The pharmaceutical company had to concede first, and after that, everything proceeded smoothly.

Instead of doubling the upfront payment of ten million Cel originally promised to Lenoch, they kept the success fee at ten million Cel.

After signing the temporary employment contract, which promised him thirty million Cel upon success, Lenoch immediately got into the car Sage had brought and headed towards the warehouse.

Having already packed his belongings, there were no major issues.

“It’s a bit late. The others have probably arrived by now.”

“The others?”

“People we’ve hired to guard the warehouse. We might be outnumbered compared to the gang, but they’ll still be helpful.”

“…….”

It seemed they didn’t intend for a wizard to face a gang alone.

Instead of responding, Lenoch turned his head to look out the window.

Jenny had mentioned the gang had at least 100 members.

If he couldn’t rely on others’ help, how many could Lenoch handle on his own?

Honestly, if his opponents weren’t mana users, Lenoch could easily handle even more than that.

With five layers of shields, most bullets or blades wouldn’t even scratch him, and he could launch a one-sided attack with magic as long as his mana held out.

However, if there were mana users or those with special abilities among the gang, things could get tricky.

He wouldn’t die, of course, but he couldn’t guarantee he’d protect the new drug sample properly.

He needed more information.

‘Maybe I should shake things up a bit.’

“According to Jenny, you guys knew my worth but still tried to lowball me.”

“Wha… what?”

Seeing Sage’s visibly flustered face, Lenoch smirked faintly.

“Doubling my pay all at once, completely ignoring the usual rates.”

“That’s… that’s a misunderstanding.”

Sage replied, sweating profusely.

His hands on the steering wheel began to tremble.

It wasn’t so much that his conscience was pricked by Lenoch’s words, but rather the fear of having angered the wizard sitting in the passenger seat.

The fear of potentially being electrocuted on the spot was not something easily experienced.

Lenoch stared at Sage silently for a while before speaking again.

“Are there any other samples in the warehouse?”

Sage, who was tense, quickly latched onto the change of topic.

“N-no, it’s not like that. It was originally used by the boss for personal purposes, so there are samples of other marketed drugs.”

“I’m curious about what samples are there. Are there any common ones like sleeping pills?”

“We don’t handle them directly, but… there might be.”

“That’s good.”

“Sorry?”

“Nothing.”

The sleeping pills from the shabby pharmacy in District 49 weren’t working, so securing other samples wouldn’t be a bad thing.

He’d always thought about it only when he was about to sleep, so he’d kept putting off buying other sleeping pills. It seemed like a good opportunity to grab some.

Meanwhile, Sage’s car came to a stop.

“We’re here. It looks like some others have gathered.”

In front of the warehouse, which he had already seen in photos, about ten people were gathered.

Too few to attract attention, but too many to guard a single warehouse.

It was evident that the pharmaceutical company had struggled with the numbers, not wanting to openly oppose the councilor.

“The people… they look quite dissatisfied.”

Lenoch murmured as he looked at the people with bulging veins on their foreheads through the car window.

In shabby clothes, each holding a firearm or a blade, they approached menacingly.

The muscular, rough-looking man leading them banged on the car body.

“Hey!! Open up! Get out here!”

“W-what’s going on?”

“This isn’t what we agreed on! What can we do with this number of people!!”

It seemed like a lot to guard a warehouse, but when considering a gang attack, it was a ridiculously small number.

Lenoch quickly assessed the situation; the individuals’ levels and appearances were anything but clean.

It wasn’t hard to figure out what was going on.

“They filled the rest with makeshift hires, leaving me out.”

“That’s… not true.”

“I don’t mind, but do you think they don’t know?”

Sage’s face turned pale again at Lenoch’s indifferent words.

To be fair, this situation wasn’t entirely his fault.

The decision to protect the samples from the gang with just this number of people was made by the board and a few executives who knew the samples were hidden here.

It’s frustrating, but you can’t always work with smart clients.

“Sigh… let’s get out.”

“What? But if we go out now….”

“I’ll do what I was paid for.”

Without waiting for a response, Lenoch opened the door.

As he stepped out of the passenger seat, people immediately turned their fierce gazes on him and rushed over.

“Who the hell are you to come out with this guy?”

“If you arrived late, step back! We have something to discuss with this guy.”

“These bastards didn’t even tell us we’d be facing a gang!”

The shouting was so loud it made his head throb.

“Can’t you be quiet?”

“You idiot, you’re in the same boat! Why are you acting all calm!!”

“If the gang marks us, we can’t even run away!”

The voices of the men had a faint hint of tears.

Lenoch understood their position.

They seemed like people who had been lured by the high pay and ended up here, only to be told they might have to face a gang. It must have been overwhelming.

But he had no intention of coaxing or persuading them with words.

“Can’t you hear me? Get out of the car…!!”

Lenoch grabbed the shoulder of the man trying to forcefully open the car door and pulled him back.

He immediately gathered his mana.

[Volt]

Bzzzzzt!!

Watching the man collapse, eyes rolling back and foaming at the mouth, Lenoch took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth.

As he lit it with a spark between his fingers and exhaled smoke, no one dared to speak to him.

Though brief, no one missed the blue current he had unleashed.

“A-a wizard….”

“The pharmaceutical company hired a wizard?”

“That makes sense, but….”

“Quiet.”

This time, everyone fell silent at once.

Lenoch slowly scanned the people before speaking.

“Judging by your talk about the gang, it seems you have some idea of the situation.”

The people nodded silently.

“Alright. It’s true that the company was wrong not to explain things to you.”

Lenoch tapped his heel against the tire, causing the car to shake slightly. There was no need to think about who was trembling inside.

“But this guy is just an employee following the company’s orders. Breaking the car and beating him up here would be a waste of time, wouldn’t it?”

It wasn’t out of any particular fondness for Sage that he said this.

But taking out their anger on a mere messenger wouldn’t solve anything.

This whole situation was a waste of time for Lenoch. It was better to send him off and prepare for the task at hand.

But there weren’t many who would listen to reason at this point.

Or rather, they didn’t want to listen.

“Step aside while I’m being nice. Just because you’re a wizard?”

Fwoosh!!

A man emerged from the crowd, flames blazing from his arms.

The intense heat, like living fire, caused people to hurriedly step back.

He glared at Lenoch with burning eyes and sneered.

“These guys here don’t seem to know, but not all wizards are great. If you’ve rolled all the way here, you probably have just a rat’s tail worth of mana and got kicked out of the Magic Tower.”

“……”

Lenoch exhaled smoke, silently observing the man from head to toe.

Bloodshot eyes filled with tension and anger. A rough appearance with stubble and a leather jacket.

In some ways, he resembled the foremen from the factory he used to work at, but the flames rising from his arms were no illusion.

Lenoch nodded inwardly.

‘Seeing a psychic twice in one day.’

A pyrokinetic. Known by various names and forms, but recognized for their intuitive and powerful abilities.

However, given that he was brought here without any explanation, he probably wasn’t a very strong psychic.

Lenoch responded with a smile.

“So what? Are you going to push me aside and turn this car to ashes?”

“…..No. A low-level wizard is just a burden. I’ll burn you too!!”

The man growled, extending his flaming hand toward Lenoch.

Lenoch watched him calmly, cigarette in mouth.

In this world, nothing is resolved nicely with words.

Your opinion is your strength, and strength is your means of communication.

Recalling that simple yet brutal logic, Lenoch extended his hand as well.

Thunk!

Just before the flames reached him, he layered a shield over his skin and grabbed the man’s hand.

“….!!!!”

The pyrokinetic, as well as those watching from behind, were left speechless by Lenoch’s unexpected action.

“What, what are you doing!! Who are you!!”

Lenoch didn’t answer. He didn’t need to speak; they’d soon understand.

Silently, he drew upon his mana, conjuring the image of a powerful flame.

With that alone, his mana surged, intertwining with the man’s flames, creating a new, turbulent magic.

From Lenoch’s grasp, a blazing inferno erupted, consuming the man in reverse.

Fwoosh!!

“Eek!!”

“Crazy…. This is impossible!!”

Ignoring the voices of shock behind him, the two flames, writhing as if in fierce conflict, soon merged into one, surging in a single direction.

There was no need to determine whose flame had lost.

Fwoosh!!

“Aaaah!!”

Not all pyrokinetics are immune to fire.

While they naturally possess some resistance to flames, low-level psychics aren’t free from the pain of high-temperature flames.

Unless they diligently honed their abilities beyond their innate talent, they would be as helpless as anyone else before flames that exceeded their limits.

‘In a way, it’s the limit of psychics.’

Relying solely on innate talent, their abilities manifest intuitively without much effort. But to wield their powers beyond their capabilities requires extraordinary effort.

As a result, powerful psychics are treated similarly to high-level mana users, but their numbers are relatively few.

The man writhed in agony, but Lenoch didn’t release his grip.

Regardless of his true intentions, he had threatened to burn Lenoch first.

Even if he didn’t kill him, it was necessary to thoroughly crush him, leaving no room for recovery.

“Please, I was wrong!! Spare me, please!!”

The man, experiencing the searing pain of being burned alive for the first time, wept, but even his tears evaporated in the flames enveloping him.

An ordinary person would have succumbed long ago, but ironically, the pyrokinetic’s innate flame resistance kept him intact.

Lenoch clicked his tongue and slowly released his grip.

It wasn’t out of pity for the man, but because his grip was weakening, making it hard to withstand the man’s struggles.

His body was truly weak.

As soon as Lenoch let go, the man frantically rolled on the ground, shedding his leather jacket.

“Put out the fire!!”

“If it spreads to the warehouse, we’re finished!!”

While others rushed to douse him with water from inside the warehouse, Lenoch opened the driver’s door and spoke to Sage.

“Things won’t get done with you here. You should go.”

“Y-yes….”

As if waiting for those words, Sage quickly took the wheel and disappeared.

Lenoch checked the time.

7 PM.

From now, a day and a half. He needed to hold out until roughly dawn the day after tomorrow.

Assuming the patent office opened at 8 AM, he had to protect the samples from the gang’s attack until then.

Given the vast warehouse grounds, it seemed like a daunting task, but Lenoch remained calm and collected.

‘All I need to do is protect the new drug samples and take them to the patent office.’

The positions of those hired to guard the warehouse and Lenoch were entirely different.

The pharmaceutical company had set only one condition for him: retrieve and submit the samples before the patent office opened.

While clashing with the gang was inevitable, he wasn’t bound by other constraints.

He didn’t care about the warehouse where the samples were stored. In the worst-case scenario, he could give up the entire warehouse as long as he protected the samples.

Having said that, Lenoch immediately headed inside the warehouse to confirm the existence of the samples.

The people around him flinched and stepped back as he passed, but he paid them no mind.

They were not reliable allies. It was better to treat them as nonexistent and focus on his task.

Opening the dusty door and entering the warehouse, he found it filled with white boxes containing medical samples.

Covered in transparent plastic, the samples seemed undamaged, but it wasn’t an ideal environment for storage and management.

The pharmaceutical company, pressured by the councilor, had no choice but to hide the samples in this poorly managed warehouse.

Thanks to Sage’s prior mention, Lenoch easily found the new drug samples they had talked about.

Three vials containing a blue liquid, resembling small test tubes.

Considering they had to hide them in the warehouse, they seemed to have left only the minimum reserve.

After a moment of contemplation, Lenoch decided to take all three vials and tucked them into his coat.

He trusted himself more than the others outside, who were still making a fuss about putting out the fire.

He could roughly guess what kind of people they were.

People who didn’t want to be part of an organization and do dangerous work, but couldn’t resist the allure of money in this world.

The pharmaceutical company had squeezed out the money to hire them just to make up the numbers, but it was a complete mistake.

Except for the pyrokinetic he had just dealt with, it was obvious that none of them would be of much help.

“I’m not good at leading people….”

What kind of eloquence or leadership could Lenoch, who had lived as a gamer, possibly have?

While his talent as a wizard allowed him to make far more rational and logical judgments than before, leading strangers against an organization was an entirely different story.

‘It might be better to just run away with the samples….’

If he hid and waited until the patent office opened, no one would be able to find Lenoch, but that wasn’t the outcome the pharmaceutical company desired.

Moreover, Lenoch had agreed to confront the gang and had demanded more upfront payment.

Even if the time and place weren’t set, he needed to clash with them at least once to weaken their strength.

After pondering while holding the new drug samples, Lenoch finally made up his mind.

“I’ll just wipe them out here.”

The gang was likely after the new drug samples, and as long as the samples were here, they would come to the warehouse instead of taking a detour.

If he could handle them, it would be much easier to lure them here than to run away.

Through bounty hunting, the battle with Crocken, and the consecutive fights with the Scavenger branch manager, Lenoch had gained confidence in his combat abilities.

His stamina was too weak to be called frail, but his firepower was unmatched.

It felt much more comfortable to wipe out the approaching gang here and leave no room for pursuit, then take the samples to the patent office.

“I need to move right away.”

He had an idea in mind since Sage had mentioned the warehouse.

If executed well, it might lead to quite an interesting spectacle.