The world was changing at an unbelievably rapid pace.
Hundreds of thousands of people had mutated into monsters, and in certain areas, something called a blackout phenomenon was occurring.
And the most shocking part was that all of this had happened overnight.
Naturally, the world should have been plunged into chaos, but…
It was less chaotic than I’d expected.
‘Of course, there could be all kinds of serious shit going down in places I don’t know about.’
Fear of the mutated. Discrimination born from it. Even the blackout zones.
But those were things I hadn’t seen and didn’t know.
In other words, I had no way of knowing how much was happening, or what exactly was going on.
So the only basis I had for judgment was my one trip outside the other day.
‘What was it like when I went out last time?’
It had been unsettled, but it still maintained the everyday scenery of South Korea as usual.
People gave wary and suspicious looks to those who had mutated, but they didn’t blindly ostracize them.
The reason society had yet to collapse into chaos despite all this happening was…
‘Because the government is doing an astonishingly good job.’
Living in South Korea, I never thought I’d witness something this surprising.
A competent government.
The sheer incompatibility of those two propositions, like water and oil, made me gag.
Honestly, it was enough to make me give some weight to the conspiracy theory Sin Ayun had mentioned.
Their response would have been impossible unless they’d known in advance.
‘…Well, I guess good is good.’
Anyway, thanks to the government’s swift response, people were also quickly adapting to the flow of change.
[Mutant Minor Gallery]
…This was probably part of that adaptation too. Probably.
I entered the gallery. Posts came flooding in at once.
[Title: I woke up like this, do I still have to go to work?]
I turned into a goblin yesterday, so if I go to work, will my manager be pleased? Or will I get fired?
ㄴ LOL getting fired isn’t the problem, he’ll probably call the cops.
ㄴ I just used annual leave. How am I supposed to go out when my body’s like this?
[Title: Went to the convenience store and got turned away at the door]
I was hungry, so I went to the convenience store in front of my house, but the part-timer screamed the second he saw me and locked the door. Fuck…
ㄴ LOL maybe he hates you shedding fur.
ㄴ Dude, outside is just complete panic right now. The guys who didn’t mutate think we’re zombies.
[Title: My parents kicked me out]
I woke up as an orc, and my mom said I wasn’t her son, that I was possessed by a devil, and threw salt at me. I’ve got nowhere to go. Do I have to sleep on the street?
ㄴ Hang in there... I woke up with two extra arms too, and my whole family is avoiding me.
[Title: Why is my body like this, it hurts like hell]
Bones are sticking out, and the parts where my skin got thicker are burning up and hurt like crazy. Do I need to go to the ER?
ㄴ Even if you go to the ER, you’ll just wait forever. The doctors are scared of mutated people too, so they won’t even examine you properly.
ㄴ Just take some Tylenol and tough it out. I did that, and it got better after a while.
“……”
It was bleaker than I’d expected. No, maybe that was only natural. The very existence of the mutated was hard for society to accept.
No matter how much administrative power the government mobilized to control things, they couldn’t control the instinctive disgust and fear rooted deep in people’s hearts.
Feeling bitter, I kept scrolling down.
Amid the tragic titles, one post with an especially explosive number of views caught my eye.
[Title: I want to go to Super Concept.]
…A title with a different feel from the other gloomy posts.
This felt like some kind of template. Naturally, since “Super Concept” was a feature that had disappeared from this community a long time ago.
And yet, unlike the other posts, this one had hundreds of recommendations.
Drawn in by curiosity, I clicked on it.
And then.
“…Huh?”
A familiar sight filled my vision.
The drab civil service office of the community center. In the middle of it sat a small, slender figure with pure-white wings drooping down from their back.
The face had been carefully mosaicked, but I could tell at a glance.
‘That’s me.’
In the photo, I had a huge long padded coat draped over my shoulders, with a softly glowing halo floating above my head.
It was clearly a candid shot taken in secret.
I was flustered. Why the hell was my photo posted here?
At least the mosaic was done well, but… what had even happened that was worth taking pictures of?
‘…Ah.’
Now that I thought about it, there had been quite a few things.
A memory flashed through my mind.
When I saved the old woman at the community center, the people around me had taken out their phones.
‘Of course they took pictures.’
I sighed and checked the comments.
ㄴ What is this?
ㄴ Oh, an angel?
ㄴ LOL isn’t this edited?
ㄴ The community center thing is real. I was there too.
ㄴ Damn, for real? There’s really an angel?
Maybe it was only natural.
People’s reactions were explosive.
There were people who couldn’t believe it was real, and there were people testifying that they had seen it themselves.
Amid the chaos, the original poster’s answer was simple.
ㄴ (OP) If you don’t know who this is, go read the popular posts.
‘…Right. I guess everything I’ve done has already been posted here.’
With trembling fingers, I tapped the popular posts tab.
Sure enough, the things I had done throughout the day were neatly preserved there.
[Title: Is it true a real angel descended today at some community center in Gyeonggi-do?]
(A photo of light pouring from a halo and healing an old woman)
ㄴ It’s real. I was there, and the light wasn’t dazzling, it was warm.
ㄴ The old lady went into cardiac arrest, but the moment she touched her, she came back to life ㄷㄷ
ㄴ Wow, did a healer appear? Is this the emergence of a national-power-level mutant?
ㄴ My grandmother lived thanks to this person… I’m truly grateful ㅠㅠ
[Title: Current status of the pastor who just got taught a lesson by the angel LOL]
(A photo of the pastor sweating bullets)
ㄴ LOL she told him to shut his mouth with that holy appearance, and the pastor’s brain just stopped working LOL
ㄴ Seeing the pastor’s face rot filled up my faith for the day.
A hollow laugh escaped my mouth on its own.
Fuck, I’d become a celebrity.
Suddenly exhausted, I picked up my phone and tossed it under the blanket.
‘…National-power-level, my ass.’
Would they still say that if they knew I didn’t even have clothes to wear and was surviving on Band-Aids?
But at the same time, a chill ran down my spine.
If the government’s response was swift, that also meant they were collecting information on the mutated just as quickly.
The moment I pressed my fingerprints and left my photo at the community center, my personal information was probably already organized in their database.
‘…Are they going to drag me away?’
Judging from the way they were babbling about a real angel and a healer, it didn’t seem like they’d just leave me alone.
I had no interest in getting drafted into a research lab instead of the military.
I pulled the blanket up over my head.
In that narrow, dark space, the only thing shining was the halo above my head.
…And the screen of the phone I had picked up again under the blanket.
“That goddamn idiot Han Yuri…”
The 1 still engraved on KakaoTalk had yet to disappear.
That fact stoked the flames of rage in my heart.
Why the hell had that shut-in bitch still not read my message?
No matter how much I racked my brain, there was only one possibility I could think of.
To piss me off.
‘You bitch, you’re dead when I see you.’
Of course, if I met her looking like this angel, the one getting destroyed would probably be me… but anyway, I’d destroy her.
And so, another long while passed.
“…She still hasn’t read it.”
The 1 still hadn’t disappeared.
*
I am not worried about that bitch.
In my entire life, there has never been anyone so hateful, nor anyone so insane.
I’ve learned that worrying about abnormal creatures is meaningless. Not that I’ve ever worried about her, of course.
But even if I didn’t, my parents would worry about that bitch.
If she and a wild boar got into a fight, I’d be happy at the thought of eating pork belly, but my parents would worry about her.
No matter how much of a tomboy she was, as parents, they couldn’t help worrying about their child.
And besides, the times were what they were.
The military was apparently being deployed nonstop into certain areas of Seoul.
And yet there hadn’t been a single announcement about those so-called blackout zones.
Maybe… something truly serious was happening.
Naturally, my parents would worry about that bitch.
And if my parents worried about her, the one who’d end up most exhausted would be me.
I have no idea why, but my parents seem to think the two of us are very close.
Anyway, that’s why.
That was why I called that bitch first. I’m saying it absolutely wasn’t because I was worried.
[Ring, ring, ring…]
An empty dial tone rang out.
Twice.
And then, click.
It disconnected.
It wasn’t that the other side had rejected the call.
She was in an environment where she couldn’t receive it, so it had disconnected automatically.
“…What the hell.”
The phone in my palm felt like it had gone cold.
If it wasn’t a rejected call but the network itself cutting off, there were only a few possibilities.
A problem with the base station, her phone getting smashed, or her being somewhere radio waves couldn’t reach at all.
‘Fuck, you’re giving me a headache. You’re seriously dead.’
Just then, a call came in.
[Mom.]
…Damn it, what do I do?