Chapter 80 - Everyone Survives

There were only five fully armed soldiers in three rubber boats, but the sight of them was immensely reassuring. I couldn't remember the last time we'd encountered proper human beings.

Still, the weight of our baggage meant we had to divide ourselves up.

Before anyone else could move, I hauled myself onto the boat with just one soldier in it, grunting with the effort.

"The fewer people, the better."

"If you can board without any trouble, Je-min, it must be safe."

Hamza followed me onto the same boat. Whenever it rocked slightly under our weight, the rosaries, Buddhist prayer beads, pentagram necklaces, and other objects dangling from knots on the handles clattered together like chain links.

And Go Ryeo-ha, the college girl in the black mask, stepped onto my boat as if it were only natural.

"Heave-ho! Whew, this feels like a dream. Are we really getting out?"

"Probably."

"Huh? You sound awfully subdued, junior."

"I'm always like this."

Ryeo-ha crouched with her legs together and looked at me. Hamza had long since turned away as though none of this concerned him and moved beside the soldier tinkering with the motor.

Maybe a fog named Go Ryeo-ha was about to settle over my life.

That was the moment I realized fogbound Seoul wasn't a place, but a person.

Meanwhile, everyone boarded the three boats. In the end, the distribution looked like this:

A. Me, Hamza, Go Ryeo-ha, and one soldier. Four total.

B. Pastor Park Yo-han, Shin Na-in, the soldier handling the radio, and another soldier. Four total.

C. Lee Se-jun and two soldiers. Three total.

Se-jun's personal load was so heavy that he counted as two people.

"It's the ammunition weighing me down, so don't give me any grief."

"Se-jun, nobody intends to criticize your body weight. Relax."

While Na-in coldly cut off Se-jun's bullshit across the water, I came under an attack I hadn't anticipated at all.

Ryeo-ha, who had been crouching and staring at me, began pointing at me, twitching only her right index finger.

At first I thought she meant something behind me, so I turned around. I even deliberately shuffled my butt to another spot, but her fingertip followed me. I had no choice but to give up.

"What is it, Teacher?"

"It's been bothering me aaaall along, ever since the beginning. I kept wondering why you felt oddly familiar."

"Sorry?"

"What are you carrying inside your clothes?"

What was I carrying?

Unable to hide my unease, I patted myself all over with both hands, checking my gear. An L-shaped flashlight clipped to my chest, the Magic Crash Course booklet inside, a bag of hardtack in my trouser pocket, a bayonet at my waist, my equipment belt. I'd dumped all the grenades on Se-jun, and there were four magazines in my ammunition pouches...

"Oh, right."

I'd tucked a talisman into the innermost lining, practically against my shirt. Poppy had given it to me before we entered Seoul, making a fuss about how expensive it was, but I'd completely forgotten it.

When I finally pulled it out, its distinctive deep yellow was filthy with grime. Stashed in my innermost pocket, it had apparently become soaked in sweat and shriveled up.

It would have been one thing if I hadn't noticed, but now I felt vaguely disgusted at the thought of putting that dirty paper back. Just then, Ryeo-ha clapped her hands.

CLAP!

"A Spirit-Warding Talisman? You brought one that someone put quite a bit of work into."

"Come to think of it, Teacher, you said you came from a shaman's family too."

A possibility suddenly flashed through my mind.

Maybe this talisman from Poppy was why Ryeo-ha felt such familiarity toward me. Considering how Poppy's goodwill had come back as horrific bad luck, she couldn't be much of a shaman.

Meanwhile, seeing that everyone was aboard, the soldiers restarted the motors.

"We're going past Guri, all the way to Namyangju. Get yourselves braced so you don't fall out, and hold tight to the handles."

"Don't monsters come out of the water?"

"We don't know. Don't ask. You there, the boat carrying two civilian Operators takes the lead. The fog's thick, so be careful not to get separated!"

PUTT-PUTT-PUTT...

The overlapping sounds resembled motorized tillers, and the soldiers grew more forceful.

Hamza and I took the hint and grabbed oars, looking around at the orange rubber boats. It felt... peculiar.

I'd never imagined riding one of these little puttering rubber boats unless a ship was sinking. Life really was bizarre.

At least the soldier on our boat was relatively friendly. He thumped Hamza and me on the shoulders as we sat on either side holding our oars.

"You don't need to row. Please take your weapons and watch all directions."

"Yes, sir. Thanks for your hard work."

The instant he said I didn't have to row, I put my oar down. Hamza tried to quietly do the same, but I immediately reached out to stop him.

"Hamza, you can't even shoot. Why are you putting your oar down? Keep holding it."

"You're so mean, Je-min."

"Then should I take it instead? I may not look it, but I'm a heart mage!"

As if we'd agreed in advance, Hamza and I fell silent and devoted ourselves to our respective roles: I kept watch with my short-barreled AR-15, while Hamza sat politely, ready to row.

"What about me? What should I do?"

"Just sit there. Naturally, a disciple should attend to his teacher."

"Ahaha, what's this? Is that the kind of person you are, junior?"

Ryeo-ha's eyes curved into smiling crescents as she waved her hands in demurral, but anyone who wasn't a completely oblivious, useless fuck would have noticed the atmosphere.

It was icy.

The soldier at the motor glanced over me, Hamza, and Ryeo-ha, then casually looked away from her.

I tucked the so-called Spirit-Warding Talisman back inside my clothes and sighed deeply.

Poppy had clearly said it repelled ghosts and evil things. How strange.

Why was Go Ryeo-ha in the same boat as me, looking at me with so much interest?

If she hadn't sweet-talked me with that promise to make gear, I never would have fallen for it...

As I resentfully slapped my magazine to check that it was seated, our escape began in earnest. The stern-faced soldier holding the radio handset in the lead boat gestured, and the boats began to slide away.

"Heave-ho. All right, let's head back."

"I'll take that, Pastor."

Boat B moved first. Na-in pushed it off with an oar in the pastor's place, while one soldier shouldered his rifle and aimed at the fog-filled riverbank, where visibility was under fifty meters.

With its motor humming, Boat B carried the pastor and Na-in through the water.

Watching them go, it finally sank in.

We really were leaving Seoul.

I pulled my poncho hood back over my head, feeling strange. I certainly felt relieved to be moving away from danger, but my regret at moving farther from learning magic was greater.

Our Boat A went next. The loud, crude motor made the rubber of my gas mask vibrate, and its characteristic foul odor stabbed at my nose along with the fishy smell of the water.

I slowly shouldered my rifle and aimed at different patches of fog, though inwardly I thought it was pointless. If neither Hamza's doctrinal magic nor Na-in's detection-focused ear magic could work properly, keeping watch with the naked eye was meaningless.

I was merely humoring the soldiers because I understood their paranoid vigilance.

Ryeo-ha hugged her legs together and calmly closed her eyes in her crouch. Hamza laid his oar diagonally beside him and looked all around. The soldier's eyes wavered with anxiety.

Carrying us, Boat A powered through the current, following in the wake of the leading Boat B. Still, we had to stay within visual range, so we weren't moving as quickly as I'd expected.

The soldiers probably wanted to race ahead at full speed, but apparently the thick fog prevented it.

I watched moisture from the fog and the water we cut through bead on my gas mask lenses. Only when I instinctively raised my left hand to wipe it away did I realize how ravaged that hand had become.

I rubbed the water off the lenses with my fingertips and let out a little laugh.

At last, I understood the entry in the journal one of the survivors had left behind when we'd first encountered a teratoma. Only after looking at my pain-scarred left hand and realizing how much suffering I'd endured, and how often, could I grasp the meaning of those words.

How had it gone? Humanity cannot win because it loves itself too much?

My laughter soon stopped. I brushed the beads of water off the rubber of my gas mask and sighed deeply.

It was certainly true.

Those who refuse to suffer because they consider themselves too precious degenerate into monsters. Those who believe they possess absolute worth simply by existing from birth, and deserve respect solely on that basis, meet their ruin.

Those who believe in God, or can offer themselves up for power.

Only those who realize that humans have no inherent worth, that they can resist monsters only by accomplishing something or being prepared to sacrifice themselves for something, survive.

Those unprepared for pain are trapped in monstrous bodies, left at the threshold of eternity, pleading for someone to kill them. Only those who willingly accept pain have a chance to defy this hell.

In this hell, only those not blinded by love for themselves could resist.

Had the government of the Republic of Korea been excessively concerned with human rights, the Korean Peninsula would already have fallen.

People who asked how choosing to kill ten million could be competent, who called it incompetence if not everyone could be saved yet offered no alternative, would have been unable to stand against this absurdity.

I understood them. And because I understood, I also realized they could not survive.

Those people weren't stupid or dim-witted. They wanted their survival to remain an absolute constant, outside the realm of reason and rationality. That was why they didn't want to accept the situation, or the very choice, of having to prepare for suffering in order to survive.

SHHHHH...

I could see Se-jun and the two soldiers in Boat C, which had caught up behind us, aiming their rifles in various directions. After leaving the bank and passing a concrete bridge, the boats were accelerating.

Rocking with every small wave we struck, I slowly closed my eyes and smiled bitterly.

My choice had been right.

I was proud of my decision, of realizing that the suffering endured for magic was salvation, self-development, and the only reward in this life guaranteed to return one hundred percent in proportion to the pain.

The dream of becoming Baek Je-min the archmage truly had been the best choice of my life...

KRRRRRUNCH!!!!

A deafening noise.

Something was being ground up.

Everyone looked toward Boat B up ahead. One of the soldiers in Boat C, which had just weathered a rolling wave, shouted.

"What? What's happening over there?"

"We've got a situation! Hold your fire! Risk of friendly fire is too high!"

The soldier who'd been handling the radio was the first to adjust his grip on his rifle and aim beneath the water.

BANG! BANG-BANG!

Spent casings kept tumbling into the boat, but nothing improved. The motor screamed, and the radio soldier could do nothing but spray bullets into the water near it.

At that moment, I reflexively used Eye, Stage One, adjusting my grip on my rifle. I figured I could end this quickly if I stepped in.

"..."

"J-Je-min."

Hamza finally spoke in a trembling voice. I didn't need to hear the rest.

I was already seeing it.

To the naked eye, the water was clearly transparent. People called the Han River dirty, but compared with blood or filthy water, it was incomparably clean.

Yet the Han River looked very different through Eye, Stage One—the sight that showed red footprints ten seconds into the future.

The river was gradually turning red, like water with red paint dissolving in it. Very slowly, as though someone were adjusting each RGB value with a slider, pixel by pixel.

That was when I heard sharp, splashing impacts.

WHAP! WHAAP!

"Begone, Satan!!!"

Na-in was striking the water with his oar. It had been a long time since I'd seen him resist with such desperation, urgency, and fanaticism.

The same problem struck the other boats.

THUD!

I forcibly steadied myself as the sudden collision threw me off balance. Everyone lurched to one side or nearly fell over. My stomach churned, but there was no time to waste. I hurriedly looked around; everyone was in much the same situation.

Our Boat A and Se-jun's Boat C slowed drastically amid grinding noises. We were clearly in the middle of the Han River, yet all three boats were stuck side by side, unable to move.

I've always been prone to severe motion sickness, so I sprawled onto the boat to ease the nausea even a little. From that position, I noticed changes in the religious symbols dangling from its handles.

The silver links of the pentagram necklace had rusted bright red, as though rotting away.

SNAP!

The pentagram cracked and sank into the water with its broken chain links. The rosaries and Buddhist prayer beads suffered the same fate.

SNAP-SNAP!

The knotted rosary broke, sending its beads rolling down. Lacquered Buddhist beads mixed with them and plopped beneath the surface.

You'd think at least one might float, but every last one sank deep into the water and quickly vanished.

"Aaaagh! Agh!"

In a panic, Hamza copied Na-in and began beating the water with his oar. I heard droplets pattering onto my hood.

Meanwhile, Ryeo-ha remained crouched, wiggling her feet and flexing Fire Marquis Hands as though nothing were wrong.

"Hmm-hmm... The water energy is too strong for Fire Marquis Hands. There isn't enough fire energy to make an explosion."

With even guns proving useless, I hadn't expected anything. Still, she was eerily calm. Apparently, prolonged exposure to Seoul's horrendous conditions had wrecked her ability to recognize danger.

Just then, an unexpected boom rang out.

KABOOOOOM!!!

I turned toward the sound as a column of water shot upward. The culprit was Se-jun in Boat C. He rolled a grenade with its pin pulled across his hand like a baseball, exhaling briefly through his gas mask.

"It's Cruncher!"

"What?"

"I saw it just now! This thing's Cruncher!"

Apparently, that grenade had worked. The grinding from the motors diminished, and the boats regained speed. Se-jun staggered, then perched back on the boat, gripping his grenade tightly.

From that point onward, we Supreme Mages took the initiative instead of the soldiers. The instant the pastor heard the name Cruncher, he gestured toward us and shouted.

"Go! Before it catches us!"

And the soldiers trusted their survival instincts over the chain of command.

VROOOOOOM!!!

I'd never known rubber boats could move this fast. I could see dense particles of fog whipping past. Droplets on my gas mask lenses streamed sideways and flew off.

Naturally, greater speed brought worse motion sickness. I deftly tore off my gas mask and immediately bent toward the water.

"Bleeuuurgh..."

"Aaaagh! Je-min! Get up!!!"

I could feel Hamza grabbing me, pounding my back and shaking me, but none of that works on someone with fucking terrible motion sickness.

Hugging my rifle and feeling it dig into me, I vomited up everything in my stomach. As I emptied myself out, an untimely chase was unfolding in the middle of the Han River.

BANG-BANG! BANG-BANG-BANG...

Someone fires at the thing approaching beneath the water.

CLUNK!

My body sways with the wave-tossed boat, feeling the vibration. Apparently, Se-jun has pulled another pin and thrown a grenade.

But what made me listen was the anxious voice of the soldier handling the motor and tiller.

"We should have arrived by now. Why the hell...!"

Inspiration struck. Even through the dizziness, I rolled my eyes toward the boat's handles. The pentagram necklaces, rosaries, and Buddhist prayer beads had dwindled noticeably as they continually unraveled and snapped.

With the intuition of a herbivore encountering a predator for the first time, I understood.

The moment all of those broke, we would be trapped.

That was when something vibrated against my chest.

BZZZ...

A vibration I hadn't felt in a while came from my inner chest pocket. Vomiting, with the world spinning before my eyes, I fumbled at my chest.

My search lasted longer than when I'd experienced being one-eyed, was more urgent than when I'd been one-eyed, and more desperate than when I'd braced myself to lose an eye.

At last, my fingers reached it.

BZZZ...

CLICK.

A familiar name awaited me on the sorcery phone's screen.

[Cheong-hwi: Je-min. You must have been confused when I left without saying a proper goodbye.]

Behind me as I sprawled on the boat, the radio soldier's voice rang out urgently. A man facing a situation beyond anything he'd prepared for, an absurdity beyond his imagination, was shouting desperately.

"Air support! Air support... What's suddenly wrong with the signal!?"

[Cheong-hwi: But that must have given you another reason to firm up your resolve to enter Seoul.]

KA-TALK.

The next message arrives.

[Cheong-hwi: Now I will give you an answer.]

The boat's motor, gunshots, falling casings, grenades exploding underwater, and a familiar voice pursuing us furiously through the current...

I gently closed my eyes and had to dwell on the voice we'd thought we'd driven away.

"I s a i d I w a s h u n g r y."

KA-TALK.

The monster howling in a human voice overlapped with the voice composed of calm written words. I opened my eyes again.

[Cheong-hwi: The military cannot resolve this crisis. Magic is a path open to everyone, but not everyone can climb to the very end. And I hope you will climb all the way, Je-min.]

TAP-TAP!

I, Baek Je-min, say what needs saying.

[Me: Bullshit]

[Cheong-hwi: Throw the sorcery phone into the Han River. Then you should be able to escape the fog of the other shore. You will also learn why you must not use the Han River.]

[Me: To stop us from decoding the sorcery phone?]

[Cheong-hwi: It is also to send you and your companions safely on your way. Next time, don't use the Han River. Simply escape on foot. I hope we can meet next time.]

[Me: Next time?]

[Cheong-hwi: I know you will return.]

I clenched the sorcery phone hard. I had to decide quickly.

The phone's value. Escape.

My desire to explore magic clashed with the instinct telling me none of it mattered if I couldn't get out. Even if this wasn't a genuine sorcery phone, mystics and scholars outside could interpret its principles.

If I could just take it out, we could use one of the Society of 66's means of communication.

If I could just take it out...

SPLASH!

A wave smacked me in the face. The water reeked, but it jolted me back to my senses.

I gave the sorcery phone a final goodbye kiss and stood up.

"Je-min! Use your eye magic, now!"

Hamza's frantic fussing.

"Hmm-hmm... Ahaha, junior? What are you planning?"

With Ryeo-ha's laughter weighing on me, I thought.

Pain has meaning only while I'm alive. The same goes for my magic.

The moment I die, my learning ends. As long as I live, it will continue.

My despair is not death, but the inability to learn more because of death. The closed possibility of advancing no farther—that is my despair.

I shouted to make myself a promise.

"Seoul! I, Baek Je-min, will return!"

With that vow, I hurled the sorcery phone as hard as I could.

"I'll come back and plunder every scrap of knowledge buried here!"

I threw it with all my strength. After that final goodbye kiss, I had no lingering attachment to the phone.

That was when the airborne phone's screen began shining more brightly, like a sun lamp. It was like a lantern driving away the musty air of a dark forest or basement. Everywhere it passed, the fog cleared completely, revealing the surroundings.

Then it struck the water.

SPLASH!

Only I, who kept my eyes on the phone to the very end, noticed the change. What lay beneath the surface, hidden under the dense fog, became clear.

More precisely...

The true appearance of what lay beneath the water, disguised by the mirror of its surface, was revealed.

The fish I'd occasionally glimpsed vanished without a trace. The Han River's water, where debris, branches, or at least garbage should have floated, took on a chillingly cold, heavy hue.

There was no murky green of dirty, algae-filled water, no warning red of a red tide or red footprints, no yellow sunlight shimmering and breaking on the waves, no rainbow scattering from the scales of fish near the surface.

The Han River beneath the fog was no longer ordinary. With the surrounding fog cleared and all murkiness gone from its water, it resembled the aphotic zone of the deep sea.

Pitch-black darkness, untouched by even a single ray of light.

Yet it was a dizzying void without a speck of impurity, where one beam alone could coldly reveal hundreds of meters around it and kilometers into the depths.

Aquatic plants grown grotesquely like hair tilted things resembling scallop eyeballs toward the sinking phone. Swimming Crunchers followed its screen, undulating their five appendages like tentacles as they descended beneath the surface, deeper into the lightless zone.

The dark depths were so transparent and clear that they distorted perspective. Even the wreckage of a downed fighter jet on that distant bottom was visible, if only as a dot.

All manner of creatures that had remained unseen until now were submerged in the deep sea beneath the fog.

All the familiar animals that might have lived in Seoul had become water-swollen corpses, food for a new ecosystem.

Dogs, birds, cats, guinea pigs, snakes...

Animals I knew well.

Things that belonged on Earth had been dragged into a deep-sea river that should never have existed, becoming offerings to this bizarre new ecosystem.

In those chillingly transparent, cold depths, so clear that a single beam could illuminate everything, recently swallowed animals sank slowly.

As they sank, they were torn apart and devoured.

The things that had fled the fog swam through the Han River, busy increasing their size by entangling countless animal corpses into themselves.

Swarms of Skin-jellyfish, which had once drifted through the air, streamed blood and pus like ink, creating new waves within the current. Crunchers swam leisurely, chewing up those jellyfish by the handful.

The centipedes that had flown through the sky now swam grotesquely after the phone's light through this new deep sea, using the screams of the humans composing them, making the transformed Han River vibrate.

Among the monsters that had fled the fog and hidden in the depths were enormous things I had never dared imagine, whose identities I could scarcely guess.

Something like an eel, so huge that even the light of the rapidly sinking phone couldn't illuminate all of it, sensed the light and pulsed.

My heart beat in time with that pulse.

THUMP.

My heart resounded.

THUMP.

My own heart, no one else's, made me stumble backward, regretting that I was alive.

THUD!

I fell onto my butt. Sitting there, I dragged both hands down my face, doubting my eyes.

More cold sweat ran down my face than the fishy Han River water that had splashed it.

At that moment, exultation steeped in terror rang out behind me.

"It's gone... It's gone!"

"Namyangju, Namyangju, this is the rescue team. Broke through the fog at 11:54. Broke through the fog at 11:54!"

The soldiers were the first to cheer, gasping for breath. The Supreme Mages watched the gradually thinning fog in fear, but only briefly. When familiar artillery fire and gunshots rang out beneath the clear sky, joy returned to their faces.

PUTT-PUTT-PUTT...

As we traveled upstream along the Han River to the sound of the motors, we blinked stupidly for a while. Only after a long time did our escape finally feel real. We looked at one another and let out hollow laughter.

"Heh, hehehe..."

The pastor was the first to pull off his gas mask and look up at the sky. Park Yo-han slung his rifle over his shoulder and pressed his hands together.

"Lord, we thank You. Through Your care, we have survived."

Na-in, who'd been swinging his oar, sat down as though exhausted and joined the pastor's prayer. His headset had come off in the chaos, but his prayer was all the more desperate.

"Amen. Almighty Lord God, make me Your sword. Let me stand without a shred of doubt against the power of Satan, who seeks to blaspheme Your dominion..."

In Boat C, Se-jun exchanged salutes with the soldiers, grinning with all his teeth showing.

"Salute! We survived thanks to you!"

"No, it was thanks to your quick thinking, civilian Operator. Salute!"

"Hahaha! We're comrades in arms, aren't we!"

Only the mood in our Boat A was fucked.

Its lone soldier watched me warily and quietly concentrated on following the lead boat, while Ryeo-ha and Hamza stared at me with concern.

"Junior, we're getting out now. Is something worrying you?"

"You don't look well, Je-min. Your eyes are a bit unfocused too. Let me test you."

Looking at Hamza waving a finger in front of my eyes, I replied firmly.

"Hamza. Don't flip me off."

"Hmm. Cognition is normal."

"Whew."

I clutched my throbbing head and struggled to shake off what I'd just seen. Judging by everyone's reactions, I was the only one who'd seen it. In that case, there was no need to make a fuss.

I would simply focus on doing my best and pursuing my goal.

"Hamza, what time did you say it was?"

"11:54. Je-min... We made it. Every single one of us got out alive!"

"Yeah. It doesn't feel real."

I glanced at Ryeo-ha. She too was occupied with staring blankly at the clear sky. Then her shoulders began to tremble slightly.

She crouched again, but kept looking upward, tears streaming endlessly without a sob.

I slowly shook my head and covered my face with my ravaged left hand, feeling the solid weight of the rifle in my right. A deep, heavy sigh escaped between my fingers.

It was time to take stock of what we'd gained.

"Haaa..."

Our first Seoul expedition had been far more desperate and brutal than we'd expected, and a long ordeal to match.

Shin Na-in. Acquired Ear, Stage Three and Eye, Stage One.

Lee Se-jun. Acquired Heart, Stage Three and Hand, Stage One.

Pastor Park Yo-han. Used his noggin to mediate various disputes. Improved marksmanship.

Hamza. Provided considerable care as our former medical student and porter. His doctrinal magic had clear limitations, but he supported us well in several areas.

Contacted Go Ryeo-ha, leader of the Konkuk University survivor group, and escaped with her.

Confirmed the Society of 66's existence and related information, along with magic systems and numerous unidentified species. Confirmed whether monk Cheong-hwi had joined the Society of 66.

Me, Baek Je-min. Acquired Eye, Stage Three; Ear, Stage One; Hand, Stage Two; and Tongue, Stage Two.

And...

The truth beneath the water.

Should I call it the Han River's transformation into another world? Into a deep sea?

No matter how deep the Han River was, it couldn't be that deep.

We had been mistaken. Because bullets worked, because shelling worked, we'd vaguely assumed physical force alone could resolve the crisis. That firing a nuke could at least force a draw.

That was the end of the world.

And humanity's end had now begun in Seoul, of all places, in the Republic of Korea.

Only I had witnessed that fact, and I felt to my bones where the Society of 66's confidence came from.

Then, as the artillery and gunfire grew steadily clearer, I heard anguished shouting between them.

I took my left hand away from my face.

"A pack of mimic beasts is approaching Namyangju? We just got out of fucking Seoul!"

"You want us to engage? More fighting, here?!"

I gripped my rifle and tilted my neck. Grimacing at the pain of my tongue, sore from so much biting, I looked around.

Three boats traveling upstream on the Han River beneath a clear sky, toward a city blanketed in smoke and flames.

Looking over the Supreme Mages scattered among them, I couldn't help laughing.

Maybe it really was true that the sight of pathetic bastards made you laugh first.

"Supreme Mages."

CLACK.

The solid metallic sound of a firearm struck my ears, and my voice drew the attention of our Supreme Mages.

Pastor Park Yo-han and Na-in, who had been praying.

"Baek Je-min. Good to see you smiling."

"... Heh. A smile worthy of the Lord's holy warrior."

Se-jun, who had been laughing, saluting, and shaking hands with his fellow soldiers.

"Oh! Je-min, come to think of it, you were seasick, weren't you?"

Hamza, who was rubbing his lowered gas mask clean with his sleeve and bursting into tears.

"I never want to go back. Seriously..."

Even Ryeo-ha rubbed her eyes with her sleeve, then looked at me as though it were only natural, her eyes rimmed bright red.

"Yes, junior!"

"Teacher, you stick with Aphorism."

"What?"

I remembered the principle I'd established for myself.

Aphorism handles the shitty stuff.

"Anyway, let's land and show them."

Someone who lives hiding their claws dies having hidden them all their life. I knew exactly how to promote myself in this shitshow.

"Let's show them what it means to have survived eleven days in Seoul."

April 25, 2028, 11:54 a.m.

Expedition day eleven.

Every one of us Supreme Mages had survived.