Chapter 8 - The Armed Forces Briefing

I, Baek Je-min, take pride in having spent all twenty-eight years of my life doing my utmost to have fun.

Who marked the same choice all the way down his answer sheet and slept like a baby even during the college entrance exam? Yours truly. While everyone else scribbled away with their futures on the line, I nodded off, frolicking in my dreams to the lullaby of pens scratching paper.

If my friends saw me filling out a questionnaire amid all this fervor, they would finally understand what the end times looked like. A trickle of cold sweat down their spines would probably tell them the world was falling apart. That was how grave and solemn the atmosphere was in the first-round interview room inside Suwon City Hall. People in every imaginable outfit, religious figures among them, sat mingled together, their pens scratching away.

The questions went like this.

[1. Describe the localized penetrative alteration activity you have performed—that is, any phenomenon you have caused that defies established physical laws or common sense.]

I agonized over my first answer. How much did the military really know about magic? When even I didn't properly understand it, was it wise to reveal the value of my magic so readily? I was effectively showing my hand first. Of course I felt anxious and uncomfortable.

But I had no other option. Given that the fog had started appearing in late November 2027, the government must have been dealing with these bizarre phenomena and monsters for at least about two months. I decided to treat my answer as the price of access to that information.

[I can see how another party will move roughly ten or so seconds in advance.]

Next came the second question. This one was obviously meant to screen people out.

[2. Describe what role the characters shared by the military played in enabling you to use magic, and how you were able to read them.]

The military already had no doubts about the usefulness of magic. At the very least, they clearly knew that the characters disguised as crooked writing were directly connected to it. In that case, they must also have deduced that true understanding was only possible in the fog, and that there were no separate right or wrong interpretations. If they were too incompetent to figure out even that much in two months, I doubted they could have held out this long.

I had no faith in the Republic of Korea Armed Forces, but I answered while praying they possessed at least that much intelligence.

[Was able to grasp them in the fog.]

Most of the questions after that concerned religion. What religion did I believe in? What was my view of the afterlife? What did I think of other established religions? And so on. They pried into every last detail, right down to how often I'd visited fortune-tellers and whether I liked tarot cards. I wondered if any of this was really necessary for a mage, but accepted it for what it was and kept writing.

Around the time I finished the questionnaire, the proctor who had been quietly supervising us blew a whistle.

TWEEEEET!

"Stop what you're doing. Everyone can leave now. We'll take care of the questionnaires and writing implements, so return to the waiting area."

That was the end of the first-round interview.

Leaving the testing room they called an interview room, I followed First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi straight into the break room. The driver, a mere private first class, had returned from smoking a cigarette and thoughtfully prepared instant coffee mix for us in advance.

"Loyalty, sir! Made it with Maxim Mocha Gold."

"Mmm. Good. Let's do our best together."

"Yes, sir!"

First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi cheerfully accepted a paper cup, took a sip, and gestured toward the sofa. Taking the cue to sit, I accepted the coffee the driver handed me and sank down.

SLURP...

Only after the warm coffee wet my throat did I finally relax a little. Shin looked at me, raised his eyebrows, and spoke.

"You'll pass the first-round interview easily, Mr. Baek. Almost no one who encounters a monster during night watch survives unless they can perform localized penetrative alteration activity."

"Then can't I just go straight to the second round?"

"At times like this, things need to run as though we're following the rules."

"The military isn't exactly a stickler for rules."

"Haha. But it is a place where we fake things to make them look by the book. If the fakery looks real, it is by the book. Haven't you heard that one?"

Shin tipped his chin toward the driver as well.

"Have some coffee and take a break. Oh, and don't go telling anyone what you hear here, all right?"

"Yes, sir! Enjoy your break, sir!"

"The restrooms will be crowded. You said your phone's battery was dead? I'll lend you mine. Try calling your parents."

"Th... thank you, sir!"

The brisk, thoroughly disciplined driver accepted Shin's phone with trembling hands.

While the driver tucked himself into a corner and tried to make a call, Shin and I looked at each other over our coffee. I spoke first.

"That monster. You know the one, right? What does the military call it?"

Shin glanced at the driver in the corner, then answered with a sigh.

"Amalgam."

"Amalgam?"

Was he talking about the stuff dentists used for fillings? At my incredulous question, Shin let out a hollow laugh.

"It was the first monster discovered and classified within the Restricted-Access Zones. Monster. There really isn't any other word for it. Its official designation is 'head-fusion mimic beast.'"

"Tell me more. Fuck, you keep trying to hide things from someone who nearly died because of it."

Thinking about how they'd put me on night watch without telling me anything about that monster made a wildfire flare inside me. I wanted to unleash every curse I knew. As if he sensed how I felt, Shin tapped his paper cup with his index finger, then finally gave in and explained.

"It targets its victims' heads or faces and lures them into physical contact. Once they touch, they melt and fuse together. Remember when I told you it takes a squad of at least eight people forming a curtain of fire to repel one?"

"Yes, of course."

"Repel. Not kill."

I saw the driver's shoulders twitch at that, but Shin and I both deliberately pretended not to notice.

"The monster's main body is the fused head. We've determined that the bodies are closer to... accessory organs supporting its vital functions. Shooting the bodies of the victims it has devoured can limit its movement, but it uses those bodies as shields or bait to provoke instinctive human reactions, then lunges in all at once and attempts to fuse."

"Have you tried dissecting one?"

"Even shooting the head, its main body, has little effect. Our current hypothesis is that killing it completely requires destroying every cell by burning it, rapidly cooling it, or exposing it to extraordinarily intense radiation. It's so dangerous that even recovering the corpse is prohibited. And there's something else that's horrifying."

Shin frowned as he crumpled his empty paper cup.

"There's a reason we named it a mimic beast. It can imitate its victims' voices. No one can tell whether that's the victims' actual consciousness or just the monster imitating them. The military classified them as monsters and issued shoot-to-kill orders long ago. And... sometimes this monster has a single head, just like an ordinary human. The difficulty of distinguishing it from civilians is a critical problem."

For a while, I couldn't speak. So he was saying that a monster that horrific had been roaming the fog-heavy parts of Seoul for two months.

"How have you been taking them down for those two months?"

"We have countermeasures. We temporarily lower its body temperature with fire hydrants or extinguishers to slow it down, then pour a curtain of fire over its entire body to restrict its actions before incinerating it. We anticipated some spread of fire, so we brought in firefighters as well."

I started to snap back, then stopped. I understood why the government hadn't said anything. If they'd announced that monsters were running wild and devouring people, all of Seoul would already have descended into panic. If only the fog hadn't spread, maintaining relative order in the regions outside Seoul would have been easier.

Shin tossed the paper cup into the trash with a troubled expression.

"I haven't seen one in person either, only in recorded footage. It was fucking awful. But once you're confirmed as an Operator, you'll be seeing more."

"What?"

"I said it was the first monster discovered and classified."

Shin smacked his lips for no particular reason and stared at the wall as though looking into the distance.

"At present, there are three monsters, including the amalgam, that the military has definitively named and established some countermeasures for. Beyond those, we estimate there are another ten or so types of suspected monsters whose existence is supported only by rumors or circumstantial evidence, with no footage or concrete understanding of them yet."

"Fucking hell."

The curse escaped before I knew it. I still had coffee left, so I slurped down the rest and tossed the paper cup at Shin's feet.

TAP.

"I'm serious. If you can't evacuate my mom and dad, you're dead, and so am I. You fucking bastards."

"Yes. We do have to guarantee that for you. In return, let's cooperate."

Shin countered with easy affability.

* * *

The first-round interview results came out about three hours later.

January 7, 2:56 p.m.

Following Shin, I went deeper into Suwon City Hall, passing between soldiers maintaining tight security. We arrived at an operations room with all the curtains drawn and dehumidifiers humming away.

Waiting there were a Catholic priest in clerical robes, a pastor with distinctive wrinkles around his eyes, an elderly Buddhist monk in monastic robes, a foreigner who hadn't removed his turban even under these circumstances, a shaman wearing something like prayer beads around the neck, and, finally, four soldiers in combat uniforms like mine.

The operations room was already teeming with company-grade and field-grade officers. From among them, a colonel who had deliberately removed his name tag stepped forward.

"You should now understand the nature of this crisis, unprecedented since the founding of the Republic of Korea."

The colonel surveyed the room wearily, his eyes bloodshot from what must have been many sleepless nights, his broken-out skin left untended.

"Those gathered here are the people in southern Gyeonggi Province whom the Republic of Korea Armed Forces has identified as capable of performing localized penetrative alteration activity. Considering the circumstances through which you awakened what is commonly called magic, and the usefulness of the magic you possess... the Armed Forces hereby appoints you as civilian advisers and requests your cooperation. To that end, we wish to provide you with a detailed briefing."

The colonel stepped aside, and the projector displayed a PowerPoint presentation. Frowning at that distinctive presentation format I'd seen endlessly during my military service, I took my seat. The others glanced at me, then returned their attention to the slides. Holding a pointer, the colonel tapped the screen and explained the situation.

"Beginning on November 24, 2027, this fog appeared in northern Seoul, in the vicinity of Bukhansan. The first documented field encounter with the head-fusion mimic beast known as an amalgam occurred at 2:43 a.m. on December 3, 2027, as reported by police officers responding to calls from local residents. The government first became aware of it through footage showing it attempting an attack near a police substation, then fleeing after being startled by the siren."

The timeline spilled from the colonel's mouth into the silence. His delivery was utterly matter-of-fact, and that only made everyone listening shudder.

"Beginning on December 14, 2027, the fog spread rapidly, making it difficult for existing police forces alone to respond. The military began deploying units under the Capital Defense Command under the pretext of community service. To prevent these movements from frightening the public, information was restricted while the reassignment of personnel and material resources and the selection of staging sites began. Around this time, characters related to magic were discovered and collected based on sightings and testimony from civilians, military personnel, and police officers... Simultaneously, reports of disappearances believed to have been caused by amalgams began to rise sharply."

As the slides advanced, the images displayed the number of missing-person reports over time, along with their geographic range and locations.

"Of concern are the amalgams' active hours, their range, and the list of victims. They are believed to operate primarily between midnight and around four in the morning, concentrating on alleyways and undeveloped areas conducive to ambushes. We suspect they began by hunting vulnerable populations inadequately protected by social safety nets. Through local community organizations that frequently engage in volunteer work and community outreach, the government estimates that the actual number of disappearances is 642, rather than 200. This suggests that amalgams are not mere beasts, but possess sufficient intelligence to understand and infiltrate human society..."

The colonel with the missing name tag looked our way again as he continued.

"At present, the Armed Forces' highest priority is sealing off Seoul. We have provisionally abandoned the cities near northern Seoul, while maintaining communications and administration with coastal cities such as Incheon via the west coast. We are conducting repeated reconnaissance missions into Seoul to classify these monsters, with securing characters related to magic set as a top-priority objective."

"..."

"We will now take questions from our civilian advisers."

But no one could ask a question right away.

I stole a glance at Shin. Noticing my gaze, he merely shrugged and gave me an awkward smile.

The situation was... worse than I'd thought.