[News voiceover]
The unprecedented disaster that struck Busan ended as an overnight uproar, but the scars have yet to be resolved.
Within a 3-kilometer radius centered on [Cure Medical Care], the area has been completely desertified.
Professor, Busan National University, Department °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° of Magical Geo-Geomancy: This is, you know, a magical kind of problem? With ordinary methods, um, this can’t be restored.
Songjeong Beach goes without saying, and nearby Haeundae and Gwangalli as well are reeling from dangerous debris and trash washing in with the surf.
Official, Busan Special Autonomous City: No matter how much we clear it, it never ends. The stench is terrible... We’re at the limit on manpower and budget too...
Eom Munhyeong, mayor of Busan Special Autonomous City, has declared Kim Sinhwa, identified as the cause of this incident, a “public enemy.”
Mayor of Busan Special Autonomous City: I stake my term on bringing to justice Kim Sinhwa, who caused this atrocious outrage that cries out to heaven...
The “disaster” that happened in Gijang County, Busan.
There are many mentions of the fallout that disaster triggered and the subsequent measures, but few people know the concrete situation at the time.
Since the Great Collapse, the surreal disasters occurring around the globe are mostly like this.
Most direct witnesses die or go missing.
Even those who do survive ultimately can’t accept their experience and lose their minds completely.
Sometimes intact information remains, but even then it tends to be concealed by government agencies under the pretext of security—or monopolized by large corporations because the information itself is worth money.
What happened in Busan this time is being “handled” in just such a way.
“Ga-Pureum, about this piece. You haven’t done much yet, right?”
“No. It’s almost finished. Once I clean up a few weak spots, we can reconstruct what happened that day in Busan almost perfectly.”
“Ai, you worked so hard. Ga-Pureum, really, ah, how do I even—”
Soft-hearted Chief Choi rolls his eyes around and starts consoling me. There’s nothing to be consoled about yet, is there?
Whenever Chief Choi starts this pre-emptive consoling, the same thing always happens.
“Huh? Chief? No, right?”
“Ah, well, you know... I heard in Ilsan some giant mushroom or mold showed up—how about that?”
“Chief, no! I really did it all! Do you know how many interviews I got?”
“Ai, but~ the desk wants something else.”
“Really? Seriously? For real?”
“Ai, it’s for real.”
“Wow—what is it this time? It’s not the desk, is it? Where’s the pressure coming from?”
“Ai, nothing like that.”
Chief Choi keeps going “ai, ai,” watching my mood, then sidles up and whispers.
“Ai, sounds like somebody somewhere sneezed. You sneeze when someone’s talking about you, right? Hm? You know?”
“Ahhh, I get it! The Administration. Who there? Don’t tell me, Yang—”
“Ai, Reporter Ga-Pureum! Let me live a little. That giant Ilsan mushroom wasn’t a joke either. Was it called the Black King? I heard it’s tied to that Triarch Gallery thing? Ai, dig into that one. Y’know—gangsters making hallucinogens out of mushrooms? Hm? Distributing them? Hm? Major crime?”
Give it up?
Do you know what it took me to gather this material?
This mountain of interviews?
Seriously?
Ga-Pureum: Please tell me in a little more detail.
Witness: Ahhh—an enormous storm! Monsters poured out through the storm. “The Eori has come to bring down wrath upon this world!”—that’s what they said! And a giant serpent! A monster that’s a serpent, but a fish, and a fish, but a bird! And one with four heads too!
Ga-Pureum: You mean monsters appeared again?
Witness: Not just monsters! Monsters kept coming! But the ones that came out then were more special.
Interview
Hwang Incheol (age 68, bounty hunter “Kid the Gunman”)
Q. You were tracking Kim Sinhwa, yes? Why did you stop?
A. I am a hunter. A hunter tracks game, not typhoons or earthquakes. Kim Sinhwa was that sort of being. He exceeded what I can handle. I’ve heard recently another friend is chasing him. But I washed my hands of it.
Q. What did you witness in Busan?
A. A gigantic storm. Monsters pouring out without end. Giant hands. And Kim Sinhwa.
Q. What did Kim Sinhwa do?
A. Using the [Golden Hairpin], Kim Sinhwa opened a door that connects to the Abyss.
Q. What is the Golden Hairpin?
A. That is...
Ga-Pureum: A door was opened? What door?
Witness: Because of Kim Sinhwa! That monster Kim Sinhwa! That monster with four eyes opened a door to the Abyss! Because of that, the monsters hidden in the deep Abyss poured out!
Interview
Jang Hyundeok (22, transportation)
Q. You say you know what the Golden Hairpin is?
A. I do. But how did I learn it?
Q. We were referred by the taxi association. Could we hear a little about the Golden Hairpin?
A. It’s an item connected to a legend handed down in Busan City. Do you know the legend of the Hairpin Cave in Sajik-dong?
Q. Could you explain it?
A. It’s a place where people supposedly took refuge during the Imjin War. (Omitted) Women longing for home pricked a rock with their hairpins, and a hole opened in the rock, and beyond that hole they could see their hometowns.
Q. I see a hairpin appears in that legend. What does that have to do with the Golden Hairpin?
A. A mage I know says that Golden Hairpin has the power to pierce the boundary of this land and make a hole that connects to the Abyss.
Q. Do you know why Kim Sinhwa opened a door to the Abyss?
A. That is...
“What are you going to do, exactly?”
Yang Seoho asks again, frowning.
I answer while deciding where to start.
“Beating on the visible hands won’t do anything.”
“Why?”
The visible hands are nothing but phantoms.
“These horrible hands are built like weeds. The core is hidden inside the underground ruin. You have to remove the root.”
“Then we just go where the core is, right?”
Yang Seoho lifts a fist as she says it.
Sure, you could pound the ground a few times with your fist and get down underground.
But that alone won’t solve it.
“Mm, under Cure Medical Care there’s a huge ruin connected with [Source of Life]—and it’s magically linked to ruins in Sokcho and Buyeo, right? That ruin is a sort of reflector that spiritually reflects the power of [Great Source] in the Abyss. [Source of Life] is drawing in their echoes through magical cores distributed across three sites. So physical access is...”
“Short version.”
“...Going down there and hitting it won’t kill it.”
“And so?”
I contacted the [Mirror of Wisdom] embedded inside the Golden Hairpin—and obtained some information.
Based on that, my conclusion is this:
“I’m going to make a hole that leads to the Abyss.”
“A hole.”
“Yeah. A hole. Think of it like building a drain to empty a basement flooded with water. Sure, the pressure’s strong so it’ll backflow a bit at first—but I can force it through.”
“With magic?”
“Yeah, with magic.”
Strictly speaking, not magic.
I have the Sealing Scripture that can seal [Great Source].
It doesn’t have anything like a method for sealing [Source of Life], but if I open a passage connected to the Abyss—[Source of Life] and [Great Source], and the other incarnation, [Source of Pollution]—
the spiritual coupling of those three will spike to the limit.
I explain that much in broad strokes and conclude:
“At that moment, we shove the whole bunch back into the Abyss.”
Yang Seoho kneads her hair and scowls.
“I get my role. While you’re opening the gate, I pound anything that backflows, right?”
“No. Other people will do that.”
“Other people?”
“Yeah. Red is back.”
“Everyone, over there! Over there!”
Jang Hyundeok shouts, windmilling his arms.
Riding Red, Jang Hyundeok and Park Gwangrim guided those they’d met on the Donghae Expressway to Gijang County.
“Man, we did it, Gwangrim. Right, Hyeonji?”
“Hyeonji?”
Park Gwangrim pulls another Nirvana from his coat and swallows it, then asks Jang Hyundeok a question.
Jang Hyundeok had been talking with that “Hyeonji” the whole flight.
“But Hyeonji? Hyeonji? Why aren’t you talking now? Hyeonji?”
Did that being called Hyeonji close its mouth because they got close to Kim Sinhwa? Or are the symptoms easing?
“Hyundeok—”
“Whoa! Gwangrim, look! Look!”
Jang Hyundeok points to the southern sky.
“Th-that’s...”
“It’s the Mage! Everyone! Look at that! We’re here! We were right, weren’t we? Look at that amazing sight!”
Shouting to those following behind them, just like he says, something tremendous is happening in Gijang County.
A gigantic storm. Hands so horrific they’re beautiful. Monsters pouring out without end.
And—
“Kiiim Sinhwaa!”
On the head of a monster that is a massive octopus and a crab and, at the same time, a shark, Yong-su—the sole survivor of Insu Village—screams.
And behind them trail ninjas, yakuza, and cultists, plus a few bounty hunters.
The Golden Hairpin was unfinished.
It needed more gold steeped in the deep-sea curse, but Yang Seoho blew it up with a bomb.
Even if you try, it isn’t easy to obtain.
But back in Insu Village I stole that gold by the ton. Sure, I paid most of it up to the Ten-Thousand-Gold King—
“I kept a few pieces. Thanks, Doldol.”
[grr-rrr-rrrrk—]
Doldol growls in displeasure after having its stored gold taken away.
“You little guy. Cute.”
With the mana-stone set in my left hand, I scratch Doldol’s head (well, top plate?) and say:
“Go have a run with Achilles.”
[grrrrRRRK!]
Doldol starts capering with excitement—
[kiririririk! kigigigik!]
[Unique function of S-grade magic tool “Staff of Beacon,” “Bondage of Fire’s Retainers,” activates.
// Bondage of Fire’s Retainers: Grants the owner the ability to summon and control the retainers of ‘living flame.’]
Achilles triggers the [Staff of Beacon] and calls up the fire vampires.
“Mm, nice sight.”
“Are you going to hurry up?”
Yang Seoho prods me. She’s guarding my side while I prepare the Golden Hairpin.
Maybe she’s annoyed because I look like I’m dawdling.
“Ah, big sis. Just a moment.”
[vvvvvmm!]
A rock Yang Seoho throws rockets toward me.
“Yikes!”
I scramble to throw up a defense spell, but—
[KA-BOOM!]
Yang Seoho immediately hurls another rock and smashes the incoming one.
“My mistake.”
“What do you mean mistake!”
“Next time I won’t make a mistake and I’ll kill you. Hurry up.”
“Ah—yes. Understood.”
With that, I spread my mana in all directions.
A colossal magic circle covers the sky.
No, it’s already too big to call a magic circle—an enormous mandala drapes the sky over Gijang County.
“Yeah, Akiyama. This is the kind of thing you wanted, right?”
[RRRRRRUMBLE!!]
I gather the force of the raging typhoon—and soar into the sky with the Golden Hairpin.
“Kiiim Sinhwaa!”
“That!”
“Awooooo!”
“Mr. Kim Sinhwa!”
“Yahoo! Mage!”
“Gyaaaaah!”
Well, some of them I’m friendly with, some I’m not, but anyway—this time I’ll trust these people and pull a stunt.
I raise the Golden Hairpin floating in midair and shout:
“Okay, everyone, look here. This is an ordinary Golden Hairpin with no tricks or secret mechanisms whatsoever!”
[rumble]
Using this, I’m going to perform a piece of magic that makes [Source of Life] vanish.
“Good. Let’s nail it in one take—no NG.”
[shiiiiiiiiiik!]
With the Golden Hairpin soaring to the edge of the sky, I drop—through the hole punched open in the ground.
