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Entering boldly and causing a bomb terror in broad daylight?

Not just planting it and running away, but waiting calmly for the explosion while preparing to perish alongside the bomb itself!

They were insane.

Crazy terrorists!

At least they waited until after a uproarious cheer before detonating, allowing everyone to evacuate successfully, thus avoiding casualties…

“Ugh, ugh.”

I have no idea what explosives they used, but the injuries were piling up. Even though the shield absorbed the attack, the destructive force was too great for the shock to be fully mitigated. The explosives shattered the shield, and despite most of the shock being dispersed, some remained, crushing people’s bones and mangling their insides.

On top of that, the flames that spread with the explosives seemed to emit toxic gas, releasing thick black smoke. As a result, people were frantically scrambling to find and put on gas masks.

“Those crazy bastards…”

This was a scene worthy of being recorded in textbooks.

So far, there hadn’t been any fatalities, but if this chaos continued, more than a few people rolling on the floor would soon lose their lives.

“Everyone who can move, quickly put gas masks on those who are down!”

Surviving a bomb blast only to die from inhaling toxic gas?

What kind of pathetic death is that?

The embassy staff desperately struggled with their blank, pale faces, moving their sluggish bodies to put gas masks on the fallen. They also administered a hemostatic agent and blood enhancer created by an alchemist to prevent anyone from bleeding to death. For those bleeding and vomiting blood and flesh due to internal injuries, they administered the hemostatic agent, blood enhancer, and shock preventatives.

Everyone was moving in perfect harmony.

All to save at least one person amid this tragedy.

Their efforts were effective, as not a single soul perished before the ambulance arrived to take them away.

That could definitely be called a human victory.

Thus, all the staff boarded the ambulance and left the embassy.

The journalists who sensed an exclusive story pushed their way through to see the embassy, which had begun to catch fire with a loud noise.

It seemed the terror had come to an end.

Fire trucks arrived to douse the embassy with water, staff treated the wounded, and when the flames subsided, people went in to investigate.

It appeared to be over.

However… unfortunately, the terror was not finished.

Jinseong didn’t just use magic to throw a bomb.

If it were merely a bomb terror, Jinseong would have employed other methods.

He could have found and used discarded people like consumables, contacted the homeless lying on the streets to deliver ‘mysterious items’ to the embassy, or even made animals charged with bombs charge into the embassy and explode. There were also options like tying explosives to drones or birds and dropping bombs on the embassy from above, or stealing several trucks before performing a ritual to make them move autonomously.

Throwing bombs at a target could be done in so many ways.

Adding unethical means and employing all the countless methods he witnessed during his time as a mercenary would broaden those choices even more.

More efficiently, more covertly.

If Jinseong set his mind to it, perfecting a terror amidst this peace would not be difficult. That was what he had done before he rewound time, and that was the way he had witnessed and suffered.

Yet, despite this, Jinseong chose a different method.

He split a clone made of insects in half to create two, and even used magic related to the Gunjebosal in Korea. Moreover, just before the clone moved, he even layered a spell that invoked the symbol of the sun.

Isn’t that overly extravagant for a mere bomb terror?

It wasn’t a carpet bombing or aiming to blow up the capital with a nuclear bag. It was ridiculously inefficient and downright unreasonable to create a suitable explosion just for one embassy and set it on fire.

The convoluted and inefficient methods Jinseong used…

The fact he layered numerous spells was for the sake of this very moment.

Not a bomb terror, but the chaos after the bomb terror.

Not the destruction caused by the bombs and fire, but the pollution hidden within the destruction.

He wished for Japan to plunge deeper into confusion.

A proper level of chaos that wouldn’t incur casualties.

Sufficient yet expansive, shallow yet uncontrollable chaos.

Jinseong sought that chaos.

Tzzzzz.

Flames rose, and black smoke enveloped the inside of the embassy.

The sprinkler had either malfunctioned due to the heat or simply ceased to work, and the flames, which had been hindered by the water, spread wildly as soon as the obstacles were removed, engulfing the entire embassy. The flames scorched the walls, burned the furniture, and incinerated crucial documents within the embassy. Along with that, it thickly spread black smoke, pulling in the darkness of night and making it absolutely impossible to see inside, while the toxic gas spread everywhere, making it unsafe for anyone to step carelessly.

And within that vivid yet subtle curtain, something was moving.

Tzzzzz.

The liquid that Jinseong’s clone brought out from the shopping bag.

A sticky substance with a mottled brown color.

The liquid wiggled as if it were slime, swimming across the floor, and it didn’t burn in the flames igniting around it. Instead, it changed color as if the flames were the right temperature and clumped together, transforming into a sticky goo that adhered to the floor and walls. Then, fueled by the heat emitted by the flames, it plopped, plopped, releasing a very small sound as it spilled something grotesque onto the ground.

Plop.

Splat.

It was a mushroom that resembled an insect.

A mushroom that hatched and grew in the heat.

It bore an abundance of life force and had such powerful heat resistance and fire resistance that it seemed to have been born from the sun. While growing like a plant in the blink of an eye, it also formed shapes like an insect and wiggled as if it truly were an insect, transforming due to the heat.

As it writhed, the mushroom melted instantly into a puddle the moment the flames drew near. It wasn’t forcibly burned or melted by the heat; it seemed to wish to transform its body shape itself. Like the way the clone made from a colony of insects wished to change its form according to its will.

The melted mushroom then seeped into the cracks formed on the ground.

Downward.

Further down.

The liquid from the mushroom continuously flowed downward, slipping into the water pipes, sewage, and underground water.

* * *

Once upon a time, there was a year of continuous famine. The people, unable to bear hunger, began to rummage through the mountains in search of food, resulting in countless tree barks being stripped and the roots of grass being torn up. The ground was turned over, making it hard to find a healthy spot, and all the mountain beasts turned into meat, ending up in their bellies. Thus, the mountains lay devastated as if locusts had swept through them, and the stripped trees and rootless grass piled up like corpses, becoming nourishment for mushrooms.

Among the mushrooms that grew in that desolate mountain was an incredibly peculiar one. Though it was a mushroom, it took on the shape of an insect, and when touched by humans, it twisted its body as if mimicking a real insect wriggling about. However, if one were to dig it up, it was connected to the earth, and its taste resembled that of the moss found in caves.

To the starving, even that bizarre shape looked appetizing, and ignorant folks chewed it into their mouths. All who ate the mushroom, without exception, developed spots on their bodies and endured fever, complaining of a tightness in their chests as if rage had filled them. They also experienced intense hunger pangs as if raw fish were swimming in their stomachs, and since they had nothing to eat during the famine, they chewed on the dirt to quell their hunger.

Yet strangely, even though they ate dirt, people did not die. Just like earthworms swallowed dirt and excreted it, they had no issues eliminating the soil. Seeing this, people thought the mushroom had transformed into the shape of something an earthworm would eat, and they feared that if they consumed it again, they would be born as earthworms in their next life. This mushroom became known as the ‘Doroongji’ (土龍芝), a source of fear, and in later years, it was completely burned by the edict of officials bringing relief food. After being entirely incinerated, it never reappeared, and the people, upon seeing this, reassured themselves that famine would never return.

* * *

Now.

A part of Tokyo has been polluted.

 

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