Genius Engineer in the Labyrinth - Chapter 13



Only Noblemtl

Exchange (4)

Alan opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the full moon high in the sky. A cold, indifferent single eye looked down at the lower world, and then met Alan’s eyes.

The full moon disappeared behind the pitch-black clouds, either out of shame or because it thought you were not worthy of seeing me.

Even though the light source that illuminated the meadow had disappeared, the surroundings were still bright. Sparks from the grenade scattered here and there, pushing away the darkness.

‘Where is Nobak?’

Alan followed the pursuer’s trail. The pain of being beaten with a club bit his whole body, but the most important issue at the moment was Novak’s life or death.

The first thing I noticed was the light from the fire and the dark shadows from the wreckage of the truck that had been caught in the explosion.

Alan shook his head from side to side. Perhaps because it was night, his field of vision was narrower than he had thought.

It was a feeling I had often had since the vision in my left eye gradually deteriorated due to Novak’s experiment, but for some reason it was worse today.

As if he only saw the world with one eye.

Alan reflexively raised his palm to the left side of his face.

‘I can’t see it.’

Only then did I feel the liquid flowing down my left cheek. I gently swept my finger over my cheek and looked at it with my right eye. The liquid was red.

The shield wasn’t enough to block the grenade explosion. Or the wreckage of the pickup truck that crashed along with it might have taken revenge on Allen.

Even though he suddenly became cross-eyed, Alan’s expression did not change.

To begin with, that eye was losing its luster due to Novak’s experiments. I thought that one day it would be replaced with an artificial eye, but that time came sooner than expected.

Alan let out a deep breath and sat up. His muscles and bones cursed his brain, which was giving orders, but he had no time to listen to the complaints now.

Alan picked up a Mana revolver lying around. It was a revolver in name only, but it had no round magazine and the barrel was shaped like a square battery.

As I held the handle, a blue light came on where the bullet should have been. It was a sign that Allen had loaded the bullet with his magic power.

‘Fortunately, it didn’t break.’

Alan stepped forward, aiming his only lifeline. The moment he bit his lip against the pain that was surging in, a drop of water fell onto his hand.

Rain starting to fall little by little, wind blowing from somewhere, flames flickering, shadows dancing together.

A foreign entity rose up from within. As it moved, a scraping sound of iron plates could be heard.

“Nobak···.”

Alan pulled the trigger without hesitation. There was no gunpowder, so there was no sound of gunfire. Instead, a blue flash of light moved forward with certainty.

His hands and arms were shaking so much that his accuracy was not high. Only one of his five shots landed a valid hit, but even that was blocked by the iron plate that Nobak had used as a shield.

The red light emanating from Noh Bak’s eyes stared at Alan. Goosebumps ran down his spine, but he moved his fingers as each bullet was loaded.

‘The power of the Manarivolver is only similar to that of a pistol. But that means that Novak doesn’t move…’

It was clear that something was wrong with his legs. Otherwise, he would not have stayed still while the enemy who had destroyed his homeland was nearby.

Alan moved cautiously. The pain forced him to move slowly, but the results of his actions were similar.

Several glowing bullets flew by, but the iron plate presumed to be the car door protected Noh Bak’s body well.

And his posture changed. He was still crouching, but instead of covering himself with the metal plate, he held it to the side and twisted his waist.

Alan instinctively raised his arm to cover his face. He watched Novak’s next move through the gap. It was not the time to complain about having only one eye and having limited vision.

Novak’s waist turned. His arms moved much faster than that.

The dented door slammed into Alan. He was already weak, but now he was injured and there was no way to escape.

“···!!!”

It hurt so much I couldn’t even scream.

Fortunately, the body of Novak was not in good shape, so the throw was not cool. It bounced on the ground a few times and hit Allen with the surface, not the line. However, the mass or hardness of the car door did not change.

Alan, whose left arm was suddenly broken, barely managed to get up. His right eye, which was left alone, was still glaring at Novak.

Novak, who had raised himself against the fire, burst into laughter as he watched Alan staggering.

“That’s funny. Did you really think you could get away with it?”

“···.”

“Well, I acknowledge your skills and potential. You learned the runes without being taught.”

Other assistants were taught to look over his shoulder, but Alan was never given that kind of training. He was meant to quickly gather data through experiments and offer it up as a sacrifice to the eyes.

It was also because Noh Bak felt uncomfortable with Allen. He had a blank expression even when he experimented on himself or when his eyesight deteriorated. More than anything, he had a bad feeling about it.

“It was my mistake. When I was younger, I would have just done what my instincts told me to do, but as I got older, I just had more free time. Thanks to that, I was able to pull myself together.”

“I should have put more iron plates in the tank···.”

“That’s amazing. Or maybe I overlooked the hyper-magic. Who knew you could carve so many runes in such a short period of time?”

The runes didn’t work if just anyone drew them. You had to draw them by putting your own mana into the rune pen and responding to the changing flow of mana in real time.

“The ingredients are your own mental power and magical power. If you had shown me your skills, I might have accepted you as a true disciple.”

“That’s funny.”

“haha.”

Noh Bak let out a positive laugh and grabbed the prosthetic leg with his hand. He stood up, forcing the twisted metal frame into place.

“Let’s end this now. No. You will be an example to me of what happens if you oppose me.”

Nobak moved slowly. Looking at the crushed grass and ground, he could guess how heavy his body coated in magicware would be.

Alan aimed his Mana revolver with only his right hand. While they were talking, the loaded bullets were fired several times.

Boom! Boom!

Every time that happened, the spherical shield covering Noh Bak’s body would ripple. It was less stable than when he was shooting with a sniper rifle, but it was enough to block the current shots.

“Did you think I was just playing around during our conversation?”

Nobak smiled wickedly. His current appearance was quite bizarre when combined with his other appearance.

The artificial skin was completely blown away, exposing the metal skeleton. The only parts that were intact were the face and upper body, and the rest was tattered like a rag, so much so that the artificial organs inside were visible.

Although it looked ridiculous, like a half-built robot, it was powerful enough to dismember a person.

Alan looked up at the sky for a moment. The rain was getting heavier. The fire was dying down and the surroundings were getting darker.

Then something stirred at the edge of his vision. Alan’s eyes moved rapidly, his gun still aimed. There was a broken tank and snow strewn about on the grass.

Secondly, I wondered why he was unharmed by the explosion on the roof of the clinic.

‘Why is the tank here?’

Alan’s eyes scanned Novak’s waistband. The pocket that had always been there was gone. The impact of the explosion had torn the pocket open, sending out the contents inside.

Alan rolled to the side, almost throwing himself forward. Born with hyper-magic, he had never had more perfect control over his body.

I put the gun in my pocket and picked up the eye. It felt quite strange. It felt like I was stroking living tissue, or like I was touching smooth glass.

Alan thrust his drooping eyes forward. His drooping eyes, like those of a seafood-like creature, resembled those of a limp octopus or cuttlefish.

“you···.”

The remaining skin on Nobak’s face was greatly distorted.

“I just managed to stabilize it, but then its integrity was compromised! Don’t touch it with your dirty hands!”

“Watch your blood pressure.”

Still expressionless, but smiling with his heart, Alan slowly brought his eyes closer to her face.

He couldn’t stand against Novak for long. Firstly, the cartel had joined hands with him, and secondly, it was because of Alan’s condition.

His body was losing strength, and his mind was beginning to waver. The bleeding and pain were slowly eating away at Alan.

Above all, I couldn’t try the same threat again. Not only was there no car to run away with, but if I gave in anyway, I would be certain to die.

“If you touch me even with your fingertips, I will never let you go!”

What can I do when I already have him? Alan ignored the threat. If he was going to collapse here anyway, he wanted to give Novak an unforgettable memory.

Alan breathed magic into his eyes. Even though his body was completely damaged due to the excessive magic, Manaheart was still plentiful.

Usually, when you push magic power into something like this, it will recognize its owner. Even if he dies, Nobak would have to waste a lot of time trying to turn it back.

Wiggle!

The eyes fluttered like buds welcoming rain in a drought. After consuming a little more magic power, the eyeballs rolled around and met Allen’s right eye.

As his eyes moved on their own, a strange, indescribable feeling passed over the back of Alan’s neck.

“you!”

Nobak, who had been walking slowly, moved his joints in a big way. It was funny because it looked like someone with numb legs was forced to walk. Of course, if he was caught, he would be so scared that he would forget about it.

The eyes that had been vibrating faintly slowly turned around. They stared into Alan’s empty left eye socket.

At the same time, the optic nerve, which had been hanging down, rose like a tentacle and entered the eye socket.

“Ugh!”

A strangeness and a pain that would not be felt under normal circumstances stabbed his brain. Alan ignored it and continued to apply magic.

The eye, with the optic nerve completely engulfed, was buried in the left eye socket.

And then my left field of vision brightened again.

“ah!”

Alan couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration. He had never seen such a sight before. Even though the moon was covered by dark clouds and the lights in the meadow were all out because of the rain, it still looked bright.

It was dizzying because my left field of vision was limited, but it was important that I could still see. I could adapt after surviving.

‘There you were.’

At the same time, I could see what I hadn’t seen before. Vito’s figure was visible behind the rubble. Judging by his slightly moving chest, I could tell he had fainted.

“You are ignoring what I say!”

Alan aimed his Manarivolver at Novak again.

“Do you think something that cheap will work?”

As Novak said, Alan ignored it and removed the output controller of the Manarivolver. If he pulled the trigger in that state, it would break in a few shots.

‘That’s enough.’

Somehow, a sense of confidence welled up in me.

Strange colored dots, lines, and surfaces visible on the artificial eyeball. There were also black dots on the surface of the spherical shield protecting the nobile.

Alan instinctively aimed for that point.

Click!

As soon as the trigger was pulled, a blue beam of light shot out in a straight line. Normally, it would have been blocked, but the flash of light pierced the shield and refracted inside.

“Ugh···.”

The body of Nobak, who was hit on the back of the head by the bounced lightning, collapsed. A small amount of smoke rose from there and his body began to catch fire.

In this case, I had to blame the strong shield, because if it was weak, it would have just broken.

‘But there’s still one step left.’

Alan turned around, looking at the number ‘1’ on the revolver. He got a piece of iron pipe and pulled Vito out from under the rubble.

“Get up.”

“···.”

Alan sighed and gently placed Vito’s unresponsive face into a puddle of water that had formed nearby.

“Phuha!”

The response came right away. As expected, water was very useful.

“Eww! Nobak! Nobak?”

“It’s over there.”

“Wow… How did you catch it?”

Vito gaped at the sight of Novak being put on makeup.

“You did a good job.”

“How do you think that’s ‘good’? Uh… your eyes?”

Sure enough, Alan’s eyes were bright brown, but his left eye was emitting a blue light. For a moment, it changed to the same color as his original eye.

Alan answered, rubbing his eyes.

“These are the eyes that Nobak was studying.”

“Is that okay?”

“No problems so far···.”

Suddenly, a crack appeared on Alan’s face. His previously silent left eye was absorbing excessive amounts of magical power.

Although his Mana Heart capacity was several times greater than that of someone who had trained for the same amount of time due to excessive magical power, his body trembled helplessly.

The eyes absorbed the magical power as if possessed. It seemed that he knew why it was stored in a tank full of liquid magical power.

This phenomenon was also a great burden to Allen. He was already suffering from physical damage due to the difficulty in controlling his magical power, and his stomach was also hurt because of his eyes.

At that moment, his left eye moved on its own like a chameleon. Alan instinctively picked up the cubic object in his field of vision.

The coolness contained within the object seeped down my arm and gently soothed my left eye, which was constantly getting angry.

Alan stared at the object in his hand, not knowing what to do with his eyes that had become as quiet as a full lion.

“That’s a magic stone. It says that its origin is Maze City in the Soldos Federation.”

The magic stone was similar to a magic stone that contained magical power, but was different. As its name suggests, it was a stone that contained energy that was much purer and more powerful than a magic stone.

It is a stone that can only be found in a labyrinth, and you have to either catch the monsters that live there or mine it with luck.

“Is there anything else? It looks like the contents inside were damaged when the space pocket was torn.”

“Let’s get moving first.”

If I waited until morning and searched the ground carefully, I might be able to find some useful equipment, but for now, I had to get out of the way.

Vito also nodded, looking at the cluster of headlights in the distance. If he didn’t get out of the way quickly, he would face the wrath of the cartel for losing a good partner.

Once they were quite far away from the battlefield, Vito opened his mouth, which had been tightly shut.

“Are your eyes okay? I saw earlier that they were still unstable, so I think you calmed them down with a magic stone. Hmm… Since they’re also a type of artificial eye, wouldn’t it be okay if I took them out?”

When Vito took his hand, Alan’s left eyelid closed on its own.

“It might hurt a little, but just bear with it for a moment.”

“I didn’t feel it.”

“what?”

The eyeball closed its eyelids on its own.

“Could it be that there is a self in those eyes?”

“I don’t think so.”

Besides, it wasn’t something to be taken out carelessly. Alan’s senses whispered so.

“First, we need to check how it is mounted.”

“Oh, that’s right. We have to be careful, since these aren’t standardized eyeglasses from a large company.”

Alan hid among the trees and chewed on the word ‘Maze City’.

It was so huge that it seemed as if it could be called a city, and it was home to the world’s largest labyrinth.

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