Chapter 47
A Fair Night Watch System
In the end, Lee Sejun's sentence to eternal night-watch duty fell apart.
Despite reaching Heart Magic Stage 3, Lee Sejun fiercely rejected the concept of noblesse oblige. To this selfish bastard, his own mental well-being was more important than four other people getting a good night's sleep.
He swept a sharp gaze across all of us and spoke firmly.
“The moment I get assigned permanent night watch, I'll show you exactly what I'm capable of.”
“And what exactly can you do?”
My mocking question was answered with a horrifying threat.
“I'll spend twenty-four hours chewing and swallowing food, storing it all in my stomach, and then I'll spray it all over your faces while you're sleeping.”
...I'd had my suspicions ever since he started talking about becoming a TS cute girl.
But seriously.
Did this bastard possess absolutely no sense of shame?
Cold sweat ran down my back as I exchanged looks with Hamza, Shin Nain, and Pastor Park.
The other three looked just as hesitant in the face of Lee Sejun's extreme resistance.
“Sejun's pushing back pretty hard.”
All three nodded solemnly.
“I didn't think he had it in him. This won't be easy.”
“I'm scared. I don't want to get hit by a poop storm while sleeping.”
“Sejun is completely serious. Terrifying. To think he'd abandon all dignity just to avoid permanent night-watch duty.”
Even Shin Nain's testimony confirmed that Lee Sejun wasn't bluffing.
The man was insane.
In twenty-eight years of life, this was the first person I'd ever met who threatened people with his own bodily functions simply because he didn't want to stay awake twenty-four hours a day.
Public opinion among the Supreme Mages shifted immediately.
The problem was deciding how to assign guard duty.
Our old method had been rock-paper-scissors against Shin Nain.
Unfortunately, reading thoughts wasn't even the issue anymore.
Even when we deliberately tried to act on pure instinct, we couldn't beat him.
Because Shin Nain wasn't merely reading minds.
He was absurdly perceptive.
I'd learned this after losing ten consecutive rounds of guard-duty rock-paper-scissors.
The reason he normally acted oblivious wasn't because he lacked awareness.
It was because he simply didn't care.
I'd only lost the first watch of a single night so far, but how many more would I lose in the future?
This needed to be fixed now.
So the three of us immediately united under the banner of democracy.
“Let's just rotate first watch and last watch fairly.”
“That sounds good. Jemin's right.”
“Fairness is a virtue of the Sunnah.”
It was a historic moment.
A normal citizen.
A Christian pastor.
A Muslim migrant worker.
All united in thought.
Unfortunately, the strongest opposition came from none other than the lunatic convert himself.
Shin Nain.
Shaking his head, he began calmly spouting nonsense.
“The people of Israel wandered the wilderness while suffering persecution because they were few in number. Of course, the fundamental cause was their failure to properly serve God. But the story of Sodom and Gomorrah proves that numerical superiority does not guarantee righteousness.”
“So?”
“Let's settle it fairly with rock-paper-scissors. Or perhaps up-down deodenjji.”
“Hey, you crazy bastard. What if we refuse?”
“Then I shall reveal each of your most shameful and horrifying memories in full detail. For those who neither repent nor walk the righteous path, the truth revealed under the Lord's name is necessary. Amen.”
That threat was horrifying too.
Fortunately for me, Baek Jemin, a wholesome and ordinary citizen, my darkest secret had already been revealed long ago.
Back in elementary school, because people like Shin Nain occupied every stall, I'd been forced to defecate in a urinal.
That shameful incident was already public knowledge.
Of course, there was a heartwarming epilogue.
Feeling guilty for the cleaning-duty student who had to deal with the aftermath, I'd secretly bought him a chocolate cream bread.
Definitely not a story I just made up.
It had merely slipped my mind until now.
But not everyone in the world lived with only tiny blemishes like me.
Even Pastor Park and Hamza wilted under Shin Nain's pressure.
“Ear Magic is truly terrifying.”
“Oh Allah.”
Meanwhile, Lee Sejun simply folded his arms and snorted.
“Go ahead, Shin Nain. As long as I have dreams, the manly Lee Sejun will never be defeated by shame.”
“To witness such a disgusting aspiration in my lifetime. Lord God, grant me the strength to endure this trial...”
Even Shin Nain groaned in the face of Lee Sejun's confidence.
And somehow...
I found myself understanding Shin Nain.
Both he and Lee Sejun were enemies of my precious sleep.
Yet as someone who had already heard far too much about Lee Sejun's dreams, I couldn't help feeling sympathy for Shin Nain, who had to hear those thoughts directly through Ear Magic without the filter of language.
At this rate I might actually start siding with him.
The realization filled me with profound humiliation.
No matter how empathetic I was, I never imagined I'd feel kinship with that lunatic fanatic.
So I decided to redirect the conversation and pressure Lee Sejun instead.
“Sejun. If you're not getting rid of the need for sleep, then what are you choosing? We need to figure out the drawbacks too.”
So far, the side effects of each magical path looked like this:
Eye Path:
Your eyes hurt like hell. Like someone rubbing them with plastic wrap or scrubbing them with shampoo.
Hand Path:
You have to bleed.
Ear Path:
If you lose focus, you hear everything around you.
Tongue Path:
Your taste buds split apart and burst open.
Yet Heart Magic alone seemed free of drawbacks.
By now I was convinced there was no such thing as cost-free magic.
Heart Magic Stage 3 had to carry some sort of price.
Even if it was probably easier than the costs paid by the other paths.
At that moment Pastor Park snapped his fingers.
“Sejun. How about removing your sex drive? Then you won't keep talking about becoming a woman.”
I blinked.
Then clapped.
Honestly?
That wasn't a bad idea.
Hamza and Shin Nain looked equally enthusiastic.
“That's actually good.”
“A wonderful idea. Korean Christian imam is brilliant.”
“As expected of the Pastor. An excellent suggestion.”
Even if the night-watch issue remained unresolved, this seemed like a perfectly acceptable outcome for everyone.
Then came the sound of someone clicking his tongue.
The culprit was Heart Magic Mage Lee Sejun.
Arms crossed, he raised a finger and wagged it at us.
The look he gave us was one of utter contempt.
The sort of look someone might reserve for idiots who barely passed high school.
The only comparable look I'd ever received was when I showed my English teacher the mock-exam paper where I'd somehow scored the equivalent of an F without even guessing answers.
Lee Sejun addressed the pastor with a calm voice full of pity.
“Pastor. Do you really think my desire to become a TS cute girl comes from some cheap sexual fetish?”
“Doesn't it?”
“Haaaah. Pastor. If I wanted to become a TS cute girl so I could date men, that would make me gay. Super gay.”
Murmur. Murmur.
Me.
Hamza.
Shin Nain.
Pastor Park.
All four of us exchanged glances.
Wasn't wanting to become a TS cute girl already pretty gay?
To the four people who had quietly categorized him as such, this statement came as a genuine shock.
Lee Sejun uncrossed his arms and pounded his chest.
“I don't want to become a TS cute girl because of some pathetic sexual fantasy! It's because of my need for validation!”
“Isn't wanting attention from men just another form of validation-seeking gayness?”
Pastor Park's perfectly reasonable question was crushed beneath Lee Sejun's furious shout.
“No!!!”
He continued, sounding utterly exasperated.
“I just want head pats! Endless positivity! Unconditional praise! Being complimented no matter what I do! You can't get that as some scruffy guy! That's why I want to become a cute girl! A being who gets loved and praised just for existing!”
At last understanding dawned on Pastor Park and Shin Nain.
The contempt vanished from their faces.
Only gentle smiles remained.
“Sejun, then you should come to church. Jesus loves you unconditionally.”
“The moment you come to the Lord, you will realize that you were born to be loved.”
“Enough.”
If I, Baek Jemin, hadn't intervened at that exact moment, I couldn't even imagine how far this nonsense would've escalated.
Thanks to my firm and decisive mediation, we finally returned to discussing magic.
A former sergeant dreaming of becoming a TS cute girl and two fanatical Christians together was simply a recipe for disaster.
The future of Aphorism looked bleak indeed if a Pakistani medical student turned migrant worker named Hamza was somehow the second most normal person after me.
Judging by his expression, Hamza seemed to be suffering from similar thoughts.
“Jemin is the only normal person after me. I'm worried about Aphorism.”
“Tell me about it.”
I generously chose to overlook Hamza's minor misunderstanding.
Still, moments like this required vigilance.
On the seventh floor of the department store, with security finally established, we resumed our discussion about magic in earnest.
As the faint smell of burning corpses drifted upward from below...
That was what being a Supreme Mage meant.
During the discussion, we finally got a rough understanding of the drawback attached to Heart Magic through Lee Sejun.
“I guess I've been craving food more than usual. Eating more. Something like that.”
“Come to think of it, Sejun, every time I see you, you're eating hardtack.”
The stages of Heart Magic seemed to work like this:
Heart Stage 1: Metabolic efficiency increases to the extreme. You tire much less easily.
Heart Stage 2: Overall physical abilities improve, and aging is suppressed.
Heart Stage 3: One essential human need can be completely replaced by magic.
The interesting part was that Stage 1 had almost no drawback.
Starting at Stage 2, however, users began eating noticeably more.
Apparently enhanced physical capabilities required additional fuel.
That said, compared to the benefits gained, the extra food consumption was practically negligible.
If a single bag of hardtack could grant enough physical strength to throw a grenade through someone's leg, then yes, that definitely qualified as magic.
As for the long-awaited Stage 3—
Its drawback was the amplification of another desire.
Lee Sejun suddenly blinked and let out a long yawn.
“Stage 3... Yeah. It feels like when one desire gets replaced, another one increases. I turned off hunger, and now I'm getting a little sleepy...”
After thoroughly grilling Lee Sejun around a department store dining table, the four of us pieced together the truth.
Heart Magic Stage 3 was:
[Complete Need Substitution].
Human beings constantly consume resources and experience unavoidable needs.
Hunger.
Sleep.
Sex.
Excretion.
Validation.
And countless others.
Heart Stage 3 allowed a mage to completely satisfy one of those needs through magic.
In exchange, some other desire would randomly become slightly stronger.
For example:
If you replaced the need for sleep, you'd stay fully energetic without sleeping, but you'd need to eat a little more.
If you replaced hunger, you'd need slightly more sleep.
If you replaced sexual desire, your need for recognition would swell until you wanted praise simply for breathing.
If you replaced the need for validation, your sex drive would intensify.
And so on.
Among all the options, the mildest drawback seemed to come from eliminating excretion.
Replacing the need to excrete meant:
- Less food consumption.
- Reduced fatigue.
- No increase in sexual desire.
The only downside was that your need for validation rose slightly, causing a certain someone to talk about becoming a TS cute girl more frequently.
At this point Hamza offered a theory.
Rather than completely replacing biological functions, perhaps the spell simply pushed their efficiency to absurd levels.
Maybe that was why the drawback remained relatively small.
“I think the backlash is weaker because it improves efficiency rather than completely replacing life functions.”
“Heart Magic still has to be influenced by the fog somehow. But compared to the other paths, the drawbacks really are much lighter.”
As I nodded along with Hamza's theory, Pastor Park did the same.
“When we talked with that monk Cheonghwi, he kept bringing up things like the Five Paths and the Five Aggregates. At the time I thought it sounded like nonsense. But considering the knowledge you've gained...”
He paused.
“It's becoming obvious this magical system was designed with the assumption that someone would eventually learn all five paths. Heart Magic practically exists to bear the backlash of the other paths.”
“Monk Cheonghwi definitely knew something.”
“He knew enough to come to Seoul. Looking back, he was quietly teaching us all along. And now you've got this distinction between Sephirot and Qliphoth, normal and inverted paths. So tell me, what happens if that monk enters Seoul and starts teaching the normal path to the mages inside?”
At first I didn't understand.
I blinked at him.
The pastor sighed deeply.
Shin Nain, apparently operating on the same wavelength, immediately understood.
He removed his headset and hung it around his neck before explaining.
“If that demonic monk makes contact with the mages inside Seoul and shares his knowledge, then the information advantage possessed by people outside the city disappears.”
The concern shared by the pastor and Shin Nain was straightforward.
Monk Cheonghwi was deeply immersed in esoteric Buddhist practices.
He understood that occult knowledge and rituals could raise the stages of Mutation-Type Magic.
Now imagine such a person entering Seoul and using that knowledge as bait to gain influence over the mage factions inside.
What would happen?
Occult knowledge was difficult to acquire within Seoul.
If Cheonghwi's teachings spread there, the information advantage held by outsiders would vanish.
The Seoul Mage's memories alone contained an enormous amount of occult knowledge.
If that knowledge merged with the expertise of an experienced mystic from outside...
The magical development inside Seoul could become irreversible.
I offered a simple answer.
“Wouldn't that just increase the chances of getting nuked?”
If the situation became impossible to control, the UN Security Council could simply sacrifice fifty million Koreans and drop nuclear weapons on the peninsula.
Hold a memorial ceremony afterward.
Problem solved.
Diplomacy only mattered while people were still alive.
Humanitarian arguments could certainly be made.
But after seeing monsters and Seoul Mages firsthand, none of those arguments carried much weight with us anymore.
The South Korean government had already publicly revealed the monsters emerging from Seoul.
It was impossible to believe world leaders remained ignorant of the situation inside the city.
The only reasons Seoul hadn't been nuked yet were:
The possibility that magic could be exploited.
The first containment line, held by roughly 140,000 soldiers.
And the second containment line, maintained by reservists and support units across Gyeonggi Province.
Given all that, even Pastor Park clicked his tongue.
“That's the problem.”
He tapped the frame of his glasses thoughtfully.
“If the Seoul Mages become too powerful, they'll have no choice but to launch nuclear strikes. It's almost as if someone wants them to.”
April 16, 2028 — 4:16 PM
Day 2 of the Expedition
The Supreme Mages decided to spend the night on the seventh floor of the department store.
The building was larger than we'd expected.
We'd assumed it stood alone, but Hamza had become slightly excited after examining a nearby directory.
“It says it's connected to an outlet mall. I think we should investigate.”
We accepted his suggestion largely because of the pastor's reasoning.
While stacking tables into a makeshift barricade and laying out sleeping bags behind it, Pastor Park explained.
“Assuming the Seoul Mage learned to use that walkie-talkie by absorbing people's memories, we can still gather information by figuring out what supplies have disappeared from this area. That'll tell us how specialized the survivors have become.”
He continued.
“At the very least, we can estimate how many groups have passed through here. We should focus on electronics and try to determine the level of communication technology available to survivor groups in Seoul. While we're at it, we can search the surrounding area for traces of activity and collect valuable low-volume supplies. Medicine, for example.”
The dark-blue phone that had received mysterious messages remained in my possession.
Mostly because I, Baek Jemin, was the best at improvisation.
Shin Nain already had enough responsibility dealing with threats alongside Hamza.
Lee Sejun continued fulfilling his role as pack mule.
He searched the restaurant floor for edible canned goods and hauled tables for barricades.
Still, being a former sergeant experienced in blackout conditions, he raised a valid concern.
“The gunfire was insanely loud. We burned corpses too. Won't monsters or other mages come investigate?”
The pastor's answer was brief.
“Would you rather go back to Jangji Station?”
Immediately, all of us remembered the filth.
The bloodstains.
The Degenerative Cell Colony.
And we collectively shut up.
If something showed up, we'd just kill it.
Simple.
As for night watch—
We abandoned rock-paper-scissors entirely and simply handed first watch to Shin Nain.
“The trust you place in me must surely be another blessing from the Lord.”
“Hawk. Ptui.”
I'd rather swallow my pride than play rock-paper-scissors against a mind reader.
****
That wasn't all.
Since we planned to continue exploring the strange area around the department store, we needed clear objectives.
Gathered behind the barricade, we spread out the map of Seoul Hamza had brought.
Several red circles had been marked on it.
During previous attempts to establish radio contact with survivors, the military had narrowed down approximate locations through intercepted communications.
The positions weren't particularly precise.
Still, Hamza knew the information well because his Doctrine-Type Magic frequently brought him into contact with military headquarters.
Five red circles.
He pointed at them one by one.
“Nowon District. Very dangerous. If we go carelessly, we die.”
That was where the professor's voice had been heard.
During radio contact, the individual had displayed intense hatred toward outsiders.
Already, they were believed to be far stronger than the Seoul Mage we had just killed.
Nowon, located in northeastern Seoul, was immediately excluded.
Next came Gangnam.
Hamza frowned again.
“Gangnam. Surviving long enough to establish contact there is a miracle. Extremely dangerous.”
“That was the most hostile group, right?”
“Yes. Maybe even more dangerous than the professor in Nowon.”
Despite being farther from Bukhansan—the apparent source of the fog—Gangnam's dense population seemed to have produced something terrifying.
It was also believed to house the mysterious fourth mage.
The one who wore a gas mask, concealed their face, and deliberately removed name tags to hide identities.
A mage who survived in the most dangerous area while wielding one of the most dangerous forms of magic.
Not someone the newly arrived Supreme Mages could challenge.
Next came Yongsan.
“Also dangerous.”
The pastor narrowed his eyes.
“Who's there?”
“The woman who negotiated with the military.”
According to Hamza, it was impossible to determine whether the danger came from the woman herself or the monsters surrounding Yongsan Station.
Still, it seemed slightly less dangerous than Nowon or Gangnam.
Next came the location of the crying man who had been heard during the first military contact.
Dobong District.
Near Bukhansan.
The birthplace of the fog.
“That guy's dead.”
“Amen. May he have attended church.”
If we went there in our current state, we'd be wiped out.
The odds of that man surviving approached zero.
Finally, Hamza pointed toward the location believed to house the military's most cooperative survivor.
A woman named Goryeoha.
“Konkuk University?”
“Wow. Good school.”
“Still dangerous.”
Hamza's Doctrine-Type Magic, [Angel's Intuition], really was absurd.
He could practically point at a location and determine whether it was dangerous.
The problem was that every place inside Seoul was apparently dangerous.
“There isn't anywhere safe?”
“No.”
“Fuuuck...”
As the pastor sighed, our destination became clearer.
From the department store on the outskirts of Songpa...
To Konkuk University.
Baek Jemin.
Hamza.
Shin Nain.
Lee Sejun.
Pastor Park Yohan.
The five of us looked at one another.
And instinctively knew our journey would not be an easy one.
We would have to cross the Han River.