-Runaway
“They’re handing out free Golden Apple samples on the streets all over Gangnam right now.”
“What? Golden Apple samples?”
Yu Jaeseon asked back in surprise, and everyone in the conference room, startled as well, pricked up their ears.
The Management Bureau employee seemed to be trying to speak quietly, but the conference room was not large, so everyone heard him clearly.
“They’re saying Golden Apple will be released soon and that people should try it in advance. They’re calling it a wonder drug for people who’ve recently had their life force drained by pigeons or zombies.”
Before we had even had the chance to announce that Vanaheim was behind releasing the mutated pigeons into the streets, they were already moving first.
“After their product advertisement, they’ve hit us with another preemptive strike.”
“We should have detained Kim Seonho first……”
“While we’re busy responding to the Magic Tower’s terror attack, they’re steadily carrying out their plan.”
“Damn it. We shouldn’t have underestimated a conglomerate.”
On our side, a government agency was raising serious suspicions against a major corporation, so we had to move only after securing clear evidence. That was why we had no choice but to be late.
Vanaheim must have been in a hurry too. After all, the black mage had already been arrested, and I had gone on broadcast and taken aim at them.
The only answer they had was to let people taste Golden Apple as soon as possible. The power of desire was a terrifying thing.
“We need to deal with this situation first, don’t we?”
Yu Jaeseon said, looking around at the people in the conference room.
But it seemed the employee who had come to deliver the news was not finished yet.
The employee opened his mouth again.
“That’s not all. There’s one more incident.”
“What is it?”
“There’s been a major change in the zombies’ protest. It seems a mage has joined them.”
“What? A mage has joined the zombie protesters? Explain in detail.”
That was news that seized my nerves.
The zombie protest alone had been concerning, and now a mage had joined them.
An uneasy premonition rose like fog.
“First, a counter-protest broke out against the zombie protest. People advocating human-centrism appeared around Gwanghwamun. They provoked the zombies, saying they had no rights and deserved to die. It was a precarious situation, and in the end, a clash broke out.”
While the employee continued speaking, we all opened our communication devices at once and checked the news.
The communication devices we had turned off for the meeting were piled with updates.
“The riot squads requested from the provinces hadn’t arrived yet, so the police force was insufficient.”
There had been a clash between the two groups of protesters.
The zombies vastly outnumbered them, but the humans were more violent, so the zombies were pushed back.
It was only natural. In truth, rather than a clash between two protest groups, it was one-sided violence by hate groups against the zombies.
The zombies, who had been spread out over a wide area, were pushed farther and farther into Gwanghwamun Square.
They were beaten down, trampled, and crushed together.
The humans had apparently swung violence indiscriminately.
The police surrounding the protesters did try to stop them, but it seemed they had not done so actively.
Among them were those who openly sided with the humans, and others who, under the pretext of protection, drove the zombies into an even tighter space.
“While the zombies were being beaten one-sidedly like that, a tremendous roar suddenly resounded through Gwanghwamun Square. It didn’t ring out just once, but is still echoing endlessly, so it seems certain to be magic.”
It was sound magic.
Having grasped the general situation, I sprang up from my seat.
“I need to go to Gwanghwamun.”
As I quickly crossed the conference room, I said only that for the moment.
“What? You’re going to Gwanghwamun? We need to investigate, but for now, that side is a clash between protesters, isn’t it? Could it be a black mage?”
“We can send other mages to Gwanghwamun. Shouldn’t we deal with the Golden Apple issue first?”
Yu Jaeseon and Director Park Hongguk spoke at the same time, as if trying to dissuade me.
Everyone was flustered by my sudden action.
“That’s right. You need to stop the distribution of Golden Apple samples at once. Please have the Management Bureau move quickly. The more it spreads among people, the bigger a problem it’ll become.”
I said that before leaving the conference room.
“Understood. We’ll take measures immediately. But Mage, are you really going to Gwanghwamun?”
“Yes. I need to go there. I absolutely have to be the one to go.”
“No, why……?”
“I’ll explain the details later.”
With that, I shot out of the conference room like an arrow.
I hurried down the corridor almost at a run, took the elevator straight to the parking lot, then suddenly thought that if I went by car, it would be too late.
In the end, I hastily opened a teleportation portal in a corner of the parking lot.
Every second counted. I had to hurry.
The mage using sound magic in Gwanghwamun right now was Gil.
Even from the brief on-site video someone had posted on the message board, I could tell for certain.
The mana waves that had activated the sound magic bore clear traces of concentric circles.
Even if not for that, I had already guessed it would be Gil.
What other mage would stand on the side of the zombie protesters and use magic against humans?
‘He said he’d never do it again, and now he’s already running wild.’
On top of that, this time it was not discreet mind magic, but sound magic that everyone could hear. In the middle of Gwanghwamun, no less.
It was drawing everyone’s attention. The scale of people who could be harmed was enormous as well.
This was a real rampage.
It was by no means something that could be overlooked.
If he was actually harming ordinary people, it might not end with mere disciplinary action; he could be branded a black mage.
I had to go there immediately and confirm it with my own eyes.
As soon as the teleportation portal was complete, I jumped in without delay.
I set the destination as the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, right in front of Gwanghwamun Square, but even getting out was not easy.
The outside of the portal was packed with people.
Most were humans, with other races mixed in, and all of them were clutching their ears and crouching in pain.
“Please move! Let me out!”
When I shouted, a few people raised their heads and barely looked toward me with grimacing faces.
“A portal? Is he a mage? Or a black mage?”
“Did a mage come to save us?”
“Ah! It’s Mage Oudin! He came to save us!”
“Move aside up front! Let the mage through!”
Only then did a gap finally open in front of the portal, allowing me to come out.
Because I had already wrapped myself in an acoustic shield, I was not affected by the echoing roar at all, but the people were clutching their ears and shuddering.
If there was any relief, it was that the sound attack was not strong enough to tear eardrums and kill people.
Even while suffering, the people saw me and waved, cheered, and shouted for me to save them quickly.
That meant they were still well enough to live.
“Please wait a moment! Make way so I can get to the square!”
At that, people gradually moved aside, and the crowd in front of me split wide open, forming a path.
I hurried toward the source of the sound magic.
After a short distance, I reached the police line separating the humans and the zombie crowd.
The police, too, were being helplessly battered by the echoing roar.
But once I crossed that line, the zombies I met were different.
The zombies were staggering and running around here and there, but no matter how I looked at them, they did not seem affected by the sound magic at all.
They were merely running away to escape from being driven and pressed into the center of the square.
As expected, Gil was using sound magic only on everyone except the zombies.
‘Gil!’
Before long, I found Gil.
On the far side of the square, there was a place where the police line had completely collapsed, and there, the zombies could be seen surrounding Gil and cheering.
Gil stood with both arms spread wide, sending mana waves out in every direction.
I immediately drew up my mana and stretched my arm toward Gil.
I activated cancellation magic that precisely enveloped the concentric circles of Gil’s mana waves.
Cancellation magic was simple, but its effect was certain.
It gathered in all the mana waves Gil was sending out with precision, allowing me to dispel the sound magic.
Without causing any external influence, it deleted only the magic that needed to be deleted.
“The echo is gone!”
“Ahh, we’re saved!”
“I finally feel like I can live.”
I heard the people behind me speaking after being freed from the echoing roar. Sighs of relief sounded here and there as well.
The zombies were hesitantly looking around.
But Gil alone did not move a muscle.
Even though his magic had been dispelled, even though the situation around him had completely changed, even though I had come, he neither turned his head nor moved.
He still stood there, both arms spread wide.
I quickly approached Gil and shouted.
“Gil! Snap out of it!”
When I got close, I saw that Gil’s pupils had expanded black.
Even though I had come right beside him, Gil did not look at me. He was simply stirring up mana waves again, as if trying to restore the dispelled magic.
He was probably in a trance.
Was this the result of his rampage?
I hurriedly cast a barrier around Gil and activated concealment magic.
I had to prevent Gil’s mana waves from reaching outside, and I also had to keep other people from seeing him in this state.
Gil was surrounded by zombies, with no people nearby, and because the sudden sound attack had left them suffering, the counter-protesters and police still did not seem to know who had performed the sound magic.
I wished no one would find out.
I wanted to bury what Gil had done, just like this.
‘Is hoping no one knows too much to ask?’
Near Gil, several drones lay on the ground, destroyed.
They were police drones. They seemed to have been destroyed by the sound magic.
But there could already be footage they had transmitted or recorded.
Someone might have witnessed Gil using magic from a distance.
“Mage……?”
At the sound of a thin voice, I turned my head and saw Ren there.
Ren was sitting on the ground among the zombies with an exhausted face, and Cheon Danbi was beside him. She, too, looked terribly worn out.
I quickly approached and helped the two of them to their feet.
“When did you get here? Did you come with Gil?”
When I looked back and forth between the two of them and asked, Cheon Danbi answered.
“Gil contacted me this morning. He said the zombies were in danger and asked me to come with him, so I did.”
“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No. I’m fine now. I thought I was going to suffocate when we got pushed back because of the counter-protesters. And then Gil suddenly used magic, and I thought my ears were going to split.”
Cheon Danbi gave a bitter smile.
In other words, Gil had used magic in such a frenzy that he had not even taken into account the fact that Cheon Danbi and Ren would suffer from the sound magic as well.
“Huh? But where did Gil go?”
Cheon Danbi suddenly looked around in surprise and asked.