[bang!]
The crash of a sound barrier wall shattering along the expressway.
“Yahoo! Finally, actual road!”
“Ah, now we can breathe.”
At last, the Call Van settled onto the highway.
“Magus! Those people don’t have any other abilities, right?”
Jang Hyundeok asked as he pushed the speed up.
I knew what he was angling for.
Even if some superhuman can run nearly as fast as a car, it’s only over short bursts.
Aside from Kid, no one in that bunch can sustain high-speed movement for long.
“Right. As long as we don’t stop, they won’t catch us.”
We, on the other hand, are in an illegally modded super Call Van.
[kuwaaAAAAANG—]
The needle on the dash read 240 km/h. We can’t hold that forever, but we’ll reach Busan within an hour.
“Once we get to Busan, it’s all over, right?”
“Mmm...”
For Jang Hyundeok, yes—his part ends when we arrive. Mine starts in Busan.
It won’t take long there.
In fact, I’ll finish most of it before those trackers even make it to the city.
The real problem is...
“We’re late.”
A full moon hung mid-sky.
The eastern heavens writhed into an ominous shape.
Stars in slow, deliberate drift.
Signs that something horrific tied to an abyssal being is about to kick off.
“Are we okay?”
“Probably.”
I’d anticipated a certain amount of trouble.
‘Honestly, I didn’t anticipate the Conqueror showing up—that’s what cost us.’
We were delayed far past the window I’d planned.
“Seriously—if we’d left without contingency, we would’ve been wrecked.”
“Eh...? You got something? A tardy pass?”
“What’s a tardy pass supposed to be?”
I wish I had one, but in a way, this is better.
I slumped into the plush seat and stared at the sky toward Busan. Guess I’d been tense—my lower back ached.
“The ones who went ahead to Busan will handle it.”
“This is troublesome. It won’t go to plan.”
Seo Cheonseul muttered, face tight.
The scheme to storm Cure Medical Care and cause a ruckus was dead before it began.
They couldn’t even get in.
“To that extent?”
“Kim sir wouldn’t understand... Th-this body can’t break through that.”
Go Kyungsoo’s sly stratagem.
Passersby grimaced and tossed off comments at the ridiculous sight of Cure Medical Care’s perimeter wall.
“Is that really blood?” “Nah, has to be paint.” “Isn’t that over the line?” “Protest or not...”
Go Kyungsoo’s men, disguised as demonstrators, had drenched the wall in blood.
“If it’s blood, I can provide as much as you like.”
What Akiyama had told Go Kyungsoo.
It is, after all, a biotech lab.
Blood is easy to source.
“Ugh... maybe I should call up some sorcery and make it rain?”
Seo Cheonseul was a goblin.
A goblin who comes into contact with blood forgets the Great King’s grace and becomes an ogre-demon. As the Cheongeum Captain, there was no way he could accept that risk.
“How wide an area can you affect?”
“Hm? Around here, trivial.”
He lifted two fingers to taste the mana in the air—then shook his head.
“At that scale it’s weather manipulation... but the abyssal influence in this area is too strong.”
“Mmm... I’ll scout for another entry.”
Using [Dowsing], Park Gwangrim combed the surroundings, but there was no decent way in.
Traps laid with exquisite care, sentries posted at watch nests,
guard dogs patrolling and constantly cycling positions.
Cure Medical Care’s grounds are vast.
With only the personnel Go Kyungsoo has, defending every point is impossible.
So there must be soft spots. Except...
Park Gwangrim shook his head.
“Thorough. Every soft stretch is slathered in blood.”
“Hah—this is a completely different playbook from before. Today’s going to be a pain.”
“How about it, goblin sir? Bit of a pain today, isn’t it?”
Go Kyungsoo smiled, full and satisfied, somewhere Seo Cheonseul and Park Gwangrim couldn’t see.
The situation was different now.
Under a policy of lure-in, capture, and exorcise, he’d used strategies that could be run long term.
Loose, leaky setups—because to dig a pitfall, you have to leave a hole.
Not tonight.
There were roughly five hours left.
All he had to do was hold the line for that long. Mission over.
“Good. Don’t allow any variables—no phase shifts. Keep the dog walks rotating every twenty minutes.”
“Understood!”
“And the most important point! I’ve said it five times already, but because it’s critical, I’ll say it again!”
“Please, enough!”
“You softheads! No swarm-charging just because a small commotion breaks out. Hold position! Maintain alert posture. The goblin’s going to get annoyed and try a force breakthrough! If you see anything even a little off, splash blood first and take a dose of [Brain Cooler]!”
[Brain Cooler].
A mental enhancer that forcibly spikes cognition to block brainwashing or hallucination.
“Yes, sir!”
“The opponent is a goblin. Don’t forget it. He can use clone-arts and illusion-arts for feints or triple-feints; do not get dragged into it!”
“Got it! You’re drilling holes in our ears!”
“Yeah, yeah! I’m trusting you. At sunrise we’ll hit Haeundae for wheat-noodles, then jump straight back to Paju!”
“What noodles? Busan has beef too!”
“Shut it. Team meal’s in Paju!”
Moments ago, a vehicle stuffed with shady types had pulled out of Cure Medical Care.
What were they aiming at? What’s about to happen to this city?
Go Kyungsoo looked up at the sky, warped with ill omen, and sighed.
‘Ha... I miss the most beautiful woman of the century.’
He’d swing by Vasiliisa when he got back to Paju.
“Bah-ha-ha! Then this body will show the true power of Cheongeum Hall!”
“What method?”
“They’re all Kim sirs anyway, aren’t they? I’ll make a few copies of myself and stir that side up. Then I’ll pick a weak-spirited one, drop an illusion on him, and spook him—cause a stir. In the confusion, I’ll use arts and—slip in from the opposite side.”
A feint—or rather, a triple feint.
“How about it?”
Exactly the plan Go Kyungsoo had anticipated.
Of course, Park Gwangrim didn’t know that—but an unshakable unease crawled up anyway.
“Mmm. Wouldn’t Go Kyungsoo have prepared counters to illusions?”
And the problem isn’t just Go Kyungsoo.
Cure Medical Care is ultimately a cultist base.
We’d seen the combat types pull out, but would they really leave their base in a crisis like this guarded only by hired outsiders?
[fududududuk—]
Something odd caught Park Gwangrim’s eye.
“That is...”
A strangely shaped bird, flying over Busan.
“What are you looking at?”
At Seo Cheonseul’s question, Park glanced aside—and lost the bird in the sky.
‘It looked just like that bird I saw at the mansion.’
A trick of the light?
“Mmm—nothing.”
He could’ve sworn it had four wings. And at the same time...
“Ah, Captain—an idea just came to me.”
An idea that arrived like magic.
“A good idea? What is it?”
“A feint.”
At the word, Seo Cheonseul looked puzzled.
“Ah—like that gag? Repeating what the other guy said as if you thought of it?”
He chuckled, thinking it pretty funny.
“Ah, no. Appreciated, but not that.”
“Then?”
“It’s a feint, but one you don’t have to lead yourself. We only need to buy time, don’t we?”
“Aha?”
“This city is full of armed groups with a bone to pick with Cure Medical Care.”
Cultists of Mannse Ilwon Church who believe Dokgo Gyeom is imprisoned inside.
Followers of the Black King who think Kim Sinhwa is in league with them.
And on top of that, fixers, criminals, and drifters swayed by Kim Sinhwa’s propaganda into believing Cure Medical Care will bring about the world’s end.
Because of what Kim Sinhwa set in motion, all those armed groups gathered in Busan.
“If that many got in, why haven’t we seen a single nose tip so far?”
“They’ve all been grabbed and stashed.”
“Where?”
“I can find that.”
Park Gwangrim could locate anyone.
And with the Cheongeum Captain’s overwhelming might...
“If we let them out, they’ll all move at once to attack Cure Medical Care. And even if they don’t—couldn’t your illusions guide their movement?”
At that, Seo Cheonseul burst into his signature laugh.
“Bah-ha-ha! That’s a plan worthy of a Kim.”
He meant Kim Sinhwa.
Taking the praise, Park Gwangrim nodded.
“Maybe all of this was arranged by Kim Sinhwa.”
Park Gwangrim and Seo Cheonseul.
The criminals and cultists packed into Busan.
And...
“Don’t tell me—did all this happen because of Kim Sinhwa?”
Yang Seoho scowled in the armed truck marked with the Immigration Authority insignia.
[kwaaaaang!]
A distant explosion rolled across.
An infiltration of superhumans at Busan Customs.
Before that mess was fully contained, a new spate of bizarre incidents erupted.
Not just one incident, either.
The truck’s radio chattered nonstop with urgent dispatches.
“Cultists of Mannse Ilwon Church escaped custody! Sprinting over rooftops toward Haeundae District!”
“Black King Faction criminals are converging on Cure Medical Care!”
“Busan tollgate breached by unknown assailants!”
“Emergency at Songjeong Port! Superhumans are pouring out of the sea!”
“Busan Police Special Unit requests assistance. An illegally modified Call Van is rampaging on the outer ring road! A high-tier mage, rank 6 or above, is believed to be onboard!”
“Level-3 state of emergency declared! Repeating: Level-3 emergency!”
The Cheongeum Captain, Seo Cheonseul, possessed the ability to fold space and move in an instant.
He couldn’t use it across Cure Medical Care’s warded walls.
But jumping to wherever the cultists were stashed? Trivial.
Park Gwangrim would give exact bearing and distance—Seo Cheonseul would fold the distance away with a mystic song and dance.
“Ah, this is annoying.”
Yang Seoho scratched his head and thought through a response.
“The timing is just too neat.”
‘Neatly,’ the Immigration Authority’s main force happened to be away.
‘Neatly,’ someone unleashed every group with a grudge against Cure Medical Care.
‘Neatly,’ this is also when Cure Medical Care is up to something.
“I’ve got a bad feeling.”
“A bad feeling, sir?”
Shin Woojin, sensitive to his boss’s displeasure.
“Yeah. Like we’re being used.”
One more neat coincidence:
‘Neatly,’ Yang Seoho himself was en route to Cure Medical Care.
[kwaaaaang!]
Another explosion boomed from that direction.
So someone beat him there. How’d they arrive faster?
“Did the ones we locked up by Gwakgyeolsan get loose?”
Gwakgyeolsan—right next to Gijang County.
Of course they’d arrive before Yang Seoho.
Realizing there was no time left to brood, Yang Seoho simplified the situation.
“So they’re all going to wind up there anyway, right? Hey—pull over.”
“Sir?”
“I said pull over.”
“Understood!”
He stepped down from the truck and looked out over Busan’s nightscape, the city echoing with thunderous bangs from every direction.
Why chase flimsy schemes, spinning our wheels running around, investigating, gathering evidence, deducing, fretting, thinking—
“Yeah, I’m done.”
Brains are for people whose bodies don’t work.
