Chapter 36

Kang Nabi’s ability was incredible.

We reached the West Sea floodgates in less than ten minutes after he picked up his spear.

“I apologize for the delay, Commander Ha Yeri. The crime syndicate guys were annoyingly persistent.”

“Did you find any medicine that makes you taller?”

“…Huh?”

“…?”

As if something like that could exist.

Maybe my thoughts showed on my face, because Ha Yeri paused for a beat—then delivered punishment.

I narrowly avoided a disaster where it felt like I was about to grow an extra knee joint in my leg.

Limping, I stepped into the situation room and found many familiar faces—and many that weren’t.

Several Commanders and Deputy Commanders of the Special Unit were present, along with representatives from guilds and Magic Towers gathered in the face of a nationwide disaster.

Reports and orders flew nonstop.

“The dead advancing from the West Sea aren’t moving that fast. It seems the mass of monsters swept out with them is hindering their movement.”

“How’s the Magical Siege Turret prep?”

“It can’t operate on the water, so we’ve installed as many gunports as possible along the shore.”

“Mages dispatched from each Tower are scheduled to arrive shortly.”

“It’s the same every year, but some citizens are still anxious—please keep a tight rein on the press.”

One look made it clear there was no place for a lowly grunt like me to offer opinions.

So I quietly wrote my incident report—now stretched to three pages—when the alert finally came in that the dead were visible beyond the horizon.

Human corpses tangled in rotting tentacles were rising from around the ankles and walking over the surface of the water.

It meant the Seed of Calamity had turned the sea into an environment similar to the inside of a Gate, not ordinary seawater.

At Ha Yeri’s signal, the operation began in earnest.

“All units, move quickly to your assigned positions. From this moment, we will reclaim the Sea of Decay.”

The Firepower Support Unit opened fire first.

Grand-scale magic from the Mage Corps poured onto the sea, guiding the dead toward the road to heaven.

Even so, the legions of the dead rising from the black surface did not end, and we had to gradually bring the bombardment line forward.

And this was the number even after I’d weakened it significantly by spreading tentacles in the Han River.

As expected of a Seed of Calamity. It looked like something mere humans could hardly dare to oppose.

“Ah, is this truly the end of humanity…!”

“Your hands are idle, Agent Sae Hayan.”

“Tch.”

Feigning despair as I crumpled my paper, I got a scolding from Ha Yeri, who had delegated command to Park Mu-cheol.

She had come to check on the Special Unit members on standby.

Since the sea’s flooding had been a constant threat, the veterans who had run similar operations for years showed no tension at all.

But the zero-years recruits seeing the Sea of Decay for the first time looked almost exactly like I had a moment ago.

Anyone would flinch at the sight of that many monsters.

I swapped pens with a tentacle I slipped from my sleeve and asked her in a low voice.

“Can we really handle all that? Even if you add up all the Awakened in the Special Unit, you don’t even get three hundred.”

“It’s fine. There’s a plan.”

“What plan?”

“You’ll find out if you wait a little.”

As time passed, the aftershocks of magic slowly waned.

The sea was once again carpeted with corpses, leaving only dotted borders between where spells had struck and where they hadn’t.

And then, just as Ha Yeri said, something happened.

A massive black shape began to appear on the monitors.

“What’s that?”

“A large vessel used as an oil tanker. It’s a rare piece—at best one hull gets built every ten years at the coalition shipyard in Busan.”

The rise of magitech due to increased mana-stone usage, and the collapse of global trade networks.

And since the West Sea had become an activity zone for the dead, such ships were almost never operated anymore.

With most of the hull submerged except for the deck, you could guess how much fuel it carried inside.

Yet to the naked eye, it looked eerie—there didn’t seem to be a single person aboard.

As the agents stared, puzzled, Ha Yeri spoke.

“Looks like Agent No Yeon-hwa finished the job properly.”

“Don’t tell me the classified mission assigned to Division 1 was that?”

“At present, aside from her Word-Spirit, we don’t have trained specialists to operate a ship that size.”

“Isn’t it dangerous to send something like that into the middle of the sea? The dead are still swarming out there.”

The massive ship’s underside was clawed at by the dead, but not a single scratch appeared.

Still, its speed gradually slowed until it drifted aimlessly, as if stranded in the open sea.

Just as I wondered if we’d have to go rescue it—

“That’s why we sent it.”

With Ha Yeri’s words, something began to leak from the bottom of the ship.

And then—

—BOOOOOM!!!

A colossal blaze roared up in the distance.

The sight made it look like the sun had risen in the west, and the agents couldn’t help but gape with their mouths open.

The seawater boiled, and heat beyond comparison to what we’d felt earlier blasted through the windows.

They’d released the fuel and set the entire ocean on fire.

The magic barrage from earlier had only been prep—to push the tanker farther in before the flames were unleashed.

As surprise surged, so too did morale. Amid the excited chatter, I muttered to her.

“This… isn’t the kind of fight I imagined.”

“What were you expecting? Real combat looks like this.”

“If conventional weapons and strategies work, why not just drop a nuke on Ground Zero too?”

“Do you think I haven’t tried?”

Ha Yeri tossed out something terrifying like it was nothing.

I didn’t dare ask where she supposedly got a nuclear weapon, or if the country even had nuclear facilities in the first place.

I only made a mental note: don’t joke about her height ever again.

“This case is an exception because the battlefield isn’t confined inside a Gate. That gave us more options. Ground Zero is nothing but anomalies—you can’t use tricks like this there.”

“…”

“More importantly, have you finished your report?”

“Yes, ma’am. Here.”

I handed over three fully filled pages, front and back, with both hands.

On the monitor, the resurrected tentacles thrashed wildly, trying to peel off the black oil and fire clinging to them.

Even so, I doubted we could really clean all this up, even if we stopped the flooding.

The ecological damage would be catastrophic.

Sorry, oceanic cephalopods…

I was silently offering condolences to the squid and octopus of the West Sea when a few of the dead broke through the flames and landed on the shore.

At the same time, every agent’s smartwatch buzzed with deployment orders.

The battle had truly begun.

Ha Yeri strapped her greatsword onto her back and told me:

“This side will be dealt with without issue. Only one danger remains.”

“The core?”

“Yes. Once the flames die down, we’ll dispatch the assigned force. Agent Sae Hayan, you may move with Division 3.”

“Why?”

“Because you’ve already been disciplined.”

She smoothed out the report I’d given her and tucked it neatly into the desk before gearing up to leave.

Though I had knowledge of monsters, it was clear she’d never intended to put a Lower Level Awakened like me into the core assault team.

It fit her reputation as a Commander who never let emotions sway her judgment.

Not that it made my shin—still swelling from her earlier kick—hurt any less.

“I thought you’d tremble if I sent you somewhere dangerous. Since you don’t seem fazed, fine. But if you ever make a joke about my height again…”

“No, I’ll go.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“You really want to keep teasing me?”

“That’s not it.”

“Then why insist on going there?”

“Everyone else is going. I can’t be the only one who stays behind.”

If anyone really said, “I’ll sit this one out” in a situation like this, within a few days an anonymous whistleblower would post their personal details on the Special Unit Bamboo Forest. The thread would stretch over ten pages.

The whistleblower’s account would be suspended for spamming, sure—but by then, everyone would know exactly who the coward was.

If it were me, I’d just borrow Alexei’s smartwatch and spam the board myself—so no, I wasn’t staying behind out of fear someone else might do the same.

“Even if I die, please make sure my family isn’t harmed because of it.”

“…Agent Sae Hayan, you don’t have any family. More importantly, you truly intend to participate?”

“Yes. Of course.”

It wasn’t just the fear of being outed on the Bamboo Forest. My reason for joining the assault team was far clearer.

No one here knew it, but the danger wasn’t just one.

I knew the demons were preparing to summon an Archduke. I had to go there.

I answered without the slightest hesitation. Ha Yeri’s eyes widened in surprise.

Her hand holding the sword trembled slightly, then she muttered under her breath.

“Honestly, you are just…”

“Sorry?”

“It’s nothing. We leave within the hour—be ready.”

There were two key factors that would decide the success of the assault.

The first was how to reach the center of the Sea of Decay with so few members.

Even with fuel spread and other divisions opening the path, that was still the heart of a sea surrounded by monsters.

Approach through normal means was impossible.

So the team chosen for the core assault was made up only of those who could fight on the water, skilled in group combat, and armed with magic, martial arts, or abilities.

Among them was someone I knew well.

“C-can I really do this? I’ll just get in the way…”

“Don’t be so modest, Miss Moon Ah-rin. You’re a remarkable White Mage.”

“To think the Saint of Salvation herself is joining the assault—how reassuring. I can’t wait to see what feats you’ll show this time.”

“Aaah…”

As dawn came, with the flames dying down and the tide ebbing, we boarded a boat moored at the pier—six people from Division 2 including Ha Yeri and Kang Nabi, plus the despairing Moon Ah-rin who kept casting resentful looks my way.

The goal was simple: destroy the Seed of Calamity polluting the sea with corpses.

As the engine rumbled and we waited for the path to open, Ha Yeri explained the second key factor for success.

“The Sea of Decay summons the dead who bore grudges against intruders while alive. In other words, each of you here wasn’t chosen only for your strength—this lineup was also selected to minimize provocation of the Seed.”

If anyone in the party had left behind deep grudges through their actions in life, the difficulty of the assault would spike.

In short, this was the highest-scoring personality test team.

I couldn’t help smiling and nodding.

The Special Unit wasn’t exactly a gathering of saints.

In a world steeped in moral decline, they still kept their own code—but they were combatants first, and trouble followed them often.

Guild grudges could spark during missions.

Moon Ah-rin wasn’t chosen just for her healing or her ability to float, that was certain.

And the same applied to me.

“This time, it’s finally my turn to shine, Mala-nim.”

『Fear not?』

“Think about it—could there be anyone in Korea more pure and harmless than me?”

『???』

I hadn’t even been on Earth for fifteen years. Who could possibly hold a grudge against me?

Only a childhood friend came to mind, but I wasn’t sure he’d drowned in the Sea of Decay—so the chance he’d show up was slim.

With me in the assault team, their safety was guaranteed.

Maybe the dead would even part like the Red Sea before Moses himself.

“I’ll take the lead!”

“Oh… really?”

“So you’re from Division 3. But aren’t you a mage?”

“It’s fine. Leave it to me!”

Rolling up my sleeves, I planted myself on the bow of the boat like a ship’s figurehead, arms spread wide.

And at last, as the engines roared and we surged into the sea—

“Commander! Something’s wrong!”

“What is it?”

“The monsters all turned at once!”

“They’re all following us!?”

“Ah.”

Why hadn’t I thought of that?

The tentacles being trampled mercilessly beneath the waves… of course they held a grudge against me.