Chapter 47 - [Original Title Missing]

April 16, 2028, 4:16 p.m.

Day Two of the expedition.

We Supreme Mages decided to spend the night here, on the seventh floor of the department store near Jangji Station.

The department store was much bigger than we’d expected. We’d thought the neighboring building was separate, but after examining a nearby directory, Hamza pointed something out in a slightly excited voice.

“It says it’s connected to an outlet mall. I think we should take a look.”

We accepted Hamza’s suggestion because of the pastor’s assessment.

As he stacked dining tables in the most out-of-the-way corner to make a makeshift barricade and laid sleeping bags inside it, he offered his thoughts.

“Even if that Seoul mage was good with a walkie-talkie because she sucked people’s brains out, a quick look at what supplies have gone missing around this department store should tell us how specialized the survivors have become. At the very least, we can estimate how many survivors have been coming and going around here. We should focus on electronics to get some idea of the communications capabilities of Seoul’s survivor groups. While we’re at it, we can search the area around the store for traces of them and pick up any small, valuable supplies we can find. Medicine, for instance.”

I would keep handling the dark navy phone that had received the messages.

The reason was simple: I, Baek Je-min, was the best at thinking on my feet. Since Shin Na-in had to handle physical threats alongside Hamza, we needed to share the mental burden.

Lee Se-jun served as our pack mule here, too. He scoured the area around the seventh-floor restaurants for cans of edible food and even brought over the dining tables for our barricade.

Still, true to his background as a staff sergeant who knew the importance of blackout discipline, he raised a reasonable question.

“With all that gunfire echoing everywhere, and us burning the bodies, won’t monsters or other mages come here?”

The pastor gave him a brief answer.

“Want to go back to Jangji Station?”

Thinking of the filth, bloodstains, and degenerative cellular colonies waiting in Jangji Station, we all clammed up.

Hell, if anything came, couldn’t we just kill it?

As for night watch, we simply handed Shin Na-in the first shift without playing rock-paper-scissors.

“For you all to place such trust in me must surely be another blessing from the Lord God.”

“Hock, ptui.”

The whole thing was so petty and shitty that I’d rather not play rock-paper-scissors at all.

Of course, that wasn’t all we did.

First, we set several objectives for continuing our exploration of the area around this peculiar department store.

Huddled together behind the barricade, we spread out the map of Seoul Hamza had brought and examined the areas marked with red circles.

When the military had previously tried contacting Seoul’s survivors, they’d narrowed down their locations somewhat by monitoring the transmissions, but the markings didn’t look particularly precise.

Hamza had often been summoned to military headquarters because of his doctrinal magic, so he knew this information inside out.

Five red circles.

He pointed to them one by one as he spoke.

“Nowon District. Very dangerous. If we go in unprepared, we’ll die.”

That was where the professor-like voice had come from.

During the radio contact, the speaker had been confirmed to harbor extreme anger and hatred toward people outside Seoul, and was estimated to be much stronger than the Seoul mage in the department store on Songpa District’s outskirts. For now, we ruled out Nowon District, in northeastern Seoul.

Next was Gangnam, and Hamza frowned again.

“Gangnam. It’s a miracle anyone survived here long enough to make radio contact. Very dangerous.”

“That was the most hostile contact, right?”

“Yes. They may be even more dangerous than the professor in Nowon District.”

Although Gangnam was far from Bukhansan, where the fog was said to have originated, it apparently remained dangerous, perhaps because of its high population density.

Besides, they believed it was home to the fourth contact—the most dangerous mage, the one who’d realized they were hiding their faces with gas masks and had removed their name tags to conceal their names. Surviving in the most dangerous area while wielding the most dangerous magic meant that mage was on a corresponding level.

That wasn’t someone we Supreme Mages could take on when we’d only just entered Seoul.

The next place Hamza pointed out was Yongsan.

“This place is dangerous, too.”

The pastor narrowed his eyes and asked Hamza,

“Who do they think is there?”

“The lady who negotiated with the military.”

According to Hamza, he couldn’t tell whether that sly woman was dangerous herself or whether monsters were running rampant near Yongsan Station.

Still, he said the danger seemed a little—just a very little—lower than in Nowon District or Gangnam.

Hamza then pointed out the suspected location of the man who’d sobbed during the first radio contact.

Dobong District.

It was near Bukhansan, where the fog had first appeared.

“That guy’s a goner.”

“Amen. May he have been a churchgoer.”

If we went to Bukhansan in our current state, we’d be wiped out.

Unfortunately, that man’s chances of survival approached zero.

Finally, Hamza pointed to the area where they believed Go Ryeo-ha was—the woman the military considered the friendliest survivor.

“Konkuk University?”

“Wow. Nice academic credentials.”

“This place is dangerous just like the others.”

Hamza’s doctrinal magic, [Angel's Intuition], really was fucking amazing. He could pick a place and tell whether it was dangerous.

The problem was that it kept telling us every damn place in Seoul was dangerous.

“Isn’t there anywhere safe?”

“No.”

“Ahh... fuuuck.”

Even as the pastor let out a short sigh, our objective became a little clearer.

From the department store on Songpa’s outskirts to Konkuk University.

Me, Hamza, Shin Na-in, Lee Se-jun, and Pastor Park Yo-han.

The five of us looked at one another, intuitively knowing our journey wouldn’t be smooth.

We had to cross the Han River.