Chapter 79: Escape

[Translator – Aren]

Just before departure, we used the map Hamza brought to sketch out a rough escape route.

Hamza used his Dogma-type magic, [Angel’s Intuition], to distinguish dangerous paths from safer ones, marking the risky areas with dots using the writing tools Go Ryeoha had.

As a result, our first destination was Gwangnaru Station on Seoul Subway Line 5.

"Heading straight for the riverside would take us toward Jamsil Bridge, which is too close to the monster in Lotte Tower. I think it would be better to cut across this way and reach the river farther east.”

Hamza frowned and let out a heavy breath. Go Ryeoha, who had been staring at him with bright, attentive eyes, spoke.

"Islamic Dogma-type magic is really convenient, isn’t it? It seems extremely useful too.”

"Aren’t there any Islamic Dogma-type wizards inside Seoul?”

"Dogma-type wizards are usually hunted. I only assumed there must be an Islamic Dogma-type somewhere.”

"I see. That’s an easy enough reason to understand.”

Go Ryeoha’s answer was perfectly convincing.

The moment she said wizards hunted one another, everything seemed to fall neatly into place.

It made sense.

That was when Hamza, who had been listening quietly, turned toward Go Ryeoha in dismay.

"Dogma-type wizards are hunted?”

"Yes. Hmm. The various objects created through Incantation-type magic are called Cursed Objects, and remains infused with an Alteration-type wizard's magic are also classified as Cursed Objects. But when a Dogma-type wizard dies, instead of a Cursed Object, a sacred relic corresponding to that Dogma-type is created. After the wizard’s death, their power takes root in the object that had been closest to them.”

"Oho!”

Go Ryeoha closed her eyes, puffed out her chest, and rattled off the explanation like she was boasting. Naturally, I listened with sparkling eyes.

So even after all the effort of killing someone, Seoul made sure you didn’t walk away empty-handed by neatly handing over some loot?

As someone born outside the capital, I felt much of my instinctive hostility toward Seoul begin to fade.

Seoul. What a warm and generous place. Now I understood why people said anyone hoping to achieve something for themselves should come to Seoul.

Hamza, however, appeared to have a slightly different opinion.

-Hic!

The other Supreme Archmages also frowned at Go Ryeoha as though none of them had expected that answer.

Among them, the pastor and Shin Nain, the zealot due, reacted most strongly.

"Killing a Dogma-type wizard creates a sacred relic? So that’s why they hunt them? Preposterous."

"These minions of the devil…”

The pastor removed his glasses and rubbed his eyelids, while Shin Nain merely chewed his lower lip with bloodshot eyes.

"Shin Nain, aren’t you usually supposed to grit your teeth at times like this?”

"Dental health does not come back, Jemin-ssi.”

Even in a state of absolute fury, Shin Nain refused to clench his teeth because he was thinking about dental health.

With his arms crossed, Shin Nain glared at Go Ryeoha as though he wanted to kill her, then clicked his tongue and turned his attention back to the map.

"We can discuss Dogma-types and sacred relics after. Since it is both unpleasant, yet important, I believe it deserves our full concentration. Escaping should come first.”

"Hmm..."

My heart leaned toward continuing the discussion about Dogma-types and sacred relics, but judging by the other Supreme Archmages, that seemed unlikely.

Even Lee Sejun had abandoned his usual obsession with his TS bullshit and adopted an unusually serious expression.

Lee Sejun placed his index finger on the map, roughly traced the route from the New Engineering Building at Konkuk University to Gwangnaru Station, from Gwangnaru Station to the riverside, and then along the Han River toward the outskirts of Guri.

"Before we leave, I think we should try contacting them again and find out whether there’s some means of escape or whether the objective is for us to reach the blockade line on foot. Even with Go Ryeoha-ssi joining us and our ammunition replenished, it’s still a dangerous route. Besides, I’m worried that traveling entirely on foot will expose us to other survivor groups.”

Lee Sejun withdrew his finger from the map, straightened up again, and looked around at us.

Putting aside Lee Sejun’s pathetic inferiority complex and ugly inner nature, he had once considered making a career in the military out of a desire to repay the country for supporting him as a welfare beneficiary, so what he said was fairly convincing.

"The supply drop made a huge amount of noise. Given the limited firepower available inside Seoul, firearms and ammunition must be strategic resources of enormous value. If someone could seize them, the increase in combat power would be tremendous. Especially in our country, even if the average training level is low, there are many men who know how to handle firearms. That means even ordinary people could become a meaningful fighting force, and if individual Seoul wizards armed themselves, their combat power could increase enormously.”

His explanation was a bit rambling, but the point was simple.

The survivors inside Seoul were already at the limit. They had nowhere left to retreat.

And since they had probably noticed the supply drop, they might decide to gamble everything on it.

Who could guarantee that no group would choose risking their lives to steal guns over simply waiting to be shot and killed?

It was certainly a reasonable argument.

Lee Sejun wanted to avoid traveling entirely on foot because, if the surviving Seoul wizards attacked us with their lives on the line to steal our firearms and ammunition, even we would suffer losses.

The pastor also seemed to recognize that Lee Sejun was right for once and nodded.

"Sejun has a point. Let’s make contact one more time this morning before we leave.”

After the pastor made the decision, we hurried to finish preparing for departure.

The Supreme Archmages packed their belongings into their respective backpacks, redistributed the ammunition cans, and each took four loaded magazines.

Go Ryeoha also hummed cheerfully as she packed daily necessities, clothes, and several strange ritual items into her backpack. Then she sprang to her feet and looked back at us.

"I’m going to say goodbye to the people. You won’t leave without me, right?”

"Of course. Explain it to them ni~cely so they don’t get upset. Haah, you really do feel like my own daughter.”

While the pastor fussed over her, Lee Sejun and I decided to head back to the 10th floor rooftop and attempt contact again.

Several hours had passed since the bombardment ended, so there was no static interfering with the transmission.

The effect of the [Best] enchantment I had placed on it with Hand-branch, Stage 2 [Blood of the Left Hand], still remained as well.

Even the 999K, that tin-can radio hovering infinitely close to trash, became as responsive as an old landline telephone once I enchanted it.

Thanks to that, Lee Sejun’s communication with the blockade line went very smoothly.

"Seongnam, this is Konkuk. Request signal check. Over.”

[Konkuk, this is Seongnam. Reading you. Signal strength three by three. Good. What is it?]

"This is Konkuk. Will the extraction proceed on foot?”

-Beeeep!

For some reason, the incoming-transmission tone this time sounded exceptionally cheerful.

[This is Seongnam. Plans and supplies for civilian operational unit’s extraction have already been prepared since our previous communication. Do not leave the Han River shoreline, and pay close attention to sound. We wish you a safe return. Over.]

-Click.

As Lee Sejun and I picked up the 999K again, we looked at each other.

"Those military bastards sound pretty confident.”

"At least they’re not telling us to come without a plan, so we’ll have to go and see.”

Once Lee Sejun and I returned to the other Supreme Archmages, the final route was settled.

The moment Go Ryeoha returned with a bright expression, the Supreme Archmages shouldered their backpacks and checked the straps of their gas masks again.

-Huuuff—.

After confirming the distinctive breathing sounds of everyone’s gas masks, we blinked as Go Ryeoha pulled out a black face mask.

"Ryeoha-ssi, will a mask really be enough?”

"You’d be better off with a gas mask.”

Go Ryeoha’s eyes widened. Then she pulled on the gloves called Fire-spewing Hands, a Cursed Object created through Incantation-type magic that launched heated iron pellets, and smiled with her eyes.

"Soldier-ahjussis. I think I’ll be safer than people dressed like that while insisting they’re civilians."

And so, the fully armed civilians and the insane college girl emerged from underground and stepped back into the damp fog.

But I couldn’t shake this strange, lingering sense of unease and regret.

I subtly adjusted my pace until I was beside Hamza, then whispered so only he could hear.

"Hamza. There’s apparently a place calledGuui-dong Catholic Church near our route. Why don’t we stop by?”

Beyond the lenses of his gas mask, Hamza’s eyes blazed with a mixture of contempt, fury, disgust, and irritation.

I hadn’t seen Hamza this enraged since the pastor claimed that India and Pakistan were basically the same.

"Jemin-ssi. Were you planning to visit Guui-dong Catholic Church in case some Dogma-type wizard left behind a relic?”

"No…Well…Maybe the Catholic God there could protect us…”

"We don’t have enough time to waste searching for something like that. And if you keep saying things like this, the zealot pastor and Nain-ssi really will hit you.”

-Smack, smack...

I smacked my lips but decided to concede.

I could already see exactly how the zealot duo would chew me out.

The problem wouldn’t be that I was farming a Dogma-type wizard’s relic. They would berate me for wondering what use a Catholic relic could possibly be in the first place.

Sure enough, when I glanced to my side, Shin Nain was already glaring at me.

"Jemin-ssi. Should you require the power of that Antichrist and his followers who call themselves the successors of Saint Peter while displaying an inverted cross, say so. I will give you a revised Korean Presbyterian translation of the New Testament.”

"No thanks. I absolutely don’t need it. Keep it.”

And so, we left Konkuk University.

We trudged out of campus and returned to the road. By that time, the fog thickened and reduced visibility to around 50 meters.

We could only determine our location by reading nearby signs. The lettering on a fallen sign, stamped here and there with footprints, told us where we were.

Near the main road in front of Children’s Grand Park.

We had technically left Konkuk University, but we were still close enough that a few dozen steps in the wrong direction would take us right back onto campus. We had to keep moving forward.

But before we could fully turn our backs on Konkuk University and move on, everyone looked around when we heard only five sets of footsteps instead of six.

Then I saw Go Ryeoha standing there motionless, staring toward the campus hidden by the fog. We had expected her to be happier than anyone, yet instead she seemed subdued and strangely somber.

She repeatedly clenched and unclenched both her hands, drew deep breaths and let them out, and simply stood there as though she wished the fog would swallow her.

She looked like a coastal reef about to vanish beneath a violently surging tide.

The pastor was the first to approach after watching her form behind.

Our pastor, Park Yohan, still understood less than half of what happened at Konkuk University due to the effects of [Redemptive Conviction].

Even so, he knew enough to understand that a tragedy had occurred there, so he spoke gently in an attempt to comfort Go Ryeoha.

"Ryoeha-ssi, I understand how you feel. They were people you shared joy and hardship with, people you protected all that time. Of course you're worried. But they’re sending you off because they trust you. Come on now, let’s go. Staying any longer will only make it harder.”

"Pastor..."

Shin Nain seemed to believe Professor Nowon’s words were almost certainly true.

Unable to bring himself to stop the pastor from persuading her, he looked back and forth between Go Ryeoha and the pastor with a pained groan, as though he had lost both the hymns he usually hummed and that stupid little grin of his.

Lee Sejun continued scanning our surroundings with his index finger resting on the trigger, as though he had no particular interest in whatever was going on behind him.

Hamza merely stared helplessly, too stunned even to wet his parched lips.

Judging by the state of these people, if I stood back and watched, we might remain like this until the end of time.

It couldn’t be helped.

It was time for me, Baek Jemin, to step in.

"Master. Those people had the opportunity to challenge magic.”

-Click.

I rested the barrel of my custom AR-15 across my left hand as I spoke.

"Even the greatest gods in the world merely divide people between heaven and hell after giving them a chance. So stop acting miserable because a college girl who hasn’t even reached the age of 30 couldn’t give them more than that, so let’s just go.”

At the same time, I praised myself for displaying such noble patience.

The red-pill version of that probably would have been “Hey, you fucking bitch, you killed them all, so quit milking it for sympathy!” But because I valued my life, I fed her the refined blue-pill version instead.

Separate from how irritating the ordinary non-wizards were, I absolutely refused to waste any more time on my magic master’s emotional performance when I couldn’t even stop by Guui-dong Catholic Church to farm relics.

Had my words actually worked?

A moment later, Go Ryeoha slowly turned and looked back at us Supreme Archmages. Her eyes were filled with a strange, joyful glint.

"Yes. You’re right, ahaha…Hahaha! Okay. I’ll do as you say, Hubae-nim!”

At last, Go Ryeoha rejoined our group and began walking with renewed vigor.

Watching her instantly become spirited and lively again, chattering away and clenching her fists, the pastor resumed fussing over her. Go Ryeoha might have been a bomb, but she was a bomb that killed monsters well, so perhaps a little cheerful chatter like this was harmless.

-Step, step.

We walked along the damp, shattered asphalt and began leaving Seoul, the birthplace and holy land of wizards.

That was when Shin Nain approached me and muttered.

"Jemin-ssi. Someday, you will regret refusing to listen to me and failing to guide Go Ryeoha-ssi onto the path of repentance. You already understand it vaguely, don’t you? You’ve basically become a bomb disposal unit.”

"I already regret it, so shut up."

*t*t*

Strictly speaking, Go Ryeoha was not yet a Supreme Archmage.

The Supreme Archmages were I, Shin Nain, Lee Sejun, the pastor, and Hamza. To be precise, Go Ryeoha was probably closer to a VIP.

But rather than someone we needed to escort, Go Ryeoha felt more like… How do I put it? An immediately deployable asset. Like a hunting dog.

The moment Hamza sensed danger and raised his left hand to signal us, Shin Nain followed with a more precise and concise signal of his own.

Instead of speaking, he tapped his throat with his index finger, then extended his fingers to indicate the monster type and number.

Tap the forehead for Faces, meaning an Amalgam. Tap the throat for Spines, meaning Predator Spines.

There was no need to make noise over the most common trash mobs.

This time, there were two Predator Spines.

Normally, I would have opened my eyes wide and aimed my rifle at them.

But Go Ryeoha noticed the signal, stopped dead, and began making a series of strange hand gestures.

"Shh. Gunfire will draw more of them. So give me a moment.”

Go Ryeoha moved her fingers in a rippling motion, rolling iron pellets between them. Apparently, she carried several pellets clenched in her hand whenever she went out exploring.

The iron pellets rolling across her gloves, painted with blood and adorned with five-colored threads and strange talismans, gradually began glowing bright red.

The pellets turned crimson, and just as a sound like a thin cane tapping against tiled flooring echoed from beyond the dense fog limiting visibility to 50 meters, Go Ryeoha moved her hand.

"Lord Huode. Fire overcomes Metal, go.”

-Bang!

The iron pellet was nowhere near as fast as a bullet. Still, its heat and velocity were enough to disturb the fog slightly.

Through the scattering mist, I saw fragments of shattered bone go flying.

But even so, it was only a single shot.

From within the fog, a Predator Spine, a monster that used human ribs as legs, leaped up and lunged toward her.

That was when a heavy gust slammed into the Predator Spine’s face.

-Thud!

The Predator Spine went tumbling from the blow of Lee Sejun’s rifle stock.

Normally, it would have immediately retreated and waited for another opening. Strangely, however, the creature began floating in midair. The Predator Spine clattered its ribs together and violently whipped its stinger-tipped tail, but it was all useless.

An invisible hand crushed its cervical vertebrae.

-Crack!

With its cervical vertebrae shattered, its neck could no longer connect to its spine. The Predator Spine fell onto the asphalt in two pieces.

But what surprised me wasn’t Go Ryeoha’s battle-hardened technique.

"Lee Sejun. Why did you…?”

The other Supreme Archmages apparently hadn’t expected Lee Sejun to act first either.

Even Shin Nain, who usually closed his eyes and focused on his hymns playing through the headset whenever he stood beside Lee Sejun, was staring at him this time.

It was unexpected. After all the vile and pathetic behavior Lee Sejun had shown toward Go Ryeoha, this was the last thing I had anticipated.

Lee Sejun adjusted the grip on his rifle with a reluctant look yet spoke as though his actions were only natural.

"Haah… Whether I like it or not, I’m still a man. And once a man says he’ll repay a debt of loyalty, he has to follow through. Ryeoha-ssi seems to know a great deal, so the military will definitely need her. Even if our country is half-ruined.”

Lee Sejun shouldered his rifle again, aimed beyond the fog, and continued.

"Refusing to repay someone just because they’ve fallen on hard times isn’t loyalty.”

"Loyalty?”

"The country gave me what it could. So I’ll give the country what I can. That’s all.”

"Wow! Your name was Sejun-ssi, right? I didn’t realize you were such a cool ahjussi!”

Go Ryeoha, who had been closing her fist to gather her remaining iron pellets, looked at Lee Sejun with sparkling eyes.

Admittedly, if you separated Lee Sejun from his personal desires, he was the very image of the ideal soldier the Republic of Korea wanted.

But why was it impossible for a human being to possess nothing but admirable qualities?

Knowing Lee Sejun’s true thoughts, Shin Nain, Hamza and I sighed and unconsciously exchanged glances.

The pastor clicked his tongue yet nodded as though he were moved.

"Sejun only acts like that because he needs love. He’s not rotten to the core. A kid like him is exactly who ought to come to church.”

"Pastor, please don’t go vouching for him or anything.”

Not rotten to the core? Was he out of his mind?

Whatever the seed may have been like, if the first leaves turned sickly yellow while growing, then the plant had gone bad.

The pastor chuckled behind his gas mask, evidently very pleased with Go Ryeoha’s low-noise method of eliminating monsters.

"Then for the time being, let’s leave monster suppression to Ryeoha-ssi while the rest of us move with our guns ready. If we can avoid letting out gunfire, that’s best. Right?”

"Yes."

In this way, Go Ryeoha’s addition made it possible for us to travel more safely.

Normally, the moment we fired, a single bang! from a gun, an entire horde would have poured in. Go Ryeoha’s heated iron pellets and thrown stones, however, proved exceptionally effective.

Even when situations arose where close combat seemed inevitable, I never deliberately stepped forward.

I wanted to watch how Go Ryeoha responded and steal every technique she had. I also wanted to calculate the perfect kill window in case she ever swallowed the red pill and went berserk.

By observing her with that mindset, I learned a great deal about her tactics.

"They’re coming."

First.

At regular intervals, Go Ryeoha activated Spirit Sight to draw out the hostility of monsters lying in ambush and lure them toward herself. It was clear that she was destructively compensating for the limits of her detection ability as a non-shaman master.

At the same time, I became certain that none of the Cursed Objects Go Ryeoha could produce aided detection. She was vulnerable to ambush. No matter how impressive her physical abilities were thanks to possessing Heart-branch magic, severing her legs or inflicting a critical injury with a surprise attack would clearly restrict her movement.

"Lord Huode. Fire overcomes Metal. Go.”

Second.

Those red gloves Go Ryeoha wore, the Fire-spewing Hands, required a warm-up period.

I called it warming up for simplicity’s sake, but more precisely, it was the process of controlling the fire energy within her body and borrowing the power of a spirit.

Because she heated the iron pellets with fire energy and fired them using a spirit’s power, her accuracy also appeared extremely high.

During our journey toward the riverside near Gwangnaru Station, Go Ryeoha launched iron pellets and stones around 14 times. Every single shot hit.

But the limitations were equally clear.

The warm-up process took so long that, after firing once, she could not avoid close combat.

Then how did Go Ryeoha handle that close combat?

"Ahaha, don’t worry!"

Third.

Go Ryeoha was an Upright Alteration-type wizard. One with 2 branches of magic.

The physical abilities enhanced by Heart-branch, Stage 2, combined with the fact that she was a Hand-branch, Stage 4 wizard, made her naturally well suited to fighting monsters at close range. Even Hand-branch, Stage 1 [Blood of the Right Hand], alone could inflict lethal damage on monsters. Since her body was fast and strong as well, she could simply beat the shit out of them.

But the most important part was something presumed to be Hand-branch, Stage 3 or Stage 4, something beyond Stage 2 at least.

The invisible hand.

It was close to a form of telekinesis. At the same time, it differed from ordinary grip strength, perhaps because it was connected to the caster’s own physical abilities.

When Go Ryeoha kicked a charging monster, it shattered on impact. If another monster rushed her from the side, the moment she noticed it, the invisible hand seized it and tore or crushed it apart.

Naturally, this also had clear limitations.

When the invisible hand was used outside the caster’s field of vision, its accuracy dropped dramatically, much like a real hand.

Perhaps for that reason, when monsters targeted her back or side, Go Ryeoha tended to use it merely to knock them away rather than attempting to seize them. The sight of charging monsters going splat onto the ground as though they had been slapped made that easy to infer.

Taken as a whole, Go Ryeoha was closer to a vanguard scout.

Rather than relying on the firepower of guns, she made relatively little noise, increased her combat endurance by using easily obtainable resources like stones and iron pellets instead of bullets, and even used Spirit Sight to provoke the enemies lying in ambush and draw them into close combat rather than avoiding engagement.

As expected of a Seoul wizard, both her tactics and her development of magic were optimized for surviving in the environment of Seoul.

If Lee Sejun was a conventional melee fighter, Go Ryeoha seemed useful as a scout capable of operating with a certain degree of independence.

Eventually, when we reached the riverside near Gwangnaru Station and stopped to catch our breath, I shared the valuable information I had gathered with only Shin Nain, Lee Sejun, and Hamza.

I left Go Ryeoha with the pastor for a while as he fussed over her and praised her hard work.

"So? What do you think of my observational skills and judgment?”

"Jemin-ssi. Shit, is that why you kept your rifle slung over your shoulder the entire time?”

"Hey now. When gathering information, someone inevitably has to refrain from using their gun.”

Despite Lee Sejun’s complaints, Hamza’s grumbling, and Shin Nain’s peculiar look, they all expressed admiration for my judgment.

"I’ll give you credit for not doing nothing at least.”

"That makes me a little angry coming from the guy who freeloaded his way through nightwatch.”

"Jemin-ssi, those truly are the observational prowess worthy of a Supreme Archmage.”

"Hamza really is the only one I can count on.”

I decided I would gladly give Hamza one of the cans of Spam I had hidden away.

That was when Go Ryeoha and the pastor approached us as we stood talking near the riverside, beside the gently flowing water.

"So they told us to keep following the river downstream like this?”

"They didn’t really say anything beyond that.”

"They must be worried other survivors will approach us. Looks like the military knows they’re being monitored too. In that case, let’s enjoy a stroll along the river!”

And so began our walk along the Han River embankment. Five fully armed civilians and one insane college girl.

Concrete bridges appeared only as pale outlines beyond the heavy fog, while strange ripples occasionally disturbed the river’s surface. As we calmly moved through the cool, oppressive damp weather, everyone seemed lost in deep, complex thoughts.

Escape.

When we first entered Seoul, I had assumed at least one of us would die, yet somehow every single one of us had survived.

Considering the threats we had faced, it was practically a miracle.

Would people look at us differently once we got outside?

It was around then that Lee Sejun whispered.

"There isn’t a single Human-Skin Jellyfish anywhere.”

"Professor Nowon kept at least one of his promises."

"Jemin-ssi, there were two promises. Surely you are not entertaining some other theory about the second price Professor Nowon paid? You do not believe there were other circumstances surrounding Go Ryeoha-ssi, or some other truth about the Konkuk University survivor group, right?”

"Shin Nain, why are you thinking so small? I have to claim it was a lie and say I don’t believe him so I can squeeze one more thing out of him later. Besides, it really could have been a lie.”

Like the deranged fanatic zealot he was, Shin Nain could not match me, Baek Jemin, when it came to enjoying practical and worldly benefits.

We continued chatting from time to time, shooting approaching monsters dead, and enjoying our rare healing stroll, when suddenly…

-Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter...

The sound of a walking tractor’s engine reached my ears.

What was a walking tractor doing in Seoul, now a concrete graveyard that looked as though it didn’t contain a single field? And yet, something that genuinely sounded like one was approaching.

At first, I wondered whether I had finally gone insane and pulled back my hood to check, but no.

Beyond the heavy fog blanketing everything, an overpowering light that blurred through the mist without disappearing was flashing as it approached.

Across the surface of the water.

-Beeeeep!

That was when we heard the distinctive transmission tone of a military radio.

As we walked along the riverside, the flashing light went out, and clear shapes finally emerged from beyond the fog.

"11:14 AM. Located on riverside walking path besideGangbyeonbuk-ro. 11:14 AM. Located near Gangbyeonbuk-ro.”

Three rubber boats and five soldiers.

Every one of them wore full combat gear and looked intensely alert. The pentagram necklaces, rosaries, and Buddhist prayer beads hanging all over the boats clattered against one another, making them almost appear like chains.

The soldier who had been speaking into the radio let out a brief sigh and turned toward us.

"You’re the civilian operational unit, correct?”

"How did you know?”

They had identified us immediately without even properly establishing contact?

The soldier’s features, thickly smeared with camouflage paint, swept over us as though he were looking at a group of lunatics.

"No survivors inside Seoul have ever been identified wearing military ponchos, combat uniforms, gas masks, and carrying firearms. Board one at a time!”