An Audience with the Electronic Witch
Meeting the Electronic Witch was an ordeal from the very start. Her body did not exist in the real world — she was, quite literally, a witch who lived in the world of electrons.
I quietly typed a single "y" into my phone.
I tapped out my reply.
The Witch sent a startled emoticon.
Having forsaken a physical body in the real world, she wielded absolute influence over the electronic one. Transcendents or those near the Highest Rank could respond to her attacks — but only respond. Anyone of Higher Rank or below, should she ever put her mind to it, would mostly end up a gibbering wreck; at worst, she could scrub their brains down to blank white.
Which was exactly what I was counting on.
The Electronic Witch wasn't nearly vicious enough a person for that, though.
Come to think of it, this area really was Mine territory. Most of them were stragglers, though — nothing beyond my ability to handle.
I pulled up my status window. Recall — the new function that had unlocked when Concept Stat Yeokcheon reached 30. I'd been wanting to put it to the test.
Which meant I'd have to round up every Mine in the area first.
There was a reason for that: an enormous ley line ran beneath Korea, and it was why the country produced so many resilient heroes — and, feeding on that same current, just as many powerful villains and Mines besides.
The brighter the light, the deeper the shadow. And so Korea was truly dangerous where it was dangerous, and truly safe where it was safe.
I was passing through one of the dark places — a back alley where the shadows pooled thickest — with my hood pulled low and the Faceless Mask of Glamour over my face.
"...The hell? What's with the mask?"
"Don't mess with him. Guys like that are dangerous by default."
A sidelong glance confirmed it: none of them carried the telltale demonic aura of Mines. Someone like Tak Yoonil could conceal his, being a Higher Rank himself, but small fry like these would give themselves away in a heartbeat.
Still. Just in case.
Crackle.
I condensed Yeokcheon with a thought and loosed it. The bolt cracked against the villains' necks, and they went limp, crumpling to the ground one after another.
Recall.
The Yeokcheon that had hammered their necks slid smoothly back into me, reclaimed in full.
I turned my senses inward for a moment, checking how much of it had drained from my Black Core.
...100%?
Astonishingly, the Yeokcheon was exactly what it had been the instant before I used it.
To be fair, that was only because my opponents had been weak. Power wore down whenever it clashed against another's strength, so naturally it would dwindle in a real fight.
Even so — the efficiency was terrifying.
Should I just scrap talent and techniques altogether and pour everything into Yeokcheon?
I opened the status window and clicked on Yeokcheon.
Would you like to raise Concept Stat: Yeokcheon?
Total cost: 15,000P
......
Right. Of course.
I might have obtained mine absurdly early, but a concept stat was, literally, the power to govern a concept itself.
Heukcheon's words drifted back to me. "Thy command of Yeokcheon's energy, Master, is akin to that of my previous owner."
That my handling of Yeokcheon was the equal of the previous Heavenly Demon's.
As if that could be true.
Judging by the path she had walked, the Heavenly Demon must have achieved Transcendence at the very least, rising into a true Transcendent. The notion that my dominion over Yeokcheon resembled hers was sheer absurdity.
Which left the Mine hideout somewhere nearby. It seemed I'd be needing a few more experiments.
"S-Save me!"
A pitch-black abandoned factory — a gathering ground for villains and Mines alike. Through it, one villain ran, tears streaming down his face.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
Living the villain life, he'd always known things could turn dangerous. Heroes despised them — always had. But Lee Sanghyeon had thought that only fair.
A villain was one who shattered order and acted for his own pleasure. His crimes were lighter than a Mine's, sure — but the yardstick he was measured against was people who wanted humanity extinct. Being compared to them at all was already the problem.
At worst, he'd figured, he'd answer to the law and rot in a cell.
He had figured.
"Kuaaaaagh!"
A scream rang out.
Tap, tap.
Footsteps, keeping pace with the screaming.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Lee Sanghyeon crumpled where he stood, shaking uncontrollably. His body wouldn't take a single order.
That thing had killed one of his organization members at the entrance. Wrapped in something black, no less.
The something black had torn the man apart — drunk, fumbling with the door — in a single stroke. The sight of him, shredded and screaming, scattering black ash as he came apart, was branded vivid into Lee Sanghyeon's mind.
"Hm. Not enough even at this?"
A voice thick with static. He couldn't even tell whether it belonged to a man or a woman.
Lee Sanghyeon turned his head.
Everything had gone blurry. Some effect of that thing's talent, no doubt.
And yet a few things still showed through: a white faceless mask, and darkness coiling around its wearer — a figure like a demon crawled up out of hell to collect their lives.
Shwaaaak!
The darkness-wreathed shape stretched long in an instant and skewered straight through the door.
"Kraaaaagh!"
Crunch, crunch, crunch. Beneath the screams came the wet sound of something being torn apart.
Trembling, Lee Sanghyeon watched it come.
Slowly. It was coming for him — the demon that reaped lives.
"You."
"Ye-yes! Yes!"
"Are the members here all of your organization?"
"Ye-yes! Th-that's right! A-and I also kn-know where the or-organization's bo-boss keeps the s-safe he treasures so much!"
"...Is that so?"
The demon sounded intrigued. Lee Sanghyeon clung to a sliver of hope that he might live.
"I-I know it t-too!"
Tongue bitten bloody, the woman beside him dropped to her knees.
"Th-there's no-nothing special in the s-safe! The bo-boss is su-suspicious by na-nature! B-but I know wh-where his ho-house is!"
"Hm. I don't have time for this."
"I-I'll go and r-rob the bo-boss's ho-house myself!"
"And what, exactly, would I be trusting you on?"
"Th-that's...!"
As the woman faltered, he thought he heard a snicker.
"This is a brand."
Unclean. Black energy drew a circle in the air, and the demon breathed it into the woman's forehead.
"Guhk...!"
She began to shudder, her complexion draining to a deathly pallor.
"This is a brand. It will nest inside your mind, and the moment you defy my will, it will blow your head apart."
"Ye-ye-yes!"
Weeping, the woman nodded frantically. The demon waved her off — hurry — then turned to the man.
The man had fainted long ago.
...
Something smelled musty, too.
Was I really that terrifying? That one stung a little.
Not that it mattered. I knew where the safe was anyway.
More efficient than I'd expected, though.
A brand. I didn't actually have any skill like that. I'd simply bent Yeokcheon into a pattern and breathed it into her forehead.
The instant it entered, it had convulsed her mana and tried to rupture her dantian, so I'd reeled it back in fast.
As expected — to anyone who carried mana, Yeokcheon was nothing short of pure poison.
Come to think of it, that was only natural. Yeokcheon was a defiled power. What I couldn't figure out was why it registered as a power governed by law. That unknowable force — the energy of Yeokcheon.
Well, first things first — time to collect that safe.
I headed for it.
Thud! Thud!
Black Wings ground every wall in my path to rubble. With Absorption in play, this was the way to travel — theoretically, I could keep Black Wings running without limit. I flew upward and landed on the floor above. And then—
Crunch.
The safe gave way. Inside sat a handful of documents and a single gold bar.
Property deeds and loan-shark paperwork, huh.
I tucked the gold bar into subspace and burned every last document. Holding onto things like that would have meant money, but the process was a hassle, and one careless move could have blown my cover.
Not that I had any particular need to chase money.
It was multiplying in real time even now. At this rate, I'd cross ten billion won before long.
I swept the place one more time, combing it for Mines.
There were none.
I had hunted down some ten Mines, and Yeokcheon had gone up by exactly 1.
The conditions are way too strict.
The power a concept stat granted was immense — but raising one was anything but easy.
Resigned, I made for the capsule room nearby.
Just in case anything went wrong, I had already handed Yeongcheon a measure of my Yeokcheon, letting her weave spells to shield me.
I paid, then stretched out inside the capsule.
The moment I entered the virtual space — blue sky stretched endlessly overhead — my Veritas avatar was there to greet me.
Right after connecting, a few things caught me off guard. For one, my chat window was jammed solid at 999+. My inbox was in the same state.
Well, fair enough, I supposed. The Electronic Witch protected your personal information, but anything sent to your ID — chats, mail — was easy enough to dig up.
I headed outside.
"Hey there."
A girl on a bench was waving at me. Blue hair, blue eyes — and a comfortable-looking blue tracksuit.
"Hey. You came out here to meet me?"
"Yeah, well."
The Electronic Witch hesitated a moment — then clapped her hands. A door materialized in front of her.
"Shall we get the talking out of the way first?"
"Sure."
"Who did you hear my heart's desire from?"
"From you."
"...Me?"
I smiled. The difficulty had changed and the Mines had grown stronger, but one thing remained exactly as it was: the pasts of the people living in this world, and how their stories would end, lived mostly inside my head.
Which made this, effectively, cheating — but if it let us both sidestep futures of ruin and death, wasn't that a win-win for everyone?
"My name is Lee Seoha. An ability user who foresees the future."
"What?"
"I came to you because the you of the far future asked me to save her."
"..."
The witch could only stare at me, her face gone blank.