Chapter 9
—Azin-nim.
Whenever I rode in Railey’s car, I had control over the background music. In other words, my phone was connected to the Bluetooth system in his car.
Thanks to that, when I pressed the call button, Railey’s voice came through the car audio. I minimized the call screen and continued searching, then sincerely pleaded with him.
“Please don’t tell me that a gate opened, or a portal opened, or creatures are pouring out.”
—Then I will answer that your guess was correct instead.
“Ah, fuck!”
—Please don’t throw your phone. Let’s talk first.
“I didn’t throw it!”
I shouted while clicking through the articles one after another.
There seemed to be no one who could explain why this was suddenly happening. The internet was filled with people who were confused by the sudden, completely unexpected incident, along with people uploading videos because they thought this was a huge scoop.
There were also countless articles telling people to evacuate because it was an emergency.
My phone began vibrating late because I had finally received an emergency alert.
—I don’t know if we should call it a ‘gate’ or a ‘portal,’ but it seems that a crack has appeared in the air.
“A crack?”
—A crack connected to another dimension. The surroundings look normal, but the crack can only be seen from a certain direction. From the opposite side, there is nothing but ordinary space. However, from the side where the crack can be seen, it looks like a hole or passage leading to another place. Do you understand?
“Fuck, that explanation is way too fantasy-like.”
—Is it difficult to understand?
“But I’m a fantasy writer. Keep explaining.”
While imagining Railey’s explanation in my head, I clicked on an article titled ‘Gangnam Live.’
There were five areas where gates had opened this time: Sinchon, Gangnam, Yeongdeungpo, Guro, and Jamsil.
Those were the five areas where news reports had appeared so far, but apparently, there wasn’t only one gate in each area.
The place getting the most attention was Gangnam.
I clicked the link, wondering what had happened there, only to discover that something completely different from what I expected was happening.
There was a live-streaming video titled ‘Gangnam Live.’
What the fuck? What crazy bastard was sharing something like this in real time?
I frowned hard as Railey continued explaining through the phone.
—I don’t know if we should call them creatures either. Anyway, something strange is slowly crawling out of the crack.
“If it’s something that doesn’t look human and you can’t even tell whether it’s an animal or a plant, then it’s a creature. What does it look like?”
—A black creature with a hard, sharp outer shell. Its outer shell seems to have evolved like that of a crustacean, but there are white or red glowing holes resembling eyes scattered throughout its body. With this level of hardness, a handgun probably wouldn’t penetrate it…
“You… What the hell are you doing that you know all that?”
—……
This bastard. Don’t tell me…
I played the video with the sound muted so I could watch it while talking to Railey.
The silence on his end made me uneasy.
I stopped what I was doing and frowned.
“Hey, bastard. I told you not to do anything dangerous and just observe the situation. Were you beating up a creature while I wasn’t looking?”
—It wasn’t particularly difficult. These creatures have hard shells, but apparently they contain minerals, because electricity passes through them. I have no idea what kind of creatures they are.
“What are you going to do if you casually use a supernatural ability in front of other people?”
—I disabled the nearby security camera network and lured it inside a building. Don’t worry.
As if I could not worry.
While I cursed inwardly, the video finally finished buffering and began playing.
I quickly answered Railey and enlarged the screen.
“Some crazy bastard is uploading a live video, so I’ll use that to check things. Can’t we stop the cracks?”
—They seem to disappear on their own after releasing a certain number of monsters… But don’t watch the video.
“What?”
—Turn off the video immediately.
The moment Railey spoke firmly, footage of Teheran-ro in Gangnam appeared on my phone screen.
It looked as though the camera had been placed outside a window of a building.
The road below was completely jammed with cars, and strange red stains were painted across the ground like brushstrokes.
I cursed inwardly.
I felt like I was going to throw up.
The live chat was also filled with people criticizing the person filming it, asking if they were insane for recording something like this.
While worried comments continued to tell the person to rescue someone or at least escape from the area, a pitch-black figure staggering down the street appeared on camera.
Its overall body structure looked somewhat human.
Considering that the first floor of the nearby building was unusually tall, it seemed to be at least two meters tall.
There was no clear boundary between its torso and head, and it had no neck, making it look as though something had been pulled over its entire body.
It was completely black from head to toe.
It had no fur, clothing, or visible sexual characteristics.
Where its eyes should have been was a single long, torn-looking red hole.
Its arms were so long that they dragged along the ground, while its fingers and toes were sharp and pointed.
There was a person caught in its grasp.
The creature dragged the person by their hair, leaving a red trail behind them like brushstrokes.
Their hair was thickly tangled and clumped together.
I couldn’t tell whether they were dead or alive, but their pupils were unfocused as their eyes seemed to meet the camera from far away.
The monster’s red eye constantly scanned its surroundings, searching for people.
Then another monster appeared behind it.
It was doing something that looked unreal, swinging a person’s arm back and forth before smashing it against the ground several times.
Its grip and strength were unbelievably powerful.
Every time it slammed the arm into the ground, the arm was nearly destroyed, and the pavement cracked with loud bangs.
Eventually, the arm it had been playing with was completely ruined.
The monster then swung its long arm toward a car that was slowly trying to escape nearby.
The result was impossible to believe from merely the collision between a creature’s arm and a car.
The nearest car was crushed horribly.
The cars behind it were also smashed, overturned, and sent rolling around like toys.
A groan escaped between my teeth before I realized it.
The reaction in the chat was not much different from mine.
Even if someone was good at watching horror or thriller movies, actually witnessing a brutal situation in real life was completely different.
“Ugh…”
—Don’t push yourself. Turn off the video.
Railey repeated himself.
“Is it… Is it like that over there too?”
—……
Railey didn’t answer for a moment.
Then he let out a deep sigh through the phone.
—I will deal with the monsters around here and return. Fortunately, it seems there weren’t many people nearby, so most of them evacuated quickly. But before they scatter too far, we should deal with the situation now that the cracks have appeared. That should reduce the long-term threat.
“Won’t you be in danger?”
—‘Danger’?
Railey asked sarcastically for a moment before answering very politely.
—There are few beings in this world more dangerous than your butler.
“But…”
The moment I said that, intense flames suddenly rushed across the screen.
The heat must have been so intense that the camera screen itself began flickering.
I instinctively hunched my shoulders and screamed.
Then Railey urgently asked what was happening, which brought me back to my senses.
Intense flames swept across the street, where no living people seemed to remain.
Even the monsters Railey had said possessed incredibly durable outer shells were melting helplessly.
This was clearly no ordinary fire.
But it didn’t seem like a normal explosion either.
The monsters that had barely escaped the flames and jumped onto the road suddenly stopped paying attention to the cars and began rushing in one direction.
I hurriedly pulled my laptop out of my bag.
I connected it to my phone’s hotspot and continued playing the video on the laptop instead.
I needed sound.
Then another message appeared in the chat.
[Hey, the guy filming hasn’t said anything for a while now… Considering what’s happening, the fact that the screen isn’t moving…]
No further conclusion followed, but the chat stopped for a while.
Only then did I finally understand why such an inhumane video was still being uploaded.
For some reason, the person filming had probably thought they needed to inform people about the situation and started a livestream.
Then the person must have died or fallen into some kind of danger and become unable to control the camera.
A groan escaped me.
Without intending to, the cruel live footage was continuing.
When I made a miserable sound, Railey asked again what had happened.
I quickly answered to let him know I was fine.
“Hey, someone just used magic in the middle of Gangnam…”
—Magic? Please speak reasonably.
“It’s real. I connected my laptop to my phone’s hotspot. Wait. I’ll play it on the laptop.”
The moment the video appeared on the laptop with the sound turned on—
BOOM!
Another tremendous explosion erupted, and bright red flames swallowed an entire building.
Beyond the flames, the distorted sound of a young girl’s voice screamed.
—Get away! I can’t control it any more than this!
What? What couldn’t she control?
Then coordinates for another video appeared in the chat.
I instinctively clicked the link and opened the other video.
This time, it was footage filmed by a relatively well-known internet broadcasting station.
Perhaps they were using a drone, because the screen kept shaking.
A short-haired girl wearing a jacket with a university logo was wildly swinging an aluminum practice baseball bat, smashing the heads of the monsters.
The monsters were focusing their attacks on her.
Even though her face was covered in soot and cuts, she desperately swung the baseball bat and kept knocking the monsters away.
Flames flickered around the baseball bat.
The monsters hit by the bat were engulfed in flames starting from the points of impact. They let out strange, horrible screams before repeatedly charging toward her again.
She cursed and then shouted toward the people around her once more.
—Damn it! They’re all targeting me anyway, so just ditch your cars and run!
It was as though her words had triggered something.
People who had been desperately trying to get into their cars and escape the area suddenly opened their doors and ran out.
They fled with their backs turned toward her.
Once one or two people began running, others who hadn’t been able to hear what she was saying also hurried after them.
Only after everyone had disappeared from the street did she finally swing the baseball bat around herself in one swift motion.
Following its path, a huge circle of flames spread across the ground.
—What the hell is going on?!
Just as she had said, she didn’t know what was happening either.
But she freely controlled the fire.
The moment she surrounded herself with a circle of flames, a powerful explosion erupted.
The drone must have been caught in the flames as well, because the screen immediately went black.
The chat became even more chaotic.
What the hell was happening?
Was this actually real?
Who was that girl who could freely control fire?
Was she a psychic?
But she didn’t look experienced at fighting, so how could she be doing this?
Those kinds of comments continued.
But I noticed something else.
[I know her. She’s Lee Jeong-ah, 32nd class at Soryun High School. Isn’t she supposed to have gone to Cheonsu University?]
I wondered how someone could bring up something like that at a time like this.
But a chill immediately ran down my spine.
She had exposed her face while displaying a supernatural ability like that.
Even if she survived this situation safely, could her life continue normally from now on?
I hurriedly shouted into the Bluetooth call.
“Railey, beat up all the monsters you want, but cover your face first!”
—I already did. I borrowed a helmet from an abandoned motorcycle.
Railey’s calm and casual answer came through the phone.
At the same time, another huge explosion went off on his side.
The screeching sounds of the monsters continued loudly through the phone.
Heavy cracking sounds followed one after another, but Railey’s voice remained unnaturally calm.
After the muffled sound of wind, Railey calmly added, as though he had somehow seen right through my thoughts.
—The protagonist on that screen probably didn’t think to cover her face before using her ability.
“What do you mean?”
—She must have just acquired a new ability. Didn’t my own ability suddenly return just now after disappearing? If she is still fighting safely despite that, she must have been born with good combat instincts, but…
BOOM!
Along with a fierce electrical discharge, a second explosion erupted.
Railey calmly spoke in his usual polite manner.
—She won’t be the only person who suddenly obtained a strange ability and became confused. There may be many others who are struggling even more. Please check whether there are other areas that need assistance. If there are places nearby where monsters have been released, let me know about those as well.
CRACK!
The sound of something being smashed came through the phone.
—I’ve finished things here, so I will go help elsewhere.
I stared blankly at the black laptop screen and the constantly updating chat window.
Then I began moving my hands mechanically.
Psychics.
Heroes.
Strange abilities.
Magic.
Places where monsters had appeared.
I started searching using every keyword I could think of.
Was this definitely my reality?
Or was it a grand story unfolding inside a novel?
I couldn’t even be certain of that myself.
