Chapter 164 – The Result of the Experiment

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Translated by Pratt

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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At Jirisan in Gurye.

It was the first day of the raid doping-potion experiment.

They planned to conduct the experiment with only one rank per day.

Today would start with compatible hosts.

As for the awakened, they had gathered everyone from user to expert, but as for masters, they had accepted exactly one.

That was Lee Jeong-hak, deputy mayor of Gurye.

After hearing that Tae-ju had come, he had come to get city-administration approvals, then joined the experiment.

“Even if the mayor’s position is little more than an honorary one, you should still drop by city hall a bit…”

“Once this experiment is over, I’ll pay a big visit and treat everyone to a company dinner.”

“And the municipal work…?”

“If there aren’t enough people, hire more. Today let’s just focus on the experiment.”

“…”

The experiment would be conducted under thoroughly controlled conditions.

Since it could become dangerous if things went wrong, Jeong Yeon-hui and the TJ Guild members were put in as experiment assistants.

“How many should we catch and bring?”

“Since it’s an experiment on compatible hosts, let’s just prepare three blade-fang martens.”

“Including elites?”

“Just ordinary ones, and break their hind legs.”

Even ordinary demonic beasts were burdensome to compatible hosts.

Even with twenty people against three beasts, they had to be prepared for casualties.

Jeong Yeon-hui and the guild members drove in the ordinary demonic beasts.

The test subjects became taut with tension.

Compatible hosts occupied the battle-support position in raids.

They covered awakened with firearms and made hunting easier by binding demonic beasts with wires and traps.

However, this was the first time they had gone hunting directly using only compatible hosts.

Naturally, they had no choice but to be nervous.

“D-don’t be scared, their legs are broken.”

“You’re even more scared than we are!”

“…K-kill it!”

“Stab it, I said stab it!”

“Damn it! Th-the weapon won’t go in…”

“It’s coming at me.”

Compatible hosts had no traits and no skills.

If there was one thing they had over ordinary people, it was that by taking in mana, their physical abilities were comparatively stronger.

Baek Chang-hun shouted at the compatible hosts.

“Drink the blue potion you got earlier. It’s a mana-amplification potion. It’ll blow you up to twice as much.”

It was on a different dimension from a mana recovery potion.

An amplification potion expanded the mana pool itself.

Its duration was ten minutes.

“Oh!”

“…M-my mana?”

“This is doable?”

“What are you doing? Kill it!”

Their weapons sank into the bodies of the demonic beasts.

They were flustered and chaotic, but still somehow managed to complete the hunt.

“A-all right, we got it.”

“I thought I was going to die.”

“Heuheuheu, to think I’d get to experience something like this.”

“Hoo, I’m tired, so tired.”

After ten minutes passed, it was now time for the side-effect examination.

The compatible hosts lined up and received pulse diagnoses from Tae-ju.

‘The side effects are pretty severe. It looks like they’ll need to rest for at least thirty minutes.’

The doping potion was effective even for compatible hosts.

It would probably work even better for the awakened.

The experiment was not over with this.

He intended to test all three kinds of potions.

Because he also had to find out the effects and side effects when taking two together or all three simultaneously.

‘Tomorrow was the user rank, right?’

The following day would be beginner, regular, and expert.

It would probably take more than a full week.

* * *

Strictly speaking, Daniel did not belong to the category of pure golem.

A kind of hybrid.

A cyborg combining the golem technology of grand magic engineer Vincent Moretti and the robot engineering of modern science.

His brain, too, was equipped with deep-learning AI artificial intelligence, so there was no difficulty at all in handling everyday life.

Having received instructions from Vincent Moretti, Daniel first went to Egypt.

A colony of the European Empire and a place with a forward base for the Sahara demonic-beast concentration-zone hunting grounds.

He used an aircraft under a disguised identity.

Even if he were caught by X-ray, it was not difficult to pass through the screening gate because his body had been modified so that human organs would be revealed as they were.

From Egypt to the Saudi Federation, then the Burma Republic, the Kingdom of Vietnam, and finally the Samhan Empire, his ultimate destination.

The place Daniel had currently arrived at was Gurye, the Free Territory.

The city where Kim Tae-ju of TJ Bio was the mayor.

The mission was to activate the dimensional gate generator at Kim Tae-ju’s side.

But when he actually arrived in Gurye, the situation was not favorable.

First of all, there was no way to meet Kim Tae-ju.

He went even to the residence and the TJ Bio headquarters, but could not meet him.

How was he to activate the dimensional gate?

It had to be executed from as close a distance as possible.

The most certain method was to meet him in person and do it while looking at his face.

Then he learned the information that TJ Bio was conducting raid doping-potion experiments in the Jirisan demonic-beast concentration zone in Gurye.

‘A chance to meet Kim Tae-ju.’

How?

‘Approach as close as possible without anyone noticing, and…’

Daniel tapped his temple.

At that instant!

Seureureuk, Daniel’s body turned transparent.

Optical camouflage technology.

By artificially refracting the surrounding light, it made him appear transparent to people’s eyes.

And one more thing.

The dimensional gate generator.

He had not prepared it separately.

That was because his body itself was the gate generator.

Daniel moved his steps toward the Jirisan demonic-beast concentration zone.

At minimum, he had to approach within ten meters.

‘Around here…’

Wiiiiing!

Daniel launched upward the ultra-small drone he had prepared in advance.

A drone modified with magic-engineering enchantment.

It too possessed stealth and invisibility functions through optical-camouflage light-distortion ability.

Its primary use was locating Kim Tae-ju’s position.

Its secondary use was filming and transmission.

What was the point of succeeding at the gate-generation experiment alone?

One had to know the result.

The drone would film the video and transmit it to the Sahara through the wireless internet network.

* * *

The raid doping-potion experiment had now continued for five days.

The rank being tested today was junior expert.

Since a high-grade awakened situation was being used, ordinary demonic beasts would not be enough.

An elite demonic beast was needed.

But who was there that could deliver an elite demonic beast intact to the experiment site?

Neither Lee Jeong-hak nor Jeong Yeon-hui would do.

They might be able to kill one, but how were they supposed to capture one alive?

Tae-ju had to go himself.

‘Which would be good?’

He decided.

An elite giant half-moon bear was best.

A sturdy beast, and not all that fast either, making it an elite demonic beast suitable for the experiment.

However, it was no pushover.

Actually, capturing one alive was easy.

Finding a proper one was the harder part.

After the large-scale conquest of the Jirisan demonic-beast concentration zone, the number of elites in Jirisan had been drastically reduced. Though a few had recently been seen, it was not like before.

What choice was there?

He had to put in the legwork.

After searching high and low, he found one.

“Krrrreung!”

He ran at the thing that rose to two feet and glared at him with eyes full of wariness.

“Kraaak!”

First he slapped on a demon-repelling talisman,

“…Kkiiiing,”

then a binding talisman as well so that it could not move at all,

“All right, let’s go.”

and lightly slung it over his shoulder.

It was so huge that it hid Tae-ju’s body, but

spat!

he ran quickly with the Pyo-hol Gale Step.

Tadadadak! Tadak!

The results so far had been very good.

The experiments targeting the awakened.

The higher the rank, the better the effect.

The power of traits and skills was maximized, and the resulting side effects became extremely short.

To the point that he could produce it immediately and make it to sell.

‘For now, it should be fine to limit sales to Gurye only.’

Since it was a Free Territory, the manufacture and sale of medicine were free.

‘And military supply too…’

At that instant!

“Hm?”

Halt!

Tae-ju stopped his steps.

There was something ahead.

Almost like a ghost.

He had felt the aura of mana too.

But why could he not see it?

A simple misunderstanding?

‘…No. It’s there.’

He could see it dimly.

Something like a shimmer.

After setting the elite giant half-moon bear down on the ground.

Kung!

“Come out.”

Suuuung!

The Willow-Leaf Throwing Knife floated in the air.

“Do you want to come out after getting hit once, or just come out?”

When Tae-ju spoke in warning,

seureureuk,

someone appeared.

“You found me in the end. I had expected as much.”

He was a little surprised.

Because the person who appeared was extremely alien.

Outwardly, he was white.

But no vitality could be felt from him.

Only mana was sensed.

‘He can’t be undead.’

No emotion could be felt from his expression either.

It felt only as though eyes, a nose, and a mouth had simply been attached to facial skin.

“Who are you?”

“I am Daniel.”

“Not your name. Where did you come from? What is your purpose?”

“That is a question I cannot answer.”

Would you look at that bastard?

He talked just like an internet-game operator.

“Anyway, it looks like you have business with me…”

“That is correct.”

He had a bad feeling.

The Judge’s Ring was quiet.

It could not judge whether this was truth or falsehood.

He did not look strong, but

‘No killing intent either. Is he a robot?’

That possibility was extremely high.

The bastard called Daniel walked over step by step.

Until he was almost right in front of him.

“Stop! Stay there, all right?”

“Yes, I will stop. This distance is sufficient.”

“…Sufficient for what?”

“That is a question I cannot answer.”

“…”

“Because you will know soon enough.”

Hwaaaaaaak!

His body shone like a light bulb.

Qi was being drained away.

The qi that had drained out was flowing into him.

And Tae-ju’s body froze in place.

He could not move easily.

It felt as though his lower body had been tightly bound.

‘…This?’

He had seen it somewhere before.

The memory surfaced.

‘Moscow?’

If so?

“You bastard, what kind of trick is this? Are you Vincent, by any chance?”

With practiced movements he opened the back door,

click!

and from the back seat stepped out Tang Gun-ak, dressed in a splendid suit.

“What a picture!”

“But can a car really enter all the way to the Purple Tenuity Palace?”

“We made a temporary road for now.”

“You’ve worked hard, Sword Immortal.”

Honestly, Tang Gun-ak was not pleased.

‘Representative of the Immortal Realm, my ass.’

But this time he would endure it.

Since the Supreme Emperor said he had urgent things to discuss, he had to at least hear him out.

“Then I’ll go and come back, so make sure there are no problems in the Immortal Realm.”

“Stop worrying.”

“Don’t you trust us?”

Of course he didn’t.

Who would?

Let’s go and come back quickly.

There were countless things to do.

“See you later. When I return, what kind of conversation was exchanged…”

It was then.

Wooooong!

Chichichichichik!

“…Huh?”

Some sort of strange qi could be felt from behind.

When he turned his head to look back,

jjaeaeaeang!

an oval mirror had suddenly appeared.

“Eh?”

“What’s that?”

“Did someone cast a spell?”

“Not me.”

That was not all.

Wooooong!

From inside the mirror door, an unknown force was trying to pull Tang Gun-ak into the mirror.

“What is this?”

Tang Gun-ak’s expression was one of bewilderment.

But there was no way an immortal would be dragged in by a mere force like this.

“Hup!”

Pasasak!

As he gave it strength with a shout, it snapped apart like a rotten rope.

Even so, the mirror did not vanish.

Though it did seem to be shrinking little by little.

Rumble.

The immortals gathered around the mirror.

Their eyes sparkled with curiosity.

“What is it?”

“It looks similar to a door to the Yellow Springs Realm.”

“Then Yama?”

“Hmm, I don’t think that’s it.”

Meanwhile, Tang Gun-ak figured out what it was.

Because he remembered what had been written in Tae-ju’s letter.

The great Moscow explosion.

It had said that identical souls emerging from the mirror had fused together, and in the aftermath the city had vanished completely.

Looking closely, the scene beyond the mirror was visible too.

Seeing trees and forest, it looked like a mountain.

“…This mirror is likely a door connected to Earth.”

Whip!

The immortals’ eyes all swung toward Tang Gun-ak at once.

“R-really?”

“If you go through there, you’ll probably be able to reach Earth. Tae-ju will likely be right nearby too.”

“Then what are you doing? Why not go in at once?”

“I can’t go. If I enter…”

“Ah! Could it be the soul-merging phenomenon?”

“Just leave it alone. Until the door disappears. Even now it’s slowly vanishing.”

The immortals nodded.

Sure enough, the mirror door was visibly getting smaller and smaller.

“That’s right. If you enter, who knows what might happen.”

“Everyone, stand far away. If you’re careless, you might get sucked in.”

“How dare some bastard make something like that in the Immortal Realm…”

“Ahem, it’ll disappear soon enough, so what are you worried about?”

Though they spoke like that, their bodies said the opposite.

Slowly, inch by inch,

the immortals edged closer toward the mirror while watching each other.

“Ahem! Why are you all acting like this? I told you to stay back.”

“Then why are Liquor Immortal’s feet moving that way?”

“I merely staggered because I was drunk. And what about you?”

“Huh? Wh-who pushed me? Why does my body keep moving this way…”

“I’ll block you.”

“There’s no need to go that far…”

All of them were merely waiting for a chance.

As expected, Sword Immortal was the fastest.

“Oops! I missed my footing.”

Kwadang,

he pitched forward as if falling headfirst,

spirit!

and at lightning speed rolled straight over,

ssuuk!

entering inside the mirror.

“Th-th-th…”

“Oh no!”

“Damn it!”

“M-move! Me too…”

“I’m first.”

Everyone tried to enter,

but the instant Sword Immortal went in,

pat!

the mirror door vanished in an instant.