Chapter 29: Seoul Theme Park

[Translator – Aren]

I, Baek Jemin, had completed my military service and hated the North Korean bastards, but I’d never actually experienced war myself.

And I wasn’t alone in that. People called South Korea a nation under armistice, but more than half a century had passed since the last full-scale war. There was no one left who truly understood the terror of bombardment and the reality of a battlefield.

But the farther north we traveled in that rattling bed of a military truck, the closer we got to Seoul, the more the air itself began to change.

Not that things had been comfortable to begin with. We were already being crushed beneath an atmosphere as heavy as steel created by the might of the military, escorted by 2 armored vehicles at the front and rear, plus a helicopter overhead.

The air felt thick, as though someone were slowly stuffing my throat with wet towels. The smell of burnt rubber seemed amplified a hundredfold, pressing down on my face. Just breathing made my throat sting with dryness and thirst.

When Seongnam finally came into view, I found myself unconsciously licking my cracked lips.

Artillery positions had been established in relatively open areas near the roads where the surrounding buildings were low. Soldiers worked nonstop unloading artillery shells from trucks and hauling them toward the guns. Nearby officers inspected the firing positions. Communications officers constantly checked the radios, busily rallying updates over their headsets.

This particular battery seemed to have paused its bombardment. But just because one artillery position stopped firing didn’t mean the shelling had ended.

Lee Sejun frowned and covered his mouth with his poncho. Shin Nain had gone one step further and simply put on his gas mask. Even the middle-aged men and women from The Eastern Scholarly Brigade of the Taegeuk Jesus Advent pulled their flag-capes over their mouths to shield themselves from the smell.

Only I, Baek Jemin, was taking in the newly remodeled Seongnam with every sensory organ I possessed.

Even so, when I raised my head and looked north, a muttered comment escaped my lips.

"Damn…”

To the north, the direction Seoul was in, everything was buried beneath fog.

Honestly, I wasn’t even sure ‘fog’ was the right word anymore. A solid mass of gray clouds stretched from the ground all the way into the sky.

It looked like a colossal cumulonimbus cloud preparing to unleash a torrential downpour. Yet because it remained perfectly still above Seoul, unmoved by the wind, it almost seemed like a solid mass.

The most striking thing, however, was the artillery fire.

The thunderous roar of the cannons wasn’t something I felt with my ears. I felt it in my internal organs. The trembling inside my body wasn’t from the rattling truck.

Then, within that immense wall of fog, that thick gray cloud said to be hundreds of meters deep, lights flashed.

They flickered like blinking yellow traffic signals.

Only after the flashes appeared did the sound of shells ripping through the air arrive. And Seoul, hidden within the fog, glittered endlessly with artillery impact. Like a city-wide fireworks display.

All for the sake of driving away even a handful of fog.

As we moved farther north and closer to our destination, conditions along the front only grew harsher. The stench of gunpowder mixed with the smell of burning things until my eyes and nose stung.

Hundreds, even thousands, of spent shell casings scattered across the ground amidst collapsed concrete buildings and endless coils of barbed wire. In a world reduced to monochrome gray, the only things with any color left were the military trucks moving along the roads.

That was when it happened.

-Crackle…chzzt...

Hearing the static crackle of a radio, I turned toward a nearby alley. An infantry squad emerged from the corner. These weren’t the same soldiers we’d seen back at Suwon Station. Their physiques and equipment were on a completely different level.

Every single one of them was operating inMOPP Level 4, fully sealed inside chemical-protection suits and gas masks. Not a single patch of exposed skin was visible.

The point man carrying a flamethrower stared directly at us. The soldiers behind him weren't carrying ordinary K2C1 rifles either. Several of them held semi-automatic shotguns fed by heavy box magazines. There were still riflemen mixed in, but in a squad that looked to be only eight soldiers strong, there were 2 flamethrowers and 3 shotguns. That wasn’t the kind of organization you’d expect from the South Korean military.

Honestly, I’d have expected them to make every single bastard a rifleman. 

However, what stood out the most wasn’t their equipment. It was their posture and the killing intent radiating from them. Even from a distance, I could hear the distinctive breathing sounds through the gas masks. Not one of them ever took a hand off their trigger. They kept their eyes fixed on us as we passed, only resuming their march after we were well in the distance.

And apparently, even this was considered relaxed by front-line standards.

The closer we got to the fog, the more tense everyone became. People who had already been quiet grew even quieter. The reality of just how thoroughly the front had been wrecked was finally becoming impossible to ignore, reflected in our bare eyes.

Soldiers armed with flamethrowers and semi-automatic shotguns patrolled the streets, sweeping lights through every alley and corner. The only sounds echoing through the place were heavy combat boots striking pavement and weapons knocking against gear. Occasionally, a few people would start a conversation, but it never lasted long.

The first real noise I heard came when we approached a park some distance away from the road.

"Help me! Please help!”

"I’m human!”

It was a semicircular encirclement-and-annihilation formation, straight out of the textbook, used against civilians.

The people inside looked filthy, covered in soot and dust as though they’d endured hell itself. With both hands raised, they sobbed and pleaded. They appeared to be refugees from Seoul. People who had miraculously escaped the monsters overrunning the city and the endless bombardments.

Among them was a little girl clinging tightly to her mother’s leg. Naturally, a sensitive soul like myself couldn’t help feeling a knot form in my chest.

Yet the Republic of Korea Army stood bravely before them. Dozens of civilians were surrounded at gunpoint. Not only were semi-automatic shotguns with drum magazines aimed at them, but flamethrowers as well. The atmosphere was so grim that for a moment I almost wondered if someone should stop this.

That was when Shin Nain suddenly appeared beside me and whispered.

"You see that little girl?”

"Yeah. So?”

"She’s a monster."

-Click, click, click, click, click…

The sound resembled that of a lighter’s flint striking. Then the flamethrower ignited. The instant the flames touched the girl wrapped around her mother’s leg, she let out a grotesque shriek. Her form began to change. As she transformed, she rubbed her face affectionately against her mother’s cheek.

The girl’s mother, not understanding what was happening, instinctively hugged her daughter. Then she realized something horrifying. Her own head was melting before the flames could even burn her. She screamed in agony. But the groans and cries coming from her mouth no longer belonged to her.

The little girl’s body dangled from her like a grotesque ornament. The mother grabbed at her daughter, trying to tear her off and throw her away, but the flames spread first.

By the time the girl’s eyes overlapped with her mother's, becoming a cluster of compound eyes, and their mouths merged into one, a scream erupted from the shared opening.

"KyaAaAAAAAAaa!”

"Open fire! Open fire! Kill them all! Shoot the legs and torso! Don’t let anything escape the burn zone!”

-Bang! Babang, bang!

Some of them had been real people. Others revealed their true forms the moment the fire touched them. But against soldiers who had already prepared their positions, none of them posed the slightest threat.

Apparently there were even a few Predator Spines mixed in among the refugees. Every now and then a person’s neck would twist a full 360 degrees, a monster bursting out. But with firing lanes already established, they were quickly riddled with bullets or burned to death.

Our convoy continued slowly moving forward, so I couldn’t watch until the end.

What I did see was the gunfire gradually fading away. The soldiers slowly lowered their weapons and stared at the pile of burning corpses. I couldn’t see their expressions beneath the thick chemical-protection suits, combat gear, and gasmasks.

After we passed the infantry positions, I spotted tanks and machine-gun emplacements farther ahead, all aimed toward the fog. The sight looked like something straight out of a WWI movie. I accidentally inhaled some of the gray dust.

"Cough, cough.”

Unable to bear it, I opened my canteen and took several gulps of water. Just then, the truck came to a stop. I thought we’d finally arrived. Instead, the passenger riding up front poked his head out of the window.

"Looks like a small engagement is about to happen. We’ll be waiting here for 30 minutes before moving again.”

The trenches and tank units were aimed at a killing field. An expanse of concrete rubble and cratered earth gouged apart by bombardment. Soon, a blaring siren echoed across the battlefield. Soldiers who had been taking a brief breather with their gas masks off immediately pulled them back on and rushed to their positions.

As desperate acknowledgements rang out from every direction, the soldiers clad in chemical-protection suits seemed to carry more grenade launchers, flamethrowers, and shotguns than rifles. They all positioned themselves around the machine gunners, and I soon understood why.

Pale silhouettes emerged from the fog.

But the closer they came, the more obvious it became that they were anything but normal. A single head with hundreds of limbs. Gigantic Amalgams appeared, rolling clusters of compound eyes formed from melted faces. The moment they left the fog, they began splitting apart, cramming those liquefied faces into separate bodies like melting ice cream being shoved into new molds.

A pair of tanks fired.

A massive Amalgam was obliterated by a high-explosive shell. The fragments split apart into smaller Amalgams, which continued advancing without the slightest hint of fear. The soldiers carrying grenade launchers fired first, sending out a volley of thumping shots that served as a signal.

-Ratatatatatatatatatatat...

Whether mounted in fortified positions or attached to tanks, the machine guns couldn’t afford to stop until their barrels glowed red-hot. The two tanks alternated shots, spewing thick clouds and smoke. Meanwhile, the infantry’s firepower, including grenades, focused entirely on halting the advancing Amalgams. The giant Amalgams responded by repeatedly splitting and dispersing.

Rather than charging forward with their full mass, they chose mobility and fragmentation to break through the killing field. It almost seemed as if they were deliberately trying to spread out the incoming fire. Then the flamethrowers erupted to hold them back.

Flames roared forth as soldiers screamed themselves hoarse while trying to stop the approaching monsters.

The shrieks of the burning monsters mixed together with the cries of humans trying desperately to crush their own fear.  The scale of the battle was so overwhelming that even I began wondering whether I should brace for the backlash and just use magic. That was around the time fighter jets appeared overhead with a thunderous roar.

Moments later, the airstrike began.

The monsters vanished beneath overwhelming force. Artillery once again targeted the outskirts of Seoul. A shell landed among a cluster of 8 gigantic Amalgams. White smoke billowed upward, and the Amalgams were ignited. And then they released a scream that seemed capable of shaking the human heart itself.

-AAaAAaAaAAaaaaaAAAAaAAAAH—!!!!

"Almighty Lord God in Heaven, protect us in this time of tribulation..."

The sharp-featured middle-aged man who appeared to be the leader of the Eastern Scholarly Brigade of the Taegeuk Jesus Advent clasped his hands together and began praying. Our Alteration-type trio wasn’t much different. Lee Sejun covered his ears and muttered to himself. Shin Nain pulled up the hood of his poncho and lowered his head.

As for me, Baek Jemin, a true man who never tells a single lie, I will speak only the truth and nothing but the truth. I actually peed a little bit.

I could feel SHin Nain subtly moving further away from me. But considering I’d only leaked a tiny amount after hearing a scream like that, I considered that an achievement worth being proud of. Fortunately, the soldiers on the front lines seemed used to it. They flinched for only a moment before resuming their counterattack.

It was a clash of overwhelming violence.

The military crushed the monsters with the firepower born from humanity’s intelligence and civilization. The monsters, on the other hand, fearlessly charged forward, reshaping themselves into ever more grotesque and horrifying forms in order to mock humanity’s dignity and humanity itself.

Some of the soldiers carrying flamethrowers ran out of fuel and could no longer hold monsters back. As a result, they were seized by Amalgams and dragged away while struggling desperately. I couldn’t hear the muffled cries and terrified screams trapped beneath their gas masks. But even from this distance, I could clearly see their legs kicking frantically.

The guns turned toward the captured soldiers as well.

The moment a defensive position was breached, grenades flew. Bullets rained down. Monsters collapsed. Beneath them, several soldiers writhed in pools of blood before finally dying. Then artillery resumed firing into the fog. Blinding flashes lit up the battlefield as smoke merged with the gray clouds. 

Everyone riding in the truck was too overwhelmed to say anything meaningful.

Before long, the battle ended in the military’s victory.

We only learned the outcome through the cold, emotionless report that came over the lead vehicle’s radio.

[...Engagement duration: 4 minutes. Successful elimination of a group of Cranial Fusion-Type Mimetic Organisms. 6 casualties. Will reestablish communications after securing the area and confirming safety.]

"Copy."

February 29, 2028, 11:24 AM.

I’d absentmindedly checked the time on my cracked phone screen.

The lead officer sitting up front peeked his head out the window again and looked back at us. Then he gave a bitter smile and slapped the door twice.

We had arrived at the first blockade line, near Seoul.

"We’ll go in and out as quickly as we can and head right back.”

And now we were heading into the outskirts of the city itself.

* * *

Our route of entry was northward alongSeongnam-daero.

The plan was simple. We would regroup nearBokjeong Station. If there was fog there, the candidates would read the Magic Crash Course booklet, awaken their magic, and then return. The area around Seongnam-daero and Bokjeong Station was relatively close to military-controlled territory, and there weren’t many buildings suitable for ambushes, making it one of the easier entry routes.

Originally, the military had planned to demolish Seongnam-daero entirely to block any southern advances. But now that it was effectively accepted as a fact that fog was required to awaken, the road had been left intact.

Still, the farther north we traveled, the closer we got to the fog, the stronger a sense of dread grew inside me.

Don’t enter the fog. Don’t set foot in the land where monsters with grotesque ecologies thrive. When the moment comes that regret itself is no longer possible, you’ll realize that even your tears no longer belong to you. That kind of feeling.

I wasn’t the only one experiencing this ominous premonition.

All three of us Alteration-type wizards felt the same thing.

"This is no joke. Jemin-ssi, Nain-ssi. Do you think coming to Seoul was really the right call?”

"I thought you wanted to save the country.”

"Uuugh…Shit. Yeah, a man like me, Lee Sejun, can’t just ignore the debts he owes. I know that. But still…!”

When I called him out on his hesitation, Lee Sejun made a show of clutching his head in agony.

"Honestly, don’t you think I’ve already repaid enough with everything I’ve done so far?”

"Sejun-ssi, cut the whining and keep moving.”

"The church’s doors are always open to you as well.”

Lee Sejun grumbled and fiddled with his rifle. He was obviously trying to figure out the exact moment he should load his live rounds.

Meanwhile, the leader of the The Eastern Scholarly Brigade of the Taegeuk Jesus Advent was busy conducting a group prayer with his followers. They didn’t even carry firearms. Armed only with walking sticks and mop handles, they somehow looked more like wizards than we did.

Before long, the convoy entered the fog.

Visibility was still around 500m or so. Even when we reached the small bridge crossing, the fog wasn’t quite as thick as I’d expected. But once we approached the area around Bokjeong Station, our destination, a dense fog rolled over us. It was heavy enough to feel cold the instant it touched my skin.

Even the lead officer up front stopped sticking his head out of the window.

"Visibility inside the fog is under 100m. Everyone may load live ammunition and assume combat readiness.”

The only reassuring thing was the distant sound of helicopters overhead. And no matter where I looked, bright spotlights mounted on armored vehicles illuminated our convoy.

The three of us Alteration-type wizards silently loaded our weapons. Then, just in case, I opened the Magic Crash Course booklet. The magical symbols printed inside were the Eye, Ear, and Heart symbols.

It would’ve been nice if I could learn even one more…

"Ugh…”

"Baek Jemin-ssi, don’t you think there might be some kind of condition?”

As the truck came to a stop, Lee Sejun walked over and slapped my shoulder a few times.

"A condition?”

"Like an unlock requirement. In games, sometimes if you invest points into one skill tree, the other branches get locked. To unlock them again, you have to spend money or make a new character. I was thinking this Alteration-type magic might have its own set of unlock conditions as well.”

That was actually a pretty convincing theory.

We climbed out of the trucks and followed the swaying lightly to our assigned positions. The man riding in the lead vehicle had removed his name tag, so all I knew was that he was a captain. He had a lean face and sharply upturned eyes.

"We’ll now distribute booklets for Localized Intrusive Alteration Ability Awakening. If you experience nausea, vomiting, or dizziness, immediately close your eyes and take deep breaths. If you discover a symbol that you can safely view, report what you’ve awakened and learned. The faster you report, the faster you’ll be able to return safely!”

Around him stood heavily armed soldiers dressed in full chemical-protection suits and gas masks, just like the troops on the front lines.

For every 10 soldiers carrying rifles, there seemed to be 8 carrying either semi-automatic shotguns or manually loaded shotguns. Under the watchful eyes of these heavily armed guards, all sorts of people were brought forward and told to open their booklets inside the fog.

There were prisoners with handcuffs and unkempt beards. Buddhist monks in robes. Middle-aged women with curly hair. Even young men who looked like college students.

Our Alteration-type trio also opened our Magic Crash Course booklets to see whether it was possible to learn magic from other branches. As things stood, we Supreme Archmages were the only people in southern Gyeonggi Province who knew the symbol for the Hand-branch. This was the perfect opportunity to see whether cross-learning was possible.

Of course, the best outcome would be me becoming even more awesome myself, but if we wanted to kill those monster bastards, sharing knowledge was unavoidable.

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, the area soon filled with the sounds of people vomiting.

"Bleeeeeegh..."

I wasn’t an exception.

The Heart-branch. Learning just that one by itself seemed pretty mediocre. But if I, someone who already possessed the Eyes- and Hand-branches, learned the Heart-branch as well, the synergy would obviously be incredible. Yet the damned thing simply wouldn’t let me learn it.

Apparently I wasn't the only one feeling cheated. Everyone was vomiting, crying, and emptying their stomachs while stubbornly refusing to let go of their booklets.

The captain’s expression twisted into a deep frown.

"Do we need to go in deeper...?"

"Deeper?”

I whipped stomach acid from my lips with the back of my hand and asked.

My instincts told me he knew something. The moment he heard the question, he furrowed his brow. Then he looked over the Alteration-type trio and the Taeguk Jesus Brigade before beckoning with two fingers.

"Not everyone. Just your representatives."

The leader of the Taeguk Jesus Brigade and I, Baek Jemin, the only one of the Supreme Archmages who had mastered 2 branches, stepped forward. The captain lowered his voice.

"As magical symbol research in Pyeongtaek has progressed, a hypothesis has emerged. The denser the fog, the higher the probability of successfully learning a magical symbol. However, as you’ve already been briefed, there are reports of 2 unidentified species appearing in fog with visibility below 50m.”

The sharp-featured man, the leader of the Taeguk Jesus Brigade, adjusted his glasses and shrugged.

"The Lord’s holy revelations are found amidst tribulation. Do not worry. I didn’t come all this way just to watch young people die. In the name of the Almighty God I, Min Hyungjun, shall act as your shepherd.” 

"Thank you for your enthusiasm. What about Aphorism, Baek Jemin-ssi?”

I instinctively looked around, surveying my surroundings.

The fog remained thick and heavy. People were still retching and coughing violently. Lee Sejun stood trembling while clutching his rifle. Meanwhile, Shin Nain wore a satisfied smile and swayed his shoulders as if he were a DJ at a club.

They were all precious lives.

There was only one possible conclusion.

"Let’s go. Right now.”

If the chances of learning magic increased as the fog grew denser, then that was our survival rate!