[Translator – Aren]
I am Baek Jemin.
Someone who proudly considered himself someone who spent 28 years doing his absolute best to slack off.
Who was the guy that filled out the CSAT answer sheet in a single straight line and then took a luxurious nap? This guy. While everyone else gambled their futures scribbling desperately across their exam sheets, I was nodding off in my seat, treating the scratching sound of pencils against paper like a lullaby while frolicking through dreamland.
If my friends could see me now, sitting here earnestly filling out a questionnaire amidst this suffocating tension, they’d finally understand what the end times looked like.
They’d probably feel a cold sweat run down their backs and realize the world was ending. That was how grim and serious the atmosphere inside the first screening hall set up within Suwon City Hall felt.
People of every possible background, even religious figures, sat mixed together, pens scratching endlessly against paper.
The questions looked like this:
[1. Please describe any instance in which you caused a Localized Invasive Structural Alteration phenomenon, or any event that violated existing physical laws or common sense.]
I agonized over the first question for quite a while.How much did the military actually know about magic? Even I barely understood it myself, so was it really wise to openly reveal the value of the magic I possessed?
I was effectively the one making the first offer in a negotiation, so feeling anxious and uncomfortable was unavoidable.
Still, I didn't have many options. Considering the fog had first appeared around late November 2027, the government had probably spent nearly 2 months dealing with these bizarre phenomena and monsters already.
I decided to treat this as the price of gaining access to their information.
[I can roughly see how an opponent will move around 10 seconds into the future.]
Next came the second question.
This one was quite obviously a filtering question.
[2. Please describe what role the symbols shared by the military played in your use of magic, and explain how you were able to read them.]
The military already fully believed in the effectiveness of magic.
At the very least, they clearly knew those crooked scribbles disguised as meaningless symbols were directly connected to magic itself.
If that was the case, then they’d probably also deduced that true awakening could only happen within the fog and that there wasn’t necessarily a single correct interpretation. If they’d failed to figure out even that much after 2 months, they wouldn't have survived this long in the first place.
I had zero trust in the Republic of Korea's military, but I still prayed they possessed at least that level of intelligence as I wrote my answer.
[I was able to awaken it within the fog.]
After that, most of the questions turned religious.
What religion did I follow? What were my views on the afterlife? What did I think about existing religions? Stuff like that.
They even asked petty things like how often I visited fortune tellers or whether I liked tarot cards. I honestly wondered whether any of this was truly necessary for becoming a wizard, but I filled everything out anyway.
By the time I finished the questionnaire, the supervisor silently monitoring the room blew a whistle.
-Peeeeeeeep—!
"Pens down. Everyone may exit as you are. We’ll handle the questionnaire and writing utensils, so return to the waiting area.”
And just like that, the first interview ended.
After leaving the testing room disguised as an interview hall, I followed Lieutenant Shin Hangi into the break room. The driver, a mere Private First Class who’d apparently gone out for a smoke earlier, had thoughtfully prepared instant coffee in advance.
"Attention! I’ve made it withMaxim Mocha Gold, Sir.”
"Mm~. Alright. Let’s do our best together.”
"Yes, sir!”
Lieutenant Shin Hangi accepted the paper cup in high spirits, taking a sip before gesturing toward the sofa.
It was clearly a signal to sit down, so I accepted the coffee the driver handed me and collapsed onto the couch as well.
-Slurp...
Only after the warm coffee slid down my throat did some of the tension finally ease. Lieutenant Shin Hangi looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
"Baek Jemin-ssi, you’ll probably pass the first interview without much trouble. Cases of people surviving encounters with monsters during night watch duty are extremely rare unless they’re capable of using Localized Invasive Structural Alteration.”
"Then couldn’t you just send me straight to the second interview?”
"At times like this, things need to look like they’re following procedure.”
"The military’s never exactly been a place that follows principles.”
"Haha. But it is a place that pretends to follow principles. Haven’t you heard the saying, "A fake done perfectly becomes the real thing," before?"
Then he gestured toward the driver with his chin.
"Driver, relax and drink your coffee too. Ah, and don’t go repeating anything you hear in here, got it?”
"Yes, sir! Please rest comfortably, sir!”
"The bathrooms are probably crowded. Your phone battery’s dead, right? Use mine and call your parents.”
"Tha-thank you, sir!”
The disciplined driver accepted Lieutenant Shin Hangi’s phone with trembling hands.
While the driver retreated into the corner to make his call, Lieutenant Shin Hangi and I quietly sipped our coffee while staring at each other.
I was the first to speak up.
"That monster. You know what it is, right? What does the military call it?”
Lieutenant Shin Hangi glanced briefly toward the driver in the corner before letting out a sigh.
"Amalgam."
"Amalgam?”
Like thestuff dentists use for fillings?
When I asked in disbelief, Lieutenant Shin Hangi laughed bitterly.
"It was the first monster officially identified within restricted fog zones. Monster. Honestly, there’s no better word for it. Its official designation is ‘Cranial Fusion-Type Mimetic Organism.’”
"Tell me more. Seriously, I almost died because of that thing, and you people still keep hiding information.”
Just thinking about how they’d put me on night watch without explaining anything made fury boil up inside me like lava in a volcano.
Maybe he sensed my frustration, Lieutenant Shin Hangi tapped the side of his paper cup with a finger before finally giving up and continuing.
"It’s a creature that targets the victim’s head or face and attempts to induce physical contact. The moment contact occurs, the bodies begin melting together and fusing. Remember when I told you it takes at least an 8-man squad forming a firing net to repel one?"
"Yeah, I remember."
"Repel. Not kill.”
At those words, I noticed the driver’s shoulders twitch slightly, but neither Lieutenant Shin Hangi nor I acknowledged it.
"The fused heads are the creature’s true body. The rest of the fused flesh is considered more like…auxiliary organs supporting its vital functions. You can restrict its movements by shooting the bodies of the victims it’s consumed. But the creature deliberately uses those bodies as shields or bait to trigger instinctive human hesitation before rushing in and attempting another fusion.”
"Have you dissected one?”
"Even shooting the core head does not accomplish much. Current estimates suggest complete termination would require incineration, rapid freezing, or radiation intense enough to destroy every cell. They’re considered so dangerous that corpse retrieval itself has been prohibited. And the truly horrifying part is something else entirely.”
He crushed the empty paper cup in his hand as he frowned.
"They weren't named Mimetic Organisms for no reason. They can imitate the victim’s voice. Nobody can determine whether it’s truly the victim’s consciousness speaking or just the monster mimicking them. The military concluded long ago that they should all be treated as monsters and terminated on sight. And…the truly dangerous part is that sometimes the creature's fused head still appears completely human. That makes distinguishing them from civilians extremely difficult.”
I was left completely speechless.
So what he said was basically that those horrifying things had been wandering through the fog-covered areas of Seoul for the past 2 months.
"How did you even fight them?”
"We developed specific response tactics. We’d lower their body temperature temporarily using fire hydrants or extinguishers to slow them down, then suppress them with concentrated gunfire across the entire body before incinerating them. We accepted a certain degree of fire spread as unavoidable, so even firefighters were mobilized for those operations.”
I almost snapped back at him but stopped myself.
I finally understood why the government had hidden all of this.
If they’d openly announced that monsters were appearing and devouring people, Seoul would’ve descended into complete panic immediately. If the fog hadn’t begun spreading outward, it probably would’ve been far easier to maintain order in the rest of the country.
Lieutenant Shin Hangi tossed his empty cup into the trash with a bitter expression.
"I never saw one in person myself. Only video footage. It honestly looked like something straight out of a nightmare. But once you’re officially designated as an Operator, you’ll probably end up seeing plenty more monsters.”
"What?"
"I told you they were merely the first classified monsters."
Lieutenant Shin Hangi smacked his lips uneasily and stared blankly at the wall as if trying not to think about it.
"At present, the military has confirmed and partially established response tactics for three monster types, including the Amalgam. As for rumored entities and suspected monsters lacking confirmed footage or reliable data, we estimate there are at least another dozen.”
"Motherfucker…”
The curse slipped out automatically.
I still had coffee left, so I drained the rest in one gulp before tossing the paper cup toward Lieutenant Shin Hangi’s feet.
-Thunk.
"If my mom and dad don’t get evacuated, you die along with me, you bastards.”
"Yes. We’ll guarantee that. So let’s cooperate, shall we?”
Lieutenant Shin Hangi grinned cheerfully.
*t*t*
The results of the first interview arrived roughly 3 hours later.
January 7th, 2:56 PM.
Guided by Lieutenant Shin Hangi, I passed deeper into Suwon City Hall through layers of heavily armed guards and tense security personnel.
The place we arrived at was a situation room with every curtain drawn shut while dehumidifiers hummed noisily in the background.
Waiting there was a Catholic priest in clerical robes, a pastor with deep wrinkles around his eyes, an elderly monk in Buddhist robes, a foreigner who stubbornly refused to remove his turban even now, a shaman wearing something resembling prayer beads around their neck, and finally, four soldiers in combat uniforms like me.
The room was already crowded with officers ranging from lieutenants to field-grade ranks. Among them, one colonel who had deliberately removed his name tag stepped forward.
"You all understand by now the nature of the unprecedented crisis facing the Republic of Korea.”
The colonel looked exhausted. His eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep, and he hadn’t even bothered fixing his unkempt face. Slowly scanning the room, he continued.
"The individuals gathered here are those whom the Republic of Korea Armed Forces have confirmed capable of using Localized Invasive Structural Alteration within the southern Gyeonggi region. After evaluating both the circumstances surrounding your awakening and the effectiveness of your respective abilities…the military wishes to formally appoint you as members of a Civilian Advisory Group and request your cooperation. To that end, we will now provide you with a detailed briefing.”
As the colonel stepped aside, the projector flickered on and a PowerPoint presentation appeared on the screen.
I frowned the moment I saw that unmistakable military-style PowerPoint template I’d spent years suffering through in the army. As I took my seat, a few people glanced toward me before quickly turning their attention back to the screen.
The colonel tapped the projection screen lightly with his pointer while explaining the situation.
"Beginning November 24th, 2027, this fog first appeared in northern Seoul, primarily around theBukhansan region. The military’s first confirmed encounter with the Cranial Fusion-Type Mimetic Organism, now designated Amalgam, occurred at 2:43 AM on December 3rd, 2027. The government first became aware of the entity through police witness testimony after officers responded to reports from local residents. During the incident, the creature attempted to approach a nearby police precinct but fled after reacting to the sound of sirens. Video footage captured during that retreat served as the government’s first official acknowledgment of the being.”
The timeline flowed from the colonel’s mouth accompanied by profound silence.
His tone remained dispassionate, which somehow made everyone listening tense up even more.
"Starting December 14th, 2027, the fog began spreading rapidly. Once it became clear that standard police forces alone could no longer contain the situation, the military began deploying units under the Capital Defense Command under the guise of civilian volunteer support. It was around this period that symbols associated with magic were first discovered and collected based on civilian, police, and military testimony… At the same time, the number of missing persons cases believed linked to Amalgam activity began rising sharply.”
As the slides advanced, maps, radii, and timelines filled the screen, marking missing person reports as they spread across Seoul over time.
"The primary concerns involve the Amalgam’s active hours, movement radius, and victim selection patterns. Amalgams are believed to be active between midnight and 4 AM. They favor ambush locations such as alleyways and undeveloped areas and appear to selectively target socially vulnerable individuals lacking strong support systems. Based on estimates gathered through local community organizations engaged in volunteer outreach and social welfare activity, the actual number of disappearances is believed to exceed 643 cases. Far above the officially reported 200. This strongly suggests that the Amalgam is not a simple beast but an intelligent entity capable of understanding and infiltrating human society…”
The nameless colonel looked back towards us after saying these words.
"Currently, the Republic of Korea Armed Forces considers the containment of Seoul its highest priority. Northern cities adjacent to Seoul have been provisionally abandoned while military administration and communication are maintained through western coastal cities such as Incheon. Meanwhile, repeated reconnaissance operations into Seoul are underway with two primary objectives. Classification of these entities and acquisition of symbols related to magic.”
"..."
"If the members of the Civilian Advisory Group have questions, we will now hear them.”
But nobody was immediately able to ask anything.
When I quietly glanced toward Lieutenant Shin Hangi, he noticed and merely shrugged helplessly with an awkward smile.
Things were…worse than I’d thought.