-Clue
“Get him!”
Hwang Ga shouted, and the big guy thrust his arm out.
But their charge toward me soon stopped.
My fingertips moved first, and from them, a bluish chill spread out, engulfing the space in an instant.
By now, ice magic had become second nature, activating as naturally as breathing.
A chill sharp as frost swept over everyone in the underground space except for me and the woman behind me.
“Ack! What the hell?”
“That guy’s a wizard!”
Startled, Hwang Ga tried to draw a dagger from his waist, and the big guy strained to grab me, but it all soon became futile.
Crack!
A frigid chill sharp enough to cut flesh froze them solid, unable to move.
The hand gripping the dagger and the big guy’s outstretched arm froze rock-solid. Their very breath froze mid-breath.
Even the cigarette smoke lingering in the underground space turned into white ice.
“Uwaack!”
“Grrrk!”
“…….”
Once even the screams had frozen over, the surroundings finally fell silent.
A landscape of white snow and ice tinged with blue light. The sight held such a serene beauty that one would want to gaze upon it for a long while.
But I had questions. I needed a mouth to answer them.
I moved my fingertips slightly and sent a warm breeze toward Hwang Ga’s mouth.
“Hah!”
Hwang Ga exhaled a deep breath.
Still teeth chattering with a frost-covered face, he poured curses at me.
“You… You think you’ll be fine after doing this to us? You must think being a wizard keeps you safe, but you’re dead wrong! Do you even know who we are! We’re an organization connected to the mainland. You’ve messed with the wrong people!”
Fear briefly flickered in Hwang Ga’s eyes, yet his mouth was still talking big. Whether it was spirit or bluff remained to be seen.
Speaking of which, an organization? I had been wondering what this place was anyway. It seemed to be some sort of underground criminal organization.
Hearing the word “organization” made anger surge in me for no reason.
Having grown up in the commune of a pseudo-religious cult, I naturally felt rage toward all underground organizations that sprouted like poisonous mushrooms in the shadows of society.
As I glared at Hwang Ga, a sharp, frost-storm-like wind swept over him.
In an instant, the ice surrounding him thickened. The blade-like wind grazed his cheek.
“Uwaaack! Please spare me! I was wrong!”
As the blade-like frost scraped against his face, Hwang Ga immediately tucked tail. The big talk from moments ago had indeed been a bluff.
Now it seemed we could finally have a conversation. I quelled the blade-like wind and asked.
“An organization? What kind of organization?”
“W-we’re an organization that upholds human supremacism! A world-class organization connected to the mainland!”
As the blade-like wind subsided, Hwang Ga dropped the honorifics and pleading once again and put on a bluff.
In a way, it was an impressive bluff. I decided to leave that level of pride alone.
“Human supremacism?”
“Yeah! We’re against the Earth being devoured by other races. Reclaiming human rights is our organization’s goal. Haven’t you seen the zombies swarming the streets? The government put magical controls on them so they can’t harm humans, but how can you believe that? I don’t. Someday, they’ll try to devour humans.”
As I listened quietly, Hwang Ga continued to chatter as if a dam had burst. He seemed to have had a lot bottled up.
“Wizards like you have power and ability, so you’ve got nothing to worry about. But ordinary people are hopeless. You’re telling us to just trust the damn government? That’s ridiculous. It’s every man for himself, so shouldn’t we find our own means of survival?”
If the previous world had racial issues, this world had issues with other races.
Conflict was perhaps inevitable. Issues surrounding immigration could, in fact, be called a fight over rice bowls.
“So you’re saying we should drive all other races out of Earth?”
I asked. I was trying to pinpoint the core of their argument by asking simply.
“No. Not necessarily all of them. Elves and dwarves are still useful, after all. They contribute to society. But zombies and other races are problematic. They’re filthy, creepy, horrible. Or completely useless like lizardmen. But, you saw it earlier too, right? Now that orcs have even appeared….”
In the end, it wasn’t even human supremacism. It was just racial discrimination.
Stripped of its useless justification, I grew curious about what this organization was really doing.
“What do you mean you’re connected to the mainland?”
“Human supremacism is a worldwide banner. Of course, on the Chinese mainland, there’s an organization with the same ideals as us. Our Chinatown organization trades with the mainland organization.”
Putting together Hwang Ga’s story, the Chinatown organization was a weapons trafficking organization with ties to a cartel in China.
They professed human supremacism, but in reality, they were a criminal organization of merchants aiming for economic gain.
“Wouldn’t ordinary people without magical power feel safer if they had at least one weapon? We’re acting for the sake of humanity. The atmosphere these days is insane. Black wizards are causing terror everywhere in the world. It’s a world swarming with monsters. So what can you do? You’ve got to stock up on guns, at least.”
I cut off Hwang Ga’s fervent excuses and asked about the black wizards.
“Have black wizards entered our country too? Do you know anything?”
I recalled the old wizard I had seen at Incheon Port earlier. He was probably a black wizard.
Jang Pil-du and the mercenaries had spoken of such things as well. His magic circuits drew the shape of an infinite pentagon.
He was definitely connected to Samir.
“I do have top-secret information. But do I have to tell you all of that for free?”
Hwang Ga said, rolling his eyes. It seemed his calculations hadn’t frozen even though his entire body was frozen stiff, save for his face.
“You seem to want to remain as an ice sculpture in the basement? Fine. If you don’t want to talk, I’ll freeze your mouth again too.”
“No, wait! I’ll talk. I’m telling you! I heard there’s a Magic Tower in our country too. A Magic Tower led by a black wizard named Samir. We haven’t found out where it is yet, though….”
Perhaps because my expression changed in that instant, Hwang Ga trailed off and gauged my reaction.
I had asked because Hwang Ga brought up black wizards, just on the off chance. I figured even a lousy organization might have some information flowing through it.
But the name Samir came out immediately.
‘This is no coincidence. It’s fate.’
I had followed the old wizard who drew the infinite pentagon to Chinatown, but I had lost him.
I had thought I ended up in this strange basement for no good reason while avoiding orcs, but unexpectedly, I obtained information about Samir here.
This world was leading me back to him.
‘So that bastard was in the parallel world too. This time, I definitely….’
Samir, who had been the leader of a pseudo-religious cult in the previous world, was said to be leading a Magic Tower as a black wizard in this world.
It suited him perfectly. His nature of causing terror and throwing the world into chaos remained unchanged.
The only difference was that in this world, Samir didn’t know me. Therefore, I was in a much more advantageous position.
From the moment I heard the name Samir, my soul blazed into flames.
Hot energy surged up from my solar plexus. Hatred burned so fiercely that my throat scorched.
Because of my burning anger, a cold wind rose again in the underground space. Hwang Ga asked, teeth chattering.
“W-why are you like this? Do you know Samir?”
“Tell me more about Samir’s Magic Tower.”
“I don’t know the details. I just heard that black wizards appeared recently, and they all came from Samir’s Magic Tower. They say terror will happen in Korea soon too. That’s all I know.”
He had blabbered about top-secret information, but in the end, what Hwang Ga possessed wasn’t anything great.
However, it served as a small clue for me. About what I had to do in this world from now on.
And perhaps about why I had come to this world.
‘I just have to start over. From the beginning. Starting with finding Samir.’
I clenched my molars and organized my thoughts.
* * *
“Wizard-nim, thank you. I am truly greatly indebted to you today.”
The woman bowed her head to me in gratitude.
We left the underground space and came back out into the restaurant.
We had moved together in case any orcs still remained, but when we came out, the outside situation had already been settled.
It seemed the police and military had been deployed to suppress the orcs.
Chinatown residents gathered here and there along the street, talking. Police cars were patrolling, and soldiers could be seen withdrawing.
Broken signs and shattered glass littered the street, but in any case, it was a scene of restored peace.
“It seems okay now. Please hurry to a safe place.”
“Yes. Then I’ll be going now. Thank you so very much.”
As she bowed her head repeatedly, I quickly waved my hand telling her to go.
Then the woman went down the hill with brisk steps. She moved so fast that she disappeared from sight in no time.
‘Is it because she’s a lizardman? She disappeared really quickly.’
I watched that figure blankly for a moment, then slowly began to walk.
The woman’s name was Ren. She was a lizardman, but the reason her appearance was exactly like a human’s was that she had undergone plastic surgery to take a human form.
According to what I heard from Hwang Ga, plastic surgery for other races to take human form was not uncommon.
He said that especially lizardmen often had complexes about their appearance, so if they had money, they wanted to get plastic surgery.
The surgery was flawless, but one trace remained. Their nails stayed green.
Their skin became white and smooth, but the nails were the one thing that couldn’t be helped.
The reason Hwang Ga recognized Ren as a lizardman immediately upon seeing her was because of her green fingernails.
‘Lizardmen mostly migrated to China and Thailand. So you might think there are none in Korea, but that’s not true. A lot of them come to get plastic surgery to mimic humans. Korea’s bio-industry is advanced, after all. Anyway, that’s why I always examine people’s nails. You have to distinguish the lizardmen.’
That’s what Hwang Ga had told me. It was talk befitting a human supremacist, no, a racist.
Anyway, I had gained one more piece of information about this world.
Korea’s bio-transformation technology was so advanced that plastic surgery for other races to take human form was possible.
It was a bio-industry that applied magical power.
I felt there was still much to learn about this world.
I went out to the main road and immediately caught a taxi.
“Please take me to Itaewon Station.”
“Itaewon?”
The taxi driver brightened. Because the fare from Incheon to Itaewon would be quite high.
When I had come to Incheon, I had been empty-handed, but now I had no worries about the taxi fare. Because Hwang Ga had given me a load of cash.
Perhaps fearing things would go badly if I left the basement without undoing the magic, Hwang Ga had told me the password to the organization’s safe.
‘Wizard-nim! You have to undo the magic before you go. See that safe over there? There’s cash inside, so take it all.’
I hadn’t intended to extort money, but since he was offering it himself, I decided to accept it gratefully.
I had come all the way to Incheon for a mercenary job, but it had fallen through, and I would have had to return empty-handed.
In the end, it was a path back with a thick wad of cash.