Cure Medical Care’s biotechnology lab consists of three buildings spread across a wide tract.
The entire site is a secret place requiring the highest security level from the outset, but even among those, there are several spaces more secret still.
The basement of the research wing.
Akiyama murmured as he stared at the emerald glow.
"Ah... marvelous. Ah—so very. Ahhh...."
A gigantic tank ten meters across and thirty meters tall. Inside it, emerald slime convected in a wet churn.
Creatures writhing within the slime reflected in Akiyama’s pupils, which shone green.
Bodies dark green, or transparent, or gray.
Unpleasant shapes resembling protists like amoebae, paramecia, and euglena.
In one sense they could be called familiar rather than new, but there was a fundamental, unmistakable difference.
Scale.
From at least fifty centimeters up to two meters.
Unlike protists you’d only see through a microscope, every strange life-form gliding through the tank was grotesquely large.
Bubble— bubble-bubble—
Even now they were growing at a visibly definite pace.
With both hands pressed to the tank, Akiyama’s face went slack with rapture.
"Ah, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. So very beautiful. Children that prove the existence of the [Source of Life]. How far can you grow? When you’re fully grown, how large will you be? Into what forms will you change?"
Rolling his eyes, Akiyama pictured himself swimming inside the tank.
A blissful, splendid, beautiful fantasy in which his body is broken down and dispersed within the slime—becoming slime that seethes and wriggles with no consciousness or thought at all. Will cilia and tendrils sprout from my flesh like that? Will my skin turn that transparent? Will my organs shine with a light that beautiful?
Bubble— bubble-bubble— bubble-bubble—
Akiyama slowly lost reason, slipping into an altered state.
Extreme meditation, or a hallucination, perhaps a derangement.
Within an ecstasy that seemed endless, he sniffed, licked, and tasted the message the bubbling slime expressed to him.
"Ah, I hear it. I see it. More—let me feel more."
A synesthetic message transmitted not just through hearing or sight but through all five senses.
"Kim... Sinhwa? Ah, you mean that blasphemous, cowardly, wicked, horrific monster? Ah... I understand the meaning. Wound him, make him bleed? I’ve already summoned monsters. They’re moving to break him, to ruin him."
Akiyama whispered in delight.
"Not enough? It isn’t enough? It’s lacking. Understood. However, the Mannse Ilwon Church that serves the [Viceroy], the [Lord of the Border], refused my proposal. Duped by that wretch Kim Sinhwa’s sowing of discord, they have foolishly chosen to make an enemy of the [Source of Life], the [Source of Taint], the [Great Source]."
Bubble— bubble-bubble— bubble-bubble—
Akiyama begged with all his heart, but the bubbling slime granted no grace and no gift.
It only demanded—and told him what he would gain if he fulfilled that demand.
"And soon an offering will be prepared for you. Soon, a gift sent by the peoples of the sea will reach this city’s port. That—and blood! Blood I can prepare in any amount. Once they awaken to your love, everyone will gladly spill their blood for you."
Bubble-bubble— bubble— bubble-bubble—
The slime bubbled in satisfaction.
Akiyama again sank into the delusion of becoming a protist and swimming within the slime. It was such a happy, joyful time. He wanted so dearly to fulfill this precious wish.
"Hehehehehe... heheh...."
Drunk on his own fantasy, Akiyama let out a grotesque laugh, then withdrew from the tank with a feeling of near-tearing regret and sorrow.
"Ah, but I can’t live only for myself...."
He wanted to share this perfect, splendid dream with all humanity he loved in this world.
An altruistic, devoted wish for all humankind.
He could sacrifice everything he had to bring about a future where all humanity love one another in the embrace of the splendid, perfect [Source of Life], love themselves, and receive the love of the great [Source of Life].
"Love."
To share it with all humankind, he first had to kill Kim Sinhwa.
Akiyama picked up an internal lab phone and contacted several people within the research wing.
He needed more help.
Vrooooooooom!
Armored vehicles tore down the road with savage momentum.
Modified pickup trucks.
Exteriors reinforced with mana-stone boosters and steel plating.
Gunners in the beds blazing away with submachine guns, bare-handed.
It was a common enough sight in Paju, but in Busan—where order was usually firm—this level of lawlessness hadn’t shown itself in a long time.
WEE-OO WEE-OO—
Police from the Busan Special Autonomous City chased them with sirens screaming.
"Pull over! Pull over!"
Vrooooooooom!
But instead of slowing, the fleeing vehicles chose something else.
"Hahahahaha! Fine—let’s have a proper fight!"
The gunner firing from the modified pickup’s bed flung off the poncho that had been draped over the cargo.
Flap—
"Whoa—!?"
A riot officer’s face went slack.
The massive object in the bed was a mortar—a piece smuggled in from a nation ruined by a Cthulhu-mythos-style catastrophe.
You could pick one up cheap if you beat the pavement at Busan International Market.
"Shoot!"
A flash and a bang. A blast wave bloomed in every direction.
And a shell arced away, trailing a long tail.
"Uwaaaah!"
With a squeal of brakes, the squad cars scattered left and right, but it wasn’t the right response.
KRA-KA-BOOM!
An explosion?
No—what is that? A person? No, how could a person—
"It’s Yang Seoho!"
With a thunderclap, Yang Seoho flew in and caught the shell the mortar had lobbed—out of the air.
Staring at the little rocketlike round in her hand, Yang Seoho muttered:
"Does this one explode?"
It explodes.
"Great, more ‘monster’ talk for me."
She hugged the shell to her chest the instant she landed.
KA-BOOM!
It blew in her arms. Flame wrapped her, but she came away only lightly singed. No real damage.
Vroooooooom!
Police cars roared past her.
"Move."
No—doubt they heard.
Pop!
With a bang of exploding air, Yang Seoho shot into the sky.
Fssssssss—
A massive shock front rolled out from her movement.
Screeeeeeech!
"Uwaaaah!"
"Oh my God!"
Several vehicles caught in the blast nearly flipped.
"Wh-what the hell!?"
One of the criminals mid-rampage blurted in panic.
Yang Seoho, who had been behind them, had just jumped—no, thundered—forward ahead of them in a swirl of thunder and lightning?!
She raised one hand lightly toward the thirteen armored vehicles charging in.
A gesture like a signal to halt?
"M—madwoman! It’s Yang Seoho! Yang Seoho!"
"J-just run her down!"
"She’s still human!"
Wrong call.
"How much strength do I need to bleed off?"
Thinking that, she swept the raised hand down, palm open, from top to bottom.
Like fanning the air.
WHOOOOM—
The air caught in her palm couldn’t withstand the absurd force—it screamed an awful note.
Rrrrrrrrrumble!
A vehicle struck by the invisible shock wave shattered and flipped in an instant.
KA-BOOOOM!
An explosion.
"Crumbly. Push this wrong and I’ll kill them all again."
It would be nice if they stopped and surrendered even now, but shocked senseless by the absurdity, the criminals didn’t stop—they gunned straight for her.
"Uwaaaah!"
Howling, they hosed submachine-gun fire.
Swish—
Yang Seoho’s figure smudged—and then...
Bang! KRAKA-KRAKAKOOM!
Chain explosions went off on all sides.
"Gah—khh...."
Criminals were flung from vehicles and tumbled across the pavement. Compound fractures, burns over much of the body—those were the lucky ones.
Yang Seoho walked up to the men groaning on the ground and held out her palm.
Clatter-clatter-clatter—
Metallic objects rang as they fell to the ground—the bullets she’d plucked from the air.
"Is it okay to shoot things like this at people? Or not?"
"A-ahhh...."
"When bullets hit people, people die. Right?"
"Y-y-yes, ma’am."
"What are you?"
"M-my-my name is...."
"No, why are you rampaging here—who sent you?"
"W-we—we just...."
She didn’t like the answer.
"Oh, shy, are we?"
"...Huh?"
"No, no. It’s hard to talk to someone you just met, right? You’re bashful and all that."
"No! No, that’s not—!"
"It’s fine. Stay put. Big sis will give you a present."
She picked up one of the fallen rounds, set it on her palm, and clapped at a ridiculous speed.
Pop!
A noise you couldn’t make by mere palms meeting.
When she opened her hand, the bullet had become a flat disk.
"Use it as a tea coaster."
She pressed the disk into the criminal’s hand.
"Uwaaaah!"
Hot.
The pressure generated when her palms met had produced high heat, and it was still enough to sear.
"Feels a little friendlier after a present, right? Now talk. Who sent you?"
"Woojin."
— Team Leader, about earlier, I really...
Shin Woojin’s voice came through the phone.
"Drop it. Send some of the kids toward Songjeong Port."
— What are we looking for?
On hearing the order, Shin Woojin snapped into formal speech.
"Someone’s deliberately fanning the chaos. Something’s being smuggled into Songjeong today—wait, is it smuggling? Hey, is it smuggling? Not stowaways?"
"W-we—we don’t really know. Anyway, they said a ship was coming in."
— Team Leader, where are you?
"Hey, where are we?"
"Seomyeon, Seomyeon, ma’am."
A middle-aged man, voice pleading for his life, supplied the location.
— Seomyeon?
"Got the full Busan tour today."
Following intel pulled off the street racers they’d bagged on Riverside Boulevard, she’d moved to the International Market.
There, she soon met a merchant who dealt mortars and the like—and gave him a "present" and became his friend.
After visiting the pork-soup place recommended by the arms broker, she’d headed to Seomyeon to meet a crime middleman connected to the broker and...
— You’re not bullying anyone, right?
"Bullying? I made lots of friends today. Right?"
"Yes! Y-yes, friends! Friends!"
"You heard him? Anyway, while everyone’s distracted by a feint involving actual crimes, something’s supposed to come in through Songjeong. You know who uses this trick a lot, right?"
— Kim Sinhwa?
"Dunno. Just go and knock heads until something shakes loose."
Usually that led to the next link in the chain.
She hung up and lifted her foot.
"Mm, you did well."
"Th-thank you. Khh, uhhh...."
The crime middleman broke into sobs like a man consumed by sorrow. Being pinned under a hydraulic press wouldn’t have felt much different.
"What are you crying for—you did nothing worth crying about. Cut it out."
"Kh—uhh...."
Because this middleman’s business had killed a two-digit number of people today.
"Hey, I’m too lazy to call someone to pick you up. Turn yourself in."
"Understood. Understood. Spare me and I’ll surrender."
Leaving the man behind as he sobbed and dialed the police station, Yang Seoho sank into thought.
"It’s probably Kim Sinhwa, right?"
She glanced down at her hand for a moment and recalled the legend of King Midas—the king who turned everything he touched to gold and thus could touch nothing.
To Yang Seoho, this world was a strange place.
Clearly visible before her eyes, yet impossible to approach—mist that scattered with a sigh the moment you reached out.
Or a projection on empty air.
A vague, hollow world you couldn’t grasp or truly interact with.
But Kim Sinhwa was different.
"I’ve been blocked three times, haven’t I?"
He had blocked her hand and fist and even countered.
Kim Sinhwa had substance.
He offered a solid feel.
You could grasp him, hit him, have an interaction that mattered.
Yang Seoho let out a low chuckle. A smile she hadn’t worn in a long time.
Anticipation bloomed up from her ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) chest.
"This time I want to hold on a little longer."
Murmuring that, she headed for Songjeong Port.
