Chapter 141. Journey to Annihilation (2)
“Zzz...... Phew......”
Two or three hours after the drinking party began.
Many investigation team mbers had beco dead drunk.
Yenzen was no exception.
Although he boasted a large build and strong tolerance, there was no match for fatigue.
He had been practically staying up all night for days during the investigation, and his nerves were on edge.
As alcohol entered such a body, his flesh drooped like wet tissue paper.
However, there were survivors even in the place swept by alcohol and at.
Riman and Cheonjan.
Among the staggering drunkards, only their eyes were shining.
Around the ti the cool night air flowed between the two.
They faced each other with a coincidental feeling.
Riman looked at Cheonjan.
His hair was gray and lacked vitality, but his face was unexpectedly young.
That strange imbalance had the power to make the viewer feel strangely tense like a silent dissonance.
‘Cheonjan.......’
Headmaster of Sanhae Magic Tower, China's strongest summoner.
His alias was Hyungsa (Ominous Snake).
Since it was already the second ti seeing him today, Riman offered a greeting familiarly.
“Thank you for the al. I ended up receiving precious hospitality as soon as I ca.”
“Compared to your hard work, it's nothing but a small thing. I'm only sorry I couldn't give sothing better.”
The words exchanged were rely pretense.
The substance lay in the gazes subtly scanning each other.
Riman thought again while looking at Cheonjan's face.
‘...An unknowable man.’
It was so in the ga too.
That human Cheonjan was completely unfathomable.
And crucially, there wasn't even an opportunity to know his inside.
Because he never appeared as an enemy until the ga ended.
However, he had seen Cheonjan fight once briefly in the ga.
And that scene was intense enough to be unforgettable forever.
‘He was a disaster.’
A biological disaster borrowing a human body.
That was Cheonjan.
A person who showed how far one could go if they reached the extre in the single domain called summoning.
Knowing that power, Riman looked at Cheonjan while quietly tense.
Of course, Riman's body was very adept at hiding tension, so it didn't show on the outside at all.
Cheonjan said.
“Yenzen used the expression 'prodigy' referring to you.”
“I'm flattered.”
“Haha, well. The friend called Yenzen is never one to use words lightly. Being his peer, I know that best.”
“.......”
It was true.
Because Yenzen wasn't the type to give empty praise.
Although they didn't encounter often, he could roughly tell he had such a personality.
Cheonjan continued.
“Yenzen also said this. That the only hope capable of providing the answer to this situation is Leman White.”
“Answer... it is rely a hypothesis yet.”
“Hope is originally like that. Sothing held intact from the beginning is not called hope.”
“That... is true.”
“Are you confident?”
“Yes?”
“Can you identify what this disaster is?”
Riman answered after taking a short deep breath.
“Identifying, I can't guarantee that far. However, I think I can read it.”
“Ho-oh? Read what?”
“The flow of space inside the Walled City.”
“.......”
Cheonjan stared at Riman quietly.
It was an ambiguous gaze.
Is it suspicion, or praise?
Riman couldn't easily judge.
“...You an you can find a path within the flowing space?”
“That is so. Of course, it is still at the level of hypothesis though.”
“Good heavens.”
Cheonjan took a deep breath while looking at the sky.
“...People who went inside the Walled City, that is, into the Annihilation Zone, likely got lost inside there. You must know that point well too.”
“Yes.”
“However, if you can really find a path inside there.......”
Cheonjan looked into Riman's eyes again.
“...It ans you could also guide the people inside out.”
“Yes. That is the most ideal possibility as of now.”
Cheonjan nodded and said.
“I think I know why Yenzen called you hope.”
“.......”
“Right, do you have a place to sleep tonight?”
“You booked a hotel through the attendant, didn't you?”
“Hmm, no. That is not enough.”
Cheonjan finished a short call with soone sowhere and said.
“Go to the hotel you were supposed to go to.”
“Yes?”
“Only I changed the room to the top floor penthouse. Appreciate Hong Kong's night view to your heart's content. Looking down from that height won't be a common occurrence.”
Cheonjan patted Riman's shoulder, tap tap.
And then, without a greeting, he was striding far away at so point.
* * *
“...Oh.”
A short and thick exclamation popped out of Riman's mouth looking around the room.
This was the top floor penthouse suite of a 5-star hotel sowhere in Hong Kong.
In front of the splendid room he had never seen in his life, Riman froze for a mont.
“...Nice?”
Although it was for a very brief mont, it was a magnificent sight enough to make him forget the purpose of coming to Hong Kong.
Why are there a bar, billiard table, grand piano, spiral staircase, outdoor pool, and small artificial waterfall inside the room?
‘Wouldn't be bad to just live here continuously without saving Lancelot?’
Of course, it was half a joke.
That ant half was sincere.
Anyway, Riman started relieving fatigue first.
Because fatigue had only accumulated at the drinking party a while ago.
The food was good, but the atmosphere didn't quite please him.
First, not liking crowded places was the first reason.
And the second reason was that the people there avoided Riman quite a bit.
The reason could have been awkwardness, wariness, or hostility.
Could have been all three.
Furthermore, Riman himself wasn't a very sociable personality either.
Anyway, because of that, almost no one approached Riman, and Riman didn't think of approaching either, so it beca solitary drinking within a group.
“Phew, refreshing.”
Riman finished the spa installed in the room and even finished a bath.
And after putting on the silk pajamas provided in the room, he entered the bedroom.
“Woah.”
The interior of the bedroom was art.
The bedroom itself wasn't that big, but the view was magnificent.
One wall itself was entirely glass.
Through that window, Hong Kong's brilliant night view was pouring in.
Hundreds of kinds of lights flickering, moonlight, glass windows of high-rise buildings flashing intermittently.
An optical illusion as if an endlessly wriggling masterpiece filled the wall unfolded before his eyes.
FLUMP-
Lying on the fluffy bed, that scenery unfolded right at his feet.
Plus the cool and crisp texture of the duvet felt on his back.
Riman raised the pillow high and looked down at the night view for a while.
anwhile, Saya brought drinks and alcohol from the minibar and was sipping them.
“You like alcohol that much.”
“Shaaaa-.”
“I see.”
Like that, after appreciating the night view for so ti ended.
Riman turned off the room lights and fell asleep.
Saya also fell fast asleep hugging a liquor bottle next to Riman.
From tomorrow, he had to run again.
Because he had to detail the hypothesis established in his head today and go through fierce verification and proof.
And eventually.......
‘Solve the Walled City's problem, and save Lancelot.’
Reminding himself of the goal of coming here, Riman fell asleep softly.
* * *
3 AM.
Riman woke up from sleep.
He didn't open his eyes.
Because only his mind awakened suddenly.
As if an alarm had struck his ears, his mind suddenly beca clear.
Of course, an alarm didn't actually ring.
A wake-up call didn't ring either.
Light didn't suddenly pour in from outside, nor did anyone touch his body.
Truly a waking up without any reason.
But Riman knew this kind of waking up, this feeling.
Because he had experienced it once.
Back when he was still in Korea.
That day when Ork Corporation's private soldiers raided the hotel Riman was staying at.
That day too, Riman woke up like this.
FLASH.
He opened his eyes.
Was it because he fell asleep with the pillow raised high?
What ca into view first as soon as he opened his eyes wasn't the ceiling.
It was his feet, the window side.
That window where Hong Kong's night view should have been fully embroidered.
However, there was no night view in the window.
“...Mouth?”
Teeth, tongue, roof of the mouth.
That was the scenery seen outside the window.
A gaping giant mouth was rushing towards the room where Riman was lying.
An excessively surreal spectacle.
But Riman knew.
That once stepping into the magic world, one must get used to such spectacles.
Of course, only his head accepted it, his mouth couldn't.
“Fuck.”
CRASH CRUNCH!!
That giant mouth chewed and swallowed the bedroom where Riman lay whole.
Bite force enough to crumple glass, concrete, and rebar at once.
And naturally, Riman and Saya were also swallowed into that mouth.
RUMBLE.......
Concrete fragnts poured down outside the hotel.
What bit the hotel was a giant fish.
A fish boasting a size larger than most light aircraft.
A giant carp swimming in the sky.
Its na was Hwari (Fire Carp).
It was this giant carp that bit off the hotel's flesh and swallowed Riman and Saya.
“Swallowed properly.”
The wizard who summoned Hwari muttered watching this scene from the adjacent building.
Another wizard standing next to him asked.
“He's dead, right?”
“Things entering Hwari's stomach are all digested while burning in fire. There is no possibility of coming out alive.”
“As expected, indeed.”
GURGLE.......
Hwari slowly turned its body and retreated.
Still containing Riman and Saya in its stomach.
“What shall we do now? Should we report Leman White's kill?”
“No rush. It's not late to report after my Hwari finishes digestion completely.”
A magical link is hung between a summoned beast and summoner.
Therefore, the summoner could feel the sensations the summoned beast feels to so extent.
So he waited leisurely.
Waiting for the ti Riman inside the stomach becos blackly burnt ash.
However.
“...Hm?”
It was strange.
Because sensations that shouldn't be felt were flowing in through the link.
He raised his eyes and looked at his summoned beast.
“What......?!”
The summoner doubted his eyes.
Because his summoned beast was trembling with its eyes rolled back.
Furthermore, Hwari's stomach was already becoming a ss.
It was the result of swallowing sothing it shouldn't eat.
“No......!”
SPLAT.
The giant carp's abdon split and a stream of blood soared through that gap.
A phenonon as if sliced by a sharp knife from the inside.
That wasn't the end.
SLASH SLASH SLASH!
It was chopped up.
Like being butchered by a sharp sashimi knife, the carp's body was chopped to pieces.
The spiritual creature swimming in the sky biting rocks and harboring fire in its stomach, Hwari.
But becoming several pieces of fillet was instantaneous.
“Damn it......!”
The summoner's face turned ashen.
Chunks of flesh, blood, poured from the sky.
And mixed in that gap, there were things falling together.
Riman and Saya.
As soon as recognizing they were swallowed into the stomach, they blasted [Incision] in all directions, tore the belly, and ca out.
WHOOSH!
Riman's body free-fell as it was.
The location of the room Riman was in was the 40th floor.
A high floor where recovering the body would be difficult if fallen.
So watching the falling Riman, the wizards felt relief for a brief mont.
But.
THUD-
An overly soft landing.
Falling from a 40th-floor height, Riman stood up from the spot nonchalantly.
“.......”
“.......!”
Watching this scene, the wizards finally realized.
That the situation wasn't rolling as they thought.
“W, w, what do we do?!”
“We go with an all-out offensive.”
“......!”
“Release firepower restrictions! All located wizards, focus only on killing Leman White!”
“Yes!”
“Bear in mind. We must not let that person solve the Walled City's secret!”
The summoner said while grinding his teeth.
“...Because our last wish is in there.”
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