Ian sat on a nearby rock, catching his breath as he watched his companions deal with the residents.
‘The headache is severe…….’
Even for Ian, it was impossible to remain unscathed after using magic of such scale. Moreover, since it was magic performed solely through simple incantations without a magic circle, the risks were quite serious. It was only a headache, but the magnitude of that headache was rather large.
A pain that felt like splitting his head in half. He was pretending to be fine, but in truth, he felt like collapsing to the floor and crawling around at any moment. If he lay down and closed his eyes like this, he would probably faint on the spot.
This was the extent of it merely from calling forth a portion of the Outer Sea's environment. On the cruise ship, there had at least been an ocean nearby, so drawing out the black seawater wasn't too strenuous, but this place was a mountain valley without a single drop of seawater. Naturally, the backlash had to be immense.
‘It would have been cheaper to just pull out a creature from the Outer Sea.’
Ian exhaled deeply and lowered his head. Through the spreading black seawater, he could glimpse the red blood and transparent brain fluid of the residents. Moving only his eyeballs, he gazed at the sight of his companions dealing with the residents.
Crunch!
I Minsu split a resident's head with an axe. Gim Iseo blasted their bodies apart with a shotgun, and Gim Yul caved in a face with a hammer formed using water pressure. Gim Milyeo bisected a resident's body with a katana.
A cruel spectacle. Yet the residents did not die, continuing to squirm even with their heads shattered and bodies divided. It seemed neither head nor heart had much to do with their immortality.
Then where in the world was the foundation of their immortality?
"……."
Ian swept his water-drenched bangs back and swiftly looked around.
Then, a small hanok entered his field of view.
A hanok so small it was excessive for human habitation. It lacked much to be called a residential area. There was no yard, and the roof tiles had almost all fallen off, shattered and scattered across the ground.
But the interior of the hanok, glimpsed briefly, was remarkably intact.
No, it was beyond the level of intact. Perhaps maintained far better than the other houses, not a speck of the ubiquitous dust was visible, and the wooden floor gleamed. Except for the collapsed roof tiles, it was in such good condition that it wouldn't look out of place in a hanok village.
That was precisely why it stood out. It was a structure that did not fit this village at all.
"Ngh……."
Ian pressed his throbbing head with his hand and slowly rose to his feet. Then he began walking slowly toward the hanok.
"Are you planning to scout it?"
Gim Iseo immediately followed. Ian pushed her away and held out his hand to I Minsu. When he made a gesture of placing a cigarette between his fingers, I Minsu pulled one from his pocket and handed it over.
"The hanok seems suspicious. I'm thinking of looking around alone."
"Won't you go together?"
"We dealt with the residents, but the immortality hasn't been severed. There might still be something here; I can't take someone with weak mental barriers along."
He placed the cigarette between his lips and lit it.
Inhaling the acrid smoke, he felt the headache subside somewhat. Ian exhaled a puff of smoke into the air and flicked off the ash.
"So I'm going alone."
"…I have nothing to say to that. Still, just in case, please signal if anything happens. I'll run right over."
Gim Iseo spoke, spitting out the blood pooled in her mouth.
A half-tattered tongue. To have bitten off her own tongue to that extent meant her mental strength was at a considerable level, but that alone was insufficient. She had lost her mind just from hearing the residents' mutterings; how could she possibly stay sane after seeing whatever was in the hanok directly?
It wasn't confirmed yet that there was something in the hanok, but there was no harm in being certain. If there was nothing, that in itself was a good thing.
Ian put the cigarette back in his mouth and staggered toward the hanok. The splitting headache, fatigue, and wet clothes weighed down on his body, but he didn't want to collapse in an unsightly manner. Forcing his heavy legs to move, he stood before the entrance of the hanok.
The front gate was slightly ajar. Without hesitation, he opened it and entered.
At the same time, the smell of incense assaulted his nose. A faint bloody stench burrowed between the fragrance, and an even thicker, nauseating odor wafted. If forced to compare, it was similar to the smell of a wild dog that hadn't washed for days.
The source of the smell was a small Buddha statue placed in the corner of the hanok.
A Buddha statue drenched in red blood like paint. It seemed human eyeballs had been forcibly inserted, their edges crushed as transparent vitreous fluid dripped continuously. Judging by how the iris colors differed on both sides, they were apparently not from the same person.
‘So it's a Buddha.’
Ian realized the statue's true identity the moment he saw it.
The PowerPoint he had seen before entering the mountain. The overall estimated appearance of the Buddha shown there wasn't very different from the statue before his eyes.
If there was a difference, it was only that one of its arms was covered in thick, bushy fur like a monkey's arm.
"……."
It was so blatantly obvious that pretending ignorance was awkward. Ian let out a deep sigh, squatted before the statue, and exhaled a thick puff of cigarette smoke.
"Do you have an ego?"
A question directed at both the monkey's paw and the Buddha statue.
No answer came. However, he could clearly see sweat forming on the monkey's paw. It meant it possessed enough intelligence to feel tension or fear.
As for the Buddha statue?
[……. ……. ……!]
It was muttering something, but nothing comprehensible.
It was probably spouting the sayings of Sakyamuni like the residents.
According to the Administration Bureau agent's information that they went mad upon seeing the Buddha statue, the statue's mental attack was probably far more severe than the residents'.
It wasn't as if the agent hadn't encountered any residents, so the fact that they had pushed through all that and still committed suicide here proved both that the Buddha was considerably strong and that the agent's mental strength had been excellent.
Ian prayed for the agent's peace internally and tapped the Buddha's smooth head with his pistol.
An attack that worked on an Administration Bureau agent didn't work on Ian. Maybe if it were a being that used physical force, but a mystery that attacked only the mind was his polar opposite.
Well, for Ian, that was a welcome circumstance. It seemed he wouldn't need to worry about mental attacks or hypnosis going forward. If anything, he wondered if a strategy of pretending to be affected and then striking at an opening might be possible.
He hadn't met many superhumans yet, but there were surely some among them who manipulated the mind. If they were allies, it wouldn't matter, but if enemies, there was no need to show mercy. Killing them when the opportunity arose was best.
He hadn't killed a person yet, but if necessary, he wouldn't hesitate. He had resolved himself long ago.
"Whew……."
Ian stubbed out the nearly finished cigarette on the Buddha's glabella and tossed it roughly onto the floor. He didn't particularly care whether it started a fire or not.
Sizzle.
He unfastened the bag he was carrying and took out a long kitchen knife.
A knife for killing primates.
Anyway, since the monkey's paw was also the hand of a primate, he wondered if he could kill it in a single stroke with this. Even if not, he could definitely inflict pain, so there was no major issue.
‘Seeing how the monkey's paw is attached to the Buddha's hand, it seems the Buddha appeared along with the wish being granted.’
It was a reasonable suspicion. Ian gently scraped the Buddha's surface with the blade of the kitchen knife and let out a low hum.
In creative works where the monkey's paw appeared, reality alteration was not an uncommon occurrence. For example, a college student wishing for romance might end up with everyone's gender at school changed to the same, or someone wanting popularity becoming popular only with the same sex.
This incident was probably similar.
The wish of a young girl hoping happiness would continue every day. The monkey's paw had granted that wish through the bizarre creature with the absurd name of the Laughing Buddha.
And so, a bizarre village was completed where they lived eternally as immortals, dismembering visitors to make masks, wearing them to obtain laughter and happiness.
Ian didn't know what this place had originally looked like.
Perhaps it had truly been a pseudo-religious cult, or a small, closed-off shantytown. Or maybe they had originally lived elsewhere and moved here due to the wish.
Whatever the case, with the appearance of the bizarre creature, it was now a story that remained only as a MacGuffin. There was nothing to be done but speculate, so it didn't bother him much. Honestly, he didn't particularly care.
What mattered was dealing with the mystery. Ian first placed his hand on the Buddha's head and swapped out his grimoire. The black grimoire instantly changed into the Hand of Reconstruction.
It was a grimoire he shouldn't use when with Administration Bureau agents, but there were no watching eyes now, so it didn't matter much. Without hesitation, Ian opened the grimoire and chanted the spell.
"Be born anew."
Crunch-crackle!
The Buddha statue was compressed small and flattened like a disc. He rolled it up like a rod and put it in his bag.
With this, the Buddha was dealt with. Now only the monkey's paw remained. Ian closed the grimoire, reversed his grip on the kitchen knife, and aimed the blade at the furry hand.
"……Huh?"
Then, a strange pattern entered his field of view.
A small mark engraved on the palm of the monkey's paw. A black geometric pattern that wouldn't be strange to call a tattoo was faintly glowing. Ian instinctively realized the identity of the pattern.
"A magic circle?"
The moment he uttered it, a long needle shot out from the pattern, aimed at Ian's glabella. Ian immediately turned his head to dodge the attack and plunged the kitchen knife into the pattern.
Thud!
Along with the sensation of piercing flesh, the monkey's paw convulsed and then went limp. The needle stuck in the ceiling trembled before soon subsiding.
"……."
Ian glared at the blood-soaked pattern with a coldly frozen expression.
*
"Found him."
Eddie, who had been sitting with his eyes closed, slowly lifted his eyelids and muttered.
It was unfortunate that the ambush hadn't worked, but since he had memorized the face, it wasn't a big problem.
"So it was that young man who asked for directions back then."
Not a familiar face, but not a stranger either. He had backed down at the time, but there was no need for that now. Rather, it was time to track him down and repay the favor.
"……."
It was difficult to see him as the owner of an Outer God's grimoire. It wasn't at the stage of certainty yet.
However, the fact that he possessed a grimoire. And that he had killed a considerably strong mystery without difficulty, and even killed the monkey's paw Eddie had personally made in one blow. There were quite a few reasonable circumstances.
‘It doesn't matter if it's not an Outer God's grimoire. It's certainly quite high-level, so simply killing him and taking it will be helpful.’
Now that he had the information, there was no need to dawdle in this country. Now, when Ian would be exhausted from continuous magic use, was the most opportune time.
Eddie immediately got up and drew Ian's face on paper.
Holding the perfectly drawn face up to the mirror, he chanted a spell.
"Find him. Your grudge lies here."
Kiiiiing.
The magic circle engraved on the inside of the mirror glowed as the spell activated. Eddie held the mirror up to a map of the Korean Peninsula and pinpointed Ian's location.
‘Gyeongsang-do. But it won't be a residential area. Since we ran into each other near the hotel, he must have a home in Gyeonggi-do.’
Having gained conviction, he fixed the mirror to the map and began pre-selecting mysteries for combat.
If his location didn't change for three hours, he would go kill him; if it changed, he would wait until it fixed and then ambush. If he had Ian's blood or hair, he might have been able to attack from afar, but unfortunately, he didn't.
It didn't matter. The time a mage took to recover from magical overload was usually a week. He just had to deal with him within that time.
"Finally, I'll get my hands on a grimoire too."
Eddie smiled slightly and put the cigarette in his hand to his lips.
Acrid smoke traveled down his windpipe and exited through his mouth.
That beautiful gray mist felt as if it were blessing him.