Do the Slothful Dream of Nightmares? (1)
Park Yu-hye was fully resolved. She was prepared to lose an arm or a leg. Even the great Monica had a prosthetic right arm and left eye, after all. There was no reason she couldn't do the same.
Plus, since it's a simulation, if I do it right, maybe I won't lose it for real...?
Harboring such convenient thoughts, she thrust out her left arm and unleashed her magic.
[Special Series]
[Body Etherization]
[3rd Level Special Series]
[Abyssal Bog]
A magic that summoned ether by sacrificing the body. Refining ether at the cost of the human body was illegal, but just thirty years ago, it had been fairly common. In the mage world, it was a spell passed around with the advice to use it only in emergencies.
It's battle-tested plenty of times, and since it's a simulation, the risks are low.
The Mage Association might let it slide if she claimed there was no going back on the decision. They'd always done that anyway.
"Yuhehehe."
No matter how she looked at it, this had the best cost-performance ratio. Training every day and building real combat experience was way too inefficient. She just needed to shine brightly once like before, grab her share, and vanish.
As soon as the magic activated, the bog extending from her left arm engulfed the mages.
"F-Fast."
Maybe because it was ether from her own body, but it bypassed mental core conversion and manifested in an instant. The surging ether created an even larger bog, which in turn drew in more ether—a virtuous cycle.
Park Yu-hye, lost in momentary ecstasy, trembled all over with her eyes rolled back.
"Guh, guhgh."
Her body felt like it was floating in the air.
Wait, am I actually floating?
By the time the massively swollen bog filled her vision, excruciating pain shot through her left arm.
"Wh-Wha?! You said it was pleasure! Not pain, plea aaa aaaaagh!"
The backflowing ether spread through her body in an instant.
Then time began to slow.
Like a game suffering frame drops.
The stuttering simulation.
Eventually.
Came to a complete halt.
At the report of yet another simulation glitch, Bang So-yeon ground her molars together.
"Is it Yoo Eunha the mage's ether density exceeding limits again?"
Bang So-yeon listened to the section chief's report with a flushed face. If the same issue had cropped up again, she was ready to make those three elders stake their positions on it.
"No, it's not stopped this time. It's worse than that..."
"Worse than that?"
"It's serious..."
"What?!"
Those words froze Bang So-yeon solid. Worse than that? What kind of bullshit was this?
"If we're not careful, every mage inside the simulation could be in mortal danger."
"What do you even—"
The tournament operations section chief sighed as if he'd given up on everything, explaining while looking at Bang So-yeon.
"The current version has a bug where if an ether creation spell activates, the entire simulation magic goes haywire."
"Ether creation spell? You mean body incineration magic? That's a constitutional felony!"
"It seems Park Yu-hye the mage used it from inside."
A pro mage attempting body incineration magic? It was absurd. Every mage who entered the Abyss knew how dangerous and trash-tier that spell was—yet she'd used something that vicious.
"She uses that just to pass the qualifiers? That shit kills you!"
Ether creation magic was a guaranteed death sentence. This wasn't even the Olympics—what kind of lunatic risked their life for a third-rate league prelim?
"Well... Park Yu-hye the mage has zero Abyss entry records over the past ten years. She probably didn't know the side effects well."
That snapped her to attention.
"Ah... Ah... Aaaah!!!! That's why I said we need to make pro mage renewals harder!"
Bang So-yeon felt like she was going insane from the exhaustion crashing over her. Making pro qualifications easy to renew so subpar mages could keep theirs—that was another pile of elder shit.
"You fucking bastards!"
As Bang So-yeon spat that out, the section chief piled on something even worse.
"This is exactly why we've been submitting reports to upgrade the simulation equipment to the latest models. But they never approved it..."
"What? What the hell does that mean! Again?!"
Bang So-yeon furrowed her brow. A few years back, the Mage Association had received massive national funding to update the simulation gear to new models. Technically, on paper, the project had wrapped up two years ago.
"What are you talking about? We spent 120 billion and updated everything to new models, right? Two years ago."
"Well..."
The section chief rolled his eyes before speaking.
"We only replaced some of them. Most machines are still old-gen, so for big tournaments like this, we use the legacy versions."
"...What?"
"Precisely, 42 simulation units are new-gen and can handle the latest ether sims. The other 78 are old-gen, so large-scale events run on legacy software."
Bang So-yeon smacked her forehead with a thwack. The elders must have dragged their feet on the project while siphoning off the budget bit by bit. A waterfall of curses poured through her mind. Three elder turds had exploded in a single tournament.
Bang So-yeon ticked off on her fingers as she spoke.
"Biased rulings without verification trash the Association's rep."
"Keep letting low-tier pros retain their licenses."
"And embezzle the hell out of the gear upgrade project that's vital for the nation's future?"
"I'm done. Even if they're Korea's heroes, the miracle generation or whatever—no, this is too far!"
Bang So-yeon bit her lip.
"Fuck, it's all because of that hero crap, that miracle generation bullshit."
The Mage Association turning into this pathetic rat hole, the government unable to touch this massive cartel—it was all because of the halo around that vaunted miracle generation.
The mages who stopped the Seoul Abyss outbreak, sacrificing countless lives to build modern Korea. And the generation they belonged to, dubbed the 'miracle generation'.
"Fuck, granting them immunity back then was the mistake."
At Bang So-yeon's words, the section chief glanced at her cautiously.
"Without that, most of those mages would've been locked up... Life was cheapest back then."
Bang So-yeon let out a shrill screech at the chief's words.
"Even so!!! Those old fucks need to know their limits! Immunity, Mugunghwa medals, heroes, blah blah. Fuck, they weren't even the real victims."
Bang So-yeon gnashed her teeth. Every elder on the Mage Association council was a national hero. But dig deeper, and the true heroes had all died in battle or passed early. What remained were their friends and colleagues. Remnants of that era, nothing more.
Bang So-yeon's eyes turned fierce.
"Heroes my ass—I'm convening the council right now and making those fuckers take responsibility."
"Even the president couldn't..."
"I don't care. I'm resigning. President playing elder games? This is slavery."
As the fuming Bang So-yeon moved to summon the council and demand answers, men in black suits entered the tournament office.
"Who...?"
In her daze, the suited men identified themselves and seized Bang So-yeon.
"We are Superphenomenon Investigators under the National Security Office. Both of you, come with us now."
"......"
At the words "Superphenomenon Investigators," Bang So-yeon's face drained white. They were special operatives used in dire situations to bypass legal systems or conduct covert probes.
It's already reached the president's ears.
Bang So-yeon sighed deeply as she followed the investigators.
"Aigoo, I never should've taken the president's seat."
She couldn't believe how badly things had spiraled.
Following the investigators to an underground bunker in Seoul, Bang So-yeon spotted a familiar face.
Ah.
She realized she'd entered the infamous 'that room'.
"You're here."
"Ha-ryeong... sunbae?"
Lee Ha-ryeong smirked and nodded toward a chair. In this dark room where no bugs or magic worked—the so-called Shadow Room—sat someone Bang So-yeon never imagined.
"P-President?"
She'd expected at most a Superphenomenon team lead, or tops the National Security Director. But right there was the President of Korea.
Bang So-yeon's vision went black. Hell was unfolding one after another in under an hour.
"Do you know why I called you?"
"...I just got the report. The simulation froze, and shutting it down risks all the mages' lives."
The president pressed his eyes shut at Bang So-yeon's words.
"I heard from the investigators on the way. I knew it was messy, but this crosses the line."
Bang So-yeon looked wronged. She'd been a puppet for the elders from the start, and it'd only been a month since she became president.
"I know most of this happened before you took over as Association President."
The president cut straight to business, concise and to the point.
"How do we fix it?"
Bang So-yeon's words caught in her throat.
"......"
There was only one option she could think of.
"Shut down the simulation and pray the mages survive..."
The president sighed heavily at her useless answer.
"So we put sixty pro mages on death's door. That's really the only way?"
"I'm sorry..."
"These are national assets. Losing even one pro mage hits national security; this is sixty. And prospects like Yoo Eunha and Lee Sera are in there."
Despite the president's urging, she had nothing to say. She knew zilch about simulations—only that 7th-level creation magic was involved and old versions had issues. If she'd known more about the league or Association, she never would've sat in this elder-slave chair.
"The public already knows via broadcasts and streams. We need a solution now. This is bad."
Lee Ha-ryeong, sitting beside him, furrowed her brow at the president's words.
"Hm, it's not like there's no way...?"
Bang So-yeon's eyes lit up. A retired 7th-level was different after all. But as Lee Ha-ryeong shrugged and continued,
"Release all the tangled ether inside the simulation and take out the mage who caused it. Then 59 survive."
Bang So-yeon sighed. Textbook advice, but utterly impractical. The ether inside must be impossibly entangled by now. No human mage, no matter how skilled, could handle that.
"Not to nitpick, but that'd require a 7th-level mage at least..."
As Lee Ha-ryeong opened her mouth to reply,
A earth-shaking explosion rocked the room.
Boooom—
"Ah. Looks like they broke through."
"Tch, even the iron fortress mage couldn't hold."
As Bang So-yeon stared in confusion at the president and Lee Ha-ryeong,
The steel door crumpled and swung open.
A voice sharp as a blade came from behind.
"My little one.... You fucking bastards...."
Bang So-yeon clutched her trembling hands tight. It felt like her heart would burst any second.
"Ah."
Feeling her underwear grow damp, Bang So-yeon closed her eyes.