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Hatred collides with hatred.

The Polluter aims to taint the city with evil intent.

The Chinese Army wishes to destroy the city to eliminate the terrorists.

A Sorcerer brings down buildings while enduring horrific pain.

Each wields their own beliefs, convinced they represent justice, firmly believing that all this is happening because of others’ doing.

Kwad-dad-dad-deuk!!!

A massive octopus limb shifts.

Debris and corpses clinging to its suckers plummet to the ground, instantly crushed into nothingness, leaving behind mere red stains that mark them as part of this devastated city. Stones that couldn’t be reduced to dust soar into the sky, dropping hard hail, while twisted and shattered rebar stands like an exposed skeletal structure, singing the arrival of the end for this city.

“Whoooo-”

The Wizard closes his eyes, gathering power.

Knowing the risks of absorbing tainted mana, he takes the drastic measure of injecting Liquid Mana directly into his veins. A sensation like molten lava and Arctic ice flowing together surges through him, and he struggles to manage the insane power that threatens to explode his heart.

Yet, he pours all his intellect into controlling the mana, fixated on a singular thought.

A thought unlike any he held before.

Fueled by the hatred to hunt down and kill someone who had tried to use him.

[ Burning down the house to catch a pest is foolish. But ignoring the rampaging beast starving for blood is even more foolish! Those terrorists are as desperate as wild beasts hungry for blood; they are evildoers looking to topple the order of China, and if we let them go, they could unleash horrors upon other cities, worse than today! Thus, for the greater good, we must not hesitate!!! ]

[ If we focus on the immediate disaster and are deterred by the current damage!!! How can we prevent even greater devastation in the future!!! Today it may only be one city, but tomorrow it could be several cities or even the Three Gorges Dam itself. If that happens, all our efforts will vanish without a trace, relegating us back to the status of slaves under the Western powers, living on as a slave nation for generations to come!!! ]

[ Soldiers dedicated to the homeland, hear me!!! Now is the time for you to fight for your country, the time to act to avert future disasters!!! Show your skills honed through training without reservation; we must absolutely, absolutely eliminate those evil beings right here and now!!!! ]

The soldiers move under the resolute command.

With the mantra “Do not feel guilty; you are protecting your homeland” drilled firmly into their minds, they are driven by a sense of duty to protect their nation, willingly participating in the destruction of the city.

Hierarchy has its privileges.

What was once a nuisance in peacetime now shines brighter than anything else, for they are the sword and bullet of their homeland. They execute their duties as commanded, firing missiles and shells to eliminate the terrorists threatening China.

Kwaaang-!

Kwaaang!

Kwaaaang-!!!

Explosions occur before the last one fades.

A deafening noise dissipates only for another to take its place.

Missiles rain down like hail, and shells fall like rain.

Thus, the city is utterly wrecked.

A storm of steel.

A rainbow-hued plague spreads out.

A beast with octopus limbs rampages among it.

Ah.

If it were only one.

If one wasn’t feasible, even two would have sufficed.

Yet now, three lay waste to the city.

That number, three, balances each other perfectly, ensuring they do not easily fall apart—a truly strange situation.

Truly…

* * *

Kugung-!

Kugung-!

Kugung-!

A heavy thunderous sound.

With each resounding noise, the ceiling shakes.

Dust falls like rain, threatening collapse, while the pests and rats hidden within scatter in panic, desperately trying to escape. Those that find a way bolt towards it, while others, hopelessly deranged, turn on each other, biting and trample until death ensues in a cycle of killing.

But just as everything tries to flee outside, there are bugs striving to enter within.

Massing together like clouds, they initially appear as a swarm of ordinary insects, yet sometimes they cluster with eerie density to form faces resembling humans.

With grotesque appearances akin to masks, a set of eyes suddenly emerges from a void, scanning the surroundings with a mischievous gleam.

One could call that silhouette a Yokai without exaggeration.

“You’re fighting well. Hahaha.”

Park Jinseong wandered through the sewer in a Yokai-like form, satisfied with the sounds and vibrations reverberating from above.

“When one fights one, it ends quickly. If one gains the upper hand, the other falls helplessly. But add one more to the mix, and if one grows stronger, the other two will naturally ally against it, maintaining the balance, thus prolonging the battle.”

Park Jinseong’s strategy struck true.

He didn’t need to lend power to magic; merely watching would suffice. He aimed to create a three-way conflict.

Conflict that wouldn’t end quickly, each wary of the others.

Forcing Park Jinseong to remain unbothered.

[Cursed bastards———-!!!]

Urrrrrr.

A new resonating boom and vibration reverberate, intermingled with the shrill voice of a certain man.

Warped and unclear, but it appeared to belong to the Sorcerer Pierre Martin.

“They are cursed bastards.”

Hahaha.

Park Jinseong chuckled inwardly upon hearing those words.

To kidnap, kill, and use people as subjects for magical experiments;

The one currently demolishing the city in real-time is cursing others.

Isn’t that just hilarious?

The one who is truly cursed by countless people spouts such rhetoric.

“And neither have the others been any better.”

That does not mean the other two have acted nobly.

The Polluter has tainted the water source, causing harm to countless lives, and even before Park Jinseong empowered him, he sought to spread enough pollution throughout the city to annihilate it.

And as for the army, they are no better.

Raining missiles and shells into their own city as if harboring a thousand-year grudge, working tirelessly while entirely unconcerned for their own citizens, making their actions deserving of the collective curse from the masses.

Three lunatics rampaging amidst the backdrop of a city.

Disregarding ethics and any sense of morality, they focus on slaughtering one another.

A scene akin to a snippet from Buddhist hell.

“It’s familiar territory.”

And to Park Jinseong, it was indeed a very familiar sight.

These figures doing their utmost to kill each other.

Countless people dying as collateral, the very civilization they built shattered around them.

Park Jinseong had witnessed this scene countless times in his life.

In essence…

It is a common aspect of life.

He has seen it innumerable times and will continue to see it again.

It will become a daily occurrence as the world plunges into World War III…

“Thus, I must move more swiftly. Yes, indeed.”

And naturally, war isn’t a good thing.

War always accompanies destruction.

All that Park Jinseong longed for vanished effortlessly in this horror, lost to the flames of conflict.

Some were left behind as mere traces, others couldn’t even leave a mark.

There was a deep sense of regret for it all.

And thus, Park Jinseong found himself wandering these sewers…

“I’ve arrived.”

The place where Park Jinseong had followed the currents of the sewer led him to a Secret Research Institute.

The place where Pierre Martin resided until he went berserk, shattering the city.

Now it has become an Unoccupied Mountain.

What does that mean?

It means he can inspect the Secret Research Institute without obstruction.

With a smile, Park Jinseong ventured inside.

As he had anticipated, the Secret Research Institute was devoid of anything.

Thanks to Pierre Martin having obliterated the existing security system beforehand, there were no issues; and perhaps traps left behind were absent, as well.

It’s unclear whether he found no value in establishing magic at the cost of a price, or if he aimed to preserve his body for future magical rituals, but the result is a place that provides easy movement.

Park Jinseong could easily access the core of the Secret Research Institute.

Papers that should have been locked away in files lay piled high, waiting for someone to read them, and a computer that ought to be under strict security was running, connected to the intranet.

Just extending a hand would grant him access to the information.

He could uncover what happened in this Secret Research Institute, how Pierre Martin created clones, and how to reach other research institutes based on this information.

He could know it all…

With a smile at that prospect, Park Jinseong gathered his bugs to form a hand to extend outward.

But at that moment—

—–.

Park Jinseong suddenly halted.

 

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