Chapter 135: The Baek Jemin Report

[Translator – Aren]

May 25th, 2028, 11:16 AM.

I checked the time on the screen of my newly issued authorized phone, then looked around.

Maybe it was because my right eye was covered with an eyepatch, but the world looked different somehow.

Near the fenced-off medical ward.

I could see a court where a bunch of shirtless American soldiers had set up a hoop and were taking three-pointers.

Watching those Americans work up some sweat shooting hoops, it was hard to believe the world was ending. Just a few days ago, we’d been fighting like crazy, yet only a few dozen kilometers away, things were still peaceful. Though there were definitely more soldiers walking around in full gear with guns than before. I sat on a bench under the warm sunlight and absentmindedly tapped the screen of my authorized phone with my thumb.

I kept tapping it, but I couldn’t focus on anything beyond the screen, so I let out a long sigh.

3 days.

About 3 days had passed since Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes and his followers were wiped out.

We Supreme Archmages had spent those 3 days at the Seongnam military hospital, then were flown to a US military camp last night by helicopter. Maybe becoming one-eyed had made my motion sickness worse, because I went through two whole black plastic bags.

There really wasn’t much from those three days that was worth mentioning.

Even I, who usually made an effort to see, hear, feel, and remember everything I could, had squeezed my eye shut, closed my ears, and tried my damndest to just forget the world.

I’d holed up in my hospital room back at the Seongnam military hospital, and as soon as we arrived at the US camp, I wrote up a brief report and came to the medical facility for what they called a comprehensive examination. I wanted to meet Poodle-noona, who’d delivered the Four-Tiger Sword for me, and hear all the details, but the military had restricted contact.

Normally, I would’ve made a whole scene demanding people praise me, but the atmosphere at the US camp was so utterly screwed that even that wasn’t easy.

Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes’ remote killing curses through Tongue-branch, Stage 3 had been that thorough.

-Clatter, clatter—.

At the sound of dog tags, I turned my head and saw soldiers form the blockade line marching solemnly in formation. Behind them, a vehicle carrying a coffin slowly rolled down the road.

The American soldiers on the basketball court stopped dribbling when they saw the procession, quietly straightened up, and saluted.

I got to my feet as well and gave a simple salute.

A plaque mounted near the vehicle’s bumper had the name of the deceased engraved on it.

-Major General Jeon Minho, Commander of the Joint Alteration Operations Group under the Quarantine Command.-

Quarantine Command was the name the Reality Survival Command was known by to the civilians.

It was the same Major General Jeon Minho I knew.

Major General Jeon Minho.

He had been one of the few Korean senior generals in the Korean-US Combined Command, yet despite all the prayers and every holy relic he had wrapped himself in, he hadn’t been able to escape Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes’ curse. Making his name and rank public had probably been fatal.

Should I call it a success just because he’d managed to draw Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes’ attention and managed to block the curse a few times?

I couldn’t hide my mixed feelings.

The next commander of the Joint Alteration Operations Group would most likely be that sleepy-looking Brigadier General Thatcher. Even if they had to promote him for it. And even if it wasn’t Brigadier General Thatcher, the odds of another Korean general taking the post were probably close to none.

The soldiers who had participated in the Seoul blockade had become targets of hatred among our dear citizens, regardless of where they had actually personally taken part in all this and no matter how rational their reasons had been, so it wasn’t surprising.

The US had already tried to abandon the Korean-US Combined Forces Command and bail, only to reorganize it into the Korean-US Combined Command because of magic alone. There was no reason for them to go out of their way to use a Korean soldier the public hated anyway. Stubbornly emphasizing continuity with the government by putting forward a hated Korean soldier would only hurt them.

Especially now that the Korean-US Combined Command had settled on maintaining the blockade line and making use of civilian manpower, they would need to repair their image.

Just as even the Korea-China Combined Command had gone through the process of voting for a new administration, the US would probably try to distance itself from the former Korean government as well. The end of the world wasn’t as dramatic or dazzling as people imagined it to be.

There was no grand, dramatic moment when the world ended.

The end was like slowly sinking into a mire.

-Clatter, clatter—.

As the Korean soldiers from the blockade line marched in step, Major General Jeon Minho’s funeral vehicle slowly receded into the distance.

Just then, someone put a hand on my shoulder.

-Pat!

"Baek Jemin. Let’s go. Your test results are out.”

Pastor Park Yohan’s expression was serious.

For him to look like that here at the US military camp in Pyeongtaek, where the best medical personnel currently available on the Korean Peninsula had been gathered, it couldn’t be anything minor. I steeled my resolve and turned toward the pastor.

"If I have to get a shot, I’m opening my right eye.”

"Didn't you say there’s a magic symbol carved into that eye?”

"Exactly. That’s why I’ll open it if it looks like they’re about to give me a shot.”

"You’re the first person I’ve ever seen shamelessly announce that they'll make everyone else puke just because he doesn’t want an injection. I seriously have never met a bastard like you in my life. Tsk! Quit talking bullshit and follow me. If I’d had a son like you, I’d have beaten some sense into him growing up!”

The pastor grumbled as he took the lead.

I followed after him, taking in the medical facilities set up in the middle of the US camp.

Inside transparent passages that looked like giant rubber hoses, people in protective suits pushed carts loaded with medical waste. Every now and then, wailing or groaning rang out from here and there, making the military doctors and soldiers hurrying about flinch and stop where they stood.

Whenever that happened, the pastor quietly clasped his hands in prayer.

"Amen.”

We stopped, moved again, stopped again, and repeated this several times.

The examination room assigned to me looked more suited for a consultation than actual treatment. Captain Kim Howoon was already there with a notebook and pen raised, ready to take notes. I knew why he was doing that, so I just shrugged and headed for the seat prepared for me.

The doctor was a foreign middle-aged woman with wrinkles around her mouth.

I awkwardly lowered myself into the seat when I cautiously spoke up.

"Ai cyan’to supeaku ingurissu."

"Don’t worry. I learned Korean.”

"Oh?”

Her accent was a little sharp, but for a foreigner, her pronunciation was remarkably natural.

The doctor, who seemed to be in her early 50s, fiddled with the arm of the glasses tucked into her breast pocket, then gestured toward the pastor and Captain Kim Howoon. Her tone was somewhat blunt.

"I know the report is important, but right now, the patient comes first.”

"Yes, Dr. Agnes, please proceed however you see fit.”

"Good grief. Never thought I’d end up playing guardian for our Baek Jemin.”

The doctor gave a small laugh at Cpatain Kim Howoon’s polite response and Pastor Park Yohan’s pitiful comedic quip.

Then she set the papers and charts on the table with a smack and let out a deep sigh.

"Mister Baek. Command did order us to examine you in extreme detail so they could understand the mechanism behind LISA users, but even as a doctor, I can’t help but be concerned by your results.”

"Is it really that serious?"

I, Baek Jemin.

I was a man confident I wouldn’t be shaken by most casual fussing, but one grave, serious remark from a doctor handling my health checkup was enough to rattle me. That was probably the proper attitude for a patient anyway.

The doctor quietly looked at me for a moment, then slowly began speaking, pointing out each item written on the results and explaining them one by one.

1.Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

That was the name they’d given the pain that permanently lingered in my left-hand staff.

"You said you’ve shot yourself in the left hand before, yes? The bullet miraculously missed the major structures, so you didn’t need any reconstructive surgery, but that doesn’t mean there were no aftereffects.”

The doctor explained it simply and concisely enough that even a dumbass like me could understand it.

Whenever I seemed confused, she added an explanation that was quick and ridiculously easy to follow, so I managed to absorb all the information perfectly. Put very simply, it sounded like the wound had healed, but the pain still lingered.

"According to your answers, Mister Baek, and the various pain tests, the abnormal pain is particularly pronounced from your left hand to your elbow. I’ve heard that LISA has something called the Heart-branch that assists in physical recovery. If it also affected the recovery of your nervous system, there’s a possibility it actually caused aganglioneuroma to form and made things worse. This…is likely to be chronic.”

"Is there anything worse?”

I'd been carrying this around since Suwon Station, so while it was pretty damn annoying, it was useful enough that I’d managed to live with it. Even the burning pain was basically just a constant hot, stinging sensation. I’d even figured it might save me from needing hand warmers in winter.

Besides, this condition had originally weakened my left hand, but once I learned Heart-branch magic and compensated for it, I’d barely even noticed it anymore.

Instead, what the doctor focused on next was my incontinence.

2. Vasovagal Response.

The doctor pointed out that I was in an extremely dangerous condition.

"The fact that you lose bladder control every time means the extreme pain and fear are stimulating your nervous system so severely that your heart rate and blood pressure are being affected enough for your sphincters to relax. Let me make this absolutely clear. Mister Baek, every single time this happens, you are coming right to the brink of dying from shock.”

The one most shocked by that wasn’t me, but the pastor.

"Baek Jemin is? He looked perfectly fine while he was fighting, though?”

"Sir, there is absolutely nothing fine about this.”

"Then..."

"The medical team’s conclusion regarding the cause is as follows. These are the inferences we’ve drawn while analyzing what mechanism makes Mister Baek so unusually capable as a LISA user.” 

As Captain Kim Howoon kept scribbling without pause, the doctor began her explanation.

Normally, I might’ve crossed my arms and grumbled that this was boring, but this was about my own body, so I naturally found myself listening with my ears perked up. Besides, if I didn’t concentrate, I might start hearing random people’s thoughts again.

If I had the chance to focus, it was better in every way to focus like hell.

And so the mechanism behind my own mental structure, something even I hadn’t known, was revealed.

"Mister Baek’s mechanism is the result of three factors working together.”

A. Reward Circuit for Magic.

Apparently, the timing and circumstances of my awakening to magic were highly significant.

My experiences throughout life probably laid the groundwork, but the decisive trigger had been when I was standing guard with that Han-whatever guy. The night they discovered I had an aptitude for magic, around midnight, when fog started seeping out all across the Gyeonggi Province.

It seemed that after watching that Han-whatever dude get eaten by an Amalgam right in front of me, I’d instinctively awakened magic by looking at the magic symbols in order to survive. The horrific crisis, combined with the experience of surviving through magic, had apparently trained my brain so thoroughly that its reward circuitry had been altered completely.

Magic = directly tied to survival, and the more I learn, the higher my chances of survival.

With that survival instinct injected into it, apparently the amount of dopamine released when I learned or used magic was far higher than what a normal person would get from a hobby or leisure activity.

"We haven’t fully determined how LISA’s mechanism works, but it clearly demands some kind of severe price from the body. Severe enough to inflict intense pain on the nervous system. Mister Baek appears to suppress that pain during combat through an enormous dose of dopamine. Dopamine does, in fact, play a role in reducing pain to some extent. But that doesn’t explain everything.”

B. Survival Instinct.

Apparently, hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system is believed to be a major reason I can’t properly feel pain during combat.

Extreme fear and a sense of danger connected with hyperarousal. one of the symptoms of PTSD, making me pump out way more adrenaline than a normal person, along with a fuckton of substances I’d never even heard of before, likeendorphins andenkephalins.

It seems the reason I only start bawling and whining after combat is that those reactions are suppressed while I’m under a direct threat to my survival. Medically speaking, there was nothing particularly strange about me going berserk like I was having a seizure only after the fight was over.

"Fuck. Pastor, I told you I wasn’t being a baby.”

"What kind of vulgar bastad says ‘fuck’ in front of the doctor…?”

The pastor gritted his teeth and scolded me with his face turning red, but the doctor paid no attention to my crude language.

Instead, linking it back to that vaso-whatever thing she’d mentioned earlier, she looked at me with grave seriousness.

"The fact that you still lose bladder control despite all that also means there’s a considerable disconnect between Mister Baek’s perception and his body. Not feeling pain isn't a good thing. And the fact that you’re still feeling pain, even after suppressing it, that severely makes it even more concerning. Mister Baek continues doing things that an ordinary person would have learned from pain not to even attempt.”

"Is this only possible for Mister Baek? Could that kind of mentality be taught?”

Captain Kim Howoon stopped scribbling for a second and asked.

It was because Command wanted to share the Supreme Archmage mindset with other wizards. I had mixed feelings about that.

I didn’t want everyone becoming damn awesome wizards like us Supreme Archmages, but hearing that they wanted to spread the Supreme Archmage mindset also filled me with pride that everyone acknowledged how awesome my mindset was, so I couldn’t help grinning.

But the doctor shook her head, saying there was something even more important.

3, or C. Fear.

"Mister Baek. You don’t show it on the surface, but there’s an enormous amount of anxiety and fear buried inside of you. We haven’t been able to determine the exact cause because you’ve stubbornly refused to reveal it, both on the tests and during repeated attempts at counseling.”

"Baek Jemin?”

"Baek Jemin-ssi? Really? Isn’t he the kind of person who charges in without a shred of fear?”

The pastor and Captain Kim Howoon began looking back and forth between me and the doctor in disbelief. The doctor, on the other hand, remained perfectly calm. She simply met my eyes with an unreadable look and spoke in a quiet, measured voice.

"Overall, it appears to be a fear of helplessness. But we can’t identify the most important part. Mister Baek avoids or refuses examination specifically when it comes to this issue. It seems to have been triggered by some childhood trauma, but there’s something else he's even more afraid of.”

The doctor continued her explanation.

A fear-driven motivation.

Apparently, it was a mindset where fear triggered an aggressive response instead of avoidance, making me actively try to eliminate whatever caused it. It seems like they’d figured it out numerically because I produced something called cortisol at levels far beyond those of an ordinary person.

The moment I heard that, something came to mind.

Things I felt disgusted by even at the thought of thinking about them.

There was at least one that was less troublesome to remember.

We stood not before the end, but before the beginning of eternity.

Eternity.

The moment I thought of that word, my heart went cold.

A sharp and cold gust of wind seemed to hiss through a heart that should have been beating, pumping hot blood. As the chill circled once through it and passed on, I realized just how hot my blood was. Freezing cold and explosive heat surged through me at once.

The doctor looked like she wanted to say something to me but soon closed her mouth and wrapped up her explanation.

"You may be fine while this heightened state is maintained, but if it has to continue beyond a certain length of time, the rebound will cause your blood pressure and heart rate to fall, and you’ll lose consciousness. Even if LISA lets you endure it, there are plenty of factors here that could continuously worsen your mental state. Excessive dopamine release, prolonged cortisol exposure, sympathetic nervous system overload… There are similar cases, but this particular mechanism is highly likely to apply only to Mister Baek.”

"What kind of similar cases?”

At Captain Kim Howoon’s question, the doctor titled her head with an unreadable expression, as though she wasn’t quite sure how to put it, then gave us a bitter smile.

"Addiction. The medical staff have concluded that Mister Baek’s condition is close to a magic addiction.”

Then she added a few unnecessary words.

"To borrow an ordinary expression rather than give a clinical diagnosis, you could pretty much say he’s crazy.”

*t*t*

May 25th, 2028, 11:58 AM.

I proudly returned to the barracks with the pastor.

Unlike the buzzing internet and the camp parade ground, filled with waves of mourning, the barracks reserved for us Supreme Archmages couldn't have been more peaceful. Though the pastor kept glancing at me with a sour look on his face.

He looked desperate to see my Treasure No. N, the ‘Great Arcmage Baek Jemin Report,' which I’d carried back in my arms brimming with pride.

"Baek Jemin."

"Pastor. This is my treasure, so don’t touch it. You wouldn’t understand it even if you read it, so let’s just go.”

"Come to church. Hm?”

"Tsk!"

Trying to proselytize at a time like this?

I tapped the eyepatch over my right eye with my right hand and chuckled.

"The world is finally starting to understand how serious I am about magic. They’ve acknowledged that I offered up this body and mind as sacrifices. Why would I have any reason to go looking for Jesus?”

"Ugh. Fine, be a magic addict. But I’ll play the Gospel beside you, so listen to it before you fall asleep. Got it?”

"Tsk!!!”

I’d rather give up magic than fall asleep listening to Bible broadcasts.

Clicking my tongue, I threw myself onto my bed. I had no time to spare for those guys. It was time to hug the Baek Jemin Report to my chest and reaffirm the will of a Great Archmage.

-Flump!

The moment I lay down on the soft mattress, various voices started entering my ears. The backlash from Ears-branch magic.

'My tongue hurts so much…! Father knew his tongue hurt too, but he wouldn’t back down until I used it…! Aaagh! I can’t even throw a punch!!!’

Was that Go Ryeoha?

Like the ordinarily mortal she was, apparently she couldn’t drive away pain with fear. To think she’d whine in her own head just because her tongue hurt a little. I focused desperately so I could keep listening to Go Ryeoha’s thoughts.

Because I was terrified that if I didn’t focus, I'd start hearing Lee Sejun’s thoughts instead.

Indeed.

It seemed like pain could only be driven out by greater pain, and fear counted as a form of psychological pain, so that worked too.

But after my thoughts wandered for a moment, my concentration slipped and the thoughts of other people began coming in again.

'Ears-branch, Stage 4… Causal Arrangement. Should I learn it? Would it be better to leave it to Jemin-ssi? Mother, are you truly in Heaven? I’m afraid of what you’ll say to me when I stand before you.’

It was Shin Nain.

Why the hell were this bastard’s inner thoughts so meek and polite? Thank fuck he was a damn fanatic zealot. If a guy whose thoughts were this courteous had the looks to match, I’d have been so pissed off I’d have kicked him out of the Supreme Archmages.

I don’t give a shit about that guy’s inner thoughts.

Someone else, then…

'Everyone's always so harsh when they judge me. As expected, soft and fluffy…’

Ah. Fuck you, Lee Sejun.

I shot upright and shook my head hard.

Just then, I spotted Hamza in the corner, blowing on some ramen and transferring it into a small plate. The instant our eyes met, he blinked, then causally clicked his chopsticks together.

"Jemin-ssi? Do you have any Spam?”

"Yeah. But give me a bite too.”

"A bite~.”

Hamza clattered around and pulled out another pair of chopsticks and another small plate.

Then he dunked the ladle into the pot, gave it a few good stirs, and flashed me a thumbs-up.

"Plenty of spicy broth too.”

"Kyaah!”

I scrambled up and pulled a can of Spam from my backpack.

That was when the solid weight of the can made me flinch.

Come to think of it, First Lieutenant Shin Hangi gave me this Spam.

"Jemin-ssi?”

"Yeah."

I pushed the stray thoughts aside, sat down beside Hamza, and started serving myself some ramen.

And just like that, the everyday life of Baek Jemin, the one-eyed Great Archmage, returned.

But even as I blew on the ramen, marveled at Hamza’s perfectly cooked noodles, and exchanged some stupid banter with him, the chill lodged in one corner of my chest wouldn’t go away.

May 12th to May 22nd, 2028.

The Gangnam group, led south by Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes, a member of the 66 Society, attempted to break through the blockade line and inflicted shocking losses on Seongnam and the Korean-US Combined Command. Their forces numbered only 118, even counting the non-wizard soldiers they’d turned to their side, yet the results they achieved were overwhelming.

The Korean-US Combined Command had been forced to commit and expend a considerable number of troops just to split up the Gangnam group's core combat forces, and whenever its command structure was exposed, it failed to escape Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes’ killing curse.

Without anyone on the ground even knowing it, battle had been taking place in unseen places as well. Major General Jeon Minho, one of their key generals, had at least managed to block the killing curse around 6 times with the help of holy relics before ultimately dying.

Four commanders were captured and executed while in command.

Of the forces stationed along the blockade line, 1,231 were killed or went missing after being attacked by the Gangnam group and the monster hordes moving south along the line. Major Shin Hangi had the troops under him stationed at the Seongnam City Hall Command Point, along with Captain Reyes’ US forces were left behind as a delaying force to stop Thousand-Miles Eyes. Every last one of them died.

There was a part of me that could accept it calmly.

Major Shin Hangi.

Of course he died.

By the time Thousand-Miles Eyes used [Causal Arrangement - Miss], he’d already broken through Seongnam City Hall.

There was no way they could have fought the Gangnam group with guns that wouldn’t hit anything.

The backlash from Ears-branch magic forcibly crammed all this useless information into my head.

With no other choice, I tried to shake off the stray thoughts by slurping down ramen and pulling out my authorized phone.

But what lay beyond the screen was no different.

The internet was buzzing.

Desperate cover-ups continued over the nuclear strike.

The explanation that it hadn’t been a nuke at all, and just an ordinary missile, split the public opinion in two.

It really was a nuke, but it just didn’t explode vs. See? It was fake after all. If they’d actually fired a real nuke, it would’ve stopped all of this.

Those who don’t know their own fate are hopelessly tragic.

I set down my authorized phone and went back to smacking my lips and focusing on my ramen.

All those deaths had happened in just 10 days.

People had hoped the world wouldn’t change, but sadly, there was no going back now.

Of course...

The standing and status of this Great Archmage Baek Jemin would be different from before as well.

I could already feel it.

What it meant to bear the title of ‘Strongest Outside the Blockade Line.’