WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

The Wizard in the Poncho

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 23 - The Second Awakening

Preparations for retaking Suwon Station were thorough.

Hmm. Actually, “we did our absolute best” would be a more fitting description than “thorough.” After all, against monsters like these, the word "thorough" didn’t really apply.

Lieutenant Baek Hansung divided his 30 men into 3 squads and commanded them accordingly. Apparently he’d already assumed this would turn into a long-term operation because he was even issuing detailed instructions, taking even physical fatigue into account.

"Squad 3 rests first. Squads 1 and 2 maintain staircase security. Don’t have everyone hold aim at the same time. Two men keep shouldered aim for 5 minutes while the other two maintain perimeter watch. After 5 minutes, switch roles between perimeter watch and aiming at the staircase. After 10 minutes, rotate with the next four men. If manpower runs short, supplement from the resting 3rd squad.”

Watching Lieutenant Baek Hansung repeatedly drill instructions into his soldiers from behind, Lee Sejun, who had kept his rifle at the ready up until this point, finally let up. Apparently stiff from staying locked in place, he patted his shoulders a few times before giving his spot to another soldier.

The moment he came over, he immediately rolled his neck and let out a weary sigh.

Lee Sejun opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, then suddenly turned his head toward someone else instead. Shin Nain already had one earbud in and was nodding along with a pleased smile.

"Shin Nain-ssi, what time is it?”

"11:40."

"We spent that many hours just clearing B1...?"

At Shin Nain’s casual response, Lee Sejun switched his rifle selector back to safe and slung it over his shoulder. Then, with hollow eyes weary from exhaustion, he fumbled through his pocket and pulled out a bag of hardtack.

"We should eat something. Doesn’t seem like anyone’s bringing meals all the way down here.”

"Hmm."

Turning to look around after hearing that, he was probably right.

Of course, after the report that B1 had been secured, Major Kang Minsoo had sent additional troops and supplies. They were mostly ammo crates and replacement gas mask filters.

Soldiers groaned while dragging communication cables across the floor and setting up equipment. Among the gear were also two small drones. Meanwhile, our trip of civilians simply watched from inside the wreckage of a shattered clothing store lined with broken display racks.

I felt thirst far more strongly than hunger, so I took another sip from my canteen.

Lee Sejun, on the other hand, seemed hungrier than thirsty. Without even thinking about the sweat soaking his face, he ripped open the hardtack bag and shoved a handful into his mouth.

-Crunch, crunch.

This guy really ate enthusiastically. Like a hamster stuffing its cheeks, Lee Sejun chewed noisily before spotting the drones and swallowing hard.

"Drones? Why are they only deploying them now?”

"Apparently, they originally had no plans to use them because flying them underground is difficult. They also assumed the monsters would be highly vulnerable to blood agents.”

"And now?”

"Now they know B2’s a complete disaster zone. If they recklessly throw soldiers down there, they might just increase the monster count instead. So they’re trying reconnaissance first.”

Who could’ve guessed the day would come when Korean soldiers would be considered this valuable?

Anyway, after putting my canteen away, I mentally reviewed our entry into B1.

We’d done our best, but without proper professional training, it had still been amateurish, reckless, and dangerous. The weight of the gear and limited ammunition I could carry was also far more oppressive than I’d expected.

If you wanted to escape monsters or control engagement distance, managing your gear weight was essential, but the monsters fought using absurd biology and ambush tactics, so simply drowning them in bullets wasn’t an option.

And it wasn’t like a reservist in his 8th year would suddenly awaken superhuman physical abilities overnight, nor was I used to situations like this, so I often lagged behind more than I wanted.

Especially in regard to my foresight.

I realized again that my understanding of Alteration-type Eyes-branch Stage 1 as simply 'seeing footprints 10 seconds into the future’ was incomplete.

When I first fought the Predator Spine, I trusted my precognition completely. I believed that if I aimed at the footprints and fired, I’d kill it quickly.

But not only was the backlash stronger than I expected in areas with little fog…

I was also becoming increasingly certain that Predator Spines, like Amalgams, could sense magic to some extent.

The Amalgams feared my eyes. The moment I used magic, they panicked and fled. But Predator Spines were more proactive.

That thing deliberately targeted the flaws in my magic.

This precognition had a 10-second time lag.

I didn’t fast-forward through those 10 seconds. I only saw exactly 10 seconds ahead. I could continue seeing once those 10 seconds passed, but the process of reaching those 10 seconds was invisible to me.

So instead of desperately hiding from my foresight or avoiding it altogether, the creature manipulated it, offering only body parts where being shot would either mean nothing or result in minimal damage.

Then why hadn’t it simply attacked Lee Sejun within those 10 seconds? It seemed to instinctively understand, or at least suspect, the weakness in my Stage 1 Eye magic. Was it simply too unintelligent to fully capitalize on that realization?

Right as my thoughts reached that point, Shin Nain pulled out one earbud and grinned at me.

"Baek Jemin-ssi, I know why that chalkboard-scratching monster didn’t attack Lee Sejun immediately.”

"Did you seriously just use mind-reading on me?”

"It’s not something I can really help with. When I’m close to people, I just hear things.”

After a brief moment of thought, I decided to let it slide.

After all, unlike people who constantly lied and hid things, I possessed a pure and transparent heart perfectly aligned inside and out.

With nothing I was ashamed of under the high heavens, what did I even have to hide?

At that, Shin Nain’s expression turned strange.

"First, let me hit you once.”

After smacking me on the back, Shin Nain finally explained in detail.

He exaggerated his whining dramatically, crossed himself, then snickered.

"The instincts of these monsters are actually really simple. Hunger and the urge to reproduce. And weirdly enough, some sort of paternal affection? Or maternal affection? Like some kind of protective instinct toward their own accursed kind. There's this desperate feeling in their voices, like someone dying, clawing at a chalkboard with their fingernails during their final struggle."

"Ugh, shit.”

Just hearing that those horrifying monsters possessed something like paternal or maternal instincts sent chills crawling down my spine.

Still, I felt myself immediately dumbfounded. What did any of that have to do with why the Predator Spine hadn’t killed Lee Sejun within those 10 seconds?

"It just assumed that the moment Lee Sejun-ssi got parasitized, you’d immediately kill the parent organism, the offspring, and even Lee Sejun-ssi himself, who had become its host, without any hesitation. It sensed your sacred hostility toward the servants of Satan, Baek Jemin-ssi.”

"Cough, hack!”

Lee Sejun suddenly started coughing violently, apparently choking on his hardtack.

I stared at him like he was pathetic, then found myself forming one of the few moments of genuine mutual understanding with Shin Nain. Sacred or not, the hostility part was undeniably true. Especially after consuming enough zombie and monster horror media, that was how I thought.

Yeah. Surprisingly enough, Shin Nain’s head was working quite well when it came to stuff like this.

Just as that thought crossed my mind, as if growing excited, Shin Nain smiled brightly and added,

"Sending heretics before the Lord for judgment before they can commit even greater sins, granting them lighter punishment through divine judgment, that is true mercy. Baek Jemin-ssi, you’ve already stepped onto the true path of seeking faith.”

"Haah~ Fuck.”

I wet my lips with my tongue and shook my head.

Meanwhile, Lee Sejun had finally managed to calm himself after pounding his chest a few times and was now chugging water from his canteen. Quietly, I edged a little farther away from Shin Nain and a little closer to Lee Sejun before speaking.

"Cut the crap. Now that we’ve actually seen combat, we know what we’re lacking. Lighting, more magazines, and grenades for clearing enclosed spaces and interiors.”

"The lack of firepower really is the biggest issue. And these magic abilities we have are all kind of subtle too. Nothing flashy like fireballs or lightning bolts."

Lee Sejun nodded along while putting his canteen away.

At least modern firearms still provided enough killing power and suppressive force to compensate for our lack of offensive magic. Compared to some horrifying apocalypse where nobody could do anything without mana or magic, wasn’t our situation still more hopeful?

The only problem was that instead of familiar enemies like goblins or orcs, we got these disgusting monstrosities instead.

"Seriously, why couldn’t we get cute little goblins or orcs instead of these fucked-up bastards?”

For some reason, Lee Sejun’s grumbling resonated with me deeply.

Right then, a young-looking soldier approached us carefully and spoke.

"Operators, everything’s ready. We’re planning to deploy drones into B2 at 12:30 for reconnaissance, and we would like to ask you to observe the feed together with us.”

At that, all three of us let out deep sighs without saying anything else.

Lee Sejun shook the remaining hardtack crumbs left in the bag into his mouth and grabbed his rifle sling. Shin Nain organized his earbuds and crossed himself. And I simply closed my eyes, massaging my eyelids.

There was only one reason everyone was preparing to the best of their abilities and trying so hard.

While reading the gas mask I still didn’t want to wear yet, I spoke.

"Let’s go. Time to beat the shit out of Bosal Geulmun and the priest.”

February 5th, 2028, 12:31 PM.

After checking signal reception, the two drone operators carefully sent the drones underground. With a high-pitched "Wreeeeee~" reminiscent of the buzzing of a giant hornet, the quadcopters spun their rotors and passed through the twisted emergency shutters.

On both sides of the drone flight path, soldiers still maintained security positions with rifles aimed downward. Meanwhile, the CBRN unit stayed back from the stairs, busy checking equipment.

In front of the heavy-duty laptop displaying the drone footage sat our trio, Lieutenant Baek Hansung, Major Jang Shinmyeong, and several communications officers.

That laptop looked heavy enough to kill someone if you smashed it over the back of someone’s head.

Watching the drone descend the stairs through the monitor, Lieutenant Beak Hansung lifted his radio.

"This is Paldal One. 12:31. Deploying two reconnaissance drones into B2. Objective: Identify surviving entities or potential threats.”

[Copy. Report immediately upon discovering anything unusual.]

"Confirmed."

Beside him, Major Jang Shinmyeong crossed his arms and let out a soft murmur of admiration.

"The world's become a better place."

The words ‘Has it really?’ rose all the way up my throat, but I forcibly swallowed them back down.

Still, it was true that the inheritance of this ‘better world,’ the drones, made B2 reconnaissance much easier. These drones even had thermal imaging functions designed for citations with severely limited visibility due to fog, so naturally, expectations were high.

Lieutenant Beak Hansung, especially, seemed to hold immense expectations. His trembling voice carried traces of excitement mixed with fear.

"Drone operator. Handle this carefully. This could become critical evidence of inferring what Seoul looks like right now. This is our chance to observe how those things move in areas that aren’t active frontlines. Check everything. Don’t miss a single detail.”

"Y-yes sir…”

The burden on the drone operator’s shoulders had visibly grown heavier just then.

Soon, the drones entered B2 through separate stairways. And there, they discovered fog reaching as high as a person’s thighs. At that moment, both Lieutenant Baek Hansung and Major Jang Shinmyeong turned their gazes toward our trio.

"Can you detect things through the monitor as well?”

I felt the familiar burning sensation in my eyes as I attempted to see 10 seconds into the future through the video feed. Meanwhile, Shin Nain waved his hands dismissively.

The result was unexpected.

It wasn’t one of two clean outcomes like seeing everything perfectly or seeing nothing at all. Instead, I could see countless footprints stamped across the monitor. The problem was that they were everywhere. On the ceiling, floor, walls, objects, and backgrounds in between, everywhere all at once. As a result, my precognition was rendered absolutely meaningless.

And the resolution was so poor that I couldn’t even confidently tell whether I was actually seeing 10 seconds into the future.

I squeezed my eyes shut and massaged my eyelids before answering.

"It indicates that everything is dangerous. Footprints…those symbolic traces I interpret as monster movement are covering every direction.”

"Are you saying the entirety of B2 is a monster den?”

"I can’t say for certain.”

"And what about you, Operator Shin Nain?”

"I can hear sounds, but not through the monitor.”

For now, they concluded that detection through monitors lacked reliability and abandoned the idea.

Instead, we focused directly on the drone feed itself. And what the drones captured was exactly the horrifying sight we remembered.

The two evacuation trains that had derailed and crashed into the platform.

The crushed and twisted train cars tangled together. Darkened bloodstains spread everywhere. Spent shell casings scattered across the ground. Sections wrapped by violent force and tiles torn away from impact.

Ownerless firearms lay abandoned, discolored with grime. The handrails that had somehow survived were stained a sickly brown by blood and gas residue. Cables hanging from the ceiling like nooses drooped lifelessly without movement. Between shattered advertisements and flickering fluorescent lights, thick shadows repeatedly swallowed the surroundings.

It looked like the aftermath of the end of the world.

Major Jang Shinmyeong glanced at Lieutenant Bek Hansung before asking,

"Why aren’t the lights working properly down there?”

"We believe the secondary train collision caused a momentary power surge and shock that knocked them out. Afterward, the tracks near Hwaseo Station were successfully demolished, and power to the lines was cut after reclaiming the substation, but…”

"That could be highly dangerous.”

While it limited the places the Amalgams could operate, it was a perfect setting for Predator Spines to ambush.

There were twisted objects and debris everywhere to hide behind. The incomplete lighting created countless shadows to conceal themselves in. If ordinary soldiers had attempted to retake this place alone, the casualties would’ve been catastrophic.

Lieutenant Baek Hansung issued new orders to the drone operators.

"Drone operator. Switch to thermal. Don’t go too deep. Stay near the entrance and slowly scan the surroundings. Full 360° rotation.”

"Yes, sir..."

"You still have the audio muted, right? Raise the volume a little.”

"Raise the volume?”

"Just a little.”

Even the drone operator’s voice trembled slightly with tension.

-Wreeeeh.…

The buzzing of the drone leaked from the small speakers beside the monitor. Lieutenant Baek Hansung nervously chewed at his lips.

"The drones are pretty loud…And nothing is reacting…?”

Thermal imaging didn’t reveal any obvious problems either.

A few faint yellow spots existed, but they didn’t resemble monsters or show movement.

At a glance, everything seemed perfectly normal.

But Shin Nain still frowned deeply while rubbing his earlobe with his left hand.

"I can still hear the chalkboard-scratching sounds. And the voices calling for the Lord. They’re faint, but they’re definitely there.”

At those words, Major Jang Shinmyeong furrowed his brows and spoke.

"Drone Operator. Sweep the ceiling too.”

"Yes, sir!”

The moment the drone raised its altitude, we picked up a strange sound mixed within the drone noise. It was completely different from the mechanical buzzing we’d been hearing until now. It was a truly bizarre sound.

Lieutenant Baek Hansung frowned and tilted his head.

"Fix the noise-canceling properly. Amplify the audio.”

At that exact moment, Shin Nain suddenly reached out his hand.

"Aagh!”

"..."

The calmness and confidence he’d shown before had completely vanished. Eyes wide open, Shin Nain rushed forward and immediately muted the audio feed while shoving the drone operator aside.

Everyone was stunned by both the operator being pushed away and Shin Nain’s sudden erratic behavior. Lieutenant Baek Hansung even flared up in anger for a moment.

"Hey. Just because you’re civilians doesn’t mean you can act however you…”

Then the drone feed cut out.

-Click.

There was no dramatic warning or sign of malfunction. The battery wasn’t low either. It just shut off. And only a few seconds later, the second drone’s feed went black as well.

Lieutenant Baek Hansung, who’d been about to argue. Lee Sejun and I, who had silently watched. Even Major Jang Shinmyeong with his arms crossed. None of us had expected that outcome.

Only Shin Nain kept his eyes closed beneath sweat-soaked hair, hands clasped together quietly praying.

"Almighty Lord God above, let not the voices of devils lead us astray. Guide me only toward righteousness so that I may establish Your justice upon this land and be used according to Your will…”

Major Jang Shinmyeong stroked his chin while looking at us.

"What exactly was that?”

I pointed my chin toward Shin Nain.

"He’ll explain after he finishes praying.”

And just as I expected, once Shin Nain finished, he looked around us with firmer eyes than before and spoke.

"There is a fate reserved for heretics. It is a highly dangerous adversary. And merely hearing its voice clouds the mind. I silenced it to prevent those without faith from being led astray.”

I translated his words into much simpler terms.

After I explained that there’s a monster down there that could drive people mad through sound alone, a brief silence fell. Then, Lieutenant Baek Hansung’s face instantly turned pale as he checked his wristwatch and grabbed the radio.

"This is Paldal One. 12:48. Communication lost with both reconnaissance drones sent ahead. Presumed attack pattern differs from previously identified species.”

[What?]

"It appears to be sound-based."

[Sound, sound, sound…]

Even though the radio, confusion, and fear leaked through faintly.

After a moment of silence, a dry voice struck our ears.

[...Engagement Protocol, Rule 5. Information acquisition takes priority. Deploy the civilian Operators to identify whether this is a previously known species or an unidentified one, then withdraw immediately. And just in case, prepare containment procedures. All equipment except ammunition will be pulled back.]

"..."

Lieutenant Baek Hansung’s eyelids trembled as he looked toward our trio.

I took one final deep breath.

-Haaaah...

Then, I put on the gas mask without hesitation, blowing warm breath into the space filled with the smell of rubber.

-Huff, huff.

Condition good, nice.

Without a word, Shin Nain and Lee Sejun also put on their gas masks.

"We’ll take a few extra magazines and one more grenade each before heading down. And if you have any lights that fit onto pouches too, we’d appreciate it. Tactical lights, I think they’re called?”

* * *

-Step, step.

The sound of us crushing dust and debris fallen from the shattered ceiling and walls drowned out the pounding of our hearts. We turned in all our spent magazines and took five 20-round mags, plus two extra grenades each.

It wasn’t because we expected to use them all, but because we were prepared to.

The moment we crossed the destroyed emergency shutter, I felt something strange. This was the exact spot where Father Jeong Yonghwan had recited prayers while trying to save people.

The place where, while escaping, I had briefly hesitated climbing the stairs, and now, while descending them to enter again, I walked forward without a hint of hesitation.

Before long, beneath the flickering lights, beyond shadows snapping like old black-and-white camera shutters, we saw the dense fog spread thickly below. Without a second thought, I lifted part of my poncho and switched on the L-shaped flashlight clipped to the left chest pocket.

-Click.

Mechanical sounds overlapped one another as everyone raised their rifles, steel shifting heavily.

The sounds echoing from behind me reminded me we weren’t alone. Voices had been replaced by the muffled breathing unique to gas masks. Our heart beats in rhythm with the crunch of the ceiling debris beneath our boots. And our lights illuminated the fog layered over dust and bloodstains.

When we reached B2, we faced the grotesquely crushed train cars sprawled across the platform. Naturally, we spread out and aimed our rifles in different directions while covering sectors.

Ahead of us lay one of the dead drones, completely motionless. But the atmosphere of the underground station, with lights flickering erratically, was so overwhelming that none of us even considered touching or retrieving it.

And it wasn’t just the drone. Static had begun pouring from the small radio Lee Sejun carried.

-Kzzzt, kzzzzzzt...

Without saying anything, Lee Sejun tucked his rifle beneath his arm and lowered the radio volume. Then he shouldered his weapon again and resumed scanning the surroundings. Of course, when it came to detection, Shin Nain and I were far superior.

Alteration-type Eye-branch, Stage 1.

Perhaps because the fog rose as high as our thighs, the backlash was quite weak. The burning sensation in my eyes had softened enough to feel refreshed, like the cool tingle left behind by mint toothpaste. Maintaining that state, I looked up toward the ceiling where the source of the problem supposedly was.

The fog didn’t fully reach the ceiling, but I could see things the camera lenses never captured.

Until now, I had seen footprints beyond the fog. I believed they represented monster movement. That assumption had proven correct before. And apparently, it was correct again now.

-Thump.

I heard a heartbeat. Not ours.

-Thump, thump…

Across the entire ceiling of B2, whenever the lights flickered, crimson blood-vessel-like strands hidden within the shadows pulsed and intertwined. Every time another heartbeat echoed, they writhed violently, stretching long fibers and connecting together like fungal mycelium spreading through rot.

A nauseating sensation rose in my stomach.

I couldn’t bear to keep looking upward and lowered my head. My vision spun violently. It felt like my brain had been shaken inside my skull, and I barely managed to suppress the urge to vomit.

"Ugh, blegh."

Only after bile rose to the back of my tongue did the nausea finally subside. Even then, the metallic smell and disgusting odor lingering inside my mouth refused to disappear. Worried the inside of my gas mask would reek of vomit, I briefly lifted it, spat out that foul taste, then put it back on.

While I took a moment to compose myself. Shin Nain, who had continued watching our surroundings the entire time, quietly asked.

"Baek Jemin-ssi. What kind of reaction was that?”

"Don’t look up. There’s vein-like things spread across the ceiling like a web. And just looking at them makes you want to throw up.”

"Could it be…?”

At Lee Sejun’s question, I instinctively recalled the Magic Crash Course booklet carefully tucked away inside my coat.

Magic symbols.

Yeah, it definitely looked like it… The problem was that it felt like trying to decipher a 1x1 pixel image with terrible resolution. Even after forcing myself to stare through the nausea and dizziness, what good was a mass of black dots?

"For now, let’s move."

And so our trio cautiously advanced.

The wreckage of the trains that had crashed onto the platform severely restricted movement, but the opposite tracks still had enough open space. Lee Sejun and Shin Nain, who had escaped through this area before, seemed to feel a certain way now that they returned, both unconsciously resting fingers over their triggers.

Then we heard something different from the heartbeat.

-Gurglegurglegurglegurgle…

It sounded like a stream flowing through a narrow crack in rocks. Or the sound of water being poured from a plastic bottle into a cup.

The moment we heard it, everyone instinctively lowered themselves while holding their breath.

We even turned our lights off. After spending minutes adjusting our eyes to the darkness, we finally steeled ourselves to look beyond the opposite tracks. My eyes screamed warnings, crimson footprints stamped everywhere, but if we refused to look, we’d never know what was there, so I forced myself to look.

And what I saw was something vaguely familiar.

A man wearing a black cassock with torn sleeves stood there.

But he had no head.

To be precise, only a tiny fragment of his head remained.

The only thing left was beneath the jaw. A long tongue dangling limply while cold saliva mixed with blood dripped downward. Above it, a massive blood vessel extended from the spine into the ceiling, spreading capillary-like strands everywhere.

The man in the black cassock, the headless one, emitted wet gargling noises from his throat while his tongue just hung limply.

Before the pulse of that grotesque lifeform, Lee Sejun, Shin Nain, and I all froze.

Yet above that massive blood vessel, within the horrific structure formed by tangled capillaries across the ceiling…there was something else. Something that clawed into my brain and twisted my insides with violent vertigo.

Symbols formed from intertwined blood vessels.

Two sets of five elongated lines crossing vertically and horizontally.

I forcibly swallowed rising bile while widening my eyes, saliva mixed with stomach acid dripping from the corners of my lips.

Magic.

At that exact moment, Shin Nain grabbed my shoulder.

"Run!”

The instant I lowered my gaze again, I instinctively tightened my grip on my rifle and stepped backward.

The headless man in the black cassock had turned toward us. Within the silence, where even the gargling noises had ceased, the pulsating blood vessels rapidly contracted, painting the ceiling crimson instantly.

Then I saw the future.

The capillary strands stretched across the ceiling suddenly plunged straight downward. Lee Sejun, impaled by them, was dragged into the ceiling and melted away. Shin Nain barely dodged but still suffered injuries.

And I changed that future.

I grabbed Lee Sejun by the shoulder and yanked him back. At the same time, I caught Shin Nain by the collar and dragged him away as well.

The capillary strands slammed down where we’d been about to advance, forming a wall of flesh. Within the tiny gaps, they writhed and pulsed.

"Retreat route blocked.”

After quickly smacking both of their heads to snap them out of shock, I prepared myself to look up at the ceiling again.

"We kill it and push through!”

I shoved both of them forward almost violently.

Without hesitation, I adjusted my rifle and sprinted for cover. Naturally, the three of us split apart while running, alternating our gaze between the ceiling and the path ahead.

The breathing echoing beneath my gas mask, even the nauseating stench mixed with rubber and vomit, was beginning to fade from my awareness.

But our footsteps were drowned out by the groaning of the headless being, its limp tongue swaying beneath the gigantic pulsating blood vessels.

-Gurglegurglegurgle…

I crawled beneath the twisted wreckage of the crushed train cars.

Only then, after looking back up toward the ceiling, did I see it. The capillary strands that had plunged downward were slowly retracting back upward, like tentacles reluctantly withdrawing after failing to catch their prey.

-Tak, tak.

The footsteps of what had once been a priest began echoing between the train tracks.

-Gurglegurglegurgle...

Hearing that grotesque moaning, I tightened my grip on my rifle and made a vow to myself.

I would never consider that sound to be a voice seeking the Lord.

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