Even if I Make It Roughly, Ex-rank Items Continue to Accumulate - Chapter 99

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Even Hastily Made Ones Keep Stacking Up as EX-Rank (99)

Brainwashing the Brainwashed

“Also, to set up the dual heat-mana coupling environment inside the Growth Chamber, how did you configure the internal temperature and mana wave spectrum? Did you use Counter-Coupling for bidirectional flow?”

“Uh, that’s…”

“Then what about the directional alignment method for the crystal lattice? Did you forcibly form the lattice structure? It must have been difficult to automatically align the a-axis, b-axis, and c-axis directions, right?”

“Wait, wait a moment.”

“If you’re growing Magic Crystals later, you would have had to suppress the inevitable nonlinear vibrations in real-time. Did you use growth luminosity for that process?”

“…”

Questions pouring out like crazy.

Lee Si-hyeok spoke those words while looking straight at his opponent who had finally lost the ability to speak.

At first, he seemed to stammer out responses, but now he didn’t even show signs of trying to answer. Between his blinking eyelids, his pupils spun round and round.

Meanwhile, only a smile spread across Lee Si-hyeok’s lips.

‘This is more… interesting than I thought.’

Fun, even.

Initially, these were questions he’d thrown out to see how his opponent would react.

If he poured out questions without giving time to answer, what kind of behavior would he exhibit? If he showed aggression at that point, he could just treat him as a complete enemy and deal with him accordingly.

But during that process, Lee Si-hyeok felt an inexplicable joy.

He didn’t know why.

Why was he so excited and thrilled?

“To shield the flux leakage from the crystal exterior, you would have needed to block 0.1% of the flux – how did you solve that problem?”

Was this the kind of exhilaration a university professor might feel when bombarding a new graduate student with high-level academic texts?

The process even allowed him to review the device’s principles once more, killing two birds with one stone.

“Next, minimizing the boundary energy between growth domains…”

It was hard to stop himself.

Countless principles and theories wove together in Lee Si-hyeok’s mind, then decomposed again, being thrown out in the form of questions.

However, Lian Xiaojin, who had become the prey, was in a living hell.

‘This, this crazy bastard!’

His vision was spinning.

Bizarre words that didn’t even sound like language kept pouring out endlessly, to the point where he couldn’t even tell if this was human speech.

In fact, though Lian Xiaojin didn’t know it, this was partly because Lee Si-hyeok was deliberately using academic terminology.

“It seems like you used Basic Magic Power Coupling Coordinate Setting Theory to embed basic mana structures into minute mana seeds, but how did you achieve the ‘triple alignment’ of temperature, vibration, and heat there? I think it would be better to simultaneously match coupling factor disturbance detection and runaway prevention with vibration waves – what do you think about that?”

“Gaaaah, please! Please stop!”

“I’m not done yet. When you enter the completion stage of optimizing phase mana pathways, with the crystal nearly complete, the internal mana flow…”

This is insane. Phase, phase mana pathways? Magic power coupling coordinate setting theory…?

What the hell is he even saying…

“Huuuuh!”

Crack.

As his mind kept growing distant, Lian Xiaojin bit down hard on his tongue.

“…!”

The taste of blood spread through his mouth, and his sanity barely returned.

In all his life, he’d never seen someone this insane.

Of course, his master and Society Leader of the Absolute Dream Guild, Lin Qingwu, was also crazy enough to barely be considered human, but this was on a completely different level.

A lunatic in the literal sense of the word.

“Please give me some kind of answer. Disturbing coupling factors is something I’ve been researching for a while, but this quasi-crystal mana synchronization hypothesis…”

Lian Xiaojin was born before the Gate era.

Therefore, he had directly witnessed the process of magical engineers appearing one by one in the world, and had clearly seen how the new energy called mana integrated into the world.

Moreover, wasn’t he Lin Qingwu’s subordinate?

He had also watched the entire process of the Magical Industry Complex raised by the Absolute Dream Guild, Jinling Heavy Industries, becoming China’s number one.

During that process.

He had met countless magical engineering practitioners.

Sometimes he killed them, sometimes he threatened them.

Among them were a few with unusual looks in their eyes.

Those whose eyes would suddenly go wild when their field of interest came up.

‘Even so.’

There was no comparison.

What was happening here?

This was clearly a kid he should consider a ‘target.’

But as he kept watching that face throwing endless questions with such joy, he somehow felt a sense of awe.

The purity that any human would dream of having at least once in their lifetime.

Had he ever felt such emotions?

While dedicating half his life to the Society Leader, had he ever had such passion even once…

Crack.

‘I’ve gone mad.’

The emotion that arose without his knowing created ripples in his heart.

Those ripples didn’t stop there but even brought about doubts regarding his entire life.

…So this was that EX-rank Awakened.

He had underestimated him too much for being a Crafting Type. Isaac Reynolds hadn’t even shown himself yet.

Even now, he had to return to China and inform them of what kind of existence they had provoked.

With that intention, he was about to speak.

Stop.

“…”

Suddenly, his opponent’s voice cut off.

Lian Xiaojin looked up at his opponent with puzzlement.

The mouth that had been chattering away was now closed.

And after a moment, that mouth opened again. Unlike before, it was a slow and calm movement.

“Last question.”

“…?”

“Why did you follow me from Seoul?”

Blink. Lian Xiaojin’s eyes blinked once.

What kind of question was this all of a sudden? Why bring up Seoul out of nowhere while talking about devices…

‘No way.’

Belatedly, Lian Xiaojin realized the meaning.

His eyes immediately widened as if they would tear. Pupils filled with shock. Those two small dots stared at Lee Si-hyeok in horror.

“Answer me.”

“…!?”

“Why did you follow me?”

Before he knew it, day had passed and night had come. The sunlight streaming through the window had disappeared, and there was still quite some time before the moon would rise. That ambiguous time between sun and moon. Unfortunately, the sunset wasn’t visible due to clouds.

The light had completely disappeared.

The only things illuminating the dark workshop were the faint blue lights leaking from the devices. Even those flickered slowly, making it worse than having nothing.

The sounds of insects had also disappeared.

Only the occasional sound of wind blowing could be heard particularly loudly. Aside from this, complete silence had settled over the workshop.

Darkness and silence. Fear reaching its extreme.

Before he knew it, his opponent had approached in front of the wheelchair.

Thud, he threw something.

“Pick from there. What you came here for.”

A piece of paper that fell onto his chest.

Lian Xiaojin swallowed his saliva and flipped it over.

[Murder] [Kidnapping] [Plunder]

“….”

Choose from here?

“If there’s nothing among the options, tell me. I’ll give you a chance to talk separately.”

It wasn’t a matter of speaking or not.

Right now.

He had to escape from this place immediately.

Lian Xiaojin immediately closed his eyes and concentrated his mind. He activated the special skill 『Mental Possession』 to attempt a return to his original body.

It wouldn’t be easy due to the distance, but….

Then.

“…Kgh, kheuk!”

Lian Xiaojin gasped from the shock that suddenly struck him.

He was trying to emit mana from his brain and send it up to the 3rd floor, but something had intervened through that gap. It was a sticky and unpleasant sensation.

“Trying to do something foolish, are we.”

“Kheuk…! What did you do to me!”

As he glared at his opponent while enduring the pain, several message windows appeared instead.

[An unknown substance is interfering with your mind.]

[General skill 「Mental Resistance」 detected. Processing.]

[「Mental Resistance」 is being ignored! The barrier is collapsing!]

[Beware of mental collapse! Defend against brainwashing….]

“….”

Lian Xiaojin’s pupils, which had been reading the dizzying text, soon stopped in mid-air.

As if his soul had suddenly left him.

As if something had gone wrong with his mind.

His jaw gradually opened, and saliva flowed out unfiltered.

Lee Si-hyeok, who had been watching this sight, uncrossed his arms.

Just moments ago.

Lee Si-hyeok had activated 〈Phagethesis〉 and dragged the mind of the guy who was trying to escape. In the process, he even injected ether to temporarily brainwash him.

Though it was his first time in actual combat, it was quite a successful result.

Then he couldn’t let this opportunity slip away.

“Hehe….”

He approached closer to the guy who was drooling with his soul gone.

Then he murmured.

“Origin. Affiliation. Name. Purpose for approaching me. Tell me in order.”

After a moment, the opponent seemed to chew over Lee Si-hyeok’s words, then began to answer haltingly.

“Origin… my origin is China… I came from China….”

“China? Then what about your affiliation? Which organization’s Hunter are you?”

“Uh… my affiliation…? My affiliation is… wh, where was it….”

But the guy was hesitating.

Lee Si-hyeok narrowed his eyes and observed. It was an unplanned strange reaction.

“Uh…? Why can’t I remember… my affiliation, I’m definitely….”

“….”

“Definitely, definitely… ah.”

“…?”

“I die.”

One word.

It was the instant Lee Si-hyeok immediately created distance.

“―――――――!”

A bizarre scream-like sound continued from the guy for a while, then suddenly stopped with a thud.

‘What?’

Lee Si-hyeok, who had retreated far away, furrowed his brows.

The guy’s presence was instantly erased from the body in the wheelchair. What took its place was only Hyeon Eul-cheong’s faint breath that had returned.

After grasping the situation, he eventually approached and examined her.

That too was brief.

‘Don’t tell me… he just vanished completely?’

The mind itself that was maintained in the form of mana?

That was the only way he could speculate.

He immediately rushed up to the 3rd floor and searched the body of the man sprawled on the bed, but there was no consciousness. Not unconscious, but literally mindless.

A hypothesis suddenly came to Lee Si-hyeok’s mind.

And as if responding to this, a message appeared.

―Flash.

[Organizing gathered information. Collecting results….]

[Organization complete.]

[The mind of target ‘Lian Xiaojin’ had already been brainwashed by someone else from long ago. As a result, the trigger of the previous brainwashing activated, causing him to shut down his own mind and reach eternal death.]

[※Brainwashing content: When the situation of identity exposure comes, dismantle the mana composing the mind by oneself.]

Someone had already brainwashed the guy.

Before Lee Si-hyeok.

And that was in the distant past, so far back it was impossible to even estimate when.

‘Was he unaware of it himself?’

Probably so.

The content of the brainwashing was to commit suicide in crisis situations, and no normal person would accept this content willingly.

Then who was the subject of that brainwashing?

Lee Si-hyeok traced through his memories from just before.

The only information Lee Si-hyeok could obtain just before the guy met his death.

Origin, China.

Recalling that, there was one organization that came to mind without needing to think.

‘…Absolute Dream Guild.’

A group formed by powerful mental-type Hunters gathering together.

The worst criminal guild that lives by severing and devouring others’ dreams.

And their leader and head, Lin Qingwu.

Lee Si-hyeok’s eyes became coldly chilling as he recalled that notorious reputation that had spread extensively even to Korea.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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