Chapter 455

The brief pause was just a little joke to lighten the mood. Of course, I’ll follow your instructions to the letter. My master!

I feel like I unnecessarily typed in an Earth language.

It’s a somewhat unreliable prototype overall. But since I had no other tool I could actually use for the time being, I carefully left the tawny golem in Korea and immediately began making plans.

'Put simply, it’s also the period when the guild’s shutters are down, so maybe this is for the best.'

Today, I had to visit somewhere much farther away than Japan. Reaching my destination with [Teleportation] alone would require just a little more mana than I currently had.

'Hmm.'

It really was only a 'tiny' bit short. After all, I had already forced my way to Japan and back using long-distance spatial movement. That alone showed just how much effort I had put into improving all this time.

'I should have removed the tumor sooner. All I did was cut away the cells that weren’t doing their job, and surprisingly, breathing feels so much easier...'

As my magic gradually returned, everything began falling into place with ease. Of course, there were still plenty of ways for me to grow stronger, but my current power was already more than sufficient for dealing with Earthlings. So I decided to put off any further enhancements for now.

What came next was an official overseas assignment.

I didn’t enter my target country directly. First, I passed through Hanoi, then crossed the border using spatial teleportation—a method that was, frankly, nothing short of classic illegal entry.

'Back in Alphauri, this is something I couldn’t even have dreamed of.'

The energy source used to maintain barriers on this planet was limited, so it couldn’t be helped.

The larger a country’s territory, the more its defense budget was drained by the need to protect its vast borders...

'I’ve heard that places like the Hexagon or the Pentagon put up barriers even if it means swallowing astronomical costs.'

Anyway, people capable of spatial teleportation were extremely rare, and no country would bankrupt itself just to catch a handful of slippery intruders. So once again, I was able to set foot on foreign soil without encountering any real obstacles.

'The scenery is...'

But when I arrived at the coordinates the Japanese resident had given me, an unimaginable sight unfolded before my eyes.

'How gruesome.'

An old building with a roof that had fallen into disrepair. Wild animal droppings. The corpse of a gate monster. And all sorts of other things.

'People making disaster movies wouldn’t even need to spend money on building a set.'

This was one of the so-called "abandoned zones" commonly found on Earth. The number of hunters was always limited, while gates had seemed to appear endlessly ever since the Dungeon Shock era.

'Regions with small populations don’t tend to spawn high-grade monsters, but that doesn’t mean the city itself is guaranteed to be safe.'

For reference, if a feeding box was left unattended in a wasteland, its output would naturally decrease. Considering that it was essentially a trap designed to harvest suffering, that made perfect sense.

'Right. What kind of fisherman would cast a net where all the fish are already dead?'

So humanity deliberately abandoned land with little agricultural value and too few inhabitants, concentrating infrastructure in specific regions instead. Of course, in a communist country, where populations could be distributed evenly among cities, this kind of management would be adopted even more often.

'In contrast, Korea has a small land area and a high population density, so there haven’t been any similar cases.'

Crumble.

I slipped into the collapsed city and steadied my breathing.

Sssshk...

Something had been making a crawling sound for a while now...

Well, for the moment, I decided to ignore such trivial things.

'If I follow the open road from here, I’ll reach the state-run hospital.'

I took only a brief look.

'But I’m an illegal entrant who’ll be arrested the moment a local spots me. So I’ll go the opposite way.'

Honestly, there was no need for me to personally seek out the nurse the Fifth S-rank had mentioned. I already knew where the artificial-awakening broker ultimately directed people.

'If they know routes that avoid CCTV and can even smuggle an awakened person across the borders of such a heavily guarded country... then it’s safe to assume that group is either a resistance organization or working hand-in-hand with the state.'

This was what lay before me on the outskirts of a certain Asian country, where the scars of the Dungeon Shock still remained.

Red appeared ahead of me. Then blue. Then red again, blue, red, blue—and, on rare occasions, white.

'As expected, these are abandoned gates.'

Countless monster nests filled my vision.

According to the testimony of Japan’s newest S-rank hunter, some civilians had brazenly occupied one of those many gates and were carrying out unauthorized medical procedures inside.

But until I reached that underground clinic, I couldn’t afford to let my guard down.

Kaaaaaaaah...!

Of course, the problem wasn’t the fake dinosaur-looking creatures spilling out of the Red Gate.

The real issue was that plenty of functioning CCTV cameras were still scattered throughout the ruined city. So I took the shortcut the Fifth S-rank had told me about and moved while keeping myself hidden.

First, look for a shantytown nearby.

It would have been convenient if I could teleport directly into the gate in one go. But teleporting into a space that had already been separated from the world was something even an Archmage had to think very, very carefully about.

'It’s not that I can’t do it... It’s just a pain to calculate everything.'

A fleeting thought crossed my mind.

They cleared away the webs just enough for people to squeeze through. If you find a clean passage on the first floor, stick to that route.

Riding a hunk of scrap metal floating through the sky was one thing.

Now I was being forced to walk hunched over through streets plastered with protein-like webs.

In a situation like this, it was only natural for complaints to start bubbling up in my head.

'I’m already busy enough dealing with the Gisimche—so why am I always the one going through this kind of crap?'

It was a question even I couldn’t help but agree with.

'Phew. Well, at least there’s a chance that kid is involved this time. And as for that guy... I guess there’s no helping it, since I never fully settled my debt with him back during [Beast]...'

Still, there was no change in the plan.

'Those damn troublesome bastards.'

With my magic power overflowing, I could now even manipulate humans through hypnosis, making investigations quick and easy.

Step.

Step.

But there was one thing I was worried about...

Tak.

I stopped in the middle of the passage and examined a nearby building.

The windows were clogged with dust and had lost most of their function, but through a few patches of exposed glass, I could still make out my reflection.

Freckles.

Those tiny spots that occasionally appeared on mammals.

'Am I overdoing it?'

As you can probably tell from this appearance, I ended up using my old disguise method again.

No matter how many human faces I studied, I still couldn’t clearly categorize them. If I tried creating an entirely new face on my own, there was a high chance it would fall straight into uncanny valley territory, so I had resorted to this method instead.

But honestly, the more I thought about it, the more I realized how many problems this approach could cause.

"Hmm."

America. Korea. Japan.

And now, in a republic notorious for its tight security, the same foreigner had appeared yet again...

Moreover, whenever this face showed up, violence and bloodshed usually followed.

In other words, if everything this Archmage had done while wearing this disguise ever came to light all at once, then by human standards, it would inevitably be utterly terrifying.

'That’s going to cause a huge controversy.'

But well...

Surely, such a disaster wouldn’t actually happen, right?

'Hmm.'

As long as I cleaned up the evidence properly, nothing that happened today would muddy the waters of Korea’s hunter industry.

With that conviction, I continued on my way.

'Finally, I’ve arrived.'

At the end of the wall, through an opening barely larger than a rabbit hole, I found none other than a single Blue Gate.

'There’s a chance the enemy has already been caught or fled, but let’s go in and at least scrape together whatever scraps of information we can.'

But just as I discovered my destination...

Tak, tak, tak, tak.

A guest appeared.

It had eight legs.

And, like creatures I had often seen in my younger days, it had more than two eyes.

'It’s something like a giant tarantula. Anyway, these psychic beings really lack creativity. Almost as much as I do.'

This immediately explained why I had been hearing something crawling around all this time.

The creature that appeared from the ceiling was a monster native to the nearby Blue Gate.

For reference, its proper name was [Ant-Envious Spider].

'Looks like I really did come to the right place.'

This was a zone that had gone through the cycle of gates forming and collapsing far too many times.

No wonder the hungry parasitic entities of the universe finally seemed to have lost their minds—or whatever was left of them.

'I heard the inside is structured like a tangled maze of countless ant tunnels.'

The dungeon I was about to enter could even be considered an imitation of the [Mimic City].

'Since the Gisimche are giving away the land for free, mammals of every nationality just keep claiming space.'

And, of course, it shared the biggest flaw of [Mimic City].

Criminals used it as a hideout.

'Let’s go in for now.'

I checked once more to make sure the disguise on my face was properly in place, then moved forward.

As I entered the Blue Gate rumored to house an illegal clinic, the first thing I saw was a small cave that looked as though a single chamber had been taken straight out of an ant’s nest.

Kiiiek.

Moreover, the spider-like monsters that appeared there didn’t recklessly approach humans.

'It’s a cave, so why the heck are there thorny vines all of a sudden?'

Of course, it wasn’t because they recognized the stature of an Archmage.

I had simply hidden my mana so thoroughly that the spiders couldn’t decide, 'Is that prey or not...?' and therefore didn’t rush at me.

'Hmm?'

But just as I began exploring, I immediately withdrew the [Hypnosis] spell I had been preparing to activate at any moment.

Then, surprised, I examined the flow of thoughts that had suddenly flashed through my mind.

'Inside this gate...'

This place had another peculiarity, aside from the fact that it possessed dozens of entrances.

'What a mess.'

I passed through a barren cave without so much as a drop of water.

As I ventured deeper, a sudden burst of brilliant light poured out.

'And it still seems to be mixing with other spaces? What on earth did the losers in this dungeon corner do to the feeding boxes?'

The core of this dungeon was dominated by a white space, as though milk had been poured across everything.

***

"Japan."

Early in the morning.

Actually, it was less like milk and more like voices flowing through a space filled with the cold light of a mortuary lamp.

"I heard Japan is a conservative country."

"...."

"But since they provide S-rank hunters to their own country, the response isn’t as bad as I expected."

The person who had just begun speaking was an elderly human.

Age had caused his eyelids to sag and partially obscure his vision, but the eyes beneath them still shone brightly—a distinctive feature of his face.

"There may be strong backlash for a while because side effects are appearing everywhere. But as long as we clearly demonstrate the potential of 'artificial awakening'..."

"A pharmaceutical company."

"Exactly as you said. By borrowing the name of a pharmaceutical company, we may eventually rake in astronomical sums once the catalyst becomes more stable."

"...."

"Come to think of it, there’s no word in this world that simplifies the principle of action quite as neatly as money does."

"It sounds a little like an excuse."

"Which part of that sounded like an excuse, Sir?"

The person leading the conversation moved his hand.

The hand that picked up what looked like a dropper was covered in jewelry.

A natural ruby ring that could fetch at least twenty million won even secondhand. A guard ring encrusted with diamonds. And more besides.

But the bracelet beneath them hadn’t been made by humans.

The entity that created the gate seemed like an elder incapable of keeping up with changing trends. Even now, designs that would only have been favored in the medieval era frequently appeared inside dungeons.

"Anyway, I still think the next base should be somewhere cooler."

The elderly man, adorned with dangling artifacts, gazed toward a table set some distance away.

"I won’t be able to move until the waves of awakening side effects die down. Ugh, to think I have to spend yet another stretch of my short remaining life waiting endlessly..."

The old man continued speaking in the white space.

"You’re lucky to be young."

But the man listening to him didn’t respond.

He remained silent for a long time, holding an empty flask in front of him.

As he stared intently at the markings on the glassware, his gaze looked almost reptilian.