The Peach Tree Approaches
"Don't get scared! They're weak compared to the frontline monsters!" the Awakened shouted, raising his sword high and slicing an Eater Spirit clean in two. Just as he said, the creatures' strength and durability were only slightly better than a normal human's, with no special abilities to speak of.
-Ratatatatang!
"Watch out!"
That was true of the Eater Spirits themselves, but the equipment they wore was another matter entirely. This was the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, after all. The police equipment was still here, including the submachine guns used by the riot squad. The priest hastily raised a barrier to block the bullets and broke into a cold sweat. He had seen the gun being aimed and prepared in time, but there was no guarantee he could do it again.
"The bullets are carrying a catalytic reaction! If you aren't confident in your defense, fall back!"
"How the hell do we deal with the guns first? Fire... Damn it, every single one of those dolls is covered in water-attribute gear!"
"I'll handle it! Ice Penetration"
Ice Penetration
The mage's ice spell interfered with the water property on the guns. It didn't produce a dramatic visual effect, but it was more than enough to trigger a malfunction, just like the spell intended.
-Click.
The gun produced only the useless whir of spinning parts instead of a shot.
"Now! Push them!"
-Clang!
But the police hadn't relied on guns alone. Smoke grenades and flashbangs with their pins already pulled came flying from between the Eater Spirits.
"Hup!"
At that moment, Yuseong's sharp shout summoned a fierce gale strong enough to hurl grenades. The wind gathered every projectile into a single clump, and—
-Boom!
Yuseong smashed open the door to an empty room with a blast of wind mana and hurled the entire bundle far outside their range.
With their final trick foiled so easily, the Eater Spirits were doomed to fall helplessly before the Awakened. It had been inevitable.
"Fuck, it feels disgusting fighting things that look like people. Hey, gloomy shaman guy and sorcerer guy, I heard this was a dungeon. You two actually know which way to go, right?"
"Yes. This is a pocket dimension. If it's following the Eastern server dungeon mechanics that users could create, then... the feng shui of the terrain and..."
"Just get to the point."
The foul-mouthed Awakened sensed the explanation would drag on and cut the shaman off with a sharp word.
"In any case, there are rules. The most likely focal points are the police chief's office or the physical center of this building."
"Huh? Isn't that just because of the game system?" the priest Awakened asked from the side, sounding puzzled.
They were all using magic without truly understanding it, simply wielding what had been granted to them. This was completely different from comprehending the principles. That was why he had naturally assumed the pocket dimension operated on the same logic.
"It has always worked this way. It is easier to advance from one to ten than to create one from zero. For the sake of output and safety, the standard approach is to establish fundamental constraints."
"If this is the latter, what about the former?"
"Unless one possesses truly exceptional skill, it would collapse before long. And then everyone dies."
The mere image of the pocket dimension collapsing made the shaman's legs tremble. If this place were that unstable, he would have gladly joined the people outside in their meditation lines.
"It is not necessarily fatal. There is a person who saved others even while the pocket dimension was collapsing and contracting."
"...Is that even possible? At our level?"
"It's the Ice Peach."
"Ugh, then it's definitely not our level."
The shaman shuddered the instant he heard the name Ice Peach and immediately accepted the truth. That reaction planted a small seed of doubt in Yuseong's mind.
"What kind of person are they? I'm curious about the view from someone in the same line of work."
She wanted to know. She wanted to know what kind of person her master truly was.
"To put it plainly, a cold-blooded woman. Her skill is proportional to that chill."
"Cold-blooded?"
Yuseong found the assessment strange. The master she had witnessed, Ha Dowol, was someone who cherished her younger sister with fierce devotion. To call a person like that cold-blooded... Yuseong decided the shaman must have misjudged her.
"When she stood on the front lines, she carved through monsters like a machine, then simply walked on to the next without a flicker of emotion. It made me think she wasn't human at all."
Listening to the shaman, Yuseong reflected. She knew her master was running herself ragged to improve her younger sister's constitution. These impressions had to be based solely on her outward appearance. Yuseong wanted to argue, but as Pigeon Four stepped forward, the words died in her throat.
"We will split into teams."
"Split the teams? Are you insane? We can barely manage if we all pile onto one target, and you want to divide our forces?"
"I meant we should divide combat roles. One group will engage Lee Han directly while the other interferes with the pocket dimension."
It was a cheap trick designed to create openings by preventing him from focusing entirely on battle.
"The shaman who will interfere with the pocket dimension is mandatory. After that, we need someone fast with reliable reactions."
"Should I go?"
"Yes. You will need to block the occasional attacks Lee Han sends your way."
The weight of such an important role settled heavily on Yuseong's shoulders.
-Boom. Rumble!
Before she could even adjust to that pressure, the entire space began to shake violently.
Is he joking to loosen the tension? Otherwise the words from the pigeon's mouth made no sense, but in this situation the only one who would play games was Changcheon Amgui beside her. No, even Changcheon Amgui had stopped joking and was now simply staring at her intently.
"The whole of Seoul?"
"Those stationed in buildings with magical reinforcement or the few Awakened who reacted quickly should be fine, but it is safe to assume nine out of ten were caught. Haah... In terms of area, yes, it is the entirety of Seoul."
It was dizzying. More than that, it was bewildering. She could not understand why people addicted to the Dream-Soul Play Fruit were sitting in lotus positions cultivating instead of lying down and dreaming.
"What is this? Have the humans collectively decided to become Taoist immortals? That might not be so bad. They will cut off grains, endure the cruelty of the sunlight and rain and wind that once seemed benevolent, withstand the gazes of animals waiting for them to die, and finally attain enlightenment. But how many will truly succeed?"
"...I'll skip the 'how.' It's already happened, and the damage is small compared to the scale."
She closed the talisman fan and spoke to Gangcheori.
What she had expected was for the entire population to fall asleep from the fruit like in the game and slowly starve to death. But sitting in meditation was different.
Why meditation? If the fruit could control human behavior, it would be far more efficient to gather them in one place and swallow them.
"Wait."
Swallow? For what purpose?
The most basic reason was to fill an empty stomach, but another possibility rose in her mind. They were eating the qi that humans possessed. People who had cultivated internal energy through martial arts rather than ordinary civilians. Even normal humans possessed higher-quality qi than other animals; if they compensated for quantity with that, they could bridge the gap.
But the lotus position...
"You... no way?"
"Hehehehe. What do you think? It's quite a good method, isn't it?"
It was absurd. The plan was like deciding to get rich by collecting fourth-place lottery tickets instead of first-place ones. But if there were hundreds or thousands of those tickets, the story changed completely.
This bastard.
"You're going to induce the Seoul citizens to practice internal energy methods, swallow them all, and become a dragon?"
"More precisely, we will create a Yeouiju with it. But what will you do now that you know? The plan has already been set in motion. The only way to stop it would be to cut every human throat in the city, but that is impossible."
He was right. That was the easiest method, yet it was also impossible. Anxiety took root. Now that she understood Gangcheori's plan, she felt deeply uneasy.
-Flutter!
She opened the talisman fan again to block any leakage of their conversation.
"We need countermeasures. At the very least, we must help Yuseong."
"Splitting our forces would be difficult."
"Then what do we do with the people we have in Seoul? He went this far, so there must be a central point, and since it's Lee Han's work... Did he turn the police headquarters into a pocket dimension?"
"Yes. It is the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. We have confirmed that Kim Yuseong has entered as well."
This was bad. Or was it good? She could not be sure. Relying on that connection felt far too distant and uncertain.
"...Send the priests. Holy power penetrating from outside the pocket dimension is something he cannot ignore. If conditions allow, mobilize every Taoist and shaman as well."
Priests who wielded holy power and Taoists and shamans who handled heavenly energy would weigh far more heavily on his mind than simple attacks.
"And Dowol-nim. Separately from that, the 'Peach Tree' is coming."
"Team Leader, won't we get shot down while transporting this thing?"
"Is that the issue? Even if it gets holes and the engine catches fire, we still have to deliver it."
The team leader stared at the two-meter-long, fifty-centimeter-wide completely sealed box in front of him. They had struggled for the past month trying to produce it, running into one difficulty after another, until three days ago when they finally figured out the trick and created this crude object that at least had the right shape. He had no idea whether it could actually be used in this state, but the team leader chose to bury his anxiety beneath faith.
-Beep!
The alarm sounded. The sound of the truck's rear door opening was followed by the sight of a runway shrouded in thick fog.
"Wait, isn't this thing stopping? Hey, rookie! Stop the truck! Stop it!"
"Damn it! The rookie's already asleep! Even the protective suits can't block it!"
There was no other choice. This was the only equipment they could get their hands on right now. The team leader regretted not leaving the final inspection to his men and taking the wheel himself, but it was already too late.
"...Looking closely, the speed is dropping. He must have shifted to neutral before he completely passed out."
"That's lucky, but it also means we're on a timer! Besides, the transport plane is over there. Lower the ramp, we're going straight in!"
-Vroom!
The team leader started the forklift.
-Thud!
Even though the truck had been slowing down, the impact of the forklift dropping from a moving vehicle was enormous. Yet the engine remained running, and although he lacked a game-enhanced body and was physically weak, the team leader was still an Awakened. It posed no problem for him.
The team members fell asleep while watching their leader drive the forklift into the transport plane.