-Illegal Entry
* * *
In the shadowy darkness beneath the wall, Ren transformed from a crow back to her original form.
It was dark enough already, but I still erected a sight-blocking barrier around us. Just in case there were prying eyes nearby.
“Ren! Have you been well?”
Gil greeted her and asked after her.
Ren smiled brightly at us, but soon her expression turned worried as she answered.
“I was just flying around in the sky. I took a wide look around the area. But it seems a problem has arisen.”
“What kind of problem?”
Wondering if she had been discovered, I looked her over again, but her calm demeanor suggested it wasn’t a problem concerning her personally.
“First, I noticed suspicious movements at Incheon Port and flew in closer. Lizardmen and orcs were entering through the harbor. It seems they smuggled themselves in from China.”
“Lizardmen and orcs? How many in total?”
“There were an enormous amount. I think they’re in the thousands.”
Ren wasn’t Korean, and since she herself was a hybrid with lizardmen, she spoke carefully, but she seemed aware that it was a serious problem.
Illegal entry on that scale was no ordinary problem.
It meant the government’s systems had been paralyzed and that there was a formidable backer.
The timing was also quite coincidental.
‘Paralyze Incheon Airport, then infiltrate other races through Incheon Port?’
It had to be the work of the Magic Tower.
There was no doubt that the black mages hadn’t orchestrated this simply for the immigration of lizardmen and orcs to Korea.
What on earth were they scheming?
Most likely, they were trying to cause chaos. Or perhaps they were securing materials to create chimeras.
“After entering through Incheon Port, where did they move next?”
“They split up into trucks and scattered everywhere. They seemed to be spreading throughout the Incheon area, but there also appeared to be trucks heading to Seoul. I didn’t follow them to the end, so I’m not certain.”
“I see. Thank you for the information.”
“That’s not all. There’s also a problem in the dwarf district on Wolmido.”
“Wolmido? What’s happening there now?”
Ren’s expression darkened further in an instant.
Wolmido was where the dwarves who had hidden and helped her lived, so she seemed even more worried.
“There are people who fled Chinatown to escape the chimeras. They’re from that underground organization. They’re flocking to Wolmido saying they’ll occupy the dwarf district.”
“They’re trying to occupy it?”
As expected, there were people who had escaped Chinatown to avoid the chimeras. Since the area hadn’t been completely sealed off, it was only natural.
However, the problem would be severe if they had been consumed by the disease energy.
But occupy? Did that mean they had already transformed into chimeras?
“They were all armed with guns. I flew closer and heard them talking. They said Chinatown was ruined because of the chimeras, so they should occupy Wolmido.”
It seemed the humans of Chinatown’s underground organization were trying to cause trouble again.
At least they were speaking human language, so fortunately, it didn’t seem they had transformed into chimeras.
Earlier, seeing Hwang Ga transform into a chimera, I had vaguely assumed all the underground organization’s people had been consumed by the disease energy, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
It appeared some had survived and fled.
But why were they heading to Wolmido even though they had been told of the evacuation shelters? Truly, they were people with despicable tendencies.
“The underground organization people are really something. The black mages carried out the chimera terror, so why are they swarming innocent dwarves? If they’re upset, they should fight the chimeras instead.”
Gil, who had been listening quietly, stepped forward and denounced them.
“Besides, I saved them earlier when they were shooting at chimeras in broad daylight and nearly died.”
“Right. That happened.”
I didn’t bother adding that some of them had transformed into chimeras afterward.
“Anyway, that is a problem. But the dwarf district is well-defended, so don’t worry too much. If chimeras had swarmed it, that would be one thing, but humans with guns won’t be able to do much.”
“Yes. That’s true.”
“Are there any other problems?”
“No. That was all I found while looking around. Ah! Of course, there are still chimeras in Chinatown.”
Even this much was information that couldn’t be obtained from the HQ situation room.
Because she could transform into a crow and fly, she could survey a wider area than humans on the ground.
The police said they were sending drones for reconnaissance too, but perhaps because they were focused only on the Chinatown area, there hadn’t been any word of Incheon Port either.
By now, had new information come in?
“Where are the chimeras mainly located right now?”
I asked Ren one last time.
“The chimeras are prowling around this school right now. There’s no one in other areas, so they all seem to have gathered here.”
“I see. What do you plan to do from now on, Ren?”
“I’m going back to Wolmido to keep watch. I may not be able to help, but I’m still worried.”
“Be careful. No matter what happens, don’t approach them.”
“Yes. I will.”
Ren transformed back into a crow and flew off in a flash.
Gil and I began moving toward the east building.
Gil, who had been walking quietly, raised a question.
“How could lizardmen and orcs smuggle themselves into Incheon Port on such a large scale? Someone must have helped them, right?”
“It was probably the Magic Tower’s doing.”
“Why did the black mages bring other races into Korea? Is it because they want to use them as chimera materials?”
It seemed Gil had jumped to the same thought first.
Meanwhile, I felt a renewed sense of foreboding. With thousands of infiltrators, I felt anything could happen.
At first, I had thought the Magic Tower caused the chimera terror in the Incheon area to divert attention focused on them.
The Bureau’s investigative arrows were just about to point toward the Eternal Life Building and the Magic Tower.
I had assumed they caused terror in Incheon rather than Seoul to keep the mages far away and buy time.
But now, it felt like it might not be on such a simple level.
Paralyze Incheon Airport to isolate Korea, then infiltrate thousands of other races through Incheon Port?
It seemed a bit too much to see merely as a diversion.
‘What do they want? What else are they planning?’
Were they trying to bring about a full-blown catastrophe?
Or rather than hiding the Magic Tower, were they trying to properly reveal themselves?
Either way, it was unsettling that all the mages were concentrated in the Incheon area.
It meant Banaheim had bought time as well.
I wondered what Gim Seon-ho was up to now, taking advantage of that leeway.
“The Magic Tower might be planning an even bigger terror attack. Let’s head back to the situation room for now. We need to talk with all the mages together.”
“Yes.”
To resolve this entire situation entangling the Magic Tower and Banaheim, we first had to finish clearing out the chimeras immediately.
We had to hurry. We couldn’t remain tied down only to Chinatown.
Upon entering the east building, it fortunately seemed there were no major problems on this side.
The residents had divided into several classrooms to rest. Purifying energy had spread well throughout the entire building, and the aura of disease couldn’t be felt anywhere.
At this point, the state was relatively peaceful and orderly. Though chimeras surrounded the outside of the school, the protective barrier was still being maintained well.
Upon entering the situation room, the mages were gathered having a meeting.
“You’ve returned. Are the west buildings all cleared now?”
Yu Jae-seon greeted us and asked.
“Yes. They’re all cleared. There’s no one in the west buildings or the playground. However, it seems the chimeras have gathered near the school.”
“I know. Drone reconnaissance showed that the ones in the park all came down and are surrounding the school. So we were discussing how to attack the remaining chimeras.”
“How many chimeras remain?”
“There are about forty chimeras around the school.”
With that number, we could take them out in one go.
Finally, the end of the chimera raid was in sight.
“Has there been any news from outside?”
“It seems the chimeras that flowed to other areas of Incheon and western Seoul have all been exterminated. Aside from the power outage, no other problems have been reported.”
“There’s also no news of other terrorist attacks in Seoul?”
“It seems okay for now. The Incheon Airport side is still serious, though. Anyway, they say they’ve more or less cleared half of that as well.”
As expected, they didn’t know about Incheon Port or Wolmido.
I summarized the information I heard from Ren and told the mages.
Of course, I didn’t mention Ren. I simply said I heard it from my informant.
“We’ll send police and troops to Wolmido immediately. There are always humans who try to commit crimes taking advantage of chaotic situations. Matters between people can be sufficiently handled by the police and army alone.”
An Guk-tae immediately stood up and made contact.
Meanwhile, the other mages’ attention gathered on the Incheon Port illegal entry incident.
“It’s not simple smuggling, is it?”
“It can’t be. We’re talking about thousands arriving at once, not dozens.”
“Who’s behind it? The black mages?”
“Of course. They must be doing this to create more chimeras.”
“Anyway, we’ll contact the government about the infiltration and have the police track them down. It’s something that needs verification as well.”
This time, Yu Jae-seon stood up holding a communication device.
The foreign mages were guessing at random about the reason for the other races’ illegal entry.
“If they brought them in to use as chimera materials, with those numbers, an enormous amount of chimeras would come out.”
“Does the Magic Tower have ties to the Chinese mainland? Did they bring them to use as soldiers?”
“Why lizardmen and orcs of all things?”
“This is ominous. What the hell are they planning now?”
I cut off their conversation and urged action.
“Right now, we need to finish clearing out the nearby chimeras first. There are only about forty, so we can finish them in one go. We need to wrap up quickly and return Chinatown to the residents.”
“The neighborhood was largely destroyed, so restoration will probably take quite a while. Though of course, the dead are a bigger problem than that.”
“How many dead are there?”
“It’s not exact, but around one hundred and fifty people seem to have disappeared. It’s not been properly determined whether they all died or fled outside Chinatown. Since there are also people said to have flocked to Wolmido...”
Hearing the specific numbers, the damage was quite severe.
For now, I could only hope it ended at this level and that the disease energy hadn’t spread outside Chinatown.
“We’ll leave restoration to the government and finish the raid. We’ll divide into four teams—east, west, south, and north—and exit simultaneously to hunt the chimeras.”
“Good. We can pair up in teams of two.”
“One person will burn them with fire magic, and the other will attack the heart and the core.”
There was no time to rest, not even for a moment.
Even this time spent in meeting like this counted as a break.