Chapter 96: Monster Busters

[Translator – Aren]

The main building of this major hospital in the middle of Anyang was enormous, with 2 basement levels and 13 floors above ground.

And since it sat right on the doorstep of the blockade line, there must have been quite a lot of people inside.

I tossed the phone I was holding back onto the pile and stood up.

I adjusted my grip on the rifle and discarded the magazine I had emptied earlier while killing monsters.

-Click.

After changing magazines, the first thing I did was explain the situation in detail to Hamza and Go Ryeoha.

"The phones dropped like they were appearing out of empty air. I don’t know whether something swallowed them and spat them back out, but let’s stay cautious. Though there’s something we need to do first.”

"Something we need to do?”

Hamza rose awkwardly and swallowed hard.

Go Ryeoha also turned her head slightly, her bright eyes visible through the lenses of her gas mask.

I gestured with my chin toward Go Ryeoha’s bleeding right hand.

“We seal off every other emergency stairwell with Hand-branch, Stage 1 before going up.”

Hand-branch, Stage 1, [Blood of the Right Hand], was magic that forced humanity’s common sense upon monsters.

And there was no way anyone could call the monsters’ bizarre biological traits and behavior pattern normal.

The Seoul wizards had survived by overcoming their pathetic firepower through methods like coating baseball bats with [Blood of the Right Hand] before swinging them, and Go Ryeoha, a Hand-branch, Stage 4 wizard, was no different.

True to her background as a Seoul wizard, she was accustomed to pain, and if anything, she seemed almost delighted by the decision to use magic.

"Sounds good. I’ll scatter it around in front of the pile of phones first.”

"You’re not going to smear it on?”

"Hearing you say that it’s an invisible mob made me think of a monster. If it’s something called that thing called the Invisible Veil, scattering it should work better.”

-Splash!

Go Ryeoha shook her right hand and scattered drops of blood evenly around the doorway. It looked like she should have been losing a lot of blood, but maybe because she was a Heart-branch wizard, she showed no signs of shock or anything else unusual.

That was where the synergy between Heart-branch, Stage 2 and Hand-branch, Stage 1 came in.

Blood wasn’t exactly pouring from Go Ryeoha’s right hand. Even so, an ordinary person would probably have been crying from the pain and burning sensation, with anemia setting in on top of it, yet she showed no such signs.

As a Heart-branch wizard, Lee Sejun used his physical superiority to wield heavier firearms and bring in greater firepower, while Go Ryeoha seemed to use hers entirely to support her magical abilities.

As Go Ryeoha flicked her hand again and again, scattering blood, Hamza let out a short groan and moved a few steps closer to me.

"Jemin-ssi, are you planning to block every single one of them?”

"Hamza, that kind of half-assed mindset is how you summon sweet potato-like disasters.”

The monsters we fought were beings born to desecrate and hunt humans. Setting aside our theory that human selves and consciousness might remain inside them, saying they were hostile toward humans didn’t quite fit. It was more accurate to say they treated humans as prey.

We still didn't know their exact origins, but they had ecological traits of their own. The monsters I had observed were fundamentally closer to parasites.

Parasites with all kinds of ecological types, using humans as hosts to grow and reproduce.

And as the only Supreme Archmage who had witnessed the Han River that had turned into a deep-sea-like abyss, I had my own theory about why the Amalgams and Predator Spines had been pushed all the way down to the first floor.

When monsters have enough of the same prey, in other words, humans, to hunt in abundance, they cooperate.

But contrary to what humanity might assume, monsters belong to separate species distinct from one another, and once prey runs short, they mercilessly begin hunting other species using differences in size and ecology to their advantage. That also lined up to some extent with the commander’s testimony.

According to the frog lieutenant colonel, a mobile strike team consisting of 30 non-wizard soldiers, 1 Eyes-branch, Stage 2 specialist soldier, and 2 Ears-branch, Stage 1 specialist soldiers had already cleared everything up all the way to the 3rd floor.

And yet a horde of them had appeared on the first floor again.

And the monsters had even been hiding behind closed doors.

At first, I thought they had been lying in ambush, but now that we knew from the pile of phones that an invisible mob existed, another possibility presented itself.

Every monster on the 1st floor had fled down here from the invisible mob.

I explained my theory while keeping watch on our surroundings with Eyes-branch, Stage 1, peering 10 seconds into the future.

My rifle was already raised and aimed around us as I spoke.

With the fog spilling past the broken windows on the 1st floor and rising all the way to the ceiling, I spoke without turning around.

"We’re doing this thoroughly. I don’t want to get careless against an unidentified species and end up eating sweet potatoes. Hamza, check the surrounding routes and assess the danger level.”

"Jemin-ssi, please act like this all the time."

Meanwhile, Go Ryeoha finished sealing the area and approached while flexing her fingers.

"All done, Hubae-nim.”

"What do you know about the Invisible Veil?”

"It’s an incredibly rare monster…It never came around the Konkuk University area.”

Invisible Veil.

Apparently its name was known among the Seoul wizards, but its detailed ecology wasn’t properly understood.

Or maybe Go Ryeoha simply had restricted access to information because she wasn’t part of the 66-Society.

Either way, it was effectively an unidentified species.

The fact remained that we had to fight it without knowing what kind of abilities it possessed.

Clicking my tongue internally, I raised my left hand to get Hamza's and Go Ryeoha’s attention.

"I’ll take the lead. I’ll stop before corners and doors, and Hamza will assess the danger. If we confirm a monster inside, Ryeoha-ssi will use [Spirit Sight] to provoke it, draw it outside, or check its reaction. Once we go up a stairwell, scatter [Blood of the Right Hand] to seal that entrance, then cross over to the other stairwell, clear the area, seal that one the same way, and move up.”

We couldn’t afford to casually allow even a single variable.

"Since someone apparently started a fire, they were probably trying to trigger the sprinklers to reveal the monsters’ position. We’ll do something similar. If Hamza finds a fire extinguisher, carry it and spray it around. If we actually need the sprinklers, I’ll just shoot them to activate them. Ryeoha-ssi, cover Hamza and restrict the passageways with [Telekinesis]. Ryeoha-ssi and I are the combat personnel, so Hamza, don’t turn off your phone. Actually, did we bring walkie-talkies?”

Judging by the way the monster we suspect to be an Invisible Veil had spat out only the phones like watermelon seeds, there seemed to be some kind of connection.

We needed to figure out whether it reacted to communication devices in general or specifically only spat out phones.

"I-I grabbed one walkie-talkie. Before we came here.”

As expected of the ever-prepared Hamza.

Apparently when he had been whining earlier about staying behind to handle communications, he had already picked up a radio and planned to remain in the rear. I wanted to swing my muzzle toward him, but since he was here with us now, I restrained myself.

"Keep it and stay in contact with the outside so we can get drone support too. Even with the fog, they should at least be able to do something through the exterior windows. Let’s go.”

Hamza and Go Ryeoha, who had been blinking blankly at me, nodded and took up their respective roles.

"Hubae-nim, you looked really impressive just now.”

"Jemin-ssi, doesn’t this prove I’m still useless here?”

I let both of their completely worthless comments go in one ear and out the other.

I already had enough anger boiling inside me as it was.

Getting scammed out of my Four-Tiger Sword turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

You trash mob bastards, I’m going to wipe out every last one of you with a level of spite and ferocity beyond imagination.

* * *

The fire had been near the emergency stairs on the second floor.

The moment we opened the door and stepped out, we saw that the entire wall was blackened with soot. Still, the first apparently hadn’t lasted long, because the affected area was extremely limited. The building’s well-maintained fire-suppression systems must have kicked in before the flames could really spread.

The sprinkles seemed to be broken and were no longer running, while fog hung in the air, mixed with soot from the fire.

The visibility was so bad that checking the floor with my low-power light was pointless, so I switched it off to save the battery. And with that, the Supreme Archmage and his two fifth wheels began their proper clearing routine.

"Sealed!”

Once Go Ryeoha scattered blood to stop monsters from pouring in through the stairwell entrance, we fell into formation.

I took the lead, Hamza held the center, and Go Ryeoha covered the flank and rear.

Since I might need to immediately use Eyes-branch, Stage 2 [Cognitive Distortion], I couldn’t afford to keep Eyes-branch, Stage 1 at 100% constantly active.

Magic had a price, and that price was pain.

Humans could never truly overcome pain. They could only drive it away with greater pain.

Human will originated in the brain, and the will housed in that brain could easily suffer irreversible damage from things like narcotics.

So rather than doing something idiotic like trying to overcome pain through sheer willpower, I adopted the attitude that I would accept pain only when it was necessary.

Following that principle, we used a 3-stage reconnaissance routine.

Stage 1. Whenever we encountered a door, intersection, or corner, I stopped and waited with my rifle aimed.

I stopped in front of a hospital room whose door had been ripped away, tucked my elbows tight against my torso, and kept consciously reminding myself to shoot with both eyes open while taking in as much of my surroundings as possible. My index finger was already resting on the trigger, and the safety had been off since the 1st floor.

I had already changed magazines too, so with one round in the chamber, I was combat-ready with 31 rounds available.

During that wait time, Hamza did his part.

"Uh…nothing. It’s safe.”

Stage 2. Hamza assessed the danger level with [Angel’s Intuition].

When Hamza said it was safe, I lowered the muzzle slightly and stepped forward heel-first. I had unconsciously started leading with my heel because I kept correcting my posture to keep it from falling apart while walking.

As I passed the hospital room, beds covered in fog came into view at the edge of my vision through the empty doorway. There were only blankets strewn carelessly across them beyond curtains swaying eerily in the haze.

No bloodstains. Not even phones or clothes. A truly bizarre scene.

Then, when we came to a long corridor, I stopped again.

Having Hamza check every single point one by one would waste too much time, so it was time to use a different method.

"...I see one."

Stage 3. Use Go Ryeoha’s [Spirit Sight] to provoke it and draw it out.

Go Ryeoha’s [Spirit Sight] was far more effective at flushing out ambushers than at detection itself.

The hostility [Spirit Sight] triggered in monsters was beyond anything I had imagined. Even a Predator Spine that would normally stay quietly hidden would smash through a door and charge out. Naturally, dealing with whatever came charging out was my job.

One gunshot. One bullet.

With the crisp sound of the casing bouncing across the floor, the Predator Spine’s skull shattered. The Predator Spine that had been rushing across the ceiling lost its head and dropped straight down, its legs twitching before it died.

A clean, fast kill.

It was faster for me to pull the trigger than for Go Ryeoha to beat every single trash mob to death one by one.

"Hubae-nim, your eyes look really smug right now.”

"I guess so.”

By the time we finished clearing the second floor, the only monsters we had encountered were about 5 Predator Spines.

We headed toward the stairwell on the opposite side, scattered [Blood of the Right Hand] around the elevator entrance too, just in case. By the time we reached the opposite stairwell, we found a pile of watches instead of a pile of phones.

After checking with Eyes-branch, Stage 1 at 100%, enhanced through Tongue-branch magic, using Past Sight, it was clearly the work of that same species of monster.

The sight of watches appearing from thin air and clattering to the floor was almost identical to what had happened with the pile of phones on the 1st floor.

"Did it spit them out because it couldn’t eat them?”

"Ugh~. It stings a little. Couldn’t you sprinkle the blood this time, Hubae-nim?”

"Ryeoha-ssi, I have to shoot.”

The nerve of her, acting that shameless toward the victim of her scam.

I coldly rejected Go Ryeoha’s request, set down the watch I had been holding, and turned toward Hamza. Just then, Hamza was holding the walkie-talkie and trying to contact the military unit outside.

-Beeeeep—.

After the distinctive signal tone, Hamza reported without hesitation.

"This is Apho…the Supreme Archmages. Can you hear me?”

[Yes, we hear you. J-Just a moment.]

A young-sounding voice fumbled around for a bit before being replaced by the familiar voice of the frog lieutenant colonel.

[Communications security. Aphorsim, what did you find?]

Go Ryeoha and I kept our mouths shut and continued our respective jobs, scattering blood around the entrance and maintaining all-round security.

There were only two actual combat personnel, so we couldn’t afford to relax our guard. Thankfully, Hamza was diplomatic enough despite speaking a little awkwardly.

"Y-yes, they say it’s an Invisible Veil.”

[Invisible?]

"Jemin-ssi and Ryeoha-ssi both think it’s probably an invisible monster. Can you see it with something like a drone?”

[Hey, Sergeant Park, didn’t we run thermal imaging?]

After a brief commotion, the frog lieutenant colonel spoke again in a grave voice.

[Before we deployed the mobile strike team, we put drones right up against the exterior windows and conducted internal reconnaissance up through the 6th floor. Thermal imaging showed nothing unusual at the time. Are you sure it’s an invisible monster?]

"Yes, uh…I-it is, right?”

Hamza looked at us cluelessly, asking for confirmation.

I felt like my eyeballs were going to fall out from watching Hamza out of the corner of my vision, but I kindly answered him anyway.

"Yeah. Invisible mob.”

After thinking it over, the frog lieutenant colonel made a decision.

[For now, I’ll have the drone operators observe through the windows from outside the building. We’ll send indoor reconnaissance drones too, but…please understand that they don’t maneuver very freely indoors.]

We weren’t stupid enough to try and handle everything by ourselves.

You used everything available to you.

And so, after finishing the sweep of the 2nd floor, Go Ryeoha, Hamza, and I headed for the 3rd.

From the 3rd floor onward, just as the frog lieutenant colonel had said, the loud buzz of hornet-like wings began coming from outside.

-Beeeep—.

[This is Drone Control. We’re observing the 3rd floor by drone. Nothing unusual.]

A stiff, tense young soldier’s voice came through.

He couldn’t have been more than 30 at most. Then again, there was nothing strange about younger guys being good at operating drones.

But observation through the drones was far less accurate than we had expected.

The moment we sealed one of the 3rd-floor stairwell entrances and entered the reception area, Hamza frantically waved his hands.

"Nonono…”

The decision came quickly.

"Move near the sealed stairwell entrance.”

"I’ll use [Spirit Sight] once we’re in position.”

Go Ryeoha, too, watched the surroundings with a distinctly serious expression instead of her usual bright, energetic demeanor.

With our backs to the stairwell entrance we had blocked by scattering [Blood of the Right Hand] to keep monsters from approaching, the three of us Supreme Archmages finished preparing to engage. Our roles were clear.

Go Ryeoha would use [Telekinesis] to knock away approaching monsters while provoking them with [Spirit Sight]. I would mow them down with my rifle while staying ready to use Eyes-branch, Stage 2 at any moment.

Lastly, Hamza would hold onto the walkie-talkie and communicate with the drone operators.

Without saying a word, Go Ryeoha raised her left hand. Three fingers extended.

Then, one by one, she folded them down.

Three.

Beeeeeep, the radio tone sounded.

Two.

The fog rose to around chest height.

Hamza gripped the walkie-talkie tightly and spoke.

"This is A-Aphorism.”

One.

"There are a ton of them on the 3rd floor!”

With Hamza’ scream-like shout, the fog surged toward us.

The doors to the hospital rooms shattered all at once, and thunderous footsteps filled the corridor from end to end. All manner of grotesque screams and groans battered my eardrums, while joints and bones struck the hard floor in a hideous rhythm.

Then the monsters came charging toward us at the stairwell entrance.

Amalgams and Predator Spines.

The things that had once made my legs shake when I first encountered them now felt almost welcome. Before they could scream out these wretched dying words, I raised my rifle and aimed. All while repeating Instructor Song Smith’s shooting lessons in my head.

Elbows in. Raise the rifle. Keep both eyes open. Hold it like you’re pulling the gun into yourself. Don’t be slow in shifting your aim.

I followed those lessons faithfully.

The muzzle flashes swallowed the dim fluorescent light in an instant. The thunderous gunfire didn’t just pound against my eardrums, it set off ringing in my ears. Heavy recoil rocked my body as shell casings poured out, while the fog visible through my gas mask lenses repeatedly mixed with yellow pus and blood before settling again.

Occasionally, the fog would burst apart and monsters would go flying with a loud bang.

Go Ryeoha’s Hand-branch, Stage 3, [Telekinesis] was doing its job.

Hamza wasn’t just fucking around either.

Right around the time I instinctively felt my remaining rounds running low, a heavy magazine came flying toward me.

"Jemin-ssi! Magazine!”

I caught it with my left hand.

The weight nearly bent my wrist backward, sending an even sharper wave of burning pain through it, but I endured it for the sake of looking cool. Because it was time to use thetactical reload Instructor Song Smith had taught me.

-Click.

The now completely weightless magazine dropped limply to the floor. A heavy fresh magazine filled the empty space.

-Clack.

With the satisfying sound of it locking into place, even the index finger pulling my trigger felt lighter.

Then monsters started dropping one after another even though I wasn’t shooting them.

Thinking it might be Go Ryeoha, I turned my head, only to find her staring wide-eyed as well.

"Hubae-nim, did you learn some kind of magic I don’t know about?”

The source of the magic revealed itself with a loud buzzing sound.

A noisy drone appeared above the monster corpses collapsing all over the floor.

-Beeep—

[Aphorism, this is Drone Control. We’re out of ammunition and pulling back. The exterior observation drones will continue moving up with you.]

The armed drone that had entered the building and supported us disappeared leisurely into the fog after that transmission.

Drones were far less useful for reconnaissance than we had thought, and far more useful in combat than we had expected.

That impression only grew stronger as I waited for Hamza to awkwardly get back to his feet, then moved ahead.

We had just killed more than 20 monsters.

A mixed group of Amalgams and Predator Spines. There had been more than 20 of them hiding on the 3rd floor alone, and the drones hadn’t spotted them. Sure, there were doors in the way, curtains drawn, and thick fog everywhere, but this was still way too much.

"Do all the drones have thermal imaging?”

"Jemin-ssi, thermal imaging drones are expensive.”

"Besides, Hubae-nim, they said they checked with thermal imaging earlier and still couldn’t find anything, so maybe the indoor reconnaissance drones don’t use it. They’d need something that can search without getting blocked by walls or glass, but I guess it’s too expensive to throw those around freely.”

Apparently just because we now lived in a world where bullets were more useful than money didn’t mean expensive things had suddenly become cheap.

I clicked my tongue internally and set out to clear the 3rd floor with these two idiots in tow.

Fortunately, the ones we had just killed seemed to have been the last of them. We searched the entire 3rd floor, right down to the bathroom stalls, but found no more monsters. There were operating rooms on the 3rd floor too, but contrary to my expectations that they would be drenched in blood, they were completely intact.

It was a bizarre place with neither corpses nor patient gowns anywhere in sight.

There were wheeled racks, or maybe carts like the kind used to deliver hospital meals, and neatly folded patient gowns stacked in a corner of the storage room. At that point, it went beyond strange and started feeling downright eerie.

Sure, maybe the monsters had slurped up all the corpses, but you’d think there would at least be some clothing left behind…

More than anything, the fact that the monsters had been hiding behind closed doors bothered me.

Still, there was nothing unusual enough to report, so all we could do was keep moving with that uneasy feeling hanging over us.

The change came on the 4th floor.

The moment Go Ryeoha finished sealing the stairwell entrance by scattering [Blood of the Right Hand], Hamza narrowed his eyes and pointed toward the reception desk buried in fog.

"Nothing. There are no monsters on the 4th floor.”

"No way I'm trusting that. Go to the desk and grab a fire extinguisher. I’ll cover you.”

While Hamza awkwardly went to retrieve one, I made Go Ryeoha check too, just in case, but [Spirit Sight] gave the same result.

She titled her head and looked around.

"Huh? They’re not reacting. I really think there’s nothing here.”

"Can Spirit Sight see through walls or anything like that?”

"No. But if monsters notice me using Spirit Sight, they usually come charging at me.”

This was the first time being told an area was safe had made me feel worse.

I couldn't trust the drones, couldn’t trust Hamza, and definitely couldn’t trust Go Ryeoha. Repeating the old saying that the only person you could trust in this world was oneself, I began the search.

This 4th floor felt more like aconvalescent ward than a regular hospital floor.

Outside, there was a small, neatly maintained park with trees and benches.

Inside, I could see a playroom made for children, and Go Ryeoha, completely forgetting that she wore a gas mask, pressed herself right up against the glass, delighted.

"The kids here must’ve had so much fun~”

"The kids here got hired by the horror theme park, so cut the crap and let’s go.”

The outdoor park on the 4th floor was blanketed in thick fog, so it did absolutely nothing to help our communications with the outside.

Fortunately, a few drones wandering around outside spotted us and slowly approached. The drones buzzed through the fog, circled around us for a while, then flew off again.

-Beeeeep—.

[Comms check. This is Drone Control. Aphorism, the higher you go, the weaker the signal gets. The 6th floor is the limit.]

"I-is it a monster?”

Hamza asked in a trembling voice, and the drone operator answered tensely over the walkie-talkie.

[It’s a characteristic of the fog. Communications don’t work well vertically, but horizontally they tend to work fine. We’ll provide support as far as we can.]

It looked like the search of the 4th floor was going to end without anything unusual happening.

There weren’t just one or two stairwells, either. There were four of them, presumably to make evacuation easier, so sealing every single one took forever. By then, it was already starting to look slightly darker outside.

Then, just as Go Ryeoha sealed the final stairwell with blood and we were about to move on.

Something caught my eye.

"Wait."

I raised a hand to get Hamza and Go Ryeoha’s attention.

Bloodstains. Even in a hospital overrun with monsters, we had barely seen any bloodstains, but these ran along the stairs. Strangely, they weren’t going down. They went up.

They didn’t look to have come from something that got dragged up either. The blood had fallen in separate drops, so there was a good chance an injured person had climbed the stairs on their own.

For a moment, I considered using Past Sight, but soon shook my head.

I already had too many jobs to handle.

When that shithead Shin Nain was around, he handled detection like it was nothing, but now that I was the one stuck doing it, I realized it wasn’t remotely easy. I was almost ashamed of all the times I’d cursed at support types and called them tools.

"Hamza, assess the danger. Pull the pin on the extinguisher and shake it.”

"Y-yes!”

"Ryeoha-ssi, let’s go."

"Hubae-nim, you could survive in Seoul just fine!”

5th floor.

There weren’t any monsters here either.

But Hamza’s reaction was completely different from the 4th floor.

"Uh, uuh…Uuuhh…!”

His face drained white as he flailed around, not knowing where to aim the extinguisher hose.

Just in case, I checked with Eyes-branch, Stage 1, but there were no red footprints anywhere.

The fog was dense enough to reduce the backlash from my magic, and the danger seemed much greater now, so I kept Eyes-branch, Stage 1 constantly active despite the crushing pressure building behind my eyes. Even then, nothing changed.

Not even Go Ryeoha’s [Spirit Sight] drew out any meaningful reaction.

Still, Go Ryeoha seemed to have sensed something too. Every trace of her smile disappeared as she clenched her fist and scanned the surroundings.

"Hubae-nim. I think we should move quickly.”

"Okay!”

If these two told me something was safe, I’d doubt them, but if they said it was dangerous, I decided to trust them without question.

The search and sweep proceeded smoothly. While Hamza and Go Ryeoha kept watch on the surroundings, instead of standing directly in front of doors, I tested the waters by standing off to the side and reaching over just enough to turn the doorknob.

I aimed my rifle first, then kicked the door open.

Every hospital room was empty, as expected, and every nurses’ station was empty as well. At some point, even the blood trail we had been following disappeared from sight.

But at a three-way junction where two corridors intersected, I caught a faint movement through the slats of the blinds drawn over the conference room windows. A slightly shifting combat uniform.

A person.

But just because I’d found a person didn’t mean I was going to skip over with flowers blooming in my head and say hello.

Ears-branch, Stage 1, [Mind Reading].

It had been a really long time since I used Ears-branch magic.

My Mind Reading let me hear the sound of a softly babbling stream whenever the other person harbored hostility toward me.

It was an infuriating spell whose penalty usually just forced me to hear Lee Sejun’s thoughts when I absolutely didn’t want to, but it was useful for catching any sudden hostile actions from a human survivor before they happened.

"Jemin-ssi, how is it?”

"Nothing."

Go Ryeoha handled opening the door.

She carefully turned the doorknob with [Telekinesis], while I kept a sharp lookout. In wide-open areas where there were too many directions to cover, I handled security. In corridors, Go Ryeoha, who was better at close combat and stopping enemies, took over.

We hadn’t exchanged a signal word about it, yet everything fell into place automatically. It felt absolutely horrible.

-Creeeeaaak…

The door opened.

Go Ryeoha’s eyes gleamed as she toyed with a bloodstained bottle cap between her index and middle fingers.

Hamza, clutching the fire extinguisher and sweating bullets, nodded.

Only then did I shove the muzzle of my rifle through the open doorway first and stormed inside.

"Hands up. Don’t move.”

There weren’t any red footprints. Hamza judged it safe. No reaction to Go Ryeoha’s [Spirit Sight].

But he could still be insane.

Keeping my rifle trained on him, I looked through the dot sight at the soldier leaning against the wall and gasping for breath.

This was where the two idiots showed surprisingly good instincts.

Hamza naturally approached the wounded soldier, knelt down, and started rummaging through his backpack, while Go Ryeoha closed the door and used [Telekinesis] to drag chairs and tables over, building a makeshift barricade.

Safe.

Only after realizing that did I lower the rifle and ease my index finger slightly off the trigger.

"Hamza. How bad is it?”

Hamza rolled up the gasping soldier’s sleeve, then spoke in a dry, tense voice.

"He’s been cut. No, stabbed too. It’s bandaged, but I can see puss. The area’s really hot too.”

Go Ryeoha and I approached the soldier as well.

Unlike ordinary soldiers, he wore an armband on his left arm. It was still covered in dangling dog tags, but this one was fluorescent orange. Only after seeing the small authorization badge above his name tape did I realize who he was.

Sergeant Jeong Sinil. Specialist soldier.

Go Ryeoha crouched beside Hamza and spoke with twice her usual urgency. Hamza had removed Sergeant Jeong Sinil’s gas mask and was resting a hand against his sweat-soaked forehead.

"Muslim-ssi, can you save this soldier-ahjussi?”

"I think he needs antibiotics. He’s been left bandaged up for a long time. I only broughtcefotaxime, though.”

Hamza withdrew his hand, rummaged through his backpack for the first-aid kit, and pulled out individually wrapped disposable syringes. He also set down clean gauze and disinfectant beside them. If nothing else, Hamza’s preparedness deserved some credit.

Go Ryeoha, her voice damp with emotion, showed just how much she trusted Hamza too.

"Muslim-ssi, if you need anything, I can make it for you.”

"It’s a hospital, so we should be able to find…What?”

Hamza stopped mid-sentence, turned around, and looked back and forth between Go Ryeoha and me.

I reminded Hamza of Go Ryeoha’s Hand-branch magic.

"Hand-branch, Stage 4 [Material Substitution]."

"No…I know, but…”

Hamza met Go Ryeoha’s eyes, then spoke with one eye twitching.

"Ryeoha-ssi. Isn’t making antibiotics out of blood disgusting? Just go get some.”

"Muslim-ssi, what is that supposed to mean?!”

Hamza and Go Ryeoha were about to start fighting over a reason I never could’ve imagined.

I quickly raised my rifle and mediated between the two.

"Forget whether it’s disgusting. We can’t split up here. Either we shoot him dead or Ryeoha-ssi uses her blood.”

"Jemin-ssi, what the hell are you talking about?! Just because she can turn human blood into gold doesn’t mean you can make antibiotics out of it and inject them into someone!"

Hamza, former medical student that he was, became strangely brave and principled in the weirdest situations.

Even though I had raised my rifle.

Slightly surprised by this display of manliness from Hamza, I slowly lowered the muzzle.

"We’ve climbed all the way to the 5th floor and found exactly one survivor, and he’s not even somewhere stocked with medical supplies. He just happens to be in a room near an intersection of corridors. They put him here on purpose. He’s bait.”

It was unfortunate for Sergeant Jeong Sinil, but putting an air hole through his forehead here would probably be a far more comfortable and peaceful way to go.

And as a valuable teaching specimen showing us what happens to the remains of a low-level wizard, he could live on, becoming one with me.

But our Hamza vehemently opposed my personal recommendation and stubbornly pulled out a disposable syringe anyway.

Hamza’s hand trembled worse than that of a man over 60 as he handed the syringe to Go Ryeoha.

"Metronidazole. C6H9N3O3. Molecular weight 171.2. Can you do it?"

"I’m a science major, you know?”

-Slice!

Without hesitation, Go Ryeoha cut her left hand with her combat knife.

The drops of blood running down her palm were unmistakably a vivid red.

But the moment a sensation like a gentle breeze brushed softly across my retinas, I saw the drops of Go Ryeoha’s blood turn transparent.

-Drip.

One drop fell into the syringe.

"Here!”

"Jemin-ssi, if it looks like this guy’s going to die, shoot him.”

Hamza took the syringe with trembling hands and, grimacing as though he were about to kill someone, gave the injection. He spent quite a while repeatedly waving a hand around to drive away the fog, rattling around with syringes, and drawing up medication.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Sergeant Jeong Sinil didn’t immediately drop dead.

After giving the injection, Hamza blinked his sweat-soaked eyelids behind the lenses of his gas mask, snapped the needle of the syringe, and tossed it into a corner.

"If it worked properly, it should buy him some time.”

"Muslim-ssi, you’re the best!”

I walked over to Hamza and held out my palm.

Hamza gave a wearing chuckle and placed his hand on top of mine.

Was this bastard insane?

"What are you doing?”

"What?"

"Give me the walkie-talkie.”

-Clack.

The moment I took the walkie-talkie, I tried to make contact.

-Beeeeep—.

"This is Aphorism. Survivor found. Sergeant Jeong Sinil, specialist soldier. Request identity confirmation.”

Until just a little while ago, I would’ve gotten an immediate response.

Up through the 4th floor, they had been answering us right away.

But even though I tried contacting them, dozens of seconds passed without any reply.

-Beeeep!

"This is Aphorism."

"J-Jemin-ssi. Let me try.”

Hamza sensed that something was wrong and awkwardly reached out, but instead of giving the radio back, I set it down on the conference room floor.

Just as I suspected.

"It’s a monster. I’m going to shoot the sprinklers, so Hamza, get ready with the fire extinguisher.”

We finally knew why it had been spitting out nothing but phones.

This invisible mob reacted to communications and could interfere with them.

* * *

Go Ryeoha dismantled the makeshift barricade blocking the conference room door.

Naturally, we had to get out.

And the moment the three of us stepped outside, we began preparing to hunt the invisible mob. The one who did the most here was none other than me, Baek Jemin.

I rolled my tongue inside my mouth.

Target, monster, kill, 5 minutes, path.

If I shot the sprinklers and forced them to spray water, the already-dense fog would become even thicker.

Shooting without assistance from my Eyes-branch magic would be impossible. But if I could see water running over it, even an invisible mob could be shot.

I aimed at the sprinkler on the ceiling, barely visible through the thick fog.

"Firing."

A gunshot rang out.

Water burst from the forcibly shattered sprinkler and sprayed in every direction.

"I’ll watch the floor, Hubae-nim.”

"Move calmly.”

-Shaaaaaa—.

Water streamed down over our ponchos beneath the sudden indoor downpour.

And we had Hamza with his fire extinguisher on top of that.

Hamza’s teeth were chattering as he looked around, and he clearly wanted nothing more than to throw down the extinguisher and run, but he didn’t.

Hamza had courage being pumped into him by the Staff of Courage I was holding.

There was no comrade braver than Hamza when he knew that the moment I swung the muzzle his way, he’d be changing jobs to Holy Relic.

-Drip, patter.

The sprinkler water struck our ponchos, followed again and again by the sound of droplets falling across the fabric.

I could see my precious AR-15 getting soaked too, but the monster bastard was what mattered right now. We had to figure out what this invisible mob lurking somewhere on the 5th floor actually looked like and how it hunted.

Go Ryeoha, Hamza, and I were all thinking the same thing.

-Splash.

Someone stepped into a puddle that had already formed over the tiles. Its surface trembled constantly beneath the endless rain of droplets.

Even then, the fog still refused to clear, and I raised my assessment of the Invisible Veil’s danger level even further. Magic couldn't immediately see through it either. This thing interfered with perception.

And so we reached the nurses’ station and the elevator entrance.

Shooting every sprinkler we could see along the way.

Shell casings bounced across the floor, broken sprinklers stubbornly spewed out streams of water, and the sounds of combat boots and droplets striking the pooled water echoed through the empty corridor.

Abandoned hospital beds and carts clanged metallically under the falling water as we passed.

-Shhhaaaaaa...

Among the sprinklers still pouring down around us, the three of us stood back-to-back.

The hospital interior, which had been unnaturally silent, was now filled with every kind of sound beneath the sudden indoor downpour. The invisible mob’s concealment was overwhelming. Standing in the dense fog, I realized just how flimsy my idea of spotting water running across its body had been.

But with my concentration pushed to its absolute limit, I was given a chance to catch its movement.

"Go Ryeoha."

"Yes."

Dogma-type magic, [Spirit Sight].

Go Ryeoha’s [Spirit Sight] wasn’t some flashy spell. It was simply magic that could detect monsters. Standing in front of the hospital elevators with water accumulating everywhere in all sorts of shapes, an ordinary non-wizard would never have found the thing.

But [Spirit Sight] had both a penalty and a strength.

It provoked monsters. It drove their hostility to the absolute limit and forced them into action.

That was the true value of [Spirit Sight].

Even a monster with extraordinary patience would be made to move, however slightly.

And once magic perceived something even once, the proper effect began flowing through like water finally breaking through a blocked channel.

-Slither.

It moved.

My eyes didn’t miss it.

I aimed the muzzle at the ceiling.

The fog was already beginning to clear.

Beyond the streams of water, red footprints began appearing through the swirling fog.

My index finger was already resting on the trigger.

-Ratatata—!!!

Blood sprayed. Disgusting bodily fluids mixed with the falling water and splattered down.

At the same time, the monster clinging flat against the ceiling finally revealed itself.

Its carapace looked smooth, almost like a centipede’s. At least, it would have if there weren't eyelids scattered across it and eyeballs rolling wildly beneath them.

But what fell after being shot wasn’t the monster's whole body.

-Splat!

"Uwaaaaagh!!”

-Fsssssh!

Hamza blasted it with the fire extinguisher.

Through the cloud of white powder, I could see something broad and flat writhing desperately.

"Lord Huode. Fire overcomes metal, go.”

-Baaang!

A bottle cap glowing red-hot punched straight through it.

But instead of aiming at the monster on the floor, I had no choice but to point my rifle toward the ceiling far in the distance.

Toward the direction the monster had escaped.

"Motherfucker…"

Invisible Veil?

That name was way too flattering.

I had only gotten a brief look, but I was certain.

It was a subspecies of the Human-skin Jellyfish.

A monster made up of broad, flattened segments connected together. It spread humans out thin and flat, stole their vital functions through their internal organs, fluttered through the air, then rolled its body up to lie in ambush.

I’m calling this thing Human-skin Tapeworm.