Chapter 16 - A Belated Urge to Study

I couldn’t move anymore.

The moment the monsters, each a tangle of hundreds of faces, collapsed with unearthly screams, only two thoughts remained in my head.

Feeling a terror that effortlessly trampled even the pain, I peeled my left hand off the heated rifle barrel.

CRACK.

The makeshift bandage monk Cheong-hwi had wrapped around it was soaked in blood, stuck fast and sticky. Only when I saw the blood crusted by that sudden burst of heat and the slightly melted skin did a groan escape my throat.

"Hhhh... Hhhh..."

Like an overturned insect flailing its limbs before curling them inward to die, I lay on my side like a shrimp, helplessly drawing in my fingers and toes.

It felt as though my whole body might fold in on itself, crease by crease, like origami. Just as the supposedly shy mimosa folds its leaves to keep from being eaten, my body seemed to be huddling up to escape a horrific predator.

RAT-TAT-TAT... BANG...

Through my fading awareness, only the gradually diminishing gunfire told me that this mess was being brought somewhat under control.

A true miracle—no, not really. If the military was determined to stop every last one of them here, even if it meant shredding a few returning survivors with bullets, then bringing the situation under control would be possible.

The other thought that occurred to me in this state was simple.

Couldn’t I learn the other branches of alteration-type magic?

Stage-one alteration-type magic didn’t change much, not as much as you might expect. But from stage two onward, shitty as it was, paying the price in pain brought an honest reward to match.

Besides, other branches might be where all the direct offensive magic was concentrated—fireballs, or drop-dead instant-kill spells like Avada Kedavra.

Even if they weren’t... stage-two eye-branch magic was this useful. I couldn’t imagine how amazing the other branches might be.

The suspicion that power might vary wildly from stage to stage, the longing for greater strength, and sheer curiosity about what magic could do fought against the pain.

It was around then that someone grabbed my shoulder.

"Survivor! Stay with me!"

"They’re not coming any closer! We’re pulling back with him! Cover us! Cover, cover!"

Dragged along by the soldiers, I finally made it behind the machine-gun emplacements.

There, sweat-soaked soldiers were doing everything they could at their assigned posts. A private first class grunted as he carried ammunition boxes toward a machine gun. A gunner splashed water from his canteen over the barrel to cool it. An assistant gunner helped replace the ammunition box.

I was taken past them and propped against a pillar in the station.

I didn’t even have the strength to speak anymore. When I groaned like a zombie—uhhhhh—a military doctor approached, examined me, and grimaced.

"You might lose that hand."

"No... No..."

"Your name is... Mr. Baek Je-min? If you don’t want to lose your hand, snap out of it. I’ll give you painkillers and antibiotics for now. Take them and hang on. Pass out and you’ll be one-armed. If this goes badly, we’ll have to amputate your hand. You’re not left-handed, are you?"

"Right..."

"Well, that’s something, at least."

Those words jolted me wide awake.

"No!"

"That’s why—"

"My pain vending machine... You can’t take away my stage-two magic vending machine!"

I had to save this left hand, no matter what.

This wasn’t about bodily function. It hurt at the slightest touch, making it easy to activate powerful stage-two eye-branch magic. Wasn’t that practically a magical implement, or a spellbook?

Touch it—click—and out came magic—click. Cut off this excellent vending machine and I’d just have to hurt myself again or devise some outlandish alternative. That was putting the cart before the horse.

I poured all those feelings into the clearest, most detailed explanation I could give the military doctor. He looked at the soldiers behind him with a dismal expression.

"He’s not doing well. We need to send him to a hospital under our control as soon as the area is secure."

"But..."

"There’s nothing more we can do here for now. The bleeding seems to have stopped somehow, but... Mr. Baek Je-min? While we’re on the subject, I’m going to disinfect it and apply some hemostatic powder. This may hurt."

The military doctor treated me with care, checking this and that before slowly shaking his head.

That complicated expression finally made it feel real.

Had I survived?

Somehow, through all that shit...

I focused on the noises around me to keep hold of my slightly wandering mind, and heard voices that sounded relatively hopeful. One report came through with particular clarity: a radio operator had set down his heavy radio and was turning dials and entering settings.

"This is Paldal Two, Paldal Two. Station successfully sealed. Major access routes blocked."

["Ha... Fuck... You stopped them?"]

"We’re entering a lull. Requesting reinforcements for Suwon Station. We’ll recon the surrounding area with drones, confirm the remaining targets, and burn them."

["Let me check things on this end first. Good work."]

Just as he said, the gunfire echoing throughout the station gradually died away.

As acrid gun smoke and the faintly spicy smell of gunpowder drifted into the station on the wind, I weakly turned my head to look beyond them. Familiar faces came into view—people who had survived even this madhouse.

Pastor Park Yo-han, monk Cheong-hwi, and four soldiers.

The soldiers in the station were screening them at gunpoint, yet the pastor and his companions looked relieved. The world had gone completely insane. Imagine a world where meeting someone who pointed a gun at you was a relief.

Boots clattered busily as the soldiers checked their weapons again.

A major who appeared to be in command shouted in a booming voice.

"The monsters called Amalgams rely on human bodies to move. The big ones split to increase their numbers and surround you, but those appear to be dead now, so relax. Always move together as a squad. Just as you’ve practiced on the range, shoot the heart or legs first. Then shoot the head. They’re nothing special if you stay calm, so don’t be idiots and let them get you!"

Next, the major approached the soldiers crouching beside the radio operators.

"Drone operators. Check inside the buses, between them, and the gaps underneath. If even one hides and ambushes us, we’ll have this whole disaster all over again."

"Y-yes, sir!"

"All of you, remember this. Try to save one person, and your friends, lovers, and families back behind the lines will all get eaten. If you’re suspicious, point your gun first. If something seems wrong, shoot first!"

The major turned as he spoke and happened to meet my eyes.

Me, a civilian Operator propped against a pillar, receiving treatment from a military doctor and doing little more than breathing blankly. The major’s name was Kang Min-su. The instant Major Kang Min-su saw me, he seemed to bite down hard on his lower lip. Then his hands began to tremble, and he jerked his head away.

Apparently, he’d realized I was a civilian Operator—a magician.

Then he muttered, almost as though he wanted me to hear.

"If we’d shot them all dead, none of this would’ve happened."

Ha. Fuck.

It was a fucking awful thing to say, but after making my way up here from that underground platform, I found myself half agreeing.

Under Major Kang Min-su’s command, the Armed Forces at Suwon Station continued their search-and-destroy operation against the Amalgams. A few more shots rang out amid the alternating crackle of radios and soldiers’ shouts.

Before long, the nauseating smell of burning bodies drifted over on the wind. That was about when Pastor Park Yo-han and monk Cheong-hwi came over.

"Well, Mr. Baek Je-min? Still can’t believe in Jehovah God’s protection?"

"They say they might have to amputate my left hand."

"Ahem. You’re not left-handed, are you?"

"I’m right-handed, but..."

"There you go, then. The Lord took your left hand instead of letting your right get torn off. What a true blessing! Eh?"

This fucking Bible-thumping pastor. I nearly unleashed a torrent of abuse, then clamped my mouth shut.

At least monk Cheong-hwi offered something resembling consolation.

"Your attachment to this earthly world is so profound that naturally you remain within it. Truly, a profound resolve."

"That’s meant to be comforting, right?"

"Closer to admiration, I suppose. I, too, must reflect on whether I truly did my utmost."

After exchanging those few words, we gazed at the gradually thinning fog outside the station and fell silent for a while.

Only then did murmurs of hollow exhaustion begin spreading among the soldiers.

The radio operator’s voice was the only thing I could hear clearly.

"This is Paldal Two. Visibility in the fog, three hundred meters... It’s thinning. Fog dissipating. Fog dissipating. Request confirmation from other stations."

As the hellish fog lifted, the Amalgams’ corpses began to emerge.

There were a terrifying number of them, as you’d expect from creatures that had devoured two subway trains’ worth of people before bursting up to the surface.

Even a rough visual estimate put them at nearly a hundred bodies. My knees went weak at the thought that we’d fled from that many.

Then Pastor Park Yo-han took out a lens cloth and gave a hollow chuckle as he cleaned his glasses.

"Come to think of it, was his name Shin Na-in? That fellow who goes to church so faithfully. You know, the one who learned ear-branch alteration magic?"

"What about the guy who sits alone in the bathroom for twenty minutes with earphones in, listening to hymns?"

He was a lunatic with terrible toilet habits who spoke in tongues at every opportunity, but he was still a familiar face. I hoped he hadn’t died.

"When he learned about these Amalgam monsters, he laughed and said, ‘Aren’t they Dubai chewy humans?’ Heh heh... Is he nuts or what?"

"Fuck... Calling them Dubai chewy..."

"He said the surest way to defeat Satan’s legions was to overcome fear with humor. You should spend some time with him, Mr. Baek Je-min. He’s a funny fellow."

Dubai chewy sweets? How ancient was that reference? Hadn’t those been a fad back in 2026?

More importantly, that bastard Shin Na-in had a sensibility all his own. Faced with vocabulary so astonishing I could only shake my head, I was reminded just how ordinary I was.

I was laughing with hollow abandon when I noticed the military doctor approaching.

Apparently he’d heard the bit about Dubai chewy humans. He gave Pastor Park Yo-han a deeply pained look, then had the medics help me to my feet.

"Let’s go, Mr. Baek Je-min. We should at least try to save your hand."

I looked around as I followed the military doctor and medics to the vehicle.

Major Kang Min-su waited beside a requisitioned van, glaring at me as I approached. Then he raised his radio and spoke.

"As of January 10, 1624 hours, the Suwon Station incident is concluded. Successfully blocked the escape of identified species from underground. Destruction of the population through concentrated firepower confirmed.

"All aboveground areas of Suwon Station secured as of this time. Proceeding with survivor identification and initial quarantine screening."

CLUNK.

At least it wasn’t a military truck this time. As I settled into the back seat of the requisitioned van, I overheard Major Kang Min-su’s final report.

"Establishing a cordon and a free-fire zone pending handover."

* * *

Time passes mercilessly.

And the news that monsters called Amalgams had attacked Suwon Station flowed everywhere along the electronic circuits of the internet. The government and military’s information controls had become all but meaningless.

January 13, 10:43 a.m.

Holding my phone with its cracked screen in my right hand, I read the articles setting the web portals ablaze.

[How Long Did the Government Intend to Keep This Hidden?... Condemnation Mounts Nationwide]

[Live: U.S. and China Talks Gain Momentum; Calls to Classify Seoul Unrest as a Transnational Biological Catastrophe]

[Those Left Behind in Northern Gyeonggi... "The Government Abandoned Us," They Say, Expressing Profound Betrayal]

I loved my smartphone for holding up through all that shit. After planting a kiss on its cracked screen, I looked at my left hand, swathed in layers of bandages.

Just then, the doctor who had come to check on me tilted his head and asked,

"You haven’t been using your left hand or anything, have you?"

"No, no..."

"As I’ve told you, you were incredibly lucky. Normally, when a bullet goes through between the thumb and index finger, you should expect at least to have your thumb torn off. Even if you didn’t shoot through the palm."

"I heard you..."

"It’s remarkable, that’s all. Remarkable. The only damage was to the muscle between the thumb and index-finger bones and a few peripheral nerves, but you’ll still have some lasting effects. Do you normally go to church, or believe in a shaman or something?"

"Not really..."

"Your ancestors must’ve been looking out for you, then. Visit their graves sometime, once things improve. So, does anything hurt?"

"My left hand keeps feeling like it’s burning..."

"Then that’s normal. Let me know if anything bothers you, Mr. Baek Je-min. Your bandages were changed recently, so leave them alone until it’s time to disinfect the wound."

The chatty doctor filled out a brief medical questionnaire, nodded, and left.

With wounded people pouring in, ordinarily it would have been difficult to spare even that much time. But simply because I was a magician, the hospital was giving me top priority for medical supplies.

That was about as far up in the world as you could get, but actually being treated like a VIP wasn’t nearly as pleasant as I’d expected.

I could only gaze through my phone’s screen at the world available to me, confined to my hospital room.

After staring at it for a long time, I turned the phone off as its battery ran out.

The world I’d known would never return.

Instead...

I stroked the Magic Crash Course booklet on the bedside table and grinned to myself.

This time, I would head into the fog before the monsters came for me.

Fear of death and memories of those moments when my life hung in the balance had planted an even stronger yearning in me.

I wanted to learn stronger magic, more useful magic.

Enough to plunge willingly into the fog, if that was the only place I could learn it!