An expressway linking Gyeonggi Province and Busan.
“Wizard, that bike— it kind of looks like it’s chasing us, doesn’t it?”
[VROOOOOOM—]
Jet-black bikes closing in tight on our tail.
“Yeah. Looks like enemies.”
“Kim Sinhwaaa!”
“Stop right there!”
“I’ll kill you!”
Biker punks yelling my name.
“Pretty gutsy. Let’s see here...”
I turned my head toward the bikers— then ducked in a hurry.
“Hyundeok! Hyundeok! What are those?!”
“Eh? Wizard? What’s wrong?”
“No, seriously, what are those!”
“Hmm?”
Wearing a briefly baffled look, Jang Hyundeok checked them in the side mirror and said,
“Ah, Hellhound. Every driver knows those unhinged biker freaks.”
“Hound...”
Shouldn’t have asked.
It’s not just the name.
They’re all wearing helmets modeled in perfect unison after some specific beast.
Not enough to trigger a full-on phobia, but unpleasant to look at. I want out of here at max speed.
“Kim Sinhwaaaa!”
One of the bikers surged to the front and threw his arms wide.
[FOOOOOOOOM!]
Great flames billowed up like a phoenix’s wings.
Pyrokinesis?
“Whoa, that’s MadDog.”
Jang Hyundeok said the awful name as if it were nothing.
Outside, Mad-something was screaming.
“Open up, punk! I’ll punch through your back!”
[FOOOOM—]
Flames wreathed the call van.
But thanks to the new defensive add-ons, the car took no real damage from his attack.
“He supposedly got pounded by some wizard a few months ago and retired, but he looks stronger than before.”
“I don’t care. I’m not curious about the fine print on clowns like that. Shoot! Let it rip!”
“Okay!”
Jang Hyundeok yanked a lever under the wheel.
[CHUNK—]
Gatling guns popped up from the van’s sides and roof— adorable little things that spit four thousand rounds a minute.
[DRRRRRRRRRR—]
The vehicle shook with the vibration.
“Gyaaaaaah!”
The bikers scattered with screams.
They really are nothing much, but...
[PEEEEEEP—]
A shrill whistle from somewhere.
“Wizard, that whistle... what is it?”
“Mm, probably calling in reinforcements.”
Biker punks could never stop me to begin with.
“Stop there!”
“Freeze!”
Shouts from outside.
“They don’t think so, but they’re just a surveillance unit.”
They’re guarding every exit out of Paju— spot me, and then call in the real assassins.
“Eh? Then?”
“Then today we’ll get all sorts showing up to keep me from reaching Busan.”
Looks like Cure Medical Care prepped a lot.
“Raaagh! Kim Sinhwaa!”
Whatever he’s on, Mad-whatever charged in frothing at the mouth.
“First things first... I should drop these clowns.”
There are plenty of spells I don’t need line of sight for.
[VIIIIIIIN—]
[Earthquake Slam]
[RUMBLE RUMBLE—]
A sudden quake.
Busan’s had quakes big and small repeating lately. No casualties or property damage yet, but far too frequent.
Conspiracy theories are starting to say Cure Medical Care is tied to the quakes.
[Hoooo—]
Golden cigarette smoke streamed from Seo Cheonseul’s mouth.
“Looks like it’ll be that kind of match.”
“A match?”
Park Gwangnim shot back.
Crouched in a thuggish squat in a back alley of Songjeong Port, Seo Cheonseul tapped the ground with a long kiseru and said,
“I told you a few days ago, didn’t I? There’s a dragon’s lair down below.”
“A few days ago?”
He should’ve said “a few minutes ago,” but in true goblin fashion he tossed out a random unit of time.
Annoying, but not enough to garble the meaning. Whenever he said it, he did say there was a dragon’s lair.
“Some monster from the island nation is digging. To deliver gold to the demon dragon.”
“Then—”
“Under orders from the King of Ten Thousand Gold, I was fighting to foil that monster’s scheme. Would’ve been fine if it were just them, but some Kim fellows using weird sorcery stuck their noses in and made it a headache.”
They had seen Park Gwangnim too.
Wild Guns Security’s troubleshooters getting worked over after being caught by Yang Seohu.
And the veteran fixer Night Owl traveling with them.
Odd pairing, but both sides are heavy names in the fixer world.
Seo Cheonseul smiled, put the pipe to his lips, and drew in smoke.
“That quake just now wasn’t ordinary. Those monsters are still tearing up the earth. Before they find the dragon’s lair down there, ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) the Kim fellow—”
[Hoooooo—]
Golden smoke again from Seo Cheonseul’s mouth.
“No— if Kim Sinhwa doesn’t arrive, something bad will happen.”
[SHASHASHASHASHASH—]
Black shadows sprinted along the sound wall and lane divider.
“Woaah! They’re literally running!”
“Now it gets real.”
Not normal guys.
Enough stride to keep pace with a car barreling down the expressway at full speed— on foot.
“Uh... is that, maybe...”
“Mm... yeah. That.”
Faces hidden by metal masks, and what you’d call— traditional?— distinctive garb.
So that means...!
[THUD THUD THUD THUD!!]
Shuriken flew in from every direction.
“Wizard! Are those ninja?! Why? Ninja?”
Jang Hyundeok screamed.
“They’re ninja, so calm down and keep driving!”
[VIIIIIIIN—]
Brilliant magic circles lit the space around the vehicle.
[Gale]
[WHOOOOM!!]
The conjured vortex knocked the ninja’s shuriken aside.
“Ninja, huh.”
Cure Medical Care is a global firm run by a Japan-born CEO, sure— but they don’t own a whole ninja theme.
“Changwol Association?”
Yakuza from Japan, an ancient ninja clan, and at the same time cultists who serve a chthonic being called the Hermit of the Sleeping Forest.
Cure Medical Care must have brought them in to stop me.
“Hiiiiyaaat!!”
That distinctive battle cry from afar.
Before I knew it, a yakuza-ninja-cultist charged in, brandishing a ninja sword.
“Don’t get cocky!”
[Burning Thunder]
[KRRAAAAACK!]
Lightning blanketed the expressway.
“Ninja Art! Lightning Rod!”
One of the yakuza-ninja-cultists shouted something that sounded legit and hurled a copper rod—
[ZZZZZAAAP!]
Most of the current veered off and scattered in the wrong direction.
“Ah, advanced ninja.”
Ninja are an annoying matchup.
“Hyundeok, don’t stop. Keep going.”
“Huh? What about you, Wizard?”
“These aren’t guys you fight sitting in a car!”
[CLACK—]
I opened the door, cast [Flight], hopped up, and planted my feet on the call van’s roof.
“Good to see you! Heo Sanghyun!”
One of the ninja yelled up at me. What now?
When I didn’t answer fast enough, he burst out laughing— “hahahahat”— then pulled a bird-beak mask from his coat, flipped it on, and said,
“Now do you remember!”
“Oh, you. The yakuza clown from Masquerade?”
“Yes! Now you remember!”
“You’re a mid-rank ninja. Get lost, will you?”
“Since the day you beat me, patience and gall! I ground my bones in training and became an advanced ninja. Hiiyaaah!”
Before he even finished, he flashed through hand signs and lunged. Flying Dragon Kick!
“Doesn’t look like your pattern changed much.”
I flared magic circles in all directions and triggered the spell.
[Extreme Flame]
[FOOOOOOOOM!!!]
Golden fire roared toward the yakuza-ninja-cultists.
“Kim Sinhwa will never set foot in Busan.”
Akiyama said it flatly.
“Why?”
Yang Seohu snapped back like a dart.
“Officer. No, dear folks at Immigration, and the brave officers of Busan— aren’t they guarding things well?”
Saying that, Akiyama gestured toward Immigration’s special task HQ.
“Ha. Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
“I’ve stated it officially several times: that we— Cure Medical Care— have nothing to do with that freak Kim-something-Sinhwa. We’re actually in a truly dreadful bind because of his smear campaign. Did you not see the protesters? Our stock price tanked; shareholders are in an uproar.”
Akiyama wore a face of genuine distress.
“Then you should’ve kept your head down. I told you a few days ago— if you’re clean, sit still like a dead man.”
Yang Seohu lifted the stack of papers on the desk.
Cure Medical Care’s incident report on what happened at Songjeong Port.
Seeing the packet she raised, Akiyama gave an embarrassed smile.
“I apologize again for causing an unintentional commotion. Who could’ve guessed it was such a suspicious item... We were basically scammed as well.”
Contrary to Yang Seohu’s expectations, the smuggled cargo into Songjeong Port turned out to be gold bars of dubious origin.
Akiyama not only nimbly admitted “poor oversight,” he turned over every ingot that came through Songjeong to Busan Customs.
He’ll pay a hefty administrative fine, but the serious charges all landed on the middleman.
“Damn.”
That leaves Immigration with nothing they can do.
Looking at Akiyama’s oily smile, Yang Seohu recalled what Shin Ujin had said a moment ago.
“Team Leader, this isn’t all. No proof, but I think at least twice what we seized has already made it into Cure Medical Care’s hands. What the hell are they planning with those gold bars?”
Seo Cheonseul had realized they were preparing a ritual to awaken the Source of Life using the gold, but from Yang Seohu’s position— not knowing that— it was just “suspicious moves” that were awkward to block.
“Should I just accidentally kill him?”
Yang Seohu is mindful of her excessive strength, but her patience and leniency swing wildly by the other party’s nationality.
“You seem happy this slid by again, but if we meet later in the wrong context— I’ll rip your nose off, you punk. So watch yourself.”
“You insolent—”
Yang Seohu set the papers back down.
[THOOOOM!]
It was just paper, but the heavy desk sagged flat.
“Don’t yammer in Japanese. When I hear foreign languages, I lose my grip on my strength.”
Akiyama muttered something like “monstrous,” but didn’t dare say it out loud.
“Anyway, we’ve explained everything we can explain. Please arrest that crazy wizard and make him pay.”
“Yeah. Get out.”
Akiyama bowed politely and left.
Scowling as she watched him go, Yang Seohu glanced out the window and murmured,
“Then Kim Sinhwa...”
What happens now?
“He wouldn’t be dumb enough to get caught in a half-baked trap and fail to get in, would he?”
“Wow, seriously! We’re getting everything today!”
I couldn’t hold back a shout.
Something enormous was rearing up from the lofty flow of the Geum River.
A shark-like head with lethal layered teeth.
Eight thrashing octopus arms.
And a carapace like fused stone with savage claws... a crab?
Each part was clearly from something that exists in reality, but no single creature should have all of them at once.
Jang Hyundeok’s pupils shook hard.
“Ugh... what is that?”
“I don’t know either.”
A three-story-tall giant that rose from the Geum— uh, a shark’s head on a crab torso with crab claws and octopus arms.
Okay, that one’s new. A hidden piece? A secret data point that only existed in the files?
“What do you even call that? Crab-shark-pus?”
“Groaarararara!”
The thing— shark, octopus, crab, whatever— roared and leapt.
[KRRAAASH!]
The road’s completely blocked. Great.
[SQUEEEEE—]
Jang Hyundeok braked hard.
“There! There’s someone there! Hahahaha! Wizard! There’s a person riding on that shark head! Hahahahaha!”
Jang Hyundeok popped into a light delirium and broke into hysterical laughter. Love that for us.
“Ugh, what is this, a class reunion? Either all come at once or don’t.”
I tilted my head up for a second and looked at the sky.
A high full moon.
In a bit, it’ll be the day the Source of Life talked about.
So what time does that incident kick off?
Worst case, it starts right at midnight when the date flips.
“Tch, can’t waste time.”
I finally got out of the car— and shouted up at the freak standing on the monster’s head.
“Hey, long time no see, Yong-su! You raising that thing?”
The priest of Insu Village— its last survivor— flashed green scales and bellowed back at me.
“Grrrrrk! Kim Sinhwa, how delightful! I’ll make you pay for what you did.”
“Yeah. Everyone I met today said the same thing. If you’d confessed back then, I might’ve said yes.”
“Graaaah! Don’t spout nonsense! Today is your last day!”
[KRRAAASH!]
With a thunderous roar, the giant monster charged.
