Chapter 111: -

[Translator – Aren]

Ride the Tiger and You Won't Die 

-Clack, tap…

Three sets of footsteps overlapped as we descended the stairs.

We hurried down with our muzzles raised to prevent accidental discharges, but we didn’t let our guard down. These were exterior stairs on the side of a villa, so our movements were easily exposed.

As we descended, I naturally took the rear.

Partway down the stairs, I pressed myself flat against the concrete railing and took cover. I didn’t forget to check my remaining ammo with a click. How many rounds did I have? Looked like maybe half a magazine…

Feeling cold sweat run down my forehead, I reinserted the magazine with trembling hands.

My palms were shaking. The magazine wouldn’t fit in properly, so I had to smack it a few more times with my palm. Even my fingers kept slipping when I tried to pull the charging handle because I couldn’t put any strength into them.

I had a pretty good idea why, and there was no escaping the shame of it.

This was fear on a completely different level from when we were fighting monsters.

Death.

My vision flickered through the tears welling up from the pain and aftereffects of [Cognitive Dissonance].

Whatever meaning or grand dream I, Baek Jemin, had in this human life was useless.

Even with [Bulletproof] enchanted onto my poncho, one round through the forehead of my gas mask would kill me instantly. One stray bullet through my skull, and my entire life and everything I had achieved would end in an instant.

The moment I realized the absolute helplessness of everything depending entirely on probability and luck, I felt just how insignificant human will really was.

But then I saw the dried blood on the back of my right hand. The checkered scar left behind when [Mutation Immunity] activated. And the magic high came surging back. 

I was different from non-wizards, who could only die helplessly.

Instead of relying on probability alone, I could interfere with it. Rather than being swept along by fate until it destroyed me, I decided I would become the master of my own fate.

I, Baek Jemin, am a Great Archmage.

I fear death. I fear eternity. I fear pain. But if I can get closer to the secrets of magic… Then I’d crawl toward them even with tears, snot, drool, and piss streaming out of me!

I rolled my tongue around inside my mouth.

Evade, fatal injury, 5 minutes, path, me.

An unpleasant sensation spread through my eyes, like my eyelids and eyeballs were sheets of dried plastic rubbing against each other.

My tongue seemed nearly numb already. All I could feel was something running down along it.

I was outside the fog, and the doping had worn off, so I had expected a backlash this severe.

The finger that had slipped again and again moments ago suddenly snapped into place. I could no longer feel the weight of the rifle. In one motion, I rested the muzzle over the railing and poked my head out.

-Clack!

A cloud covered the sun.

For a moment, shadows fell over everything. Then the clouds split, and beams of sunlight stabbed down through the gaps. At that moment, I couldn't hear a single sound. Most people would have found no signs or meaning in this simple weather phenomenon.

But to me, aiming over the railing, every beam of sunlight falling through the clouds looked like a blinking traffic signal.

The beams struck mirrors, disappeared behind buildings, and sometimes reflected off the glass of abandoned vehicles or the surfaces of hoods that had somehow remained clean. Only from exactly the right angle, in exactly the right position, could you realize those beams formed a set of directions, warnings, and signals.

The glass shards near the streetlight, near the shattered glass door, glittered.

A warning signal. I immediately ducked.

Gunshots tore through the space where my head had been just a second ago.

A burst of shots like a whole pan of corn popping ripped through the brief silence. I felt chunks of blasted concrete pattering down over my shoulders and my hood. My heart hammered.

But I survived.

With my head lowered, I was staring down through the gas mask lenses at the stairs covered in chips of concrete and paint when the sunlight returned. The instant I saw the long shadows stretching out, I knew.

Safe.

I rolled my tongue around inside my mouth.

This time, I didn’t think my tongue alone would be enough to pay the price, so for the first time in a while, I used my left-hand staff as well. After bracing the rifle, I clenched my left fist and drove it into the pockmarked concrete railing.

Target, hostile wizards, 5 minutes, path, me.

-Thump!

My left arm was already constantly plagued by phantom pain, like the blood vessels inside it were gently bubbling. Adding an impact on top of that sent a sharp electric jolt through it, like a pressure cooker boiling over.

But the effect was just as clear.

-Clack!

The moment I stuck the muzzle out again, the beams of light glittering all around began disappearing behind the clouds one by one. The beams reflected in windows, smooth car hoods, and puddles collected beside a broken fire hydrant vanished one after another.

Eventually, only one remained.

About two blocks down the road.

4th floor of a villa. Balcony window with a broken flowerpot.

I pulled the trigger.

The casing ejected and immediately went bouncing down the stairs.

The recoil shook heavily through my body. I didn’t even check whether I’d hit.

There was only one thought in my head.

Shoot, then immediately change position.

-Flaaap!

The hem of my poncho fluttered. As I hurried down the stairs with my body lowered, I kept hearing my gear shift and pull against me. By the time I reached the 1st floor, the pastor and Shin Nain had already taken cover behind a trash can and an abandoned door, respectively.

I hid behind the stairs and changed magazines without hesitation.

Removing it and slotting the new one in took only a few seconds.

Only after the metallic click of it locking into place did Shin Nain speak.

"Jemin-ssi, among the information we gained by destroying the demons’ remains, there was material about Holy Alteration Battle Arts and the Lord’s providence. Information regarding the demonic arts that corrupted Holy Alteration Battle Arts.”

"Get to the point and cut out the flowery bullshit.”

Was this bastard Shin Nain seriously planning to spout some bullshit religious rhetoric in a situation like this?

After I sharply put him in his place, Shin Nain adjusted his rifle and delivered his message quickly and clearly. Apparently even he realized that I had a point.

"Every Alteration-type Holy Alteration Battle Art except Dogma-type magic has a price. Even if it’s been inverted into demonic arts, there will be one. They either have some way of offsetting the backlash, or they’re focusing on short, decisive battles.”

"Okay. Got it.”

"Baek Jemin, are you bluffing right now? What could you have understood from just that?”

Pastor Park Yohan’s suspicious look made me snort.

"Because they’re short on supplies, the Seoul wizards developed tactics around direct combat for Heart-branch wizards, since they recover quickly, while everyone else focuses on stealth, ambushes, surprise attacks, reconnaissance, and stuff like that. Every Seoul wizard we’ve met so far fits that pattern.”

Even a blockhead like me could figure that much out pretty quickly.

I tapped the forehead of my gas mask a couple of times, enjoying the feel of the rubber pressing firmly against me, then grinned happily at the knowledge that someone was even slower than me.

"Yellow-Bandage probably doesn’t have any ability to heal injuries immediately. Doesn’t look like he’s a Ritual-type either, and even if he has Incantation-type magic, if healing spells were that amazing, every doctor would have gone bankrupt already. We live in an age where even practitioners of Korean medicine get called shamans and quacks. That bastard won’t last long if he keeps bleeding like that.”

"That’s not what I was trying to say, Jemin-ssi.”

"What?"

He wasn’t saying we’d be fine as long as we dragged this into a long fight?

I stared at Shin Nain in disbelief as he ran a hand over his headset before he spoke.

"There’s a high chance they have Inverted Tongue, Stage 1. If it really looks like Yellow-Bandage is going to bleed to death, Velcro may eat him first. They could even use that possibility as bait.”

"Oh shit.”

I hadn’t considered the 21st-century Seoul-wizard version of scorched-earth tactics. If you were about to lose to the enemy, just gobble up your own allies.

Shin Nain tucked his rifle under his arm, raised his index and middle fingers, and rattled off the rest at incredible speed.

"We need to kill Yellow-Bandage first. His communications have become less frequent. Thanks to your shameless surprise attack, Jemin-ssi, it looks like you hit him near an artery in his left arm. He’s losing consciousness quickly, so they stopped the bleeding with the bare minimum of first aid and are keeping him going with drugs. Yellow-Bandage’s interventions will become much less frequent, which is why Velcro will also be more cautious about exposing himself to our field of fire.”

"So this is praise for my tactics.”

"...We split into two teams again. They’ll be targeting you, Jemin-ssi, so draw their attention. While you keep them occupied, the pastor and I will move as the diversion and close the distance. With covering fire from our special-forces sniper, we’ll quickly enter the villa where Yellow-Bandage is hiding.”

The range of Shin Nain’s Ears-branch magic must have expanded quite a bit.

That meant he was probably hearing a lot more trash from people’s minds too. Compared to that, being a fanatic zealot was probably a remarkably mild form of insanity. The three of us Supreme Archmages looked at one another, then silently split up.

I tucked the rifle under my right armpit and rolled my tongue around inside my mouth.

Evade, fatal injury, 5 minutes, path, me.

My tongue, already soaked in the taste of iron, like something pickled in vinegar, hung ragged in my mouth and spilled blood. What mattered now wasn’t accuracy. It was running away from stray bullets.

I slipped out of the alley and immediately crouched behind an abandoned vehicle.

Just as I was about to stand, the windows of an abandoned storefront reflected the sunlight.

-Flash—.

I flattened myself as much as possible.

Bullets ricocheted off the vehicle frame, and the hiss of air escaping from a tire sounded especially clear. The car sank lower, taking a huge chunk of its value as cover with it.

I considered trusting the [Bulletproof] poncho and making a run for it, then decided against it.

There was a good chance Hand-branch, Stage 2, [Enchant] had been amplified while I was doped.

If I charged ahead trusting its doped-up performance and it suddenly got punched full of holes, turning it into a rag, that would be entirely my fault.

I couldn’t pull some bullshit like those damn bastards who’d just wring it and then pretend nothing happened after my body got turned into a sieve. If you treat your own body irresponsibly, Death comes to repossess it.

I, Baek Jemin, loved my body more than anybody else and judged accordingly.

It didn’t take long for me to be proven right.

When dozens of rounds were flying, one of them was bound to hit the poncho eventually. A stray bullet bounced off the asphalt and pounded into the poncho wrapped around my leg.

The first thing I felt was a chill at the sensation, like an awl stabbing deep into my calf.

Cold sweat poured down my body as I wondered if the bullet had lodged in my flesh, followed by a silent scream as I felt pain.

In those few moments, countless scenes from my life flashed before my eyes.

Even the memory of the most unjust moment in my life resurfaced.

Resentment surged toward my father, the man who had swung a baseball bat at me just because I pocketed 600,000 won in cram-school tuition and spent a month going to a pro-gamer academy that doubled as a PC bang. I hated the man who had crushed the young Baek Jemin’s dream of becoming a pro gamer. I hated him so much…!

Then lightning struck inside my head.

My fading consciousness snapped back all at once.

"Huuff, huff, huuuuff.”

Panting, I lowered my head and checked my calf.

It hadn’t gone through. I could see the bullet rolling away. But even brushing my left calf made a jolt shoot up my spine and forced my body to try to stand. If I stood up, I’d get a bullet through the head…!

-Splat!

I dropped flat like a frog.

I had barely managed to reduce my profile.

Then I forced myself to focus.

Shin Nain, what the hell are you doing, you bastard?!

'Jemin-ssi, we’ll suppress them. Move!'

-Ratata...

Gunfire rang out from a short distance away. Panting, I struggled back to my feet. My left calf trembled and nearly threw me off balance, but I gritted my teeth.

Before long, adrenaline and dopamine numbed the left foot I had been dragging behind me.

Once I stood up, I could see where I was.

Drones scattered everywhere. A shopping street emptied of people. Windows beyond eerily shattered glass, letting out chilling wind. Clouds drifting leisurely overhead. Tiny puddles collected in dents near broken fire hydrants and drains.

That was when artillery sounded again from the direction of Sanseong.

-Booom.

The vibration woke my heart and every organ in my body.

I had to run.

At first, I was slow. Only someone who’d had their calf pounded by a bullet had the right to criticize me. I shuffled along like a slow slug, limping while drool ran from the corner of my mouth without me even noticing.

-Boom.

The second artillery blast was different.

The pain rapidly faded until it became little more than a dull throb. My body had figured it out. If it didn’t want all of us to die, it needed to quit whining and numb the pain. Thanks to that, I could walk a little faster.

Before long, countless gunshots began echoing around me.

That was when Shin Nain’s telepathy came through.

'Allied sniper engaging!'

Amid the screams and groans coming from the road and the artillery shaking the ground, a single gunshot heavily rang through the air.

I couldn’t even guess where the sniper had aimed from or where the host had come from. Unlike the other gunfire, it was as though the sound had simply dropped out of the sky. No matter where I looked, it felt like the bullet could have come from anywhere.

At that moment, something swelled inside me.

I, Baek Jemin.

Throughout my life, I had never properly accomplished a single thing that earned the recognition of the people around me.

But right now.

I stood in the middle of people doing everything they could from their own positions.

They may have been people who harmed the innocent following the ruthless logic of survival where good and evil meant nothing, but who could dare mock their desperate desire to live?

Even if I ended up in hell, I would never regret struggling to survive.

To me, magic was survival, salvation, hope, and reward…

-Grip!

I clenched the rifle’s grip as hard as I could. At last, I could run.

The one force that could overcome my fear of death, the pain crashing over me, and the emptiness I felt in the face of the apocalypse.

My yearning for magic, for omnipotent power, finally set both my legs running.

Altruism could never make a person’s heart beat like this.

If someone truly possessed a noble spirit of self-sacrifice, then the moment they realized their own survival was consuming resources that could go to others, they should just jump to their death.

I want to live. I want to enjoy things. I want recognition. I want to be special.

I want people to applaud me as someone unique and absolute!

Only that base, selfish greed could numb my pain.

The weak little beta wimp who’d been bawling his eyes out was gone.

Just like that, I was able to stay in telepathic contact with Shin Nain, maintain our spacing, take turns drawing attention, locate the enemy, and move from cover to cover.

I crossed the road and crouched behind a small sign that read SeongsilPocha.

'Jemin-ssi, we need to reload!'

Okay.

I looked around and immediately found something that could serve as my next cover.

Grand-opening flower wreaths. Their durability was miserable, but that was a different story once a wizard like me got his hands on them. With the AR-15 tucked under my arm, I drew my combat knife.

I gave it a quick spin. My right hand was in good condition.

I caught the hilt in one motion and sliced open my left palm.

-Slice!

On the end of a ribbon that read ‘Congratulations on your Grand Opening,’ I quickly wrote on it with the blood of my left hand.

Hand-branch, Stage 2, [Enchant]. The word I had written in blood was [Oneway Blocker]. I inscribed it with the intent that I could see through it from my side while no one outside could see in. Once I’d finished writing the wet. sticky letters, I pressed myself tightly beside the wreath and the fallen sign.

I curled up so the poncho could protect my whole body.

Bullets came flying toward me almost instantly after I crouched.

I couldn’t tell whether Velcro or Yellow-Bandage was firing, but whoever it was was definitely wounded.

The shots were going everywhere. I sucked in a breath as chunks of asphalt burst apart.

Every so often, a round skimmed across the hem of my poncho inscribed with [Bulletproof].

Because I was curled up even tighter than when I’d hidden inside that wardrobe, I managed to avoid actually getting hit. Once I had a sense of Velcro and Yellow-Bandage’s accuracy, I realized Eyes-branch, Stage 1 was still working and started returning fire.

I poked the muzzle through a gap in the wreath.

The wreath allowed me to look through it like translucent jelly. I could see everything. Near the edge of my effective range, on top of thepork belly restaurant across the street, gunsmoke was quickly scattering in the wind.

Supporting the rifle with my bloodied left hand, I shouldered it properly and took aim this time.

As I caressed the trigger, a pleasant chill ran through my fingertip.

-Ratatatatata!!!

The recoil pounded my shoulder.

Ejected casings rolled into holes in the broken asphalt.

The building’s windows shattered, and bullet marks punched into the concrete. Amid it all, the curtain covering one of the windows thrashed around violently. Shooting with a gas mask covering the face and at that distance had its limits, but it was more than enough for suppression.

'Jemin-ssi, we’ve only got one traffic light left. We’re right in front of the villa Yellow-Bandage is in!'

Shin Nain’s telepathic message made it easier for me to keep firing steadily.

I started shooting in intermittent bursts.

-Ratata, bang!

Of course, I had no intention of emptying an entire magazine. The one shooting was most likely Velcro Corporal, and the moment he realized Shin Nain and the pastor were closing in on Yellow-Bandage, he would definitely move.

I had to keep suppressing him while moving.

With the rifle tucked under my arm to expose as little of the muzzle as possible, I stayed low and hurried forward in a duck walk.

The apartment above the restaurant I’d been firing at moments ago now had nothing but curtains fluttering through the shattered windows.

Gone. Velcro had changed positions too. But in a standoff like this, I had the advantage as an Eyes-branch wizard.

5 minutes hadn’t passed yet.

Eyes-branch, Stage 1 was still warning me of danger.

Just as a beam of sunlight seemed about to disappear behind the clouds, a flash of light glinted from a mirror inside a vehicle.

Warning!

The instant I ducked low, bullets poured in.

The horrifying cracks of rounds pinching through thin metal ceaselessly hammered against my eardrums.

Of course, I’d never studied ballistics, so there was no way I could calculate the trajectory precisely.

Using Ears-branch magic instead was out of the question.

With this much noise coming from every direction, picking out only the gunshots was beyond the limits of someone whose aptitude for Ears-branch magic was as bad as mine.

What do I do? Should I change what I’m asking Eye-branch, Stage 1 to show me?

I was still thinking when…

'Allied sniper engaging!'

-Baaaang...

Once again, a single gunshot rang out from somewhere I couldn’t identify.

But I knew what had happened because the dazzling beams of sunlight flashing around me settled back down.

The sniper might not have killed him, but they had successfully suppressed him.

'Velcro Corporal is retreating, Jemin-ssi! Run!”

-Scrrrrape!!

The soles of my combat boots scraped across the broken asphalt.

I sprang up in one motion and ran without stopping, the hem of my poncho streaming behind me. Heart-branch, Stage 1 [Endurance Enhancement], was definitely doing its job. Even moving this recklessly, I wasn’t getting short of breath.

The distance closed in an instant.

Then, on the rooftop of the villa, I caught a glimpse of Velcro Corporal crouched behind the low railing like a frog, supporting Yellow-Bandage as he prepared to jump.

At that moment, the chatterbox voice came from the walkie-talkie hanging from Velcro Corporal's jacket.

[Lissen, Lissen.]

Without hesitation, I dropped to one knee and aimed.

My index finger immediately settled over the trigger.

[Better check the chamber once before you shoot.]

Right. Gangnam Thousand-Miles Eyes had interfered earlier.

To prepare for another malfunction, I removed the magazine and pulled the charging handle. Locked the bolt to the rear, A round slipped out of the chamber. That was close. If I’d just fired, they might’ve collided and exploded…

-Ratatata!!!

A thunderous volley of gunfire rang out.

I instinctively raised my head.

I saw droplets of blood scattering through the air like a sudden shower.

They were about 50 meters away from me, but there was so much blood that I could see it even from there.

Yellow-Bandage Straggler.

He was slumped like a rag over Velcro Corporal’s back as he sprang away, blood pouring from Yellow-Bandage.

Only then did I realize I’d been hit with a suggestion.

I hurriedly reinserted the magazine, finished chambering a round, then ran up to the rooftop where the Seoul wizard had been. The gunfire never stopped even as my footsteps hammered up the stairs.

When I finally reached the roof, I saw Shin Nain and the pastor taking cover behind the railing on the green urethane floor. The pastor had his muzzle braced over the rooftop railing and was firing, while Shin Nain sat with his back against it and one leg stretched straight out.

The moment I rushed over and crouched down, I heard him groan.

Blood was seeping from Shin Nain’s thigh.

Looking closer, I saw a long fingernail buried through his combat pants like a harpoon.

Velcro Corporal.

"Why aren’t you pulling it out?”

"Can’t stop the bleeding right now if I do.”

Even through the lenses of his gas mask, Shin Nain looked slightly pale.

Pastor Park Yohan kept his eyes fixed on the target, maintaining his firing stance as he shouted.

"Baek Jemin, Nain can't move. I’ll stay here and cover him, so…”

"Pastor, you need to move too.”

"Nain, you little punk! What if that thing sliced through your femoral artery?!”

-Huuff—.

ShinNian breathed out through his gas mask and readjusted his rifle.

"My mobility is impaired, that’s all. My arms are fine, so I can still shoot. We’re overwhelming them with our field of fire right now, Jemin.ssi and I can communicate telepathically, and we have an allied sniper around. Keeping them from escaping comes first.”

"...Christ, protect the lives of the righteous. Let’s go, Baek Jemin!

"Y-yeah…”

As I reflexively followed the pastor when he decisively pulled away from the railing, a memory suddenly surfaced.

The thoughts I had heard from Shin Nain when we were testing original magic. The thoughts he would have in the future.

—This shall end before my faith is broken. Lord, I thank You.

.........

"Baek Jemin, can you track them with your Eyes-branch magic?!”

"Yes."

I felt strangely calm.

The greed that had been boiling inside me until moments ago felt a little more refined now.

I rolled my tongue around inside my mouth.

Target, kill, Velcro Corporal, 5 minutes, path, me.

As the pastor and I descended the villa stairs, only our two sets of footsteps overlapped.

The moment we stepped outside, Shin Nain’s telepathic message reached me.

'Yellow-Bandage is too badly wounded to have gone far. They’re in the building right next door. They can’t move properly because they’re wary of the allied sniper. I’ll fire to mark the location. Head there.’

The beams of sunlight intertwined and pointed toward one place.

A newly built 4-story villa.

At the same time, gunfire erupted loudly from the rooftop where Shin Nain was. The windows along the stairwell shattered then, and the flying shards of glass glittered as they scattered.

Pastor Park Yohan and I ran toward it without saying a single word.

Running side by side would get us shot dead in an instant, so we kept a reasonable distance between us. As we ran, Velcro Corporal made another desperate move.

-Brrrrt!!

A muzzle poked out through a small window meant to ventilate a bathroom. The instant we saw it, both the pastor and I naturally dropped low and ducked into whatever cover we could find.

-Ratatatatatat!!!!

I had taken cover inside a convenience store.

One corner of the store was covered in dark brown blood stains, surrounded by smashed shelves and refrigerator doors hanging loose on their hinges.

He wasn’t aiming, so his accuracy was pathetic.

But even one stray bullet was dangerous, so the pastor and I exchanged looks and waited for our chance.

Of course, we weren’t naive enough to assume that just because the shooting stopped, he was actually out of ammo.

Anyone too stupid to pull a feint like that wouldn’t have survived this long.

If we wanted to break through the feint, I had to go first with my [Bulletproof] poncho. The only way to beat a trick head-on was to answer it with something equally absurd.

-Huuff, huuff—.

I breathed through the gas mask and forced down the emotions I couldn’t quite put into words.

Then I raised my left arm in one motion, hunched over, and sprinted out of the convenience store.

-Bang, babang!

Sure enough.

Bullets kicked up the ground all around me.

Chunks of shattered asphalt struck my combat boots.

Then a round hit my left forearm through the poncho. A hit. For a moment, I felt like my breathing stopped.

-Huuuuugh…

I couldn’t scream even when the pain hit me.

My knees suddenly buckled, and I sucked in a sharp breath. It felt like the bone had broken. It hurt badly enough to bring tears to my eyes, so, of course, I dropped to my knees.

Humans could never truly conquer pain.

Anyone who says you can overcome paint through willpower would shut the hell up the moment they were tortured.

The pain had tears streaming down my face.

I worried that if the bone really was broken, I might be left with lasting damage.

One curse wasn’t enough.

Every filthy, vulgar word I knew churned through my head. I think I pissed myself again. The inside of my gas mask was so full of moisture that the rubber clung to my skin, making it feel like a damp sauna.

The smell of raw rubber mixed with the salty stench and became even more nauseating.

Every revolting sensation told me the same thing.

-Huuuuff—.

Baek Jemin, you bastard.

-Huuff, huuff, huuff.

You’re still alive and breathing.

-Clack!

This time, I braced the rifle across my knee and left forearm.

I pulled the trigger without a moment’s hesitation.

Gunfire rang out again and again until it became tinnitus plugging my ears, and the enemy could no longer keep shooting back. In the meantime, the pastor rapidly closed the distance and reached the villa entrance.

"Baek Jemin, run!”

Keeping himself hidden by the entrance, the pastor poked only his muzzle out and fired toward the exterior window.

As the building’s outer wall chipped apart under rapid gunfire, I fixed my stance and ran too. Once I safely regrouped with him, there was no reason to hesitate.

When it was time to run, we were Aphorism.

When it was time to advance, we were the Supreme Archmages!

The pastor and I naturally formed a two-man team and quickly headed up the stairs.

Instructor Song Smith’s lessons really shone in close-quarters combat like this.

I kept the rifle pulled tight against my body, elbows drawn slightly back, and cleared each corner by leading with the muzzle of the short-barreled AR-15.

The pastor followed half a step behind me. I could see him fiddling with the grenade hanging from his belt.

Meanwhile, the sun had disappeared behind incoming clouds, sending shafts of light through the gaps.

Sunlight spilled through breaks in the clouds and shattered windows illuminated us Supreme Archmages, making even the dust in the air look transparent.

That clarity stood out especially in front of the 4th-floor door.

The moment I saw the beam illuminating the entire door, I raised my blood-soaked left hand.

There wasn’t just one beam of light.

Like a stream splitting around a rock, the window frame served as the dividing point. One beam illuminated the door, while another illuminated the stairs leading to the rooftop. Whichever side we chose, they would ambush us. Considering Velcro Corporal's flexible mobility and ambush tactics, letting us become isolated was extremely dangerous.

And if they knew we were focused on Yellow-Bandage…

-Tap.

A hand settled on my shoulder.

Naturally, there was only one person who would do that in a situation like that.

The pastor’s brows were furrowed so deeply that I could see the wrinkles around his eyes even through the lenses of his gas mask.

He whispered quietly.

"Baek Jemin, you go after Velcro Corporal. I’ll wait here, and if Yellow-Bandage looks like he’s going to help him, I'll rush in. You think it’s a trap, don’t you?”

"Yes."

"They probably left the door open because they want us to walk into it. If we both go after one of them together, these bastards would probably go after Nain. A righteous man can’t act without thinking. You have to act wisely if you want to save people. Baek Jemin, you understand that, right?”

"Yes, yes."

"Good."

After hearing my short answer, the pastor tapped me a few more times and backed away.

At first I wondered what the hell he was doing…then I realized. He was making footstep sounds on purpose.

Yellow-Bandage was barely conscious, so the pastor was trying to confuse him with similar sounds. He was trying to make it seem like the two of us were still moving together. Once I understood what he was doing, I immediately turned and headed for the rooftop stairs.

Two sets of footsteps overlapped.

Mine and the pastor’s were hitting stairs on different floors, but we were walking together.

The rooftop door was slightly ajar.

I threw it open.

-Creaaaaak…

Under a sky where clouds occasionally drifted past, the villa rooftop was filled with clotheslines. Stained clothes clipped to them swayed in the soft breeze.

I couldn’t hear Shin Nain’s telepathy.

Instead, I could just barely make out the shape of a person through the fluttering clothes. Beyond clotheslines sagging precariously beneath hanging blankets, past a flapping shirt, I saw a single combat boot.

-Clack.

I readjusted my rifle and stepped forward.

-Step.

The sound of another combat boot overlapped with mine from somewhere among the laundry hanging from these lines dividing us.

I couldn’t assume the target had a normal human’s upper body. He was an Inverted Heart-branch wizard. If his biology were as bizarre as the Dubai Sticky Witch’s, he could abandon the human form everyone instinctively expected and render bullets ineffective.

[Lissen, Lissen...]

The one thing I could be certain of was his lower body.

Seeing him walk around on two feet, there was a good chance his lower body itself was still normal.

-Step.

I came out onto the rooftop and circled halfway around.

Sidestepping between the clotheslines, I pushed hanging laundry aside with my body, slowly lowered my stance, and kept my muzzle steady. With the wind blowing every so often, it was hard to distinguish signs of movement.

[When it’s hard to find him, just… look at the feet…]

Aim for the lower body.

Once I shot his legs, he wouldn’t be able to move either.

-Step.

The clothes fluttered.

At that moment, a voice that had been silent reached my focused mind.

'Jemin-ssi, he's doing a handstand!'

Gunfire erupted at the same time.

Blood sprayed with a sharp groan.

The instant blood splattered across the yellowed shirts, the combat boots visible beneath the clothesline slid away and disappeared.

I aimed at the bloodstain on the clothes and pulled the trigger.

The recoil slammed into my body.

A casing struck the hanging laundry before rolling away.

Then, not long after, something sharp slammed into my rifle.

-Clang, bang!

A terrifying weight knocked my stance off balance with a sound like metal cans being beaten together. When I failed to control the impact, my muzzle shot toward the sky. I didn’t lose my grip, but that wasn’t enough.

Clotheslines snapped one after another, and the laundry tore with ripping sounds.

At that moment, I seized the sling and thrust the rifle forward.

-Claaaang—!!!

The barrel crumpled.

Inverted or not, he was still a Heart-branch wizard. That strength was no joke.

Velcro Corporal was holding an unloaded rifle upside down in his left hand and swinging it down like a club.

That was when the guy tore off his own gas mask.

-Riiiip!

As the straps ripped away, I finally understood why he hadn’t said a single word while fighting.

The area around Velcro Corporal’s mouth was densely packed with eyes, rolling this way and that. With his tongue stretched out, he brought his right arm toward his mouth.

I wondered what he was doing with the right arm, trembling from hunger….

-Crunch.

Velcro Corporal bit into one of the pustules on his right arm and burst it open.

Like chewing aShine Muscat grape whole with the skin on, like cracking an egg and slurping down the raw yolk and white, Velcro Corporal’s tongue swam around as he gulped down the Human Slime studded with eyeballs. One of the eyes stuck directly to the roof of his mouth.

Lidless eyeballs rolled around like scallops, densely covering the roof of his mouth.

Faced with that brief but horrifying sight, I forced my strength not to leave me and fell and executed some bayonet-fighting techniques.

-Clang!

Barrel and rifle body collided.

Velcro Corporal, swinging his rifle around like a club while chowing down on his own right arm.

And me, I was gradually sidestepping away while somehow deflecting the impacts with the bayonet techniques that were supposed to be useless.

Every time Velcro Corporal chomped down on another Human Slime pustule on his right arm, the bullets embedded in his body were pushed out by fresh flesh.

Every time I tried to create some distance, Velcro Corporal kept nibbling away at his right arm while rubbing the soles of his combat boots against the ground and sliding toward me.

'Jemin-ssi, try to create some distance. Even the allied sniper can’t intervene!'

Fuck. You try doing it then!

-Clang, clang…

I was using Eyes-branch, Stage 1 but my body couldn’t keep up with the flashing beams of light. I could see what was coming, but whenever I tried to move 10 seconds ahead of it, Velcro Corporal just tanked through whatever I did.

This damn brute would simply eat a rifle buttstock strike to the face.

Even so, when he staggered slightly, I shoved the muzzle forward and pulled the trigger.

-Ratata!!!

I definitely hit him.

But what came back was the rifle club.

Through the holes in his combat uniform, I could see smooth, nail-like layers of keratin shattered apart and scattered like powder with small streaks of blood.

-Clang, clang, clang!

Velcro Corporal kept swinging his rifle like a club so I couldn’t properly aim mine.

As if that weren’t enough, I could see the nails on his right hand growing longer by the second.

The sight of him flexing those nails together like Edward Scissorhands sent irritation and shuddering dread surging through me.

Velcro Corporal.

He knew how to fight someone armed with a gun.

No, he knew how to fight a wizard.

He knew humans could never truly conquer pain.

He knew pain would inevitably wear down a person’s senses, nerves, and judgment, so he was deliberately dragging me into a battle of attrition…!

-Tap.

As I sidestepped, my foot hit the rooftop railing.

A chill ran through me.

My spine tingled.

That was when Velcro Corporal finally lowered the right arm he had been quietly chewing on.

-Scrrape!

His long nails scraped loudly across my rifle.

The curled nails gathered together and knocked the weapon aside. Exposed. That was the only word that came to my mind.

I couldn't even dodge the kick coming at me.

-Bam!

I was shoved backward.

Thankfully, the railing came up to my waist, so I wasn’t knocked straight over it.

But I lost the rifle, and then came the sensation of my body lifting into the air.

I hated that floating feeling even in swimming pools. I had never once gone diving because of it…

This time, my life really did flash before my eyes.

There wasn’t even time to feel pain.

Vertigo. A chill. My blood went cold before my heart could stop. Shivers ran through my whole body. My mind raced furiously while my vision went distant.

I’m going to die?

...Here?

Even after getting a gun, even after learning magic from all 5 branches…

I’m going to fall to death?

At that moment, I lost my grip on the rifle.

I really was falling headfirst from the 4th floor.

For a second, I thought I was going to piss, shit, drool, and blow snot all at once.

There was only one thought in my head.

I want to live.

What do I have to do to survive?

My body moved on instinct.

Some part of me had already realized that holding onto the rifle wouldn’t save me, so I had to do something, anything, no matter how pointless, like someone falling off a cliff grabbing at a straw.

I stretched out my right hand and slammed it against the outer wall.

Pure instinct, without any conscious thought.

But the instant my right hand, my palm, took the full weight of my falling body…

Pain shot up from my scraped palm and wrapped around my entire body like fire.

I didn’t even know whether I was screaming.

Humans could never truly conquer pain.

Not even in the face of death.

I could clearly feel the skin peeling away. The palm of Baek Jemin, the human being, was being ground off right now.

Blood and flesh left handprints behind, sleeping out my desperate desire to live.

And in that moment, with my whole body burning in agony, I recited the words almost without thinking.

Because only I am absolutely dignified and precious in this world, only my pain is absolute, and only my pain is long and enduring…

Eyes-branch, Stage 2, [Cognitive Distortion], 100%.

Time slowed.

I was still falling, but my thoughts were trapped in the slowed time with me. The moment I created that opening, I immediately paid the next price.

Eyes-branch, Stage 3, [Cognitive Dissonance], 100%.

I adjusted gravity. One eye went completely dark. Praying it wasn’t permanent blindness, I plastered myself against the building’s outer wall.

Only then could I finally gasp for breath.

-Huuff, huff, huuff—.

My breath swirled inside the gas mask.

When I looked up, I was greeted with a sight straight out of a nightmare.

Apparently dropping me off the roof hadn’t been enough to reassure Velcro Corporal. The moment he saw me leaving handprints down the wall as far as the 3rd floor, he jumped after me. He clearly intended to crush me.

Vicious bastard.

I crawled along the wall like I was doing individual combat drills.

I had used [Cognitive Distortion] and [Cognitive Dissonance] at the same time. There was no way I could endure the backlash. I’d die of shock. There was only one way around it. 

Reduce the penalty with low-level-wizard doping!

Since Tongue-branch magic was the signature branch separating Inverted from Upright, Velcro Corporal probably had at least Inverted Tongue-branch, Stage 1.

By the time I barely managed to crawl closer, Velcro Corporal's gaze still hadn't caught up to me.

That probably meant the pain I was feeling was just that extreme.

I didn’t even have enough strength left to reach for the rifle floating in midair.

Panting, blood streaming from my tongue, I finally laughed.

Fortunately, I still had enough strength to tear out Velcro Corporal’s tongue. His mouth might have been smeared with Human Slime, but I had my right hand soaked with Hand-branch, Stage 1, [Blood of the Right Hand].

-Squeeze—

God, the feel of his tongue was so disgusting.

The moment [Blood of the Right Hand] touched it, I saw the eyeballs rolling around, trying to turn and look at me.

Only the eyes that still belonged to Velcro Corporal, the human, hadn’t noticed me yet.

I pulled on his tongue.

Harder and harder… Then I just ripped the damn thing out.

-Rip!

The moment I tore out Velcro Corporal’s raw tongue, I started getting into position.

I grabbed his head with my left hand. Pressing down firmly on the back of his skull, I plastered his face against the building’s outer wall.

I decided Velcro Corporal's tongue would serve as a substitute for the skin that had been scraped off my right palm.

-Splat!

A wet sensation spread across the raw, stinging flesh of my right palm.

Velcro Corporal’s tongue was pinned beneath my right hand, while his face was trapped beneath my left, ready to be ground against the outer wall.

"Hehehe…”

I laughed.

Once again, my vision had been right.

Pain was my salvation, my survival, my desire, and my hope……

For the sake of magic, I would offer only the pain of Baek Jemin, the most precious Great Archmage in the world.

I climbed onto Velcro Corporal’s body so I could release [Cognitive Dissonance] and [Cognitive Distortion] at the same time.

Hanging upside down, completely limp.

I positioned myself so that this guy’s body could serve as my cushion.

Everything was ready.

I slowly closed my eyes.

Through my narrowing eyelids, I looked at the back of Velcro Corproal’s head, at the bastard being forced to kiss the wall by my left hand, and smiled.

Baek Jemin, man among men.

Even after enduring this much pain, I had only blinked just once.

This time...

It was time to ride the fun human sled.

-Skrrrruuuuuuuuuuuuuunch!