Chapter 103
Chapter 103
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: Pedestrian I
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Shin Noah
1
There is no such skill as [Teleportation] in this world.
The Tutorial Fairies do pop out of thin air in mid-flight, but as I mentioned in the previous episode, that's just invisibility magic.
Anomalies like the 'Reincarnation Truck' appear abruptly from beyond the horizon. But even the trucks aren't [Teleporting]; they simply 'spawn' in blind spots outside human vision.
To reiterate, there is no skill like [Teleportation] in this world.
However, phenomena quite close to [Teleportation] do exist.
[Undertaker. You need to head down to Busan right away.]
"Yes? What's going on?"
[Well... I'm not sure how to put this...]
The Saintess hesitated.
Truth be told, that alone was reason enough to be on high alert. The Saintess had a perfectionism bordering on OCD, and she always paused time before speaking to me, rehearsing her lines in advance.
But I only learned that secret in the 713th cycle. This was just the 141st cycle, so I asked without a second thought.
"What's wrong?"
[...A tunnel has appeared off the coast of Busan.]
"Yes?"
[Exactly as it sounds—a undersea tunnel. I think you need to come check it out yourself, Undertaker.]
2
Have you ever heard of the 'Japan-Korea Undersea Tunnel'?
It doesn't matter if you haven't. It doesn't exist in reality anyway.
The blueprint for 'linking Japan and Korea with an undersea tunnel!' has been floated steadily for ages, but no compelling benefits have ever justified the astronomical costs.
The original proposer of the project was no ordinary figure to begin with.
He later became Japan's prime minister, with key achievements during his tenure including the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the recapture of the Philippines, the Tokyo air raids, the Battle of Iwo Jima, and the Battle of Okinawa.
The fact that 'undersea tunnel collapse disaster' wasn't added to that glittering resume was the proposer's stroke of luck.
A pipe dream on paper.
That's why, when I arrived in Busan after the Saintess's urgent report, I could only stare in dumbfounded shock.
"No way... it's really an undersea tunnel...?"
There were no seagulls off the coast of Busan.
Instead, there was a tunnel.
More precisely, a tunnel had popped up on the shoreline where the Shinseondae Pier once stood.
However, it differed from the original plans in several ways—common when grand projects compromise with reality. The tunnel, originally conceived as a 'railway tunnel,' had become extremely narrow.
Honestly, very narrow.
Too narrow for even a freight truck to pass, let alone a train.
"Oh. You've clocked in...?"
Yellow 'Do Not Enter' tape was already strung haphazardly across the tunnel entrance.
Amid the National Highway Management Corps members bustling about, No Do-ha greeted me with a sip of her morning coffee.
"Thanks for your hard work. The Saintess contacted me, so I came straight away. What's the situation?"
"Well, as you can see. A pedestrian tunnel just crawled out of the sea with a ta-da! First report came in at 5 a.m. today. One of our insane Corps members who jogs at dawn discovered it..."
"Does it really lead under the sea?"
"I had our divers do some snorkeling. They nearly shit themselves, but apparently, coral has formed off Busan now too? The tunnel slopes down like a dick and just plunges straight into the seabed..."
"Is that sexual harassment? I'll sue."
"Heh. What from a 1,000-year-old granny. So, what's the Awakened Undertaker's take on this?"
"It's an anomaly."
I looked up at the plaque engraved above the tunnel entrance.
"And also a Void at the same time."
It was covered in graffiti and scribbles, but the tunnel's name was still legible.
犬鳴隧道.
Inunaki Tunnel.
This wasn't a Korean anomaly.
It was Japanese—the only foreign country across the sea from Busan.
A realm-type anomaly with no legs or wings had 'invaded across the ocean to foreign soil,' and I had no choice but to tense up.
Its threat level: continental. On par with the world tree 'Udumbara.'
"...You didn't order Corps members to scout inside, did you?"
"Heh. As if."
No Do-ha smiled brightly.
"I sent death row inmates..."
Yoo Ji-won was waiting behind her. A folding table held an open maritime chart titled 'Tsushima Strait and Vicinity.'
"How's it going, Director Yoo? Where have the death row inmates reached...?"
"Surprisingly, they've already passed Tsushima. Ah, Your Excellency Undertaker. You've arrived."
Snap. Yoo Ji-won, owner of the [Minimap] ability, director of the National Highway Management Corps' Operations Control Room, and a psychopath, saluted me.
Right in front of her direct superior, No Do-ha. Impressive bastard. I couldn't help but admire him every time.
But right now, the report mattered more than Yoo Ji-won's personality.
"Passed Tsushima already?"
"Yes, Your Excellency. See for yourself."
On the chart, chess pieces marked 'Kim Jeong-rip' and 'Lee Eun-joo' twitched along. The death row inmates' names, presumably.
Dozens of pawns (♟) were scattered around the chart.
"You sent two into the tunnel?"
"No, Your Excellency. We bundled the death row inmates into 12 teams of 6, for a total of 72 scouts. Half of them—36—were loaned bicycles."
"...Might as well clean out the National Highway Management Corps prison while you're at it."
"Orders from the Corps Chief, Your Excellency."
"That wasn't a criticism. For a continental-level threat anomaly, it was the right call."
"I too judged the order as utterly appropriate, Your Excellency."
This guy...
Anyway, Yoo Ji-won's character wasn't the priority right now. Excluding the parts handling morals and ethics, his brain was exceptionally sharp.
"When did you deploy them?"
"We began the scouting operation at 0710 today. Three hours and 16 minutes have elapsed since. The two survivors rode the loaned bicycles, and given the Void environment, their speed is quite good."
"...These death row inmates the National Highway Management Corps kept on hand—aren't they at least somewhat experienced with Voids?"
"Correct. Of the 72, 69 have prior experience with at least one Void scouting mission."
"And they're wiped out in just three hours."
That was the moment.
Sliiiide—! The chess piece passing north of Tsushima suddenly crossed the sea.
"Huh?"
"......?"
Not just me—Yoo Ji-won and No Do-ha stared at the chart too.
The 'Kim Jeong-rip' piece had zipped to the Fukuoka area in an instant. Precisely the center of Hisayama-machi (久山町) and Miyawaka-shi (宮若市) on the map.
No matter the distance from Tsushima, it was clearly beyond human speed.
Thud.
As we all gaped, the 'Kim Jeong-rip' piece toppled weakly.
"......"
"......"
Silence fell.
In Yoo Ji-won's controlled Minimap, a chess piece falling meant one of two things:
The corresponding human had gone beyond the map's range, or died.
No Do-ha muttered.
"Fuck, what the hell is this...?"
Rattle!
Now it was the last survivor's turn, 'Lee Eun-joo.' Her piece suddenly jumped from Tsushima to near Fukuoka too.
As if dragged by something.
Rattle! Slide! The piece darted frantically between northwest and northeast Kyushu. This way, that way, now south. Bouncing like a ping-pong ball, then—
Thud.
It toppled.
Silence lingered for a while.
"...If I may say so."
Yoo Ji-won spoke.
"My ability shows no anomalies, Your Excellency."
Truly impertinent.
"...Ji-won. Didn't you say you've biked the length of Japan?"
"Yes? Yes, I have."
"Pull out a Japan map from your trunk. The biggest one."
"Understood, Your Excellency."
Yoo Ji-won opened her ever-present trunk bag.
The fully opened trunk was the product of her psychopathic obsession—or extreme efficiency in organization.
Full maps of the Korean Peninsula, city maps, maritime charts, world maps—all neatly stacked by scale.
She pulled out the Japan map in under 10 seconds.
"Spread it out. Align it with the Tsushima Strait chart."
"Yes."
Despite the scale difference, the two maps overlapped.
Then something eerie happened.
Sliiiide—
The 'Lee Eun-joo' piece was dragged along. And not just that.
The scattered chess pieces on the table—the dozens of corpses—began sliding as if pulled by magnets.
Slide— slide— slide— slide— slide—
"......"
"......"
Fukuoka, Kumamoto, Hiroshima, Okayama, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Shizuoka, Tokyo, Sendai...
The corpses scattered to different spots. Truly across every corner of Japan—the 72 bodies relocated.
Among them, the 'Kim Jeong-rip' piece was especially odd.
Clatter-clatter-clatter!
The 'Kim Jeong-rip' piece that had landed near Fukuoka trembled violently. An inexplicable phenomenon. Then, in one instant—
Snap.
The piece split in two.
The pawn's 'head' stayed abandoned near Fukuoka, while the 'body' rolled away alone. It finally stopped near Osaka.
The silence stretched longer this time.
No Do-ha pursed her lips.
"Hmm. Shall I round up more death row inmates...?"
I shook my head.
"I'll upgrade the anomaly 'Inunaki Tunnel's' threat level to continental. We'll contact Japan's Magical Girl Council. They're the experts. A joint investigation team will likely form. Prepare for it, Corps Chief No Do-ha."
3
"Inunaki Tunnel, nya? That's a real shitshow of a place, nya."
Sure enough, Japan's Awakener was already jaded about the anomaly.
A former shrine maiden who received divine power from the cat god by vowing to end every sentence with 'nya' or 'nyan' until death. A current magical girl.
The golden-haired Awakener known as Manyo-neko (万葉猫) answered our inquiry faithfully.
"Your side or ours, lots of mountains, nya? Unless you're some pervert designed to get off on climbing them, tunnels are convenient, nya."
But who could have foreseen it?
A tunnel's location condition—just turn off the lights, and it becomes a space of 'eternal darkness without sunlight 365 days a year, damp and feared by people.' Exactly the kind of spot anomalies love.
Unfortunately, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport bureaucrats lacked precognition. Their grasp of reality probably wasn't great either. As a result, Japan was riddled with tunnels like worm trails.
Then the Void arrived.
"Kiyotaki Tunnel. Ikoma Tunnel. Inunaki Tunnel. All old famous haunted spots, nya."
The three major haunted tunnels in Japan by reputation.
"But after the Void came, these tunnels started 'fighting' each other, nya."
"Fighting? The tunnels?"
"Yes, nya. Special info for the Undertaker..."
Japan's magical girls called me Undertaker. Same meaning as Mortician.
"One day, a perfectly fine tunnel in our area woke up with its plaque changed to 'Kiyotaki,' nya?"
"......"
"Kiyotaki Tunnel is way far from our turf, nya. A year later, the plaque changes again—to 'Inunaki!' nya!"
Territorial disputes between anomalies.
A battle among the three haunted spots to decide who truly deserved to be the 'tunnel anomaly.'
"Not just our area, nya. Every tunnel in Japan—culverts included—without exception, turned into 'Inunaki Tunnel,' nya."
"...It's infected. The 'Inunaki Tunnel' devoured all concepts of 'tunnel.'"
"Exactly, nya. Total shit, nya."
The magical girl added, 'So now no Japanese use tunnels at all, nya.'
Inunaki Tunnel wasn't content with conquering Japan; it began invading abroad.
Even the imaginary 'Japan-Korea Undersea Tunnel,' which never existed in reality, it claimed as its own.
Manyo-neko sighed.
"The original, real Inunaki Tunnel was only about 150 meters long at most, nya. But now it's eaten every tunnel in Japan, and according to the Undertaker, even a fictional undersea one, so the total length..."
The longest anomaly in history.
That was the continental-level anomaly I'd face in this 141st cycle.