episode_0077

“No, that’s not it. Legs in 11 and arms up.”

“Hmm.”

Sejun raised his arm and struck the wooden sword in his hand in a somewhat awkward-looking pose.

The subjects had been receiving intensive care since the end of their studies for the past few days, and they were exhausted from the night training that continued every day.

It was already dark and cold for a long time, and it was starting to get cold, so there were not many people who had business in the current gymnasium, and even those who had business did not exist in the gymnasium after school had already finished, so the gym was closed at this time. They were the only people I called.

The heat coming from the 6 people, including me, in a large space was almost enough to cover the entire large gym.

“Haeuuuu.”

Swordsmanship for different races. Of course, I have tried my hand at it to some extent, but I am still a Trappist, a sword skill that is difficult for a human to master.

It’s possible to give up halfway, and I also thought that there might be someone who gives up on swordsmanship itself, but even though the difficult training continued every day, there was no one who gave up on it.

In particular, it was a good thing that Jimmy and Jang A-hyeon, who had long-distance abilities where swordsmanship itself was considered unnecessary, were following along well.

“Good. I’m glad that everyone is doing better than expected.”

“No. It is thanks to the teacher who taught me well.”

“… Master.”

Something touched my heart.

After receiving intensive teaching from me, they always call me Master when we are alone.

I nodded as I heard a pleasant sound somewhere. Does that mean I am also a person?

Jiyiing.

As I was nodding like that, my cell phone rang. Since I was training, I immediately pressed the end call button and turned to focus on them.

The sound of Li Jiyuan’s fist cutting through the wind can be heard.

“Good. Stretch your shoulders a little more like that. When making a fist, it is better to twist your body slightly to the left or right. That way, if you receive a counterattack, it will be easier to evade.”

“Yes, Master.”

Li Jiyuan learned the art of modifying Trappist swordsmanship into martial arts. He was training with great enthusiasm, which was nice to see.

Due to his physical condition, it was difficult for him to move his lower body much, so his martial arts techniques focused on the upper body, focusing on attack and defense using his special ability, Yongjosu.

I was looking at him with a happy expression and was about to turn my head to see Gideon, who was next.

Jiyiing.

The phone vibrates once again.

“You can take it, Master. Since it keeps ringing, I guess it’s probably important.”

Gideon spoke up when he saw me putting my hand in my pocket and trying to press the end call button again to keep them from seeing me as much as possible.

Even though I had already expressed my intention that it would be difficult to answer, the fact that they kept calling me meant that the call was quite urgent.

“Excuse me.”

After asking for understanding, I clicked my tongue in my mind and took out my smartphone, but the call had already ended and I looked down at the screen of the smartphone for a moment without saying a word.

6 missed messages. 3 missed calls.

‘what?’

Looking at the numbers, it seemed like it was a fairly urgent call, but questions were arising.

If it was a special event such as the appearance of a gate, there would have been another network that contacted me directly, and there would be no way for them to contact me through a personal cell phone like this.

As I was hesitating for a moment at the strange phenomenon, the gym door suddenly slammed open.

“What is it?”

“Gasp, I found the car. Heo Eok.”

I frowned at the sudden uninvited guest and said to him. A man I had never seen before was standing in front of the door, panting and looking like he was about to die. I could tell he belonged to the organization by the badge on his clothes.

As I was looking at the ‘intruder’, I saw him take out the radio hanging on his side and radio that he had found Mr. Northmund.

“What’s going on?”

When I stand in front of him, frowning and using short-distance teleportation with a ‘pop’ sound, he is also startled and drops the radio he was communicating with on the floor.

The sound of the radio being dropped and bouncing on the floor of the gym was heard.

He bows his head to me with a very regretful expression.

“Ah, Mr. Northmund, I am sorry for coming to you so suddenly. Something really urgent happened.”

“It’s urgent.”

I glanced back, nodded, asked my students’ understanding, and began to listen to him.

I was a little taken aback by the sudden intrusion, but as his story progressed, my eyes began to lower and become sharper.

“… So I don’t know why they did that… Even if we handle this case later, it seems like something is going to be difficult, so I came here to ask Northmund for a solution.”

“Is that why you contacted me?”

When he ended his sentence in a slightly red-faced voice as if he were rambling, I took his words and countered.

Despite his cool-headed appearance, his actual personality seemed to be quite clumsy and weak.

When I thought about it that way, perhaps it was my prejudice, but somehow he seemed a little untrustworthy.

However, judging from the story he told, it seemed like there was no need to talk about the seriousness of the situation.

My direct contact line is a number I only know about Elada.

So, usually I would be contacted through Helen or Lee Deok-jae, but if the organization had to come directly to me, it meant that they thought the risk of this incident was very high.

Although his words are a bit rambling, if you look at his story, the content is as follows.

About 9 hours ago, people suddenly became confused all over the world.

And the confusion itself seems to be contagious to nearby people, just like pathogens spread.

Although the occurrence varies from person to person, the same phenomenon also occurs to those who look at the deranged person.

The main point was that the team sent to investigate the phenomenon was also lost, and the rescue teams sent to rescue the team were equally wiped out.

“Well, rather than dying, he became more like a zombie.”

So, they said they were unable to investigate the phenomenon and came to me to ask for help.

‘When confusion occurs and you look at the confused person, it becomes contagious.’

… There is something that gives me a feeling.

“Where is its source? What were people doing that suddenly caused them to become confused?”

I asked him urgently. If people in a certain area first appeared, that “existence” will be in that area.

But the organization staff’s answer was disappointing.

“Sorry. We haven’t figured out the exact cause yet, but people around us say it happened while watching a video… .”

“Do you mean it spread through a video?”

“No, it’s not a video, but rather a live broadcast on NewTube, a video platform.”

“You mean it spread through internet broadcasts. What is that broadcast?”

“This is it. The original recording has now been deleted, but there is content obtained by the organization… . Oh, if you look at the latter part, confusion will occur, so please be careful about the end.”

I frowned when I saw the cell phone it was holding out.

There was a video playing on a certain channel on my phone, and something about that channel looked familiar.

Isn’t this the channel that Helen showed me earlier?

The channel that gave me trouble the day I first conquered the dungeon.

─Hello everyone! This is Rania White. Today I went to the area that an anonymous informant reported.

I sighed when I saw that.

First of all, because it was an outdoor broadcast in the middle of the night without lights, it was not easy to recognize the background.

“Did you find out about the area this woman went to?”

“No, for whatever purpose, I am using a cell phone with GPS removed, so tracking is not possible. First of all, there is a record of renting a car under the name of her colleague Paul Holland near Romania.”

“What is your entry record? There’s no way it doesn’t exist.”

“Well, hehe… .”

The employee sighed heavily.

“She is on our GDO’s watch list. As a result, most countries refused entry, so it is presumed that he entered the country illegally using a fake passport. Current records show that Rania White is located near Frankfurt, Germany.”

He scratched his head in frustration.

Although it was quite rude to face me, his eyes were red and bloodshot, so he must have been quite stressed.

After glaring at him for a moment, I sighed softly and spoke.

“In that case, it would be necessary to first isolate or corner the victims of the video.”

“Yes, so I came to ask for Elada’s psykers. After searching the route, it was discovered that one of Elada’s students had also seen the video, but he was not infected. Therefore, psykers were judged to be safe from the confusion.”

“I understand.”

I nodded slightly. Then, I pressed the button to contact the situation room to issue a gathering order.

*

“It seems like you’ve landed on a big deal. It’s your first time participating, so are you looking forward to it?”

The heads of the group turn to the loud sound of someone stamping their feet. Sejun’s junior, Choi Byeong-gi, was talking excitedly.

The vehicle they are riding now is a large van. Although it was called a van, it was a heavily armored vehicle comparable to most armored vehicles.

As the heavily armored vehicle moves, Choi Byeong-gi looks excited, like a child riding a tank for the first time.

” Wow, it’s truly an honor for me to be working with Sejun senior’s team. I really wanted to meet you. Senior Jang Ah-hyeon, Senior Nakajima, Senior Mueller, Senior Grayson. Ahaha, my name is Choi Byeong-gi. I’m Sejun’s mentor junior here, and he’s competing for the first time today… .”

“Hey, shut up. Can’t you understand the mood right now?”

Muriel, seeing Choi Byeong-gi starting to talk without any tension, glares evilly and threatens him.

Seeing that, Sejun breathed a sigh of relief. If he had gone a little further, he would have hit the weapon guy himself.

The rest seemed to be no different and were looking at Choi Byeong-gi as if they were looking at bugs, but Sejun felt sorry for himself and shook his head.

Muriel is incredibly scary when she’s angry. The ferocity must have scared even Choi Byeong-gi, who said, “I’m sorry,” and threw him into the corner of the van.

Choi Byeong-gi is not on Jang A-hyeon’s team—she would never accept him—but she brought him in because his flying ability seemed to be advantageous for tracking down people, but it was like this from the beginning… .

Jang A-hyeon sighs slightly and gives a briefing on the general plan.

“Once I heard it, it seemed like people suddenly went crazy all over the world. So, all students were sent all over the world. We were lucky enough to be in charge of Korea.”

“That’s why you move by car.”

Sejun received Jang A-hyeon’s words.

Since the case assigned to Sejun’s team took place in Korea, they did not use teleportation as usual.

This is a van with all black tint, so no light comes in.

Of course, since it was already night time, it was difficult to expect sunlight to enter the car properly even without the tint, but the fact that I was sitting in a car with the tint so dark that it blocked out even a single ray of sunlight that I might not know gave me a sense of intimidation. It was coming.

It’s probably something quite serious.

“As you know, it is the work of a monster. But I heard that the damage is very serious now. It is said that several cities in Korea are already almost completely destroyed.”

“Ahyeon. Has the body been found?”

“No. Therefore, the first thing we need to do is isolate the victims. According to what we learned, if we only deal with the monster’s main body, there is a possibility that the deranged people will return to their original state, so it would be best to kill as little as possible. Of course, in unavoidable circumstances, killing a deranged person is also permitted.”

“… I see.”

“Of course, if you find the monster, you must eliminate it first. That is the top goal.”

Jang A-hyeon received Yue’s words with her back straight rather than leaning against the backrest cover.

The voice had already become stiff and was merely a business-like voice conveying a mission.

Mixed in with that voice was the voice of someone who seemed somewhat frivolous. Choi Byeong-gi.

“I… I’m sorry… What kind of monster are we going to deal with?”

“Huh, me.”

At those words, everyone’s expressions turned grim again, and Sejun couldn’t bear to continue looking at that scene, so he said, “Stop,” and turned his gaze to the window of the van.

Sejun sorted out his complicated mind, listening and pouring out criticism towards Choi Byeong-gi with one ear.

‘for a moment… Come to think of it, Choi Byeong-gi probably hasn’t even gotten there yet.’

Come to think of it, Choi Byeong-gi had not yet advanced to the advanced monster part. It hasn’t been long since they learned about the monster in question.

However, looking at the guy who was now in tears, I felt somewhat refreshed, so I closed my mouth as I tried to defend him and turned my gaze towards the dark night street.

Anyway, I thought that the fact that he didn’t make an excuse meant that the weapon guy didn’t properly attend class either.

A guy who doesn’t attend important classes properly deserves to be scolded.

─This guy is a conceptual monster. Unlike normal-type monsters and dark-type monsters, it is activated the moment its presence is recognized, and spreads in all directions in a conceptual form rather than a physical spread.

Professor Northmund’s lecture came to mind.

At the time, he was foolish and doing something different, so he didn’t remember it perfectly, but it wasn’t a problem for him to understand the situation he was in now.

─It doesn’t cause much damage to awakened people, but the reason why this guy is designated as a higher class is because of his brutality towards ordinary people. This is because as soon as its existence is recognized, it is activated and causes the person involved to go crazy. If another person discovers the person who has become the host, that person also turns into a host.

Sejun tightly gripped the handle of the sword between his legs.

The monsters we have to deal with this time are a little different from before.

I felt a little empty as I still didn’t know the location of the monster or how to find it, and the victims had to be isolated first.

─Keep in mind, this guy is truly a monster that can cause devastating damage to humanity.

Han Sejun opens his mouth slightly. And then he spit out the name of that monster.

“… Corruptor.”

That was the monster I had to face this time.