After eating rice soup, Haseol held a coffee as he walked toward the parking lot with a satisfied expression, as though he were completely full.
Bisan followed behind him at an unhurried pace.
When the two reached the parking lot.
Ziiip.
Before them, a light began to draw itself with a sound like a zipper opening.
Lines of light drew more lines, until they became the size of a rectangular door.
When the lights joined and completed the rectangle, the space beyond it was revealed.
It was not the sea, nor was it dawn.
It was a nighttime road so dark that almost nothing could be seen.
From that road, someone walked through.
Pink hair, fangs, upward-slanting eyes, and an alluring beauty mark.
It was Eska, the King of Mages, dressed in a brightly colored short padded jacket and skirt.
"Haseol. A Rootstream has appeared."
"Already?"
"You seem to be done eating, so come at once."
"Okay. Just let me finish my coffee."
Haseol rapidly drank down his coffee.
"Give me the rest of the coffee and my coat. I will take them home."
Bisan held out a hand to Haseol.
"Ah, you are not going, Bisan?"
"I will put the car back, then come slowly."
"Okay. Then, here."
Haseol handed Bisan the coffee and Bisan's coat.
"Hooooo."
Haseol let out a deep breath.
"You look quite full. Are you all right?"
"I drank coffee, so I will be fine."
Haseol dismissed it as though it were nothing.
"Well, it would not be bad to see how much solving ability you have when you are in poor condition."
"Eska, whether it is good or bad, you always want to know it first, do you not?"
Haseol smiled as he bounced his feet lightly, as though trying to aid his digestion.
"We were born to learn. Let us go."
Eska spoke, then walked toward the square passage she had come through.
"It is still morning, but this is already the second case. It seems it will be a long day."
"It will be fortunate if it ends in a day."
Eska laughingly added to Haseol's concern.
"What is this called?"
Haseol asked as he looked at the square of light.
"It is a Slap Portal."
Haseol nodded and walked through the Slap Portal with Eska.
"Take care."
"Yes. I will be back."
With Bisan's farewell, the Slap Portal closed.
Instead of the parking lot by the sea, an entirely different scene filled Haseol's vision.
Even in the darkness, it was clear that the road was cracked and poorly maintained.
There were streetlights, but they were off.
The moonlight was only enough to make out the landscape around them.
"Where are we? Even though it is nighttime, the ground is still warm."
Haseol asked as he looked around.
"I understand we are somewhere in Africa."
"You can open a magical portal like that even though you do not know which country it is?"
"I do not memorize national borders."
"Ah~. I suppose countries would feel largely meaningless if you could travel around this freely."
Haseol nodded as though he understood.
"Where are the others?"
"I opened a Slap Portal at the house, so they will arrive when they are ready."
"Okay. Then......"
Haseol looked at the Rootstream before him.
It was a space covered in pure white light.
But the light did not spread outward. It merely suffused the space softly.
"What should I do? Should I go in first?"
"That seems better than waiting for the others."
"Okay. Ah, do you not need to cast magic on my sight and hearing?"
"I keep that active by default. I am simply the one who turns it off and on, so you need not worry about it."
"Okay. Then I will go."
Haseol tilted his neck sharply, then placed his thumb on the red line.
He turned his thumb.
FWOOSH.
Red lines spread through his body.
Haseol entered Rootstream.
He looked at the scene inside it.
Buildings covered in all kinds of painted graffiti, buildings that had collapsed completely, rubbish abandoned on the road, and derelict cars that looked as though they had burned.
"It looks like a city where ghosts might appear."
Haseol muttered as he looked at the city.
[I see.]
"Although it seems more likely that gun-wielding gangs would appear than ghosts."
[There will not be gun-wielding gangs.]
A quiet female voice.
Shura seemed to have arrived.
"Shura, are you here?"
[This is a town abandoned after an earthquake because it was never restored. No one lives here.]
"I see. There is nothing in particular that I can see yet."
[How is it through the Fairy Eye?]
"The Fairy Eye?"
[The lens in Haseol's eye.]
"Ah, come to think of it, I have not taken that out yet. Is it all right to wear it for a long time?"
[It does not matter. Can you see anything? It seems the Fairy Eye is not well adjusted yet, but if you try to see, you will see it.]
"The lens has a much grander name than I thought."
Haseol let out a hollow laugh, then immediately hardened his expression.
"I will focus."
He opened his eyes wide and slowly surveyed the village.
Buildings faintly lit by the moonlight. Collapsed buildings.
Street trees that had broken and were rotting away.
Utility poles and wires crawling over the ground.
As he passed through the place.
"Ah. There is one......"
BANG!
A gunshot rang out.
Blood burst from the back of Haseol's head.
His body toppled backward.
His feet lifted into the air and left Rootstream.
The impact was tremendous.
Outside Rootstream, Haseol's body lay on the ground, bleeding.
Blood flowing from the back of his head rapidly soaked his hair.
"Hmm."
Eska caught Haseol by the shoulder and pulled him closer.
"That was a gunshot. Was it a person?"
Eska asked.
"Probably a ghost."
Shura answered calmly.
"It is hard to think a person would be in a place like this, and even if someone were, they would not blow off the head of someone who arrived with a sniper shot right away."
"A ghost fires a gun?"
"It set off bombs too."
Without any sign of surprise, Shura stated her opinion.
In the meantime, the wound in Haseol's head gradually began to heal.
"Huh, whaa?"
Making a strange groan, Haseol sat up.
"How is your body?"
Eska asked.
"Huh? I am okay. Did something happen? I think I heard a gunshot."
"You were shot."
Eska pointed to Haseol's forehead with a finger as she spoke.
"Ah. So that is why the back of my head......"
Haseol touched the wet back of his head.
Bright-red blood smeared his hand.
"Oh......"
Haseol shuddered slightly.
Without Bisan's blood, he would have died.
"Haseol. You said you saw ability gear, right?"
Without any particular consideration for Haseol, Eska asked him.
"If ability gear means equipment that looks purple when seen through the Fairy Eye, then I did."
"Hmm. In that case, the purpose of this Rootstream is likely to stop the ghost from breaking that ability gear."
"We do not know that. I could have been shot before I had finished looking."
"Then look more."
"Will I not be shot again if I go back in?"
"Enter from a different direction. Looking at the direction in which you flew after being shot in the head, hmm."
Eska looked around as though searching for a good place to enter Rootstream.
"I sent a map to the group chat."
Shura said.
"What map?"
"The surrounding area and the inside of Rootstream."
"Ah~. Come to think of it, the village itself would be unchanged."
Haseol nodded.
Eska checked the map on her phone.
"We should enter from this side."
"Then what should our objective be?"
"Recover the ability gear and eliminate the sniper."
"We do not know whether the sniper is a ghost or not yet."
At Haseol's question, Eska stared fixedly at him.
"It put a hole through your head, yet you still intend to spare the sniper if it is not a ghost?"
Eska asked with an amused smile.
"That is true."
Haseol nodded as though he understood what Eska meant.
"I must have lost my mind for a moment after being shot and not dying."
He smiled, as though he would handle the job without issue.
Then he stared at the inside of Rootstream for a moment.
Killing a ghost and murder were different.
Understanding that difference, Haseol took a moment to catch his breath.
He seemed to have resolved to kill even if it was a person, and he clenched his fist as he walked into Rootstream.
The wall of a collapsed building was right in front of him.
It would shield him from the sniper.
Haseol closed and opened his eyes, confirming the purple light far away.
"I found the ability gear."
[What shape is it?]
"It only looks rectangular, so I cannot tell what sort of item it is."
Haseol turned on his phone and checked the map Shura had sent.
Shura had marked his current location on it as well.
He needed to cross a road to reach the ability gear.
Then he would have to run through the area with buildings.
"The buildings have collapsed, so there is not much cover. Do you have any useful tools?"
[Come out. I brought your things first.]
"Do I have anything like that among my things?"
Even as he tilted his head, Haseol walked out of Rootstream.
"Here. Waycut and the Glove of Obsession."
"What about the Cloak of Shade?"
"I did not bring it. It did not seem useful."
"That is true."
Haseol accepted the small knife and glove from Eska.
"How do I set the part that the Glove of Obsession protects?"
"I will ask Myun."
Eska wrote a text message on her phone, and Haseol waited for a response as he put on the glove.
"He says you can set it with a thought, but if you are not certain, say it aloud."
"Then the Glove of Obsession will only protect my head."
"It would be better to protect your neck. Si Haseol, you die if your neck is cut."
Shura, who had been quiet beside them, gave her opinion.
"I think the sniper will aim mostly for my head."
"You rate the enemy highly."
"I do not think there is anything to gain by rating it low."
After answering Shura, Haseol continued.
"Then, since I need to cross the road, I will change position outside Rootstream before entering."
He immediately began walking.
"Go ahead."
"I will make recovering the ability gear my objective."
"Mm."
Checking the map on his phone, Haseol walked through the dark streets.
He moved around a collapsed house.
He climbed over a fallen tree and entered Rootstream.
He lowered his body as much as possible behind a building and walked slowly.
The map also marked the sniper's likely firing position.
"Come to think of it, the sniper did not shoot while I was outside Rootstream."
[Hmm. Taking that into account, the ghost cannot see outside Rootstream either. It also makes it much more likely that the sniper is a ghost. Ordinary people could freely go in and out of Rootstream.]
"Yes."
Haseol nodded.
Then he checked the map and the purple light of the ability gear in his vision.
"When I run toward the ability gear, I think I will only cross the ghost's firing line once."
[From Haseol's present position, that is true.]
"So I will run."
[What about the sniper?]
"If recovering the ability gear alone removes Rootstream, please ask Eska or Shura to deal with the ghost."
[Hmm. That makes me curious too.]
"Okay, then. I will go."
Haseol took a large breath and slowly moved backward.
He needed space to accelerate.
For the most part, he could avoid sniper fire using the remains of buildings and trees.
There was only one place where his body would be completely exposed.
The space between alleys.
To cross that section quickly.
Tap!
He ran.
The collapsed buildings were low.
So he lowered his posture as much as possible.
Like a four-legged predator, he ran as though crawling across the ground.
Sometimes he lost his balance and had to plant both hands on the ground.
Sometimes his face brushed the ground and was scraped.
Even so, he ran while staying low.
Without being shot, he reached the entrance of the alley.
Haseol accelerated in an instant and leaped.
He was moving fast.
And he had lowered his body as much as possible.
It was an instant.
Even if a camera had been filming that spot, it would have been too short an instant to capture a proper image.
BANG!
But the gunshot rang out.
Haseol's gloved hand rose toward his head.
The Glove of Obsession caught the attack flying toward his head, just as Haseol had commanded.
Thanks to the physical ability Bisan's blood had enhanced, his hand was not even pushed backward.
However, the hand had moved so quickly that his body's balance collapsed.
The precarious balance created by his low posture, high speed, and near collision with the ground gave way, and his shoulder struck the ground first.
He rolled across the ground at the same speed.
He rolled and flew across the ground like a ball rather than a person, only stopping after his back struck a building wall.
"Huh."
His breath escaped without his meaning to let it out.
[Do not raise your head.]
"Mmph......"
Though he groaned at the throbbing pain, Haseol lowered his head.
After bouncing across the ground at an absurd speed and slamming into a wall, the pain still rapidly began to disappear.
"Yeeah. It will stop hurting soon, so it is fineee."
To steady himself, Haseol clenched and unclenched his fist for a moment.
Then he turned his eyes to the purple light and ran again.
The building that held the purple light came into view.
It was still some distance away.
Several alleys where the sniper could fire lay between him and it.
But.
CRASH!
If he broke through a building wall with his body.
RUMBLE!
If he passed from building to building.
BOOM!
The sniper's possible firing points would disappear.
Walls crumbled.
Haseol pushed through the falling gray chunks of stone.
Whenever his whole body struck a wall, the shock made his bones ache.
But he gritted his teeth and kept moving forward.
RUMBLE!
The moment he reached the inside of one building.
[It is difficult, but you chose the safest option. Excellent.]
Eska's praise reached him.
"It is nothing."
Haseol smiled as he wiped his face, now covered in gray dust.
He approached the rectangular object glowing purple.
It was a large table.
A table that had fallen on its side.
[Now you must choose.]
"Choose what?"
[Between bringing out the ability gear and killing the ghost.]
"Ah~."
[I think it would be good to see whether Rootstream is resolved if you bring out only the ability gear and leave the ghost alone.]
It was a reasonable thought.
Haseol nodded as though he had no objection.
"It is a good idea, but."
However, a troubled smile was on his lips.
"I think that will be difficult."
[Why?]
"There is too much ability gear."
Haseol spoke as he looked at the mass of purple lights piled behind the table.