Chapter 10
Right after Kim Rok-hee charged into the Window to kill the queen.
The Vice Tower Master, who was in charge of controlling the area outside the Window—in other words, inside the dome—was caught off guard by an unexpected situation.
“Aaaah~! Everyone! Protect the wall! The wall! It's being breached!”
“Damn it, we can't stop them even if we want to!!”
“There are too many bugs!!”
The bugs moved with military precision, split into guards and a breakthrough team, as if fighting desperately to survive.
Some even openly stalled for time by charging straight at the fixers, seemingly prepared to die.
While they were buying time, the bugs clinging to the outer wall made holes.
They were still too small for the bugs' huge bodies to pass through, but if this kept up, dozens—no, hundreds—were sure to escape.
“This is bad…!”
Kim Rok-hee would definitely kill the queen and return from inside the Window.
That much was certain.
But even if they killed the queen, the bugs would still be there.
The operation wouldn't be over until they caught every last one flying through the sky.
That's why they'd even called in two thousand reinforcements.
Who'd have thought bugs could be this intelligent…!
He should've opted for a war of attrition, thinning their numbers as much as possible before closing the Window.
As the Vice Tower Master tore at his hair, blaming himself for failing to persuade them, it happened.
Thump.
Thump-thump. Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump! Thump!
The black cloud that had formed in the upper part of the dome.
The swarm of bugs turned red in an instant.
It didn't take long to figure out what had happened.
Countless carapaces and fragments rained down toward the ground with the blood, like hail.
A rapid series of impacts rained down right over the Vice Tower Master's head; he hadn't had a chance to dodge.
“Aah! Aah! Ow.”
A cascade poured down over the people fighting the bugs, too.
“Aaaah!”
“Heads down, everyone!”
“Over here! Over here!!”
Splash, splish-splash, splat, splatter.
After a noisy shower of red, a long silence descended.
The layered buzzing of the bugs, which had been so loud just moments before, had vanished completely.
The Vice Tower Master hurriedly wiped his face with a gloved hand, took a sweeping look around the dome, and muttered.
“What? What happened…?”
Everything inside the dome, including the buildings, was bright red.
There wasn't a single thing that wasn't red; it was enough to make his eyes hurt.
‘Are they all dead…? All at once?’
Even the Window, which had kept spewing out bugs, had gone quiet.
Could every bug inside the Window have died too?
The Vice Tower Master sprinted to the Window, pointed the wand in his hand straight ahead, and cautiously peered inside….
Thump!
“Aah!”
“…! Vice Tower Master!”
Kim Rok-hee came bursting out and crashed into him.
Kim Rok-hee slid across the ground, catching the Vice Tower Master she'd knocked aside in her arms.
The thing that should have been in her hand was missing.
The queen's head, that was.
Instead, her whole body was dark red from being drenched in bug blood.
“What happened? Why did all the bugs burst at once?”
“Well… I don't know either…. Did the bugs inside the Window all burst too?”
Kim Rok-hee nodded.
Before long, the fixers from Loki Office came rushing out in a crowd.
The open Window closed on its own, and a system window soon appeared in front of it.
It was a kind of system linked to Windows.
That was because the anomaly known as a Window was modeled on the gates often used in modern fantasy and the like.
[Window Cleared]
- No additional rewards will be granted due to the time penalty
- The Window frame has been preserved and can be used as a safe zone
- Finisher [■■■]
However, there was one thing about this system window that should have been familiar…
Something about it left everyone bewildered.
‘The time penalty makes sense since the Cheong Clan Alliance dragged things out…. But this finisher… Could it be?’
The letters appeared black, as if something square had been stamped onto the screen and crushed them.
Kim Rok-hee rubbed a finger over the letters, which were impossible to make out, and murmured.
“Has anyone ever seen a finisher like this?”
“No, this is my first time.”
“Could it be hidden by some kind of magical power?”
“No, that can't be it. You know we can't interfere with the system window. The system simply didn't display it.”
“The system is hiding it?”
Kim Rok-hee stroked her chin and let out a long sigh.
“Who knows……. I can't tell whether it's hiding it or just can't recognize it.”
“Is this your first time encountering something like this, Tower Master?”
“No, not quite.”
Two years ago.
Was it when she was on her way to Incheon to support an operation called by the Management Bureau?
It must have been when a Window suddenly opened, and a few fixers, including Kim Rok-hee, landed on the ground to seal it as quickly as possible.
“We followed the distinctive red pillar of light that appears when a Window opens, and when we got there, it was like this.”
Window cleared, Window frame preserved, finisher unknown.
The important thing was what they'd found inside the otherwise empty Window.
“The writing was garbled, so we can't even know if it was the same person, but the situation was exactly the same as back then.”
Kim Rok-hee remembered the scene from that day clearly.
She'd been to clear countless Windows, but that was the first time she'd ever seen anything like it.
“Unknown monsters were lying around in a sea of blood, reduced to scattered fragments. Just like now.”
“Th-then, could it have been the same person who closed that Window?”
Kim Rok-hee nodded as if confirming the Vice Tower Master's guess.
“It must have been the same person. And if they took out that swarm of bugs this easily, they're at least a Grade Ga fixer. If we give them the benefit of the doubt, they could even be Special Grade.”
“Special Grade?! Why would a Special Grade fixer be somewhere like this…?”
“I don't know. Vice Tower Master, go back to the office and pull the full records for everyone who participated today. The others should help too if they have the capacity.”
“How should we filter them?”
“How do you think? You saw it with your own eyes, didn't you?”
“Oh, right! I saw them burst with a pop and rain down!”
“Keep that in mind and compare the records carefully. I'm sure we'll find the answer if we look.”
The abilities of individual fixers were valuable assets.
The Management Bureau knew they were a kind of trade secret, so it tended to turn a blind eye to missing information entered after someone obtained their fixer license.
So comparing them by profile alone was like leafing through the files with one eye half-closed.
But there had to be an answer somewhere if they looked.
Fixers were the sort of people who couldn't help bragging about themselves, so maybe there'd be a clue left on the gallery.
* * *
At the same time, in front of a temporary hospital in southern Seoul.
“What in the world…”
“Can't you tell just by looking? She's dying!”
Summoned by Baek San-a's urgent call, Woo Cheonyeop could only scratch the back of his neck.
Cheong Harin, lying on the ground, looked gravely injured, yet Baek San-a was hiding somewhere deserted instead of taking her straight into the hospital.
“Why aren't you taking her to the emergency room?”
“Because I don't have city citizenship! I can pay the hospital bill, but they won't operate without a guardian…”
In the Seoul metropolitan area, hospitals often skipped surgery for patients without a guardian.
There was little to gain and much to lose by saving someone with no family, coworkers, or acquaintances to return to, so they simply didn't perform the surgery.
The world was harsh, but there was nothing to be done.
The metropolitan area lacked supplies and Sephira for its population, and the city itself had made ruthless choices to use them as efficiently as possible.
‘Baek San-a must've had no choice since she didn't have any identification registered with the city.’
But if she'd accepted the representative position, she'd have had an assumed identity by now.
The terminal Woo Cheonyeop gave her included an ID card, too.
If only she'd stopped being lazy and accepted Woo Cheonyeop's offer from the start, she wouldn't have had to waste this critical window.
“You be her guardian.”
“No, I told you, I can't because I'm registered as a pet.”
“Use the identity registered to you as the representative of the Ghost Office. You should be able to verify your identity with the terminal you have.”
Baek San-a muttered with an incredulous expression.
“Wait, did the permissions you gave me yesterday include this too?”
“It was granted along with the representative's authority. You weren't interested, so I simply let it slide.”
“But usually, after isolation ends, you have to get psychological evaluations for about a year before you can get a citizen ID…”
Since the Exorcism Bureau reported directly to the Five-Person Council, it outranked the Administrative and Judicial Affairs Bureau, which managed identities.
Realizing that belatedly, Baek San-a snapped, uncharacteristically.
She'd been intimidated by the Exorcism Bureau the whole time, but it seemed today was simply too much for her to bear.
“…No, that's not it—ugh, damn Exorcism Bureau.”
Though her expression was exasperated, her body was already headed toward the emergency room.
That meant saving Cheong Harin was more urgent than resolving the questions surrounding the incident.
“Anyway, hurry up and operate on her. A precious life is slipping away.”
Baek San-a immediately hoisted Cheong Harin onto her back and ran into the emergency room.
Watching her, a question arose in Woo Cheonyeop's mind.
Was she acting this way because she cared about all of humanity, or was it simply an attachment to someone who could work in her place?
‘A little too much to call it a noble sacrifice.’
He hadn't let on, but Woo Cheonyeop had come here already knowing everything.
After all, the collar around Baek San-a's neck had not only an instant execution function and GPS, but also a basic wavelength sensor.
[Anomaly Wavelength Measurement Record: Baek San-a - Past Hour]
*One reading exceeds the measurement limit
The data and the report written by the Management Bureau.
Looking at both together made the decision Baek San-a had made clear.
…
3) Confirmed Window Da-112 grade increase [Fixer Response Scale: Da→Na][Clipa Threat Scale: 05 (City)→20 (Nation)]
…
Forced to make a choice, she'd apparently pulled a cross from inside her body.
Baek San-a had said it herself.
She didn't take out the crosses she'd sealed herself with unless she had to, because they were ‘something incredibly precious.’
「Ah, should I call it a seal~? It's something incredibly precious to me, so I've sealed it two or three times over to make sure it won't cause any trouble~.」
「Precious, you say. Is it something harmful to humanity?」
「How should I put it… For a human, it's like a dolmen. You could go out of your way to use one as a club or weapon, but you wouldn't, right~? I have absolutely no intention of using it for any evil purpose!」
She'd taken out that precious thing, of course, but just as she'd said, she hadn't used it for an evil purpose.
Whatever standards anomalies followed, by human standards, it had been the ‘right’ use.
The reactions on the gallery from people who'd experienced the incident firsthand today had also been almost entirely full of praise.
[Everyone who skipped today's operation is going to regret it for a long time lol]
Where else would you get to see a technique this ridiculous right before your eyes lol
It was absolute chaos, with bugs and people all tangled together
Some people got hurt by carapace fragments when the bugs burst, but not a single person was hurt by the bug explosions themselves
This unannounced guest is definitely Special Grade
ㄴ They were seriously incredible
ㄴ The sky was pitch-black, then suddenly it turned bright red and rained down lol
ㄴ I saw it too lol
ㄴ I missed it and got into a headbutting match with bug fragments…
ㄴ Just a headbutt? I swallowed one
ㄴ Uuuugh
ㄴ Dammit, I'm eating
ㄴ Gweeeeeeegh
ㄴ But can one person really make bugs explode on this scale?
ㄴ It's possible if the mighty Special Grade fixer shows up
ㄴ There are four Special-Grade phenomena still unresolved as of today. As if one would show up
ㄴ You never know, maybe they're an unregistered Number Zero
ㄴ -Geun-
[Thank you, nameless Special Grade…]
I don't know if you'll see this
Everyone who went on today's operation almost died
Thanks to you, only half of us died… Thank you
ㄴ Hang in there…
ㄴ You get used to it after having your friend die the day after you make friends with them a few timesㅠ
ㄴ Still, thank goodness for that Special Grade or whatever who burst the bugs this time
ㄴ Otherwise, I would've almost lost another friend
ㄴ You too?
ㄴ They usually show up after everything's over, but the timing was seriously perfect lol
As a member of the Exorcism Bureau, humanity's last line of defense, Woo Cheonyeop could never be completely certain Baek San-a was safe.
But after half a year of surveillance and seeing what he'd seen, with nothing but good deeds coming up no matter how deeply he dug, Woo Cheonyeop couldn't help leaning toward a positive view as well.
‘I should trust her, for now.’
These good deeds would become a solid source of support for Baek San-a in the future.
As they piled up, they'd bolster the belief that Baek San-a was a humanoid anomaly unlike ordinary anomalies.
But for both Woo Cheonyeop and Baek San-a, this wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Regardless of whether humans acknowledged her, it would actually make it harder for her to go downtown.
People living in the greenhouse that was the city center were timid.
The people of the city center shied away not only from Clipa, but from powerful Sephira that could become dangerous at any moment.
It was enough to note that most Special Grade and Grade Ga fixers had never even set foot in the city center because of their usual behavior.
[Looking for witnesses]
Author: Vice Tower Master
If you witnessed any of the following during today's Window Da-112 operation, please report it.
1. A fixer with the ability to make bugs burst all at once
2. A fixer who was inside the dome despite not having expressed interest in participating in the recruitment post
ㄴ There were two thousand people there. Can you even find them?
ㄴ How would you find someone who sneaked in without saying they were joining? lol
ㄴ They didn't check people separately when they entered because there were so many, right?
ㄴ Yeah, they didn't
ㄴ So basically, they're impossible to find
For now, then, he planned to report the incident as something Woo Cheonyeop had handled.
If the Exorcism Bureau was involved, the Five-Person Council, Seoul's leadership, would keep the information under wraps.
There was no better way to draw attention away from Baek San-a.
From now on, Baek San-a needed to keep her threat level low while building up the contributions required to go downtown.
What they needed was not her strength, but the strength of the office she represented.
There was no reason a representative had to be strong.
Some representatives lacked overwhelming power but gathered people through their personal charisma and earned their respect.
However, it would be difficult to report that Woo Cheonyeop had responded every time something like this happened.
The Exorcism Bureau might be extrajudicial and free to act, but even they couldn't file a report claiming they handled something that happened somewhere physically beyond their reach.
‘I need someone who can act as a screen for me…’
At that moment, one person's name came to Woo Cheonyeop's mind.
It was Cheong Harin.
She'd been kicked out of the Cheong Clan Alliance not long ago.
She had a strong desire to succeed and live well, and the drive to work hard at anything she did.
Wasn't she the sort of person who could accept an unexpected success as her due?
More than anything, if she became famous, it might be possible to restore the fixers' tarnished reputation.
She would become ‘the living conscience of the Cheong Clan Alliance.’
And as a bonus, perhaps she could serve as the public face who brought people into Baek San-a's office?
If she had the right kind of presence.
“…Good. It's decided.”