Chapter 8

Briefing by the (Competent) Republic of Korea Army

I, Baek Je-min.

In twenty-eight years of life, I can proudly say that I always gave my absolute best when it came to slacking off.

Who was it that filled out the entire CSAT answer sheet with a single pattern and then enjoyed a nice nap?

Me.

While everyone else staked their futures on scribbling answers with desperate concentration, I dozed off, treating the scratching sound of pens on paper as a lullaby while wandering through dreamland.

If my friends saw me now, diligently filling out a questionnaire amidst a room full of tension and urgency, they would finally understand what the end of the world looked like.

The cold sweat running down my back alone would have been enough evidence.

The atmosphere inside the first interview hall set up within Suwon City Hall was that serious.

People of every description sat filling out forms.

Even religious figures.

The questions were as follows.

[1. Please describe any Localized Invasive Structural Alteration phenomena you have caused, including any events that violated conventional physical laws or common sense.]

I spent a long time thinking about the first answer.

How much did the military actually know about magic?

Even I barely understood it.

Was it really wise to reveal the value of the magic I possessed?

I was effectively the first party revealing information.

Of course I was nervous.

But I didn't really have a choice.

Considering the fog had first appeared around late November of 2027, the government had probably spent nearly two months dealing with these monsters and strange phenomena.

I decided to treat it as the cost of accessing their information.

So I wrote:

[I can roughly see how an opponent will move approximately ten seconds into the future.]

The second question followed.

This one practically screamed filtering test.

[2. Please describe what role the characters provided by the military played in your ability to use magic, and explain how you were able to interpret them.]

The military clearly no longer doubted the usefulness of magic.

They definitely knew that the crooked symbols disguised as meaningless scribbles were directly connected to magical abilities.

If so, they'd probably already deduced that true awakening was only possible within the fog.

They'd probably also figured out that there wasn't necessarily a single correct interpretation.

If they hadn't managed to figure out even that much after two months, they wouldn't have survived this long.

I had very little faith in the Republic of Korea Army.

Still, I prayed they possessed at least that level of intelligence and answered accordingly.

[The awakening was only possible within the fog.]

Most of the remaining questions revolved around religion.

What religion did I believe in?

What were my views on the afterlife?

What did I think of established religions?

Had I ever visited fortune tellers?

Did I like tarot cards?

They asked everything.

I wasn't entirely convinced any of it was relevant to becoming a mage, but I answered anyway.

When everyone finished their questionnaires, the supervisor who had been silently observing blew a whistle.

Peeeeeeep—!

"Stop writing. Everyone may leave now. We'll take care of the questionnaires and writing utensils. Please return to the waiting area."

And just like that, the first interview ended.

***

After leaving the testing room masquerading as an interview hall, I followed Lieutenant Shin Han-gi to a break room.

The driver—a private first class who had apparently returned from smoking a cigarette—had thoughtfully prepared coffee beforehand.

"Attention! I made Maxim Mocha Gold, sir!"

"Mmm."

Lieutenant Shin accepted the paper cup with obvious satisfaction.

"Good. Let's both do our best."

"Yes, sir!"

Taking a sip, he pointed toward a sofa.

I accepted the coffee the driver handed me and sat down.

Slurp.

Only after the warm coffee slid down my throat did some of my tension finally begin to ease.

Lieutenant Shin raised an eyebrow and said,

"You'll probably pass the first interview without much trouble, Mr. Baek."

"Oh?"

"There are almost no recorded cases of people surviving encounters with monsters during night watch duty unless they're capable of using Localized Invasive Structural Alterations."

"Then why not just send me straight to the second interview?"

"Because times like these are exactly when things need to look like they're following procedure."

"The military isn't exactly known for following procedures."

"Haha."

Lieutenant Shin laughed.

"Maybe not. But we're experts at making things look procedural."

He grinned.

"Ever heard the saying? A fake done well enough becomes the real thing."

Then he jerked his chin toward the driver.

"You too. Sit down and have your coffee."

The driver immediately straightened.

"Yes, sir!"

"The bathrooms are probably crowded."

Lieutenant Shin casually pulled out his phone.

"Your phone battery's dead, right?"

The driver nodded.

"Use mine and call your parents."

"T-Thank you, sir!"

The private accepted the phone with trembling hands.

Watching him scurry into a corner to make his call, Lieutenant Shin and I quietly drank our coffee.

Eventually I spoke first.

"That monster."

Lieutenant Shin glanced toward the driver.

Then he sighed.

"You mean the one you saw?"

"Yeah."

"What does the military call it?"

For a moment he looked reluctant.

Then he answered.

"Amalgam."

"Amalgam?"

Like the dental filling material?

I stared at him in disbelief.

Lieutenant Shin let out a hollow laugh.

"It was the first monster officially discovered and classified within a Restricted Transit Zone."

He rubbed his forehead.

"Monster."

"Honestly, there's no better word for it."

Then he added,

"The official designation is Cephalic Fusion-Type Mimetic Beast."

I frowned.

"Keep talking."

The memory of that night flashed through my mind.

"Seriously. I almost fucking died because of that thing, and you're still trying to keep secrets."

Just remembering that they'd sent us out on night watch duty without explaining anything about those monsters made rage flare up inside me.

I wanted to unleash every curse I knew.

It seemed Lieutenant Shin sensed exactly how I felt.

He tapped his paper cup with a finger for a moment before finally giving up and explaining.

"That monster targets victims' heads and faces, trying to induce physical contact. The moment it touches you, you melt and fuse into it. Remember when I said it takes a full squad of eight or more soldiers laying down concentrated fire to repel one?"

"Yeah."

"Repel."

He emphasized the word.

"Not kill."

I noticed the driver's shoulders twitch, but neither Lieutenant Shin nor I acknowledged it.

"The fused head is the creature's true body. The rest of its physical form is considered a kind of auxiliary organ supporting its life functions."

He folded his arms.

"You can shoot the bodies of the absorbed victims to restrict its movement, but it uses those bodies as shields—or bait. It exploits normal human instincts, then rushes in and attempts fusion."

"Have you done an autopsy?"

"Even shooting the head doesn't accomplish much."

Lieutenant Shin shook his head.

"To completely eliminate it, we suspect you need to either incinerate it, rapidly freeze it, or expose it to enough radiation to kill every cell in the organism."

He laughed bitterly.

"It's so dangerous that recovering corpses has been prohibited."

Then his expression darkened further.

"And that's not even the worst part."

Crushing the empty paper cup in his hand, he frowned.

"It wasn't named a Mimetic Beast for nothing."

"It can imitate the voices of its victims."

A chill crawled down my spine.

"We don't know whether those voices are actually the victims' consciousnesses or just imitations created by the monster."

"The military stopped caring about the distinction a long time ago. Officially, they're all classified as the monster."

He paused.

"And sometimes it only has a single human-looking head."

The implications hit me immediately.

"It can pass as a civilian."

"Exactly."

For a while, neither of us spoke.

In other words—

A creature that horrifying had been roaming through Seoul's fog for nearly two months.

"How did you deal with them?"

"There was a response doctrine."

Lieutenant Shin answered readily.

"We'd use fire hydrants or extinguishers to lower its body temperature and slow its movements. Then we'd saturate the entire body with concentrated gunfire to limit its mobility before burning it."

He shrugged.

"We accepted a certain amount of collateral fire damage. Firefighters were deployed alongside military units."

I almost snapped back at him.

Then stopped.

Because I finally understood why the government had hidden everything.

If they had announced that monsters were wandering Seoul, eating people, the entire city would have collapsed into panic overnight.

Had the fog not begun spreading beyond Seoul, maintaining order in the provinces would have been much easier.

"I never saw one in person."

Lieutenant Shin stared into his coffee.

"Only the footage."

"It was fucking awful."

Then he pointed at me.

"But if you're officially confirmed as an Operations Specialist, you'll see plenty more."

"Ugh..."

"And remember?"

A grin appeared on his face.

"I said it was the first classified monster."

Lieutenant Shin smacked his lips and stared off into space.

"Currently, the military has officially identified three monster types—including the Amalgam—and established basic response doctrines against them."

Three.

I didn't like where this was going.

"As for the others..."

His voice lowered.

"There are at least ten more suspected types."

"No confirmed footage."

"No proper classification."

"Just witness testimony and circumstantial evidence."

"Motherfucker."

The curse escaped before I could stop it.

I drained the rest of my coffee and tossed the paper cup toward Lieutenant Shin's feet.

He sighed, picked it up, and threw it into the trash.

"If my parents don't get evacuated, you die and I die too, you bastards."

"Fair enough."

He grinned shamelessly.

"That's why we should cooperate."

***

Three hours later, the results of the first interview arrived.

January 7th, 2:56 p.m.

Under Lieutenant Shin's guidance, I was escorted deeper into Suwon City Hall.

Past multiple security checkpoints.

Past armed soldiers standing guard.

The destination was a situation room whose windows had all been covered with curtains.

Several dehumidifiers hummed constantly.

Inside were already gathered:

A Catholic priest in clerical robes.

An elderly pastor with deep wrinkles.

An old Buddhist monk in gray robes.

A foreigner who stubbornly refused to remove his turban even now.

A shaman wearing something resembling prayer beads around their neck.

And four soldiers in combat uniforms, including myself.

The room was packed with field-grade and company-grade officers.

One colonel whose name tag had been deliberately removed stepped forward.

***

"Ladies and gentlemen."

His eyes were bloodshot.

His skin looked exhausted.

The signs of prolonged sleep deprivation were impossible to miss.

"You now understand the nature of the greatest crisis since the founding of the Republic of Korea."

The room fell silent.

"The individuals gathered here have been identified by the Republic of Korea Armed Forces as possessing the ability to perform Localized Invasive Structural Alterations within the southern Gyeonggi region."

He glanced across the room.

"Based on the circumstances of your awakening and the practical utility of your abilities, the Armed Forces request your cooperation as members of a civilian advisory group."

The projector flickered to life.

A PowerPoint presentation appeared.

The sight alone made me grimace.

Even at the end of the world, military PowerPoint slides remained eternal.

As I sat down, several people glanced in my direction before turning back to the screen.

The colonel tapped the projection with a pointer.

"On November 24th, 2027, anomalous fog first appeared in northern Seoul near the Bukhansan region."

The timeline began.

His tone remained calm.

Which somehow made it worse.

"The first confirmed encounter with the creature now designated as the Amalgam occurred at 2:43 a.m. on December 3rd, 2027."

He clicked the next slide.

"Police responding to resident reports witnessed the entity directly."

"The government first became aware of the threat through footage showing the creature attempting to attack a police substation before fleeing after being startled by emergency sirens."

Another slide appeared.

"Beginning December 14th, the fog expanded rapidly."

"Once it became clear that existing police resources could no longer respond effectively, military units under the Capital Defense Command were deployed under the pretense of civilian volunteer operations."

The room remained completely silent.

"To prevent public panic, information was restricted."

"Simultaneously, personnel and material resources were repositioned, and consolidation sites were established."

The next slide displayed photographs of strange symbols.

"It was during this period that the characters associated with magic began to be discovered and collected through reports from civilians, soldiers, and police officers."

Another click.

Maps appeared.

Red dots covered them.

"At the same time, missing-person reports linked to the presumed activity of Amalgams increased dramatically."

The slides showed growing circles.

Expanding activity zones.

Clusters of disappearances.

The colonel continued.

"Our greatest concern is the Amalgam's activity patterns and victim selection."

He pointed to several highlighted regions.

"Amalgams appear most active between midnight and four in the morning."

"They favor alleyways, undeveloped areas, and locations suitable for ambush."

He paused.

"And their primary targets appear to be socially vulnerable individuals with weak support networks."

A collective unease spread through the room.

"Through cooperation with local volunteer organizations and community groups, the government estimates that the true number of disappearances exceeds six hundred forty."

The official count displayed on the slide was far lower.

Which made the real number even more disturbing.

"Specifically: six hundred forty-two."

He looked directly at us.

"This strongly suggests that the Amalgam is not merely an animal."

"It possesses sufficient intelligence to understand and infiltrate human society."

Nobody spoke.

Nobody moved.

Then the colonel advanced to the final section.

"At present, the Armed Forces' highest priority is the containment of Seoul."

Maps of Korea appeared.

Red zones surrounded the capital.

"Several northern cities near Seoul have been effectively abandoned."

"We are maintaining communications and administrative continuity through western coastal cities such as Incheon while conducting repeated reconnaissance missions into Seoul itself."

Another slide.

The symbols.

The fog.

The monsters.

"Our objectives remain the classification of these entities and the acquisition of additional magical characters."

The colonel set down his pointer.

"At this time, the Civilian Advisory Group may ask questions."

Nobody spoke.

Nobody even raised a hand.

I glanced toward Lieutenant Shin.

He noticed and gave me a helpless shrug.

A strained smile crossed his face.

The situation was...

Worse than I'd thought.