Chapter 42: Those Who Venture Into Darkness

[Translator – Aren]

Among us Supreme Archmages, the one who took the greatest interest in the Phone Graveyard was Pastor Park Yohan.

After checking each of the dozens of phones one by one, he’d discovered that one of the families here had attended church. Maybe that was why. The way he looked at the Phone Graveyard had become noticeably more tender.

While Hamza spread out the blankets he’d brought, the pastor quietly reorganized the phones resting among the melted candles whose wicks had long since burned away and fused to the floor.

Having no desire to work, I took a few swigs from my canteen and wandered over to him.

"What are you doing?”

"Praying."

"Praying to ask for them to be roasted a little more gently?”

"I’m praying for all of us.”

Behind his glasses, that made him look a bit sly, Pastor Park Yohan’s eyes were firm. It seemed there were no exceptions to the fundamental doctrine that nonbelievers couldn’t enter Heaven.

Still, the sorrow, sympathy, and melancholy he felt while looking over the cracked and dirt-covered phone screens were impossible to miss.

Pastor Park Yohan slowly scanned the Phone Graveyard several more times before speaking in a calm voice.

"I don’t think the military or the government made the wrong choice. They did the best they could. If they’d gone around telling everyone these monsters existed, society would have collapsed even faster. They did well. They made the right call. Otherwise we wouldn’t have lasted this long.”

The pastor picked up a pink phone covered in heart-shaped stickers.

He wiped dust from the screen with his thumb a few times. Then, noticing the smudges left by his fingerprints, he let out a dry chuckle and set it back down.

The phone that had once belonged to a cheerful, talkative girl sat silently among the dead candles and darkened screens.

"I merely pray for the courage not to cowardly ignore my own sins just because circumstances left me no choice. And for the honesty to admit what I did wrong when the day of judgment comes.”

"How many people actually do that, though?”

"Listen here. That’s how you become the light of the world and the salt of the earth. As someone who’s devoted his life to the clergy, I have to hold myself to a higher standard than anyone else. Especially myself. Salt’s only good if it’s salty.”

With that, Pastor Park Yohan glanced over and smirked.

"Baek Jemin. Stop throwing away your chance to repent like these people did and get yourself to church already. I’ll make you the youth group leader, you know? If you turn into a monster before you show up, you won’t even have a chance to get into Heaven.”

"Heaven’s just going to be full of people like Shin Nain anyway.”

"True."

I didn’t exactly have a grudge against Heaven, but if all my neighbors were just different flavors of Shin Nain, I might develop one.

I patted Pastor Park on the shoulder and pointed my thumb toward the back.

"If you’re done praying, come help us set up the blankets and prepare watch rotations.”

"This punk never lets anyone have a moment of reflection.”

The pastor grumbled, but he finally tore his gaze away from the Phone Graveyard.

The place had clearly hit him harder than expected. Maybe he was comparing himself to the Ears-branch wizard who had once led the survivors of Jangji Station. I looked over the Phone Graveyard in his place when a question suddenly crossed my mind.

When you discover that people have been infected and will inevitably become monsters, what can you do as the leader who learns that horrifying truth?

The wizard of Jangji Station had chosen the more selfless path. He tried to herd the infected into the restrooms and burn them alive. Whether it was guilt or paranoia that he himself might already be infected, he ultimately incinerated himself as well.

Then what about selfish people?

As I looked over the Phone Graveyard, a grin slowly spread across my face.

If there could be a wizard selfless enough to kill others and then himself, then surely there could also be a wizard selfish enough to kill everyone else in order to survive.

The moment of wizard vs. wizard combat was drawing closer and closer.

Unfortunately, my profound contemplation was cut short by the sharp voices of Lee Sejun and Shin Nain.

"Jemin-ssi, quit loafing around and tell us when you’re taking watch.”

"Last watch."

"Stop spouting bullshit.”

"Hah~ you guys won’t even let a guy have a moment of reflection.”

"Baek Jemin, are you sure you are in any position to say those words?”

The battle over first and last watch was alive and well here too.

My attempt to get the coveted last shift by showing a bit of melancholy and some smart emotional manipulation collapsed almost instantly.

I slung my rifle over my shoulder and squeezed into the little circle of the Supreme Archmages members.

"You all know, right? I’m getting on in years, so I need a proper night’s sleep. I’ll take first watch.”

"Pastor, quit the nonsense. Let’s leave it to the Lord’s will and settle this fairly with rock-paper-scissors.”

"Baek Jemin, you little bastard…”

Pastor Park Yohan looked positively betrayed. Look at him glaring at me.

But there was no way I, Baek Jemin, wouldn’t see through his emotional blackmail.

Staring wistfully at the Phone Graveyard and getting misty-eyed so he could quietly claim first watch? 

Not a chance.

Even if every god and Buddha in existence approved it, as long as I didn’t get last watch, this human, Baek Jemin, certainly wouldn’t.

* * *

April 16th, 2028, 8:47 AM.

What woke us at Jangji Station wasn’t an alarm clock but artillery fire.

Every blast made the entire station rumble with a heavy booming sound, showering dust through the gaps in the collapsed ceiling.

Stay in a place like this for a few days and your lungs would probably rot away.

But as long as the bombardment continued, heading to the surface wasn’t an option either. Some argued that we should keep moving along Line 8’s subway tunnels and make productive use of the time. That was when I offered a perfectly reasonable objection.

"The monsters aren’t mindless. They'll definitely be hiding from the shelling. In ruined concrete buildings, underground, anyway they can. It took us nearly a hundred kills just to move one station from Bokjeong to Jangji. If we try pushing through the tunnels while the bombardment’s still going on, we’ll run into even more.”

It was the same reason Seoul’s survivors had used subway stations as shelters. 

At least in the outer districts, the monsters would be hiding underground or inside buildings to avoid the shelling. And while they were at it, they’d probably hunt any human survivors hiding alongside them. 

Naturally, monster density would be much higher than before. Just getting from Bokjeong Station to Jangji Station had cost us two grenades. Our Alteration-type trio had each burned through two 30-round magazines.

We’d brought 10 magazines per person, yet even with only 2 grenades used, we’d already spent that much on the first day.

We’d also brought 2 ammo cans holding roughly 800 rounds each, but we’d already burned through nearly 180 rounds on day one alone. If we kept fighting at this rate, we’d eventually end up swinging our rifles like clubs because they’d become useless hunks of metal without ammo.

So I tapped my temple with my finger and methodically laid out our problem.

"Then there’re those Freedom Hives. And I don’t think Seoul is the Seoul we remember anymore. Bokjeong and Jangji are on the outskirts. The constant shelling probably reduced the level of contamination there. If that’s true, then the closer we get to the city center, where there was less bombardment, the worse the contamination should be. The reason we’ve survived so far is because we’re exceptionally good at detecting danger and avoiding it, not because we’re strong enough to endure whatever gets thrown at us.”

After seeing the Freedom Hive yesterday, that flesh-colored slime, I became certain of one thing:

Seoul was no longer a city of humans. It was far easier to think of it as another world entirely. A concrete jungle overflowing with every kind of monster you’d ever see in a horror movie or monster movie.

Now Seoul was a land of things born from humanity, yet no longer human. Just as jungles were called green hells, Seoul had become a gray hell.

"At the very least, I think we should avoid traveling through the subway tunnels until the shelling stops and the monsters start coming back to the surface. Our firepower is limited. And this isn’t America. South Korea isn’t exactly a gun-friendly country. Resupplying ammunition locally is going to be difficult. If possible, everyone should learn at least Alteration-type, Hand-branch, Stage 1 and get some kind of weapon that’s effective in close combat. Or gather more information about the local situation before moving. That’d be a lot safer.”

Then I looked around Jangji Station.

We’d cleaned up a little, but it was still a mess. Proof that nobody else had managed to make it all the way down to the platform.

Originally, we Supreme Archmages were supposed to be part of the follow-up reconnaissance teams. The plan was simple. American and Korean special forces would spearhead the advance. The volunteers or unlucky conscripts dragged into the mission would establish footholds. Only after that would civilian Operators like us follow the secured route.

But somewhere along the line, things had gone sideways.

I gripped my rifle sling and offered my theory.

"I think the advance teams may have used surface roads instead of the subway tunnels. Our Alteration-type trio ran into 2 separate monster groups yesterday. At minimum, 40 monsters. Probably closer to 100. Expecting ordinary infantry to push through swarms of that number would be rough. Even with the fog limiting visibility, they may have decided surface roads were preferable since armored vehicles and transport could provide support.”

The other Supreme Archmages members gave me strange looks.

Pastor Park Yohan and Lee Sejun raised their eyebrows, Shin Nain wore a deeply satisfied smile, and Hamza pretended to applaud me.

"Damn…Baek Jemin, what happened to you?”

"What?”

"You don’t usually sound this smart.”

I learned, once again, that this nutjob pastor had been looking down on me all along.

Still, he seemed to think I had a point. The group agreed to spend some more time regrouping in front of the Phone Graveyard of Jangji Station.

We ate some hardtack, softening it with water from our canteens.

But not everyone fully appreciated the importance of conserving drinking water.

As Lee Sejun shoveled food into his mouth and greedily washed it down with water, Shin Nain kindly reminded him of something.

"Sejun-ssi, go easy on the water. If you run out, you’ll have to go turn on a faucet in the restroom.”

"Pfft! Cough, cough!”

The image of the flesh-colored slime, the Freedom Hive, must have flashed through his head. Even while choking, Lee Sejun stubbornly forced the mouthful down.

After a few dry coughs, he began tipping his canteen much more carefully.

And so we spent our time eating and drinking, trying to learn new magic from the symbols in areas where the fog was thicker, and going through the remaining phones and reading whatever records they contained around the Phone Graveyard. 

The shelling finally stopped at 1:31 PM.

I was absently tapping through a dark blue phone when the dust drifting from the station ceiling suddenly ceased. But then an anomaly happened, not in the station or the source, but on the phone itself.

Just as I was about to set it down after remarking that the shelling seemed to have stopped, a familiar yet chilling sound echoed softly through the station.

-Kka-tok.

Everyone froze.

I lowered my gaze toward the screen. The dark blue phone’s display had lit up brightly.

-Kka-tok.

Without thinking, I looked at Hamza.

He’d been folding blankets and was now as pale as a ghost, shaking his head furiously. Then he paused, tilting his head, and looked thoroughly confused. Whatever it was, it was indeed dangerous.

I looked around at the others.

Shin Nain apparently couldn't read the thoughts of cellphones. He frowned and quietly rested a hand on his rifle.

Lee Sejun was too busy hiccuping and pounding his chest.

Only Pastor Park Yohan let out a short sigh before speaking.

"Check it. We need information. Even if it means taking risks.”

Most of the phones in the Phone Graveyard were locked.

But both the Jangji Station wizard’s phone and this dark blue phone had their lockscreens disabled. Whether the original owners had simply been careless about security or there was another reason, I didn’t know.

What mattered was that it allowed us to read messages that arrived on a phone with neither data nor wifi.

I swiped twice with my thumb.

The KakaoTalk message appeared on the screen.

[Soldiers spotted near Songpa District, Seoul.]

That was the first message.

It seemed someone had discovered a military unit sent into Seoul for reconnaissance.

Had they found us? Or was it related to the soldiers from Bokjeong Station who had suddenly vanished?

There were too many possibilities. I couldn’t draw any conclusions yet, so I checked the next message.

[Fog is thick. Outdoor activity is easy.]

The second message was much simpler. At a glance, it didn’t seem particularly noteworthy.

You had to chew on it for a moment before realizing something was off. I showed both messages to the others. The Supreme Archmages immediately focused on the second one.

The pastor stroked his chin in thought. Shin Nain gestured lightly as he replied.

"Thick fog makes outdoor activity easier?”

"Maybe it’s a survivor group made up mostly of wizards?”

"They said backlash received from magic gets weaker the denser the fog is, right? Then I guess that would make sense…”

"From a normal person’s perspective, it’d be hell either way.”

Lee Sejun’s final remark ended up becoming our group’s conclusion. We didn’t know how much the monsters were affected by the fog, but if the fog thinned, their vision would probably improve as well. A bizarre environment seemed to have formed where survival rates were actually higher inside dense fog, where magic could be used more freely.

But the truly important information was something else.

The implications of these messages were enormous.

Just like the mysterious wizard back in Seongnam, who had forcibly maintained communications until the power cables were cut, it seemed the wizards in Seoul possessed some method of communication that worked without data or wifi.

That was not good news.

We immediately checked that all of our own phones were powered off. Then we decided to carry the dark blue phone with us. The number 1 had already disappeared from the message notification.

The sender’s profile consisted of nothing more than a single period, making identification impossible.

As cautious professionals who treated even cold ashes like they might reignite, we reached a conclusion.

"According to the friendly survivors we were told to seek out, most of Seoul’s wizards have gone insane. People as selfless as the wizard at Jangji Station probably killed themselves long ago. If whoever sent these messages has any idea where the owners of these phones were and if they know soldiers have pushed into Seoul’s outskirts, they’ll come after us immediately.”

“There’s a good chance some Holy Transformation Crusade Arts can do something similar to psychometry. I don’t know what the limits are, but at the very least, we can’t leave this dark blue phone behind.”

The discussion inevitably escalated into another question. Should we destroy the Phone Graveyard as well?

Lee Sejun and Hamza hesitated at the possibility that destroying the entire memorial might be necessary for our safety.

"These are people who couldn’t even leave bodies behind…”

"The Angel remains silent. I can’t tell whether it’s safe or not.”

That was when I found the answer.

"Let’s give them back.”

So the Supreme Archmages carried the phones from the Phone Graveyard and tossed them near the restroom entrance.

It was the moment the races of humanity met the monsters that had once been human. Right before the burned corpse that had once been Jangji Station’s wizard.

The flesh-colored slime stretched out its grotesque pseudopods and fumbled over the shattered phones that had been thrown before it. Like someone searching for their phone in a dark room with their eyes closed.

To the flesh-colored slime known as the Freedom Hive, smartphones should have been unfamiliar, tasteless objects. They weren’t something it could swallow and eat.

And yet, it touched them. The pale human eyeballs rolling along its edges like clam eyes stared intently at the phones caught by its pseudopods.

Before long, numerous large and small pseudopods stretched out and covered the broken devices.

The disgusting appendages that had been creeping through the cracks in the rest room tiles seized the cold, rigid phones and pulled them into the creature’s body.

We all knew it.

That monster was no longer human.

According to Shin Nain, the Freedom Hive was nothing more than a monster forged from a human soul shattered into tens of trillions of fragments.

And yet that monster, born from a soul broken apart and violated beyond recognition, still reached for the object it had held more than anything else in life, even as it suffered from endless hunger.

Eventually the shattered phones sank beneath the Freedom Hive’s translucent flesh, disappearing between its white marbled streaks and cloudy skin-colored mass.

The pale eyeballs stopped looking outward. Instead, they turned inward. The eyes of the Freedom Hive gazed into itself as it slowly slithered back toward the restroom until it vanished from sight.

I watched it go before turning to Shin Nain.

"What was it saying?”

"It was hungry.”

"Guess even starvation can’t stop people from fiddling with their phones.”

We, the Supreme Archmages, turned away once more.

No further words were needed.

We had returned the lost belongings to their owners. Now it was time to move deeper into Seoul.

Following the fog seeping through the gaps of the emergency shutter, we moved forward.

We put our gas masks back on, pulled up the hoods of our ponchos, checked our weapons, and steadied our breathing.

Then we pushed open the side door built into the emergency shutter leading to the surface.

A thick fog had already settled over everything.

Visibility couldn’t have been more than 10m.

Even Lee Sejun, Hamza, Shin Nain, and the pastor standing right in front of me appeared as little more than blurry silhouettes.

So we climbed the stars carefully.

But the moment we began to feel moving air instead of the damp stagnant atmosphere unique to underground tunnels, we spotted a beam of light cutting through the fog. Naturally, our feet followed it uphill.

-Huuuff—.

Someone let out a long, audible breath.

A shiver ran down my spine.

And for good reason. At the end of that beam of light stood something all too familiar. A 2.5-ton military truck. Alongside it sat aHumvee mounted with a machine gun and two additional military trucks.

This time, however, it looked like some traces of human activity still remained.

Just as I was about to knock on the driver’s side window, the pastor tapped my shoulder first and pointed at the ground.

Clear footprints were stamped into the dirt that had pushed up through cracks in the asphalt shattered by artillery strikes. I was just about to kneel down for a closer look.

-Ratata...

Gunfire.

Every one of us Supreme Archmages turned toward the sound.

The thick fog made it impossible to see clearly, but since we’d emerged from Exit 3 of Jangji Station, we could roughly guess where it was coming from.

The department store.

The moment I remembered the Jangji Station wizard’s notes suggesting the shelling had deliberately only hit places close to the department store, a thought crossed my mind.

Had soldiers entered it?

Then a strained groan burst from one of the vehicle radios.

[...Hostile survivors spotted…]

The voice that leaked through sounded ragged.

Judging by their gasping, it seemed like he wasn’t going to be alive much longer.

[Localized... Localized... Fuck, that wizard bastard…]

Our eyes met through the lens of our gas masks.

Survivor groups that were impossible to find. The endless fog. Meaningless messages. New monsters that could appear at any moment. 

And wizards.

We were advancing toward the greatest disaster and mystery humanity had ever faced in 2028.

And the thought sent a thrill and a rush of excitement through me. The anticipation of all the countless forms of magic we would encounter along the way made my voice tremble as I spoke.

"Let’s go."

-Huuff—.

My breath escaped through the filter of my gas mask.

We stepped into the swirling fog.

We gripped our rifles rightly, eyes wide with fear and exhilaration.

We were about to explore a place that was no longer a city of humans.

Day 2 of our expedition.

We were heading toward the department store where the gunshots had come from.