Chapter 602: Pieces and Parts (4)

He seemed to be from the Machine City, but was he aware of the irony that he was scammed by an intelligence agency from a mega-city?

However, the man seemed to completely misinterpret Lennok’s pitying gaze. He sneered faintly and pushed the hand cannon forward.

“We’ll kill the rich wizard, split his assets and his body, and start a new life as citizens of Machina, the Machine City.”

Whirr!

The man lifted the barrel inside his mechanical arm. As he flicked his hand, ammunition was loaded with a heavy grinding sound.

“Don’t you think it’s a clean way to wrap up a shady business?”

“You’re not wrong,” Lennok nodded. “Knowing when to cut your losses and withdraw is an incredibly important virtue. But it’s hard to know before you experience it yourself.”

[Master, you only learned that after ignoring my portfolio and buying Thorben Magic Tower stocks, then getting stuck with them.]

He deliberately ignored Davi’s chiding from inside his coat.

Conversely, the organ trafficking ring members’ expressions twisted in disbelief as they listened to Lennok’s reply.

“…You have no fear. Or do you think you can walk away safe, even after coming all this way?”

Thump!

The man casually grabbed Lennok’s shoulder and tapped it, asking, “We’ll cut off your arms and legs to drain your magic, pull out your organs, preserve them, and then price and sell them individually. I wonder if you’ll still be able to run your mouth then.”

“On the contrary, I have a question,” Lennok asked with an expressionless face. “If you wanted to sell my organs, you could just deal with me right now. Why are you making such transparent threats?”

“…”

“The way you display the bodies with extracted organs, embedding them in the rock formations… It’s all just performance that a normal organ trafficking ring wouldn’t bother with.”

“You…”

“If there’s something you want, just say it.” Lennok nodded, leaning against the freight truck door. “Anyway, there’s a lot I’d like to hear from you about life in the Machine City.”

At his words, the ring members standing behind the man quickly exchanged glances.

Lennok’s demeanor made them wonder if they had missed something.

At first glance, the reason the ring chose Lennok as their final victim to cut ties with seemed plausible.

If he had to escape to the Machine City in such an old freight truck, he was clearly a weak wizard, barely able to fend for himself.

Furthermore, it was obvious that his circumstances in Vulcan had become so difficult that he could no longer stay there.

Even if the wizard himself had nothing, a wizard’s body would surely sell for dozens of times the price of an ordinary human’s.

However, as Lennok said, the reason the ring was pressuring him so strongly before killing him lay elsewhere.

“Alright. Since you’ve got more guts than I expected, I’ll get straight to the point.” The man nodded. “Tell us everything about the master who taught you magic, your fellow students, your acquaintances, and their weaknesses. Then we’ll let you go painlessly.”

Only then did Lennok realize why the ring was trying to intimidate him this way, and he smiled.

“After you kill me, you’ll go back to Vulcan and sell off my acquaintances too?”

“You’d better choose carefully. We’re people who’ve learned human anatomy through practical experience. We know very well where to touch to inflict pain right up to the brink of death.”

“…”

“When we cut open your stomach and touch what’s inside, all the memories you know will spill out, regardless of reason or morality. Wouldn’t that actually be a good thing for you?”

The man softened his voice.

“If a wizard living in Vulcan secretly flowed into Machina, isn’t it because you completely turned your back on your former associates?”

“…”

“It’s a chance for revenge. If you think about it, we could even resolve your grudges for you.”

The man rummaged in his other pocket and pulled out a syringe filled with green liquid.

“This is something that will let you die in your sleep if injected in the right amount. All you have to do is answer all our questions. Then we’ll gently inject this into your carotid artery.”

“I’d like to check it.”

At Lennok’s words, as he reached out his hand, the man immediately took a step back and shook his head.

“No, you can’t. This is a gift only for good friends who answer all our questions. Don’t you understand what that means?”

“No,” Lennok replied. In his hand, the syringe that had just been in the man’s hand was now resting intact.

“Nor do I care to.”

“…!!”

The man flinched, shocked that the syringe had been snatched from his hand without him noticing. Lennok squeezed a bit of the liquid onto his gloved hand and sniffed it.

“It seems to be a concoction of Aqua Gem Leaf extract, Zammer Buffalo bone marrow, and Kurdaine Mushroom venom… along with three other ingredients, but the scent is faint, so I can’t quite tell.”

It was a familiar smell to Lennok, who personally blended various potions and elixirs using alchemy. While his senses weren’t keen enough to fully discern the scent, he never forgot a fragrance or characteristic once he’d memorized it.

If Lennok’s sense of smell had been that of an ordinary person, he would have had no trouble identifying all the ingredients, but this much information was sufficient.

“Every single one of these ingredients is used for confession and torture, and their effect in killing the user isn’t strong. You’re going to kill me with this?”

“You…”

Lennok sneered, watching the man stumble backward. “You were going to scrape out my memories to the very bottom, regardless of whether I opened my mouth or not, and extract my organs while I was still alive, weren’t you?”

“Hayden, that’s enough. Just torture and kill him.”

At that moment, one of the ring members who had been quietly watching stepped forward.

“Gamin, wait!! He’s the last product. If we don’t extract everything we can before killing him…!!”

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

Click!

Gamin, as he was called, suddenly rolled up his mechanical arm, grabbed Lennok by the collar, and lifted him clean off the ground.

Gamin snatched the syringe from Lennok’s hand without hesitation and sneered, “It was useless from the start. There’s no reason to drag out something that can be solved with one injection. Give me your neck.”

“Very well.”

[Artificial limb system hacking complete.]

At that moment, Gamin’s mechanical arm moved on its own, plunging the syringe directly into his own neck.

Thwip!

“…Huh?”

Gamin’s face was dumbfounded, staring blankly at Lennok, unable to comprehend what he had just done.

Lennok’s collar naturally loosened as he dropped from Gamin’s arm. He straightened his clothes and asked, “How long will it take for the drug to take full effect?”

“…Ten minutes? Gasp…!!”

Gamin, who had unconsciously answered Lennok’s question, covered his mouth with a trembling hand. Lennok nodded.

“That should be enough time to deal with the others.”

“You son of a bitch… What did you do to Gamin’s arm!!”

Hayden’s face twisted savagely as he strode forward and swung his mechanical arm, but Lennok raised a hand, and Hayden froze in place.

Clang!

“Ugh, ugh…!! Aaahhh!”

He writhed his whole body, trying desperately to move his arm, but the mechanical arm remained stubbornly still, as if time had stopped. Instead, it slowly rotated, following Lennok’s finger, bringing its fist to his own jaw.

Hayden, belatedly realizing that the wizard before him was manipulating his mechanical arm at will, trembled.

“No, no…!!”

“Earlier, it looked like you loaded ammunition separately inside your arm,” Lennok said, hearing the heavy grinding sound from inside Hayden’s arm. “If you load a bullet, you should fire it.”

The moment the ammunition loaded inside the mechanical arm detonated, the mechanical fist shot out like a rocket and slammed directly into Hayden’s own jaw.

Crunch!

A horrific tearing sound of bone, joints, and muscle being crushed and twisted.

With that single attack, Hayden’s eyes rolled back, and he instantly lost consciousness.

But even then, Hayden’s own mechanical arm didn’t stop. It continued to fire with the exact same force, repeatedly striking his own head in a self-inflicted assault, until all the ammunition ran out.

Thud, thud, thud!

“Help, uck, aaahhh!”

He was forcibly awakened by the impact of his own head being struck again, then blacked out, then awakened again by the shock, repeating the cycle.

Finally, the sound of his skull giving way under the relentless impact.

Crack!

His bone caved in, and the contents it had protected spilled out onto Hayden’s neck as he lay unconscious.

“Gurgle, gurgle…”

Hayden’s jaw and nasal bone were completely shattered, his tongue flicking as he let out unintelligible groans. Even the other organ trafficking ring members could only widen their eyes, speechless at the gruesome sight.

Lennok passed by Hayden, whose eyes were rolled back, looking as if he could die any moment. He surveyed the remaining ring members and nodded.

“All of you are cyborgs. Or at least wear automatically operated prosthetic limbs, correct?”

Wiiiiing!

At his words, the mechanical arms, legs, and chests of the ring members began to glow with a bright blue magical light, moving involuntarily.

The members watched helplessly as their own limbs, which were supposed to replace their bodies and life functions, aimed at themselves, their control usurped.

“Hick, hiiick…!!”

“Fuck, detach, detach!!”

Lennok snickered, watching the members desperately try to rip off their mechanical equipment.

“In my experience, those who engage in shady dealings tend to be meticulous about protecting their equipment and their lives. Thanks to that, my job just got easier.”

If the prosthetic limbs or mechanical equipment the members wore had been cheap products or illegally modified, it wouldn’t have been so easy to seize control of them. However, the prosthetic limbs worn by the organ trafficking ring members were all high-performance, equipped with the latest AI adjustment systems that included designated command and automatic control systems.

Precisely because of this, Lennok was able to easily seize control of the limbs simply by using Davi’s power to hack into the network.

“Men who transport people between mega-cities and machine cities, selling organs, surely know a lot about the daily life and current situation in Machina.”

“Ugh…” Lennok said, looking back at Gamin, who was now drooling with a vacant expression after injecting himself with the truth serum. “I have a lot of questions I want to ask to successfully infiltrate Machina.”

Since he had endured the organ trafficking ring’s exaggerated threats and nonsense for so long, shouldn’t he extract every piece of information they possessed about the Machine City?

As Lennok snapped his fingers, the mechanical limbs began violently pummeling their own owners from all directions.

“Ugh, ugh!”

“Fuck, fuck…!!”

Horrific sounds of flesh and muscle tearing and pulping, and screams, echoed incessantly.

“Let’s start with the small stuff.”

Machina, the Machine City.

The Workshop District, well-known as a gathering place for craftsmen.

For the past few days, a strange rumor had been circulating in the streets, which were filled all day with the acrid smell of burning, smoke, and the clang of metal and hammers.

“Have you heard the talk lately? They say a new blacksmith has moved in who illegally modifies personal firearms.”

“He’s better at modification than fabrication. Closer to an engineer.”

“What does that matter? As long as he handles my equipment well, I don’t care.”

The rumor spread quickly through word-of-mouth alone, without external promotion or connections, and anecdotes began to surface.

“People who’ve been there are very satisfied.”

“They say he accepts information as payment, not just money. It’s good to know.”

“Information? What kind of information?”

“That… I should probably stop here. You’ll find out if you go.”

Bystanders whispered and conversed in various workshops where smoke billowed.

A middle-aged man, passing through these bystanders, casually returned to his workshop, closed the door, and turned his head.

The man with a full beard had undisguised tension and a slight excitement in his face.

“Van, more and more people are looking for you. It really went according to plan.”

“That’s a relief.”

Click, click!

Lennok replied, without looking at the man, as he wore a mask and focused on welding at the workbench.

“The residents of the Machine City seem more diligent than I thought. I expected to have to work for about a month before rumors started to spread.”

“That’s because hardly any residents in this city haven’t replaced parts of their bodies with machines, you see,” the man sighed and shook his head. “Once a rumor starts, more and more people will flock here. Are you really alright with this?”

“I’m fine, Mouser.”

Lennok removed his mask, sighed lightly, and then finally turned his head. Even after removing the mask, various mechanical parts were tattooed onto the side of Lennok’s face, quietly whirring.

“The more widely the rumors spread, the more people with even better equipment will start coming for repairs.”

After interrogating the organ trafficking ring members and obtaining information about daily life in the Machine City, Lennok didn’t linger. He immediately used his Ticket to pass through the Machine City gate and infiltrated the outer districts where the poor lived. Soon after, he succeeded in easily entering the Workshop District through an acquaintance within the Machine City.

That acquaintance was Mouser, a craftsman from the Machine City delegation whom he had met on his way to Blaiver Magic Tower with Evelyn. Lennok had once put Mouser in his debt by saving him from the Pandemonium members who had invaded Blaiver Magic Tower.

Remembering that connection, Lennok had sought him out, disguised himself as a workshop craftsman, and had been attempting to maintain mechanical equipment for several days.

“Regardless of its insularity, the Machine City is undoubtedly at the forefront of advanced civilization in the fields of mechanical engineering and magic engineering,” Lennok said, touching the mechanical parts embedded in his skin. In reality, it was an ‘Iron Mask’ made by applying artificial gel to his skin and then assembling parts on top to make them appear functional, but it looked plausible from the outside.

“Since I’ve made a rare visit to Machina, I shouldn’t miss the opportunity to handle, maintain, and inspect the equipment used here in the field.”

Compared to Vulcan, the boundaries between districts were strong, and movement was restricted based on Ticket grade, making it difficult for outsiders to blend into this city. The most welcomed individuals in this city were skilled craftsmen or engineers.

Therefore, to track Kaiser’s traces and the failure of the Ascension Gate, Lennok had chosen the most suitable line of work for adapting to this city.

“I truly don’t understand why a wizard like you suddenly wants to play at being an engineer…” Mouser sighed, then finally nodded with an air of resignation. “Anyway, I’ll provide you with as much convenience as I can, so please be careful not to get caught.”

“Providing me with a space to use as a workshop is sufficient.”

Although he had secured a place in the Workshop District by leveraging the debt for saving Mouser’s life, he had no intention of relying on him any further. Mouser was a well-respected craftsman, enough to be dispatched as a representative of Machina to Blaiver Magic Tower. There would be nothing more foolish than to burn such a connection just to extract a few more favors from him.

However, despite Lennok’s assurance, Mouser muttered anxiously as if still worried. “I’ve told you countless times, impersonating a craftsman in this city is strictly forbidden. It doesn’t concern me, but considering your original identity…”

He opened the window behind the workshop bench, grimacing at the sunlight that peeked out as the rain stopped.

Lennok smiled, watching people walking toward them one by one in the distance.

“Wouldn’t it be solved if I’m simply more resourceful than genuine craftsmen?”