Chapter 72 - Operation Blue Pill

Go Ryeo-ha was cheerful and optimistic, qualities rarely seen in times like these. She must always have been an approachable, warmhearted person.

As she descended into the pitch-black, unlit basement, she never forgot to look out for us. Glancing back at us repeatedly, perhaps worried we might miss a step, she took a flashlight from her puffer jacket pocket and shone it down the stairs, speaking brightly.

"It's pretty dark, isn't it? We can only run the generator for a limited time, and we have to save the batteries, so this is what we ended up with."

"Oh, don't worry about it. You're working so hard, young lady. What else can you do?"

Pastor Park Yo-han showered her with praise, saying how much he admired a girl so much younger than himself for being so kind and hardworking in everything she did. Even Lee Se-jun and Hamza, who were beginning to sense something unsettling, were walking in silence. Yet the pastor smiled so fondly that it was visible through his gas mask lenses, answering every single thing Ryeo-ha said. Na-in and I watched him in dismay as we exchanged telepathic messages.

'Je-min, have you figured out her magic?'

'Whatever she put around my neck is still there. Judging by her physical abilities, she definitely has heart-branch magic, but from how she reacted when we detected those monsters, she has something that lets her detect things too. She's shown so many different abilities that it's hard to pin them down. That makes even attempting a surprise attack to kill her unrealistic. My eye isn't normal right now, so using Eye, Stage Two to freeze her is too risky.'

After all that perfectly reasonable deduction, Na-in's reply was a real piece of work.

'Can't you just freeze her with your right eye like you normally do?'

'If I can't handle the backlash and go blind, are you going to take responsibility, you fucking bastard? Just ask Hamza whether it's dangerous. Tell him to find out where it's safe first.'

While Na-in and I bickered through our inner voices, the pastor kept trying to convert Ryeo-ha.

"Come on, young lady. Just come once, won't you? We're sincere, you know. It's not some strange place. I may not look it, but I'm a pastor. A pastor! I'm a respectable man."

"Ahaha! All right, all right. I'll visit when my spirit power gets stronger."

"Huh? Spirit power?"

As the pastor echoed her words, the rest of the Supreme Mages pricked up their ears. Something important was coming up. Ryeo-ha herself, leading the way down the stairs with her flashlight pointed at the steps, spoke casually, as though it were nothing.

"My mother's younger sister was a shaman. She said our family has a bit of spirit power. She told me that if it looked like I was going to receive a spirit, I should just go to a proper church and become a very devout believer."

"Oh, wonderful! No need to wait until later. You can start coming right now!"

Far from being put off, the pastor lit up and made such a fuss that he even clapped at the good news. With the sound of combat boots striking the stairs overlapping, Na-in's telepathy reached me. Apparently, he'd used the pastor's booming excitement as cover to whisper with Hamza. I swallowed carefully, pinning my hopes on Hamza's doctrinal magic, [Angel's Intuition].

'The heathen heretic says it's safe and we should follow her.'

Hamza, you cultist bastard. I should have known when you claimed to believe in Allah but happily washed down pork belly with soju and polished off a slice of Spam. Your magic's finally run out of juice.

Just as I was cursing him, Na-in added:

'Running away would be more dangerous.'

That shut me up. As we reached the bottom of the stairs, Ryeo-ha swung her flashlight to the side. It illuminated a shabby-looking generator with its nozzles and wires exposed, as though its casing had never been finished. She pointed to it beside the stairs, beaming.

"Ta-da! You have no idea how hard it was to move this. I've stored fuel taken from cars in those containers beside it."

"I heard you have to blow into a hose or something to get that out. Did you do all that yourself?"

"Hehe. Of course!"

"Goodness. The others ought to help you with things like that!"

"Oh, Pastor. It's hard for everyone to do things outside, so it can't be helped."

"How can you be so kindhearted? Jesus picked you out Himself."

While the pastor marveled at her, the rest of the Supreme Mages were desperate to back away. Sensing something strange, Na-in, Se-jun, Hamza, and I had abruptly huddled together to whisper. Ironically, the pastor's infatuation with Ryeo-ha and all his fussing gave us room to talk. Se-jun was the first to speak, his eyes grave.

"Aren't we fucking screwed?"

"How?"

"Je-min. This doesn't look like a place where people live."

"Shh!"

He was right. Everything we were seeing and sensing was a clue. Even Ryeo-ha's hands, brushing dust off the generator as she bashfully received the pastor's extravagant praise, were an ominous sign.

Dust building up in a poorly cleaned basement was one thing, but any normal group would run its generator at least once a day. Yet despite our perfectly conspicuous descent, there had been no response, and the generator had been left sitting there without even being started. That was a terrifying sign.

But an even bigger problem was Se-jun's perceptive eye combined with his utterly tactless mouth. Suppressing the urge to snap at him, I kept my lips closed, turned to Hamza and Se-jun, and whispered quickly.

"Dn't say 'nyth'ng..."

"But, Je-min."

"I said dn't say 'nyth'ng."

Apparently, that was the right answer. The way Hamza's face went white and his hands flapped the instant Se-jun tried to argue made it one hundred percent certain.

I vividly recalled the radio conversation we'd heard in the barracks before entering Seoul—the conversation that had led us to seek contact with Ryeo-ha because the military considered her group the friendliest. What had she said again? That all the mages in Seoul were crazy?

I lifted my rain poncho slightly and decided to turn on the L-shaped flashlight clipped to my chest for the first time in a while. Unslinging my AR-15 to check with its tactical light posed too great a risk of being taken as hostile. To make it look natural, I made sure my mindset was right too.

I am not hostile toward Go Ryeo-ha. I don't particularly want to kill her. I'm not handling my gun, and my bayonet is put away. I'm looking simply because I want to inspect the basement. With that attitude, I placed my hand on the L-shaped flashlight.

CLICK.

"What are you doing?"

At some point, Ryeo-ha's gaze had turned toward me. For a second I wondered whether I'd once again lost to my lower half and stared at her, but that wasn't it.

"Young lady, when did you get over there? Shall I start the generator for you?"

"Oh! It's all right, Pastor. I'll turn it on!"

Ryeo-ha had moved in the blink of an eye and was standing in front of me. Blinking those innocent eyes, she lowered the flashlight in her hand, but she had positioned herself perfectly to block the L-shaped light on my chest. I couldn't get a proper look inside.

A cold chill climbed my spine and held me motionless for a while. Feeling the back of my neck stiffen with a tingling sensation, I concentrated on Na-in, who was at least somewhat trustworthy. Never had I been so relieved that telepathy was possible between people at the same level, even in different branches, provided they both possessed ear-branch magic.

While I'd tried to turn on a light to see for myself, Na-in apparently had examined the area using his magic. In stark contrast to my pounding heart, he calmly and composedly relayed what he'd seen and heard.

'I'm certain. There are no living people here.'

'How do you know? Couldn't some other magic be interfering with your ear magic?'

'I can hear them with Ear, Stage Three.'

The instant I remembered what Ear Branch, Stage Three was, my mouth went bone-dry. I smacked my lips uselessly and fiddled with the flashlight on my chest. Ear, Stage Three was magic that let you converse with remnants of souls. To give it a broad, straightforward name, it would be something like [Conversation with the Dead].

Having made my decision, I immediately waved toward the pastor.

"Pastor. Try converting Ryeo-ha. Now that I look at her, she's really perfect for church. Didn't you say you needed young people there?"

"Huh? What's gotten into you, Baek Je-min?"

Seeing the pastor blink obliviously, stuck close beside Ryeo-ha, made me feel a little guilty. But with his absurdly favorable magic, [Soteriological Conviction], he was the ideal choice. Na-in, Hamza, Se-jun, and I had already silently appointed him to take responsibility, so everyone hastened to agree.

"A Sister like Ryeo-ha, who never loses her faith even in difficult circumstances, is precisely who we need most at a time like this."

"Jibril and Isa would welcome her too."

"Being pretty really is the best. Even the pastor fell for her!"

One guy's agreement was a little loaded with personal feelings, but it worked anyway. The pastor nodded as though we had a point and gave Ryeo-ha several hearty pats on the shoulder.

"See? My boys might look a little lacking, but they're not really bad fellows. They're all going to come to church too. How about you, Ryeo-ha?"

"Oh, Pastor. If you keep this up, I'll start feeling pressured."

"All right, all right. Then tell me about that, what was it? Receiving spirit power. Even if you don't come to church, I'll speak to the Lord and pray that He keeps you from any discomfort. Hmm? That much is all right, isn't it?"

"Ahaha. But I should talk with the soldiers too. Soldiers do want to talk with me. Usually!"

I sucked in a sharp breath.

Ryeo-ha seemed to have a very misguided stereotype about soldiers. She thought every soldier was helpless before a pretty young woman, but that was true of most men in general. I, for one, was that kind of guy. Still, just as trash could be divided into recyclables, general waste, and outright nuclear waste, I knew the appropriate time and place. That put me, just barely, in the recyclable nuclear-waste category.

"No, no, no. We're too exhausted right now. We'll just rest and talk among ourselves. You don't keep watch on people even when they're resting here, do you?"

"Hmm... No, but the others don't really like soldiers. Will you be all right?"

"Of course! Besides, I keep telling you we're civilians."

"Oh, you're lying. What civilians walk around dressed like that?"

"That's how things are outside Seoul these days. Now, go on and talk to the pastor. You need to be saved."

"Well, well, Baek Je-min. Didn't I tell you? You're truly youth-group leader material!"

In my opinion, the pastor was the kind of character who either died first in a horror movie or survived to the end. Regardless, delighted by this rare united show of support from the Supreme Mages, he beamed and began chatting with Ryeo-ha in front of the generator. She apparently didn't dislike noisy, lively people like him either. Even with her mask on, she mimed covering her mouth and giggled merrily.

Meanwhile, the rest of us Supreme Mages quickly moved farther inside to examine the situation. As the L-shaped light on my chest illuminated the interior, every one of us held our breath.

"..."

There were people, all right. The problem was that they were no longer breathing.

The first basement floor of the student union building. Apparently, it had once been a cafeteria. Beneath a wall bearing a stained menu board, heaps of people lay huddled together, their heads resting against one another. They were emaciated, nothing but skin and bones.

The corpses looked as though they'd starved to death, their cheekbones starkly exposed. Under their thick clothing, their bellies were swollen, and every patch of skin had turned black. Now and then, I saw maggots crawling over skin dried like a mummy's. Maggots—the first familiar animals we'd found in Seoul.

After seeing all those horrifying monsters in the fog, plump maggots wriggling over dead bodies were relatively bearable. But something made it strange to dismiss this as simple starvation. Opened cans, torn snack bags, rice teeming with maggots, and disposable utensils lay scattered haphazardly before the corpses.

Even the tactless Se-jun apparently sensed that something was seriously fucking wrong and swallowed a gasp. Hamza actually covered his gas mask filter, afraid he might scream. All I could see was the mask's rubber shifting slightly.

Na-in was the one who bravely advanced. He knelt before what had to be dozens of corpses, then went further: he slung his rifle over his shoulder and lifted his gas mask with his left hand. What interested him was a container of Hetbahn rice with a disposable spoon stuck into it. He picked it up and sniffed with his bare face, then turned to us and spoke very cautiously.

"It hasn't gone bad."

"What?"

"It doesn't smell sour. It's fresh."

While the pastor was keeping Ryeo-ha occupied, we had our chance. Having made that judgment, I immediately turned to Na-in, Se-jun, and Hamza.

"While Na-in uses past sight and Ear, Stage Three to find out what happened, Hamza, stay beside him in case something happens. I can still feel that sensation around my neck, so she seems to be keeping her guard up. If things go wrong, Se-jun, step in and hit her."

"What will you do if she breaks your neck?"

"What do you think?"

I'd have to use Eye, Stage Three's [Cognitive Dissonance], lose my fucking eyes, and come back to life. What choice did I have? Death would end my learning. Losing eye magic was truly horrifying, but not enough to make me give up even the possibility of surviving and learning more magic. Even if I went blind, I would live as a mage.

Fortunately, thanks to Pastor Park Yo-han's tremendous performance, we had plenty of time.

"Have you heard of pioneering ministry? It's where you visit people who haven't heard the gospel yet and help them with all sorts of things directly. Everyone would love having someone as kind as you, Ryeo-ha."

"You're a little different from what I imagined a pastor would be. Don't pastors collect tithes and live it up?"

"Oh, that's all the media's fault. The media! There aren't many megachurches run like franchises. Most pastors spend their lives agonizing over how to use the offerings everyone's scraped together. Especially in pioneering ministry..."

Ryeo-ha was impressive too. Listening to all that. I couldn't even imagine how much heavy madness lay submerged inside her.

While the pastor did his thing, the unidentified pressure on the back of my neck gradually weakened, until at some point it disappeared entirely. Around then, Na-in and Hamza, who had been crouch-walking close together, returned with their findings.

HUFF. HUFF.

As our breathing through gas masks cut through the silent basement, Na-in stepped between Se-jun, who stood with his arms folded, and me, still watching Ryeo-ha. He had put his gas mask back on. Apparently, he'd witnessed something gruesome and puked somewhere out of sight. Judging by his pallor, he'd retched as quietly as he could.

"She didn't kill them directly."

"Give me a little more detail, separate out the unnecessary stuff, and summarize it so it's easy to understand."

Only after my clear request did Na-in give a clear answer. According to him, past sight showed no changes several hours back. It was certain that the survivors in this basement had died long ago. But perhaps his advancement to Ear, Stage Three had affected past sight too, because he could now hear the basement's sounds through it. So, he reported, he'd accepted the stronger penalty and looked back a full day, starting when we'd contacted Ryeo-ha.

"It was the same a day ago and several hours ago. I couldn't hear the generator or any breathing. Except for one person."

A basement cafeteria with a stopped generator and not even a flicker from a lightbulb. In those dark shadows, he had heard just one set of footsteps. Before those opened cans and containers of rice, each paired with a utensil, before those people slumped against walls or one another's shoulders, just one person had been alive, breathing and talking.

["Listen, they say some soldiers have come. It sounds like it'll be hard to escape, but... judging by their messages, they seem like spirited people."]

In Na-in's past sight, a woman had been walking before the dead bodies in that dark, silent basement cafeteria.

["We should help each other in difficult times. They're all so spirited that having them here will brighten things up! Besides, it could make talking to the military outside easier. We won't have to worry quite so much about our coordinates being exposed, will we?"]

That had made the woman's eyes look all the more intense, he said. Barely discernible as a shifting shadow in the darkness, she revealed herself through her voice and tone, speaking boldly and brightly.

["... What? How could I leave! I'm staying with you. We have to escape together!"]

Listening to Na-in's vivid report, I began to feel a chill at that point. Hamza and Se-jun apparently hadn't caught on yet and merely frowned, but my vision seemed to yellow slightly. Regardless, Na-in's testimony continued in vivid detail.

["... All right."]

For the first time, the woman who had chatted cheerfully before dozens of corpses in that dim basement cafeteria had sniffled as she stated her resolve.

["I'll go out with the soldiers and meet the people outside. I'll help the soldiers, leave with them, and make sure I meet those people and persuade them!"]

Silence lingered for a while. At the end of it, I desperately recovered my reason. First, Ryeo-ha wasn't an ear mage.

While the pastor chattered happily with her, the rest of us Supreme Mages were listening to Na-in's testimony. If she hadn't noticed despite all this talking, she absolutely couldn't be an ear mage. An ear mage would have eavesdropped on our entire conversation. But this possibility was even more terrifying.

"... That's everything."

The moment Na-in solemnly finished, Se-jun covered his cheeks with both hands. Despite wearing a gas mask.

"Holy shit."

Hamza, too, seemed finally to understand why [Angel's Intuition] had judged this safe. He looked at us as though he were on the verge of fainting.

"W-we mustn't tell her... We have to play along..."

Just what you'd expect from magic that only helped you avoid the worst possible answer. Following Se-jun's example, I pointlessly covered my mouth despite wearing a gas mask and rocked back and forth. All the while, I racked my brain.

Dozens of old corpses. Maggots swarming. A basement where the generator wasn't even running. There was a reason this would be hard to live in even for someone out of their mind.

"Na-in. The smell?"

"It's awful. The smell of rot is intense. Nobody could live here. Past sight confirmed it too. She didn't visit except when she was contacting us."

"So Ryeo-ha has somewhere else she stays."

Did she know subconsciously that they were corpses? Then fucking acknowledge it consciously too...

I considered simply launching a surprise attack and taking her remains and information, but she was the most advanced and best-informed Seoul mage we'd encountered. She definitely had heart-branch magic, yet without unraveling the secret of those gloves, the unknown danger was too great. Besides, from the way she'd fought the monsters, she had some means of detection even if it wasn't ear magic.

If she couldn't detect our intentions, that would be one thing. But she was crazy and insanely good at fighting, which left us no answer. Even if we won, casualties would all but spell the end for us. Assuming we could kill Ryeo-ha without suffering a single fatal wound would be far too stupid. Besides, we only had three hundred rounds left. Were we really going to burn through all our ammunition here?

Apart from my screaming emotions, apart from my now thoroughly chilled lower half, the intellect of Archmage Baek Je-min was presenting one solution. Think, Baek Je-min. In the big picture, this isn't any different from what social workers do. Come on, you bastard. It's about time you did one good thing for the world.

After reassuring myself like that, I let out a deep breath.

"Hoooooo..."

"Operation Blue Pill."

A brief phrase, but packed with meaning. Na-in alone nodded, his face set. Se-jun and Hamza stared at me in disbelief.

"Sorry? Je-min, what did you say?"

"Je-min... Uh, uh... Angel, is this really right...?"

"Hamza. I want to beat the fucking shit out of you, so don't argue."

"Okay."

Right. The angel had said it wasn't dangerous. She might not be the best like big sis Kang A-reum, but being friendly and capable of a normal conversation had to put her character in the top one percent of Seoul mages. Complaining now would make me the pathetic one.

"First, we leave here and go to Ryeo-ha's real hideout to get information. If we can shake her off, we do... If we can't..."

If we couldn't... If we couldn't, then fuck, what choice did we have?

The four of us Supreme Mages looked at the pastor and Ryeo-ha, chatting so amiably.

"Ahh, Ryeo-ha, you're the best! Hmm? If you come now, I'll give you the youth-group leader's armband I was going to give Baek Je-min. Just come!"

"Aren't you thinking too highly of me, Pastor? What will you do if you're disappointed?"

"Not at all! I'm an outstanding judge of character. You're someone our church absolutely, absolutely needs!"

"Wow! Really!?"

With that oppressive weight pressing heavily on my chest, I raised a hand and signaled to the Supreme Mages.

"Operation Blue Pill. I'll take the lead."

As I led the way back toward the stairs, the other Supreme Mages followed cautiously. Apparently not expecting us to return so suddenly, both the pastor and Ryeo-ha turned and tilted their heads.

"What? I thought you were resting."

"The people here seem to really dislike military uniforms. They won't believe we're civilians."

"Hehe. See? I told you they'd never believe you're civilians dressed like that."

"Yes... You're right..."

CLICK.

With the sound of the mechanism clicking into place, I lowered my poncho again and covered the L-shaped flashlight. I didn't know why the people here had starved to death. There was no way to know whether they'd realized there was no hope of rescue and stopped eating voluntarily, or whether some epidemic had swept through.

But the fact that dozens had been able to die before becoming trapped in monsters' bodies was, if anything, a testament to Ryeo-ha. At the very least, she had definitely protected them from monsters. For ordinary people without magic to die in human form in a basement like this, a powerful mage had to protect them devotedly.

"Is there somewhere else we could stay? Not here."

"Oh! Of course! But it's where I stayed by myself, so it might be a little cramped..."

"That's fine. The people here need their rest too."

"You're softer than I expected, soldier. Just what I'd expect from your soft, squishy veins!"

Her eyes sparkled at my words, and she promptly started up the stairs. Perhaps it was my imagination, but her steps seemed lighter going up than they had coming down.

"I'll take you there right away. Hang in there a little longer."

"Hoho. So there really are still people in Seoul. Oh, I'd better go say hello to them too."

Na-in stepped in front of the pastor as he tried to head farther inside.

"Pastor."

"Hmm? What? I was going to say hello and see if there were any churchgoing Brothers or Sisters."

"They all seem exhausted, so they're resting. How about we just say a brief prayer, then go talk with Ryeo-ha?"

"Really? Hmm... If Baek Je-min, Se-jun, or Islam Boy had said that, I'd have ignored them..."

The pastor poked his head slightly past Na-in's shoulder and looked around, but that wasn't enough to inspect a basement without a single lightbulb on.

"What are they, children of darkness? Living with all the lights off. No matter how precious electricity is, that's too much. They'll damage their eyes. You boys keep your lights on when you're living outside."

"Yes, sir."

"Tsk. Since Na-in said it... Almighty Lord God, I pray that Your kingdom and power be with everyone here. Let them feel no fear in Your embrace. Amen."

The pastor turned away reluctantly, but we finally managed to breathe a sigh of relief.

STEP. STEP.

Combat boots struck the stairs once more. Ryeo-ha led the way, chattering cheerfully, while the pastor chuckled and said she was like a daughter. The four of us Supreme Mages following them couldn't bring ourselves to climb briskly, repeatedly glancing down the stairs.

Gripped by fear, Hamza turned his head away first. Se-jun followed, slowly shaking his head as he withdrew his gaze. Only Na-in remained on the first step, looking deep, deep into the basement. He turned only after noticing me watching him.

His prayer was just one word.

"Amen."

I patted Na-in's shoulder once, then climbed the stairs beside him at the very rear. We would not torment the dead for the sake of curiosity.