Chapter 110
Dragon’s Name (6)
The main building of the Blue House was the presidential office. The loud voice of a man holding the phone resounded.
“No, I don’t think so.”
He pressed down on his temple, frowning as if he didn’t like something.
“Let’s be objective. If we change our position, you will understand that it is an unreasonable demand.”
An interpreter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, connected by a multi-call line, translated the words into English. Then, beyond the telephone line, the U.S. president’s answer was heard, followed by a Korean interpreter.
-I understand that. However, this case should be considered as a special case.
President Kang Min-ki said with an impression, “Unfortunately, it will be difficult. U.S. researchers can’t be dispatched to Korea to interview survivors this time. However, as agreed upon in the first place, you can cooperate with the Korean military to observe the site where the ‘Black Hemisphere’ was created.”
He didn’t know how long the U.S. scientists would survive without getting crazy, but he swallowed the sarcasm inside. For that reason, the South Korean government practically gave up both hands in the research. They just focused on blocking the surroundings and preventing civilian access.
If one looked at the disaster that covered the Hun-neung base site for a long time, there were symptoms of delirium without exception. So far, not a single person had missed.
Due to persistent requests, U.S. researchers would be allowed access ‘for academic purposes,’ but the accompanying South Korean military forces would never look directly at the hemisphere, just like they had been doing so far.
The American interpreter again translated President Benjamin Greenwood.
-It can’t be helped.
In the first place, the interview would’ve been close to trying to poke on their business. He continued.
-Then, we will only focus on the observation of the ‘Black Hemisphere.’ This opportunity will be of great help in promoting a scientific understanding of what is happening on Earth. We doubt that the ‘Black Hemisphere’ is a kind of Channel. It’s well worth digging into.
President Kang knew why he said those words.
There was very reliable intelligence that was recently obtained. It was said that Gramperi of China saw the video of the Hun-neung and said it was related to the dimension. When he heard that, President Kang felt like he wanted to rush to China right away, grab the neck of the alien races, and yell at them to throw up everything they knew.
The U.S. government might have obtained similar intelligence.
-Absolutely. We have a lack of information on Channels and Dimensions. China is now tightly controlling contact with Gramperi. This information imbalance is extremely undesirable for human development. Perhaps the study of the Black Hemisphere will be of great help.
Gramperi appeared in Hong Kong last year during the Channel crisis. It was also said that they telepathically gave off academic concepts of ‘dimension’ on the spot. Since then, given the circumstances identified through intelligence, it was assumed that they had the most profound knowledge of Channels and dimensions among the alien races that have appeared on Earth.
President Kang Min-ki thought, ‘At least they are higher than the Kaifu.’
It was originally the border area of DR Congo that opened the Channel to the Kaifu’s dimension. Observing the Earth, they coveted advanced science and technology, and the rebels in DR Congo earned a massive commission by linking developed countries with Kaifu. That deal was, of course, a strict secret. The U.S. and South Korea also ‘imported’ instructors. That was because both countries had failed to establish diplomatic relations with friendly alien races through their own Channels.
Kaifu’s civilization level was about the Middle Ages of Earth. Compared to this place where there was no knowledge at all, Kaifu was, of course, superior in magic, but there was no such thing as a deep knowledge of the dimension that the United States regarded as important.
On the other hand, according to information sources from all over the world that infiltrated China, Gramperi’s parent dimension had achieved a technological civilization close to Earth’s modern level. And their level of magic was so high that this dimension’s location had been observed for a long time. After hearing this news, the United States turned upside down.
Naturally, the U.S. obsession with keeping up with China led to going to be sent to Korea this time were part of the effort.
After talks, the two presidents exchanged brief greetings and ended the call. President Kang Min-ki, who put down the handset, made eye contact with those sitting in his office. A handful of top government officials were listening to the call he had.
The President asked a question as he washed his tired face.
“Are the survivors thoroughly isolated from the outside?”
“Yes, they are.”
“Is there any improvement in the condition?”
The secretary’s chief replied.
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“They are almost impossible to move because of a mental shock.”
Most of them lost both eyes and said it was impossible to recover even with Kaifu’s magic. Even if it were possible, they wouldn’t have been able to use them. All the surviving alien races ran away to DR Congo to return to their mother dimension. It was a right guaranteed in the contract so that it couldn’t be prevented.
The President frowned, and his head was burning. The Hun-neung project was, in reality, a catastrophe.
The alien race and all non-wizard agents disappeared within the ‘Black Hemisphere,’ one of the trainees was missing, and most of the others survived but were found blind.
The President asked, “What is the state of trainee Kim Kyung-hwan? And the one that he rescued…”
He hesitated, unable to remember her name.
“You mean Trainee Hwang Soo-rim?”
He had met Kim Kyung-hwan face-to-face several times to talk. However, Hwang Soo-rim was an unfamiliar name. There were over 200 trainees, and he couldn’t remember all of the names.
“Yes, that’s right. Kim Kyung-hwan and Hwang Soo-rim… those two are under strict surveillance, right?”
“Yes, they are.”
The secretary’s chief continued.
“Trainee Kim Kyung-hwan is being protected in a safe house after discharge. His injuries were completely healed, and his anxious mental state has greatly stabilized. He is also very cooperative in the interrogations that are held for a while each day. He has also been practicing magic almost all day except for interviews and sleeping hours.”
The President asked, puzzled, “On his own? We don’t even have a Kaifu instructor anymore…”
The secretary’s chief answered, “As per the report you received, trainee Kim Kyung-hwan was at the stage where he could combine the magic formula alone. He is said to be studying spells based on what he has learned.”
“How about Trainee Hwang Soo-rim?”
“There are no injuries, but her trauma is great. She’s showing extreme anxiety symptoms and is said to be able to sleep little at night. She also gets panic attacks several times a day. As a matter of fact, interviews are impossible to hold with her.”
“Hmm…”
According to Kim Kyung-hwan’s testimony, the two didn’t follow the agent’s control, so they ironically didn’t encounter the alien race. That was why their eyes and ankles were safe. Most of the other trainees who moved to the evacuation route encountered the alien race and suffered fatal injuries.
Kim Kyung-hwan said that he realized that the base was being attacked, and instead of evacuating, he moved in the opposite direction to fight the enemy. It was the same behavior as when a flying creature with black wings attacked the Hun-neung in the past.
Then he found Hwang Soo-rim, who was terrified and collapsed in the hallway without evacuating. He rescued her and retreated when space suddenly distorted, at which point he passed out.
The problem came after that. Not only Kim Kyung-hwan and Hwang Soo-rim, but none of the trainees knew how they were moved out of the hemisphere. As soon as the enemies entered the area, CCTVs throughout the base were jammed, leaving no records on the internal network.
Some trainees that lost their sight testified that ‘some being’ intervened in the battle against the alien race. They were thrown by that being somewhere. However, the testimonies of whether everyone’s mind went back and forth in extreme pain weren’t credible.
“I doubt that only the eyes and ankles are damaged.”
“Yes, we will continue our observations for now.”
The President’s face was deeply submerged. There was some doubt, but there was no clear evidence. Could he really trust it?
Regardless, there was no alternative. His mind became complicated. Almost all of the trainees who were preparing with great care had become ruined by this incident. Hwang Soo-rim, who had no injuries, was also close to being unavailable in terms of mental aspects.
“If so…”
A dark light shone in the President’s eyes. If he could trust it, it would be reassuring, but there were too many doubts in the context. Still, if he could believe it… now there was only one “powerful” wizard in this country: Kim Kyung-hwan.
He muttered quietly.
“What the hell happened in there…”
***
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“Hey. Sir?”
The taxi driver spoke to me as I was closing my eyes and focusing my mind. Disturbed, I looked at the driver with an expression mixed with irritation. A driver from India spoke in English with a strong accent as if he didn’t notice what I felt.
“Why don’t you tell me your destination?”
Thirty minutes passed after I took a taxi from a hotel near the Dubai Airport and asked him to go west. We continued to run on the main road, getting farther and farther away from downtown.
I opened my eyes once in the middle and looked around, but now I couldn’t find any high-rise buildings around. All I could see were buildings that resembled warehouses and the wilderness covered with pale yellow soil.
“If we keep going like this, we’ll get to Abu Dhabi.”
Ignoring his words, I closed my eyes again and focused my mind. He had no idea, but large-scale detection magic was unfolding along my path while I was sitting in the car.
Parvache raised a question inside the bag.
[Nothing caught yet?]
‘Not yet. Alice said it was around this way…’
It wasn’t a desert full of sand as I had imagined, but it was undoubtedly a desolated land.
A thought suddenly came to mind. Earlier this year, Parvache asked me a question while interrogating the apprentices’ memories of the Fake God.
-If there is any trace of the Dragon, which place is it most likely to remain?
Then the apprentice’s memories replied:
-There is only one possible place—his nest.
-He enjoyed staying in a place similar to his original land…
-The dry atmosphere and high temperature. The earth of the desolate land.
Though I heard that, I couldn’t search all the deserts of the world. It was then.
But now I had the information to narrow it down and the grounds to look for. Certainly, the surrounding landscape was getting closer to what the apprentices’ memories described.
Alice, whose mind and body were torn apart, eventually confessed to me. Considering that she proudly declared that she wouldn’t give in to fear and pain, she collapsed quite quickly.
The nest where the Dragon stayed when he was alive was somewhere in this land.
Originally, his nest was where the Dragon stayed alone, and the ascetics didn’t reside there. Now, after the Dragon died, they had only set a strict barrier as a precaution and left the interior empty. That was because the work for the Dragon’s resurrection was carried out elsewhere.
I wasn’t going to the Dragon’s nest right now for battle. Regardless, I had no opponent to fight even if I reached it now. All I had to do was sneak in and find something.
I kept focusing my mind.
How long had it been?
“I got it!”
I opened my eyes and directed the taxi driver.
And after another 20 minutes, and we ran into an unexpected situation.
“Hey, sir. We can’t go in here.”
A taxi stopped in front of a building that looked like a toll gate on a highway. A man in a uniform was walking out from inside.
In English, I asked, “What is this place? Private land? Military?”
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The driver shook his head.
“No, beyond here is the Free Zone.”
I frowned. “What’s that?”
The driver explained, looking back at me, who was sitting behind him.
“DWC Free Zone.”
“DWC? What kind of code is that?”
“Dubai World Central. It’s a free trade zone. We can’t go in there without permission.”
I looked around.
“What? Free Trade Zone? This wasteland?”
The only thing I could see was the wilderness.
‘Are you kidding me?’
The taxi driver clicked his tongue and repeated his words.
“There’s a lot of storage stuff in there. It’s a bonded area. Is this really your destination?”
I nodded. The magic that Alice taught me was a spell that emitted Mana in a kind of encrypted pattern. A destination that wouldn’t have responded to regular search magic responded to my magic. I felt an unusual wave of Mana over there.
“You can only enter with a permit from the company inside. Sir, who the hell are you trying to meet? Why don’t you call the company?”
It was an unexpected ambush. There was no doubt that the company that would answer my calls would be beyond that control line because my destination was an empty Dragon’s nest.
I said, “let’s go back for now.”
The driver shrugged and turned his steering wheel around, muttering in Tamil something along the lines of, ‘Today I picked up a crazy Chinese.’ Of course, he thought I wouldn’t understand.
After getting some distance from the control line, I spoke to him again. It was just after confirming that the guard at the gate was out of sight.
“Drop me off here.”
“What?!”
The taxi driver turned around and looked at me, finding my remark absurd.
“Hey, look around. There really is nothing here!”
“I know, it’s okay, so drop me off.”
He pulled over for a moment and persuaded me, but I refused to argue. Instead, I silently handed him the bill. The driver pocketed the money.
“Hey, take this.”
He gave me a business card.
“Do you have a cell phone? This is really in the middle of the wilderness. I can’t wait for you here, but whenever you want to go back downtown, I’ll be back with a little call.”
Even after saying so, he checked several times to see if it was really okay to drop me off here. Finally, he left with a few last words.
“No taxis are going around here. Don’t wait stupidly and call that number. Unless you have the gift to fly in the sky, you have no choice but to call me.”
I grinned and said goodbye to him. I then waited for the car he drove to disappear from view. When the car was finally out of sight, I applied stealth magic on my body.
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Afterward, I pulled out a piece of Maek Copper and burst the dream inside it. Both my feet floated in the air.
“Since I’ve got a direction, shall I keep going?”
I broke through the wind and soared through the wilderness.