“While Kim Sinhwa was on the call with Tudor, the sky above Paju City was so dark that not even the moon could pierce the clouds. Yet the downtown buildings still blazed with neon, making it easy enough to pick out shapes. What really obscured vision, though, was the torrential rain that had been hammering down all day.
“What on earth is happening?” asked Jun, clutching binoculars and wearing a city-combat camo poncho. Even in this deluge, he hung solidly from the side of a building. He was one of the special assault cultists sent by Hyiin from the Hwang-Wang-Gang-Nim Prayer Assembly.
‘Do not approach until the cause is identified.’ That had been Hyiin’s order—otherwise Jun would have been swept into that frenzied mass below.
That mass—
Kwaaaah—
A white call van tore down a street flooded up to the waist, dozens of figures clinging to its sides.
“Gyaaaargh!”
“Kreeeeek!!”
Like drowned ghosts, they clawed at the murky water mixing every bit of filth swept through Paju’s streets. Soaked head to toe in that sludge, they fought with desperate strength to latch on to the van.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
From the soaked windows, they hammered on the bodywork, voices shrill:
“Please open the doors! Please! Open the doors!”
“Take me with you!”
“I love you! I love you! I love you to death!”
“Please eat me!”
“I want to become one with you!”
Their cries alone threatened to shatter one’s sanity. These were Evangelism Team 1 from the Hwang-Wang-Gang-Nim Prayer Assembly—and the reckless Evangelism Team 2 who had tried to close in on the target.
“Is that... some kind of supernatural power? When a mesmerism ritual in the Mind-Soul category goes berserk, does it look like this?” mused Jun. Cultists active in Paju were generally brainwashed by shamanic rites, their faith in the [Yellow-Clad King] so strong they’d lay down their lives. But to break through that conditioning and enthrall others... it was unheard of. If only Kim Sinhwa or Hyiin were here, they could analyze it. Both were still making their way to this spot.
“Hyo (효), what are you staring at?” Jun’s comrade called.
“Nothing—just... do you smell something weird in this rain?” replied Hyo, scanning the soaked streets.
“Huh? In this downpour? Look over there!” Hyo signaled to teammates positioned elsewhere. Even in this flood, other cultists chased the call van, running along the building’s exterior walls.
“So the target’s name is Jang Hyun-deok—or is it Heo Sang-hyeon?” Jun muttered.
“Does it matter? He’s the target,” Hyo said coolly.
Jun flipped on his radio. “Target vehicle has fallen into the Gongneung Stream.”
Inside the van, Jang Hyun-deok felt the world spin into chaos. The vehicle flipped—no, gravity itself had twisted. As a professional driver, he sensed immediately something was very, very wrong.
“Aaah—Gongneung Stream!” he groaned. That waterway ran between Geumchon-dong, where Vasiliisa was based, and Jangmyeong-san, where Kim Sinhwa lived. His precious, custom-armored van—armored glass, special alloy—had plunged into the torrent.
‘Oh, God. I’m dead,’ he thought, letting go of the wheel. The van, inverted at a strange angle, spun in the current and was swept downstream.
“Bboong-bboong-ah... if I’d known, I should’ve installed an oxygen tank...” Jang Hyun-deok groaned. His modified “Bboong-bboong” van had resisted powered cultist attacks so far—submerging had never been part of the plan.
‘What kind of crazy taxi driver adds a submarine feature to their car?’ he scoffed. The cabin held off the flood for now, but without air, he wouldn’t last long.
“What did I do to deserve this?” he moaned. He’d fled ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) that eerie mansion because Hyiin’s presence and the place’s sinister air drove him to terror. He should have stayed put—and maybe even left Paju entirely instead of running to Ansan City. But fear, confusion, madness, and a pounding headache overwhelmed him. He hated the thought that if he left Paju, Kim Sinhwa would never find him. So he’d made the worst choice.
“Mage... please!” For a full day he’d been circling between Geumchon-dong and Jangmyeong-san, praying for Kim Sinhwa’s rescue. If only his pursuer had been only one person, this might not be so bad. But from the mansion he’d escaped into the arms of those same fanatics he’d met at the tavern—and they, too, had charged him with crazed screams.
“Ugh!” He shut his eyes, hands over his ears as their maniacal yells echoed in his mind:
“Eat me! Eat me!”
“I love you! I love you!”
“Let me become one with you!”
It was like a zombie horde attack. “I’m going to die... which is better: their hands or drowning?” he wondered, pulling a hidden pistol from the left side of the driver’s seat.
The barrel inched toward his own temple.
“Goodbye, wretched world. Goodbye, filthy bastards. Goodbye, mage. Goodbye, siblings...”
Then he remembered the gift on his dashboard—an odd origami and a letter with a crooked heart seal. And the pill bottle under the passenger seat: Nirvana? Had that Owl of Inspiration dropped it?
Kraang! He struck the steering wheel with his gun-hand. “I’m not going to die this way!” He gulped down the Nirvana pill—supposed to suppress madness and panic—and vowed to earn enough money to leave this hellish town with his siblings.
“Bboong-bboong-ah, hold on! Mage will come! He will!” he shouted.
Above, Jun tracked the sunken van through his binoculars. The van lay submerged in the mud-tinted stream, but Jun knew exactly where.
“Those lunatics!” Jun hissed as over sixty cultists plunged into the water, screaming:
“I love you to death!”
“I love you! I love you!”
“Hyun-nim! Hyun-nim! Hyun-nim!”
Like lemmings, they dove from the bank. Though many drifted away in the current, the others hauled the van toward shore with bare hands, still shrieking in ecstasy.
“Open the doors! Open the doors!”
“Eat me! Eat me!”
“I love you! Let me be one with you!”
Panic would have frozen anyone—but Nirvana worked. As soon as Jang Hyun-deok realized he could still drive, he hit the accelerator.
Rrrroooaaarrr!
He’d survived the worst, but nothing else had changed. Dozens of fanatics clung to the van, howling. The armored glass and special alloy would only hold out so long.
Screeeech— Someone produced a brutal laser cutter—an ex-enforcer turned cultist? Kraack! Kraack! At last the armored glass splintered.
“Aaah! Get away! Get away!” Jang Hyun-deok fired wildly, unable to aim at anyone.
“Eat me!” “Eat me!” “I love you!” “Let me be one with you!”
The moment he revealed himself, every cultist watching from nearby rooftops and walls changed. “How fragrant!” “Truly, most fragrant!” “I, too, wish to become one with you!” They leapt toward the chaos.
Hundreds surged in a single tide. “Me too! Me too! Eat me!” “Eat me! Eat me!” “I love you! Let me be one with you!”
Kraaaaash! Kraaaaash! Eventually the van crashed into a large tree and stopped. Dozens of hands reached for Jang Hyun-deok.
“Rejoice! The Savior has come!”
“All hail the multitudes!”
They chanted as they dragged him from the van. More than a hundred wanted nothing more than to touch him, feel his skin, kiss him.
“Aaaargh! Mage! Mage!” Jang Hyun-deok screamed.
“If real churchgoers heard your song, they’d be disgusted, you maniacs.” A familiar voice rang from above.
“Saaaave me! Mage! Mage!” Jang Hyun-deok wailed to the sky—and Kim Sinhwa answered.
“Alright, you fool. It’s me.”
He’d have died if left like that. How could a single mess go so catastrophically wrong?
Kim Sinhwa carefully wove his mana into a spell.
[Great Whirlwind]
Kwaaaaaah—
A colossal vortex roared to life around Jang Hyun-deok.
“Arrgh!” “Gyaaaargh!” “I love you! I love you!”
Cultists were flung from the whirlwind. At the center, Jang Hyun-deok rocketed skyward at dizzying speed.
“Mage! Mage!” he sobbed, tears streaming down his face.
“Don’t call me on a rainy day, you idiot. If I catch a cold, you’re paying.” Kim Sinhwa scolded gently. “You know I have [Disease Vulnerability], right? It’s not my fault it’s raining, but I didn’t expect you to suffer so long out here.”
Below, the drenched cultists still raved:
“Hyun-nim ascends! He is a god!”
“I love you! I love you!”
“Return to us! Return to us!”
“Hyun-nim! Hyun-nim!”
Kim Sinhwa drew the soaked Jang Hyun-deok into the boundary of his distortion field and said, “A rake’s a rake, but how many beds have you hopped in this short time?”
“Mage! Mage!” Jang Hyun-deok whimpered.
“... Huh? Why do your eyes look like that? Have you been taking those pills? You’re not in a good state.” Fortunately, Jang Hyun-deok’s choice to come here was smart. He’d wandered right into the barrier Kim Sinhwa had set, making him easy to locate.
“Give him up! Give him up!” The cultists howled, forming a human tower to reach Kim Sinhwa.
“Heavens, this is dizzying.” Kim Sinhwa scratched his head. Even if Jang Hyun-deok fled again, they’d trace him—but today he had too powerful a handicap.
[Disease Vulnerability]
The reminder flashed on his UI—and annoyed him.
‘So this is just a little taste of what you’ll endure for a while, huh?’ Kim Sinhwa thought as he floated Jang Hyun-deok in midair and descended.
He was used to challenges like this. “Alright. Let’s try an incineration mode.”
