Genius Wizard Takes Medicine Chapter 5

As expected, combining luxuries like this and inhaling them through combustion produced intense effects and equally severe side effects.

If handled carelessly, it could leave someone as limp as a soaked rag.

Until he escaped the factory, he had to keep his wits about him.

Lenoch threw the cigarette to the floor, crushed it beneath his shoe, and changed into a set of clothes from the pile scattered around the break room.

The worker’s uniform and the supervisor’s work clothes would both stand out too much.

The clothes in the break room were casual clothes that the supervisors wore when they were off duty. Wearing them would reduce the chance of drawing unnecessary attention after he escaped the factory.

“Ugh… The smell is awful.”

The stench of cigarettes and sweat had soaked into the clothes, creating a foul odor that stung his nose.

Still, Lenoch forced himself to change out of necessity.

He stuffed the uniform he had been wearing under the sofa in the break room and was about to leave when he heard footsteps echoing from the end of the corridor.

Lenoch released the doorknob he had been holding and quickly hid beneath the sofa.

His bad feeling proved correct.

The footsteps rapidly approached before stopping right in front of the break room door.

Bang!

“Hm? Who left the break room door open? Trying to get chewed out by the chief supervisor again?”

“On a day like today, it’s understandable to be distracted.”

Two supervisors entered the room, looking utterly exhausted.

Judging from their unfamiliar faces, they did not seem to be the supervisors in charge of the parts room near where Lenoch had been working.

The supervisor on the right sniffed the air, then smiled at his colleague.

“Smells like a few others slipped in before us.”

It seemed he had mistaken the lingering cigarette smell Lenoch had left behind for traces of other supervisors. From the way he spoke, it was clear that sneaking into the break room to smoke was nothing unusual.

Understanding what he meant, the other supervisor chuckled and sat down on the sofa.

“Well, we snuck out too. Not like we can complain if someone else did the same.”

“Let’s have a smoke first, then talk.”

The sound of a cigarette being lit soon followed, along with the slow exhale of smoke.

Hidden beneath the sofa, Lenoch held his breath, careful not to make even the slightest sound.

“Ah… I feel alive again. Those bastards won’t come back until the product count is filled, right?”

“Can’t you tell from the way they’re talking? Looks like we’ll have to keep the factory running today just to meet the quota.”

“Damn it… This is driving me insane.”

After exchanging a few complaints, the two fell silent and focused on smoking.

They seemed to be under a great deal of pressure from the current situation.

“I’ve made up my mind.”

“About what?”

The supervisor looked at his colleague sitting across from him with a serious expression.

“Once we finish this, let’s head to the parking lot.”

“…Should we?”

“You just bought a new car, didn’t you? If we hide in there, no one will find us.”

Even if the chief caught them later and beat them for it, that was a problem for later.

If they could avoid the immediate headache, nothing else mattered.

The two supervisors exchanged knowing smiles.

“Where’s the car key?”

“Oh, it should be here somewhere. I think I tossed it aside while drinking yesterday.”

“Let’s find it first.”

As the two burly men began rummaging through the clothes scattered on the floor, Lenoch quietly prepared himself.

“……”

He did not have enough mana to use powerful attack magic against people.

But even with that limited amount, there were still plenty of things he could do.

Lenoch took the pistol from his pocket and slowly brought his mana-filled hand close to the muzzle.

‘Silence.’

An invisible barrier wrapped around the muzzle, glowing blue for an instant before vanishing.

Lenoch pulled the slide to chamber a round, gripped the pistol with both hands, and waited for the right moment.

The two supervisors continued searching through the clothes for the car key.

Then, after exchanging grave looks, they abruptly stood.

“…It’s not here.”

“Come to think of it, the door was open when we came in…”

“Damn it. Don’t tell me…”

If only the car key had gone missing, they might have brushed it off.

But since Lenoch had taken every key he could find in the room, it would have been stranger if they failed to notice something was wrong.

They were not foolish enough to miss the seriousness of the situation.

They immediately began to move.

“You go straight to the parking lot.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll report it to the chief first. If I tell him someone stole our keys and ran, at least I won’t get blamed later.”

One of the supervisors seemed to think that made sense and immediately moved toward the break room door.

He raised the pistol at once.

Although his hand trembled for a brief moment, Lenoch’s finger pulled the trigger with almost unnatural ease.

Thud!

The sound was far too muted to be called a gunshot.

The supervisor, who had just grabbed the doorknob, collapsed as blood sprayed from his body.

A moment later, the other supervisor screamed.

“Ed!”

“Shut up!”

Lenoch shouted as he leapt out from beneath the sofa and aimed the gun at him.

The supervisor recognized Lenoch’s face and glared at him with murderous intent.

But the moment he saw the pistol in Lenoch’s hands, his mouth snapped shut.

Lenoch slowly closed the distance while glancing at the supervisor who had fallen.

The man lay face down, twitching faintly, but showed no other movement.

He was dead.

Realizing that he had killed someone for the first time, Lenoch broke out in a cold sweat.

Yet he was not shaken beyond control.

That was because the strong mentality, composure, and reason he had set for himself were suppressing his guilt, fear, and disgust, helping him keep his sanity.

In this extreme situation, his calmness became even more pronounced.

It was, without a doubt, a talent suited for a mage.

Lenoch kept himself close enough that he would not miss, but far enough that he could not be ambushed.

With his frail body, allowing the supervisor to rush him would mean losing the gun and dying on the spot.

Seeing Lenoch’s expression, the supervisor spoke in a trembling voice.

“P-please… spare me.”

“……”

“I won’t tell anyone about this. Please…”

For the first time, Lenoch properly looked at the supervisor’s face, twisted with fear.

Bloodshot eyes from exhaustion.

A messy, patchy beard.

Lips and chin trembling uncontrollably.

Although they spent every day exploiting and abusing the workers, the supervisors were not particularly impressive people.

They, too, were part of the factory.

They were trapped in its tedious routine, unable to escape, and like any ordinary person, they feared death when it stood before them.

Perhaps even if Lenoch let him go, he would not become much of a threat.

He might spend the rest of his life pretending he had never seen Lenoch at all.

Leaving behind one small act of mercy before escaping the factory might not be so bad.

That was what Lenoch thought as he slowly pulled the trigger.

Thud!

As the silence spell faded, the trembling supervisor slowly collapsed backward.

Lenoch watched the shock frozen on the man’s face, an expression that failed to understand his own death even in his final moment.

There was no regret.

No matter what his heart felt, the cold rationality of a wizard had already made the decision for him.

He could not leave any loose ends here.

Unlike the supervisor he had knocked unconscious in the bedroom, he could not afford to let the men he had encountered here live.

They knew the car key was missing and had already suspected something might be wrong in the parking lot.

If they woke up and started searching the parking lot before Lenoch escaped the factory, it would become troublesome.

Lenoch searched the pockets of the two fallen men and retrieved their wallets.

Inside were bills, coins, a few unfamiliar cards, and identification cards, but none of them looked familiar to Lenoch.

“……”

He was not surprised.

He had already guessed that this place was not Earth.

But if this was neither Earth nor the world inside the game, then where exactly was he?

It was confusing, but he had no time to dwell on it.

Lenoch hurriedly took what appeared to be money from the wallets and threw the rest beneath the sofa.

He considered moving the bodies, but quickly gave up.

The floor was already soaked with blood.

Cleaning up the bodies and wiping away the traces would take far too long.

There was only one thing left to do.

Lenoch immediately left the break room, locked the door behind him, and headed straight for the underground parking lot using the nearby stairs.

The dimly lit parking lot was thick with dust and cluttered with several trucks used by the union members, as well as vehicles belonging to the factory staff.

Lenoch crouched low and moved stealthily between the cars, searching for the vehicle that matched the serial number on the key.

There were two vehicles with the same number.

An old gray van.

And a sleek, polished two-seater.

The two-seater was so heavily modified with unfamiliar mechanical devices that it was difficult to tell what its original form had been.

Hoping the key would belong to the inconspicuous gray van, Lenoch tried both vehicles.

Unfortunately, the key fit the two-seater.

He had no choice.

Lenoch inserted the key, opened the door, and settled into the leather-scented seat.

The interior was even more astonishing than the exterior.

The dashboard was packed with all kinds of mechanical devices and buttons, and the steering wheel was shaped like a perfect rectangle.

Lenoch inserted the key beneath the steering wheel and started the engine. The dashboard lights flickered on, and the car began to hum softly.

When he pressed the left pedal and pushed the gear with force, the wheel began to turn.

It seemed the brake was also controlled by the left pedal in this vehicle.

After shifting gears and releasing the pedal, the car slowly began to move forward.

Even with the calm and composed mind he had gained, Lenoch could not stop his heart from pounding wildly.

He was finally escaping the factory.

For the first time since arriving in this world, he was leaving that old room behind.

Curiosity and anticipation toward the unknown world, along with fear and excitement, swirled inside Lenoch’s mind and made his entire body tremble.

As Lenoch slowly left the underground parking lot and headed up to the surface, he saw the figure of someone standing in front of the parking lot entrance.

A familiar uniform.

A limp in his step.

The moment Lenoch recognized the supervisor in charge of the parking lot, his eyes naturally grew cold.

The supervisor noticed the approaching vehicle and began walking toward it.

Having already killed two people, what difference would a third make?

Lenoch immediately reached for the pistol he had tossed onto the passenger seat.

But then he realized a serious problem.

He no longer had enough mana to use the silence spell.

Once to fake illness in the morning.

Once to knock out the supervisor with electricity.

Twice to reduce the sound of the gunshots.

For a newly awakened mage, who would normally struggle to cast even one spell a day, that was an enormous amount.

But in the current situation, that fact meant nothing.

Lenoch quickly realized where the problem had begun.

‘It’s because I went after the cigarettes.’

Considering what he could do with magic, escaping this old factory with four spells a day should not have been difficult.

If he had not used the electric shock spell, Volt, to knock out the supervisor, he would not have run out of mana like this.

But it was too late for regrets.

Given enough time, his mana would recover enough for one more spell.

But he did not have the luxury of waiting.

The supervisor, apparently recognizing the owner of the car, approached with a sly expression and spoke.

“Ed, have you lost your mind? Where are you going in the middle of all this? No matter how badly you want to slip away, you should at least hold back on the day the union visits.”

He tapped the car’s hood and walked toward the driver’s side.

“Show off your new car this weekend. If you’re going to the club, take me with—”

The supervisor froze the moment he saw Lenoch’s face behind the wheel.

“Who are you?”

His expression changed completely.

Before he could pull out whatever he was reaching for at his waist, Lenoch aimed the gun at his chest.

“Gasp…!”

“Drop the gun.”

The terrified supervisor immediately let go of the gun handle he had been gripping behind his back.

Lenoch glanced at the fallen weapon and let out a quiet chuckle.

No wonder he had surrendered so easily.

The gun was not even loaded.

Even if he had resisted, he would not have been able to fire a single shot.

Watching the supervisor stare at him with a frightened expression, Lenoch spoke.

“Is there a parking barrier up ahead?”

“Y-yes…”

“Remove it.”

The supervisor, trembling, turned around and entered the guard post near the parking lot entrance. Inside, he began operating something.

A moment later, the sweating supervisor looked back at Lenoch and nodded, his face filled with a desperate plea.

Lenoch understood what that look meant at once.

Everyone clung fiercely to life.

Lenoch was no different.

He, too, was desperately clinging to survival, even if that desperation was hidden beneath his strong mental fortitude and cold rationality.

And that was exactly why he could not leave behind even the smallest uncertainty.

Bang!

The gunshot rang out, violently shaking his eardrums as it echoed through the parking lot.

As if taking that sound as a signal, Lenoch released the brake.

He drove past the supervisor as the man collapsed with a look of disbelief frozen on his face, then slammed his foot down on the accelerator.

Vroom!

Hearing the gunshot without the silence spell for the first time in this world made Lenoch’s already pounding heart beat even more violently.

As the slope of the parking lot grew steeper upward, his body was pushed back into the seat.

Light began to fill his vision.

The dazzling sunlight stung his eyes, but Lenoch did not care.

For an instant, everything around him flashed white.

Then the car leapt forward, and his body settled back into place.

Through the thick car windows, the wide-open factory yard came into view.

Lenoch drove straight ahead without hesitation.

Between the thick walls surrounding the factory, he could see the only road leading outside.

The barrier that should have been raised in the center of the passage was still firmly closed.

That bastard had deceived him.

But Lenoch merely grinned and pressed his foot down harder.

Crash!

Using the speed he had built up, Lenoch smashed through the barrier in one burst and shot out of the factory.