Chapter 27
Creak--
After leaving the mansion, Jinseong used space contraction repeatedly to climb to the top of a high-rise building.
"Huh? Huh?! Sergeant Kim Seong-il, Sergeant Kim Seong-il! You need to wake up! There's an intruder!"
"Ah shit, I told you not to wake me unless it's an officer coming."
In the process, a soldier on duty at the top of the high-rise building was startled, but instead of explaining, Jinseong hid himself in the shadow of the building. As he used camouflage to blend into the shadow, he became part of the scenery itself.
"Damn it, what do you mean someone’s there? There's nothing!"
"No, sir. There was definitely something there..."
"So, is there anything?"
"Uh, no, sir..."
"Fuck, you were dozing off, weren't you?"
Jinseong left behind the two people who were now more focused on scolding and taking it than standing guard, and looked towards the East Sea.
Like begets like. As a small snake swims on the back of the eye, my eyes too will change like a snake.
Jinseong altered his eyes to look at the far distance.
Even though it was a place that couldn't be seen with Mongolian eyesight, the altered eyes endlessly expanded the field of vision as if they were machines, continuing until they crossed buildings, mountains, and the sea.
Zoom.
He could see the sea moving like waves.
He could see ships drifting, carried by the waves.
Fish jumping above the water surface.
Birds wandering in search of food.
And...
Huh.
He discovered a clearly different energy density.
Grand sorcery? No, this wasn't done with sorcery.
It was a great miracle that even had Jinseong astonished.
To make the density different! This is why my sorcery didn't work.
Energy tended to maintain equilibrium. From hot to cool, from high density to low. This property of constantly trying to maintain equilibrium created flow and maintained the earth's ecosystem.
But the energy density was completely different based on the boundary where Japan's territorial waters began.
This was a sophisticated form of boundary and wall that Jinseong couldn't have imagined.
To think of creating a heat dome with energy?
It was like a heat dome, metaphorically speaking.
Just as hot air covered an area in the form of a dome, it was a form that covered an area by increasing the density of various energies. Increasing the energy form was sometimes done in small areas for summoning magic or training martial arts, but Jinseong had never seen such a thing done for an entire country.
What was more surprising was that they had changed the density just slightly, to the point of sophistication. Clearly different from the surroundings, but just slightly, to the point where one wouldn't properly feel discomfort in an ignorant state. Moreover, by mixing the energy forming the heat dome with thermal energy, it made it appear as a natural phenomenon at first glance.
So it was true when Japanese people said they were in a blessed land.
Probably, Japanese people received a slight buff compared to other countries inside that heat dome. The fact that the energy density was high meant that even if you did the same action at the same time, you could absorb more energy, meaning you could gain more benefits as time passed.
Although it wasn’t big because they adjusted it inconspicuously, dust gathered to form a mountain.
Instead, they would have suffered from terribly hot and humid weather due to thermal energy…
In a way, that too might not be a disadvantage but an advantage.
If it was cold, people died, but if it was hot, then it was just unbearably difficult.
It wasn’t as hot as the Middle East where it could kill people, so what was the problem?
To think they could make something like that without even using sorcery.
A level of manipulation that simply made it look like an area full of natural forces.
Moreover, what was more cunning was that its effect reminded one of a grand sorcery ritual.
Putting a buff on the entire country looks like grand sorcery at first glance. A powerful ability user would have recognized that energy heat dome, but they would have thought it was just grand sorcery and passed over it. Huh. Truly cunning and ingenious.
Grand sorcery rituals that bestowed beneficial effects on vast areas could turn bad harvests into good ones, and make arid lands fertile.
During World War III, China used the power of grand sorcery rituals to concentrate on a small number of people to create berserkers, shocking the world with their tenacious vitality and madness that was more zombie-like than human.
Given that the power of grand sorcery rituals was so strong, they wouldn’t have thought it strange to put such a buff on the entire country. There must have been those who had doubts, but that sense of discomfort would have disappeared with the financial power that Japan showed during the bubble era.
A rich country blowing money on performing grand sorcery rituals every year.
There was nothing strange about it.
My sorcery would have just slipped off the heat dome. Huh, truly amazing and great.
Just as flowers were protected in a greenhouse, they would have lived a life protected from sorcery.
Ordinary sorcery would slip off due to density as soon as it touched the energy heat dome, and even strong sorcery would have shattered without exerting its power, like a typhoon dissipating when it hit a heat dome. If power on the level of a grand sorcery ritual was projected, it could have ignored that heat dome and exerted its effect, but the effect would have been reduced.
It was a terrible manipulation.
Truly.
Land where gods dwell. God, god, is it...
Jinseong narrowed his eyes and twisted his lips.
A land that rejected external sorcery.
And they're reluctant to have sorcerers come too. It surely wasn't a coincidence that I couldn't enter Japan before my regression. A clearly intelligent being that manipulates things without me noticing must have interfered.
The energy heat dome only blocked external sorcery, not sorcerers themselves.
Yet, the fact that Jinseong couldn't go to Japan despite trying so hard meant there was definitely manipulation.
Manipulation by some power... in a position that Jinseong, in his position as a mercenary, couldn't reach or see.
Then there might be means to monitor sorcerers coming from abroad.
He suddenly thought that Japan was like the Galapagos.
An island that had become completely isolated and had a different ecology from other places.
Rare and academically valuable, but in return, terribly weak to invasive species…
That kind of island.
That was why in the Galapagos Islands, they made every effort to prevent invasive species from setting foot on the island.
Cats, dogs, insects, rats…
Even ordinary animals that could be seen anywhere else could become a disaster that turned the island's ecosystem into a wasteland.
Do they think this will prevent me from entering?
But blocking didn't mean everything was blocked.
Even if they sprinkled salt, there were countless ways to enter.
Do rich houses get robbed because they want to?
They had used sophisticated manipulation, but that made them weak in security.
Getting into something like that is just a matter of using a few tricks.
Creak--
Jinseong used space contraction to move to the airport.
『 It's regrettable that we couldn't go to Japan together. 』
『 I'll go to Japan alone, so I hope you two enjoy Russia. 』
He sent simple text messages to Lee Serin and Lee Arin.
Then he bought a ticket on the spot and boarded a plane.
The destination was.
Germany.
* * *
The place Jinseong arrived at was Frankfurt am Main International Airport.
He immediately moved to the airport lounge as if there was nothing else to see. The lounge had a hard yet practical design, but the wallpaper of the lounge was particularly unique, covered with things that were hard to tell whether they were pictures or patterns, exuding an exotic atmosphere.
"Runes."
Runes.
Magical letters used in Northern Europe and a power that had developed dramatically during Nazi Germany.
He stared at the wall for a while and when he found an ‘X’ shape, he placed his hand on it.
"Gebo."
Crack.
When he placed his hand and tried to absorb the symbol, it sparked slightly like it was showing resistance, but it soon stopped sparking as if surrendering and wrapped around Jinseong's body like a cloak.
This won't last long.
With rune letters, each character contained multiple meanings. The Gebo he touched also had several meanings, and the symbol of Gebo that he forcibly took meant 'gift'.
He planned to surround himself with the stolen symbol to make his existence vague.
This was possible because rune letters contained symbols, and the rune letters engraved in the airport were half decorative and didn't contain strong power.
But because it didn't contain strong power from the beginning and because he forcibly stole the symbol, one was ridiculously insufficient.
"Gebo."
He walked around the airport, placing his hand on any ‘X’ shape he saw to steal the symbol.
When the number gradually increased and finally reached 9...
It's done.
He was confident that the symbols wrapped around his body could hide his existence for about a day.
No matter how much they reject invasive species, do they think it will work?
Jinseong twisted his lips as he boarded the plane to Japan.