Chapter 109

Baek Jemin Loves Non-Mages

I leapt from rooftop to rooftop.

In just a few seconds, the world transformed again and again.

Every time my feet kicked through empty air, gunfire crackled all around me. Ricochets whined through the city. I could hear bullets striking asphalt and exploding into fragments.

At this point, calling it jumping would have been an understatement.

I was practically walking through the sky.

The possibilities of Heart Magic that Lee Sejun had wasted by stubbornly keeping both feet on the ground—

This Grand Mage, Baek Jemin, was enjoying them to the fullest.

A realm forever beyond the reach of a muscle-brained former sergeant trapped by military doctrine and common sense.

Before this fragment of omnipotence, I trembled.

And trembled again.

Eventually the scenery beneath me became another painted concrete rooftop.

My boots touched the railing.

I rolled onto the roof.

Crash!

I ignored the rifle digging into my shoulder.

Pain meant nothing.

The dopamine of crossing rooftops was stronger.

I immediately brought my weapon back up and strode toward the edge.

Shin Nain's telepathy reached me.

Mr. Jemin. Drone.

I immediately scanned my surroundings.

A stairwell door.

A rooftop shack covered in slate roofing.

I chose the shack.

It looked like the most illegally expanded structure imaginable.

Neatly laid slate roofing.

Walls barely sturdier than a shipping container.

The kind of place where the owner had long since given up on heating and cooling.

There was a digital lock on the door.

Meaningless.

I was already crossing roads a lane and a half wide through raw leg strength alone.

Promising myself I'd unlock Heart Stage 2 next no matter what, I clenched my fist.

Time to use the ultimate hacking method.

BANG!

Plastic and circuitry exploded outward.

My bare fist punched straight through the door.

Apart from a slight sting, I was perfectly fine.

The lock disappeared.

Only a hole remained.

I withdrew my hand, turned the handle, and entered.

"Excuse me."

The moment I stepped inside, a foul odor hit me.

Rotting protein.

The smell of death.

Rotten fish mixed with spoiled eggs.

It punched through my gas mask's filters.

Closing the door behind me, I moved deeper inside.

Black stains covered the yellowed floor.

Not burn marks.

Something had melted, flowed across the surface, and hardened into tar-like residue.

The powerless refrigerator stood slightly open.

Empty.

The water had been cut off ages ago.

Not a single drop remained in the faucet.

Only dried detergent stains lingered around the sink.

I slid open the lone partition door.

People.

Or what remained of them.

Three collapsed bodies.

At that exact moment, a swarm of drones passed overhead.

BUUUUUUUUUUUNG—

Distant gunfire crackled like beans roasting in a pan.

The wasp-like buzzing of massed drones rattled the tightly sealed windows.

Fabric scraps hung from thumbtacks over the glass.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps.

As the patches of light widened and shifted, the shadows changed with them.

Yet the corpses remained pressed tightly together in the darkest corner, embracing one another beside a wardrobe.

Three people.

Human.

The forms were badly decomposed.

Almost all traces of who they'd once been had vanished.

But there were no signs of mutation.

I simply stood there breathing.

Listening to my own breath through the gas mask.

Hoooo...

The artillery shook the fragile rooftop shack.

The drones sounded louder here.

More oppressive.

As I waited for them to pass, the shifting sunlight finally revealed what had been hanging over the window.

Children's clothes.

Maybe middle-school sized.

At best.

Even if they'd secured them properly, they wouldn't have blocked all the sunlight.

Only then did I notice that one of the three corpses was significantly smaller than the others.

My precious doping time was draining away.

Still.

Instead of running from the drones, I chose to wait.

Quietly.

Breathing.

My finger gently stroked the trigger.

Eventually the buzzing faded.

Shin Nain's voice arrived.

Mr. Jemin. They're gone.

Without replying, I turned around.

My poncho shifted with the movement.

I ignored it.

I left the shack.

Though the door now had a fist-sized hole in it, I still closed it carefully to avoid making noise.

Beautiful people leave beautiful departures.

About then, thick smoke began rising in the distance.

Artillery didn't assault the ears.

It assaulted the entire body.

My organs vibrated.

A terrible resonance traveled through my bones.

Monsters were no longer the dominant fear.

Chemical weapons.

Artillery.

Drones.

Those were the terrors closing in.

Between collapsing buildings came gunfire and screams.

Then Shin Nain's voice sounded again.

Cold.

Clinical.

Military forces on Sanseong-daero engaged while advancing north. Demon group encountered.

Two-minute reports.

Allowing for updates, about five minutes had passed.

The boost still held.

But I'd spent too much time indulging in sentimentality.

I turned back toward the rooftop edge.

The problem was that the villa district ended here.

Northern Seongnam was centered around Sanseong-daero.

Most buildings were relatively low.

But here and there stood redeveloped apartment complexes and newly constructed villas.

The height differences were all over the place.

That meant poor cover.

I worried about Shin Nain and the Pastor.

The Pastor's doctrinal magic, [Salvational Certainty], would likely keep them from dying meaninglessly.

But if the 55th Unit launched a serious ambush?

I might be the one who died.

Never forget:

The Pastor's magic protected him and those nearby.

And "nearby" was far too vague a concept for my liking.

Still.

I was doped.

I had no idea how long the miracle granted by that low-level Heart Mage's remains would last.

So I intended to use every second of it.

Not just for combat.

For research.

Did it only strengthen my spells?

Did it reduce penalties too?

How much stronger was I?

How long did it last?

What was the cooldown?

There was no better way to find answers than beating the Gangnam Group to death.

I stood atop the old villa rooftop.

Ahead stood a newly built apartment tower.

Even with a taste of Heart Stage 2, jumping all the way there looked impossible.

The laws of the world forbade it.

Human common sense forbade it.

Unfortunately, the crimson trail pointed directly at the apartment roof.

A sniper.

55th Unit.

Couldn't ignore it.

Counter-sniping?

Amateur thinking.

Counter-sniping a rooftop sniper was still the mindset of a soldier.

Something Lee Sejun would do.

I dreamed of becoming a Grand Mage.

I was fascinated by magic's limitless possibilities.

I had willingly stepped into Seoul chasing that omnipotent power.

I would solve this like a mage.

Not a soldier.

I rolled my tongue.

This wasn't Eye Stage 1 [Perception Expansion].

Nor Eye Stage 2 [Perception Distortion].

Some people might think this spell only affected the body.

That it merely denied physical wounds.

But was that all [Cognitive Dissonance] had ever done?

What others accepted as absolute truth meant nothing to me.

What humanity considered common sense held no authority here.

Only my perception.

Only my senses.

Only my world.

Orthodox Alteration Eye Stage 3.

[Cognitive Dissonance] 100%.

The direction beneath my feet—

That was the direction gravity acted.

I lightly jumped.

And stretched a foot forward.

BOOM!

Pain exploded through me.

Like a meat tenderizer flattening my tongue.

Tears burst from my eyes.

My legs trembled.

My knees weakened.

But the agony quickly transformed into something else.

Weightlessness.

The force pulling me was no longer the street below.

The apartment wall itself dragged me forward.

My body tilted.

Below me lay only sky.

Clouds flowing like waterfalls.

Towering apartment buildings.

No footholds.

Nothing.

The sheer vertigo wiped my thoughts blank.

I was the kind of person who rode monorails and merry-go-rounds five times each because roller coasters terrified me.

This was far beyond my limits.

As the fall began, my mouth opened.

I was probably screaming.

The wind tried to tear my poncho apart.

I couldn't hear anything.

Couldn't think.

I was falling faster than the clouds.

The fear that I might miss the wall and continue falling forever seized my heart.

My life flashed before my eyes.

The many struggles of Baek Jemin.

Using a urinal to take a dump because every toilet stall was clogged.

Stealing 600,000 won in academy tuition money and spending it all at a PC café.

Throwing away my backpack to skip evening study sessions and getting dragged into the disciplinary office the next day.

Watching lightning strike a tree right beside me during a military thunderstorm alert.

All of it vanished.

One thought remained.

Ah.

I'm dead.

CRAAAAASH!

Instinct took over.

I slammed my left hand into the surface beneath me.

An accidental superhero landing.

On the side of an apartment building.

Fortunately, anyone who might have billed me for repairs had probably died from gas exposure.

Had I not been enjoying a taste of Heart Stage 2 [Physical Enhancement]—

Had I not been doped—

I would've become a pancake.

That realization shattered the paralysis gripping me.

The first thing to escape was my breath.

Hooooo...

Haaaah...

My vision was blurry.

Normally I had 1.2 vision.

Now it felt closer to 0.8.

Like reality had been compressed into a lower resolution.

But I survived.

I slowly stood.

Carefully took a step.

Human instinct screamed:

If you lift your foot, you'll die.

My perception replied:

Why would walking kill you?

The life I'd lived clashed with the life I was living now.

Confusion.

Vertigo.

Fear.

Joy.

Déjà vu.

All mixed together.

The non-mage Baek Jemin screamed that this was insane.

The Grand Mage Baek Jemin answered calmly.

Reality has already collapsed.

Adapt or be discarded.

If people keep hiding behind the label "civilian" to justify clinging to outdated common sense—

They'll become true non-mages.

And when that happens?

No one will care.

The Supreme Mages still protected non-mages.

Still treated them like people.

But how long would other mages maintain such noble humanism?

The moment non-mages stopped qualifying as "human" in society's definition—

Protecting them would no longer be required.

The mages of Seoul already demonstrated that future.

The ski-goggle cultists.

The memories I'd witnessed.

Among Seoul's mages, the definition of humanity was already changing.

Non-mages?

Weak people unwilling to endure pain.

People incapable of resisting mutation.

People who couldn't even earn the chance to hold a rifle.

Future monsters.

Those who once complained about capitalism, science, privilege, and social inequality should be celebrating with me.

Reluctantly, I admit:

The path remains open to non-mages too.

A world where suffering guarantees reward.

A world where anyone willing to face death and pain can grasp a fragment of omnipotence.

If they're unwilling to suffer.

If they're unwilling to risk death.

Then they should simply applaud the Supreme Mages.

The age of pure talent and determination had finally arrived.

This was the New Normal.

The first step into a new era.

Thump.

My boots walked across the cracked concrete wall.

My poncho streamed behind me.

Yet my body stood upright.

Walking no longer felt strange.

The dizziness had vanished.

It felt as comfortable as strolling along a riverside path in slippers.

Only the stronger wind reminded me anything was unusual.

Click.

I tucked my rifle securely under my arm.

The boost wouldn't last forever.

Time to maximize it.

The excitement of sprinting for the first time since middle school made me grin.

Then I ran.

Left foot.

Right foot.

Left foot.

Right foot.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Each step struck concrete.

Apartment complex numbers painted on the wall rushed beneath me.

My poncho tried to drag me backward.

[Cognitive Dissonance] was stronger.

THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD.

The end approached rapidly.

I was running alone along a vertical strip of concrete.

Then soldiers appeared above the apartment railing.

Click.

I clearly heard weapons being readied.

I lowered my body further.

Grabbing my poncho with my left hand.

Then the bullets came.

RATATATATATAT!

Gunfire was always loud.

Some of the ejected casings followed the bullets over the edge.

Thanks to my [Bulletproof] enchantment, I could distinguish bullets from brass purely through impact.

The bullets bulged the fabric outward before ricocheting away.

The casings simply rattled and fell.

Around the time I was practically crawling while sprinting—

BANG!

A helmet flew past my eye.

Because I was moving, I almost thought I'd imagined it.

Then Shin Nain's telepathy arrived.

Friendly sniper!

Only then did I hear the groans.

The screams.

The soldiers retreating from the railing.

The moment I confirmed it, I acted.

I launched myself off the apartment wall.

Toward the rooftop.

The enemy position came into view.

All wore white bandages.

55th Unit.

Heavy autocannons apparently ripped from armored vehicles.

Assault rifles.

Machine guns mounted behind sandbags.

The soldiers dragged wounded comrades while drawing greatswords.

Then they saw me.

Our eyes met.

Two different gravities intersecting.

I was falling through the sky.

They stood vertically on the rooftop.

Staring.

At that exact moment, I rolled my tongue.

Eye Stage 2.

[Perception Distortion] 100%.

The price arrived instantly.

The familiar burning pain in my left arm erupted throughout every blood vessel.

My taste buds split apart.

Pain carved through my tongue to its very root.

My knees buckled.

I literally pissed myself.

At the same time, my body was pulled toward the rooftop like a magnet.

WHUMP!

Time nearly stopped.

The soldiers were already reacting.

Rifles pointed skyward.

Preparing anti-air fire.

The Heart Mage even lifted a mounted machine gun.

But within my distorted perception—

Only I was free.

This was where firearms shined.

I forced my trembling body into position and aimed.

Most Korean men could shoot a stationary target.

And right now—

Every target was stationary.

Click-clack-click-click...

I couldn't even hear gunshots anymore.

Only the recoil traveling through my body.

Within the slowed world, muzzle flashes accumulated.

Smoke built up.

Only the mechanical clicking of firearm components reached my ears.

The trick was simple.

[Perception Distortion] 100% punished movement.

So move less.

Kill quickly.

Accept the penalty afterward.

I fired only enough rounds to attract attention.

Only enough to remove threats.

Then I tucked the rifle beneath my arm and raised my [Bulletproof] poncho.

Hide the face.

Curl the body.

The moment arrived.

Blink.

BANG—!!!

Gunshots overlapped.

The screams of the 55th Unit disappeared beneath them.

Their return fire came immediately.

I couldn't hear it.

But I felt bullets hammering my poncho.

The impacts bruised my left arm badly.

Showing my face meant death.

That rule applied equally to me and them.

Then came another sound.

Wind.

Something slicing through the air.

Each time I heard it, fewer bullets struck me.

Around six seconds passed.

Still crouched behind my enchanted poncho, I received Shin Nain's report.

The 55th Unit is moving. Friendly special forces have engaged.

Not long afterward, the gunfire stopped.

I lowered the poncho.

Bullets fell from it like rain.

For the first time in my life, I heard spent projectiles clattering across the ground instead of brass casings.

Perhaps I'd learned how to handle [Perception Distortion] 100% better.

My body felt exhausted.

But not dying.

Not crippled.

Just drained.

Maybe that's why mages used guns.

If I'd charged in swinging a sword, I'd probably need morphine again.

Instead, I merely clicked a trigger.

Convenient.

I surveyed the battlefield.

Death everywhere.

Seven bodies.

Most had died gasping.

Only two still clutched wounds in their arms or sides.

Shin Nain had been right.

Special forces really were here.

Humanity's finest marksmen.

I couldn't help admiring them.

Yeah.

If you shoot like that, you qualify as a Gun Mage.

Not a non-mage.

A true Gun Mage.

I tightened my grip on my rifle and walked toward the two surviving soldiers of the 55th Unit.

One of them had already given up.

He began sobbing.

"H-hic... sob..."

Then the sobbing turned into outright wailing.

"Uwaaah... h-huh... uaaah... khk... cough..."

Click.

Without hesitation, I pointed my rifle at his head.

One shot.

The crying stopped.

The last survivor clutched his side, breathing heavily.

As I approached, he managed to speak between ragged breaths.

"Why us... Why did it have to happen while I was in the military...?"

Click.

The moment I aimed at him, he broke too.

"Mom!"

A shell casing rolled across the rooftop.

At the same time, tears rolled down inside the gas mask.

Not mine.

The only thing I'd shed recently was a few drops of piss.

I checked my remaining ammunition.

Hmm.

Used quite a few rounds.

No idea exactly how many remained.

I decided to swap magazines anyway.

There were magazines scattered everywhere up here.

I also checked for grenades, but apparently these guys didn't carry many explosives.

Maybe they were simply too valuable.

After gathering what I could, I inserted a fresh magazine and sent Shin Nain a telepathic message.

Secured the apartment rooftop.

A moment later, Shin Nain's urgent reply arrived.

Mr. Jemin! The military unit on Sanseong-daero has been isolated! The demons are converging on them, and the 55th Unit is focusing on holding off the special forces and us!

For the first time, my attention shifted away from the rooftop.

Only then did I truly appreciate how thoroughly destroyed Seongnam had become.

Screams echoed between low-rise buildings.

Explosions threw black clouds of dust into the air.

Far away, inside Seoul's massive fog bank, gigantic shadows writhed.

Like unborn beasts trying to tear their way out of a womb.

Thankfully, they weren't emerging.

Something was stopping them.

After making that judgment, I returned my attention to Shin Nain.

At the same time, I slung my rifle and approached the dead Heart Mage who had been acting as the machine-gunner.

The boost was slowly fading.

I broke apart his ribcage and retrieved the remains.

Then I sent my reply.

So what do you want me to do? Need help somewhere?

Mr. Jemin! Below the apartment!

Crunch!

I tossed the heart down and crushed it beneath my boot.

Psssshhh...

Fog escaped.

It flowed into me.

Doping duration extended.

I leaned over the railing and surveyed the battlefield.

Below the apartment, on a road roughly two lanes wide, a firefight was underway.

On one side:

Two figures carrying rifles and wearing ponchos.

Obviously Shin Nain and the Pastor.

On the other:

Soldiers wearing white bandages around their arms.

The 55th Unit.

Their squad tactics were impressive for what were supposedly conscript-level troops.

Seven soldiers total.

Split into groups of two, two, and three.

The three-man element alternated suppressive fire.

The two smaller teams carried a shotgun and a flamethrower respectively.

From above, the logic became obvious.

The riflemen pinned targets.

The flanking teams maneuvered.

Then they burned enemies out of buildings and finished them.

Someone had clearly put a great deal of thought into maximizing the capabilities of former containment-line troops.

Shin Nain and the Pastor seemed to realize the same thing.

A grenade flew.

Honestly?

Watching the fight was incredibly entertaining.

I almost didn't want to interfere.

Then an annoyingly familiar voice echoed through the area.

Like a loudspeaker.

[Listen, listen.]

That mocking bird-like voice spoke confidently.

[If a grenade lands nearby, throw yourself on it!]

One of the riflemen immediately dove onto Shin Nain's grenade.

My head snapped around.

An explosion thundered.

Then the voice returned.

[Listen, listen. Resume combat!]

The two flanking teams immediately resumed their advance toward Shin Nain and the Pastor.

The moment Shin Nain noticed, he began retreating while firing.

Then an angry telepathic message exploded into my head.

MR. JEMIN!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

Well...

If you were in my position, you'd have watched too.

But rational thought prevailed.

Admitting I'd delayed because the fight was fun would probably cause that mind-reader to expose every secret I'd ever had.

So I sent the most cooperative response possible.

Fine. I'll help.

Without hesitation, I grabbed a grenade from my belt.

Part of the reason I'd always secretly considered Lee Sejun a dumbass stemmed from moments exactly like this.

His military mindset focused exclusively on increasing firepower.

He never fully explored magic's versatility.

I often found myself thinking:

If I had that power, I'd use it better.

Granted, that was a terrible thought.

Still.

Someone had to carry everyone's gear.

And who better than Lee Sejun?

Meanwhile, Grand Mage Baek Jemin intended to prove that the same magic could be used very differently.

Ping.

I pulled the pin.

Cooking it?

Unnecessary.

At this distance, the throw itself counted as cooking.

I adjusted my stance and hurled it like skipping a stone.

Normally it would've landed harmlessly.

Not today.

Heart Stage 2 [Physical Enhancement] changed everything.

The grenade practically became a javelin.

It slammed downward.

Buried itself into the asphalt.

Then exploded.

The blast erased the two soldiers advancing toward the apartment.

Shrapnel shredded the windows of abandoned vehicles nearby.

The three riflemen providing suppressive fire immediately dropped flat.

The other two soldiers attempting to circle through buildings also scrambled for cover.

Their route was cut off.

Positioning mattered.

I was admiring my handiwork and adjusting my rifle when I heard something impossible.

A scratching noise.

Like fingernails scraping across something hard.

Someone less alert would've dismissed it.

I reacted instantly.

Swinging my rifle stock.

"Mr. Jemin!"

Crack!

My strike was blocked.

A soldier.

55th Unit?

No.

He hadn't fired.

At first glance he looked normal.

Had I not noticed the dozens of mismatched name tapes plastered across his uniform, I'd have missed it.

Velcro Corporal.

Without hesitation, I sidestepped.

For once, all that useless bayonet training paid off.

Clack! Crack!

Rifle stock and barrel crossed in rapid succession.

The weight of my rifle smashed aside his attacks.

My eyes focused entirely on the blade flashing in the sunlight.

No.

Not a blade.

A fingernail.

A grotesquely enlarged fingernail curved into the shape of a knife.

Plastic and keratin collided repeatedly.

Crack! Crack!

Naturally, plastic won.

I smashed downward with my rifle stock.

Crunch.

The tip of one claw snapped off.

"Your manicure sucks."

At that moment a voice rang out.

[Listen, listen.]

That damned mockingbird again.

[If you want to avoid the claws, throw yourself downward!]

Thump.

My heartbeat skipped.

My certainty wavered.

The guy was a Reversal-Type Heart Stage 2 mage.

Who knew what kind of nonsense he could pull?

Maybe close combat wasn't the answer.

Without realizing it, I hurled myself off the edge.

Laughter followed immediately.

[Hahahahaha!]

Only then did I understand.

Magic.

I'd been hit by magic.

Still.

I'd allowed it.

Because I knew how to respond.

I rolled my tongue.

[Cognitive Dissonance].

One hundred percent.

Immediately I became weightless.

A feather.

My poncho and equipment dragged me downward.

But impact never came.

Instead, the world seemed to sink around me.

The rooftops that had stretched beneath the horizon rose rapidly toward eye level.

Of course, I didn't stop fighting.

Click.

With my rifle tucked beneath my arm, I fired wildly.

RATATATATATAT!

I wasn't trying to hit anything.

The goal was different.

Bring the drones.

Disrupt the 55th Unit.

Force them into cover.

Soldiers dove behind vehicles and buildings.

Then I spotted something else.

The Pastor and Shin Nain.

Their rifles protruded from cover behind me.

Two streams of bullets crossed.

One from above.

One from below.

I targeted the soldiers.

They targeted something behind me.

Curious, I turned.

The sight was absurd.

SKRRRRAAAAPE—

Claws protruded from the man's forearms.

Metal fragments had fused to them like armor.

He was using them to slide down the apartment wall.

No helmet.

No hood.

Just a gas mask and a military haircut.

Velcro Corporal.

The bastard was literally climbing down the building with claw-blades.

Even as the claws broke, they regrew.

Blood flowed.

He ignored it.

Bullets struck him repeatedly.

Some kind of armor hidden beneath his uniform prevented serious injury.

...Monster.

I reached the ground first.

The very first thing I did was reload and start hunting the surviving 55th Unit soldiers.

Thanks to the [Silent] enchantment on my boots, nobody heard me.

Not while reloading.

Not while chambering a round.

Not until I was already standing over them.

My mercy was painless death.

Bang! Bang!

I punched holes through the heads and chests of three riflemen while strolling forward.

Then I heard gunfire.

This time my shoulder exploded with pain.

I glanced down.

My poncho had caved inward.

The enchantment still worked.

No penetration.

Turns out "bulletproof" doesn't mean painless.

Getting hit still hurts like hell.

"AAAAH! SHIT!"

"Baek Jemin! Quit whining and get into cover!"

Whoever said it was absolutely right.

I obeyed instantly.

Flop!

I threw myself to the ground and began crawling.

Like an elegant cockroach.

Somebody sounded genuinely impressed.

"Wow. Holy shit. The guy lives for looking cool, but he'll still crawl around like that when necessary?"

I ignored them.

Right now the only people firing freely were Shin Nain and the Pastor.

My instincts proved correct.

As I crawled between abandoned vehicles, I spotted Shin Nain peeking from behind concrete rubble.

He gestured.

Telepathy.

I focused.

Mr. Jemin. Don't join us.

What?

Why?

I'm getting shot!!!

Because we need the pincer attack, you idiot!

That bastard sounded awfully calm for someone who wasn't currently getting hammered through a bulletproof poncho.

I ground my teeth.

But I restrained myself.

Once my rational mind returned, I understood.

This was a glass-cannon battle.

If we got caught together by an area attack, we'd all die.

My cool-headed reasoning transformed me from an elegant cockroach into a fleeing cockroach.

New objective:

Finish off the two flanking soldiers.

The moment I committed to that goal, I began moving faster than the bullets.

Rounds struck where I'd been moments earlier.

Ting! Ting!

Ricochets bounced from the asphalt.

My poncho absorbed some.

Others hit my side.

My thigh.

My left forearm.

God, it hurt.

Tears streamed from my eyes.

Even while crying, my reasoning remained crystal clear.

Hide the feet.

The enemy wanted my feet.

The poncho covered almost everything except them.

If they shot my feet, I'd become a punching bag.

Knowing that, I shuffled forward in a crouched duck-walk.

My legs burned.

The fact that Heart Stage 2 was reducing the strain somehow made it more terrifying.

Then static crackled.

And the mockingbird voice returned.

[Listen, listen.]

The Yellow Band survivor.

[Retreat! Don't die easily! They're mages! Split their attention!]

At the same time, Shin Nain's telepathy arrived.

The 55th Unit, special forces, and drones are all converging on your position. Hold out!

As I entered an alleyway, I saw the two retreating soldiers.

Sorry.

Nothing personal.

I aimed.

Pulled the trigger.

Then something like a lump of shit flew toward me.

Instinct screamed:

Don't touch that.

I recoiled.

My aim shifted.

Bang!

Miss.

The gunshot alerted the soldiers.

The flamethrower operator abandoned his equipment.

The shotgun user dove over a wall.

The object lying before me was a Human Slime.

I immediately aimed toward where it had come from.

Click.

Hoooo...

Breathing echoed through gas masks.

Two mages stood there.

The Yellow Band survivor.

Black mask.

Sunglasses.

Yellow band around his helmet.

And beside him—

Velcro Corporal.

His swollen arm covered in grotesque pustules.

Claw-blades twitching.

The mockingbird tapped his sunglasses and grinned.

"Aphorism. You're Baek Jemin, right?"

My finger relaxed slightly on the trigger.

"Talk."

"Monk Cheonghwi said nobody takes magic as seriously as you do. Everyone else uses it as a tool. You chase magic as an end in itself. That makes you unusually resistant to the madness it creates. That's why you've reached all five paths. You're an extremely valuable recruitment target."

The moment he finished speaking—

I fired.

RATATATAT!

Then I immediately sprinted toward the boulevard.

Behind me, his amplified voice echoed furiously.

[YOU SON OF A BITCH! WHO STARTS SHOOTING IN THE MIDDLE OF A CONVERSATION?!]

Idiot.

I ducked behind a fallen signboard and finally answered.

"Idiot. Why would I join you when I can kill you and steal your remains? Everyone stronger than me is already in the Society of Sixty-Six. What's the point?"

[This bastard's hopeless. Kill him!]

One of them was wounded.

Yellow Band had thrown himself behind Velcro Corporal, but I'd still hit his left arm.

In response, Velcro Corporal ripped off one of his pustules and hurled it at me.

Unfortunately for them, I'd already committed to shooting and moving.

Flop!

I dove into the alley.

The Human Slime and I hit the ground at almost the same time.