Chapter 90: The Prey That Hunts

[Translator – Aren]

May 7th, 2028, 3:26 PM.

I turned off my smartphone, unable to shake the clammy feeling hanging over me.

It was because the realization that the Republic of Korea really had collapsed weighed heavily on me.

The breached sections of the blockade line were aroundAnyang andUiwang.

With jurisdiction unclear whether the area belonged to the Chinese forces and Korean administration controlling Incheon or the Korean-US Combined Command in Pyeongtaek, both sides had deployed troops for the time being. But because of that very situation, reconnaissance and searches of the wooded hills and forests had apparently been inadequate.

They were hurriedly organizing units and launching strikes, but command concluded that ordinary troops couldn’t sustain the losses in areas already blanketed with dense fog, which was why we Supreme Archmages were being deployed.

That’s right.

We Supreme Archmages had now been entrusted with the crucial role of delaying the fate of the blockade line and, by extension, the end of humanity, even if only by a single second.

I had once called itHell Joseon, and I still had plenty of resentment toward it, but it was my country all the same. Who could have imagined that it would fall not to the invasion ambitions of our neighboring countries but because monsters ran rampant?

Even the independence fighters resting in the National Cemetery would probably be crying their eyes out from sheer injustice.

A fundamental doubt began to creep over me. Could I really postpone this approaching apocalypse by even a single second?

Yet despite how spectacular and eventful 2028 had been, most people still hadn’t truly grasped what was happening.

The country called the Republic of Korea was basically a vegetable now. It wasn’t brain-dead. The head had simply been chopped off and was dribbling blood.

But because the arms and legs were still twitching, people mistook that for proof it was somehow alive.

One guy, pouting as though to ask how the country could possibly be ruined when no nukes had fallen and the blockade line hadn’t even been completely breached, spoke up.

"If everyone believes it’s alive, then it’s alive. That defeatist mindset is forbidden during wartime. Jemin-ssi, show some spirit! You were such a stouthearted man when it came to learning magic, and now you’re making a fuss just because the country stumbled a little?”

Lee Sejun said this while loading a heavy machine gun onto the helicopter.

Watching him effortlessly carry the 5.56mm ammunition case by himself made my own manner of speaking noticeably more polite than usual.

"Sejun-ssi. The country didn’t stumble. The blockade line is literally being breached everywhere.”

"Which is exactly why we have to step in. Right?!”

After loading all the ammunition cans, Lee Sejun climbed straight into the helicopter.

That was when Shin Nain, who had been calmly sitting inside with his eyes closed, asked without moving anything but his mouth,

"Jemin-ssi, why haven’t you boarded yet? We need to depart.”

"Jemin-ssi! Hurry up!”

Faced with their repeated urging, I couldn’t help hesitating.

I looked away and clicked my tongue. It wasn’t because I failed to understand how urgent the situation was. I knew better than anyone that if the blockade line was breaking everywhere, someone of my caliber needed to step in.

But still.

Even when the payoff was guaranteed, there were some forms of suffering you simply didn’t want to charge headfirst into.

"I didn’t put on a motion-sickness patch.”

-Rustle.

Shin Nain shook a black plastic bag at me.

"My motion sickness is bad. One bag won’t be enough."

-Rub, rub, rub, rub…

Shin Nain rubbed the index and middle fingers holding the black bag together, separating the plastic bags that had been stuck together. There were easily three or four of them.

"I ate Spam kimchi fried rice, so I’m probably not in great shape after all that greasy food…Why don’t you take Go Ryeoha instead of me?”

Shin Nain answered immediately.

"Use Eyes-branch, Stage 3, Cognitive Dissonance.”

"Ah..."

I was stunned by that bastard casually telling me to erase my motion sickness even if it meant risking blindness, and Lee Sejun didn’t miss the opportunity to deploy his time-honored emotional blackmail.

"Jemin-ssi, stop screwing around and get on. You know we've already lost another 3 minutes because of you, right? If someone dies during those 3 minutes, that’s on you now.”

"You fucker."

In the end, I had no choice but to climb aboard the helicopter while anticipating horrific motion sickness.

Deciding that the rubber smell of a gas mask would probably be preferable, I pulled on the new anti-fog gas mask I had received.

I hunched low in preparation for the deafening noise and vibration that came with the helicopter taking off.

Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts…

For a while, I even squeezed my eyes shut and did everything I could to drive the thought of motion sickness out of my head.

Then, purely out of simple, 100% academic curiosity, a question occurred to me.

"If I slack off for 3 minutes, doesn’t that just mean there’ll be more experience points to get?”

"Jemin-ssi, you slept so soundly, so what are you talking about now?”

"Huh?"

When I came to my senses, we had already left Pyeongtaek and were flying through the sky.

Beyond the glass, a sprawling cityscape and mountains scattered here and there like pieces planted into the terrain swept past beneath us. When I turned my gaze, the pilot in the cockpit casually raised his left hand for just a moment.

-Snap!

After giving me a single thumbs-up, the pilot immediately returned to his original task.

I couldn't see his face because of the helmet, but that one cool, nonchalant gesture explained everything. Shin Nain, who had been quietly humming to himself through his headset, grinned.

"You said your motion sickness was severe, so he’s been flying with extra care. His skill is remarkable.”

"Wow. I didn’t know I could ride a helicopter without getting sick.”

I had always assumed military vehicles operated on the principle of getting you from A to B regardless of whether your ass got destroyed in the process, but that prejudice was corrected a little today.

Meanwhile, Lee Sejun had placed a machine gun across his lap and was carefully wiping it down. Only after staring for quite a while did I realize what it was.

"That’s aK3, isn’t it?"

"It’s aK15. The new model.”

"Same difference."

"Haah~. Jemin-ssi, please never talk about guns in front of anyone.”

Lee Sejun was examining the weapon that made me grateful to be a rifleman, causally turning it this way and that with one hand.

Something about the way he had completely abandoned the K2 and was now caressing nothing but a machine gun gave me a strange feeling. Come to think of it, Lee Sejun was the one who had kept going in and out of the armory instead of practicing marksmanship with me.

I couldn’t help asking, just in case.

"Don’t tell me you’re actually going to use a machine gun?”

"I gave it some thought, and my physical abilities have improved so dramatically thanks to Heart-branch magic, right? Having to eat a lot is a penalty I can live with, but using an ordinary rifle started to feel like a waste. Especially somewhere outside Seoul, where ammunition is easy to obtain, there’s no reason to hesitate.”

After hearing Lee Sejun’s surprisingly reasonable answer, an indescribable sense of unease welled up inside of me.

“You’re less annoying when you talk than you were in Seoul? No, you actually sound normal now.”

"Jemin-ssi, I’ve always been completely normal.”

Lee Sejun narrowed his brow and answered flatly, only for Shin Nain to cut in immediately.

"Sejun-ssi currently has Heart-branch, Stage 3 Desire Replacement turned off. It seems that when his urge to defecate returns, the increased desire for recognition drops back to its original level.”

-Clap, clap, clap…

I found myself applauding without thinking.

I see. Apparently, magic wasn’t completely inflexible after all.

If it could be toggled on and off like some kind of switch, then that was a perfectly reasonable penalty.

Only after learning that Lee Sejun becoming more repulsive by the day was merely the horrific price of magic did I finally feel relieved.

For the sake of Lee Sejun, who was steadily growing into Captain Korea, and his future followers, I offered heartfelt advice from the bottom of my heart.

"Sejun-ssi, maybe stop learning magic.”

"Jemin-ssi, the life of a beautiful young girl is right here within reach. I can’t give up. I will absolutely be loved by everyone.”

"What about the life of Captain Korea?”

"I don’t want to be loved because I devout myself to others. I want to be loved just for breathing.”

Apparently, that revolting desire to get everything for free wasn’t a result of magic at all. It was simply Lee Sejun’s true nature.

Just as I realized that trash was still trash after all, the pilot and Shin Nain began talking back and forth about something in English. Since it didn’t sound like anything involving the generals, I paid it little attention.

A short while later, SHin Nain turned toward us and put on his gas mask.

-Huff, huff.

After checking the filter with a couple of short breaths, Shin Nain tapped his headset.

"We’ve arrived. Everyone, get your gas masks and weapons ready.”

While Shin Nain pulled up his hood and Lee Sejun adjusted his gas mask, I looked down below.

A large mountain stood some distance from the city, with smaller hills broken off around it like scattered fragments.

Between them stretched fields being prepared for planting, trees sprouting fresh green shoots, and buildings scattered here and there throughout the landscape.

Aside from the dense fog blanketing the area up to about a person’s lower back, nothing else seemed particularly unusual.

After circling once over the village, the helicopter gradually began descending, then left the village behind and hovered over the parking lot of a nearby gas station some distance away.

Countless soldiers and vehicles were already moving back and forth there, people shouting at the tops of their lungs.

As the helicopter lowered altitude and the deafening roar of the rotors began to subside, the voices outside grew clearer. Confused soldiers instinctively repeating orders back, officers shouting irritably, senior enlisted men snapping as they distributed magazines and checked personnel…

But when our helicopter finally landed safely, another sound reached the ears of us Supreme Archmages. One that felt far more out of place.

Soldiers wearing orange armbands hung with jingling dog tags were marching down the road in formation with rigid postures. Ahead of them walked civilians in padded jackets and vests, hunched over like prisoners and glancing around nervously.

-Rattle!

The instant the rotor noise died down, I threw open the helicopter door.

I climbed down first, followed by Shin Nain and Lee Sejun, and when we turned to look around, the scene we faced was quite a chaotic sight.

While we had been in the air, shut inside the helicopter and wearing the hoods of our ponchos, all those sounds had been heavily muffled.

-Jingle, jingle—.

The soldiers wearing dog-tag armbands gave cold instructions to the civilians shuffling awkwardly ahead of them.

All while idly fingering their triggers.

"Southern Gyeonggi civilian Operators. Move it, move it. Don’t even think about running away.”

The man in the padded jacket and the woman in the shirt both looked to be in their mid-to-late 20s. They were very young, with sharp eyes that made them look temperamental, but even they shrank back before the dog tag armband soldiers breathing through their gas masks and shoving gun barrels toward them.

"B-but you should at least give us guns!”

"You didn’t purchase any weapons separately, so they’ll be issued immediately before deployment. Under the field-operation regulations for civilian Operators, whether you live or die depends on the judgment of personnel on site. Don’t half-assedly try to resist us.”

"Wh-what happens if we don’t cooperate?”

Just then, Shin Nain and Lee Sejun stepped up behind me to watch this premium entertainment too.

They had learned that if they stood in front of me and stole more attention than I did, they might get shot by me. Truly, the intelligence befitting Supreme Archmages.

"Jemin-ssi. We should hear the field briefing before we begin."

"Shitmaster, this is entertaining. We can hear the briefing afterward.”

"Sejun-ssi, people could die while we waste these few minutes.”

"If someone’s going to die just because we dawdled for a few minutes, they were already too late to save. Let’s mourn them in advance and watch this first.”

"..."

The dog tag-wearing soldiers, much like us Supreme Archmages, looked at one another and burst into cheerful laughter.

One of the soldiers dealing with the two civilian Operators stared directly at the man and woman, then pointed at his own eyes with his index and middle fingers.

“You two are Eyes-branch, Stage 1, right? The military isn’t stupid. We know how to make use of uncooperative civilian Operators.”

-Gulp.

The woman among the civilian Operators swallowed .

"We put bullets in your legs and throw you in front of the monsters, and you’ll use your abilities whether you want to or not because you’ll want to survive. If we drag you around with us, you either die with us or survive with us. Those are your two choices. You’ve had your rest, so let’s move.”

The soldiers laughed loudly as the dog tags on their armbands jingled, while the civilian Operators began walking again with their bodies hunched and subdued.

Only then did Lee Sejun and I lose interest.

"They fought while shooting themselves full of drugs, and now they’ve completely lost it.”

"Well, at least we’ve confirmed that civilian Operators don’t get treated very well.”

Shin Nain’s face alternated between red and blue as he looked at us, but we decided not to care.

After all, for the noble mission of saving lives, hearing the field briefing came first.

And so, the three of us confidently strode forward.

Toward the commander giving various orders to the officers in front of the gas station.

The field commander was a major wearing a combat helmet. His sweat-soaked hair was plastered against his cheek, but he was too distracted to care and anxiously fiddled with his smartphone.

The sweaty major tapped his foot impatiently, then happened to raise his head. The moment he saw us, his expression brightened.

"Are you Aphorism? Why are there only three of you?”

Did you hear that?

The field commander, a major who looked old enough to be someone’s dad, saw us and immediately said the name "Aphorism" first.

Calling us "Shitphorism" instead of "Supreme Archmages" was a fatal flaw, but I wanted to give him bonus points for recognizing us before anything else.

I gazed warmly at the sweaty major through the lens of my gas mask and nodded.

"Aphorism is merely an alias. Pyeongtaek Command decided there are too many places that need us, so we’ll operate in rotating teams of three. And most importantly.”

"Huh?"

"In the field, call us Supreme Archmages.”

"Ah, yes…”

The sweaty major wore an awkward expression, failing to grasp just how valuable this newly acquired knowledge was, but soon shook his head vigorously and corrected himself.

"Supreme Archmages. Right. I was told you’re the most useful and cooperative civilian Operators currently available in Pyeongtaek. And I hear every one of you volunteered?”

I, Baek Jemin, who held the title of Supreme among us, graciously yielded the opportunity so my companions could make their own appeal.

At that, Shin Nain replied with a gentle smile.

"Of course. There is no devotion greater than fighting against this time of tribulation. In the name of the Lord.”

"Standing by while the country is in danger would violate my code of loyalty. Answering when the nation calls is only natural.”

Those words alone made the major’s eyes begin to glisten with emotion.

"My God…To think there were such admirable people among the civilian Operators…”

"Hold on."

Sensing something deeply unsettling, I had no choice but to raise a hand.

"Admirable?”

Who?

Of course, I, Baek Jemin, a once-in-a-lifetime genius, was also an admirable person in terms of character. But why did he say "people," as in plural?

Surely he didn’t mean to include this fanatic Shitmaster zealot and that recognition-starved monster who never stopped going on about becoming a pretty TS anime girl?

The sweaty major sniffled as he answered.

"Just being a volunteer civilian operational unit already put you in the top 10%. The other 90% were all forcibly conscripted.”

The Supreme Archmages had been dispatched to a small mountain village north of Uiwang Rest Area.

Calling it a mountain village wasn’t wrong, though it was close enough to the city that you could also call it a suburb. Still, once you entered through the narrow road, dense trees and rice paddies spread out around you, giving the place a distinctly rural atmosphere.

That naturally made deploying troops much more difficult.

As Shin Nain, Lee Sejun, and I walked forward, fragments of conversation exchanged between grim-faced officers passed by like a panorama.

"What about the ones that escaped into the mountain?”

"The search battalion with specialist soldiers attached is looking for them.”

"Amal-...Mimics?”

"Reconnaissance inside the village is difficult, so we can’t be sure. It looks like there are still people alive, though…”

But even the people talking like that would hear our footsteps, turn their heads without thinking, then widen their eyes and slowly step backward.

-Clack.

I ran a finger over the sleek metal of the custom AR-15 that Captain Kim Howoon had whined cost an absurd number of MPC.

The heavy feel of steel beneath my hand seemed to embody the results of the past week I had spent so productively. Even if I hadn’t fully internalized everything yet, somewhere inside me a mature sense of tension was rising. The state, which showed that I knew how to accept fear as something natural.

Wearing a gas mask and a poncho enchanted with Ancient Hebrew, each of us carrying a heavy firearm, I could feel just how much we had changed.

We really had changed.

I could feel that the fate that once would have forced us to tremble and run or hide at the mere sight of a single monster had changed.

-Huuuff—.

As the sound of my breathing leaked through the gas mask filter, the fog began rising past my thighs. The soldiers who had been lingering in front of us or blocking our way began stepping aside one by one after receiving radio calls.

Fragments of those transmissions mentioned the position of us Supreme Archmages.

[Under the Korean-US Combined Command...]

[...highest efficiency among available blockade-line forces.]

Shin Nain still insisted on using the K2.

He had decided that using a weapon already familiar to his hands was better than switching to one he wasn’t used to.

Lee Sejun’s footsteps, on the other hand, were slightly heavier than ours.

With an ammunition can hanging from his waist, Lee Sejun walked with heavy steps while holding the K15 machine gun in one hand and connecting the ammunition belt.

-Step, step, step.

The footsteps of the three of us overlapped, and wherever we passed, the same doubt inevitably remained behind.

But. Still. Even so. In the end.

"’There are only three of them," or so they think."

Shin Nain tapped his headset, then turned toward Lee Sejun and me with a grin.

He had kindly listened in on the soldiers’ thoughts and told us.

I let out a faint laugh at that and recalled the marksmanship Instructor Song Smith had taught me, while Lee Sejun finished connecting the ammunition belt, closed the cover, and tightened his grip on the machine gun.

At the entrance to the village, before the rice paddies and narrow road stretching between the mountains, the fog had already risen to our chests.

But none of us loosened our grip on our weapons.

We strode forcefully into the fog everyone else was busy fleeing from and trying to contain, steeling ourselves while secretly wondering what kind of behavior the monsters made from human flesh would show us today.

Then the sound of a baby crying began echoing through the mountain village to welcome us.

-Waah, waah, waah...

The instant we heard it, I asked the other two without turning around.

"None of us here are good people, right?”

-Clack.

Shin Nain and Lee Sejun both answered by caressing their weapons.

-Waah, waah...

We followed the small path beside an irrigation ditch toward the village entrance where the baby’s mournful cries echoed, and by then the fog had risen all the way to our chins.

-Hic, sob.

That was when the sound of a woman quietly sobbing began mixing with the baby’s cries.

I glanced toward Shin Nain. He gently closed his eyes and gave a short answer.

"She’s human."

Then he added one more comment.

"But she’d probably be better off if we shot her.”

"Hmm, I think I know what kind of situation this is.”

Lee Sejun answered calmly.

The three of us followed the crying, raised our guns toward the sobs of the baby and woman, and formed up.

Shin Nain handled detection, I handled improvisation and support, and Lee Sejun handled firepower.

We couldn’t keep moving around in a group of 6 every time we went on an expedition. To stand against the approaching end, we needed more resources and knowledge, and to earn greater rewards, we first had to learn how to operate our team flexibly.

This would be our opportunity.

Once, we had been helpless creatures waiting to be hunted.

"Babies. Multiple.”

Most of humanity was still nothing more than prey.

"And the woman crying?"

"Seems like a case similar to the Tadpole-bellies."

But we Supreme Archmages hunted the things that once hunted us.