pertwk Chapter 152 An unknown nobody... or a legendary figure of the first generation!
Chapter 152 An unknown nobody... or a legendary figure of the first generation!
Chapter 152 An unknown figure... or a legend!
Just as the leader was grinning maliciously and his finger was about to touch Ono's throat, a desperate madness suddenly flashed in Ono's eyes!
With his last bit of strength, he suddenly lowered his head, bit down hard on the seemingly seamless seal on the test tube with his teeth, and pulled it backward with all his might!
"hiss--
'
A faint yet unusually clear hiss, like the rapid leakage of high-pressure gas, rang out, sounding particularly jarring in the deathly silent sewer.
Immediately afterward, under the completely astonished gaze of the leading man, Ono suddenly tilted his head back, his Adam's apple bobbing violently, and without hesitation poured the viscous liquid in the test tube, which shimmered with an ominous pale red luster and emitted a strange sweet and fishy smell, deep into his throat!
"Fuck! Are you fucking crazy?! What are you doing?!"
The leader's face turned deathly pale in the flickering torchlight. He was clearly shocked that this rat from the gutter would have the audacity and the ruthlessness to destroy this priceless treasure!
As if branded with a hot iron, he suddenly stretched out his arm, his five fingers curled into claws, and grabbed at Ono's throat with a sharp whistling sound, trying to choke him and even trying to dig out the medicine that had already gone down his throat, but it was all too late!
The moment the medicine slid down his throat, Ono didn't taste anything; he only felt a thin, icy, bone-chilling thread rapidly sliding into his stomach with irresistible speed, and then—
"Ughh ...
An indescribable, extreme pain exploded within him in an instant!
It felt as if a million red-hot steel needles were suddenly piercing deep into his bone marrow, and frantically stirring and crushing it!
It was as if countless invisible and violent giant hands were cruelly tearing and kneading his internal organs, trying to crush him completely from the inside out!
He completely lost control of his body, like a live worm thrown into boiling shrimp, he suddenly curled up and fell into the cold, filthy muddy water, and began to convulse and roll violently.
The agonizing screams shattered the silence of the sewers; the distorted, shrill tones far exceeded the capabilities of the human vocal cords, filled with primal pain and despair.
"Boss! What the hell is going on?!"
The thugs beside him were terrified by the sudden, eerie sight, and they all took several steps back, staring in horror at Ono, who was struggling wildly on the ground and undergoing bizarre changes in his body, as if they were looking at some indescribable monster.
The leader's face was extremely grim, a deathly pale hue mixed with a bluish-gray tinge, and cold sweat instantly soaked his back.
He received a death order!
The "goods" must be brought back intact!
Now that the food has been consumed, the mission has been a complete failure!
His fate will be a thousand times worse than being thrown into a sewage pool and drowned!
At this moment, Ono felt as if his consciousness was fragile glass, being torn apart by endless, excruciating pain.
Grind it into powder.
His vision was violently distorted and blurred; all colors faded, leaving only a blood-red expanse of light from the torches, dancing across the sky and earth.
The veins beneath his skin bulged and twisted horribly, like awakened dark red venomous snakes, slithering and emanating an ominous aura.
His bones emitted a continuous, teeth-grinding, leg-weakening "crackling" sound, as if they were being forcibly stretched and shattered.
Then reshape!
"roar--!"
A low, hoarse roar, imbued with extreme pain and a kind of primal bestiality forcibly aroused, was forced out of Ono's violently convulsing throat, making the air tremble slightly.
This potion, made with incredibly expensive resources, possesses the legendary power to defy fate, and it's currently surging within him with its most violent force...
It operates in the most irresistible way, like a madman.
If he manages to survive this hellish torment, he will completely shed his mortal form and truly gain the qualifications to sense and manipulate energy and learn extraordinary magic, thus becoming a wizard whom mortals can only look up to!
Unfortunately, even with a miraculous success, this nascent potential, which has not yet undergone any systematic learning or training, is of no use whatsoever to him in his current desperate situation, where he is surrounded by powerful enemies and is extremely weak!
It's unclear how long the ordeal lasted, perhaps only a few minutes, but for Ono, it felt like an eternity of struggling in purgatory.
The excruciating pain that could tear one's soul apart finally receded like a tide, leaving behind a body that seemed to have been completely crushed and then barely pieced back together, filled with boundless weakness and numbness.
He lay limp in the cold sewage, like a discarded rag, soaked to the bone, utterly exhausted, gasping for breath, each breath accompanied by excruciating, tearing pain throughout his body.
However, at that moment, an unprecedented and strange feeling began to emerge from the depths of his soul.
The world—in his perception—had become completely different.
He could vaguely "sense" the flow of various energy particles that permeated the surrounding environment, thin yet real, and could even vaguely "see" the varying strengths of the auras of life emanating from the thugs opposite him.
An unprecedented sense of clarity and insight enveloped him, revealing a corner of the true nature of the world to him.
But this newly born sense of wonder was instantly and ruthlessly shattered by the chilling reality of crisis.
"Grab him! Tie him up tightly with the magic-suppressing rope! Quickly!"
The leader finally managed to snap out of his shock and panic. He gritted his teeth and roared, his voice trembling slightly.
"Even if he drank it, we have to bring him back! Extract, draw blood, extract his soul! No matter what method we use! We must extract the remaining medicinal effects from him! It's better than going back empty-handed to die!"
Hearing this desperate and mad order, the two subordinates suppressed their deep fear of Ono's inhuman state, exchanged a glance, and finally gritted their teeth and stepped forward.
They roughly dragged the weakened Ono, who was almost powerless to resist, out of the sewage like a dead dog, and bound him tightly with a specially made rope that shimmered with faint runic light.
Then, dragging Ono along, they followed the leader, whose face was so gloomy it was almost dripping with water, towards the stronghold hidden in the city.
They prepared to take this disastrous "failed cargo" back for emergency treatment, hoping to salvage even the faintest, almost nonexistent, hope of mitigating the punishment.
Deep inside the dimly lit warehouse, the air was so heavy it seemed to drip water. The only source of light came from a few flickering torches on the walls, casting long, short, distorted, and swaying shadows like lurking ghosts.
"This—is this the final result you've brought me?"
A cold, emotionless voice slowly broke the suffocating silence.
Kia sat upright in a large chair, leaning slightly forward, his fingers tapping lightly on the armrest.
His gaze, like a cold probe, slowly swept over the kneeling, trembling crowd below, finally landing on Ono, who was thrown to the ground, tightly bound with specially made ropes, his state of mind unclear—whether unconscious or conscious.
His face was expressionless, showing neither rage nor disappointment, but this extreme calmness instilled a chilling fear in everyone present.
"My lord... I... I never expected... him... he would actually..."
The once arrogant and domineering leader now knelt before Kia like a terrified mangy dog, trembling like a leaf, his teeth chattering, unable to utter a single complete sentence.
Kia ignored his weak, stammering explanation and instead asked a seemingly unrelated question as if in casual conversation: "Do you know how much that little potion is worth?"
His voice was calm, yet it was like a cold knife pressed against everyone's heart.
"6
'
The leading man's throat tightened, and he swallowed hard, as if the number weighed a ton.
"Twelve thousand — Magic Crystals."
He finally managed to squeeze out the astronomical figure from between his teeth, his voice distorted by extreme fear.
This number caused all the kneeling thugs around to gasp involuntarily, almost sucking the air out of the dim warehouse. They buried their heads even lower, wishing they could disappear into the ground.
"hehe."
Kia let out a short, cold laugh, a laugh devoid of any warmth, only a bone-chilling cold that made everyone's blood freeze almost instantly.
"Then tell me,"
His gaze was fixed on the leading man as if it were a physical object.
"You, and all of you," his gaze swept over Ono, who lay on the ground like trash, and his useless subordinates kneeling there, "Can you afford to pay for this?"
The warehouse fell into a deathly silence, broken only by the crackling of torches and the heavy, fearful breathing of the crowd.
The leading man trembled like a leaf in a storm, collapsing to the ground, too weak to even lift his head.
Kia slowly stood up from the chair.
He wore a well-tailored dark outfit that appeared simple and ordinary, but when he moved, a suffocating pressure, a mixture of power and cold strength, naturally emanated from him.
He strolled slowly to the man in the lead and looked down at him.
"Twelve thousand magic crystals —"
Kia's voice remained calm, but every word struck everyone's heart like a heavy hammer.
"What I'm buying isn't just a tube of cold liquid, but a possibility—a possibility that can turn worthless waste into a tool with a modicum of value."
His gaze swept back to Ono on the ground, a quick assessment flashing in his eyes.
"Now, this expensive possibility" was swallowed up in the most disgusting way by a rat in the sewer.
And judging from its appearance, it seems to have actually worked a little.
He could clearly sense the faint yet real, newly generated energy fluctuation emanating from Ono.
This proves that the medicine was indeed effective.
"But what's the use of that?"
Kia's voice suddenly turned cold, becoming as sharp as an icicle.
"What I need is money! Magic crystals! Not some cheap, unpredictable product that's just a random occurrence and comes with a lot of trouble!"
He suddenly raised his foot and kicked the leader hard in the shoulder!
"Useless! You can't even handle this trivial matter!"
The leader let out a suppressed scream, was kicked and rolled away, crashing into a wooden crate. He curled up on the ground, clutching his instantly swollen shoulder, not daring to even cry out in pain.
Kia didn't even bother to look at him again. His gaze refocused on the unconscious Ono, his eyes flashing with cold and shrewd calculation, as if he were assessing a damaged item that might still have some salvage value.
"Wake him up."
He gave the order casually, as if it were a trivial matter.
A quick-thinking thug nearby scrambled to his feet, grabbed a bucket of cold, foul-smelling sewage that was originally used to clean tools, and without hesitation, splashed it hard on Ono's head and face!
"Cough! Cough cough cough!"
Ono was suddenly jolted awake by the icy sewage and his extremely weak body, which made him tremble uncontrollably.
He opened his heavy eyelids with confusion and difficulty, and the first thing he saw was Kia's eyes, devoid of human emotion and as cold as a deep pool of ice, as well as the indifferent gazes around him, as if they were looking at livestock for slaughter.
An overwhelming fear gripped his heart, almost suffocating him once again.
"Your name is Ono?" Kia asked calmly, his voice revealing neither joy nor anger.
Ono's throat was dry and burning, and he couldn't make a sound. He could only nod with difficulty and a very small gesture.
"You stole from the Shadow Order and drank it."
Kia calmly stated the facts, as if he were talking about something that had nothing to do with him.
"Do you know what the consequences would typically be?"
Ono's face turned deathly pale, and the last glimmer of light in his eyes went out. He closed his eyes in despair.
It's over. This time it's completely over. What awaits him is torture a thousand times worse than death.
"but----"
However, Kia abruptly changed the subject.
"I've never liked making purely pointless wastes. That potion was quite valuable, and although the way you used it was incredibly stupid and extremely annoying, it did work on you."
He paused, looking at Ono's incredulous eyes that snapped open again at his words, and slowly said!
"This shows that—you, this rat in the sewer, may still have a tiny bit of potential hidden deep down—that's worth exploiting."
""
"If I kill you, my 12,000 magic crystals will be completely lost, and I won't even hear a sound."
Kia analyzed the situation slowly and methodically, as if he were discussing a business deal.
"But if we disassemble and refine you, we can only recover a negligible amount of the cost of the residue at most, which is still a losing proposition."
He slowly squatted down, extended two fingers, and used his cold fingers to lift Ono's chin, which was covered in sewage, forcing him to look into his unfathomable eyes: "Now, for the sake of that expensive potion, I'll make an exception and give you a choice."
His voice was low, yet carried a seductive power, each word pounding into Ono's ears: "Tell me—do you want to rot here worthlessly, continuing to be that nameless rat in the sewers—or—seize this only chance, and become a legend who wields power?"