Chapter 4

The Night Is Cold

A little while later.

Naturally, the driver who had ended up vomiting all over his own driver's seat came back to complain.

His car was still sitting in the middle of the road.

Fortunately, I had my Magic Crash Course.

"You little bastard."

"Take a look at this."

"The hell I will!"

The moment I unfolded the booklet and shoved it forward, the driver squeezed his eyes shut and threw a punch.

But why do people have eyes?

To see things and dodge them.

"Hey, asshole! Stop shoving that bullshit in my face and fight me properly!"

"Okay."

"God damn it. Getting dragged back into uniform in my eighth year as a reservist is already miserable enough, and now you're pulling this crap?"

"Ah! Ah! I'm dying! I'm dying! This crazy soldier is trying to kill me!"

"You know what a mobilization order is? You picked the perfect day to show up. You're healthy, sturdy, and you've got good endurance. You're military material. Put on a uniform and come with me. Let's see how you like forced conscription. I'll break your legs, chain your ankles, and put you to work hauling sandbags. Today, I am your Military Manpower Administration."

"Urgh! Ahhh!"

Once he'd voluntarily closed his eyes, there was no reason to hold back.

I swung my rifle stock and began beating him evenly from head to toe like I was tenderizing meat.

Whenever it looked like he was about to open his eyes, I'd flash the Magic Crash Course at him.

The moment he squeezed them shut again, I'd resume swinging the rifle stock.

Over and over.

Somehow, as I rhythmically delivered this educational experience, memories of elementary school drumming lessons surfaced.

Before I knew it, my body was moving to the beat.

Then someone suddenly grabbed my arm.

It was Kang Daniel.

"Mr. Baek Jemin! What the hell is wrong with you? You can't just beat people like that!"

"Huff... Huff..."

Sincerity is expressed through actions.

I raised the rifle stock and smashed it into the driver's front bumper.

CRASH!

"I'm sorry."

"You... you..."

"Feel free to sue me. Walk there."

"You son of a bitch!"

The moment he glared at me, I opened the booklet again.

Unable to avoid seeing it, the driver immediately doubled over.

"Bleeeeargh..."

"Hey... you... I'm suing you. Got it? I'm definitely suing you."

The instant he said that, I understood.

I looked at the vomiting driver.

The squad members staring at me like I was insane.

The townspeople whispering among themselves.

Then I glanced back down at the Magic Crash Course.

Kang Daniel was right.

Whether I liked it or not, I was now a soldier defending liberal democracy.

That meant I couldn't go around assaulting civilians.

Responsibility mattered.

So I gently shook Kang Daniel's hand off my arm and calmly faced the driver.

As a proud soldier of the Republic of Korea, I somehow managed to regain my composure and bow politely.

This mysterious writing.

This thing Lieutenant Shin called magic.

I had to learn it.

One way or another.

Simply showing it to people already let me induce vomiting and solve problems this easily.

If I gained actual power from it?

Forget being exempt from night watch duty.

"I should ask for Spam."

"...What?"

***

Unfortunately—but understandably—I ended up being escorted away by military police.

"Reservist Baek Jemin. You're looking at property damage and assault."

Life was truly wonderful.

I could barely remember the last time I'd linked arms with a woman.

Yet here I was, dragged around between two large men.

However, contrary to expectations, I wasn't thrown into a cell.

Instead, I was sent back to the counseling room where Lieutenant Shin Hangi was waiting.

The moment we sat down across from each other again, I heard him sigh.

"Mr. Baek Jemin. That isn't what I gave that to you for."

"Then are you taking it back?"

Ignoring Kang Daniel's lingering confusion about how anyone could see such terrifying power and still fail to learn anything from it, I found myself consumed by a thirst for knowledge for the first time in twenty-eight years.

Lieutenant Shin's face twisted with indecision.

Apparently, people who could look at the symbols without suffering mental side effects weren't exactly common.

And whatever this so-called magic could do, it was valuable enough that he kept looking at me with obvious reluctance.

Like someone unwilling to let a promising lottery ticket go.

After a long period of contemplation, he finally offered a compromise.

"You lose the exemption from night watch duty. In exchange, we'll pretend this assault never happened. The other party bears some responsibility for attempting to force their way through a military checkpoint during a mobilization order. We'll say disciplinary action was handled internally."

A decision worthy of an officer who clearly understood how to maintain an accident-free service record.

Instead, I was designated a problem individual and placed in solitary confinement.

Though calling it confinement was somewhat misleading.

In practice, it amounted to:

Sit quietly and read the Magic Crash Course.

I had been removed from road-security duty and stuffed into a storage room inside the community center.

Military police stood guard outside the door while I remained inside.

Sitting there alone gave me plenty of time to think.

One thing was certain.

Being exempted from labor and other duties so that I could study the Magic Crash Course wasn't really a punishment.

If anything—

It felt suspiciously close to a privilege.

Kang Daniel and the rest of the squad were probably talking behind my back, saying I'd intentionally acted crazy to get myself removed from duty.

To be fair, it would be a lie to say I hadn't slightly hoped for that outcome.

But there was another difference between me and everyone else who still hadn't grasped the seriousness of the situation.

Localized Intrusive Alteration Activity. Magic exists.

And the symbols connected to that magic had only been discovered inside the fog-covered restricted zones.

Which meant the fog in Seoul—and the Seoul Disturbance itself—wasn't anything normal.

Especially Lieutenant Shin.

Lieutenant Shin had spoken extensively about magic, yet had carefully avoided saying what exactly existed inside Seoul.

That alone made me suspect the threat wasn't anything ordinary.

In a situation like this, carefully experimenting with the effects these symbols produced on people wasn't merely useful.

It was essential.

How much exposure caused the mental side effects Lieutenant Shin described?

At what range were they effective?

Did they only work when visually perceived?

My experiment on the aggressive driver had yielded surprisingly valuable results.

It helped fill in gaps the military either hadn't explained or hadn't fully understood.

1.

The symbols only functioned when a person physically perceived and fully recognized their shape.

Closing one's eyes or being too far away to make out the details prevented symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, and nausea.

At least, random pedestrians hadn't all started vomiting simultaneously.

2.

Before revealing any classified information, Lieutenant Shin had asked me questions about religion, faith, and spiritual experiences.

That suggested the government and military regarded these symbols as something spiritual.

But spiritual matters were inherently vulnerable to personal interpretation and distortion.

Rushing to conclusions would be dangerous.

Just look at the Bible.

Countless Christian denominations existed because people interpreted the same passages differently and spent centuries arguing over who was a heretic.

If I interpreted these strange symbols carelessly, I might completely miss their true meaning.

3.

Despite that, Lieutenant Shin had never once doubted the usefulness of magic.

The military had clearly verified its effects.

And apparently those effects were significant enough that they were actively searching for users—or anyone capable of becoming one.

The alternative was that the entire military had gone insane.

Which, admittedly, wasn't impossible.

The problem was that the world itself also seemed to be going insane.

And in a crazy world, perhaps madness was the rational response.

That led to another question.

What if the effect wasn't determined by the symbol's true meaning?

What if it depended on how the viewer interpreted it?

In that case, what were the limits?

The strength?

The side effects?

I turned past the page containing the first symbol—the one I'd named Tri-Square—and looked at several others.

The instant I did, a wave of dizziness hit me.

The room spun.

"Urgh."

I swallowed the rising nausea and quickly flipped back to Tri-Square.

The effect vanished immediately.

The nausea disappeared.

The dizziness vanished.

Just looking at Tri-Square seemed to stabilize me.

I hadn't even tried examining the other symbols closely...

Absently tapping the booklet with my index finger, I frowned.

This...

"Is it some kind of realm? Or an affinity?"

Apparently every symbol except Tri-Square was incompatible with me.

Maybe temporarily.

Maybe forever.

Which meant understanding Tri-Square came first.

The problem was that the interpretations beside it were complete chaos.

Restoration.

Integrity.

Despair.

Growth.

Forest.

Scream.

Spearpoint.

Just as I was clutching my head in frustration—

After staring at the symbol and its interpretations until my eyes hurt—

A realization suddenly struck me.

Maybe the symbol didn't contain a meaning.

***

"Reservist Baek Jemin. Road-security squad requested personnel."

CLANK!

The military policeman opened the door and stared at me coldly.

But I was just as irritated.

"No, damn it. No. Ah... no!"

"Come out."

"Ha..."

Now I finally understood why martial arts masters in wuxia novels always posted guards outside their secluded training chambers.

I shoved the Magic Crash Course into my inner pocket and followed the MP out of the storage room.

Outside, darkness had already fallen.

Only streetlights and the headlights of vehicles hurrying home illuminated the town.

I suddenly laughed.

"What. It did feel pretty good."

"Huh?"

Apparently it wasn't the first watch or the last watch.

Had I really concentrated that hard?

Something had been on the verge of revealing itself to me.

And these ignorant military policemen had interrupted it.

"You're making a huge mistake."

The MP didn't even bother replying.

***

The person assigned to night watch at the intersection was the friendly-looking squad member who had helped deal with the driver earlier.

Han Myeongun.

"Honestly, it felt refreshing. You did what everyone else wanted to do but couldn't."

"Yeah, well..."

"Good thing there won't be consequences this time."

Han Myeongun and I stood guard together, exchanging sleepy yawns.

It was just past midnight.

A truly miserable hour.

Yet I couldn't sleep.

The interruption of my realization still left me oddly excited.

I yawned constantly, but my mind remained crystal clear.

Meanwhile, Han Myeongun had already settled against a stack of sandbags and was fiddling with his phone.

The man had smooth skin and an easygoing face.

Though he'd frowned slightly when he first saw me.

We passed the time like that.

Then footsteps echoed through the tense little town.

Both Han Myeongun and I turned toward the sound.

And were greeted by an unexpectedly scandalous sight.

"Mmh... ngh..."

A man in a slightly rumpled business suit—someone who looked thoroughly exhausted by life—was passionately kissing a fit, athletic woman.

The two were pressed together in an alleyway, carefully positioned so their faces couldn't be seen.

Han Myeongun chuckled.

"Wow. They're pretty passionate."

"Ha ha..."

"Looks like there's a decent age gap too."

"Probably."

"It's kind of cold."

"Well, it is winter."

As Han Myeongun continued making casual comments, my attention wasn't on the couple.

I was staring at the road.

At the thin fog beginning to spread across it.

And without realizing it—

My lips had started trembling.

12:24 a.m.