Chapter 73: Victory of Baek Jemin, the Human

[Translator – Aren]

The hideout Go Ryeoha led us to wasn’t very far from the student union building.

After pushing through the fog for a short while, a building around 10 stories tall came into view. As someone who had never had any reason to set foot inside a university, I couldn’t help frowning and wondering whether a building like that was really necessary.

I’d been thinking this ever since we started walking toward the student union building, but weren’t universities pointlessly huge?

All you had to do was sit at a desk, open a textbook, and listen to a professor, yet the place seemed to take up a ridiculous amount of space, which irritated me.

This wasn’t some inferiority complex I had because I only graduated from high school or something. It was, you know…

The perfectly reasonable argument of a provincial man demanding better use of space in Seoul, where land prices were already sky-high.

With a campus this large, you’d need to take a bus just to get around the school.

As I grumbled inwardly, Go Ryeoha, who had been striding confidently ahead, blinked and turned around with a soft smile.

"Come to think of it, this must be your first time at Konkuk University, soldier-ahjussis. The building we’re heading to is the New Engineering Building!”

"New Engineering Building?”

"I studied in the Department of Mechanical, Robotics, and Automotive Engineering. Third year!”

Go Ryeoha proudly puffed out her chest, smiling with her eyes as she placed a hand on her hip.

Of course, whenever she did something like that, there was one person who displayed a terrifying inferiority complex.

The most vicious, catastrophic troll among the Supreme Archmages, and the most dangerous variable in the ongoing Operation Blue Pill.

Lee Sejun.

"Tsk."

"Hm? Solider-ahjussi over there, is there something you’re curious about?”

"I said ‘Tsk’."

"Hey!"

I hurriedly waved a hand in front of Lee Sejun’s gas mask and whispered.

"Sejun-ssi. Stop fucking around and play along.”

"Are you taking that crazy bitch’s side too just because she’s pretty, Jemin-ssi?”

"Y-y-you rotten little bastard.”

I normally avoided fistfights because there was a good chance I’d get hit back, but I desperately wanted to flick Lee Sejun’s forehead as hard as I could.

Fortunately, before Go Ryeoha could pay him more attention than necessary, the pastor’s fussing saved us.

"My goodness. Our Ryeoha was even good at studying. So, where have you been staying around here?”

"Oh, Pastor. I moved every facility and piece of equipment I could down into the basement. You said you needed military communications equipment, right? Some soldier ahjussis who joined us brought radios with them, so you should be able to receive transmissions through those.”

"You really are remarkable. Truly.”

The timing came while the pastor grinned broadly and showered Go Ryeoha with praise.

Operation Blue Pill. The remaining Supreme Archmages handling the ticking time bomb, Shin Nain, Hamza, and I, immediately gathered around Lee Sejun and scolded him.

"Sejun-ssi. Let’s stop fucking around. She went crazy in such a nice way. Can’t you treat her nicely too?!”

"Even I haven’t pointed a gun at you after listening to your thoughts 24/7. Why can’t you endure this, Sejun-ssi?”

"The way you treat Ryeoha-ssi is disgusting, Sejun-ssi. It’s like a jealous first wife whose husband brought home a concubine, or cats fighting over their owner’s affection. You know…a catfight."

At that moment, I couldn’t endure the disgusting comparison and smacked Hamza on the forehead.

Thwack!

"Ow! Jemin-ssi, why did you suddenly…?”

"You punk. If you’re going to make a comparison that disgusting, then just don’t say anything!”

The very matchup of Go Ryeoha, who had gone insane after losing all the survivors, vs. Lee Sejun, a hairy 24-year-old former staff sergeant whose dream it was to become a pretty TS anime girl, was already nauseating enough. And now what? A catfight?

We were already suffering from the consequences of Hamza’s Dogma-type magic, so after he came up with such a horrific comparison, my fist couldn’t possibly forgive him.

Shin Nain seemed to feel the same way. He grimaced fiercely and glared at Hamza with a terrifying look in his eyes.

"If Jemin-ssi hadn’t used his head, I would have smashed your head with my rifle stock.”

"Thank you for hitting me with your hand, Jemin-ssi.”

Lee Sejun, however, launched into an impassioned speech as though he were the one being treated unfairly.

"You’ve all been bewitched by her looks. To begin with, we’re in a situation where even drinking water is scarce and maintaining proper hygiene is difficult. But look at her. Why do you think she can maintain that level of beauty without any makeup? She’s clearly maximizing the impact of her first impression so that armed soldiers and threatening men will unconsciously respond to her more favorably. I’m not being paranoid. Keeping our guard up and maintaining our distance is the natural thing to do when dealing with a woman like that!”

His words were entirely reasonable.

The pastor was the strange one, grinning like an idiot at a woman who was obviously out of her mind. Lee Sejun, who argued that we should remain cautious, was the one making rational and reasonable points.

Had it not been for the backlash of Ears-branch, Stage 1, and had I not known the true reason Lee Sejun was spouting all of that, I would have simply admired this unexpected side of him.

While the pastor continued receiving outrageous favoritism from [Redemptive Conviction], I emphasized the importance of Operation Blue Pill once more.

"Sejun-ssi. You’re not wrong.”

"Jemin-ssi…! You finally understand!”

"But even if we were in perfect condition, we still wouldn't fight that woman. First, we don't have much ammunition left. Second, we still don't know what magic she has. Third, she’s the only wizard we’ve met who has actually made contact with the 66-Society. Fourth, she’s the reason the military sent us in here.”

I extended four fingers and held them in front of Lee Sejun’s gas mask lenses.

It was my way of telling him to face reality.

"Say we kill her here and somehow make it out by some miracle. The military asks whether we met Go Ryeoha. What do you think they’ll do if we tell them we killed her because she was a bit insane? Hm?”

"Wouldn’t they just think she was insane?”

"No. We were supposed to be operating in cooperation with the military. Then we vanish for over a week, reappear after killing Go Ryeoha, the one person who responded almost weirdly favorably to the military’s radio transmission, and escape. Anyone with half a brain would suspect that we defected to the 66-Society or committed some equivalent act of betrayal!”

It was driving me insane that he was throwing this much of a fit over a conclusion even a dumbass like me could reach instantly.

No, Lee Sejun definitely understood it too. He knew, but he hated her so much that he had deliberately shut his eyes to it.

Rather than insult Lee Sejun’s intelligence, I decided to blame his narrow-minded perspective.

"Sejun. Look. That’s just how life is. Let’s try to live with it, alright? Some people struggle through life, and others coast through it.”

"Haah…Jemin-ssi… This is so unfair…”

"I feel pretty wronged right now as well, so let’s both endure.”

A few tears leaked from my eyes because having to persuade Lee Sejun was simply too unfair to me.

This minor disturbance in front of the New Engineering Building rapidly drained my mental stamina, but in the end, Lee Sejun conceded, and the stability of Operation Blue Pill increased exponentially.

As Lee Sejun nodded gloomily, Go Ryeoha turned toward us and cheerfully waved.

"Ahjussis! Let’s go inside now~.”

"Yes, we’re coming.”

We formed up again and followed Go Ryeoha down to the basement through the emergency stairwell.

That was when the pastor, who had been keeping Go Ryeoha occupied for quite a while, slowed his pace and began walking with us.

"Hey, Baek Jemin, Shin Nain, Lee Sejun, Islam. Why are young men who haven’t seen a woman in a week acting like a bunch of eunuchs? What are you all whispering about?”

The way his brows naturally twisted and that innocent look in his eyes as though he knew nothing at all.

Setting aside his slightly wrinkled eyes and my prejudice that he was a narrow-minded religious fanatic, the pastor had shown far more intelligence than I expected.

What if he had already figured out Go Ryeoha’s strange mental state?

Hoping to calmly share information, I asked just in case.

"Are you doing some sort of method acting right now?”

"What acting? Did you boys find something strange in there?”

"No, it’s nothing."

That damn zealot was just being carried by his lucky Dogma-type spell [Redemptive Conviction].

I looked toward Shin Nain just in case, but the response that came through telepathy was unbelievable.

'He really doesn’t know.’

Nothing at all?

'Yeah. Nothing at all. To the pastor, Ryeoha-ssi is simply a bright young student who studies hard and bravely protects people.’

That might have been true 2 months ago. What a shame.

Had the pastor arrived here 2 months earlier, he might actually have spoken with that version of Go Ryeoha.

Still, Go Ryeoha’s underground hideout appeared cleaner than expected.

After leading us down the stairs, Go Ryeoha gestured toward a basement filled with all kinds of equipment and machinery, smiling with her eyes.

"Tada! This is where I stay.”

"Ryeoha-ssi, what was this place originally used for? There’s a lot of stuff here. I’m not good with technical things like this, so tell me about it.”

"It was a laboratory. There were a lot of machines and equipment that were difficult to move, so I ended up staying here.”

The pastor seemed so taken with Go Ryeoha, whom he treated like a daughter, that he clung to her like an embarrassingly doting parent.

Go Ryeoha appeared delighted by his attention. She smiled brightly and told him even the most trivial details.

Thanks to that, the rest of the Supreme Archmages were free to inspect the interior.

The first thing we looked for was lighting.

One LED light. Its brightness had been turned down extremely low.

With electricity so precious, that was naturally the right choice if she wanted to conserve battery power.

Around it were a drill press resembling the ones I had seen in factories, a welding machine, and toolboxes on the floor, filling the air with the strong smell of metal.

Some workbenches were being used to hold household items or hang wet laundry, but without enough power to operate the equipment properly, most of it appeared to have been effectively abandoned.

In one corner lay a mattress made from fabric and curtains bundled together haphazardly, while spare masks were scattered messily in front of a cracked mirror.

On a workbench in the farthest corner, dented water bottles, empty cans, and even torn-open military ration wrappers had been discarded carelessly. Tied plastic bags had been stacked neatly beside them.

Fortunately, there were no traces of human waste inside the laboratory, which made it clear that she had paid proper attention to sanitation.

Even if Go Ryeoha was insane, she was clearly aiming for long-term survival and actively working toward it.

What interested me most, however, was one workbench that looked as though it had strayed far beyond the boundaries of modern science.

Unlike the other workbenches, which were either illuminated by artificial light or abandoned in shadow, a candle fixed in place with melted wax burned faintly at the edge of this one.

Looking more closely, I saw that she had cut an aluminum can in half and was using it as a candleholder. Go Ryeoha seemed far more meticulous and cautious than I had expected.

Following the candlelight with my eyes, I spotted several objects.

A plastic bag containing a tiny amount of yellowish powder. A glass mortar stained dark red inside. Scissors and small scraps of cut leather. Beside them lay tangled spools of thread in five colors. Blue, red, yellow, white, and black.

They were items so out of place that I couldn’t imagine why they were sitting in an engineering laboratory.

Then, beyond the workbench holding those strange objects and the candle, I noticed something covered by thick cloth.

I only saw it because the candle flame flickered with my movement, making the shadows suddenly leap.

I had barely glimpsed its outline when Lee Sejun spoke with a sharp huff through his gas mask.

"It’s a999K. A radio."

"Soldiers made it all the way here?”

"Yeah, it seems so.”

As he spoke, Lee Sejun raised his index finger toward the area strangely obscured by the candle’s shadows.

Annoyingly enough, thanks to Lee Sejun turning vicious whenever he saw a beautiful woman, we realized what we had missed.

Beyond the laboratory workbenches and the equipment scattered throughout the room, combat uniforms had been neatly arranged in a blind spot that would have been difficult to find without turning on proper lighting and searching every corner.

What concerned me was the absence of any corpses.

"Nain-ssi. Do you think you can use Ears-branch, Stage 3 to speak with those combat uniforms?”

"I would be difficult. They aren’t corpses.”

I, Great Archmage Baek Jemin, rapidly worked my brain.

Hostility toward soldiers was the default attitude among Seoul’s residents.

Yet Go Ryeoha had somehow acquired a military radio and stored it separately in her underground laboratory.

And she had neatly placed the soldiers’ combat uniforms off to one side.

If her intention had been simple looting, there would have been no reason to covet the uniforms of soldiers who had lost control within Seoul.

No matter how scarce clothing had become.

With civilian hostility toward the military running so high, wearing clothes that could get you killed on sight would have been madness.

That created a strange inconsistency.

Hadn’t the military beyond the blockade line judged Go Ryeoha to be the person most likely to cooperate with them?

She was certainly different from the Dubai Sticky Witch or Ski Goggles, who had practically screamed for soldiers to die the moment they saw a uniform.

Even insane, she didn’t immediately unleash lethal attacks on soldiers.

The more I considered it, the more I leaned toward the possibility that Go Ryeoha had maintained limited cooperation with the military.

Specifically…with military survivors inside Seoul.

Even then, if Go Ryeoha had effectively served as this group’s leader, she wouldn’t have been able to ignore opposition from the civilian survivors.

Considering how often she had commented on our ponchos and combat uniforms, perhaps she had witnessed a similar situation while the survivors were still alive.

"Tsk!"

Once my thoughts reached that point, regret washed over me.

Remembering the corpses in the student union’s underground cafeteria, dried and twisted like mummies against the walls, I couldn’t help clicking my tongue inwardly. To learn the truth, we would have to search that cafetaria-turned-tomb for clues.

I felt genuinely sorry for the death, but I was beginning to see the need to disturb their eternal rest.

If military survivors had been living separately somewhere on Konkuk University campus, both the quality and quantity of information we could obtain would be completely different.

The Threshold Breach.

The soldiers’ corpses were the only clues that could testify to what happened before January 6th, what kinds of monsters and threats had appeared on that day, when the military units stationed in Seoul were being wiped out.

I had only ever used it for combat, but with support from Tongue-branch, Stage 1, I could even modify Eyes-branch, Stage 1 to use Past Vision.

I could handle the Past Vision while Shin Nain spoke with the corpses, which would make the information far more reliable.

There were exactly two problems.

First, looking several months into the past would produce an unbelievable amount of magical backlash.

To reduce that backlash and gain the greatest possible result from the fewest attempts, we needed to pinpoint more precisely when the survivors had been wiped out.

Second.

We would be touching Go Ryeoha’s red pill.

"Absolutely not.”

"I know."

Even after hearing Shin Nain’s firm answer, I couldn’t help clicking my tongue in disappointment.

For now, it was enough that I had roughly figured out how Go Ryeoha had obtained her combat boots and acquired a military radio. I gathered the Supreme Archmages and resumed Operation Blue Pill.

Hamza looked uneasy, Lee Sejun grumbled about how unfair everything was, and Shin Nain kept heaving sigh after sigh.

Not one of them was dependable.

Trusting companions like these with anything would be insane.

We would only survive if I kept my wits about me.

With that resolve, all of us Supreme Archmages rejoined the pastor and Go Ryeoha.

"Ryeoha-ssi, why don’t we start having a productive conversation?”

"Ahaha. Of course! But wouldn’t it be better to take off your gas masks? We should at least see each other’s faces while we talk~:”

"Of course, of course! I completely forgot.”

Before I could answer, the pastor was the first to remove his gas mask.

Keeping our masks on in an atmosphere like this could make things turn strangely awkward, so I removed mine without hesitation as well.

Despite my complicated feelings, the pastor smiled brightly as though everything was wonderful and even clapped his hands.

"What do you think? This is Baek Jemin, who was a candidate to lead our church’s youth group. If he cuts his hair, puts on some skin lotion, opens his eyes properly, keeps his face at a flattering 45-degree angle, clamps his mouth shut so he can’t spout nonsense, and just stands there quietly, he’s fairly handsome.”

"Pastor, that’s an awful lot of steps for a compliment about someone being handsome.”

"Ahaha..."

Seeing Go Ryeoha laugh awkwardly made me sigh.

Of course. If you told her to ignore the inner charm of a man as solid on the inside as me and judge only my exterior, that reaction was perfectly natural.

Anyway, I ignored the pastor’s nonsense and moved on to the main subject.

"Ryeoha-ssi. We are Aphorism, a civilian operational unit consisting of 2 Dogma-type and 3 Alteration-type wizards.”

"Huh? Since when do you introduce yourself as Aphorism instead of Supreme Archma—”

"We are Aphorism.”

Aphorism handled the shitty work. The Supreme Archmages only took the awesome jobs and reaped the rewards.

That was the rule I had established for myself.

"We were deeply impressed by the magic you demonstrated. We would like to begin by sharing our respective stages and knowledge. Would that be acceptable to you, Ryeoha-ssi?”

"Huh? Usually, people ask about the 66-Society first. The other soldier-ahjussis did.”

"We’re civilians, so they’re a lower priority for us. Survival is what matters right now.”

"That’s true. Hmm~ But people inside Seoul don’t normally go around openly revealing their stages, you know? Even when they do, they usually lie, and unless it’s someone they truly trust, they keep their mouths firmly shut. I guess you didn’t know because you came from outside!”

"Is there a reason for that…?”

There was. A fucking mountain of them.

Destroying the remains of a higher-stage wizard allowed you to level up, and anyone moral enough to refrain from doing that for the sake of immediate survival had probably died long ago. Understanding immediately, I quietly nodded.

"Very well. Shall I go first, then?”

"No. I really like you soldier-ahjussis, you see. Hehe.”

"Goodness! Did you hear that? She says she likes us! Kya! At long last, it looks like Aphorism is finally getting, you know, a rose among thorns!”

Shin Nain, Lee Sejun, Hamza, and I probably all clenched our teeth simultaneously.

Pastor. That wasn’t a rose among thorns. She was a bright-red bomb…

However, as someone whose job was to spray that bomb with blue paint, and as the leader of Operation Blue Pill, I firmly suppressed what I wanted to shout. After all, sometimes the truth was more beautiful and valuable when imprisoned within ignorance.

"I’ll go first. I, Go Ryeoha, possess Upright Alteration-type, Hand-branch, Stage 4 and Upright Alteration-type, Heart-branch, Stage 2. According to the 66-Society’s classification, I can also use Spirit Sight, which shamans possess among Dogma-types, as well as Incantation-type magic taught to me by the Society.”

"What?"

Wondering whether I had misheard, I asked again. Go Ryeoha placed a hand proudly over her chest and cleared her throat.

"Hmmph. Of course, my Dogma-type Spirit Sight weakened considerably after I learned Alteration-type magic. I can’t identify what kind of monster something is anymore, but I can still tell whether it’s a monster. And when I use Spirit Sight, monsters target me first, so it makes protecting people easier too. Ah, you were probably curious about these gloves as well!”

"Yes. We were."

"These are called Fire-spewing Hands. Among the Five-Element Arts, they borrow the power of fire energy, metal energy, andLord Huode to fire round beads or stones. They allow limited-range attacks through hand seals when guns and ammunition are scarce. Naturally, they consume cinnabar and leather…”

-Griiind!

The sound of teeth grinding rang out. The most dangerous moment yet in Operation Blue Pill had arrived.

That was when Lee Sejun placed a hand on my shoulder and hurriedly whispered.

"Jemin-ssi, calm down. You said that while some people struggle through life, others get to coast through it.”

"But…Fuck…How could…”

All I could do was glare bloodshot at Go Ryeoha as she closed her eyes in self-satisfaction and continued chattering.

What? She was born into a shamanic bloodline, so she just carried around the Dogma-type magic [Spirit Sight] because she naturally possessed spiritual sensitivity?

As though Spirit Sight weren’t enough, she had Upright Alteration-type, Hand-branch, Stage 4, Heart-branch, Stage 2, and Incantation-type magic as well? She used Spirit Sight to draw monster aggro and hunt them?

This…This woman…

Was a magic silver spoon!

"Uugh, ugh…”

"Jemin-ssi!”

Feeling a dizzying sensation pull at my neck, I suddenly began staggering backward.

Dizziness washed over me.

Was this how cultivators of the lower realm felt while gazing up at immortals born in the upper realm, who received lofty cultivation merely by virtue of their birth?

This was so fucking unfair.

So unbelievably fucking unfair!

Even I, who had endured that bastard Lee Sejun acting venomous while going on about becoming a TS pretty girl, could only cough up blood before this absolute disparity.

A moment of life and death.

Had the reason of this Great Archmage, Baek Jemin, not whispered to me then, I would have exploded from jealousy.

Jemin. Get a grip.

Only third-rate losers let inferiority consume them and turn into jealousy.

You’ve just encountered an incredibly precious opportunity.

Hand-branch, Stage 4. A chance to discover what lay at that stage.

Incantation-type magic. A truth that a high-school-graduate loser rotting away outside could never have reached.

Are you really going to throw away the chance to touch this truth, this almighty power, over something as petty as jealousy?

Is that all you amount to?

Baek Jemin.

Was your dream of becoming a great Archmage really so pathetic that you couldn’t even overcome a little jealousy?!!!!

-Crunch!  

I bit down on my lower lip and overcame my own ugliness.

At that moment, Baek Jemin, the human, conquered the mightiest inner demon of all, jealousy, and stepped before Go Ryeoha.

"Master!"

"You combine the five-colored threads with cinnabar and…Huh?”

"I shall take you as my master!”

I dropped to my knees, bowed my head flat to the floor, and prepared to perform the formal rites of discipleship.

Only amateurs complained about someone being born with a magic silver spoon.

I, Baek Jemin, was now prepared to bow my head before a woman far younger than me.

"Please…Please teach me magic!!!”

If this too was suffering I had to endure for the sake of magic, then so be it.

My shame, my dignity, my social standing…

Before the fireball of nuclear annihilation erased every path leading to magic, I would gladly cast them all aside so long as I could reach magic first!