Chapter 50

Local Survivors

After seeing the Skin Jellyfish swarm, we decided to leave the main road and travel through side streets instead.

Even if that increased the risk of an ambush, avoiding detection by the Skin Jellyfish descending from the sky took priority.

There was also the issue of ammunition.

After tallying up every round we'd fired and every round recovered from fallen soldiers, we estimated we had roughly 2,400 rounds remaining.

Of course, that was plenty for five people.

The problem was that it felt woefully inadequate for a group of Archmages trying to break through Seoul in 2028.

We had to avoid unnecessary fights.

I had come here to learn magic, not exterminate monsters.

The only one who seemed disappointed was Shin Na-in.

This lunatic had trembled before the unidentified monster with the pale yellow gaze, yet in front of the Skin Jellyfish swarm she showed no fear whatsoever.

I could tell from the way her breathing grew heavier inside her gas mask.

"May every one of them be cast into hellfire and reduced to pure ash."

Normally I would've told her that was a disturbingly violent prayer, but I let it slide.

After all, the two of us shared the same concern.

Only Shin Na-in and I understood the significance of the word eternity that Father Jeong Yong-hwan had repeated after becoming a monster.

We didn't know if that was truly what it meant.

But once your thoughts reached the worst possible conclusion, it was difficult to let go.

What if those faces staring down from the Skin Jellyfish above the roads...

...were still alive and capable of thought?

Then they would effectively possess immortality, unable to die unless someone killed them.

People who claimed that life was worth clinging to no matter how miserable it became might want to consider becoming monsters.

Personally, I preferred living freely as myself.

That kind of immortality held no appeal.

Apparently I wasn't alone.

Lee Se-jun shuddered.

Hamza shook his head vigorously, trying to dispel the thought.

"Ugh. The fact that the human eyeballs are still attached makes it pure horror."

"I think I could finally afford to live in Seoul now. Property prices are going to crash."

Pastor Park Yo-han hid behind a pile of concrete rubble and cautiously peeked at the Skin Jellyfish swarm.

"Forget property prices... There haven't been any reports of monsters like that near the front lines. Do they not leave Seoul? Or are they recent?"

"Either way, let's keep moving."

I patted the pastor's shoulder and pointed toward an alley branching off from the intersection.

Though calling it an alley was generous.

It was still wide enough for two lanes of traffic.

As a country boy from Gyeonggi Province, my definition of an alley was somewhere two people could barely squeeze past each other.

Even the alleys in Seoul were oversized.

Fortunately, the Skin Jellyfish didn't approach us.

Watching the one that had attacked the drone flap its leathery body like an actual jellyfish to regain altitude suggested they weren't particularly fast except when attacking.

Or perhaps they'd already realized we were mages and preferred not to approach.

Just as the Amalgams had feared my Eye Magic.

We continued our detour while constantly monitoring the swarm.

Visibility: 200 meters.

Depending on the situation, either painfully short or remarkably long.

The Archmages advancing through the intersection and the Skin Jellyfish drifting low through the sky maintained a bizarre standoff.

Lee Se-jun kept his rifle aimed at them the entire time.

The pastor couldn't stop glancing upward either.

I understood exactly how they felt.

The Skin Jellyfish were staring back.

Perhaps they had realized I was watching them.

Every so often, it felt as though our gazes met.

The strips of human skin fluttered in the wind.

Empty hands and feet dangled limply.

The twisted faces embedded in the creatures seemed ready to burst their blood vessels as they stared at us.

"Damn, that's creepy."

"Huh?"

Hamza looked confused, so I gestured upward.

"Look at them all clustered together."

"Oh..."

"'Oh' what? Let's move."

The pastor didn't need to hurry us.

Our feet were already moving quickly.

The Skin Jellyfish didn't pursue us.

We didn't provoke them.

It was an uneasy truce between monsters and humans.

And everyone probably understood why.

Nobody said it aloud, but the answer was obvious.

The phone message:

[Non-mages are strictly prohibited from outdoor activity.]

When the fog was thick, mages could unleash powerful spells to repel monsters.

When the fog thinned, magic became harder to use—and other monsters emerged.

It was an environment designed to force people to learn magic if they wanted to survive.

Fortunately, all five of us were mages.

We could detect danger and avoid it before it struck.

To replace magic would require elite special forces armed with top-tier equipment and trained to an absurd degree.

The worrying part was that the Advance Clearing Unit and our group might have chosen different routes.

As soon as we'd put some distance between ourselves and the Skin Jellyfish, Shin Na-in tapped her headset.

"I think most of them probably headed toward Line 3. Toward Suseo. Since Line 3 cuts through most of Seoul, it would've made sense to establish a central base there and expand outward like branches."

"Then that's unfortunate."

The elite special forces would be punching through the hardest areas.

We were heading toward the route closest to Konkuk University.

Honestly, I trusted the special forces to manage without us.

Who knew?

Maybe one of them had become a mage too.

Besides, after checking the subway map, turning toward Line 3 now would mean taking an enormous detour to reach Konkuk University.

Absolutely not.

One unnecessary runaround in life was enough.

As we climbed in and out of shell craters, crossed intersections, and entered another residential street, we began seeing buildings that had survived relatively intact.

The pastor glanced around and shrugged.

"Looks like this used to be a villa district."

"The buildings are surprisingly clean."

"It's Seoul. Of course they're clean."

Some of them were almost completely undamaged.

The pastor and Shin Na-in tried to chalk it up to divine intervention, but Hamza coolly pointed out the actual reason.

"The artillery focused on the roads. They wanted to stop people from escaping."

"What nonsense. These were homes of believers, so the shells missed them! You can always tell a Christian neighborhood!"

"I guess the Skin Jellyfish are Christians too, then. That's why they weren't hit by artillery. Stop talking nonsense and let's go."

"Mr. Je-min, what kind of blasphemous nonsense are you spouting?!"

I seemed to be developing a talent for shutting down religious nonsense.

Listening to the pastor and Shin Na-in ramble about Satan and demons like a broken jukebox somehow dissolved all the tension.

Of course, that didn't mean the Archmages neglected their responsibilities.

Hamza, who had been watching the two with visible disappointment, suddenly sharpened his gaze.

Maybe being scared for so long had finally turned into determination.

His breathing grew rough inside the gas mask.

Then he started pointing.

The dark windows lining both sides of the road through the villa district.

Specific windows.

"Something feels dangerous."

Immediately, the atmosphere changed.

For all his flaws and personality issues, Hamza's detection ability was trustworthy.

Shin Na-in narrowed her eyes at the indicated buildings.

Then she slowly closed them.

"Two heads. Three spines."

Small fry.

As we adjusted our grips on our weapons, she added quickly:

"Five jellyfish incoming."

The moment she said it, the Archmages naturally shifted into combat formation.

Lee Se-jun, positioned in the center, lowered his stance and aimed toward the roadside buildings Hamza had identified.

The pastor moved beside him with his K2 rifle ready.

Hamza crouched in the middle, clutching his head.

I took responsibility for the sky.

Shin Na-in moved as my support, able to react instantly by reading my intentions.

A formation established without a single spoken command.

Kill. Monster. Five minutes. Route.

My taste buds split apart, and the metallic taste of blood flooded my mouth.

Red footprints appeared in the sky.

The Skin Jellyfish were smarter than I'd expected.

The footprints originated behind rooftops.

They understood blind spots.

People usually looked straight ahead or upward—not behind buildings.

The creatures had hidden themselves carefully behind rooftops before moving in for an ambush.

Some of the Skin Jellyfish from the swarm we'd encountered earlier might have followed us.

Unfortunately for them, an ambush only works when the target doesn't know it's coming.

Everything happened in an instant.

Before the red footprints reached us, my rifle was already aimed at the monsters overhead.

The Skin Jellyfish had already spread their bodies wide in preparation to swallow us whole. If I hadn't grown accustomed to monsters by now, the sight alone would've frozen me in terror.

The underside of the Skin Jellyfish was lined with suckers like those of squid, octopuses, or starfish.

Except these suckers were made from human lips.

And inside those leathery bodies, dozens of hollow human arms and legs writhed and dangled, waiting eagerly to seize a new victim and tear them apart.

Whether it was some twisted desire to drag others down with them or simply a monster's instinct, I didn't know.

Maybe people who loved communicating with wildlife and other species would hesitate.

I wasn't one of those people.

My human rights came before animal rights.

So I pulled the trigger without hesitation.

In the silence of Seoul, where monster moans served as ambient background noise, gunfire thundered through the villa district.

Spent brass bounced and rolled across cracked asphalt.

The sound was strangely refreshing.

Every one of us Archmages fired with gratitude.

Because we finally understood how much of a blessing it was to encounter monsters that could be killed with bullets.

A monster dies when you shoot it?

Could there be anything more wonderful?

Filled with appreciation, I swept my sights from target to target and generously distributed three or four rounds to each of the four Skin Jellyfish.

Their durability wasn't particularly impressive.

Beyond their disgusting appearance and preference for ambushes, they were perfectly killable if you were prepared.

All you had to do was predict their route ten seconds ahead of time, line up your sights, and shoot them.

Easy.

Well, aside from the screams that echoed from the torn human skin whenever bullets ripped through them.

That part was unpleasant.

As the Skin Jellyfish crashed to the ground, I stomped each one under my boots to make sure they stayed dead.

Four kills for me.

One for Shin Na-in.

Mentally noting that I'd tease her about the score later, I immediately swung my rifle toward the roadside.

Two Amalgams that looked like masses of dozens of fused humans were already preparing to split apart.

Lee Se-jun calmly targeted their legs to cripple their mobility.

The pastor simply fired away with the philosophy that eventually something would hit.

At the same time, Predatory Spines climbing along walls and power lines entered my field of vision.

Instead of firing, I bit my tongue lightly.

Modified Eye Magic — Stage 2.

My suffering is longer and greater than any before it.

Gunfire erupted again.

Shin Na-in dealt with the Predatory Spines.

Pale pink fluids, mixed with spinal fluid, poured from their shattered skulls.

The Amalgams never even managed to split.

Lead rounds buried themselves relentlessly into their heads, sending bodily fluids spraying everywhere.

Excellent.

Satisfied, I closed my eyes.

Blink.

"Area secure."

The Archmages continued forward without suffering another attack.

We occasionally heard distant moans and screams from monsters that seemed to have noticed us from beyond the fog's visibility range, but none dared approach any closer.

At Lee Se-jun's concise report, we immediately checked ammunition consumption.

Lee Se-jun had spent two magazines.

Shin Na-in had fired fifteen rounds.

I had fired twelve.

The pastor had emptied one magazine.

Everyone's combat ability had improved dramatically.

Between adapting to Seoul and surviving our fight against the Seoul Mage, we'd become noticeably stronger.

The most satisfying part was the ammunition efficiency.

"We used a lot less ammo."

"When we cleared the subway tracks, there were around a hundred monsters."

"What are you talking about? The firepower was spread among five people this time. We did well."

"Can we really call that fighting well? Our goals lie far beyond this, Mr. Je-min."

Shin Na-in's criticism immediately irritated me.

What was with these constant attacks against the Archmages?

Still, I decided to be patient.

The truth was, my pride was still a little wounded from the fight with the Seoul Mage.

It should've been five-versus-one.

Instead, somehow I felt like I had been the one fighting five opponents.

Who could've predicted the guy would literally implant Predatory Spines into his own body?

Regardless, that brief battle seemed to have made the surrounding monsters more cautious.

As we continued onward, a small park eventually came into view.

There was a playground inside.

Only bloodstains remained where children had once played.

A few pavilions stood abandoned nearby.

The sight made everyone strangely sentimental.

Instead of immediately moving on, we paused briefly to look around.

The pastor was the only one who voiced his thoughts.

"I wonder what happened to the kids..."

"They're probably eating well and living happily. Don't worry."

"...Lee Se-jun. Was that supposed to be comforting?"

"Huh? Yeah. Why?"

Listening to the exchange left me feeling conflicted.

Technically it was comforting.

In a way.

Kind of.

Just then—

Bzzz.

Without needing to say anything, everyone knew what it meant.

The black-and-blue phone vibrated again as I pulled it from my chest pocket.

A new message had arrived.

[Mage survivor group discovered in Songpa area. Wishes to establish contact. Meeting requested in basement of building to the right of the northern intersection beside the park.]

"Northern intersection of the park?"

For a message supposedly coming from Songpa, the location details were remarkably specific.

I glanced at Shin Na-in and Hamza.

Shin Na-in merely shrugged.

Apparently she hadn't detected anything yet.

Hamza only frowned.

Lee Se-jun replaced a magazine and scanned the surroundings.

The pastor folded his arms and thought for a moment.

Then he reached a conclusion.

"Looks like they're talking about us, doesn't it?"

"Pastor, they probably heard the gunfire. We fired nearly a hundred rounds. Anyone nearby would've noticed."

After hearing Shin Na-in's comment, the pastor adjusted his gas mask.

"Let's go."

Nobody answered immediately.

Our first encounter with a Seoul Mage had left too strong an impression.

But the pastor didn't change his mind.

"We still know too little about what Seoul has become. Even if it's not Goryeoha, if we have a chance to meet another friendly mage, we can't hesitate."

That was the decision of the Archmages.

April 17, 2028 — 12:13 PM

Leaving behind distant artillery fire, monster moans, and faint screams, we arrived at the entrance to an underground parking garage beneath a large villa building.

At first glance, nothing seemed unusual.

But any mage would have immediately noticed the signs.

Bloody handprints stained the walls near the entrance.

As the owner of Stage-Two Hand Magic, I recognized them instantly.

"Stage-One Hand Magic. Right-hand blood used for repelling monsters."

The pastor surveyed the area and nodded.

"So this is how they guard their entrances. From now on, we should assume places with deliberate blood markings are survivor shelters."

"Either Stage-One Hand Magic is more common than we thought, or it's extremely valuable."

For some reason, Lee Se-jun's comment made me puff out my chest slightly.

As we descended toward the underground entrance, a thought slipped out.

"Isn't this our first real local survivor?"

"The Dubai Chewy Witch was a local survivor too."

"That doesn't count."

Shin Na-in's ridiculous response annoyed me.

Then the pastor immediately silenced me.

"Don't say that. What if it's trendy in Seoul for everyone to raise Predatory Spines in their spines?"

Once again, I was reminded how difficult cultural relativism could be.

Eventually we stopped before a lowered shutter.

While Lee Se-jun covered the rear, I looked at Hamza and Shin Na-in.

Neither seemed particularly concerned.

"Not dangerous."

"They're human. No hostile intent."

Safety first.

Only after confirming that did I knock loudly against the shutter.

"Anybody there?"

Footsteps approached from the other side.

A hoarse voice answered.

"You the ones?"

Despite the strange question, I answered calmly.

"Yes."

"What do you mean 'yes'?"

"If I said no, you wouldn't let us in."

"Hmm. Judging by that excuse, you're probably not monsters."

The shutter rattled upward.

A wave of stale odor rolled out.

The figure behind it was filthy.

At first glance I thought it was a man.

It wasn't.

She was a woman in her early thirties, wearing a grease-stained padded jacket.

Tall.

Broad-shouldered.

A slightly squared jaw.

The kind of build that made you hesitate before calling her "ma'am."

The moment she saw us, she frowned.

"Heard gunfire. You deserters?"

"No. We're civilians."

"Looking like that?"

We all glanced down at ourselves.

Military ponchos.

Combat gear.

Rifles.

Grenades packed into our vests.

Gas masks.

The picture of ordinary civilians.

"Ma'am, this is just how people outside Seoul dress these days."

The moment she heard outside Seoul, her expression changed.

Not hatred.

Something closer to desperate hope.

She chewed on her lower lip for a moment before gesturing us inside.

"Come in. Tell me what's happening outside. I'll tell you what's happening here. If we've got things the other needs, we can trade."

Even then, we hesitated.

What if she was secretly raising a Predatory Spine in her back too?

Before anyone else could speak, Lee Se-jun bravely asked first.

"Miss."

"You look old enough to be somebody's uncle. Don't call me 'Miss.'"

"Then... uh... you don't keep monsters growing out of your spine too, right?"

Click.

Hopefully nobody judged us too harshly for instinctively touching our weapons.

Our first contact with a Seoul Mage had left permanent scars.

Fortunately, the square-jawed woman simply rolled her eyes.

"People who do that are hardcore lunatics. Surprised you survived meeting one."

She clicked her tongue.

"I'm not that crazy. Just Hand Magic Stage One."

"Just?"

"You mean planting those spine-head monsters in your back? Not everyone can do that."

She studied us for a moment.

Then crossed her arms.

"So you really are from outside."

A faint smile touched her lips.

"Want to come in? I don't hate outsiders. If we can make a deal, let's make a deal."

April 17, 2028 — 12:29 PM

Day 3 of the Expedition

The Archmages made first contact with a local survivor who, while not Goryeoha, appeared willing to cooperate.