Ch.251246 – Barrier

# Breaking News: Broadcast Accident

A broadcast accident refers to unexpected situations that disrupt a live stream.

It could be accidentally clicking an ad that opens a porn site, or mistakenly pressing the end stream button due to poor handling.

While Twissy has seen various broadcast accidents before, what just happened was clearly on another level entirely.

It all started when NoName suddenly shouted and sent Seol Yoon-sul out of the room.

Viewers thought NoName was just playing another prank, but then she wrapped her aura around herself.

Manifesting one’s aura is no simple task—some people go their entire lives without knowing their aura color.

Then light burst from the music box, filling the screen, followed by a violent explosion that assaulted viewers’ eardrums.

The camera that had been set up on the desk must have been caught in the blast as the screen flickered and shook.

Soon black smoke darkened the view and the connection was cut.

[Stream has ended.]

Due to the explosion sound that had clearly exceeded volume limits and NoName’s desperate scream, not a single person denied that what just happened was real.

The comment section fell into collective panic.

Eventually, even Twissy Korea administrators stepped in, reporting the incident to police and forcibly disbanding the remaining viewers in NoName’s stream to try to contain the anxiety, but people were already beyond reason.

Shutting down the remaining chat room actually made things worse.

The 30,000 viewers from around the world scattered in all directions.

Particularly in Korea, 20,000 viewers were busy spreading the unbelievable news to communities and other streamers currently broadcasting.

[‘Han Yong-cheol’s Broadcast’]

[‘loop1004’ donated 5,000 won!]

-NoName just got hit by a bomb attack during her live stream. If you know her address, please report it to the police on her behalf!

“NoName got hit by a bomb attack. Please report it quickly… Wait, bomb attack? What are you talking about?”

-Stop trolling and leave

-Ban them

-It’s actually real you idiots

-This is no joke

-???

-What’s happening?

-Terrorist attack?

-It’s urgent so hurry…!

-A bomb? For real?

[‘Rakichiti’ donated 5,000 won!]

-It’s a real situation. Twissy Korea admins and managers have already reported it, so let’s stay calm and monitor the situation…

“A real situation? Hold on.”

Han Yong-cheol paused his game and called NoName with a serious expression.

[The customer’s phone is turned off-]

Before the call could even connect, he checked community sites and could feel the situation was turning serious.

[What the hell is happening in Korea…]

[Bomb attack, this is insane;;]

[Please let NoName be okay.]

[My heart is racing so much I can’t focus on anything.]

[She definitely wrapped herself in aura, right? She’s okay, right? Please say yes.]

[The world has gone mad ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ]

Just as Han Yong-cheol was about to call the police, news articles began flooding the main pages of portal sites.

[Breaking News) ‘Bomb Attack’ During Twissy Personal Broadcast… Police Special Forces Deployed]

Terrorism was no longer something that only happened in other countries.

When national-level disasters occur, citizens become vigilant about even the smallest incidents.

Seoul Gangnam Police Station was flooded with endless reports.

Police informed callers that special forces had already been deployed for the incident, and warned people to be especially careful when opening packages from unknown senders.

[NoName must live near my house. The sounds of ambulances and police cars on the main road are no joke right now.]

-I can’t believe a bomb attack happened in Korea.

-NoName please just be alive ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Seems like someone was determined to kill a person…

[If it’s a magic bomb, honestly we can’t guarantee survival… We should prepare ourselves mentally.]

-Why would you say that you bastard!

-Chemical substances or weak explosives might be one thing, but magic bombs penetrate aura hearts and everything.

-They said NoName deployed an aura barrier!

-You think that would stop it at an eight-year-old level? The room was completely burned!

-Damn ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

Shortly after, emergency vehicles including fire trucks broke through the main entrance of Parthenon Apartments.

Some residents had already evacuated and were huddled together in slippers and pajamas.

Black smoke was coming out of the windows on the 40th floor, nearly the top of Building 102.

Judging by the lack of light leaking out, it seemed the flames hadn’t spread.

But since it was still daytime, they couldn’t be too relieved.

Twelve police special forces officers wearing black protective gear arrived—half rushed to the first floor entrance, while the others secured ropes to the roof and climbed the outer wall toward the source of the smoke.

With confirmation that this was a magic bomb attack, they needed to be prepared for potential second and third chain explosions.

“On three, we enter simultaneously. Three, two, one!”

The tactical briefing had been completed while moving.

To rescue the victim as quickly as possible, special forces officers with 1 million kE output barriers entered the room.

The reason black smoke continued to emerge despite no visible flames was simple.

When fire-type magic is improperly cast, the mana condensed in the magic circle tries to return to a stable state.

“Block the mana first!”

The special forces officers attached specialized equipment to the walls to lower the surrounding mana concentration as much as possible, preparing for any potential secondary mana winds.

As the medium substance disappeared, the smoke that had filled the room began to gradually thin.

From the living room, they could hear signs of life including a woman crying.

They received radio confirmation that the officers who had entered via the stairs had successfully rescued someone who had remained in the living room.

“T-Team leader, look over there!”

“Huh?”

The tactical team leader, who wouldn’t lose his composure even if a ghost appeared with a knife to his throat, accidentally dropped his radio.

That’s how extraordinary the sight before the man’s eyes must have been.

“A barrier?”

Four magic circles were rotating in the air, maintaining a tetrahedral formation.

Inside the barrier floated fragments of a broken magic circle.

It must have been the magic circle that served as the detonator for the magic bomb.

Just then—

Clang!

The core embedded in the magic circle fragments fell out along with runic characters.

‘It’s going to explode!’

The special forces officers instinctively maximized their aura barriers.

The bright light that burst forth only lasted a moment before the mana wind hit the tetrahedral barrier and lost its power.

Soon after, another barrier magic circle activated.

The refined mana, having lost some of its power, condensed into a single point in the center, transforming into a black sphere.

The black sphere, now given mass, rolled down to the floor.

Black smoke poured out from the sphere like a smoke bomb going off.

This was the source of the black smoke they had seen from outside.

“Could you throw that out the window, please?”

“…!”

As the smoke cleared, a girl’s figure appeared right behind the magic circle barrier.

Though her arms were trembling violently, she firmly gripped her portable magic circle composer.

The magic hadn’t been improperly cast without reason.

Someone had been converting a magic circle on the verge of self-destruction into an improperly cast form, barely maintaining it.

Quickly assessing the situation, the tactical team leader radioed the magic circle disposal team that had arrived in the living room.

“Disposal team! Get in here and collect these magic circles!”

The door burst open as people wearing thick helmets waddled in.

They firmly planted specialized wands on both sides of the barrier, and the explosive magic circle fragments inside gradually lost their light and disappeared.

The girl, her face covered in soot, finally seemed relieved as she collapsed to her knees.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Just wait a little, we’ll take you to the hospital right away.”

“Yes…”

The tactical team leader handed the child to another special forces officer and continued to lead the scene.

Magic terrorists are dangerous entities for whom on-site elimination is authorized.

Finding the perpetrator immediately was of utmost importance.

“The cores?”

“All recovered.”

“Hand them over to the National Forensic Service and contact the Magic Authority to check the magic usage records. When the perpetrator is identified, have the detectives issue a warrant.”

“Yes, understood.”

Checking magic usage records normally requires court approval like a warrant, but procedures could be expedited in counter-terrorism activities.

This was another legal provision that had changed because of Walpurgis.

If the perpetrator was still in Korea, it was clear they would be arrested within 12 hours at the latest.

After cleaning the mana-contaminated scene and looking at the scorched wallpaper, the team leader could finally take a breath.

A bomb attack in Korea.

There were no casualties, and the explosive magic circle cores had been perfectly recovered, but he couldn’t shake an uneasy feeling.

“Who owns this apartment?”

“The woman who was in the living room earlier.”

“Does she live with the child?”

“No, she lives alone.”

“Then who was that kid?”

“You mean NoName?”

“NoName?”

“Yes, NoName… She lives in the apartment right below and they were streaming together.”

The team leader recalled the child who had already been taken down in the elevator in another officer’s arms.

He removed his goggles that were obstructing his vision and rubbed his eyes vigorously.

NoName?

Isn’t that the genius kid who recently became famous?

And coincidentally, she’s also a survivor of the Walpurgis terror attack.

“How did she do that?”

“What do you mean?”

“That thing from earlier. The spinning thing.”

“I’m not sure? Didn’t you set it up, Team Leader?”

“Hmm…”

The magic circle clearly exploded, but the barrier absorbed all the mana wind and even condensed it into particle form.

In his 15 years with the special forces, he had never seen or heard of such magic.

Moreover, if he recalled correctly, there were definitely four magic circles operating simultaneously.

He furrowed his brow.

Focused entirely on resolving the urgent situation, he had missed something important.

He asked the officer again.

“How long did it take us to arrive?”

“Exactly 7 minutes and 47 seconds after the incident was reported.”

“7 minutes, 8 minutes… 9 minutes. Yes, 9 minutes.”

At least 9 minutes.

That little girl held onto an explosive magic with a killing radius of at least 10 meters for 9 minutes?

He closed his eyes gently, lost in thought.

Unable to find an easy answer to this difficult question, he shook his head and left the room.

“The world has gone mad.”

Impossible things had been happening too frequently lately.

* * *

I was transported to the hospital in an ambulance together with Yoon-sul.

Just before departure, I could secretly overhear Professor Cheon, who had arrived late, furiously telling the special forces officers to catch the culprit immediately and bring them to him.

In response to their confident answer that they would catch the perpetrator today, Professor Cheon mentioned 4 hours, and it actually took less than 2 hours for detectives to raid the culprit’s house and handcuff them.

[Breaking News) Terrorist Who Sent Magic Bomb Package to Streamer Arrested in Paju, Gyeonggi Province]

[Breaking News) Identity of ‘NoName’ Assassination Attempt Suspect is 27-year-old College Student J… What Was the Motive?]

Police investigation announcements followed.

The perpetrator was a chemistry student who had learned to create TATP explosives using acetone and hydrogen peroxide magic circles taught at university.

He confessed to engraving the crucial ignition magic circle on the music box, designed so that when I turned the gear once, all the other magic circles would activate.

This was followed by reports that Yoon-sul and I were not in life-threatening condition.

The news then returned to the beginning and repeated the same content.

I turned off the television and let out a low sigh.

Something doesn’t add up.

Acetone and hydrogen peroxide are already easily obtainable materials.

Of course, they’re also simple substances to create with magic.

But the problem is that the perpetrator must have known that all magic can be traced.

Did they want to kill me so badly that they were willing to use magic, even knowing they’d be caught by police?

And above all, what started everything was the ignition magic circle engraved on the music box.

The other magic circles were easily neutralized through reverse casting.

While ‘ignition’ is typically used as a 2-circle spell, here it was made incredibly complex by adding two extra dimensions, turning it into a 4-circle spell.

As if anticipating that I would use reverse casting.

Unless I had known from the beginning.

There wasn’t enough time to create a 6-circle neutralization formula in that brief moment, so the only option was to use the lithography composition circle I’d learned before to maintain the broken magic circle.

I gradually caused the explosion to weaken the magic circle’s power, and condensed the incompletely combusted mana into smoke to slowly release it outside.

Difficult and complex, but not entirely impossible.

If the situation had continued, my body’s mana would have been depleted first, but fortunately, the Korean police were much faster.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to use my innate magic.

I took out my phone to contact people who might be worried, but then remembered it had been swept away in the first explosion.

Since lying motionless in bed was worse than watching something, I turned the television back on.

They were just covering the investigation into possible grudges.

The Twissy broadcast viewer frequently used the streamer gallery and various hate community sites, often posting defamatory content about me.

These things get disclosed so quickly nowadays.

Internet culture seemed like it would be protected by privacy rights, but I guess there’s no mercy for terrorists.

He had been banned from several other broadcasts for badmouthing me.

It was unfair that I had to go through all this because of such a trivial matter.

There are too many crazy people in the world, now as before.

In the old days, people with such dangerous ideologies would have had their heads bashed in by street thugs before we’d even hear about them.

[In brief: Police have announced they are investigating potential accomplices involved in J’s magic bomb terror attack. J communicated with an accomplice through the encrypted messaging app ‘Wicked’. The accomplice identified themselves as a member of the Walpurgis Iraq branch, and police suspect J received bomb design plans from this accomplice.]

I’ve changed my mind. I hope his head stays intact until I can go see him myself.