Chapter 11 – Show (2)

The magician clutching his chest spread his hands toward the flying Sun-woo.

Whoooosh!

The sweat scattered in the air soon turned into tremendous water jets and sprayed toward Sun-woo.

Surprised Sun-woo launched himself into the air to avoid the water jets, and the water smashed the earth pillar before sweeping through the audience passage.

Sun-woo landed on top of the audience seat backs. The surrounding passages were all flowing with torrents, and the earth pillar had been washed away and was nowhere to be seen.

“Grgh, what are you.”

Having stabilized somewhat, Kyung-min with red-stained eyes growled toward Sun-woo. Objects around Kyung-min gradually became tainted with murky colors.

“Do you lose your reason when contaminated?”

At Sun-woo’s words, Kyung-min laughed loudly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but right now I’m more rational than ever. I’ve realized the power I’ve felt dimly all this time and learned what kind of being I am.”

Torrents were flowing in the audience passages, and on stage, magician Kyung-min was shouting with both arms spread.

“This worked out really well. Now that I’ve been reborn, I’ll use you as a sacrifice to declare to the world that I, magician Kim Kyung-min, exist!”

The moment he finished speaking, several paper cranes rose from Kyung-min’s hands, and the paper cranes instantly transformed into eagles and charged at Sun-woo.

Screeeech!

A dangerous situation. Sun-woo drew his sword from his phone without hesitation and swung it toward the eagles. But his sword only slashed through empty air.

‘It doesn’t hit?’

Sun-woo’s Three Talents Sword Method moved along the precise sword path even in this situation, but the eagles moved to avoid the sword as if teleporting.

But Sun-woo didn’t stop. His sword continued moving and he was eventually able to cut one eagle in half.

Squawk!

The eagle screamed and fell into the water, and a realization flashed through Sun-woo’s mind.

‘Could it be?’

The sword’s movement immediately changed. The sword that had been swinging wildly sliced through the very center of the eagles’ chests, and the eagles were cut in half with a single stroke and fell down.

Surprised Kyung-min’s eyes widened, and Sun-woo tasted the blood flowing on his hand with his tongue.

The bitter taste of blood was felt as it was.

‘So this is fake.’

Sun-woo figured out the contaminated magician’s method as he became able to defeat the eagles.

Illusion.

The magician had created the water, eagles, and even wounds, blood, and collapsed earth pillars all as illusions.

Sight, hearing, smell, taste, and finally even pain. He had filled all of Sun-woo’s senses with illusions.

The eagles were actually just paper cranes, and when Sun-woo precisely cut the paper crane in the center, the eagle was cut in half.

“Everything visible is false. Fighting in this state.”

A slight smile flowed across Sun-woo’s face. He had experienced this kind of situation quite often. From battles against bosses using illusion magic to chaotic fights in dungeons that deceived vision.

Games had given him many experiences.

“The question is whether it works in reality too.”

He would find out by trying.

Thud! Thud!

Sun-woo’s hands pointed forward and several earth pillars rose from the floor.

Crash crash crash crash!

When the earth pillars rose, water surged up and immediately collapsed the earth pillars, but Sun-woo’s expression didn’t change.

He leaped vigorously toward the collapsed earth pillars.

Step.

Sun-woo’s foot, arriving at where the earth pillar had been, stepped on empty air. But he didn’t fall downward, and he again kicked off the air and launched his body toward where another collapsed earth pillar had been in front.

Step. Step.

Sun-woo continued crossing through the air. No, he was moving forward by stepping on invisible earth pillars. When he stepped on the final air, Sun-woo could see the stage before his eyes.

Snap snap!

Surprised Kyung-min frantically snapped his fingers and flames shot up above his hands. The flames soon turned into tremendous fireballs and flew toward Sun-woo.

‘That’s fake!’

Sun-woo gritted his teeth and pierced through the flames, and he was able to land on stage completely singed.

‘I can’t give him a chance!’

Sun-woo ran forward. Qigong continuously accelerated his body, and he was able to reach Kyung-min in an instant.

Slash!

Sun-woo’s sword cut through the magician.

Flutter!

But the sword cut through empty air. The magician had turned into countless crows and scattered in all directions.

He wasn’t real.

The crows soon melted into the air, and only Sun-woo remained alone on stage.

[What the hell are you? How did you overcome my magic? No, it doesn’t matter. You’ll die here by my hand anyway.]

Kyung-min’s voice echoed throughout the hall, and soon the sound of rippling waves could be heard.

It was a snake. A giant snake was advancing toward the stage through the audience passages.

The snake, which appeared to be dozens of meters long, raised its long head right in front of the stage and stared at Sun-woo.

[Look. This is something only I, a great magician, can do. Whatever you do, I’ll become a greater being and devour you.]

But Sun-woo looked straight up at the snake and said one thing.

“Try it.”

[This bastard!]

The enraged snake opened its mouth wide and struck down directly at Sun-woo.

Crash!

With a tremendous sound, the snake’s head was buried in the spot where Sun-woo had been. The floor was deeply dented, and the snake was about to close its mouth and sneer.

However,

Grrrrrr!

The snake screamed and began melting like melting candle wax. The entire hall shook and water spurted wildly.

As time passed, the snake’s body completely melted away. And inside where the snake had melted, Sun-woo and Kyung-min were standing closely together.

“Got you.”

A faintly glowing sword was protruding from the magician’s back, and blood was flowing from his mouth.

“H-how. I just wanted to become a star magician.”

Kyung-min muttered with a sad expression, but Sun-woo had nothing to say to a dying enemy.

Shortly after, Kyung-min, whose breath had stopped, collapsed on the floor, and the murky colors that had changed the surroundings began returning to normal.

Whoosh.

The torrents flowing on the floor and the flames burning the stage all disappeared, and eventually the hall only had a few earth pillars protruding awkwardly.

Sun-woo checked his arms where all wounds had disappeared and turned on his phone.

That’s when it happened. Murmuring sounds began to be heard from outside the hall. People had come because of the commotion in the hall.

“What happened! Everyone came running in surprise! Was there an accident?”

A sturdy man pushed open the hall’s back door and entered. He was magician Kyung-min’s manager. Hall officials followed him inside.

“No, what kind of magic practice did you do to cause this chaos? Did you set off a bomb?”

He looked at the holes scattered throughout the audience seats and asked with an incredulous expression.

“Sorry, I was practicing new magic but it failed. I’m sorry. I caused damage.”

At the sight of Kyung-min standing on stage apologizing to the hall officials, the manager sighed.

“No, you should practice in the practice room. You’ve caused this chaos again. This is going to cost a fortune again.”

“Please take care of that somehow.”

“Ugh, fine. It’s my job anyway.”

At the manager’s words, Kyung-min nodded and added one more thing.

“Oh, and I’ll be laying low for a while because of practice. Cancel all schedules.”

“Ah, come on. Spare me. How many schedules are already booked?”

But Kyung-min waved his hand at the manager, and the manager sighed and left the hall with the officials.

When everyone left, Kyung-min, no, Sun-woo who had returned to his original form, broke out in cold sweat and breathed heavily.

“Whew, even casting illusions only on my own body, I can’t last long. What exactly is this grade concept anyway?”

He threw off the magician’s outer garment that was the medium for transformation and turned on his phone.

<Illusion Art: Technique to make surrounding living beings see illusions using existing objects>

Fortunately, a skill slot was empty, and he happened to be able to learn <Illusion Art>, so he could deceive people.

And the voice that came:

[Contamination source reassessed. Confirmed as Level 2. You have eliminated a Level 2 contamination source. Grade experience has increased significantly. The contamination source has skills. One skill will be awarded.]

The voice came only now, perhaps to avoid confusing Sun-woo. But Sun-woo frowned at the voice he heard.

“Don’t tell me you said Level 1 because you were worried I might run away? If you had told me properly, I would have prepared thoroughly at least.”

But the voice ignored Sun-woo’s words and continued.

[Party member Min Sun-woo eliminated the contamination source alone. 500 points awarded. Points can be exchanged for ability enhancement, equipment, or money.]

Still, thanks to that, he was able to get many points. Sun-woo’s grumbling mouth closed.

[Dimension Alpha. Contamination in Seoul, Korea, Asian Continent has been purified.]

“No, you can’t just end it like this.”

When the voice ended, Sun-woo made a troubled expression. He spread his hands toward the floor, and the magician’s corpse rose above the damaged stage.

Sun-woo had hidden the magician’s corpse underground before people rushed in.

“I put out the urgent fire, but if he doesn’t appear for a long time, they’ll start searching. That would be troublesome in various ways.”

He felt bitter about his own calm consideration of the aftermath even after killing someone, but he had experienced this several times in other dimensions anyway. This place was no different.

“You can leave the aftermath to us.”

Then a woman’s clear voice was heard from the audience seats. When surprised Sun-woo turned his head, a blonde woman in a suit was walking steadily from the entrance.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Caroline, in charge of aftermath handling.”

She had climbed onto the stage at some point and introduced herself to Sun-woo.

But Sun-woo only looked at her with a wary expression.

At his expression, Caroline sighed.

“First-time summoners always have the same reaction. Can’t be helped, I suppose?”

She continued in a stiff voice.

“Our aftermath handling team handles contamination sources and contaminated creatures left after missions, and prevents external exposure of operations. You can think of us as doing the cleanup after your elimination team’s missions end.”

“Then are you related to the ones who summoned us…”

“No relation. It’s always the same question. We’re also summoners like you. Our missions just come in a different form.”

Her voice became gentle again.

“We’ve been here for some time after coming to this place. We were watching from behind, and you handled it so well that we didn’t need to step in. It was very impressive. Thanks to you, we seem to have earned points easily.”

She smiled brightly at Sun-woo.

After finishing her words, Caroline placed her hands on the magician lying on the floor. Her hands emitted light and the magician’s body began decomposing in sequence.

Shortly after, nothing remained where the magician had been lying.

“Then I just need to wrap up the disappearance. Oh, right. Take this.”

She handed Sun-woo a business card.

“It’s a contact network for Earth-side summoners. Contact us here if you have questions. I don’t know about other dimensions, but there’s no reason not to communicate when we have good communication networks.”

She greeted Sun-woo with a refreshed face and walked toward the entrance.

When she reached the hall entrance, two men in suits entered from outside and stood beside her.

“Then survive for a long, long time.”

She said farewell to Sun-woo and then disappeared into thin air with her group.

Sun-woo, who had been looking at the entrance for a moment, held up the business card to the light.