[Translator – Aren]
By morning, even this quiet little town had descended into chaos.
Only after confirming that no fog had appeared did Lieutenant Shin Hangi move me elsewhere alongside the non-commissioned officers, but on the way we got caught in a massive traffic jam within town.
While attempting to make phone calls from the backseat, I glanced out the window. The scenery outside was no longer peaceful.
-Peeeep—Peep–.
Police officers blew whistles desperately while running around alongside reservists and civil defense volunteers.
Cars that had ignored traffic lights sat tangled together across the roads in complete disorder, while makeshift barricades built from sandbags and vehicle obstacles divided the streets. Reservists in combat uniforms mixed together with civil defense volunteers in plain clothes.
And naturally, amidst all the screaming and confusion, some people had already started searching for ways to survive by any means necessary.
-Craaash!
The moment several looters smashed a convenience store window and rushed inside, the police finally reached their limit.-Bang!
One officer struggling physically with the crowd fired a warning shot into the air.
Panting heavily, he aimed his pistol toward the looters and shouted,
"Hands up and on your knees!”
The reservists and civil defense volunteers assisting the police looked startled too, but quickly recovered and raised their rifles toward the looters as well.
The looters themselves immediately became awkwardly polite, pleading for conversation.
"W-wait, there’s no need to point guns at us…”
"Shut up. Drop everything and get on the ground!"
Even the civilians murmuring about excessive force seemed to realize this wasn’t an atmosphere where complaints would go anywhere. Instead, they simply backed away and watched from a distance.
The officer, who’d fired the shot, silently scanned the surroundings while breathing heavily before finally working together with the reservists and civil defense volunteers to force the looters to the ground one by one and handcuff them.
-Click, click....
The sound of handcuffs echoed strangely through the town.
That was around when my call finally connected.
"Dad."
[It’s Mom. I picked up instead of your dad. So what was that thing about something happening over in Gyeonggi? You’re okay, right?]
I glanced out the window again. Groups of people gathered nervously while hiding their faces and whispering among themselves.
They constantly glanced toward the police, reservists, and civil defense volunteers nearby.
Still, not everyone had lost control yet.
People who found their get-ups strange and their behavior unsettling were quietly helping the police and military identify and isolate dangerous individuals.
"Hey, why are you wearing a mask? And what’s with that bat?”
"Aren’t those guys looters too?!”
For now, things were still manageable.
People were still trying to maintain order. And because of that, I answered with a slightly lighter heart.
"Yeah. I’m okay.”
[Okay? Yeah, right! Young people are already walking around in military uniforms in our neighborhood too! I told you to come back home ages ago, didn’t I? You already quit your job, so why were you still staying up there in Gyeonggi…]
"M-mom.”
[And I just know your apartment’s a disaster again. Last time I visited you hadn’t even cleaned the kimchi containers or done the dishes properly! If I’d known something like this was going to happen, I would’ve ignored you and gone over there anyway……]
Her incessant nagging stabbed into my ears like tiny needles.
Still, I knew she was only saying it because she was worried about me, so all I could do was nod along and answer quietly with “Yes, yes.”
Only after being thoroughly scolded for a while did my father finally take the phone.
[Jemin.]
"Yes."
[What about your deployment?]
"I’m on break right now, so I called.”
[Sounds rough.]
After a short silence, my father spoke in a calm voice.
[You know, son. No person is ever entirely happy with where they live.]
"True."
[Things are chaotic here too. Military police are roaming around every street because they’re dragging out all the young men. So even if you came back here, there’s nowhere to hide you. Don’t run away. Stand your post diligently. Protect the country.]
"Okay..."
I thought the call would end there, but my father simply kept breathing quietly into the receiver instead.
And only then did I notice the faint trembling hidden at the edge of his voice.
[Are they feeding you properly?]
"Yeah. I asked for spam, but they said they’d give me luncheon meat instead."
[They’re giving you luncheon meat? That’s pretty generous. Your mother doesn’t even let me eat that these days.]
"That’s because she’s worried about your health."
[If I can’t drink, can’t smoke, and can’t even grill meat anymore, what the hell am I supposed to live for?]
For about 10 seconds after that, all I heard was his breathing. Then his voice turned thick and heavy with emotion.
[Don’t come back. You mustn’t come back. Stay there and protect the country like a stubborn fool. Even if everyone else runs away, you stay there and hold the line.]
"Dad…”
[That’s enough. I’m hanging up. Do your duty properly and call again when things calm down.]
-Click.
I stared blankly at the disconnected phone screen, feeling a strange heaviness settle in my chest.
Around them, traffic finally started moving again.
The military had begun fully enforcing road control, crushing civilian protests by force.
People stepping out of cars to argue. Soldiers pushing them back with outstretched arms. Vehicle barricades being deployed across intersections. Sandbags being stacked in a hurry.
As I blankly watched the scene, I suddenly felt someone looking at me.
Lieutenant Shin Hangi was watching me through the mirror with a warm smile.
"You’re a good son.”
"I’m only acting like this because the situation is serious. I’m not like this usually.”
Rather than continuing the conversation, Lieutenant Shin Hangi returned to his role as the vehicle commander.
"Driver, slow down whenever you see road control personnel from now on. I just got word that full inspection checkpoints are being set up across Gyeonggi Province.”
"Yes, sir."
Listening to their conversation, I quietly touched the Magic Crash Course booklet hidden inside my inner pocket.
Then I raised my phone and checked the group chat and current time.
January 7th, 9:18 AM.
Everyone was completely losing their minds.
All kinds of bizarre rumors mixed together with tiny fragments of truth, leading to wild speculations and conspiracy theories everywhere. And the biggest problem was that none of it could be dismissed as complete nonsense.
Still, there was one shared sentiment among all of them.
[Jemin, you alive???]
[Hyung, avoid night watch duty no matter what. People here are saying they might replace it with CCTV monitoring, but everyone’s freaking out because if the fog rolls in before the weather forecast catches it, we’re completely screwed.]
Urgent messages from the guys I usually hung out with on Discord.
It looked like they’d somehow managed to avoid pulling night watch duty.
Community forums weren’t much different either.
Most of the posts were basically titled stuff like “You crazy BASTARDS?!” and then followed by content that basically described how they heard horrifying screams in the middle of the night, but their legs were trembling too hard to even look outside. They were mostly just completely hysterical posts, speculating that Seoul was already completely doomed.
However, not everyone was just freaking out.
Rumors had started spreading that the government was gathering certain individuals to create an entirely new military unit or organization.
And since I knew exactly what that organization actually was, my lips couldn’t help drying out.
"Shit..."
The curse slipped out before I could stop it. I could feel Lieutenant Shin Hangi glancing at me through the rearview mirror.
But honestly, given that I knew what kind of organization the government was creating, that reaction should be more than natural.
Even now, I could still vividly remember the contents of the administrative documents Lieutenant Shin Hangi had handed me when I signed the contract.
*t*t*
The official government term for magic was Localized Invasive Structural Alteration, or LISA for short.
And the name of the newly established organization was ‘The Civilian Advisory Group for Localized Invasive Structural Alteration.’
In other words, the government was gathering wizards together and creating an entirely independent organization to confront this unprecedented crisis.
At first glance, it sounded similar to the Hunters from those novels where people awaken mana or system powers. But the reality was a little different.
Hunters were basically… yeah, freelance contractors. The kind of people whose income varied wildly depending on their ability. People who always chased growth, lucky encounters, and opportunities.
So then what was I, Baek Jemin, officially designated as a ‘Civilian LISA Operator?’
I was no longer a reservist. The moment i signed that contract, I became a civilian contractor working with the military. I’d escaped military discipline and absolute chain-of-command obedience, but in exchange, I was now obligated to fulfill the conditions required by the military as a civilian specialist.
However, my reservist status hadn’t completely disappeared. If the situation became critical enough, I could still be forcibly mobilized at any time.
And what that completely fucked-up arrangement actually meant was that if I, Baek Jemin, died now, the records wouldn’t say a soldier had been killed in action. It would simply be written off as a civilian was lost during unavoidable unrest.
On the subside, the military would provide firearms, ammunition, and basic combat rations. And because I technically remained a civilian, I’d possess independent authority and operational freedom whenever emergency mobilization wasn’t active.
That is, as long as I fulfilled the required obligations.
1. Share information regarding magic with the military.
2. Respect the military chain of command and obey field commanders.
3. Participate in at least one reconnaissance operation during the designated deployment period (officially defined as 2-4 weeks depending on local circumstances.)
There was a reason Lieutenant Shin kept grinning from the passenger seat like that.
Of course, it wasn’t as though I’d signed the contract because I was some patriotic soldier moved by grand ideals of noble sacrifice and devotion to the nation. I had my own calculations.
1. What were they going to do if I didn’t share information? The single spell I’d awakened already possessed absurd power.
2. Having actually faced one of those monsters myself, I knew this much for certain. Field commanders who couldn’t use magic were useless.
3. This part was actually to my advantage. It meant I could explore beyond the fog alongside people who were at least somewhat trustworthy instead of going alone.
Those clauses were supposed to function as safety measures. But after surviving even a single encounter, it became glaringly obvious how full of holes they really were.
That was when I became certain. The military still didn’t fully understand this threat.
The soldiers and field commanders isolated in Seoul had probably been screaming themselves hoarse trying to explain how things should be handled. And that was probably how the engagement guidelines had been established in the first place. But even now, the military was still underestimating the threat to some degree.
And the same went for magic.
I was certain people like me, who’d awakened to magic, weren’t telling the military everything. Maybe that was why, instead of interrogating us aggressively, they kept trying to cloak their approach in the guise of ‘mutually beneficial deals’ and act friendly.
Quietly, I opened the Magic Crash Course booklet and looked again at the first page, at the symbol I’d named squangle. The magic that had aligned itself within the fog had reverted once more into a crooked, distorted scribble.
Now I finally understood why everyone’s interpretation had differed.
Some saw restoration, some saw despair, some saw severance, some saw a spearpoint, some saw a forest, and I…I saw footsteps.
It was a kind of ideogram. Disgustingly symbolic and disgustingly twisted, but at the same time, unbelievably intuitive. The triangle represented humanity’s pitiful vision. The square represented what humans wanted to see.
What this magic revealed was time.
Those who glimpsed the past through it interpreted it as restoration. Those who viewed it while interacting with nearby objects interpreted it as severance or spearpoint. Those who saw the future interpreted it as forest or despair.
But there was one essential condition required to truly awaken this magic.
"..."
The fog.
Ironically, the thing that revealed the magic’s true form and allowed people to awaken it was that godforsaken fog itself.
The magic hidden within those crooked symbols only aligned its lines and revealed itself when the fog polluted sunlight and distorted the laws of the world. Once the fog receded, the magic concealed itself once more within meaningless scribbles.
That was why I’d earned the ridiculously long official title of ‘Civilian Operator for Localized Invasive Alteration Phenomena.’
*t*t*
The temporary headquarters established inside Suwon City Hall was already overflowing with people.
Roadblocks had been set up starting from Suwon Station, and all sorts of individuals who stepped out of vehicles were being escorted, or perhaps dragged, toward City Hall by soldiers.
There were Catholic priests incassocks. Pastors clutching Bibles while muttering prayers. Buddhist monks in robes. Shamans carrying talismans. There were even people who looked Middle Eastern.
And among them were also people in military uniforms like me, looking around with uneasy expressions.
That was when Lieutenant Shin Hangi walked over and patted my shoulder.
"Don’t feel intimidated, Baek Jemin-ssi.”
"It’s not that. I’m just surprised.”
"There’s nothing surprising about it. We brought everyone believed capable of, or potentially capable of, utilizing these Localized Invasive Structural Alteration Phenomena. The goal is to filter people out here, then have the remaining candidates share information with one another and combine it with the intelligence the military has already gathered to build a proper knowledge framework. Reconnaissance operations come later, so don’t worry about that yet."
Lieutenant Shin Hangi returned briefly to the vehicle and handed the driver a pack of cigarettes with a grin.
"Go park and have a smoke while you’re at it.”
"Thank you, sir!”
After flashing the driver, who had snapped into a stiff salute, a warm, good-natured smile, Lieutenant Shin Hangi walked back toward me.
"Let’s go, Baek Jemin-ssi. Once it’s official, I’ll start calling you Operator.”