The Work Begins
Science Security Operation No. 17
The project christened SciSec-17 Special Operation was a top-priority initiative that had received direct approval from the highest seat of authority in the Party.
"Magic, is it? Isn't it fascinating? A mere difference of one castle's width of distance, and yet—like this. Like this."
Editorials suggesting that China's nuclear fusion program—one of the nation's most advanced technological ventures—had been comprehensively outclassed by the Republic of Korea.
One could applaud the conviction of those who, even under the Golden Shield's surveillance, dared to spit out their true feelings without filter. A week or so of reflection, however, and they would all come to their senses.
Under the Chairman's stern decree that core magic technology must be acquired by any means necessary, every agency of the state had thrown itself into preparing a massive project. Science Security Operation No. 17—abbreviated SciSec-17—had been launched.
China's SciSec-17 operation rested on five foundational tasks, and every one of them was racing competitively toward its goal, order be damned:
Whether magical phenomena actually existed.
Whether the phenomena were repeatable.
Whether humans or equipment could detect them.
Whether the characteristics of a civilian who had self-taught magic were identical to Yuria's.
Whether physical, cognitive, and biological limits existed in the use of magic.
And only after all five foundational tasks had been completed would China announce its independent line of research.
The plan was to establish common terminology and measurement standards for the study of magical phenomena within China, so that researchers across theoretical physics, life sciences, materials science, linguistics, and cognitive science could all compare the same data. In effect, they were aiming for an academic standard.
At that stage, the goal would go beyond merely reproducing magical incantations—it would be to distinguish magical phenomena from ordinary electromagnetic, thermal, mechanical, and biological responses, and to secure the capacity to interpret them academically.
"Professor Kim Hanjung is the best. The absolute best."
"Haha. You're too kind, Director Yu."
That was precisely the point South Korea's Magic Infrastructure Research TF had already reached. Beyond it would come the seizure of Yuria herself as a human asset, or operations to extract information about the other world through her—but of course, no detailed plans had been drawn up that far.
"Damn it!"
—Thud!
From that perspective, the director of the 3rd Division of the Special Affairs Bureau—the office overseeing all intelligence operations related to magic—was under stress so crushing he felt his hair might fall out.
"Why! Still! Is there no progress whatsoever?!"
Unlike Korea, which trusted the information it received from Yuria, the SciSec-17 project was approaching everything with Yuria deliberately left blank. Naturally, the pace was glacial.
…Humanoid intelligent entity A-01, of otherworldly origin and currently residing under the protection of the government of the Republic of Korea, possesses the capacity to perceive and control interactions that cannot be explained by existing natural science.
Within the documents, Yuria's name had been replaced entirely with the designation A-01.
…A-01 refers to this capacity as "magic" and to the mediating state that enables its function as "mana"; for the purposes of this project, these are provisionally designated the "Otherworld Interaction Operating System" and "M-Mediator Quantity," respectively.
Even the existence of magic and mana themselves had been converted into proprietary codes. It was all buildup for the day they succeeded in independent magic research and needed to chart a course separate from Korea's.
So the reality was that they were building from the bottom up through gritted teeth, forcing whatever scraps of secretly gathered intelligence they could find into some kind of coherent picture.
"Damn it…! Chief of Staff!"
"Yes! You called, sir?"
A large man with a crew cut opened the door to the 3rd Division Director's office and strode straight in.
"Still no word from Hangzhou?"
Hangzhou was home to the Zhejiang University Life Sciences Institute—officially, at least. In truth, a secret research facility sat adjacent to that institute.
The reason the 3rd Division Director was hunting for word from the Hangzhou life sciences lab was simple: a critical research subject was there.
While investigating a separate case, public security organs had confirmed biological characteristics in a Chinese national that were suspected to be related to mana.
The Chinese man who had once shown off his fire-making on a video platform—forcibly redesignated D-01—could no longer speak…
But it was a necessary sacrifice for the state. At least, that was how the staff at this laboratory saw it.
A severed wrist. A mask and gag covering the entire face. A restraint clamped around the waist.
Between the naked man whose terminal muscles convulsed and trembled with pain, two men in white coats were talking.
"What'd you do today?"
"Same as always. Tell him to make a flame, and if he doesn't listen, zap him with electricity."
"So he listened, then."
"Haha, of course. It hurts—what's he gonna do?"
D-01 possessed neither magical knowledge nor a range of magical abilities. He had only the single trait of manifesting fire from empty air, and so he was under medical observation.
They called it medical observation. In practice, it amounted to little more than human experimentation.
"How are the results?"
"Nothing measurable at the amputation surface."
The man who heard that clicked his tongue as if it were a pity—though his expression was far from serious. He clearly hadn't been expecting much.
"Again? Ugh, the higher-ups are gonna lose it."
The man across from him shrugged as he listened.
"The measurement methods themselves might be wrong. There's nothing more we can do at our level."
"Let's wait until the Information Cooperation Bureau and the Biological Mechanisms Office send us something. Hand him over for routine observation only."
"Yes, senior."
The mage goes~ bounce bounce~
Today too~ bounce bounce~
"Working~ so hard~"
"Director, you're being loud."
"Yes, ma'am."
Starting today, with a computer now on my desk, I had begun participating directly in administrative work. A black tower case bearing the Public Procurement Service sticker and the ThreeStar Electronics logo—quite the impression.
The keyboard felt a little awkward at first after so long, but after secretly practicing my typing all morning, I adapted quickly enough.
A hundred keystrokes a minute. Triple digits. Triple digits… as if. At this speed I was nowhere near good enough, so more practice it was.
—Clack clack clack
"Ugh."
What I was doing now was setting budgets for each research project and registering them in the Inter-Ministerial Integrated Research System—and the amount of data to enter was no joke.
First, the budget.
If it were up to me, I'd slap a hundred billion, a trillion won on every research commission, but I'd get chewed out for sure, so I had to write detailed research-cost justification statements.
Which meant looking up unit prices for the furnaces we needed right away…
High-Vacuum 3000°C / 2700°C / 2400°C Three-Step Atmosphere Control
Price: Inquire
What on earth was a "three-step atmosphere control" furnace supposed to do…
"Serin?"
"Yes?"
"Are furnaces normally named like this?"
At my question, Serin poked her head over the top of the monitor. I helpfully recited the product name exactly as written.
"It says three-step atmosphere control."
"…Excuse me?"
Her brain seemed to freeze for a second—her mouth fell open in a blank "huh"—before her eyes started darting busily.
"I think it might be the auto-translate."
"Translate?"
Serin nodded.
"'Step' got rendered as 'gait,' and 'atmosphere' as 'mood' instead of temperature. If you unpack it that way, it should make sense, right?"
"Oh."
Living with translation magic as a given had left me weak in places like this.
But there was no need to dwell on useless details. Back to work.
—Clack-clack-clack clack
I carefully typed out a price inquiry for the three-step atmosphere—no, the three-stage temperature-control electric furnace.
"Public Procurement Service… Public Procurement Service… here we go."
I looked up prices for the other equipment on the Public Procurement Service site and entered them too… wow, what kind of fume hood costs over ten million won?
"Is this for real?"
I was wiping away tears at the merciless tyranny of state institutions and staring into the monitor when my pocket buzzed.
That's right.
I had a smartphone now, too!
A very special latest model that ThreeStar Electronics had made just for me. A black phone with the ThreeStar logo on the back, plus an engraving shaped like a wizard's hat.
Among the extras were customized security options, though none of them were in a range I could actually feel. Features included as the bare minimum for carrying a personal smartphone—blocking internet logging, restricting recording and camera functions, and so on.
Which meant I no longer had to worry about Outstagram and other social media listening to my voice and adjusting their ads!
—Bzzzt
"Ahem. Who calls during work hours…"
"If you only take work calls outside of work hours…"
Pretending not to hear the complicated feelings in Serin's voice, I checked the caller.
Hong Ihyeon, 2nd Vice Minister of Science and ICT…
Ah. The 2nd Vice Minister.
"Hello?"
"Yes, Director. This is 2nd Vice Minister Hong Ihyeon. Do you have a moment?"
Something about the urgency in his voice made my own body go stiff for no reason.
"Ah, yes. I'm free. What's going on?"
I picked up a Post-it and a pencil from the table and waited for the Vice Minister to speak.
"It's bad news. China has partially exfiltrated recorded information related to you, Director Yuria."
"What?"
—Clatter!
"In particular, some of the analysis regarding your life in the other world was included."
"…You've got to be sh—"
"…Thank God! Ahhh! I'm aliiiiive!!!"
Prime Minister Kim Jaewoo let out a cry of pure relief and bounced around the room.
"Yes! Yesss!! Thank you, God, Buddha, everyone! Ahhh!!"
It was the bizarre behavior of a man who had just confirmed with his own eyes that among the exfiltrated material, there was not a single scrap of circumstantial information from which Yuria's sensitive gender-related details could be inferred…
"He must be under a lot of stress."
"Aigoo…"
The staff at the official residence all assumed overwork had finally broken the man, and let it go.