When morning came, a commotion began to stir even in this quiet town.
First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi took me and the NCOs to another location only after confirming the fog had cleared, but we got stuck in traffic in the middle of town.
While sitting in the back seat trying to make a call, the scenery I glimpsed out the window was no longer peaceful.
Wheeeet-. Wheeet-.
Police officers desperately blew their whistles as they ran around with members of the Reserve Forces or Civil Defense.
Vehicles that had ignored traffic signals were tangled chaotically on the road, and amidst hastily built positions of sandbags and vehicle barricades, reservists in combat uniforms mingled with Civil Defense members in civilian clothes.
Amidst a cacophony of screams and shouts, it was only natural that some would try to find a way to survive in the chaos.
Crash!
The moment a few groups rushed to loot a convenience store with the sound of shattering glass, the police's patience finally ran out.
Bang!
A police officer, who had been blowing his whistle while engaged in a scuffle, had fired a shot into the air.
He panted, gasping for breath, then aimed his gun at the group of would-be looters and shouted.
"Hands up and get on your knees!"
The Reserve Forces and Civil Defense members following to assist the police also looked startled, but they quickly composed themselves, shouldered their rifles, and began aiming at the looters.
The flustered looters were so taken aback they awkwardly and politely tried to start a conversation.
"H-Hey. There's no need to shoot..."
"Shut up. Drop everything you're holding and get on the ground!"
The murmuring civilians also seemed to realize this wasn't the time to protest about excessive force or anything of the sort, and just kept their distance.
The officer who fired the shot, still fuming, silently scanned the area before getting the looters on the ground with the help of the reservists and Civil Defense members, then cuffed them one by one.
Clack, clack...
The sound cut through the strange silence of the town.
It was around then that the call connected.
"Dad."
[It's Mom. I picked up instead of your father. So, I heard something happened in Gyeonggi Province? Are you really okay?]
I looked at the people gathering outside the window, murmuring with their faces covered, and spoke with a grim expression.
The ones who were constantly glancing around, conscious of the police, the reservists, or the Civil Defense members.
But not everyone was like that yet.
Because people who found their strange attire and conspicuous actions suspicious were, knowingly or not, helping the police and military to identify and isolate them.
"Hey, you there, why are you wearing a mask? And why are you carrying a bat?"
"Aren't those guys robbers too?!"
It was still okay for now.
For now, people were still trying to maintain order. So I answered with a slightly lighter heart.
"Yeah. I'm fine."
[Fine? What do you mean, fine! All the young men in our neighborhood are in uniform too. See? I told you to come down sooner, didn't I? You even quit your job, so why are you still stuck in Gyeonggi Province...]
"Ah, Mom."
[I bet you're living on your own just like last time I visited, not washing the kimchi containers or doing the dishes properly. You told me not to come, so I didn't, but if I'd known this would happen...]
The nagging, chattering away in my ear, felt like thorns being driven into my head.
But I knew she was only saying it out of worry, so I couldn't bring myself to talk back and just nodded, saying, "Yes, yes."
Only after being scolded like that for a good while did my father finally take the phone.
[Is that you, Jemin?]
"Yes."
[How's your duty?]
"I'm on a break now, so I called."
[You're going through a lot.]
After a brief silence, my father spoke in a calm voice.
[Listen, son. A man can't always be happy with where he lives.]
"That's true."
[It's chaotic here too, they're taking all the young men, so there are Military Police on every street. There's nowhere to hide you even if you came, so don't run away. Do your duty diligently. Protect the country.]
"Yes..."
I thought the call would end there, but my father stayed on the line, just breathing softly.
Only then did I realize the edge of my father's voice was trembling slightly.
[Your meals. Are they feeding you well?]
"Yes. I asked for Spam and they said they'd give me Luncheon Meat."
[They're giving you Luncheon Meat? That's generous. Your mother doesn't even cook that for me these days.]
"That's because she's looking after your health, Dad."
[Quit drinking, quit smoking, can't even grill meat... what's the point of living?]
After about ten more seconds of just breathing, my father's voice grew thick with emotion.
[Don't come back. You can't come back. Be a fool and stay put right where you are and protect the country. Even if everyone else runs, you stay there like an idiot and hold your ground.]
"Dad..."
[That's enough. I'm hanging up. Do your duty well. Call again when you can.]
Click.
I stared down at the screen of the disconnected phone, feeling an inexplicable tightness in my chest.
Around that time, the blocked road cleared, and the car started moving again.
A full-scale road control using military personnel had begun, and the people's protests were starting to be crushed.
People getting out of their driver's seats to protest, and soldiers pushing them back with outstretched hands. Vehicle barricades being placed at every intersection, sandbags being hastily stacked.
As I stared blankly at the scene, I felt a gaze on me.
First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi was looking at me through the mirror with a warm smile.
"You're a good son."
"It's just the situation. Makes you do things you normally wouldn't."
Instead of continuing the conversation, First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi focused on his duties as the Senior Officer in Vehicle.
"Driver Soldier, from now on, slow down when you see soldiers controlling the road. I just got a message saying they're starting checkpoints all over Gyeonggi Province."
"Yessir."
Listening to their conversation, I carefully touched the Special Lecture on Magic booklet in my inner pocket.
Then I lifted my phone to check the group chat and the time.
January 7th, 9:18 AM.
Everyone was in an uproar.
All sorts of rumors and tiny fragments of truth were mixed together, spewing out bizarre false reports. The biggest problem was that you couldn't just dismiss them as complete nonsense.
But there was a common sentiment.
[Jemin, you alive???]
[Hyung, avoid Night Watch at all costs. They're talking about replacing it with CCTV on our end, but everyone's freaking out, saying if the fog rolls in at night before it's even in the forecast, it's hopeless.]
Urgent messages from the guys I usually hang out with on Discord. Looks like they managed to avoid guard duty.
The posts on online communities weren't much different.
Most of them were panicky posts with titles like "Hey you motherfuckers" and content about hearing terrifying screams at dawn, being too scared to even look out the window because their legs were shaking, asking what the hell was going on, and wondering if Seoul was already done for.
But not everyone was just panicking.
Because a rumor was circulating that the government was taking certain people aside to create a new unit or organization.
As someone who knew what it was, my lips couldn't help but go dry.
"Shit..."
As I muttered the curse I couldn't hold back, I felt First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi glance at me in the rearview mirror.
But for someone who knew the identity of the new organization or unit the government was establishing, it was a natural reaction.
The contents of the administrative documents First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi had given me, the ones I saw when I signed the contract, were still fresh in my mind.
***
The term used in official documents to refer to magic is Locally Invasive Alteration Phenomenon (Localised Invasive Structural Alteration), and it's abbreviated as LISA.
And the name of the newly established organization was the 'Civilian Advisory Group for the Locally Invasive Alteration Phenomenon'.
In other words, the government was planning to gather up mages and create a completely independent organization to confront this unprecedented situation.
At first glance, it might seem like they'd play a role similar to the hunters in hunter-genre stories who awaken mana or a system, but the reality is a little different.
Hunters, if you had to define them... right. They were more like freelance contractors. The kind of people whose income varies wildly depending on their abilities, who are always hoping for some fortuitous encounter or growth.
So what about me, Baek Jemin, who has officially become a 'Civilian Operator of Localized Permeable Alteration Phenomena'?
I'm no longer in the Reserve Forces. I've become a civilian under contract with the military. The moment I signed the contract, I was freed from military discipline and the absolute chain of command, but in exchange, I became a civilian expert obligated to fulfill the conditions required by the military.
However, my status as a reservist who can be urgently mobilized if the military situation becomes dire hasn't disappeared; I still hold it.
What this fucking bullshit means is that, when they run the numbers, if Baek Jemin dies, it won't be processed as one soldier killed in action, but as one civilian gone missing in the unavoidable chaos.
In return, I can receive supplies from the military like firearms, ammunition, and basic combat rations, and as a civilian, I have autonomous and independent authority as long as it's not an emergency mobilization.
As long as I fulfill the required duties, that is.
1. To share information about Magic with the military.
2. To respect the military's chain of command and follow the orders of the on-site commander.
3. To participate in reconnaissance activities at least once within a set period (stipulated as 2 to 4 weeks, depending on local conditions).
There's a reason why First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi is grinning like an idiot in the senior officer's seat right now.
It's not like I signed the contract because I was deeply moved by some grand cause like "a soldier's duty is to serve the nation." I had my own reasons.
1. What are they going to do if I don't share? The one magic I've awakened is an immense power on its own.
2. As someone who's faced a monster, a field commander who can't use magic is useless.
3. This is actually a benefit. It means I can explore beyond the fog with relatively trustworthy people, instead of going alone.
They were clauses meant to be safeguards, I suppose, but they were conditions riddled with loopholes that I could see even after surviving just one encounter.
So I was certain. The military still didn't know everything about this threat.
The ROK Armed Forces soldiers and field commanders isolated in Seoul must have shed tears of blood, pleading for new protocols, which is probably why the engagement rules were established. But even so, the military was still underestimating this threat to some degree.
And the same went for Magic.
It was clear that not everyone who had awakened to Magic, like me, had told the full story. Perhaps that was why they were trying to appear friendly, cloaking their probing questions under the guise of a deal.
I discreetly opened the Special Lecture on Magic booklet and examined the first page, the part I had named Chilmora. The magic that had aligned itself in the fog had reverted to crooked, scribbled characters.
Now I understood why the interpretations had varied.
Some saw restoration, some saw despair, some saw incision, some saw the tip of a spear, some saw a forest... and I saw footprints.
It was ridiculously symbolic and ridiculously twisted, yet at the same time, incredibly intuitive—almost a type of ideogram. The triangle symbolized humanity's base perception, while the square symbolized what humans wanted to see.
What this magic allowed one to see was time.
Those who saw the past through this magic called it restoration. Those who saw it while interacting with their surroundings saw an incision or the tip of a spear. And those who saw the future called it a forest or despair.
But there was an essential condition to truly awaken this magic.
"..."
The fog.
Paradoxically, the only time this magic revealed its true form and allowed one to awaken to it was within that god-awful fog.
The magic hidden within the crooked, graffiti-like symbols would only align its lines and reveal itself when the fog defiled the sunlight and the laws of this world. When the fog receded, the magic would hide itself within the scribbles once more.
This was why I had received the ridiculously long official title of Civilian Operator of Localized Permeable Alteration Phenomena.
***
The temporary headquarters set up in Suwon City Hall was already teeming with all sorts of people.
With the roads controlled all the way from Suwon Station, a diverse crowd of people got out of their cars and headed toward the city hall, escorted—or rather, watched—by soldiers.
There was a Catholic priest in his vestments, a pastor clutching a Bible and muttering, a Monk in his robes, and various shamans holding talismans. There were even people who appeared to be from the Middle East.
Among them were people in combat uniforms like me, looking around with the same uneasy expression.
It was then that First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi came over and patted my shoulder.
"Don't be too intimidated, Baek Jemin-ssi."
"No, it's not that. I'm just fascinated."
"Nothing to be fascinated about. They just brought in everyone who can or is thought to be able to perform a Locally Invasive Alteration Phenomenon. The goal is to weed out those who can't, and for the rest of us to speculate together or share information secured by the military to build a system of knowledge. The reconnaissance activities will come later, so don't you worry."
First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi grinned as he walked back to the vehicle and handed a pack of cigarettes to the Driver Soldier.
"Park the car and have a smoke."
"Thank you, sir!"
After giving a warm smile to the stiffly saluting Driver Soldier, First Lieutenant Shin Han-gi returned to my side.
"Let's go, Baek Jemin-ssi. Once it's confirmed, I'll address you as Operator."
End
ⓒ Hadeupokbal#151df
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