Episode 3: The Alley Kid

Seoul in the 2020s was a city where people of vastly different walks of life coexisted.

After a massive sphere known as the Abyss appeared at Gangnam Station, a lawless zone spread outward from Gangnam like a ring.

Beyond the lawless zone, cutting-edge industrial complexes took shape—arcane engineering factories, Magic Towers, and the like.

"And beyond all that, you get cities like this one. For the wealthy."

In any case, it was an absurdly large and complicated city.

I boarded the subway and drew a line through my notebook.

I had submitted applications to several prestigious academies. Every single one had rejected me.

"Royal, Bless, Comet—all dead ends."

I scratched my head.

Back in the eighties, you just threw yourself at things until they worked. Why does everything have to be so complicated these days?

"An Ether Synchronization Rate certificate, a school graduation certificate, a family registry—why on earth would anyone need all of that…"

It had been a month since I'd given this new body the name Yoo Eun-ha.

I'd forged a handful of basic identification documents, but there was no way I could produce records like those.

I clicked my tongue and glanced up at the subway car. An advertisement caught my eye.

[The Best Choice for Academy Admission! Elegance Newborn School!]

An academy was a school for becoming a mage—and now there was a school just to get into that school.

What kind of nonsense was this?

"And they say seven years old is too late to start learning magic? Blast it all. In my day, there were people who didn't start until they were thirty."

I muttered to myself as I stepped off at Sinsa Station.

It was a wretched neighborhood that had taken the full brunt of the Gangnam Abyss's influence and been reduced to a slum—and it was where I lived.

The moment I stepped off the platform, the stench of urine hit me.

Mixed into it was another smell, subtly unpleasant.

"Smells like someone died and started rotting."

I clicked my tongue and began descending the stairs.

Past a hidden door at Sinsa Station, one of Orbis's branch offices was supposed to be waiting. I had infiltrated it a few weeks ago, disguised as an errand runner.

"Might as well just forge all the documents myself."

The ESR certificate, the school diploma, the family registry—forge them all, and that's that.

I was about to head down the stairs without much thought when the faint scent of blood drifted past my nose.

"……"

I carefully drew a pistol from my schoolgirl's backpack.

I considered turning back, but if something had happened at the Orbis branch, it seemed worth knowing about.

At the bottom of the stairs, a heavy iron door hung open.

"It's over…"

The fact that this door—built to withstand a mage's bombardment—was open meant everyone inside was as good as dead.

A thin pool of blood lapped at the base of the door.

'It hasn't congealed yet. They haven't been dead long.'

I touched the edge of the pool with my fingertip. Cold.

'An hour or two, maybe.'

Heart pounding, I eased the door open.

What had once been a bar lay in complete ruin.

"Ah… No one could have survived this."

The ceiling had caved in spectacularly, burying everything under mounds of earth.

It looked as though someone had fired a vertical bombardment straight down from the surface to obliterate this underground branch, dozens of meters below ground.

I searched the area. No survivors.

"Tch. Mages, I'd wager."

Judging by the Ether still shimmering in the air, it had been at least a Level 5 bombardment spell.

I concealed myself among the rubble and listened.

Rumble, rumble, rumble—

BOOM—

Vibrations and a massive explosion echoed down from the surface above.