Chapter 51 - Apparently, It Was Protecting Us All Along

The angular woman's name was Kang A-reum.

By her own account, she was thirty-two, a Seoul mage with Hand, Stage One and Ear, Stage Two.

But far more important than those personal details was the type of magic she used. Kang A-reum practiced upright alteration-type magic, and seemed well acquainted with practitioners of inverted alteration-type magic as well. Her hand magic was indeed exactly the same as the hand magic I knew.

"Come on in. I can't give you the fancy treatment you'd get outside, so take what you can get."

Kang A-reum freely showed us around the underground parking garage where she lived. Strangely enough, there was no sign of feces anywhere.

There were stacks of things like gas stoves, boxes of instant noodles, and water containers, though. She had flashlights switched on to illuminate the dark interior. I couldn't see a generator, but judging by the various things plugged into a car, she seemed to be using its battery to charge them.

Of course, most of her belongings didn't consume electricity. Aside from the flashlights used for lighting and her phone chargers, there were no electronics to speak of.

The place was so much neater than we'd expected that we Supreme Mages were the ones taken aback. The boxes of instant noodles and canned food stacked neatly inside abandoned vehicles, along with her relatively clean clothes, told us how this woman, Kang A-reum, had survived.

The pastor was the first to express his admiration for her housekeeping.

"It's awfully clean for a woman living alone."

"You make it sound like a woman living alone is bound to turn her home into a shithole. I don't believe in Jesus, so watch what you say."

"Oh, now. Don't be like that. Why not listen to the good word? It's just a shame that a young lady like you doesn't come to church."

SMACK! SMACK!

I gently patted the pastor on the back as he tried to proselytize out of what seemed like an occupational compulsion.

"Ow! Baek Je-min, what are you doing?!"

"I'll be leading this conversation."

I wanted to give him a proper beating, but I showed consideration for his age.

Lee Se-jun's personal desires were perfectly suited to earning her disgust. Shin Na-in needed to sit quietly and assess her intentions rather than join the conversation, and Hamza was better off helping him detect danger.

Therefore, I, Baek Je-min, the most rational and reasonable among us, decided to handle the negotiations.

"How have you been disposing of your feces?"

"Je-min, for fuck's sake..."

Lee Se-jun made a fuss, not knowing what to do, but Kang A-reum was a professional survivor. She raised an eyebrow at my question, then pulled her padded jacket closed and chuckled.

"I've been borrowing the apartments upstairs. Or using a chamber pot."

Had the world still been normal, I'd already have been in handcuffs. But professional survivor Kang A-reum actually seemed pleased by my question about waste disposal.

It was a filthy, disgusting topic, but waste disposal was extremely important. As we traveled, we Supreme Mages either took a dump somewhere a suitable distance away or used public restrooms. Kang A-reum, however, said she used the emergency stairs to go back and forth when it was safe and dispose of her waste.

Why did this matter?

Because it could help us establish whether the monsters had a sense of smell.

The moment my thoughts reached that point, Shin Na-in gave me a surprised look. What the hell did this fucking bastard think of me?

By contrast, Kang A-reum, a complete stranger, lifted the corners of her eyes slightly and headed toward the trunk of a car with its hood open.

"You're pretty cautious for people from outside. When I heard you firing like maniacs, I thought you were nuts."

"All right, let's get straight to the point. Let's say what each of us wants."

SLAM.

Before closing the trunk, Kang A-reum took out a notebook. She waved it in her right hand and rested the other on her hip.

"How much the outside world knows about Seoul. And any information that could help me break through the cordon. Some bartering while we're at it would be nice, too."

"And what do we get in return?"

"Well... I'll answer your questions. And let you stay for a day or so."

Kang A-reum certainly knew more than we did.

Still, we couldn't trade lightly when we had no way of accurately gauging the value of our possessions and information. I looked to Shin Na-in, whom we'd brought along for situations like this, but all he could do was confirm that her introduction had been truthful.

He sighed in displeasure and glared at her.

"She really does have Ear Branch, Stage Two. I can vaguely make out her intentions, but I can't hear her clearly."

I approached Shin Na-in and whispered very quietly.

"Why don't you try seducing her? You're fairly good-looking, Na-in. You seem pretty popular, too."

"As a devout Christian, I have sworn to remain chaste until marriage. I won't do it with anyone I don't intend to marry."

"Then just marry her."

After witnessing Shin Na-in fly into a towering rage for the third time, I shut my mouth.

Turning back to Kang A-reum, I calmly adjusted my rifle sling and spoke.

"All right. Let's make this a cool, hassle-free deal."

"Hey, Baek Je-min. You acted like you were going to negotiate some grand bargain, and now it's a 'cool deal'?"

I remained confident in the face of the pastor's grumbling.

HOOF.

I deliberately exhaled loudly through my gas mask, then tapped my rifle.

"Ms. Kang. If you'd prefer a hot deal, just say the word."

"A hot deal? Listen to this bullshit."

Kang A-reum burst out laughing and headed toward another car.

I know fuck-all about cars, so all I can say is that it was a reasonably clean-looking sedan. She placed her notebook on its hood and gave us an easygoing smile.

"All right. A cool deal. It's nice to see normal people for a change."

The cool deal began immediately.

We decided to give Kang A-reum the information she'd requested first.

Since she couldn't leave Seoul anyway, she'd have trouble verifying it, so we figured showing our hand first wouldn't hurt much. Having been stuck in Seoul for four months, Kang A-reum reacted in all sorts of ways as she listened to news of the outside world.

"What? The fog appeared all the way out in Gyeonggi Province, then disappeared?"

"Yes. I nearly got killed by something called an Amalgam while I was on sentry duty. I'd have been a goner if I hadn't awakened my magic."

"An Amalgam? What's that?"

"The things that fuse their heads together."

"Ohhh. So there's another name for them. We usually call them mimic beasts here."

Thirty-two years old. Speaking politely to A-reum, who was four years my senior, felt perfectly natural.

The only problem was the muttering I could hear off in the distance while we talked. Lee Se-jun seemed deeply wounded that he'd been the only one told to address her as 'young lady.'

"I'm only twenty-four..."

Twenty-four, with that face?

I firmly suppressed the urge to object and continued talking with Kang A-reum.

So much had happened.

Even a tactical nuclear strike on Seoul was being discussed. A hundred and fifty thousand troops had been deployed to the first cordon, and roughly fourteen thousand had died. UN forces were coming. The Chinese People's Liberation Army had arrived on Ganghwa Island, rendering the government that had evacuated to Incheon powerless. People were protesting in rear-area cities, demanding their families be brought back alive...

Finally, I told her that the Korean and US armed forces had begun reconnaissance operations in Seoul to uncover the truth behind the fog's appearance and acquire knowledge of magic.

True to our cool deal, I told her all of it without fuss.

If she didn't like this cool deal, I intended to give her a hot one with bullets instead. That would at least give us a day's worth of instant noodles and drinking water.

Fortunately for all of us, Kang A-reum was a survivor who still had faith.

In other words, she believed that if she held out, someone outside would eventually attempt a rescue, or she might get a chance to escape. Throughout my account, she sat with her mouth hanging open in disbelief. Then she asked in a trembling voice,

"What about Sokcho? Is Sokcho still okay? I heard martial-law troops are shooting people dead!"

"They say the protests are intensifying in the major rear-area cities, but we left on April fifteenth. We don't know what's happened since. We haven't heard anything specifically about Sokcho."

Looking back, it really had been spectacular.

It hadn't even been seventy-two hours since we'd entered Seoul, and we'd already seen so much.

"What am I going to do...?! My parents are both there...!"

"At least they're not in Seoul."

"That's! Well, that's true, but..."

I'd said that thinking of Han Suk-ja, who had disappeared after visiting her eldest daughter's home in Seoul, and of the fate of her son, the driver.

Perhaps the reason Kang A-reum had been able to hold out here alone was her certainty that her family outside was safe. Once she confirmed that the cordon still hadn't been breached, she quickly regained her composure.

After breathing heavily for a while, she pressed a hand to her forehead and spoke in a calmer voice.

"So you're civilian Operators sent in from outside Seoul... mages with civilian status."

"Yes."

"Even after all the soldiers who came with you disappeared, you went into the subway tracks without a care, killed nearly a hundred mimic beasts and mobile spines, and fought your way through."

"Mm."

"Then you beat an inverted alteration-type mage near Jangji Station, in the department store—a mage who'd fought soldiers and even acquired guns—and survived."

Kang A-reum recited our achievements one by one, turning them over in her mind, then looked around at all of us.

Her eyes held a mixture of suspicion and wonder.

"Honestly, judging your combat capability objectively, you're pretty formidable. More than formidable—you're overwhelming when it comes to dealing with monsters. Your magic seems low-level, though... An ordinary military unit can't survive here. Even units with mages have their limits, because the proportion of mages is too low."

"Ahhh."

Was there anything sweeter than hearing your achievements praised by someone else?

A quick glance showed Shin Na-in, Hamza, and the pastor all straightening their shoulders for no particular reason. Only Lee Se-jun looked unimpressed, fiddling with his rifle sling.

So Se-jun was still keeping up his mysterious persona.

There certainly was something about an air of mystery that drove people wild. Following his example, I forced myself not to do a smug little shoulder dance, though the corners of my mouth twitched. Thank goodness my gas mask covered my face, letting me grin as much as I pleased.

That was when Hamza raised a hand and asked,

"How can you tell our magic is low-level?"

"Huh? Its effects diminish depending on the other person's level. I can't even read the intentions of someone at a higher stage than me properly. You get a feel for it right away from how well your own magic works on them."

As she said that, Kang A-reum seemed to realize something. She looked around at us with a peculiar smile.

"People outside really don't know anything. A cool deal isn't going to cover this."

... Did I have no choice?

I adjusted my rifle sling and steeled my resolve. If the negotiations showed signs of falling apart, I wouldn't hesitate.

"Baek Je-min, wait..."

The pastor couldn't stop me. I acted before anyone else could say a word.

Kang A-reum narrowed her eyes at what I'd done.

"Why are you giving me this?"

"It's the Spam I stashed away to eat by myself. I'll let you have it, so please tell us."

Kang A-reum accepted the Spam I'd handed her almost without thinking, turned it over a few times, and chuckled.

"You're cute, little guy, so I'll let it slide. I'll tell you."

Hot deal: successful.

* * *

First, we decided to ask about the mysterious dark navy phone.

Kang A-reum took the phone I brought out, turned it over, and handed it back indifferently.

"I wondered whose it was. So it's the one from over by Jangji Station."

"A sorcery phone???"

Uh, were 'sorcery' and 'phone' even words that could go together?

Faced with this bizarre creation that openly defied common scientific knowledge, Kang A-reum shook her head and showed us her own sorcery phone. It was an ordinary smartphone, but a close look at the screen showed that both mobile data and Wi-Fi remained disconnected.

"It's exactly what it sounds like. You know the data centers and base stations were shut down, right? They say places with satellite communications still have internet, but where there aren't any facilities, you need a sorcery phone to receive important information or exchange messages."

"How is that even possible?"

Unable to hear her inner voice, Shin Na-in finally couldn't contain himself and asked. Kang A-reum waved her pink sorcery phone. Despite her square-edged appearance, our older friend A-reum liked soft, cute colors.

"Open the casing and check around the built-in battery. There'll be something written in blood. Ordinary sorcery phones are made pretty casually with Hand Branch, Stage Two. Once the blood's power runs out, they stop working again. The higher the mage's level, the longer they can keep a sorcery phone running."

Sure enough, when I opened the dark navy phone's casing, I found [Communication] written in blood on the built-in battery. It had long since turned brown, and looked as though its power might soon run out.

A-reum held out her pink sorcery phone, touched it to the dark navy one, and continued.

"But these ordinary sorcery phones don't work like real sorcery phones. I guess you'd call it imitative magic... When a real sorcery phone actually sends or receives something, ordinary ones imitate it? Hmm. This is hard to explain... If a real sorcery phone is like a cloud service hosting a server, the other sorcery phones have very limited functions within it. So among the survivor groups, there are usually one or two people in each district who can handle real sorcery phones. Most survivors only use theirs when they're prepared to have their information exposed."

"So they share information to encourage people to use sorcery phones?"

At Hamza's perceptive question, Kang A-reum gave a brief, impressed "Oh."

"You're quick on the uptake. That's right. They also renew sorcery phones to keep in regular contact and maintain cooperation with survivors. It's been about a month since mine was renewed."

Whereas Kang A-reum had started out as an ordinary person, she said the people using these real sorcery phones were closer to genuine sorcerers who had received knowledge from someone.

There wasn't much that distinguished them physically, however. All she knew was that they exchanged something like an incantation, using it as a challenge and password.

["66 to complete 7. 55 to complete 66. Humans to complete 55."]

"That's supposed to be the challenge. Nobody knows the responding refrain unless they're involved with those people."

"You don't have any guesses?"

"Oh, I have some."

A-reum was an easygoing older woman who didn't hide a thing.

Apparently pleased with my—Baek Je-min's—hot deal, she looked around at us Supreme Mages and generously shared her valuable information.

"A lot of people think 55 refers to the five branches and five stages of alteration-type magic. Some believe that once you reach all five stages of all five branches, you can attempt the realm of six branches and six stages. Seven probably means an even higher level."

"Five branches, five stages."

I glanced at the pastor. Apparently reminded of the monk, he was nodding with a sour expression.

"Sounds like what that damned monk was babbling about—the five aggregates and the twenty-five forms of existence. The difference starts with the number six. Baek Je-min, you even performed the ritual with him. Does anything come to mind?"

I thought it over carefully, but nothing much came to mind.

I thought I'd recited a similar incantation, but I didn't remember reciting any responding refrain. Still, this did make one thing a little clearer: monk Cheong-hwi had ties to the group operating these real sorcery phones.

Without hesitation, we moved on to other questions.

"We're trying to cross the Han River. Anything we should know?"

"Loads. But I don't know it. I'm here in Songpa—why would I cross to the north side of the river?"

Despite her flippant response, Kang A-reum offered a few warnings.

"There are bound to be survivor groups there. Be careful if they're inverted alteration-type mages. That spine user near the department store you said you defeated... Must have been Jeong Na-ri."

That was the first time we heard the Dubai Chewy Witch's name.

Kang A-reum clicked her tongue disapprovingly, but readily shared information about inverted alteration-type mages. She said that if we'd been capable of defeating Jeong Na-ri, we weren't likely to get devoured easily, so she considered it safe to share information with us.

When we also told her about the advancement we'd felt and the information we'd acquired, she finally rested her chin on her hand and nodded in understanding.

"The tongue branch only works properly when the subject—the acting party—and the objective are clear. She probably couldn't use the explosion of emotion, inverted Tongue Branch, Stage Two, against you because you kept pressing her without a break. Either she couldn't properly identify you, or she didn't even have time to use magic. But you said there were soldiers there? Ah... Poor things."

"You don't look particularly sorry for them."

"You'll be like this too once you've seen people torn apart by shelling."

Knowledge of the Dubai Chewy Witch Jeong Na-ri's inverted alteration-type magic had apparently circulated among survivors, because Kang A-reum knew it well too.

"Fusing heads like mimic beasts to plunder knowledge and experience is inverted Tongue Branch, Stage One. [Predation]. It's well known, practically the signature move of inverted alteration-type mages."

It was magic that painstakingly stripped away everything, and it explained why Seoul mages and survivors were so insular.

Share information with a weak person, and the moment that person was hunted down, every secret of the group would leak. As a result, the weak were inevitably left behind when it came to information, too.

"Inverted alteration-type magic is generally known up to Heart, Stage Three. It's so distinctive. Inverted Stage One is [Complete Absorption]. You absorb everything you eat, so the nutritional efficiency is incredibly high. Inverted Stage Two is [Instant Evolution]. It consumes enormous amounts of nutrients to strengthen your body against toxic environmental conditions or compensate for inadequate physical abilities. And inverted Stage Three is symbiosis with those mobile spines you mentioned, or with other monsters. It's called [Establishing the Hierarchy]."

"Establishing the Hierarchy?"

"You know how the mobile spines infect people, right?"

"Yes."

"Establishing the Hierarchy is the stage where the mage takes complete control of the body. Even if part of their body becomes a monster, they can control it at will. The monster also chooses symbiosis with a superior host, so the mage effectively has two selves and becomes capable of instinctive movement."

For example, she said that after reaching inverted Stage Three, the Dubai Chewy Witch Jeong Na-ri would have evolved her own spine into a predatory spine and entered a symbiotic relationship with it.

Literally, she would have let a predatory spine hunt her, paralyzing her lower body and infecting her own spine with its spinal fluid. Then, through inverted Stage Three, she would have taken complete control of her body and turned the tables, commanding the monster herself.

Naturally, alteration-type mages at the level of us Supreme Mages could only be appalled.

I heard Shin Na-in and Lee Se-jun smack their lips as they spoke.

"That's hardcore..."

"It really is."

Though she'd been our enemy, I, Baek Je-min, was so moved by the noble spirit of the mage Jeong Na-ri, who had pursued a higher level, that I couldn't speak for a while.

That desire to acquire stronger magic even at the cost of surrendering your spine—I understood it perfectly.

How pitiful must her talent have been for her to resort to that? Faced with the uncomfortable reality that fortunate souls blessed with both passion and talent like myself were rare, I observed a brief moment of silence for her.

That was when Hamza asked,

"But why aren't people supposed to move around when the fog is thin? People who aren't mages, I mean."

"Oh. Right."

We also asked why non-mages' movements were restricted when the fog was thin.

I'd thought it might simply be because skin-jellyfish and other monsters were active in thinner fog, and because the use of magic was limited. But the answer we received was unexpected.

Kang A-reum looked around at us in puzzlement, then covered her mouth and let out a dismayed sigh.

"People outside don't know?!"

"For fuck's sake. Stop dragging it out and tell us."

"How am I supposed to explain this... Don't tell me they're firing thermobaric rounds and things like that to get rid of the fog?"

"Oh, what now?"

Precious time ticked away as A-reum needlessly dragged things out.

If the reason people didn't move around when the fog was thin was just the monsters—

"You've got the order wrong. The monsters come first."

In an instant, all of us Supreme Mages, who had been yawning indifferently or standing with our arms crossed, turned our eyes toward Kang A-reum.

"You think the fog comes first because of that movie, don't you? Right? Haa..."

"The fog's keeping them from even shelling the place properly. Isn't that the obvious conclusion?"

Shin Na-in challenged her sharply.

If the people who'd fallen victim to monsters bursting out of dense fog heard this, they'd go mad with indignation.

But Kang A-reum tapped the hood anxiously with her index finger, swallowed hard, then worked her lips before speaking.

"You know those monsters all used to be people from Seoul, right? Only mages have the resistance to withstand it. Those monsters..."

Kang A-reum met our eyes with a gaze that mingled horror, dismay, irritation, and fear.

"They only weaken when they're inside the fog."