The Burning Puppeteer (4)

Twenty-four hours after the search for the puppeteer began, Hanseong let out a silent sigh.

Kotori, who had been with Phantom at the Jamsil Base, wore a look of equal bewilderment. She had every reason to. A full day spent watching the puppets' movements had yielded a result no one had expected.

"...They said the puppets couldn't be moved for twenty-four hours, didn't they?"

"I-I'm certain that's what I heard..."

"Then what is this?"

Twenty-four hours earlier, Hanseong and Kotori had begun an intensive watch on several puppets across the regions, waiting for the moment their activity would cease. But a full day passed, and the puppets showed no sign of stopping. In that time they had come for the Vigilante Corps five separate times. The Collector and the Vampire Tree, set in place beforehand, turned the approaches aside easily enough — and it was then that Kotori spoke, doubt written across her face.

"What if there's more than one puppeteer..."

"No. There's no one but Baek Yerin."

Hanseong answered without hesitation. He could assert it because Detection had marked Baek Yerin as the master of every single puppet. The claim the Japanese puppeteers had made — that a puppeteer could not control puppets past twenty-four hours — had just been proven false.

Or else there was something he didn't know. She might hold an item that lengthened a puppet's control time, or have a higher rune equipped, or a lower one.

Even so, the day had not been wholly wasted. Watching the puppets' paths alongside Kotori, they had found three regions where those routes overlapped most.

Sinan. Yeosu. Geoje.

Each held more than a hundred survivors, and each was a place the puppets had come and gone most often. Search those areas closely enough, and they might find Baek Yerin.

Hanseong set to work at once. Sinan came first. The survivors there were gathered in a single cluster, which made them easy to read with Detection. Regrettably, Baek Yerin was not among them. He swallowed the disappointment and fixed on Yeosu next.

The place with the most survivors.

Unlike Sinan or Geoje, Yeosu showed something like a thousand blue dots. The trouble was that they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠were not clustered, as in Sinan, but scattered. Even so, he had no sharper option at present. Leaving the puppets under Kotori's watch, he pressed the search on.

How long passed that way?

A change came over the face that had stayed blank throughout. His brows twitched upward, and his lips rose with them.

A smile touched his mouth. Cold as a sheet of ice.

"...Found her."

A large farm along the border with Suncheon. At coordinates where a little over a hundred survivors huddled together, the target revealed herself.

He had meant to pour lightning down on her the instant her location was fixed. One skill, though, made him hesitate.

Mutual Destruction?

A technique that turned up often in martial arts novels. As he understood it, the name meant giving one's own life to die together with the enemy. And Simultaneous Explosion, on top of that. He didn't know the skill's precise effect, but it nagged at him. After a moment's thought, he called Kotori through Phantom.

"Crow."

"Yes? What is it?"

"Contact the puppeteers in Japan with your clone. There's something I need to ask them."

Kotori looked puzzled. She tilted her head.

"What should I ask?"

"Ask if they know anything about a puppeteer's unique skill. Mutual Destruction."

"Hmm. All right. One moment."

Kotori nodded. Not long after, her errand in Japan finished, she turned toward Phantom and spoke.

"In short, they say it's a self-destruct skill."

"Explain in detail."

"If the puppeteer dies, every puppet she currently holds either rampages all at once, or explodes."

Just as he'd thought. Hanseong's expression hardened. He recalled the report Kotori had given him a few hours earlier.

Most of Baek Yerin's puppets are spread across the major cities of Honam and Yeongnam — the southwest and the southeast.

And they were mixed in among the survivors of each region. Anyone could see the deployment had been made with Mutual Destruction in mind. Drop lightning on her head now, and the puppets standing among those survivors would detonate with her. Hundreds would die, at the very least. If the blast matched the puppets that had come for Vigilante Corps headquarters the day before yesterday — or equaled it — the dead could number even higher.

She had, in effect, taken the survivors of the whole country hostage. The decision was cruel enough to reek of malice, and Hanseong's brow drew tight.

"Of course, it only activates once the puppeteer's life functions stop, so no one has actually tested it. But according to what they heard in the tower, that's how it works. Huh?"

She had been rattling on with the explanation. Then the eyes beyond the crow mask went suddenly wide. A moment later, as if the realization had only just caught up with her, Kotori spoke.

"W-wait. Don't tell me..."

"Yeah. She has Mutual Destruction."

"Ugh. That's a problem. If we kill her like this, the death toll would be serious."

She sighed, as if it were a shame. But that was all it was — a flat, indifferent reaction.

Only natural. They were complete strangers to her, after all. Countless deaths were a pity, certainly, but no feeling beyond that stirred. Hanseong was little different. And yet something caught at him.

The warning he had heard from J, the tower's guide.

Karma. And Alignment.

Stain your hands with too much blood, or take countless lives even by indirect means, and Karma accumulated. That led, in short order, to a shift in Alignment. So he hesitated. By J's warning, pile on any more Karma here and something serious might follow.

"So what are you going to do?"

Kotori pressed him again. After a moment's thought, Hanseong made his decision.

"Before I kill Baek Yerin, I'll destroy as many of the puppets as I can."

"But if you do that, she might catch on to what we're doing and take hostages, you know?"

"It's fine. I'll buy the time."

"Huh? How?"

"I have a way to put her out of action. While I do, destroy every puppet we've observed so far."

Shatter the puppets scattered across the country, and only then eliminate Baek Yerin. Do it that way, and he could reach his goal without accumulating Karma.

"Uh, b-by myself...?"

"Of course not. I never rated your skill that highly to begin with."

"...You're not wrong, but I'm oddly annoyed."

Kotori's face went sour. From what he had seen, her skills specialized in search and reconnaissance. In pure combat ability he judged her to fall short of both Jihye and Seo Haeun, and clearing the puppets alone would be inefficient besides. She would need support.

Hanseong set his lips to the Blood Mark.

"Jihye. Can you talk for a moment?"

"Mage? What's going on?"

"I've pinpointed the puppeteer. Baek Yerin."

In a level voice he summarized everything that had happened, then finished laying out the operation to come. Jihye turned the explanation over, and soon accepted without hesitation.

"Understood. I'll dispatch the Special Mission Battalion to those regions and have them destroy the puppets."

"Good. From now on, when you need to reach Crow, call my smartphone."

"Yes! I'll do that."

With the talk with Jihye finished, he contacted Yuna next. Once he had given her the same account, he held the smartphone out to Kotori.

"The Air Corps Base in Suwon and the Vigilante Corps in Daejeon have agreed to cooperate. If a call comes asking where the puppets are, answer it properly."

"This is really convenient. Yes, understood."

Kotori took the phone, her eyes bright with curiosity. It was time to move. Hanseong locked onto Baek Yerin's coordinates.

The first skill he used was Mark, so he could track Baek Yerin's location in real time. Then, together with Precise Observation, her appearance unfolded before his eyes.

Mid-twenties, more or less. She looked a little older than Jihye or Yuna. What stood out was her hair, so pale it was nearly white. Whether she had been born that way, or a blessing had made her so, he couldn't tell.

Next...

He would put her out of action, so that even as the puppets were destroyed she would have no way to grasp what was happening. And he happened to have just the skill for it.

Fog spread outward with Baek Yerin at its center.

She had been sitting at a desk. Without meaning to, she blinked. Her head had begun to nod when her eyes flew suddenly wide.

"Huh? Wait, this is... Don't tell me!"

The voice reached him through Precise Observation. From the way she reacted, she had felt something wrong. She shot up from her seat to answer it — and that was as far as she got.

Her legs gave out. Baek Yerin crashed to the floor in a clatter and a thud, and before long her eyes had closed. She sank into a deep sleep.

She was not the only one. The other survivors around her dropped off just as quickly. Then Kotori cried out, startled.

"Th-the puppets just stopped!"

Of course they had. He had only just put the puppeteer to sleep. Hanseong explained the Sleep skill to Kotori, then turned his attention back to Baek Yerin.

Sleep lasts three hours. Destroying every puppet inside that window would have been ideal. Unfortunately, it was impossible. Just getting the Special Mission Battalion and the Vigilante Corps to their destinations would take about that long.

So I buy more time.

He thought of a skill that could be linked with Sleep. With that, he could stretch the window well past three hours.

"I'll leave the rest to you."

"W-wait a second!"

Kotori suddenly caught hold of Phantom. She shook the smartphone as she spoke.

"I just thought of something. If you give this to me, how am I supposed to report whether the puppets are all destroyed?"

"You've got twenty-four hours. Finish all of them by then."

"What? Y-you're going to pin the puppeteer down by yourself for twenty-four hours? Without her noticing that we're destroying the puppets? Is that possible?"

"It is."

Depending on how things unfolded, he could hold even longer than twenty-four hours, but there was no need to stretch it that far. Once the Special Mission Battalion and the Vigilante Corps moved, every puppet could be destroyed within the day. At his answer, Kotori stared at Phantom as if she were looking at a monster. The look lasted only a moment. Then she grinned and raised a thumb.

"All right. Leave the rest to me."

"Right. I'll be back."

The moment the conversation ended, he stowed Phantom in the Inventory, released it at the Suwon Base where he himself was, and shifted it into a defensive stance. With that, every preparation was finished. All that remained was to keep Baek Yerin pinned.

Hanseong cast the skill he had held in reserve.

Dream World — the skill that built a world of dreams. Everyone Sleep had claimed would open their eyes inside the dream he created. Not in the flesh, but as bodies of consciousness.

A short while later—

As Dream World reached completion, his vision darkened at a rush. Then his consciousness was drawn, all at once, into the deep black.

The moment he entered the Dream World, Hanseong opened his eyes in the form of a consciousness given shape.

What spread out before him was a place he knew to the bone: the officetel room in Jamsil where he had lived for ten years.

So this is what gets reflected. It seemed the background ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠took the shape of whatever space was most familiar to the one who cast the skill. And then a new notification appeared.

From the notice that his blessing had activated onward, every fact of the Dream World poured into Hanseong's mind. A moment later, awareness settled, and he understood. The whole of the Dream World born of the skill had become his base.

Unlike the Dream World where he had faced the Ether Plunderer, here it seemed he could use skills and magic at the same time. All the better. He could cast magic freely, with no regard for a skill's cooldown. He was wearing a satisfied smile when a further notice appeared.

Oh. Wider than I thought.

The Dream World covered an area about the size of Seoul. The backdrop had been Seoul from the start, granted. Even so, one entry seized his eye: Visitor Rank.

What happens if I lower it?

It said the rank could be changed. He might as well try. Hanseong touched that line at once, and a message appeared.

The visitors' system shuts down?

Then there was nothing to weigh. Without hesitation, he set the visitor rank to level zero. Baek Yerin's footing had just grown narrower still.

Now. Time to find her.

He already knew where she was. Her position stood out clearly on the map, and with the Mark in place he could call on Precise Observation at once. The moment he did—

"Hm?"

Hanseong tilted his head. A scene he could not immediately make sense of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had opened before him. A moment later, his eyes narrowed.

"...What is that?"

Precise Observation had laid its shared sight open upon not one girl, but five. Five Baek Yerins, each the mirror of the others, alike as twins.