“The number of explorations has stacked up this much. It’s about time we figured it out....”
Ho Yuwon’s voice sounded strange.
Like joy.
Or maybe sorrow—something dark and trembling, like fear.
And yet it felt as if he were smoothly hiding all of that at once.
What was certain was the content.
“It’s about time to figure it out?”
That meant my question—about the traces of the Azure Dragon Team we found in Se-gwang Special City—was exactly what Ho Yuwon had been expecting.
Question: What Ho Yuwon knows about the Emergency Rescue Unit’s Azure Dragon Team.
“Hm? Shouldn’t you be the one explaining that to me, Mr. Roe Deer? That’s the reason I started this project, remember? To find out about a certain extinction-class supernatural disaster. In other words...”
Ho Yuwon grabbed my shoulder and looked straight into me.
“What did you find out in Se-gwang Special City?”
That was when I was sure.
“About the Azure Dragon Team.”
This man had known about the Azure Dragon Team all along.
And that knowledge was deeply tied to his motive for trying to explore the sealed Se-gwang Special City.
A grudge?
I couldn’t be certain, but in my head, the causal chain began to arrange itself.
That the deep resentment Ho Yuwon harbored toward the Supernatural Disaster Response Agency was, in some way, connected to the disappearance of the Azure Dragon Team.
After some hesitation, I explained the facts as they were.
Discovery of Segwang Industrial High School
: Traces of the Azure Dragon Team confirmed at the site.
“Ah.”
He froze.
“So you could reach it from the subway station after all....”
“As expected.”
The satisfaction of someone whose guess had been correct.
Question: What he knows about Segwang Industrial High School.
“Hm? Baekilmong enters that high school every new moon, don’t they? When I saw the name, I figured it must be related to Se-gwang Special City.”
Judgment: False.
“......”
Ho Yuwon’s eyes darkened to pitch black.
He looked at me.
Question: What Ho Yuwon did in Se-gwang Special City before it was sealed.
“...You’re curious?”
Affirmative.
“I used to do the same kind of work I do now.”
His gaze flicked toward the nameplate posted outside the waiting room.
Fox Counseling Room
“Counseling.”
......
“It was rewarding work. Because of that, I used to visit certain high schools periodically to provide counseling for the students.”
...!
The words Fox Counseling Room seemed to distort for a moment.
“I did all sorts of things for my clients....”
And then, in the next instant—
“But that’s all in the past now.”
Everything returned to normal.
Ho Yuwon smiled faintly at me.
......
Question: What Ho Yuwon is looking for in Se-gwang Special City.
“I am,”
Ho Yuwon’s voice dropped lower,
“looking for something located in a facility connected to one of the city’s subway stations.”
......
“Please keep exploring in the direction you’ve been going, Mr. Roe Deer. Travel through the subway stations, infer what’s happening outside. I think you’ll find it that way. And when you finally come face to face with it...”
A smile crept back across his lips.
“Then you’ll recognize it right away—without me needing to say a word—what it is that Ho Yuwon has been searching for.”
......
Question: Ho Yuwon’s feelings about the Azure Dragon Team.
“Well now. I suppose I must dislike them? I dislike the Disaster Response Agency, after all.”
But his tone was disturbingly dry.
A feeling I couldn’t describe began to sink deeper into me.
The Azure Dragon Team.
Se-gwang Special City.
And... Ho Yuwon.
***
That evening.
“Podo.”
At last, I met with the Disaster Response Agency agents.
The other team members had left the Fox Counseling Room for interviews and personal management reports related to the Dream Collector.
So I, No. 130666, was the only one present.
But honestly, I had so much more urgent news to share that I jumped up to greet them before I could even think about manners or composure—
“......First, let’s move somewhere else.”
The expressions on the agents’ faces were grim.
Under the cognitive distortion veil provided by the Will-o’-the-wisp, I followed them once again into a nearby SDRA field container.
There was no time even to worry about whether this might expose my location to the agency.
“...Podo. What we confirmed—”
These agents had raided the Sublevel 33 Restricted Archives of the SDRA Gangwon Branch to find records about Se-gwang Special City.
No wonder they’d backed out of the exploration so easily...!
Question: Risk of disciplinary action if discovered.
“Agent Podo doesn’t have to worry abou—”
“Yeah. I already got mine. Pay cut!”
“......”
Agent Cheongdong pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Anyway, that’s not the point. What matters is what we found, right?”
Agent Choi gave his habitual crooked grin.
But sweat beaded along his temple.
“When we checked the lockdown records, there were redacted terms even inside the restricted archive.”
The agents’ faces darkened as they added that it wasn’t a good sign.
“But we managed to piece together the rough sequence. Here, listen...”
And Agent Choi began to explain.
The official Disaster Response Agency logs describing events up to ‘Extinction-class Supernatural Disaster — City Deletion’.
“At first, the branch received a call for assistance. From the agency branch located inside that very special city.”
Support Request from ■■ Special City Branch:
Exploration of newly detected supernatural disaster.
Rapidly escalating influence, projected casualties severe.
“Of course, the agency’s first step was to assess what kind of disaster it was. ...But then, three veteran agents from the White Tiger Team who entered the city vanished within two hours.”
Contact lost.
All attempts to locate them failed.
→ Declared missing.
“But that was only the beginning.”
“Five hours later, the entire branch inside the special city went silent.”
......
“According to the report, not a single person from that branch was ever seen again. The final recorded transmission was this.”
Origin unknown – voice transmission:
‘Don’t come! Stay away! We can’t possibly handle—’
(static)
Connection terminated.
Identified sounds: glass shattering, screams, heavy collapse, music box melody, ecstatic murmuring.
“After that, all records of what kind of supernatural disaster it was were redacted. Only the casualty section remained.”
Presumed dead: 620,000.
“That... happened all in a single day.”
......
Hell had descended upon one city.
“The agency, realizing the situation, immediately issued an official ban on all personnel entering the city.”
With no way to stop it, they must have at least tried to prevent further loss of life.
“...But you know what?”
Agent Choi gave a bitter laugh.
“Other agents started filing mass leaves of absence and infiltrating the region on their own. To save whoever they could. ...More than half of the Emergency Rescue Unit went.”
Ah.
“And then—”
He lowered his head slightly.
“Not one of them came back. Not before the entire special city was sealed along with the extinction-class disaster.”
......
In the end, the Agency must have chosen containment—sealing it away, erasing it from recognition—to prevent more deaths and nationwide panic.
“That was how the Emergency Rescue Unit lost nearly all its members.”
......
“So, to ‘reduce discrepancies,’ they dissolved the team completely and merged its duties with ‘another team of similar function.’ Every one of those team names was censored.”
Agents Cheongdong and Choi looked straight at me.
“In that sense,”
A weary smile rose on Choi’s face,
“while you explore that special city... could you also look for traces of the Agency agents who were there?”
Hoo.
Traces confirmed.
“...!”
During this exploration, traces of SDRA agents discovered within Hanbit Library interior facility.
Items: shattered glass lantern and letter.
“What?”
And then—
Team Name: Emergency Rescue Unit, Azure Dragon Team.
Agent Choi’s eyes deepened to blue.
“Azure Dragon Team.”
......
“Right. So the Emergency Rescue Unit was theirs originally. Ha... Jaegwan, no wonder our workload’s been brutal—we’ve been doing the work of two teams. Right?”
“Agent.”
“Seriously, when you think of the Four Divine Beasts, there’s supposed to be an Azure Dragon too. But that one was missing, and somehow none of us ever questioned it. Never even joked about it...”
“......”
“They must’ve made us unable to remember.”
Agent Cheongdong spoke quietly.
“...It was a disaster with over six hundred thousand casualties in a single day. The measure was necessary. ...For the greater good.”
Rationally, that was true.
‘The entire branch inside the special city had gone dark, presumed dead—there was no other choice.’
But that was the view from the outside.
‘For those still alive when the city was sealed, it would have been nothing but being buried alive.’
And there was someone who still remembered all of it.
Ho Yuwon.
Whatever method he used, Ho Yuwon clearly knew about Se-gwang Special City—and the disaster that unfolded inside it.
In that sense—
Ho Yuwon’s hatred toward the Disaster Response Agency must have begun when the agency decided to seal the city away.
...Hoo.
I didn’t know what I was supposed to feel.
Maybe it was only because my body had already collapsed beyond human form, because I was 130666, that I could keep myself from breaking down over it.
......Anyway. First things first.
Start with what I could do.
Request for verification and assessment: Torn talisman.
“...A talisman?”
It was the same structure related to Segwang Industrial High School.
Location found:
Inside the Azure Dragon Team’s glass lantern.
“...!”
I quickly and concisely explained everything—the letter from the Azure Dragon Team and the state of the high school.
The agents’ faces tightened with rising tension as they listened.
“Wait. Can you describe that talisman in more detail?”
I immediately drew it from memory—
The half-torn one from inside the lantern,
and, along with it, the recognizable lines from the completed talismans that had covered the entire fifth floor.
Character: 護 (Protection)
“......”
Agent Cheongdong’s pupils widened as he looked at the lines of smoke I drew.
“This is... a warding talisman.”
Biksa (Exorcism).
“It’s used to repel malign forces—to protect a space or a person.”
“Jaegwan, have you ever used one of those in the field?”
“No. These went out of use once production of Glass Hand-Cannons increased. Too unstable, too costly.”
He traced the drawn lines with his finger.
“They’re powerful, but equally demanding. To invoke such effects means the agent bears a heavy price.”
“......”
“And... this isn’t even a standard form.”
Through the smoke, his blue eyes met mine.
“Can you describe the paper or the ink used? Rough color, texture—anything.”
Paper origin: scrap paper.
A book loan card from a library that served as the resting place of a great supernatural entity.
“...! Based on a supernatural disaster itself... Wait—”
Cheongdong fell silent, staring again at the half-drawn, half-torn talisman.
“Of everyone on the Black Tortoise Team, Jaegwan’s one of the top experts in talismans and scriptures. Comes from where he used to work, you see.”
...Where he used to work?
But before I could think further, as he’d said, Cheongdong lifted his head.
“You said it was torn? Inside the lantern?”
Affirmative.
“...Was the Will-o’-the-wisp still inside?”
......!
Will-o’-the-wisp absent.
Only scorch marks remained, showing the path it had led.
“...I see.”
Cheongdong’s face dimmed.
“It seems this warding talisman borrowed power not from any divine source but from within the special city’s own supernatural current—using a kind of Will-o’-the-wisp trick.”
A goblin’s prank.
“Agent Podo, was the shattered lantern larger or smaller than the standard one you’ve received before?”
...!
Affirmative.
Smaller, and more ornate—that much I remembered.
“That would mean it was a lantern consecrated to match its owner’s horoscope.”
“Exactly.”
Agent Choi clenched his hand.
“So some agent who’d passed the Will-o’-the-wisp Trial must’ve used their own flame to try to protect that high school—and the talisman broke.”
......
Then it was as I thought.
Request: New creation of the same talisman.
“...!”
To restore Segwang Industrial High School to the form that agent had tried to protect.
“We can try that.”
A spark returned to Choi’s eyes as he looked at me.
“But it’ll have to be done off the books.”
Affirmative.
“Good. There’s still a way. Let’s go.”
The agents rose from their seats.
Wait, if we’re going to the Agency’s workshop, I can’t exactly tag along like this...
It would look bad for a would-be divine candidate who left only a letter to suddenly show up.
Besides, I couldn’t even walk the streets in this form.
Just as I was about to suggest fetching a transport case from the reptilian aliens—
“Mhm. No, where we’re going now is fine.”
Huh?
When I turned my head, even Agent Cheongdong let out a faint smile instead of a sigh.
“It’s Jaegwan’s old workplace.”
...!
“Ever heard of it? A very spiritual bookstore.”
***
Leejeong Bookstore
One of the SDRA’s long-standing suppliers of sacred artifacts.
Their cooperation dated back to the late Joseon era, and sometimes agents even referred part-timers to help when the owner needed extra hands.
And one of those part-timers had been a young Cheongdong.
Good grief.
I lifted my gaze to the bookstore.
Under a clear night sky where a bright crescent moon hung and a few rare stars glimmered,
stood a small, tranquil shop.
LEE
JEONG
BOOKSTORE
Its glass door was old and slightly opaque but kept immaculately polished, a metal bookmark wind chime hanging from it.
A small, serene space—so starkly different from the Hanbit Library I’d just explored.
“Sir, Dong’s here.”
Ding-a-ling.
With that gentle sound, the three of us stepped into the little bookstore.
Into the shining, silent mystery of dust.