After leaving the workshop, Sinhyeok could not forget that mad glint in their eyes.
“Why are the people in the workshop all like that, ugh……”
Still, he had received gifts of the essentials for enchantment.
“At least they gave me something.”
He decided to look over the details later and put them into his inventory.
Sinhyeok hurried down the corridor and arrived at the battalion commander’s office.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Loyalty. Battalion Commander, I came because you called for me.”
When he went inside, the battalion commander was not there.
“Hmm?”
Just as he was wondering, the door to the command control room beside him flew open.
The operations chief beckoned to Sinhyeok.
“Over here. Hurry!”
Sinhyeok immediately rushed over.
“Loyalty. Sergeant Bu Sinhyeok.”
“Yeah, Sinhyeok, hold on a moment.”
The battalion commander was busy communicating while focusing on the monitor on the wide table.
“When will the locations of the rapidly increasing Gates be uploaded?”
The officer in charge of Gate operations in the operations section shouted urgently.
“They’ve just been uploaded! I’ll share them immediately!”
The current status of Gate occurrences in South Korea was shared on the central monitor.
“Uh.”
The moment Sinhyeok saw it, his brain stopped for a moment.
More than a thousand new Gates whose grades had not yet been assessed had appeared.
Usually, the average number that appeared in a year was just over a thousand.
A year’s worth had erupted in just a few hours.
“When did it get like this?”
The battalion commander answered with a grave expression.
“From 0600 to 2000 today. There will be a considerable number of Gates that haven’t been reported as well.”
Most of the capital area on the map was being dyed red.
“Sinhyeok. Put the workshop duties aside and first determine the grades of the new Gates and the time until Break.”
The battalion commander checked the map and pointed out the area.
“From Seoul to Gyeonggi. Roughly how many?”
The Gate operations officer answered.
“Five hundred sixty so far.”
“You heard him. This is the most urgent area.”
The battalion commander pointed at Seoul and Gyeonggi on the map and looked at Sinhyeok.
“They’re symbolic locations. If there’s even slightly conspicuous damage, neighboring countries and politicians will raise hell.”
Lee Gangyeol checked the time and assigned the operation time.
“Three divisions of the Awakened Army will be deployed to Seoul and the Gyeonggi area. Two companies from Hongik will be deployed as well. The scheduled deployment time is 0900 tomorrow. We have twelve hours left.”
He stared at Sinhyeok and asked for his resolve, and whether it was possible.
“Can you do it?”
Sinhyeok answered without hesitation.
“I will get it done.”
“Good. Use any means necessary. And the only personnel you can deploy are Sergeant Hong Ichan and Sergeant Baek Arin.”
Sinhyeok did not protest at all despite the severely insufficient number of personnel.
“I’ll depart immediately. Loyalty!”
“Yeah.”
The battalion commander stopped Sinhyeok as he was about to leave.
“Sinhyeok.”
“Yes?”
When he turned back, the battalion commander left him with a piece of advice.
“Believe in your talent. Make your fingertips, your creative perspective, into weapons. Then it will be solved in one stroke.”
At those words, Sinhyeok thought of “alchemy.”
“Yes. Understood.”
After Sinhyeok left, the Gate operations officer glanced at the battalion commander and asked.
“Will it be possible? More than five hundred Gates in twelve hours?”
“Normally, it would be difficult. But if it’s that guy…… he’ll find some way. Because he’s the kind of guy who can.”
* * *
Sinhyeok first gathered his equipment with an urgent expression.
Then he headed straight to the barracks.
When he arrived, Blue was staring at him with a blank expression.
“Blue, come here. Let’s go on an operation with hyung.”
Blue immediately stuck close to him.
When he went to the room right next door, Hong Ichan was already hurriedly changing clothes.
“Aaah! Hyung, I’ll just grab my gear and come!”
Ichan dashed out to gather his equipment.
“Hey! Come straight to the supply section!”
“Got it!”
* * *
Sinhyeok grabbed only his communication equipment and got into a supply section vehicle.
A moment later, he spotted Hong Ichan and Baek Arin sprinting over.
“Safe!”
Baek Arin came straight over and snatched the car keys from Sinhyeok’s hand.
“Mister, focus on the operation. I’ll drive.”
“Oh, thanks.”
Sinhyeok got into the passenger seat and immediately turned on the tablet, the operational terminal, to check the relevant information.
“The rally point is the National Assembly Building. Let’s go there.”
“Okay.”
They set off at once.
Once they left the base, it seemed quiet at a glance.
However, military units were roaming every corner of the neighborhood.
The citizens, not knowing what was going on, watched the sudden movements of the Awakened Army.
“The civilians probably don’t know the news yet, right?”
Seeing the puzzled expressions of the citizens, Baek Arin looked at Sinhyeok, who was monitoring the tablet.
“Probably. If the situation gets more urgent and dangerous, they’ll send out an alert.”
“Hyung, what we have to do is assess the grades?”
“And the time until Break. Tomorrow, there’s going to be a large-scale Gate cleanup in Seoul and the Gyeonggi area. This is the groundwork before that.”
Baek Arin realized the seriousness of the situation.
“If we’re late, it’ll turn into a complete mess, huh?”
“Yeah. If we misjudge even one, a Gate that bursts could swallow civilians. So let’s do it properly. And it’ll go well.”
The advice the battalion commander had given him just before kept circling through Sinhyeok’s head.
“Let’s do this right. We only need to check 560.”
Arin, who was driving, and Ichan, who was checking the operation, looked at Sinhyeok at the same time.
“Five hundred sixty in twelve hours?”
“Yeah. Arin, red light ahead.”
Screeech.
The car stopped abruptly, and Sinhyeok calmly took out the book he had received from Bloom earlier.
“Five hundred sixty?!”
“Hyung!?”
“Stop being surprised. I need to focus right now.”
The two sergeants, their eyes trembling, looked at Sinhyeok with expressions of disbelief and absurdity.
“Just think of one thing. If we can’t do it? Then everyone is screwed.”
And he calmly opened the front page of the book titled “Enchant.”
『Enchanting is a technique that uses runic words to grant an arbitrary attribute to a target, with the purpose of bestowing various magical functions through their application.
Then what are runic words?
Runic words are a language that expresses the attributes of all things. They contain every phenomenon and concept, including the attributes of nature. Circle Magic is what made it possible to handle a portion of them by turning them into formulas. However, the reality is that even magic cannot fully contain all the great attributes of all things.
The only method capable of using them in their entirety is “Alchemy,” the origin of ancient enchantment.』
“This is enchantment, huh?”
From the next page onward, the types of runic words were listed at great length.
“They’re all here. From the ones I’m used to seeing in magic to the ones I’m not.”
“Hyung, aren’t you being way too calm?”
Hong Ichan spoke to Sinhyeok, who was focused on the book in the back.
“No, I’m actually anxious.”
Contrary to his words, the way he focused on the book looked terribly mismatched.
“While reading a book?”
“This is the answer. They say there are no coincidences in the world. I went there asking them to teach me enchantment, they gave me this book, and then, just in time, this happened.”
Ichan looked dumbfounded at those words.
“So someone’s screwing with us?”
“Maybe, maybe not. But we don’t know.”
Sinhyeok closed the book and looked around.
“Let’s resolve this properly. That way, that old man going home from work, that family eating out, and even that couple out on a date can all see tomorrow.”
Baek Arin glanced over and said.
“Leave the couple out. Some of us are working ourselves to the bone right now, hmph!”
“Ahem.”
The car soon arrived at the National Assembly Building.
When they went to the main gate, soldiers were guarding it.
“Loyalty. We’re from Hongik.”
“Please show your IDs.”
All three of them held out the military IDs they were carrying.
“Thank you for confirming. You may enter.”
The car slowly went inside, and the Capital Defense Command had been deployed within.
After parking the car in one spot, they got out.
They saw someone running busily toward them.
“Huff, huff. Are you from Hongik?”
A second lieutenant asked, looking at the three of them.
“That’s right.”
“Please follow me. I’ll guide you to the temporary command control room.”
As he guided the three of them, he found it strange that there were only three personnel.
“But are the three of you all?”
Sinhyeok nodded.
“Yes.”
“Oh dear……”
With a worried look, he opened the office being used as the command control room.
“Loyalty.”
“Good to meet you. Are you Sergeant Bu Sinhyeok?”
The commander of the Capital Defense Command stared at Sinhyeok.
“I believe this is the first time I’ve seen you in person. Corporal ‘Yu Sinhyeok.’”
The second lieutenant looked back and forth between the commander and Sinhyeok with a puzzled face.
“Do you happen to know who he is?”
“I’m not sure either……”
“In any case, it’s far too few.”
The commander, Lieutenant General Park Incheol, spoke while looking at his puzzled staff officers.
“He was the main culprit of the Persona Catastrophe eight years ago, and the very person called Hongik’s Radar that year.”
When the two nicknames were mentioned, everyone gasped in admiration and then covered their mouths.
“If Lee Gangyeol sent you, that means he sent everything he had, doesn’t it?”
“You may see it that way, Commander. I’ll do my best.”
“Thank you. First, let’s divide the operational zones. Come here.”
He pointed at the map and said.
“All of them are urgent. But the priority is.”
The commander looked over areas densely packed with apartment complexes and schools, then sighed as he pointed to the zone where the Assembly and corporations were concentrated.
“Here.”
At the far too blatant location, Sinhyeok was left speechless.
“Hah, honestly.”
The commander also sighed as he spoke.
“It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? Even at a time like this, the VIPs and assemblymen are acting like we should protect their offices first.”
Sinhyeok focused on the end of the commander’s finger.
“Still, I’m counting on you.”
“I will definitely get it done.”
After confirming the priorities, Sinhyeok immediately headed for the vehicle.
“First, we’ll circle around this area. Ichan, you take the tablet and keep briefing us on the operational status.”
“Yeah!”
“Arin, take the vanguard. You’ll have to handle all combat that breaks out.”
During the search for the Gates, he planned to have Arin take charge of every battle that occurred.
“Hoo. I don’t like it, but we’ll check the fifty-four Gates near the Assembly first.”
They immediately left the Assembly and headed for the nearby Gates.
They moved to deal with the countless Gates lined up everywhere.
About two hours passed, and Arin was panting.
Sinhyeok silently concentrated as he entered the Gate information into the tablet.
“Twenty-seven so far. Ichan, switch with Arin.”
“Okay.”
Sinhyeok thought of the remaining time and the more than five hundred Gates still left.
“Haa.”
Baek Arin took the tablet and refreshed the status.
Then, seeing the number of Gates remaining, she sighed.
“Mister, the number of newly assigned Gates is up to 630 and still increasing.”
At the hopeless number, Sinhyeok let out a hollow laugh.
“Damn it.”
In this insane situation, Sinhyeok felt like his head was about to burst.
“They’re still being added even now. Six hundred forty-two.”
The rate of increase was insane.
“Is this…… the end of the world?”
At the dizzying number of new Gates occurring, Sinhyeok felt like his brain was about to shut down.
“Mister.”
Baek Arin set down the tablet and looked at Sinhyeok, who seemed exhausted.
“Rest for a bit. We’ll circle around.”
Sinhyeok smiled at her words.
“You’re saying that on purpose to make me snap out of it, aren’t you?”
Baek Arin wiped away her sweat and nodded.
“You finally noticed? So get a grip, mister. You said if we stop, everyone dies tomorrow.”
“Kkeuk, that’s right. Sssup.”
Sinhyeok took a blue potion out of his inventory and poured it over his head.
“Haaah. That’s refreshing.”
Blue quietly slipped out and licked up the potion.
“Let’s stop circling. We need to devise a fundamental solution.”
“How?”
Arin and Ichan looked at Sinhyeok.
“There’s definitely a way. The battalion commander must have had a reason for sending me. Even knowing this situation.”
“Why was it me? Me? What did he think I could do?”
“Alchemy?”
The final advice the battalion commander had given him.
“To synthesize, strengthen, and enchant.”
He recalled everything he had learned so far.
“With a creative perspective.”
The battalion commander’s words shimmered before him.
Then, suddenly, he thought of it.
A ridiculous solution that would be nice if it worked.
“Should I try increasing myself?”
“Hmm?”
To the two of them, who wore expressions showing they had no idea what he meant, Sinhyeok explained.
“I’m saying let’s increase the number of people who can use Mapping.”