Flames rose from the [Flame] iron plate that Alan had thrown down.

The assistant who ran first turned around and ran away at the same speed. It meant that the flames were surging out the door.

“The power room is on fire! Everything’s gone!”

“I brought a fire extinguisher, but it won’t spray?”

“Just throw it away! If that explodes, the whole clinic will be blown up!”

The power room was filled with explosive materials and facilities such as mana generators, mana batteries, and magic stones. The fire broke out in a place similar to a gunpowder depot.

Even if it was the 4th basement floor, which was a secret research lab, the area above it wouldn’t be able to withstand the destructive force if an explosion occurred.

Thanks to the loud voice of the assistant, the news was delivered properly amidst the chaos. Naturally, everyone’s hearts sank.

“What, power room?”

“Get out of the way! Get up quickly! Can’t you even open the door? Get out of here!”

It was a complete mess, a total chaos. The chaos even consumed those who were still maintaining their senses. Fear easily grew in size and easily consumed their composure.

“It’s a good thing the guy who ran was a coward. If I wanted to check properly, I would have had to knock him out.”

“It helped us that Novak killed his experienced assistants to make it easier for him to take control of the clinic.”

The first assistant who came to see them was not very attentive or calm, so it saved Alan or Vito the trouble of having to step in themselves.

The two of them jumped into the power room, past the slowly dying fire. The security system did not stop Alan and Vito, who had been granted entry.

I turned off all the switches and gathered the cart that I had previously stacked with magic stones and mana batteries.

The next destination was Novak’s private elevator. Alan stopped the cart in front and took out the Paru he had kept.

“Let’s go.”

“I hope it will be okay?”

“Failure is not tolerated. If you make even the slightest mistake and get caught, you will not die in peace. As you know, there are many ways to keep someone alive while ignoring their human dignity.”

“Yeah. It’s so comforting.”

“Then I will open it.”

Alan stuck the hammer in between the door and started swinging it wildly. Without much force, the door creaked open, revealing its dark interior.

“Although he is weak, he is also very clever.”

“Please install quickly. The power room will be restarted shortly.”

“I’m doing it.”

Vito drove the pulley into the wall and threw the rope down. The two slid down as if they were using a rope.

Alan, who got on the elevator, opened the door on the ceiling like before and went down. Vito, who followed him, brightened the elevator by emitting light from his artificial eye for Alan.

“You’re really fast at breaking and fixing things. I guess you need to be good with your hands to handle runes.”

“Focus. Open.”

Paru was once again stuck in the elevator door. The door squeaked open. Alan, who caught a glimpse of something sparkling beyond the gap, pushed Vito away with his foot.

“Avoid!”

Drrrrrr!

Alan’s voice was drowned out by the gunshot. The inside of the elevator turned into a torn piece of tissue in an instant.

The cause was a surveillance turret hanging upside down from the ceiling. The turret was cooling its hot muzzle.

Vito, who had been catching his breath while clinging to the wall like a cicada, glanced out into the hallway.

“I think there is an external power source. I will take care of that.”

Vito immediately placed both hands on the headgear-shaped Evie. A faint light flashed inside the headgear as mana flowed through the circuit.

Squeak!

Then came the horrible sound of metal twisting from the ceiling. The gun barrels of the turrets that had been aimed at the elevator were bent toward the ceiling.

“It’s solid. If you leave it like that, you won’t be able to shoot. There’s another turret, but what do you do with that? You’ll have to wait a while to reuse your telekinesis.”

“I’ll take care of that.”

Alan put on his contact lenses right away. He closed his eyes and his vision changed in an instant.

The rat-shaped reconnaissance golem that had been working so hard until now was waiting for Alan’s order in the ventilation shaft. The golem escaped the ventilation shaft and hung upside down on the ceiling. In this way, it avoided the gun barrel and clung to the turret.

pop!

There was nothing to check. Alan ran through the secret lab, ignoring the turrets that were disabled by the snapped cables.

“Is this all for additional security? It’s easier than I thought.”

“I took care of the rest with Golem. I prepared it in advance, so all I had to do was light a fuse and pour my magic into it.”

Arriving at the center, Alan removed a clump of mana cables stuck to the tank.

“Hey, that looks really heavy… No.”

Vito, who had been quickly clinging to the tank and supporting the bottom with both hands, smiled awkwardly.

“It’s not water, it’s liquefied magic. For some reason, it sparkles a little like water.”

Liquid horsepower was denser than air power. It was used when high power was needed or when storing valuable items or materials, as it is now.

Of course, the price was exorbitant.

“This is truly a precious item. I can trade it as you say.”

“I just hope it works out. Once you show me the tank, I guess we can have a conversation.”

Alan tied the tank to a rope and used a pulley to hoist it up. Once they reached the level where the cart was, they carried the tank up to the roof of the clinic.

In the empty space surrounding the clinic, the assistants were having a heated discussion. In fact, it was more like one person’s scolding. The ponytailed woman growled at the assistant who had been the first to yell.

“You said the power room was on fire? Why is it still okay?”

“Then you go in and try. I absolutely can’t do it!”

The assistants next to him nodded. Normally, they would have listened to the senior woman’s words since Noh Bak had something to say, but since it was a matter of life and death, no one was willing to step forward.

“You little cowards. When the boss comes, you all···”

“Look over there! It’s Alan and Vito!”

Everyone’s eyes turned to the rooftop at someone’s shout. The strange behavior of tying up various things in a tank on the rooftop was noticeable to everyone.

“What are they doing? What is that cylinder?”

“There’s no such container even in the second floor laboratory. The only place where something like that would be is the president’s secret laboratory?”

“What are you guys doing!”

The commotion was suppressed with a single shout. As the owner of the clinic appeared, the gathered assistants and workers split to either side, making a path.

After finishing his additional work, Alan watched the scene. As expected, Novak was alone.

‘He probably didn’t want to show weakness to the local powers or the cartel people.’

Now, we pretend to care about each other with smiling faces, but if we expose our weaknesses, it wouldn’t be strange for someone to bite us.

Besides, it was a banquet hall where people gathered with their shoulders hunched over. They probably didn’t want to become the laughing stock by talking nonsense.

As people tend to look at one place and become curious, Noh Bak’s head naturally turned upward.

“Alan, Vito? Wait a minute…”

The tank in the middle of the two. An alarm signal suddenly rang.

Noh Bak immediately grasped the situation. Veins bulged out viciously from all over his twisted face.

Vito averted his gaze at the fierceness, but Alan did not lower his eyes as usual. He looked straight into their eyes with confidence.

“Everyone, get out of the open space.”

Noh Bak sent all his men out. The water tank was a secret among secrets. It was not something to be shown to those who were mere long-term pawns.

As they retreated, Nobak ground his teeth.

“Were you dissatisfied with the necklace? You foolishly intended to take it off when my time came, but you betrayed me like this?”

“···.”

Alan knocked on the tank silently. Seeing that, Novak got straight to the point.

“What do you want?”

“freedom.”

“You’ve become short-spoken. You wicked bastard!”

“It depends on the person. So what do you plan to do?”

“Get on your knees and beg for forgiveness even now…”

“Don’t say such obvious lines. Does anyone here believe those words? Even you just blurt them out.”

Novak clenched his fists and took his keys out of his waist pocket. Before he could do anything, Alan pointed to the tank.

“Stop. Look at this carefully. What do you see?”

At Alan’s words, Novak’s artificial eye switched to high magnification and scanned the surface of the tank in detail.

An iron plate with [Flame] written on it, with magic stones and mana batteries wrapped around it to add firepower.

“Do you know how much effort I put into that container? The firepower to blow your head off won’t even scratch it!”

“Then give it a try.”

Alan just laid his head on the side of the tank, his usual expressionless face a considerable advantage in this case. The absence of even the slightest muscle movement made it difficult to tell whether he was simply bluffing or being serious.

“Fuck.”

Noh Bak’s beard trembled. He was filled with anger at being humiliated by a toy, but he couldn’t throw away the research results he had worked on for decades.

In the end, Novak threw the key to the ground. To Alan, his life was the most important thing, but to Novak, the result in the tank was his life.

Originally, in these types of fights, the one with more wealth would lose.

As Nobak’s magical powers wavered, fierce rays of light shot out from the artificial eye.

“If you do something stupid, I’ll tear you both to pieces. No, I’ll leave only your heads behind and make you so that you can’t even die.”

Alan immediately put the key he had obtained with Vito’s telekinesis on his necklace. As the chains that had been covering his neck disappeared, a cold, refreshing wind caressed his skin.

“Finally…. Take it. And start it.”

Vito took off his collar and ran down the back of the clinic. Novak screamed impatiently.

“How long do I have to put up with this?”

“Just wait a moment.”

Soon, as he heard the sound of a car moving, Alan pressed the power button on the projector with his toe.

At the same time, a video clearly showing what kind of experiments Noh Bak had conducted in the secret laboratory and what materials he had used floated into the air.

It was another bomb prepared by Alan. The assistants and workers who had retreated outside the vacant lot were now slowly approaching. Novak’s urging was of no use.

When a certain number of people gathered, this time he threw the key to the place where they were gathered. It was a complete chaos. Everyone rushed to shake off their restraints first.

Noh Bak’s face turned bright red, enough to raise concerns about his blood pressure.

Alan, who was watching the scene, quickly ran to the back of the rooftop and jumped onto the bed of a pickup truck that was passing by.

Krrrr!

There was a clap of thunder. The Mana Engine is originally quiet, but a virtual engine sound was added for the benefit of drivers and pedestrians.

Alan endured the shock of the fall and opened the small door connecting the cargo area and the seat.

“Run as fast as you can! You need to make some distance now!”

“I’m trying!”

As Alan disappeared, Novak bent his legs slightly. His thighs and calves bulged and the seams of his smartly tailored suit trousers burst.

Noh Bak, who had immediately leapt up to the roof of the clinic, examined the tank containing his life.

Tit ti ti.

60, 59, 58···.

As the number decreased, the face became distorted.

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