48
Chapter 48
Thanks to Hamza's Dogma-type Magic and the map provided by the military, we knew where our destination was.
Konkuk University.
It might not be one of the top 'SKY' universities, but since even a country bumpkin like me had heard of it, it had to be a good school. It would've been great if I were going there for admissions, but I was more worried about surviving the various dangers crawling all over Seoul.
Moreover, I had a feeling we would definitely get held up while crossing the Han River.
There might be groups of survivors living on the bridges, or conversely, monsters lying in wait for survivors crossing them. I couldn't even rule out the possibility of monsters that had made the river their habitat, like in those old movies.
However, the thing we should worry about most wasn't the monsters or the local mages.
Pastor Park Yo-han licked his dry lips and pointed out a detail we had overlooked.
"We need to avoid the bombing. According to the original plan, we were supposed to link up with the vanguard scout unit, but the situation is a complete mess."
"Bombing?"
"Didn't you see the fighter jets? They're probably flying higher than the fog and raining fire down on us."
Me, Shin Na-in, Lee Se-jun, and Hamza.
The four of us glanced at one another, realizing our mistake. We had been so preoccupied with everything else that we'd forgotten we were currently inside Seoul, which was being bombed in real-time.
The reason we had stayed at Jangji Station for several hours before coming to the surface was specifically to avoid surface shelling.
The Pastor's loyal lapdog, Shin Na-in, adjusted his headset and chimed in.
"Yesterday, April 15th, when we entered Seoul, the US President announced the deployment of the UN Combined Forces. They're likely bombing relentlessly now, centered around the Combat Wing in Suwon. The frequency seems low so far due to the limits of the ROK military's capabilities, but it'll get more intense once the foreign troops arrive."
"Wait, did they say US aircraft carriers are coming too?"
"The 7th Fleet of the Pacific."
As I hesitated, Lee Se-jun spoke with a far more serious expression.
His childish side, the one that joked about waste, was gone; he now looked like a solemn Non-Commissioned Officer awaiting a division commander's inspection. Lee Se-jun frowned, stroking his scratchy stubble.
"That's basically a trigger button for China and Russia, but they're staying relatively calm. Considering the PLA entered Ganghwa-do back on April 3rd, there might have been some kind of agreement."
"Ah, right. Our government doesn't exist anymore."
"Hey now. The ROK-US Combined Forces Command in Pyeongtaek has essentially succeeded our government."
Because the days had been so chaotic, I had forgotten a passing detail.
Our President and the administration had fled to Incheon, but they ended up under Chinese influence when the PLA forcibly entered Ganghwa-do. To put it politely, they were under their influence; in reality, they were being strangled.
Fortunately, the government hadn't ignored such a worst-case scenario. They had prepared a scenario to transfer administrative authority to the ROK-US Combined Forces Command in Pyeongtaek, and as a result, that authority now rested with the commander there.
But why did China tolerate the arrival of the US 7th Fleet of the Pacific?
Lee Se-jun speculated that the military's first blockade line had effectively been breached.
"They say 150,000 troops blocked the main roads and railways, but they couldn't have caught every person or monster fleeing through the hills and wilds. The fog caused breaches in Gyeonggi-do before, didn't it? Even if it's clear now, it's a given that Gyeonggi-do was compromised. They're probably managing their forces with that in mind."
According to what Lee Se-jun had overheard from the officers while he was at Suwon City Hall, the military's detailed defense plan was as follows.
First, the 150,000 soldiers maintaining the first blockade line were the very last frontline units of the Republic of Korea, gathered from survivors under the Capital Defense Command and units from the front near the DMZ.
They were deployed to block main roads and high-density urban areas while suppression operations were carried out inside Seoul.
Though their numbers had dropped to around 140,000 after about 13,000 casualties, the reason they were so obsessed with guarding the Seoul Blockade Line was that it included veterans who had escaped during the initial breach or had been fighting monsters since the start.
Calling them 'veterans' after only a month was a stretch, but they seemed to be devotees of the rules of engagement—the kind who shoot everything without hesitation or mercy.
"That guy Park Se-hyeok was also a mage who managed to escape when Seoul's critical point was breached."
"Park Se-hyeok...?"
I frowned at the unfamiliar name, and Pastor Park Yo-han clicked his tongue.
"You know, the grumbler who could hear heartbeats. The one who tried to run off by himself right at the end and got shot dead by the soldiers guarding Suwon Station."
"Ah~."
Hearing the word 'grumbler' brought the memory back.
He was the guy who acted like he was going to troll us but actually did everything, only to try and desert at the very end, gasping for air after being hit by a machine gun.
Lee Se-jun had a few more stories he'd heard from the officers he knew.
Second, it was obviously insane to think 150,000 soldiers could block all of Seoul. Besides, fog and monsters had appeared outside Seoul, in Gyeonggi-do.
Therefore, the military assumed the first blockade line had been breached via the hills and wilds, and they considered the secondary blockade line in Gyeonggi-do as the true Maginot line protecting the peninsula.
To protect this secondary blockade line, they introduced the Military Note economy to discourage refugees and employed mages as mercenaries under the title of Civilian Operators—the reality we had just left behind.
Lee Se-jun went a step further and told us about the actual size of the force at the secondary blockade line.
"They said there were about 247,000 in total, including roughly 240,000 Reservists and all the remaining active-duty soldiers from Chungcheong and Gangwon provinces. That was already two months ago. I also heard that with the help of police, any civilian found outside authorized areas is treated as a potential Amalgam and shot on sight."
"A national mobilization order was declared. But only 240,000 gathered?"
"They've placed the Martial Law Army in the rear cities too. Looking at the deployment, it seems the higher-ups are considering the worst-case scenario where some entities have already infiltrated throughout the peninsula. It's just gossip from the Suwon City Hall officers, so you can take it with a grain of salt, but it's probably somewhat credible."
If the worst-case scenario was true, and considering the nationwide protests that erupted in the rear cities on April 5th, South Korea had already crossed the red line long ago.
Now, it was a binary choice: either the whole world helps, or the entire peninsula and its people are vitrified and wiped out by a nuclear baptism.
Fortunately, except for the first blockade line, the peninsula was still under control. And above all, there was the 'honey pot' of magic.
This led Lee Se-jun to believe that this was why China took charge of the west and north of Seoul—a city of ten million—while the US and Korea took the east and south.
It was then that Pastor Park Yo-han pointed to the spot Hamza had indicated.
"Islam. What about that mage, Go Ryeo-ha? Does he say she's dangerous?"
"I'm not sure. I've never seen her face, so I can't make a judgment."
"And the longer we delay, the more dangerous it gets?"
"That, too, is hard to..."
"Damn it! What's the point of you being here if you don't know anything!"
This was the biggest drawback of Hamza's Dogma-type magic, [Angel's Intuition].
While it helps avoid the most catastrophic wrong answers, its effectiveness plummets when searching for a wrong answer based on relativity. One might think simply knowing what's wrong is useful, but compared to the infinite possibilities, its actual performance was abysmal.
In the end, we could only establish a rough framework for the plan.
Although, by 'we,' I mostly meant Pastor Park Yo-han's opinion.
"We have to assume the bombing and shelling will get more intense as time goes on. Looking at the situation, it'll be hard to expect a link-up with the vanguard scout unit... Let's set a generous deadline of about two weeks. We'll move forward along the Line 8 tracks, alternating between the surface and underground. Conserve food as much as possible and scavenge locally; always save your water. And don't forget to detect if any monster brats have crawled into the water pipes."
"The vanguard scout unit probably tried to contact Go Ryeo-ha too. What if they've already figured out that we're trying to cross the Han River?"
Having seen the performance of the first stage of Inverse, I raised a question that couldn't be ignored.
There was no way there was only one Seoul Mage capable of using the first stage of Inverse, nor was it likely that only a few soldiers had been drained.
Even Special Forces with ample drone and air support would struggle to avoid attrition against a Seoul Mage; if the mages knew why the soldiers were sent and the background of the operation, it was genuinely worrying how they would react.
The Pastor sighed, removing his glasses that gave him a sly impression.
"What can we do? We aren't going to look for them, but if they chase us, we fight."
***
April 16, 2028, 8:46 PM.
Still the second day of exploration.
Night fell over a Seoul choked with fog. I had thought there would be no distinction between day and night due to the thick mist, but I was wrong.
Hamza and I were walking around to double-check the safety of the department store's seventh floor.
We felt an ominous sense of dread because there had been no reaction despite the deafening gunshots and the burning of the pile of corpses.
Wearing gas masks, we scouted the seventh floor; the clouds of fog visible beyond the broken windows weren't even gray anymore. They were just pitch black. Seoul was a terrestrial deep sea where even a single sliver of light was devoured.
It was no different inside the department store where the fog had seeped in.
If Seoul outside the windows was the deep sea, the inside of the store was muddy water. It was more like a cave where one had to push through floating fog particles. A true darkness where clicking on the tactical light meant nothing.
Further scouting was pointless.
I decided that moving on the surface at night was madness, unless it was on the subway tracks where electricity still flowed. Hamza, who had come with me, seemed to agree, nodding repeatedly.
"It's more dangerous at night. We have to hide."
"More dangerous because we can't see?"
"More dangerous because things that are more dangerous roam around."
Hamza had a knack for saying the most obvious things with absolute gravity.
When I returned to the camp with a dull expression, everyone had already tucked themselves into their sleeping bags.
Perhaps because of the intense fight against the Seoul Mage, I was exhausted, so as soon as I took off my gas mask and put down my gun, I scrambled into my sleeping bag.
Pastor Park Yo-han and Lee Se-jun were already fast asleep.
Only Shin Na-in, on Night Watch, was leaning against the back of the barricade, nodding his head while reading the Bible. He was softly humming a hymn.
"Do a good job on watch."
"Warrior of Jesus~ Cast out the demons of Satan~."
"Good grief."
Not expecting an answer, I pulled up the zipper of my sleeping bag.
Zzzzip—.
It was a damp, dark, and miserable place, but once I confirmed it was safe, I didn't need a plush bed.
Baek Jemin, a real man, had grown up.
Until I was twenty-seven, I was a coward who loved horror movies but would call my mom because I was scared after watching them. Whether it was a surge of testosterone or something else, I could now sleep soundly in Seoul, surrounded by piles of corpses and monsters, not to mention right next to a cesspool.
As soon as I closed my eyelids, I felt myself falling fast asleep.
A lot had certainly happened.
It had only been two days, but I looked back at everything I'd experienced in Seoul.
All the soldiers who came with me vanished as soon as we arrived at the station, I killed about a hundred monsters while breaking through the subway station, found out what happened to the survivors at Jangji Station, fought a Seoul Mage, and gave the soldiers a cremation funeral.
Baek Jemin is really living life to the fullest....
....
"...Mr. Jemin!"
...My body is shaking.
I can't even tell whose voice it is.
Not wanting to open my eyes, I barely managed to move my sluggish tongue to speak.
"Ah... today is my Last Watch."
"I'm the one on Last Watch? No, more importantly, wake up. Everyone else is up!"
The whispering voice sounded familiar... Hamza?
I struggled to open my eyes, still half-asleep.
I saw the Pastor, with his hair a complete mess, and Lee Se-jun, eyes bloodshot, crouching low behind a barricade made of tables.
I snapped awake instantly.
Without thinking, I tried to unzip my sleeping bag. I would have actually done it if Hamza hadn't pressed his hand over mine.
Hamza, face pale as a sheet, carefully raised his index finger and made a tiny sound.
Shhh.
Hamza began to lower the zipper very slowly, terrified that it might make too much noise.
My sleep vanished and a slight headache throbbed from the sudden shock, but I gritted my teeth and endured it. I knew this was no time to moan in pain.
Once the zipper was down enough for me to slide out, I slipped away as smoothly and gracefully as a cockroach and grabbed my gun.
Click.
The touch of the heavy, cold metal calmed my pounding heart. I finally understood why some people treat their guns like lovers.
You pass.
After appointing my short-barreled AR-15 as my concubine, following the main wife of my right hand, I naturally crouched down beside Lee Se-jun and Pastor Park Yo-han.
Only then did I wonder where that piece of crap Shin Na-in had gone. Why was Hamza the one waking me up instead of the guy on First Watch?
The answer lay in the dark shadow Hamza was sitting on like a lump of luggage. I thought he was sitting on his own sleeping bag, but it was Shin Na-in.
I wondered for a second if Hamza had finally started a jihad against the religious fanatics, but one look at Shin Na-in's face quickly scrapped that theory.
I had seen Shin Na-in absolutely livid only twice.
The first was when Monk Won-haeng chanted a mantra to recover his mental strength, and the second was when he discovered the magic of the Seoul Mage he nicknamed the Dubai Sticky Witch.
And now, for the second time, I was seeing Shin Na-in paralyzed with fear.
Pale lips, constricted pupils, and foamy saliva leaking from a slightly parted mouth. Hair plastered to his cheeks by cold sweat. Shin Na-in was clutching his headset tight, incessantly reciting a prayer.
"Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
He had completely lost his mind.
Hamza remained pressed against the barricade, keeping Shin Na-in pinned under his backside. Noticing I had seen him, Hamza brought his finger to his lips again and made a whistling sound.
Shhhhh...
At this point, I wondered if it was all some kind of prank. That is, until a vibration buzzed in my pocket.
Bzzzz—.
Everyone's gaze snapped to me instantly.
Pastor Park Yo-han glared as if he wanted to kill me, Lee Se-jun looked on with bloodshot eyes, Hamza frantically waved his hands in silence, and Shin Na-in just squeezed his eyes shut.
I calmly tried to soothe these Supreme Mages as I pulled the phone from my pocket.
"Let's stay positive. Inner peace."
"Positive? Inner peace? Baek Jemin, you want to die?"
"Why don't you first thank me for being a gentleman and setting it to vibrate?"
I spoke while checking the screen.
My own phone was off. The one vibrating was the dark blue one I'd taken from the Phone Grave—the eerie device that received messages without data or Wi-Fi.
[Songpa area stimulated. Escape, hide.]
Instead of speaking, I slowly showed them the screen.
Unfortunately, the battery was built-in, so I couldn't remove it and had to settle for just powering it off. The information was fragmented, leaving little to go on.
However, seeing Hamza's panic and Shin Na-in's mental breakdown told me this was no ordinary omen.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, Hamza whispered softly.
"It's coming."
At that moment, I instinctively curled up.
I hugged my gun tight and shrank back to hide my body and shadow behind the barricade. Curiosity about what was happening? Normally, I'd have some, but this time, there wasn't a shred of it.
The fog was pushed back.
A heavy, low wind drifted through the gaps in the barricade, tickling my hair.
I could see the fog, which had been floating lazily in the deep shade, swirling away as it was displaced by a heavy presence. A second layer of shadow was being draped over the darkness of the department store's seventh floor.
In that instant, I felt a gaze.
A colorless resignation settled in my mind, like an ancestor facing a starving tiger or a castaway encountering a gaunt bear. A despair more profound than that of an adventurer falling into a crevasse coiled within me.
A vague but absolute intuition stole the breath from all of us.
One who falls through a crevasse or off a cliff can still reach for the light. They might close their eyes as they sense the fall, or die of shock from the terror.
But for those discovered now, even death is not permitted.
Before emotion or consciousness could kick in, my muscles contracted and tightened on their own. Only later did my mind understand why my body was reacting this way.
I had to breathe as little as possible. I had to slow my heart to a crawl.
Only then could I survive.
Thump.
I resent the sound of my heart, the very thing that tells me I'm alive.
Thump, thump.
I wished I could squeeze my heart until it stopped before I was discovered. All the days I spent as human Baek Jemin, breathing and rejoicing, felt like a curse.
Extreme pain surged as I stopped breathing and my heart faltered, but a far more terrible intuition settled over everyone present.
It would be better to die, if death were even an option.
I felt a massive gaze sweeping through the interior of the department store's seventh floor.
If it had been mere hunger, I could have at least understood that I was being preyed upon. This wasn't even the law of the jungle.
It was an indifferent and greedy gaze, like someone who had opened a bag of sale-price snacks from the mart, left them forgotten, and was now poking around with a finger to see if any crumbs remained.
It was similar to a gaze that offers a cream bread six months past its expiration date under the guise of kindness and then gloats about the gesture.
Indifferent, greedy, arrogant, and starving.
Beyond the barricade, the gaze touching my back belonged to a colossal entity swimming and playing in the terrestrial deep sea.
Something that even the fireballs of nuclear heat couldn't promise to annihilate was swimming through Seoul's night fog, scanning beyond the broken windows.
To that gaze, buildings were canned goods and tin cans. To that gaze, humans were food, snacks, pets to be cared for, or extensions of itself.
Nausea surged. My paralyzed organs convulsed and twisted in unison, bringing on extreme dizziness.
My entire body grew cold and shook as if gripped by chills, and the magic letters I had learned—the seals of the eye, tongue, and hand—flickered in my mind, forcing a pain like being branded.
Only pain held the crumbling form of my body together.
Phantom pain, like being branded in every corner of my skull, surged through the visions of magic letters, and tears streamed down my face. Bile filled my mouth as I fought the urge to vomit.
It was a disgusting sensation, as if my brain were wrapped in scratchy plastic and rubbed raw, or as if an eyelid were blinking inside my head, eyelashes scraping against my brain.
Yet, paradoxically, this pain and discomfort prevented my body from shutting down completely.
Eventually, the gaze left us.
When I barely managed to look up, I saw a sickly yellow, ominous light illuminating a corner of the seventh floor like a lighthouse. That was the gaze. I had to avoid those bizarre, sinister eyes piercing through the fog.
This was an instinct that preceded knowledge or magic.
It was a survival sense far more primal and intuitive than knowing fire is hot and should be avoided. It was an instinct that stood absolutely above the basic drive to eat when hungry.
If we couldn't avoid that gaze, it was over.
We Supreme Mages lay flat for a long time, unable to breathe, our hearts nearly stopping.
It must have been thirty seconds at most, a miracle. A human would die if they stopped breathing and their heart stopped beating. That was when the gaze finally vanished.
The fog, which had been pushed away, shifted as it was sucked back in. Whatever had been swimming through the fog clouds was gone.
Only then did we exhale.
"Haa, haa..."
Lee Se-jun's gasping was the loudest.
Everyone else was too busy catching their breath to worry if they'd be discovered. Fear aside, everyone was desperate for air in the face of the burning pain throughout their bodies.
After a long time of gasping, the Pastor slumped over and spoke.
"Two weeks? Forget it. Let's just move as fast as we possibly can."
"Lord, rebuke my weakness for thinking of suicide."
As soon as the Pastor lamented, Shin Na-in wept and made the sign of the cross.
He was revealing his Catholic background now, but he seemed too distraught to care. Hamza was equally breathless.
"Huu, hu. Huu, hu..."
I wasn't much different.
I was preoccupied with wiping the saliva from my lips and the tears from my chin with my sleeve.
Then, a memory suddenly surfaced in my mind.
I finally understood the meaning of the apocalyptic song and the single word sung by the drooping tongues and pierced vocal cords of Father Jeong Yong-hwan and Bosal Geulmun in the Suwon Station underground.
I saw Shin Na-in's shoulders flinch as if he had heard the voice in my heart.
Only now did the two of us fully understand why Father Jeong Yong-hwan continued to seek the Lord even after becoming a monster.
"Lord. So that's why..."
Eternity.
True horror is not the end, but the beginning of an eternity.
An everlasting cycle where death is not permitted and cannot be used as an escape. A reign of eternal terror where even suicide offers no guarantee of release. Eternal days spent screaming, trapped in a monster's body.
That is true horror.
Shin Na-in and I looked at each other, then quickly turned away.
Human ego and consciousness might still remain within these monsters.
Shin Na-in and I decided to keep this terrible assumption a secret between us.
The End