The employees were swarming the streets as they ran into the tower entrance.
“Welcome. How may I help you?”
At the information desk on the tower’s first floor, a female employee with a cloud where her head should be greeted the mages. Ian immediately dashed toward her and slammed both hands down on the counter.
Bang!
“Where’s the manager?”
A question utterly devoid of manners. The employee, unflustered, clasped her hands and gave a slight bow.
“I apologize. I cannot disclose the manager’s location.”
A frontal approach wasn’t going to work, it seemed. Ian instantly shifted tactics.
“No, miss! You don’t know who I am? It’s me, me! The business partner of your theme park manager!”
“……Pardon?”
“Something urgent came up, but this manager isn’t answering his phone! So I came all the way here myself! Spending my own money and time! Isn’t that right, Secretary?!”
Ian turned and shouted at Yuna. Yuna immediately clutched her staff and nodded.
“Y-yes, that’s right. Our boss is an incredibly busy man… He has dozens of businesses running. He dropped all of them and came here first.”
“Ah…… I see. Then let me try contacting the manager once.”
The employee picked up the receiver with a slight bow. Ian flailed his hands as if telling her not to bother.
“No! Don’t! That guy once barged into my business without any notice when he needed something, so I’ll do the same.”
“B-but……”
“Didn’t I say don’t? Ah, no, do it. Just do it. But make sure to also let him know, firmly, that our business ends here.”
Ian clicked his tongue and turned away without regret. Yuna timidly raised a middle finger at the employee before following Ian out of the tower.
Then, the employee set the receiver down and urgently called out.
“I-I’m sorry! The manager is on the top floor of the tower! You can meet him if you go right now!”
“You should’ve said so from the start. Tsk, tsk, how do they train their staff?”
Ian openly radiated displeasure as he pivoted on his heel toward the tower elevator.
“Just in case you’re wondering, I’m not being a nuisance. Coming to talk business—how is that a nuisance, right?”
“Yes, yes. You’re absolutely right……”
“Good, good. Keep working hard.”
Ian waved at the employee and turned the corner. At the same time, he sprinted toward the elevator. Yuna followed behind him, panting.
“Y-you’re really good at acting……!”
“Thanks.”
Click.
When he pressed the elevator button, the doors slid open to both sides. The two immediately pushed the button for the top floor and prepared for battle.
Ian held a lighter in one hand and a revolver in the other, steadying his breathing. Yuna also clutched her staff, already reciting an incantation.
It wasn’t long before the elevator opened. The two stepped into the wide-open corridor and flung open the door at its end, entering the room.
“……Hm?”
Inside the room, a one-eyed human with slicked-back hair sat in a chair. He tilted his head, staring at the sudden intruders.
“Who are you?”
“We’re from the Cartel.”
Fwoosh.
Ian ignited the lighter. All ambient noise vanished.
In a world deprived of hearing, he aimed the barrel at the manager and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
That sound echoed only inside Ian’s mind. Amid the burst of flame, a lead bullet flew, smashing the manager’s eye and penetrating his skull.
“……!!”
The man screamed a silent scream.
Ian immediately pumped bullets into his abdomen and lower body, holstered his revolver, and drew out his magic tome.
Plop.
Yuna approached the luminescent manager from the side and pressed her staff against his body.
In that instant, his body softened like silken tofu. Yuna immediately swung her staff wide, shattering his head.
Blood, brain matter, and crushed fragments scattered across the floor.
Ian stepped over the scattered filth, approached the fallen manager’s body, and shoved his hand straight into the heart area.
His hand slipped in without any resistance, reaching the heart. Careful not to crush it, he plucked out only the heart.
A lump of flesh tinged with pale pink. Though separated from the body, it was still beating. He placed it into Yuna’s guitar case. She recoiled in horror, but Ian left the manager’s room without hesitation and boarded the elevator again.
Five minutes had passed. Ian extinguished the lighter and reloaded his revolver.
“As soon as we’re outside, we run. The moment we killed the manager, there’s no turning back.”
“Th-they’ll all chase us, right?”
“Probably. Don’t get caught. If I can help, I will, but if it looks hopeless, I’ll leave you behind.”
“O-okay. I’ll do the same.”
“Good.”
During this extremely mage-like exchange, the elevator arrived at the first floor. The doors slowly opened to either side, revealing the female employee who had been sitting at the desk. She bared her fangs at them, her nails sharpened.
“You said you were a business part—!”
Bang!
Ian buried a lead bullet in her heart. Ignoring the toppling creature, the two burst out of the tower and opened the brochure.
“The exit is the same place as the entrance! You remember where it is, right?”
“Yes!”
The moment Yuna answered, a clown popped out right beside her. Without panicking, Yuna activated her magic. She transformed her body into something harder than anything else.
Crrrrk!!
Instead of piercing Yuna’s skin, the clown’s teeth shattered and scattered. She clubbed the stunned clown’s head with her staff, then followed Ian, panting.
“Huk! Th-that attack just cost me 300ml of blood!”
“Conserve your magic!”
Blam-blam-blam!
Ian’s revolver belched flame from its muzzle. Two rounds tore through the heads of employees advancing from the front.
“You shoot so well!”
Leaving Yuna’s admiration behind, Ian placed a hand on the ground.
“Be born anew.”
Crunch!
Along with the sound of something being crushed, the floor’s shape warped. Monsters fell into the ground, which split vertically like a beast’s maw, then closed again. A terrible crunching noise came from below.
“Ngh.”
As the price for using the magic, Ian’s head briefly spun.
It was a side effect of overusing recreation magic. It had happened when dealing with the monkey dream too, but then it was mild; now, it throbbed considerably.
After pulling off the insane feat of remodeling an entire space, it would be strange if there were no side effects.
He clicked his tongue hard, furrowed his brow, and pulled the revolver’s trigger.
Crack!
The body of a caterpillar flying in from his line of fire burst apart. Showered in its blood, Ian wiped the gore from his eyes and checked his remaining rounds.
‘Two bullets left.’
Not many. There was no time to reload. Maybe he could shove in one or two rounds in a hurry, but a full reload seemed impossible.
Still, what choice was there? If he didn’t want to die, he had to manage somehow.
Ian slammed his magic tome down on the face of a monster that surged up from below, then glanced back at Yuna.
“Ugh! Heuk! Huk!”
Maybe her stamina was lacking; she was breathing roughly, but she was still keeping up well. Most monsters couldn’t even pierce her skin anyway, so there was no need to worry.
Just as he thought that, the moment they passed right next to the haunted house.
[Aimed shot! Aimed shot! 40 degrees to the forward left! Detecting killing intent and hostiles!]
A warning blared from the reverse sight attached to the end of his coat. Acting on instinct, Ian grabbed Yuna’s collar and shoved her into that 40-degree path.
“Uek?!”
Surprised by the sudden touch for a moment, a bullet shot out from the direction of the haunted house lodged into her forehead.
“Kek!”
With a ting, the bullet ricocheted off.
Yuna, on the other hand, was perfectly fine. She glared at Ian with resentment, her eyes brimming with tears.
“U-using a person as a meat shield……!”
“You’re durable. Just let me use you for a bit. Here comes another.”
“W-wait! Uweeeek!”
Tudududu!
A hailstorm of bullets pummeled Yuna’s entire body, falling helplessly to the ground or bouncing off. Ian left the sobbing Yuna behind and peeked over her shoulder to check the source of the gunfire.
“Maaaage!!”
There stood the Management Bureau agents who had cleared the haunted house. Every one of them wore grim expressions, firing their guns wildly as they closed the distance toward Ian and Yuna.
The most remarkable among them was Mireu. She closed in as if folding space itself, swinging her sword at Ian’s nape. He immediately released Yuna and wedged his magic tome into the path of her blade.
Clang!
With a ringing sound, her blade shattered. The magic tome, in contrast, was unscathed. Not a single scratch.
Without hesitation, Mireu discarded the broken blade and threw a punch. Ian thrust the magic tome along its trajectory.
This was the tome that had shattered even a blade. What would happen if it directly touched flesh was obvious without seeing it.
“……Damn it.”
Mireu withdrew her punch and leaped back a great distance. Ian hurled a shard of broken mirror at her.
She had been about to casually deflect it, but the chill running down her spine made her roll on the ground immediately.
Crunch!
The shard, lodged exactly where she had been standing, turned the floor into something like glass fragments and shattered it.
The pulverized pieces of floor turned transparent and pattered down. Mireu tried to rise at once, but clicked her tongue at the fragments grazing past her and shifted her gaze.
In that moment, the image of a transparent fragment entered her vision.
She saw it that way.
The other side of the mirror.
A white existence.
Hues.
A body that repeatedly distorted and restored itself.
Hands flickering from all directions. Arms. Eyes. Mouths.
Countless beings.
Yet a single being.
Insects. Humans. Gods.
Beyond these mysteries we cannot comprehend, there lurk countless entities that crush humans like bugs and burst them like maggots—this sea of the universe, the sky, god itself, mother and father, this is ahhh O Lord why do you not deliver us instead you sow so many trials and tribulations—
“Agent Mireu!”
“Ngh!”
At the voice reaching her, Mireu snapped back to her senses.
Blood flowing from her nose and eyes covered her face. The acrid scent of blood pulled her back to reality.
Turning her head, she saw Park Sangcheol holding a shotgun and Kim Iseo chasing after the mages.
“We must move! We can’t let the mages slip away here!”
Kim Iseo shouted. Mireu looked up at her face briefly, then shook her head as she wiped the blood with trembling hands.
“……No, no. I’ll stop chasing the mages here.”
“What?!”
“What?”
The agents protested. Even though she could feel the masked mage staring at her, Mireu did not retract her statement.
“Don’t forget our objective. The reason we came here is to rescue survivors and to investigate and resolve the new anomaly. I understand that the sudden appearance of mages has clouded our minds, but do not go beyond that. We haven’t completed the strategy documentation yet.”
“……Agent Mireu.”
“If we fail to obtain sufficient intel, the next investigation team will inevitably have to risk their lives as well. So today, we must focus solely on the investigation and let the mages go.”
“Who knows what those mages will do, and you want to let them go? Those insane bastards cause disasters wherever they go!”
Park Sangcheol shouted, his face filled with murderous intent. Mireu answered immediately.
“I know that too. But as I said, we must not lose sight of the objective. Cool your rage. I know your past as well, but now is the time to face reality.”
“…….”
“Let’s move again once everyone has calmed down.”
“……Fuck.”
Park Sangcheol spat out a curse, glaring at the mages growing distant.
Mireu, too, pressed down her trembling hand and stared at the mages.
*
Not long after leaving the haunted house behind, the theme park exit came into view.
The two quickly descended the stairs, blew open the heads of the beast-headed employees guarding the exit, and flung themselves through the ticket gate.
Immediately after, the world shifted.
The sky that had been red as blood returned to blue, and instead of horrific monsters, trees bare of leaves greeted them.
They had returned to reality. Ian let out a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the ground. Yuna, who had taken bullets all over her body, sat down beside him, sobbing.
“Hweeek! It hurts! My whole body hurts!”
“That…… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“……Hic! S-saying sorry fixes everything? G-give me some kind of compensation……!”
“……I’ll treat you to a meal later. Is that okay?”
“……Whatever.”
Sniff!
Leaving Yuna sniffling behind, Ian pulled out his phone and called the Cartel’s safe-driving service.
A notification chimed that it would arrive in three minutes. He stood up and placed his hand on the Management Bureau van parked at the curb.
He recited an incantation, compressing the van’s form. Even if the agents came out now, they wouldn’t be able to pursue immediately.
He crumpled up the mask he had been wearing, burned it with the lighter, then lit a cigarette and put it to his lips.
“Sssssip…… Hoooh……”
As the acrid smoke infiltrated his lungs, his headache seemed to ease slightly. Ian closed his eyes and let the cool breeze cool his heated body.
“……But what does a cigarette taste like? You smoke it like it’s reeeally delicious……”
While he was doing that, Yuna edged closer and asked. Ian pulled out a single cigarette from his pocket and held it out to her.
“Want to try?”
“Then just a weeeee tiny bit……”
With a face full of curiosity, Yuna took the cigarette between her lips. When Ian lit it for her, she let the blooming smoke flow past her throat.
“Wuh?!”
Yuna’s eyes flew wide open.
She hurriedly spat out the cigarette, clutched her throat, and coughed repeatedly.
Ian giggled.