Mujin City is Out of Service
Ten minutes ago.
Mujin City center, 13th floor of the abandoned hospital.
The walls were completely demolished. Surgical beds and various junk lay smashed and scattered in the corners.
As a rusted sign hung by chains from the ceiling swayed, letters were revealed under a few dim lights.
Welcome
From here on is Mujin City
Decades ago, this was the city boundary sign first erected by Mujin City.
Naturally, it was nothing more than a metal plate devoid of any anomalous properties.
Creak, screeech.
Beneath that sign, an anomalous entity with a bizarrely shaped head dragged an axe the size of a house.
Pentagon Head.
Its official designation was SIN-538-A Pentagon Head.
A Gamma-class anomaly existing inside SIN-538 Mujin City.
“....”
In truth, it was the source of the anomalies manifested by Mujin City—Mujin City itself.
Its intentions and purposes were unknown.
It merely claimed the victims dragged into Mujin City as its citizens. The citizens claimed in this manner would kill one another, creating an endless, living hell.
As it happened, there were two young humans newly claimed as citizens here.
“*Hic*... *sniff*... *wahhh*!”
“Jang A-rin. You have to stop crying.”
In a corner of the 13th floor, Baek Yul-ha comforted her little sister. She kept a wary eye on the monster, terrified of provoking it.
‘It hasn’t harmed us other than dragging us here. Is it trying to keep us alive for now?’
The Director had told them to stay calm in any situation. He said that since she grew up on the streets, she would do just fine.
Yul-ha strained her brain to think.
‘He said anomalies generally fall into two categories.’
One is born with anomalous properties.
The other is created by human belief.
In the case of Mujin City, it was definitely the latter. The urban legend of the remote, foggy town was famous, after all.
“A-rin. Listen carefully. We’re not going to run away. We’re staying right here.”
“W-Why...?”
“Running away is just following horror movie clichés. Doing frustrating things like that is a surefire way to get killed.”
“Frustwating things...?”
“Something like that. We just need to wait here. That’s how we help the Management Bureau and the Director.”
Twelve-year-old Baek Yul-ha made an incredibly rational decision.
If anyone from the Management Bureau's Human Resources Department had seen this, they would have drooled in their eagerness to recruit her.
Creak— Screeech—
‘Even so, that monster is pretty scary.’
The axe was three times larger than Yul-ha's body. If she got hit by it, there was absolutely no way she would survive.
“Uuu...”
Her little sister whimpered, holding her hand tightly.
Thus, Yul-ha clasped her hands with her sister's and prayed in her heart.
‘Please help us. Anyone.’
Was the prayer answered?
Bam- babam- babam- bambam-
Suddenly, a suspiciously grand trumpet fanfare began to echo.
“...Sister?”
“Shh. They're here. I think it's the Management Bureau's Containment Special Task Force.”
“Then are we saved?”
“Jang A-rin. Listen carefully. From now on, saying things like 'We're saved' or 'Did we get him?' is strictly forbidden.”
“Uuu... okay...”
A flash of light burst in front of the two children, and three heavily armored, giant figures landed.
The Tanker Artisan Coalition.
Descended.
“Beer! Beer!!!”
“Right. We found the kids. *Huff*— Drei, let's lock down the How to Horizon Coordinate? device.”
“Got it. I'll do it.”
The muscular woman slammed a cylindrical device into the floor. As the signal transmitted, a radio transmission came through.
“Coordinate lock confirmed. The rescue team is entering from the boundary of Mujin City.”
“Understood. But SIN-998, the Director, is nowhere to be seen. We will prioritize protecting the kids.”
“....”
Perhaps annoyed by the sudden intruders, Pentagon Head began to approach, dragging its axe.
The trio of the Tanker Artisan Coalition drew their riot forcefield shields and special greatswords.
Yul-ha spoke in a small voice from behind them.
“Um, thank you.”
“Yeah! Kids! Just wait nicely in the back!”
“About that monster... I think it can move through the fog. We were dragged here directly from the subway too.”
A twelve-year-old kid observed the characteristics of an anomaly while being kidnapped?
What an excellent newbie!
Eins, the eldest of the Tanker Artisan Coalition, couldn't contain his admiration and roared:
“Beeeeer— Uggghhh!!!?”
The massive axe tore through his armor and split his chest wide open.
“....”
Right in front of them, Pentagon Head tilted its head.
Eins, deceased.
Tanker Artisan Coalition (2/3).
Orphanage Director Lee Shin.
Smelling the scent of orphans, he rushed over.
“Ha!! Is it here?!”
“Save us...”
With the medical trio on dog leashes, he arrived at the 13th floor, where the incredibly cheerful trumpet music was blaring.
At the edge of the chaos, he saw the two little ones crouching.
“You're safe!! My daughters!!”
“...Yes, Director.”
“Yay! Directow! ...*Wahhh*.”
I must rescue them right now!
Unfortunately, there was a kidnapping boss blocking the way between Lee Shin and his daughters.
“Pentagon Head!!!”
“....”
Pentagon Head shook the blood off its axe and turned to look at Lee Shin.
“Huh. Who are those two in the back?”
A somewhat overweight man and a ridiculously muscular woman were wrestling with Pentagon Head like they were in the WWE.
“SIN-998?! *Huff*— Are you the Director?!”
“That's the concept, yeah.”
“Don't engage this guy! He's not someone you can handle... *Urgh*.”
The overweight man let out a death rattle as blood sprayed into the air.
Pentagon Head grabbed his upper and lower body and ripped him in half.
Zwei, deceased.
Tanker Artisan Coalition (1/3).
Splat.
Zwei's thick blood splattered onto Lee Shin's face.
‘Is this... not WWE? What kind of safety measures do they have here?’
It felt more like a lawless deathmatch, even worse than the UFC.
“Director...”
“Kyaaa! *Wahhh*...”
More importantly, there are kids here, and the special effects are way too graphic!
This kidnapper bastard definitely needs to be taught a lesson.
“Bite him.”
Lee Shin released the dog leashes and commanded the medical trio.
“P-Pentagon Head!! Help us!”
“That crazy gangster bastard is holding us...”
“Once this is over, I need to find a job somewhere else.”
Splat. Slash. Thud.
All three of them had their left and right halves cleanly separated!
Now, only Lee Shin, Pentagon Head, and Drei, the third member of the Tanker Artisan Coalition, remained.
Drei swung her greatsword at Pentagon Head.
“Haha! SIN-538-A! The rescue team has already departed! They will save the kids and destroy you!”
‘We're saved. We'll destroy you.’
Two violations of the horror movie clichés.
Burst!
Fog enveloped her body, and she exploded right before the children's eyes.
Drei, deceased.
Tanker Artisan Coalition (0/3).
Wiped out.
“....”
“....”
Lee Shin and Pentagon Head stared blankly at each other.
“Huh... is this some kind of idiot special forces concept? Pretty creative.”
“....”
Whoosh!
Pentagon Head closed the distance in an instant and swung its house-sized axe.
“Whoops.”
Clang!
Lee Shin swung a nearby iron pipe and deflected the axe.
How was this possible?
Because he had absolutely no doubt that he would succeed.
After all, they were in similar weight classes, and he had done plenty of hand-to-hand combat in his life.
‘I can do it! If it's me!!’
They exchanged blows a few times. Neither managed to land a significant hit on the other.
Lee Shin spun his tiny brain rapidly. He mobilized all the knowledge he had accumulated as a supernatural horror enthusiast.
‘If this guy follows the laws of supernatural entities, he must be a bound spirit tied to Mujin City.’
There was bound to be a gimmick to defeat him.
In cases where an entire region is anomalous like this, the cliché is that there's a sacred object serving as the source.
The problem was that his field of vision was narrowed because they were in the middle of a fight.
Screeech—
While he was locked in a contest of strength, holding back Pentagon Head's axe.
Yul-ha looked at the ceiling and shouted.
“Director! That sign!!”
“The sign?”
A rusted sign hung from the ceiling.
Welcome
From here on is Mujin City
“As expected of my daughter!! You're smart because we don't share a single drop of blood!!”
“...Is that a compliment?”
Lee Shin kicked Pentagon Head back, sensing victory.
That was a city boundary sign.
It served to divide the boundary between Mujin City and the outside.
If so, what would happen if the city boundary was set right here, in the middle of Mujin City?
‘Mujin City will shrink to just this tiny hospital building. And this bound spirit bastard will lose all his power.’
Whoosh.
His calves and thighs swelled as if they were about to burst.
Boom!!
Lee Shin kicked off the floor and leaped up to hang from the sign on the ceiling.
A few strikes with the edge of his palm easily broke the chains.
“Easy.”
With his 120kg weight added, Lee Shin fell along with the sign.
“.........?”
Pentagon Head merely looked up at him as if looking at a bug, but it never expected its end to be so anticlimactic.
Crash!!
The moment the boundary sign slammed into the floor.
An unexpected event occurred.
Wel— come—
From here on—
is Mujin City—
“.........!”
Pentagon Head's form began to crumble and vanish.
The creature stared down at its hands, which were dissolving into fog.
How?
That sign was supposed to be nothing more than a useless piece of metal.
Common sense dictated that anomalies created by human belief, like Mujin City or Subway Line 1, would grow endlessly stronger until the underlying urban legend disappeared.
Just before its vision went dark, Pentagon Head briefly experienced a higher dimension.
The cognitive field of humanity, draping the sky like an aurora.
The Noosphere.
From its surface, tens of thousands of subconscious thoughts echoed.
— There is a cult in the foggy village.
— Folk horror has to be a small seaside town.
— I went to Mujin City last time, and the atmosphere was so eerie...
That was the source of Pentagon Head's anomalous power.
The human belief that defined SIN-538 Mujin City as an anomaly.
However, the event of the boundary sign crashing into the hospital floor began to reflect in the Noosphere.
The cognitive field suddenly flipped.
Mujin City, SIN-538, the urban legend of the foggy seaside town—
— It's just a story made up by a run-down, abandoned hospital.
It could no longer maintain its physical form.
It was as if the entirety of humanity had stopped believing in the urban legend of Mujin City.
Just how massive was that human's belief?
To think a single person could overturn the Noosphere accumulated in humanity's subconscious for decades.
That was its final thought.
Pentagon Head's anomalous properties were completely dismantled and vanished.
Tatiana quickly climbed the stairs of the abandoned hospital.
“Where is the search team?”
“The Tanker Artisan Coalition. All deceased. Currently undergoing physical reconstruction at Site-277.”
The Containment Special Task Force, Gatekeepers, remained in front of the hospital to subdue the frenzied citizens.
Tatiana's Containment Special Task Force, Silnakwon, had to rescue Lee Shin and the children. Behind them, Azazel whined.
“Why, why did I have to tag along too?! Wasn't I just supposed to be the guide?!”
“SIN-1000. Out there, the citizens are killing each other. Do you want to go out?”
“Eek?! N-No... I'll just stick behind you.”
The goal was strictly rescue.
Once they secured Lee Shin and the children, they would immediately escape Mujin City.
Engaging SIN-538-A Pentagon Head, the presumed source of Mujin City's anomaly, was not recommended.
Pentagon Head was a Gamma-class entity, and this was its home turf.
‘So as long as 998 and the children are safe...’
Whoosh.
Tatiana stumbled. The other task force members did the same.
Something swept past their bodies. It felt like a wave of anomalous energy.
“Sig-11. Did you feel that just now?”
“Yes. What was that?”
“Above. Toward the 13th floor, something... shrank.”
The anomaly gauge hanging from her waist beeped.
Current reading: 0.13.
The surrounding anomalies had vanished. It had become completely identical to the peaceful outside world.
“What the...”
The commander of the Gatekeepers task force in front of the hospital hastily radioed in.
“Silnakwon. Come in.”
“Silnakwon here. Go ahead, Gatekeepers.”
“The citizens' frenzy has vanished. The anomaly gauge readings are normal. The fog across the entire city is dispersing.”
The anomalies vanished? Across all of Mujin City?
It was close to impossible.
To neutralize, not even contain, a wide-area regional anomaly of this scale...
‘At least a disposal task force directly under the Council would have to... come...’
Tatiana's train of thought ground to a halt.
It was right after she flung open the door to the 13th floor.
“You're here. Faster than I thought.”
A terrifyingly large man was sitting, leaning against a sign.
Welcome
From here on is Mujin City
He didn't look particularly tired.
He had simply sat down to let the children sleep.
“...Mmh.”
“*Zzz*... *zzz*...”
In his arms, two girls slept soundly without a single scratch.
“Are those cheerful trumpet folks your attraction staff too? I kind of liked how idiotic they were.”
Tatiana blankly asked back, even though Lee Shin couldn't possibly answer.
“...998. Did you do this? The boundary of Mujin City is shrinking. Now only this building remains.”
“More of that weird roleplay setting. Well, I praise your professional spirit as actors.”
It was certain.
This man, all by himself, had annihilated a Gamma-class wide-area anomaly.
Before long, the Management Bureau's Council would realize this too.
Completely unaware that he was becoming an irreplaceable existence, Lee Shin casually patted the space next to him.
“Want to sit? You other actors over there should take a break too.”
“Huh? ...Sure.”
Tatiana sat down next to Lee Shin in a daze. She even took off her gas mask.
What Lee Shin had said on the subway flashed through her mind.
— Children should be with their parents.
Those words had deeply resonated with her, someone who had been separated from her parents.
Was that why?
“...Heh.”
A raw, genuine smile, one she had never shown to anyone before, formed on her face.
“Tatiana. Why are you smiling like an idiot?”
“Huh? Me? No. ...Well.”
“I want to let our kids sleep in a warm, safe place. Can you help me with that?”
Asking for help.
With a face like that, he looked like he'd ask for help burying someone. Yet, in truth, was his heart only filled with thoughts of caring for the children?
Her calm heart began to flutter.
“Of course. I will make sure the best facility is prepared for the children.”
Tatiana made a vow to herself.
Until she returned to her original world, until she met her parents again in her homeland, she would not be swayed by useless emotions.
Thump.
Cracks began to form in that vow.