[Translator – Aren]
When you put on a gas mask, you start feeling your skin getting all damp.
And saliva kept threatening to dribble out of my mouth like Ttoli, the mutt my Grandmother kept, whenever someone waved dog treats in front of him. Letting out a loud ‘slurp’ sound, I kept swallowing the saliva trying to leak through my lips.
It was probably some kind of conditioned reflex from CBRN training. Back then I’d spent the whole time leaking tears, snot, and drool all over the place. I vaguely remembered almost pissing myself during training too. Thank God that part hadn’t become a conditioned reflex.
-Huff, huff.
After taking a few short breaths, I quickly surveyed the B1 concourse.
Things really were different depending on whether you were entering or leaving. The ominous red emergency lights from when we’d escaped were gone. Now the palace was filled with bright white fluorescent lighting. Because of that, we could clearly see the mess of shattered glass and chunks of destroyed ceiling material strewn everywhere.
But letting our guard down was forbidden.
Alteration-type Eyes-branch - Stage 1.
There wasn’t any fog here, but I decided to use it anyway. Who knew? Maybe using it repeatedly built up some invisible EXP and strengthened it over time.Besides, if I ever wanted to cheat at some casino in Las Vegas later, I’d need to get used to using it like this ahead of time. Of course, this also doubled as training to endure the unpleasant sensation of my eyes burning like shampoo had gotten into them.
Still… The backlash was definitely stronger than inside the fog.
-Thump, thump.
Every time my pulse beat, it felt like the tiny blood vessels spread throughout my eyes were twitching with it. How should I describe the feeling…? It was like someone had wrapped a very thin plastic film around my eyeballs, but the film had gotten slightly wrinkled so it wasn’t sticking smoothly and instead created this rough and irritating sensation…
In other words, it sucked. But even “sucking” had its own spectrum. And as a wizard researching magic, I resolved to carefully catalog and understand every little sensation and pain.
Thankfully, unlike when I’d used it on the road, my eyes weren’t aching sharply this time. I thought about why for only a moment before realizing the answer.
The road had people and vehicles moving around. This wrecked underground concourse was practically empty.
The fewer things there were to observe, the less magical backlash there seemed to be.
Inside the fog, the backlash dramatically lessened. And if the present and 10-seconds-later future didn‘t differ much, the backlash would lessen yet again.
So I looked around to see how many footprints would appear 20 seconds into the future inside this B1 concourse.
Fortunately, the biochemical warfare seemed to have worked properly. No footprints appeared. But the ecology of the Predator Spine, which we’d learned about during the briefing, resurfaced in my mind. A creature sensitive to light. Usually hanging from ceilings or pipes or hiding in unseen crevices before ambushing prey.
Given its nature, it was more likely that it’d remain patiently hidden even 10 seconds into the future.
I kept my guard up and shouldered my rifle. Shin Nain and Lee Sejun also stayed vigilant, each watching different directions. About 20 seconds passed like this. At least around the concourse entrance there were no footprints at all.
"Shitmaster. You don’t hear anything? That whining guy Park Sehyeok could hear heartbeats before.”
"My faith must have remained unwavering. Or perhaps you could call it the monsters’ instincts? I started hearing those simple voices, and that’s probably why I survived.”
"Alteration-type Ear-branch, Stage 2?”
"I guess so? But I can't hear anything here. Guess they’re really dead.”
Even while enduring the burning discomfort of keeping Stage 1 Eyes-branch magic active, I silently committed this to memory.
Alteration-type Ear-branch magic allows one to perceive sound. Park Sehyeok heard heartbeats. And this lunatic Shin Nain had apparently gone from hearing people’s inner thoughts when concentrating to now hearing the instinctive cries of monsters themselves.
Though I have no idea if that was true. But at the very least, it seemed like something we could rely on for detection.
-Clack.
With the metallic sound echoing out, our trio took the lead forward.
Of course, we could’ve sped up the search by tossing Lieutenant Baek Hansung and his soldiers forward like human detectors or expendable body armor.
But Lieutenant Baek Hansung and those 30 soldiers had probably been dragged into this mess too. I didn’t want to recklessly shove them into danger.
I, Baek Jemin, am someone who studies magic and wants to enjoy its power, not some vicious bastard who hurts people indiscriminately. I was a man capable of respecting human life even without laws telling me to do so. I was fundamentally different from the likes of Shin Nain.
Anyway, thanks to that, our search of the B1 concourse proceeded a little slower.
The officers upstairs had said they’d already swept the palace once after carrying out biochemical warfare, but in a bizarre crisis where monsters suddenly jumped people, preparing for the worst was only common sense. Lieutenant Baek Hansung and his soldiers seemed to understand the situation. They only moved into areas our group had already explored, focusing on securing the wider corridors and open spaces in the center.
"It looks like our Operators are better at detecting monsters, so we’ll focus on concentrated firepower. Stay sharp. If those things catch you, you'll be begging for death instead.”
With Lieutenant Baek Hansung’s warning, the soldiers tightened their expressions and breathed heavily through their masks as they checked things over once more.
Our trio also chose not to rush ahead recklessly. Instead, we matched pace with the soldiers, helping secure safe zones and eliminate potential threats. As someone who’d spent his free time consuming every horror movie, monster movie, and zombie flick imaginable, I absolutely refused to tolerate sloppy cleanup work.
To reduce the backlash from my magic, I limited activation to corners and areas near doors. Combined with Shin Nain’s Ear-branch magic, we thoroughly prepared ourselves for both accurate detection and dealing with possible dangers.
The moment all that preparation paid off was in front of the women’s restroom.
Normally, I wouldn't have gone anywhere near the place. But if we’d skipped over it with such a complacent mindset and monsters ended up ambushing the soldiers, the entire situation would’ve gone to hell. So we’d gone to search it. And suddenly Shin Nain spoke in a completely different tone of voice.
"Sounds like fingernails scratching a chalkboard…There are monsters inside.”
"How many?”
"Just one…but let’s assume there’s more than one and prepare accordingly, Baek Jemin-ssi.”
Meanwhile, I couldn’t see any footprints outside the restroom.
Was an Amalgam hiding inside? But if it were a Predator Spine, it could burst out from somewhere unexpected and sever someone’s spine before we even realized what happened. More importantly, even after getting culled by biochemical warfare, something had still managed to stay alive…?
Just like humans were stubborn, those bastards were stubborn too.
"Should we use a grenade here?”
Enduring the unpleasant backlash of my magic, I kept my rifle aimed toward the restroom while asking Lee Sejun and Shin Nain.
Surprisingly, it was Lee Sejun who stepped up. Lacking detection abilities, he briefly explained his own Alteration-type magic—magic of the Heart-branch—and demonstrated his utility.
"I’ll handle dangerous jobs like this. I’m harder to tire out. We should save grenades in case we really need firepower, so I’ll take the lead for the initial entry.”
"That’s insanely dangerous…”
"When you’ve got one guy seeing 10 seconds into the future and another with radar ears listening for monster noises, I’d be stupid not to rely on you two for cover. Besides, we can’t exactly throw grenades every single time.”
"Before that, let’s talk with Lieutenant Baek Hansung first. Lee Sejun-ssi, would you mind doing that?”
"Right."
While Shin Nain and I kept our rifles trained on the restroom, one of us seeing 10 seconds ahead and the other listening for monster noises, Lee Sejun, who’d volunteered as the entry man, spoke with Lieutenant Baek Hansung.
Lieutenant Baek Hansung looked even more disturbed by the fact that creatures had survived despite two weeks of biochemical exposure. His expression hardened as he nodded and barked another order to his men.
"We’re assuming monsters are still present even on B1. Just because the fluorescent lights are on doesn’t mean you’re safe. Check the surrounding area for fog again!”
Fog…
Right, where monsters appeared, fog usually followed. But the air in the B1 concourse looked perfectly clear. Had 3 days of ventilation sucked the fog out too?
But saying that felt a bit too oversimplified. Below the concourse, something heavy seemed to hang over the floor, and it was hard to tell whether it was dust clouds or fog. A thin layer, maybe around 5 mm thick, seemed to ripple just above the floor. At times it looked like fog, and at others it looked like ordinary dust.
Still, if we’d already confirmed monsters were here, then it was probably safer to assume it was fog.
After a brief period of preparation, Shin Nain and I took positions at roughly 45° angles, aiming diagonally toward the restroom entrance while Lee Sejun prepared to enter. He checked his rifle one more time before taking deep breaths to steady himself.
-Huuuff, huuuff—.
The breath leaving his gas mask might end up being his last.
Under the artificial light, in this place devoid of a single ray of sunlight, maybe a fate worse than death awaited him, like being violently violated and desecrated by monsters. But even while hesitating, trembling, and feeling fear, Lee Sejun stepped forward.
"Entering!"
At the same moment, Shin Nain and I moved as well.
But naturally I went in before him since I could see 10 seconds into the future. The instant Lee Sejun entered, he lowered his body and opened up a firing line for the people behind him. And because of that I was able to see footprints passing directly over his back.
Red footprints scattered chaotically across the ceiling. I knew instantly what that meant. Amalgams moved roughly like sprinting humans. Irregular movement patterns like this could only belong to one creature…
Predator Spines.
Rather than aiming for the creature itself, I aimed at the footprints and pulled the trigger immediately.
The accuracy was closer to suppressive fire than shots meant to kill, but I didn’t feel a shred of shame.
Even some expert marksmen would’ve had their aim thrown to hell in this kind of situation.
-Bang! Bang!
As shell casings clattered onto the restroom tiles, ribs flashed over the red footprints. It looked like a giant white centipede racing across the ceiling.
But the sight of that skull attached to its head, those pale, vacant eyes, and lower jaw hanging loose while cold saliva dripped from its dangling tongue, crawling along the wall while waiting for an opportunity, made me want to hug an actual centipede instead of facing that thing.
Twisting its long body in grotesque ways, the Predator Spine flowed along the restroom wall using its ribs like legs. And its gaze seemed to be locked onto Lee Sejun, who hadn’t properly reacted yet.
It was damn fast.
When I fired ahead of its footprints, I hadn’t managed to hit its head, but its ribs.
"Uwaaaaagh!”
As I fired, Lee Sejun, who was crouching down, partially panicked and started firing too, but our efforts were largely in vain. The creature’s movement was just slightly faster than our ability to track it with our rifles.
Its pale eyes remained locked onto Lee Sejun. Its head tilted strangely as if staring directly at his hand movements and shoulders while it endlessly raced across walls and ceilings.
The sound of ricocheting bullets and clattering shell casings came from every direction. But none of us managed to land any meaningful hits.
-Tatatatatatak!
The sounds of ribs slamming against walls at an insane speed made cold sweat run down the bridge of my nose.
This thing’s speed… was absolutely insane.
Speed? Was that really it?
It wasn’t like an Amalgam. Amalgams feared my sight. But this bastard… was somehow tricking me?
What the fuck…? I was literally aiming and firing ahead by following footprints 10 seconds into the future, and I still couldn’t properly hit it!
At that moment, I crouched down and slammed my left hand against my knee, without any hesitation.
Alteration-type Eyes-branch, Stage 2.
My suffering stretched longer than any moment I had ever known...
"Aaaagh!”
At the exact moment I screamed, the Predator Spine slipped from the wall and crashed onto the floor.
It had been moving across the mirror above the restroom sinks when it suddenly dropped onto the sink counter itself, twitching helplessly while its pale eyes trembled violently. Only then did we finally witness its horrifying appearance with our own eyes instead of through surveillance footage. Even Lee Sejun, who had boldly volunteered to enter first, visibly started losing his resolve.
Still, while Lee Sejun might’ve been terrible at social etiquette, he definitely knew when to pull a trigger.
Without hesitation, he dumped the rest of his magazine straight into the monster’s head.
-Babang, bang…Bangbang…
The gunfire only stopped because there were no more bullets left to fire.
-Click, click, click, click.
The sharp smell of gunpowder drifted through the air. Even after the final bullet in the chamber was fired and the shell casing rolled away, Lee Sejun kept pulling the trigger. Only then did I finally close my eyes.
-Blink.
Have you ever seen a dead bug still twitch its legs after it died? The Predator Spine did the same thing.
Its mutated ribs scraped and slammed against each other as it desperately tried to move its tail. Like a flea or bedbug making one final attempt at reproduction before dying.
But Lee Sejun, Shin Nain, and I had all kept our distance.
Then a faint, opaque pink fluid, the monster’s bodily fluids, started flowing out over the restroom sink and gurgling down the drain. Watching that instantly killed my appetite. Without realizing it, I raised a hand toward my face.
-Thump.
Only then did I remember that I was wearing leather gloves and a gas mask.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Not because of the backlash of my magic this time, but because I’d finally fully realized what kind of fucked up thing we were actually facing.
Holy fucking shit, for a moment, I almost agreed with China’s opinion that we should just throw three one-megaton hydrogen bombs at Seoul and then nuke the entire Korean Peninsula until nothing alive could survive here anymore. If foreigners saw this, support plans and aid packages would disappear instantly. They’d start dancing on top of the nuclear launch buttons.
Hell, they might even try wiping out Korean refugees as well.
Out of all 8 billion humans and over 200 countries, why the hell did these bastards have to show up in Seoul, South Korea? If these fuckers were going to appear, couldn’t they have spawned somewhere like Africa and gotten a nice relaxing nuclear sauna instead?
But thankfully, I quickly regained my inner peace.
Right. Nothing in life was ever easy. If I wanted to gain the omnipotent power called magic, then these were the things I’d have to face regularly anyway. I’d better get used to them faster. Who knows? Maybe if I saw them enough, they’d start feeling familiar.
Maybe one day I’d even end up dragging some horrible Predator Spine bastard around like a dog while calling it Chucky or something.
I removed my magazine and estimated the remaining rounds. It looked like I’d dumped 12 shots out of a 20-round magazine. For firing in semi-auto while half-panicking, honestly, that wasn’t too bad. Though spending 12 rounds for a single monster was still pretty expensive.
Today was also the first time I’d realized I could move my trigger finger that quickly.
Anyway, 8 rounds felt too wasteful to leave in there. I had no other choice but to reload.
I placed a hand on Lee Sejun’s shoulder while he was still mechanically pulling the trigger and looked toward Shin Nain.
"Shin Nain-ssi. Can you hear what Lee Sejun’s thinking?”
Only then did Shin Nain seem to snap out of his daze. He shook his head and checked his own magazine.
It appeared he’d been firing from the rear as well, because smoke was still drifting from his barrel. Looks like all three of us had gone into a mindless frenzy there. Shin Nain looked at his remaining ammo for a moment, hesitated slightly, then decisively loaded a fresh magazine before speaking.
"Lee Sejun is thinking that next time we should just throw in a grenade.”
"Hmm."
Honestly, that was a pretty reasonable opinion.
Better to use one grenade than to show off your abilities, get your spine snapped, and end up raising a monster inside your body.
"Let’s go, Lee Sejun-ssi. We should report this to Lieutenant Baek Hansung."
*t*t*
A short while later, after hearing our report, Lieutenant Baek Hansung immediately contacted the surface by radio.
Not long after that, another squad was sent in. This one belonged to the CBRN unit. Their commander, Major Jang Shinmyeong, had only brought around 15 soldiers, but he handled things with the confidence of someone experienced.
"Operators and Lieutenant Baek Hansung’s unit, maintain defensive positions, please. We brought flamethrowers for the monster corpses. We’ll incinerate them.”
"Yes, sir!”
With Lieutenant Bake Hansung’s booming reply, the search resumed.
Thankfully, no additional living monsters appeared.
I could now confidently say that the biochemical operation had been completely ineffective. There were still monster corpses around.
Most of them were Amalgams. It looked like they’d tried escaping upward to avoid the gas, only to suffocate and die together in corners, tangled into piles while leaking pus-like fluids. That sickly yellow liquid looked half like vomit, half mixed with human blood, and staring at it made nausea crawl up my throat.
The Amalgam corpses were disturbing enough already, but the scarlet spots spreading across the parts that still retained human features, namely arms and legs, were just plain bizarre.
Thanks to our trio’s magical detection abilities and Lee Sejun becoming even more paranoid after facing the Predator Spine, nothing unexpected happened. And that was when I realized something.
That massive Amalgam that had chased me from behind during our escape hadn’t been alone.
One got shredded by machine-gun fire. One was lying dead here, and then…
The one that had eaten Father Jeon Yonghwan.
"There should’ve been one more.”
"How do you know that, Baek Jemin-ssi?”
Shin Nain asked. Compared to Lee Sejun, he looked a lot more stable.
Instead of acting all mysterious, saying stuff like ‘Heh…wouldn’t you like to know…' I openly shared information with my fellow Supreme Archmages members.
"Neither Bosal Geulmun’s body nor Father Jeong Yonghwan’s body is here.”
"Both of them were heretics anyway.”
"Whether they were heretics or not isn’t the important part here…Actually, I guess to you it is.”
Remembering Shin Nain’s motto about stopping Satan’s influence and what not, I changed my mind.
Maybe for someone, that kind of thing really was important.
Anyway, thanks to all this, the B1 concourse was finally considered secure again. Lieutenant Baek Hansung immediately stationed guards near the stairway leading down to B2. Major Jang Shinmyeong and his CBRN soldiers busied themselves carrying equipment around and handling various tasks.
Meanwhile, our trio stayed with Lieutenant Baek Hansung near the staircase leading deeper underground.
"Lee Sejun-ssi, you’re okay for now. You don’t need to keep your rifle shouldered.”
"No. If I lower it, I think I’ll go insane.”
Lee Sejun had fully transformed into a picture-perfect soldier, standing alongside the others while staring at the lower staircase with terrifying intensity.
I almost told him to stop because he’d wear himself out quickly, but then I remembered that this guy was a Heart-branch wizard.
He’s a guy who could sprint at full speed for 30 seconds without ever getting tired, so having him handle guard duty on his own actually sounded pretty beneficial, so I let it go.
After a few dozen minutes passed, accompanied by the nauseating smell of burning Amalgam corpses and the sound of ventilation systems whirring to live, Major Jang Shinmyeong approached us. Apparently they’d finished checking the sprinklers, fire hydrants, and extinguishers as well.
Major Jang Shinmyeong summoned Lieutenant Baek Hansung with a radio call, then removed his gasmask near where our trio was standing.
The major had a pretty noticeable M-shaped receding hairline, but aside from that, his facial features were quite handsome and striking. Other than looking slightly worn down by age, he seemed like a perfectly respectable office worker.
"Haah…B1 is secure. We managed without needing full decontamination. It’s safe to remove your gas masks and operate here.”
"Sir! Thank you for your hard work!”
"Yaeh, yeah, you did well too. More importantly, I need to discuss something with the Operators and you, Lieutenant Baek Hansung. You said there might still be monsters remaining?”
"Yes."
This time, I was the first to nod.
Of course, my eyes still remained fixed on the staircase leading below. It seemed like we were now destined to go down those escalator stairs beneath the crushed and torn emergency shutter I’d once climbed together with Father Jeon Yonghwan.
"There were definitely two Operators whose heads got devoured by Amalgams, and yet their bodies weren’t in the B1 concourse.”
"..."
Lieutenant Baek Hansung visibly flinched without even thinking about removing his mask.
Major Jang Shinmyeong frowned too before rubbing his clean-shaven jaw with a troubled groan.
"That’s concerning. They survived even aftercyanogen chloride was used…”
"Major. Is there anything we should be careful about?”
"The ventilation process was completed, but you should still be cautious around enclosed spaces. There may still be residual blood agent present. Leather gloves… Haah. I guess having at least those is better than nothing for preventing biological contamination from the monsters. Honestly we normally shouldn’t even be issuing those…”
Major Jang Shinmyeong muttered to himself while voicing his concerns, then looked around the concourse littered with shattered glass.
"Just in case, it might be best to establish a foothold here first and bring extra filters before going down. I'll contact the surface. We’ll issue more spare filters to Lieutenant Baek Hansung and the soldiers as well.”
"Thank you! Sir!”
Lieutenant Baek Hansung answered in a noticeably brighter voice.
Anyway, hearing a specialist say it was safe to remove our gasmasks in the B1 concourse made it feel like I could finally breathe again. I removed my mask, peeling away the damp rubber clinging to my skin, and the first thing greeting me was the disgusting smell of burning corpses.
"Hmm~ Is there no such thing as a corpse that smells like fresh pine needles while burning?”
"Baek Jemin-ssi, stop saying insane shit.”
"Lee Sejun-ssi, you should take your mask off too.”
"I’m fine.”
It looked like almost getting killed by the Predator Spine had left a deep impression on him. He maintained a rigid posture without budging.
Well, if he didn't want to remove it, nothing we could do about that. So Shin Nain and I focused on simply breathing without masks despite the horrible smell. The sensation of underground air brushing against my damp skin felt strangely unfamiliar.
Then suddenly, Shin Nain subtly gestured toward me to come closer.
"I need to tell you something privately.”
At those words, I immediately thought that the moment I had anticipated finally came.
Had this bastard Lee Sejun finally decided to frag me? Betraying the blood-brother oath of our Supreme Archmages organization? There was a high chance Shin Nain had overheard it with his Ear-branch magic.
Making that assumption, I carefully watched Lee Sejun while leaning closer toward Shin Nain. And then I heard something I hadn’t expected.
"Baek Jemin-ssi. You said you couldn’t find the Father's body, right?”
"Yeah, so…?”
"I can hear him.”
"Hear what?”
Unlike my own straightforward, transparent, and crystal-clear communication style, this bastard seemed obsessed with acting all mysterious. For a moment I seriously considered smacking him with the rifle stock. But then Shin Nain whispered with an unusually serious expression.
"Among the scratching sounds, I can hear a voice searching for the Lord. That’s…”
I immediately raised a hand to stop him from continuing.
Did I think the priest was alive? Not even remotely. I’d seen his head melt away. If he was still alive after that, then he was already a monster.
A sudden dryness overtook my throat. I quickly pulled out my canteen and drank one gulp…then another…no, three gulps, before finally moistening my dried lips.
"Good thing we saved the grenades.”