Chapter 601: Pieces and Parts (3)
Lennok hadn’t used his own blood to write in the notebook without a second thought.
His unique ability of targeted resistance, combined with the subtle distortion of his aura due to his Outer God consciousness, created an unusual incongruity.
This was somewhat different from when vampires like Madam or Murphy requested his blood.
Furthermore, he was confident that using his blood through an artifact like this would absolutely not reveal his secrets.
But he never imagined that the entity beyond this notebook would mistake him for an Ascendant.
“So, even if it doesn’t know who I am, it can infer my background to some extent through my blood.”
Lennok fell into thought.
“Which one…”
Outer Tribulation City and Military Spirit City, both mentioned by Madam as potential storage locations for Kaiser’s body.
It was ironic that even at this point, both cities still held some possibility.
If it were Outer Tribulation City, where long-lived species resided, it wouldn’t be strange for it to feel a sense of déjà vu, something akin to an Ascendant, from Lennok’s blood.
And if it were Military Spirit City, which observes all spiritual phenomena in the world, it would be understandable if it succeeded in detecting Lennok’s transcendental spirituality.
Regardless of the other party’s firm misunderstanding that Lennok was an Ascendant, this alone made it difficult to deduce their true identity.
[What should we do?]
“Do what?”
If he were to correct their misunderstanding or retreat meekly now, he wouldn’t have started in the first place.
“There’s no reason to tell them they’re wrong.”
If the other party mistook Lennok for an Ascendant, he would simply exploit that fact thoroughly, as long as it didn’t harm him.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad idea to test how much information the other party would disclose, simply because they believed he was an Ascendant.
Lennok dabbed his blood once more on the back of his hand, then immediately picked up the pen.
[I heard you’re storing Kaiser’s body.]
[After Faud’s rebellion, the higher-ups decided to change the storage location for Bajour’s body.]
The answer came immediately.
[We selected the location with the cooperation of Fearblood Duke, and determined the storage method after consulting Grimalder.]
“…”
[The current caretaker of the body is named Erithnid. She is the 8th to take over the duty, following Madlen and Jovenson.]
Perhaps because the other party truly believed Lennok was an Ascendant asking questions, a single keyword prompted a flood of detailed information.
The explanation was far more elaborate than expected, making it difficult to even recognize who was who by name alone.
He could only assume they were individuals who had cooperated with Kaiser’s project decades ago.
“The 8th caretaker…”
Madam hadn’t mentioned which number caretaker she herself had been for Kaiser’s body.
Considering that, wasn’t it still worth remembering that the successor caretakers for Kaiser’s body had changed eight times?
It was difficult to comprehend unless the caretaker’s job itself was incredibly demanding, or there was a specific reason to periodically change caretakers.
[This stack of paper is much more obedient than I thought.]
“We don’t have much time. Let’s move on to the most important question.”
The sentence Lennok wrote immediately vanished, and a new one began to appear below it.
[I’m looking for Kaiser’s body. Where is it?]
[Ascendant, regrettably, I do not know the answer to that.]
“…”
Lennok silently met Davi’s gaze and blinked his eyes slowly, then wrote the next sentence.
[Tell me why.]
[Discussions regarding that began and were fully concluded before I was re-created.]
Lennok paused his pen, not understanding the words, when the sentence reappeared.
[Information from periods when I did not exist cannot be accessed by my authority. I apologize.]
Created. Did not exist.
Realizing the meaning of those words belatedly, Lennok slowly moved his pen again.
[What is your name and identity?]
[I am Zyble.]
The notebook replied.
[I am a Blood-Thought Scribe that was designated as forbidden literature and destroyed centuries ago, then re-created by vampires 50 years ago.]
“…”
Only then did Lennok realize that the entity he had been conversing with was not human, and he let out a wry laugh.
It was an artifact with its own intelligence, recording and managing information through this notebook.
It had drunk Lennok’s blood, awakened, and was now directly speaking to him, explaining the necessary information.
“Davi, you knew, didn’t you?”
[The rate of communication was too consistent for an organic being to transmit messages.]
Davi’s reference to the other party as a “stack of paper” wasn’t just a grumbling observation of its appearance, but an accurate designation that saw through its true nature.
Meanwhile, faint letters began to appear intermittently at the bottom of the notebook’s page.
[Time is… running out. To use the remaining authority again, further warm-up is required…]
“…”
So, regardless of the notebook’s favorable disposition towards Lennok, its usable time was limited?
Without delay, Lennok chose the most efficient question he could extract from the notebook.
[Of the project’s involved parties, a schedule for two or more to meet. Tell me the most recent date and location.]
[…]
Before long, a new sentence began to appear at the very bottom of the notebook’s page.
As if its power was exhausted, the sentence was short and abrupt, its tone concise.
[Two months from now. District 6.]
“…District 6?”
It was one of the central districts designated as a Sealed Zone, and a place where a large quantity of past administrative documents, processed by the city government, were stored.
It was a district he had personally visited before, with the help of Pallard O’Con, during the Defense Force Rebellion Incident.
Compared to other sealed zones, it was relatively more accessible, and there was a possibility for outsiders to enter.
His past activities in this district had even led to Lennok being selected as a team member to resolve the fallout in District 25, so in many ways, it was a place with which he had a connection.
“A Blood-Thought Scribe…”
Did Madam know that the notebook, which called itself Zyble, possessed such abilities?
No, Madam was not so oblivious to potential gains that she would readily hand over a notebook that could communicate autonomously.
It must have been that the notebook, having drunk Lennok’s blood, spontaneously brought forth its intelligence and attempted to communicate with Lennok.
As a result, should Zyble’s mistaken belief that Lennok was an Ascendant be considered a gain?
“It wouldn’t be something that spews out information without any cost. Its activation conditions and stored mana were too low for that.”
Lennok closed the notebook and tucked it into his pocket, muttering.
“It’s more accurate to think of it as a memory device that can only record and reproduce information on specific themes or systems.”
[Given it calls itself a Blood-Thought Scribe, it’s probably related to the theme of life blood.]
And that would be proof that the method of storing Kaiser’s body in the Black Consumer Project was still strongly linked to blood.
He would have to test the notebook further to confirm the details, but for now, Lennok was satisfied with having obtained a clue necessary to track the body.
“Interesting. Kaiser’s body might be in another city, but the traces Kaiser himself left behind are in the Machine City.”
Even though the Black Consumer Project undeniably took place in the megacity, its failed remnants were scattered across the continent.
Lennok quietly murmured as he watched a rumbling cargo truck approach from afar.
“Then in the end, I’ll have to see it with my own eyes.”
The blueprint of the massive chamber drawn in Kaiser’s research log.
The coordinates of the Machine City, Machina, and the Ascension Gate project that had already failed there once.
A step towards answering a long-buried question.
The preparations were complete. Now was the time to seek the answer.
Creak!!
The old cargo truck stopped in front of Lennok.
A grimy man, with half-closed eyes, resting an arm on the driver’s seat, glared at Lennok and asked curtly.
“Ticket?”
“No. You want to check that?”
The transport Lennok had chosen for Machina was not for those with tickets who were treated as proper guests of the city.
Rather, it was an unauthorized passage for those who had no entry permit but were desperate to return to Machina somehow.
He thought there was no reason to leave any traces since he was leaving to find Kaiser’s remnants.
That’s why Lennok, despite having obtained a ticket through Davi’s ability, lied to them that he didn’t have one.
The man snorted at Lennok’s question.
“It’s just the easiest question to confirm you’re a customer, so don’t mind it.”
“…”
The man gestured impatiently towards the truck’s cargo bed.
“No time, get in fast. It’ll take a long time to get to the Machine City.”
Lennok deftly adjusted his coat, concealing Davi within his embrace, and smiled faintly as he stood up.
“I will.”
Rumble, rumble, rumble!!!
Days passed, indistinguishable, as he rode in the old cargo truck.
Before he knew it, Lennok had left the megacity behind and arrived beyond a vast, endless wilderness.
The truck occasionally stopped, people got off, and new ones boarded before it set off again.
The journey to the Machine City, Machina, was longer and more tedious than he had expected.
Passengers, packed like live cargo, rode in the narrow, dilapidated cargo bed, which could hold a dozen or so people at once.
Among them, Lennok recognized a few faces.
‘I see faces from bounty posters.’
[Some of them even have higher bounties now.]
Those trying to enter Machina without a ticket were, naturally, mostly disreputable criminals or fugitives.
They were only individuals who had lost all their support in Vulcan’s underworld and sought to start anew in a different city, or those so cornered they couldn’t even contemplate that.
“Everyone in? Then we’re off!!”
The middle-aged man at the wheel shouted, and the truck immediately lurched forward.
He didn’t wait for an answer, nor did he confirm all passengers were aboard.
The truck sped off as if its sole purpose was to escape this tedious wilderness.
“Your clothes are quite clean, sir.”
Someone sitting next to Lennok, who was quietly lost in thought, looking out the window, spoke to him.
An elderly man with white hair, holding a dust-stained bottle of liquor, was looking at him with a grin.
“You won’t make it safely to Machina dressed like that.”
“…”
A face from the bounty list in his memory. A bounty of 9 million cells. Charge: Arson and Murder.
“You might not know, sir, but this truck isn’t designed to safely deliver people without tickets to the Machine City.”
The old man glanced around subtly and whispered quietly.
“It’s a kind of ‘sales product,’ making a profit through various ‘commercial activities’ on the way to Machina.”
“Sales product, you say?”
“That’s right. See those fools getting off and walking from here because they’re too stingy to pay?”
The old man chuckled, watching the people trudging outside the window.
“We should be grateful to those idiots. As long as those fools are emptying their pockets, even their lives, we’ll be safe.”
“…”
Instead of replying, Lennok gazed at the old man’s right arm, which he was subtly concealing even as he clung to Lennok.
The unmistakable shape of a mechanical arm visible through his old clothes.
Lennok saw it, gave a slight chuckle, and asked the old man,
“Why are you telling me this?”
“People with clean appearances like yours usually have something to fall back on.”
The old man said, not bothering to hide his obsequious smile.
“Well, I’m not asking for much. Just in case something happens, I want to have a backer, you know.”
Regrettably, the old man’s wish did not come true.
The next day, after a night passed in the truck and the sun rose, the old man who had been sitting next to him had vanished without a trace.
“…”
Instead, other passengers around were looking at Lennok with unusual glances.
They weren’t just subtly observing him; they were openly giving him strange looks, even turning their heads slightly.
Lennok, aware of this, instead focused on reviewing the magic research he hadn’t yet finished, closing his eyes.
As Davi became somewhat capable of using Common Magic, Lennok had resumed his research into Common Magic, which he had paused for a while.
The correlation between unique magic and common magic. Dexter and Sinister. Lennok had put these aside because these concepts weren’t used in this world.
In a way, wasn’t Common Magic the only knowledge Lennok had possessed from the Old World from the very beginning?
Considering the value that Old World relics and knowledge held in this world, it was certain that Lennok’s Common Magic still had room for further exploration.
There was ample room for development. Plenty of opportunities to integrate it with Lennok’s achievements so far.
What he needed right now was time to deeply delve into the magic of the Old World.
Vroom!!
With each passing day, the number of passengers in the truck kept changing.
It increased and decreased, but Lennok realized that the number of passengers ultimately only dwindled as the days went by.
People in the seats in front of and behind Lennok, and even the seemingly innocent-looking passenger in the passenger seat who seemed least aware of the situation, vanished overnight.
And one day, when Lennok woke up and opened his eyes.
Lennok found that only the driver and himself remained in the old cargo truck.
“…”
Vroooom!!
As if there were no longer any eyes to care about, the driver carelessly swerved the wheel, turning around a winding road.
In the distant horizon, a faint shape of a city seemed to be visible, but the driver no longer seemed interested in heading towards it.
Screech!!
The driver soon parked the truck near a valley lined with colossal rock formations, got out, and nodded at Lennok.
“Get out.”
“…”
Lennok silently rose from his seat, stretched outside the cargo truck, and yawned.
The entire surrounding landscape was a secluded plain hidden among towering rock formations.
More than a dozen people, perched on various rocks surrounding the old truck, looked down at Lennok with askance gazes.
“Is this the guy?”
“Definitely. He smells like money.”
“He looks clean, but…”
Lennok leisurely stretched his neck and body, watching the people whispering among themselves, then asked,
“It seems we’re not far from the Machine City. Is there a need to rest now?”
“…”
One of them, exchanging bewildered glances, stepped forward and said,
“Friend, do you still not understand what’s happening?”
“Not really.”
“Oh? Then perhaps a teaching aid would help your understanding.”
As the man snapped his fingers, a cloth covering one of the rock formations was pulled away.
Flap!!
Dozens of dead bodies, nailed into the rock wall, came into view.
They weren’t merely nailed to the rock; their internal organs had been completely removed, leaving nothing in their gaping bellies and empty eye sockets.
Lennok surveyed the bodies and then, spotting the face of the old man who had spoken to him earlier, he clicked his tongue softly.
“He looked old, so I thought he’d survive, but he was unlucky.”
“As you can see, we’re employees who harvest our customers’ organs and sell them to Machina.”
The man leisurely patted his stomach.
“Although it’s called the Machine City, it’s still a place where people live, so organs like these sell for a high price.”
“…”
“It seems they need a lot of these organ specimens for human experimentation and testing the side effects of cyborg procedures. It’s a very good source of income for us.”
“So?”
“Well, if we sold all our customers, word would get out, and we wouldn’t be able to do business anymore, so we usually refrained from killing everyone, but…”
The man said, pointing at the driver who had driven the cargo truck with Lennok.
“This guy here strongly insisted that we had to catch and sell you.”
“No, I saw it!!”
The driver retorted to the man with a strong tone.
“That bastard, he was turning starlight into mana all by himself at night!!”
“…”
“He’s definitely a wizard with a very rare talent!! If we don’t sell him here, we’ll regret it forever…!!”
“That’s what he says, what do you think?”
Lennok scratched his cheek.
He had experimented with the efficiency of Property Transformation of mana while researching Common Magic, and it seemed someone had secretly spied on him.
Could there have been someone among these outlaws with the keen eye to recognize what Lennok was doing?
“It’s nothing special. Just a trivial trick.”
“Oh, really?”
The man smiled broadly, clearly not believing Lennok’s words.
Click!
The man pulled out a thick, folding blade from his pocket and tapped it, saying,
“We’ve been thinking a lot, you see. Because while this business is lucrative, we can’t keep selling other people’s organs forever, right? The Enforcers are looking for us with burning eyes.”
As the man slowly walked towards Lennok, a breeze blew, revealing his bare upper body.
The sight of a cyborg, half of his shoulder, arm, and chest replaced with mechanical parts.
Sinister red light scattered from between his joints as the man spoke.
“So we were waiting for a customer like you. One last big score, then we’ll clean our hands completely, that’d be just right.”
“…”
“You have a ticket too, don’t you?”
The man asked with an knowing grin.
When Lennok didn’t answer, he nodded understandingly and raised one arm forcefully.
“I’ll show you something we bought at a high price from Vulcan’s black market to tame wizards who don’t listen, like you.”
Click, click!!
The man proudly presented his mechanical arm, which had instantly transformed into a massive cannon.
“This is an Agent’s Focused Hand Cannon, rumored to have directly injured that heinous wizard, Adamant Thunder!!”
“…What?”
“Needless to say how lethally this thing works against wizards.”
The man gazed contentedly at the fiercely rotating barrel inside his mechanical arm, then thrust it out towards Lennok.
“They say the Director of Aegis herself authorized its sale. If you don’t want to suffer pain worse than death, you’d better cooperate quietly.”
“…”
The immense reparations promised after losing the power struggle with the Cartel.
To cover those reparations, Aegis Director Greta Wilderhild had sold Agent equipment at exorbitant prices in the black market, using Adamant Thunder’s name.
Only then did Lennok realize what was truly happening, and he looked at this defrauded criminal with pity.
“Yes, that sounds truly terrifying…”
“…?”