A Fleeting Connection
I ruffled Dohwa’s hair with my right hand. “Dohwa, are you listening carefully to the doctor?”
“Yeah, but it’s so boring being stuck here.”
“You have Penguin Captain on your phone, don’t you?”
“Still, playing with you is way more fun, oppa.”
My words caught in my throat. After the Mountain Lord incident, I had enjoyed a brief moment of peace, but now I had to set out again to slaughter more monsters. There was no time to spare, yet because it had to be done, we had to part ways.
“Just hold on a little longer.”
“Can we go to an amusement park?”
“Ahaha…”
I stroked Dohwa’s head with my right hand. Then I noticed how my hand had changed. Even to my own eyes it looked like the delicate hand of a woman, far removed from any kind of fighting. What stood out most was the chill that clung to my touch instead of warmth. Yet Dohwa paid no mind to the yin energy and smiled with genuine joy. It was as if her bright, sunny smile could completely cover the yin energy radiating from my body.
For a moment, dizziness washed over me. How had innocent little Dohwa ended up like this? Where had it all begun?
Glorious Land. Was it when that popular IP online game known as Glorious Land on the West server materialized into reality? Or was it the moment I awakened as an Awakened? Or perhaps even further back—when I had chosen the Yin-Cold Body in my desire to make my character stronger?
That choice, that damned physical trait, had triggered a cursed awakening through the karmic link of family?
Yes. That was probably it. The root lay in the world itself, but this was a catastrophe that would never have happened without my decision. I hated the version of myself from the past who had chosen such a trivial pleasure.
The Yin-Cold Body had become a family curse. Simply because blood was connected. Without even understanding the principle behind it.
It was fine if I died. It was my own fault, after all. But Dohwa could not. This was my karma, so I had to resolve it. And the pain Dohwa suffered in the meantime was something I would have to carry with me through hell.
“By the way, Dohwa… even if we can’t go to an amusement park, how about we take a trip somewhere?”
“Have you ever visited Baengnokdam on Halla Mountain?”
The Blue House chief of staff began the request in a rather unusual way. At first I wondered what he was talking about, but I answered the question, hoping there would be some clever point to it.
“Three times. The last visit was almost eight years ago.”
I recalled climbing Baengnokdam eight years earlier to clear my head before a major tournament. Back then… my path had been clear and I had been happy.
“In any case, along with the report that security on Jeju Island has been secured, we also received a report concerning Baengnokdam on Halla Mountain.”
I continued listening while picturing what Baengnokdam had looked like in the past.
“The problem is that the water is behaving strangely.”
“Isn’t Baengnokdam just rainwater? Did something happen with the rain? Or is it contamination?”
“It is clean water. The issue is that the water is filling up on its own.”
“Pardon?”
If my memory of Baengnokdam was accurate, that was impossible. Unlike Cheonji, Baengnokdam had no groundwater and relied entirely on rainwater. For the water to rise by itself was nearly impossible.
“Furthermore, the temperature at the upper part of Baengnokdam is between four and five degrees Celsius.”
“…”
It was an extremely familiar temperature. A volcano, a water source, and just the right heat—could it be…?
“A hot spring?”
“Yes, a hot spring.”
I was stunned. If this were Japan I could understand, but a volcanic hot spring? Halla Mountain had only recently been reclassified as an active volcano, so it still felt somewhat unfamiliar.
“We would like you to investigate that hot spring. If it is dangerous, please eliminate it. If it is harmless… we would like you to officially certify it.”
“Certify it? Me?”
“Yes. Local researchers are already studying the water quality, but since the energy known as mana is still unfamiliar to them…”
“You want someone with high sensitivity like me to certify it?”
“Correct. At the moment, the only Awakened with enough leeway to move freely is you, Ha Dowol.”
I wondered if the government was truly that short on personnel, but when I parsed the meaning behind his words, it became clear. Monsters were running rampant, and the only person who could pass through Jeolla and Chungcheong provinces without being swayed by the independent groups of Awakened was someone who would never betray them. In other words, the absolute prerequisite was absolute loyalty.
“Sigh… In this situation, there’s nothing good about clashing with those people. Do you have a suitable route?”
I could handle them, but that would consume the nation’s entire military strength. At least until more than half of the Awakened could fully wield their power and the major issue of Gangcheol was resolved, we could not act recklessly.
“Here it is. We have arranged passage on a Jeju supply ship.”
“And so, we are heading to Jeju Island.”
“And there’s a hot spring~!”
An extremely excited voice carried all the way to the driver’s seat. Well, in a world falling apart, suddenly thinking about soaking in a hot spring was bound to make anyone excited. At seven years old, Dohwa was at the peak of her energy, and she was chattering away at me nonstop.
“Cooow.”
She collapsed dramatically.
Obtaining a four-person camping car had been lucky. More precisely, it was little more than a bribe meant to show appreciation for the consideration being given in these dire times.
I attached soundproofing talismans to the back of the car for Dohwa’s sake.
Vroooom!
The camping car sliced through the quiet national highway. Of course, there were obstacles. Roughly two hundred meters ahead, a fallen tree blocked the road. The tree was large and the road was only one lane, so we would have to go around. The placement of the fallen tree and the overly obvious method made it clear this was a trap. Effective, but not against me.
“Urgent~ Yuryeong Order♪”
I chanted the spell in a rhythmic tone and flicked five talismans through the slightly open window. The talismans fluttered for a moment after being thrown from a moving vehicle, but those infused with my will and energy glowed blue, cut against the wind, and shot toward the tree like arrows. They shattered the tree with supercooling and a shockwave. The camping car rolled smoothly over the powdered wood and continued on its way.
After the car passed, I glanced in the side mirror and saw human figures emerging one by one from the bushes, watching us recede like fools.
“Hehehe.”
It was amusing. Even if they had their reasons for resorting to robbery, what could I do? I had to get our Dohwa to Jeju Island. If I found a spirit beast possessing yang energy at Baengnokdam, I would need to feed it to her.
After that, obstacles appeared from time to time. Barricades made of abandoned cars, roads buried under dirt and rocks as if a landslide had occurred, and the occasional low-grade monster. But mere disasters and weak monsters could not stop my drive.
“…”
Yet I ended up stopping before reaching my destination. The reason was a child standing in the middle of the road, sniffling.
I turned off the engine and got out of the car. A moment later, thirteen humans of various genders and ages emerged from the forest. Correction—fourteen, including the child. Could they not see the talismans rotating above the camping car?
“What do you want?” I asked the middle-aged man who stepped forward. He was probably the contact or the leader of this group.
“Hand over the car. Then no one gets hurt.”
“Don’t you think fourteen people is a bit much for one car?”
I had no intention of handing it over, so I answered casually. Four men immediately dropped their bags and aimed M16 rifles at me.
“…Well, I did hear rumors that some reserve units were trading supplies for food and fuel.”
I couldn’t blame them unconditionally. It was more like a desperate struggle to maintain public order by solving their own logistics. In this context, “public order” meant prioritizing the maintenance of the military that stopped monsters from massacring people over trivial issues like civilians carrying guns.
“Still, I wonder if they actually bought bullets…”
Bang!
The man diagonally across from me fired. The shot went past my side rather than above me, proving it was a real bullet. His face was full of superiority, as if he disliked my nonchalant attitude.
But thanks to that, things became easy.
“Hey, you dropped this.”
“…Fuck.”
I showed them the bullet in my hand and mocked them. It was still warm, having just been fired and spinning. The group fell into chaos. Of course they would. They had just realized they had picked the wrong prey.
…But did they really not have any Awakened? I couldn’t sense any presence.
“What do you want?” The leader turned my earlier question back on me. Good. He was quick-witted.
“Where are you all from?”
“Jeonju.”
“Hmm. Heading to Daejeon? Why did you leave Jeonju?”
“The Awakened there have become too tyrannical. We heard the government still functions properly the farther north you go.”
“I don’t understand. That would be a loss for them too.”
The Awakened power groups that nominally suppressed the military, stood at the top, and ruled the cities. Once awakened, if they grasped how to handle their ki, they wouldn’t suffer serious injuries even from missiles, just like monsters with inner cores. Since they already possessed the power, they only needed to learn how to use it. But from what I knew, those people weren’t in any position to do so.
“What I mean is the lowest of the low. The scraps who can’t even join those groups.”
“Ah, then it makes sense. Is this the West server by any chance?”
The West server had many casual players who only dipped their toes in. They were weak, but there were plenty of ordinary human types among them.
“…I don’t know much about that game.”
“Well, that’s not the important part anyway. Leaving Jeonju was a stupid move.”
“You’re saying that without knowing the situation.”
The leader looked at me as he spoke, and I half gave up on them. That kind of commotion would be cleaned up soon enough. Whether the military or the Awakened stepped in, maintaining basic public order was important to them. This was truly something so idiotic that no one could complain even if you called them morons. I had no obligation to protect people who forgot they were being sheltered while the world around them collapsed and had no idea how dangerous it was outside.
No, more fundamentally—
“Those people wouldn’t go as far as murder, would they?”
“…It’s for our dignity.”
Looking at his eyes… it was a lie. And when I observed the situation, everyone wore uncomfortable expressions. The women were pressing their lips tightly shut while holding the children’s hands. It naturally created the impression that something unpleasant had happened and they had no choice but to begin a mass migration.
I whispered softly so only the leader could hear.
“Even so, you’re crossing the national highway on foot without a single Awakened? You should have sold everything and hired at least one Awakened.”
“We can’t trust them.”
“That’s because you got information that they’re going to escape, isn’t it? Be honest. You’re sneaking out in advance because you think an all-out war between the Awakened and the military is about to break out, right?”
“…”
The leader fell silent, as if my words had hit the mark. And judging by this, he was probably quite well-known. Otherwise there would be no need to escape so secretly. What should I do with these people? What circumstances could possibly drive them to attempt an escape with only this many people?
If I pressed further, I might learn the internal situation in Jeonju City, but that wasn’t important to me right now. In the end, with the mindset that everything comes full circle, I decided to show them some goodwill.
“Do you have a lighter?”
“…I have one.”
The leader held out a disposable lighter. It was half-full and in mediocre condition, but it was enough.
"Urgent Yuryeong Order"
⟨ Ice Explosion ⟩
A single talisman turned into sparkling powder under my spell and seeped into the lighter. Good. Even though it was a low-grade spell and I had been worried it might fail, it succeeded somehow.
“This is the price for the information. Activate it and throw it after five seconds. It’s a bomb. And these will keep your body temperature stable for eight hours even in the middle of winter if you eat them.”
I placed the lighter imbued with Ice Explosion and fourteen talismans into the leader’s hand.
“We’ll gratefully accept.”
Perhaps because I was an outsider, the leader did not refuse my goodwill. To them, this was the next most necessary thing after food, so it was only natural.
“If it really gets bad, throw the lighter and run.”
Leaving those words behind, I climbed back into the camping car and started the engine. There were no openings, but they did not dare attack. Since they knew I could kill them in an instant, they simply accepted my gift.
When I stepped on the accelerator, the camping car moved forward. As I passed the child who had blocked my path, our eyes met. The eyes of a child who looked about ten were hollow, and the child appeared somewhat gaunt, perhaps from not eating enough.
“Here, this is a present for you too.”
I smiled and tossed a single chocolate toward the child. The moment the child realized it was chocolate, their eyes sparkled. They tore open the wrapper and swallowed the chocolate in one bite, ignoring the adult’s warning to save it.
Of course, the real gift was the talisman hidden inside the chocolate that transmitted a rescue signal. Considering how much effort I had put into matching the frequency, it was a bit of a waste, but if it could erase this uneasy feeling, it was a cheap price to pay.