Two days to Busan.
I went with Jang Hyundeok to the Osan Industrial Complex north of Bongilcheon.
“Coming in this far without a car is a pain.”
Clinging on my back, Jang Hyundeok looked around with a spooked expression.
It isn’t one of those special Paju zones where just visiting risks your life, but it’s not exactly a place for decent Paju citizens to stroll in and out.
“Who’s going to come bite you? Come on.”
A neighborhood stuffed with every kind of company and small factory, plus some very particular kinds of infrastructure.
Because of a few services offered here, lots of shady people with varied backgrounds tend to loiter.
“They might bite. See over there?”
He whispered from where he hung on my back.
Figures with peculiar bodies, day-drinking in front of a convenience store set on an industrial-park side street.
No—people?
At a glance they look human, but their proportions are subtly off.
Canines jut through pierced lips; tumors bulge unnaturally over their bodies; a mouth that’s been mouthing nothing spits a thick, black mucus with a hwet.
Not monsters.
They’re people whose bodies were damaged by Cthulhu-mythos contamination or excessive mana—manifestations of ability that even altered their outward appearance. Treating them with suspicion just for looking different would be prejudice.
Jang Hyundeok isn’t wary because of their looks anyway. It’s the uniform: sharp black outfits, and a jet-black feather brooch on their collars.
“Rooks.”
Mutant criminals from Waste Alley commonly called Rooks.
They almost never come out beyond Gwangtan, and yet here they were, plain as day, in broad daylight...
“I hear the Black King’s in a bad mood.”
“Why is she in a ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) bad mood again?”
Still whispering, still hissing against the back of my neck, Jang Hyundeok clung tighter.
“Hey, back up. You’re hot, man.”
I pushed, he stuck.
“C’mon, this is all because of you, Mage!”
“Hm.”
I know the reason.
Go a little east from here and you hit Gwangtan.
The Black King thinks Gwangtan is her turf, so she probably considers the Osan Industrial Complex her extended front yard.
But Madame Yeom Geumja of the Bongilcheon faction has been growing her power and took issue with that idea.
“Fuck. Why is this your turf?” she said—and started inching into the industrial complex.
“Mm. The atmosphere’s not great.”
No overt fighting yet, but the Black King likely scattered the Rooks as a message equivalent to, “Sis, you wanna get wrecked?”
“That’s not all. Among the people you hurt this time—Black King’s on the list.”
Most of the back-alley criminals Mannse Ilwon Church dragged to Buyeo... are connected to the Black King.
“Hah. That’s a bit unfair.”
I didn’t kill anyone in Buyeo.
Yang Seoho beat them all to death.
Ah, [Laughing One].
That thing probably ate a few...
Come to think of it, Rhino—the fixer Curtain Call wrecked in Sokcho recently—was basically the Black King’s doted-on kid brother.
“You saw the videos, right? They put every last death and injury from that day on you.”
Folks, you’ve seen it, haven’t you?
That’s rumor for you.
“If Black King hears you showed up here... there’ll be another blowup for sure. You’re not trying to make friends with her too, are you?”
“Ugh, not with the Black King.”
Honestly, she’s not the type I can handle. I waved it off and said, confidently:
“No one’s going to recognize me right now anyway.”
Today I wore the [Infy Mask].
People know “Kim Sinhwa is a masked mage,” so if I project a human face over the mask I can move freely.
“Mm, that face is its own kind of attention-grabber, though.”
Jang Hyundeok studied my face with a curious look.
With my charm stat too high, the face gets set a little too handsome—another problem.
“Whatever—as long as it isn’t Kim Sinhwa.”
“That’s true, but...”
We chatted like that while we visited a shop on the edge of the industrial park.
“We combined the parts you provided to reinforce it in a scarab configuration, and swapped the turbo unit to a V7.”
“V7? No compatibility issues? My Bboong-bboong’s console was WIZ-4.”
“Right, I know you usually prefer Swordfish-series from that maker, but from a stability standpoint this is much better. I’ll show you the monitoring data.”
“My Bboong-bboong’s based on the basic frame the Transport Union provides, so I’m worried... Ah, not bad.”
Jang Hyundeok made a surprised face at the graphs the mechanic pulled up.
“See? Now that we replaced the exterior with a Guard Coat from Yeonam Industry, the V7’s the better choice.”
Jang Hyundeok nodded, satisfied.
“But torque dips a bit here. Can you clean this up?”
“Huh? No way. Where do you see that?”
“No, right here. The added barrier’s probably interfering. Lower the resistance a touch.”
He told me not to meddle because cars are his specialty, and yet—unexpectedly capable.
“Uh—this is... It’s a mana-stone unit, so not on the spot... I’d have to call in the enhancer I work with, so tomorrow—could you wait just a bit?”
The mechanic looked flustered, wearing a troubled expression.
Jang Hyundeok scratched his head and glanced at me.
“What’s the issue?”
“Right—Mage, can you tweak this?”
“Uh... Are you a mage, sir?”
“Mm, technically.”
The mechanic pointed at one side of the vehicle.
“Here—the barrier emitter you attached to the back seat? This...”
He and Jang Hyundeok continued explaining.
I had hijacked a weaponized truck from the Foreigners Administration this time—the very mobile prison that held Dok Go Gyeom.
We were transplanting equipment from that truck into Jang Hyundeok’s vehicle.
An engine with outputs not permitted to civilians, a booster powered by mana-stone, high-caliber weapons rare even in this world, and a barrier system strong enough to hold Dok Go Gyeom—who doubled as a mobile prison.
That’s why we’d come to a shop in a dicey area rather than the factory shop Hyundeok usually uses.
And finding a mechanic with the guts to touch Foreigners Administration hardware is not easy either.
After hearing them out, I nodded.
“So the mana output from the barrier unit is reducing the booster’s efficiency, right? That it?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“And we just need to tune the shielding in this section?”
“Right. See the line tied into the mana-stone here? You have to be able to handle magic to adjust it.”
They were throwing around proper nouns that never even appeared in the game, so for a moment I wondered what the hell—turns out it’s simple.
With a small gesture I moved the mana—and hundreds of circuits shifted shape in unison.
“Hey, hey, hey! You can’t just change things wholesale like that!”
The mechanic yelped.
“Fire that monitor back up or whatever you call it.”
The mechanic looked at Jang Hyundeok with a really? face.
I don’t know machines, but if the issue is magical, it’s simple.
I didn’t just tweak the barrier’s shielding; I boosted magical efficiency and, while I was at it, improved the booster’s performance.
Having watched me long enough, Jang Hyundeok looked at me with deep trust...
“Mage, you can’t just change stuff you don’t even understand! Honestly, you’re impossible.”
“...”
“Yahaaa!”
Jang Hyundeok’s whoop.
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!!
The call van’s engine roared like it would burst.
“Mage! This is incredible!”
Skeptical even after seeing the monitor, he finally turned to me beaming with pure delight.
“Like it?”
“Oh, absolutely.”
With a rising VROOOOM, the call van accelerated even harder.
I don’t have a car fetish, so I can’t fully relate, but judging by his reaction we did well.
“But what the hell are we doing in Busan that needed a monster mod like this? The data earlier showed...”
It wasn’t just a booster and engine swap.
Now his call van carries armor that can take a [Fireball] head-on, a ram module that can hurt a Shantak, a 5.5 mm gatling gun that fires 4,000 rounds per minute, and a mobile-prison barrier that could hold Dok Go Gyeom.
Cramming all that into a limited-size vehicle did mess with handling a bit, but that’s—
“I can totally cover it.”
—solved by Jang Hyundeok’s super driving skill.
“No, I mean what’s going to happen in Busan?”
“You know what a Shoggoth is?”
“I don’t.”
“You saw Yang Seoho, right?”
“Ugh... Even this won’t be enough to shake off Yang Seoho.”
“Of course not. But if your car shatters just because Yang Seoho passes nearby, you can’t go to Busan at all.”
“Horrifying.”
“And that’s not all. You watched the broadcast this morning?”
“Oh, the Cure press conference?”
It isn’t just the Foreigners Administration and Mannse Ilwon Church that are mad at me. The Black King, indirectly involved, is annoyed—and—
“Cure Medical Care is furious.”
“Well, yeah. You declared they’re going to end the world.”
Cure released a statement that everything is Kim Sinhwa’s slander—and vowed a hardline response, including legal options.
“By ‘legal options,’ do you mean they’ll sue?”
“Sue? How— they don’t even know my address.”
Behind Cure Medical Care stands the [Source of Life].
Meaning, the moment I go down to Busan, Cure Medical Care will be there to greet me.
“At minimum, they’ll send an assassin or two. That Kid the—what’s-his-name who latched onto Park Gwangrim last time will come, too.”
“Kid the—? That’s his name?”
“No, a nickname. Mm, what was it?”
Why can’t I remember? Weird. I managed to dredge it up.
“Ah, Kid the Gunman. Blank for a second.”
“Since when do you forget things?”
“Right? Uh... tch.”
Forget something? As if.
Thanks to my intelligence stat, I can’t forget proper nouns once I’ve heard them.
I’ve pretended to forget as a joke, or brushed things off because I couldn’t be bothered, but I’ve never forgotten the name or ability of an NPC from [Cthulhu World].
No—that’s not quite true. There’s exactly one scenario where this happens...
“Hyundeok.”
“Yeah?”
“Call Park Gwangrim and ask about Kid the—what was it?”
“Gunman?”
“Right. That guy. Find out everything he is and everything he can do. I’ll give you Park Gwangrim’s number.”
“Why don’t you just ask—”
“No—once you learn it, don’t tell me now. Wait till we’re home—till I’m settled and comfortable.”
If I hear a stray word here and get triggered and trash the car, that’s a problem.
Hyundeok has no way to know the reason, but he nodded like, there he goes again saying something odd.
“Uh, do I call now? We’re almost there.”
“Mm—then don’t forget. Seriously—make sure you do it. Got it?”
“Mage, you’re cold sweating.”
“No, I’m totally—completely—fine.”
“Mm. Okay.”
The call van eased off the speed and started up a hill.
“There was a road here the other day. Now it’s gone.”
Until recently, there was a road.
But as if the past were a lie, the road had become a swampy, toxic forest; trees grown on all sides thrust branches like hands to grab us.
crick-crack—crack—crick-crack
Snapping branches as it pushed forward, the call van didn’t stop.
It had been broad daylight, yet gloom had crept in all around us.
With the darkness came a sinister, creeping violet glow.
The Osan Industrial Complex we’d been in earlier is dangerous, yes—but still within human bounds.
This place, though, is a land seeded with a form of danger humans can’t comprehend.
One of Paju’s ongoing anomalies—a death forest that grows endlessly, expanding its domain.
Tanhyeon, of course.
I pointed at a massive rock face.
“Yeah. We’re here. Park it up ahead.”
A grotesque cliff smothered in nauseous green moss and unpleasant purple mold. And welded smack in the middle of it, an absurdly large steel door.
The entrance to the underground air-raid shelter Cheongho used to own.
A paranoid madman’s bolthole against the end of the world—hideout and prison both.
And where the [Laughing One] seeped in from the dark and killed Cheongho.
“You okay?”
Jang Hyundeok looked at me, concerned.
“I’m fine. We’re just here to talk.”
I locked Dok Go Gyeom up in there.
