The Foreigner on the Periphery

Karl Hood was a recruited agent from South Africa, a wizard, and his main weapon was a 20mm cannon.  

Originally developed for mounting on tanks or helicopters, this weapon, which was exceptionally modified for personal use, was unusable by races other than trolls. Although it was heavy, it could not withstand the heat.  

Carrying a box of ammunition that was much heavier than the cannon body on its back, the sword was held in both hands and held firmly so that it could be fired at any time. There was thick fog all around.  

He stared intently into the air from the rooftop of the terminal, but there was nothing he could see with the troll’s eyes. The human colleague beside him grumbled whether it was the same. “Damn it, you’re so fucking gloomy. I can’t see anything… it’s the worst environment for defense.”  

He was totally sympathetic. The moisture on the skin was terrifying. It wasn’t just the weather that caused goosebumps. They were very nervous.  

"Did you see the scene?"

“No.”  

"I've been working in this industry for quite some time, but I've never seen anything like that."  

They were talking about the scene where Bradley and his dead companions were found. The most terrifying aspect of what was found there appeared in areas that could not be photographed.  

"Bradley was rather lucky. They said that the rest were tortured so horribly that they could not even speak."  

A heavy silence then fell between the two. The flesh and blood left at the scene were just the results, and they had to go through a living hell before that happened.  

“…The culprit is, after all, that’s it, right?”  

The swarm of insects that attacked on the highway was called the Undead. Moreover, in the position of being pursued, there was only one reason to spend time torture and kill.  

The troll spits violently. "Damn, if you go wrong with a warlock, you'll be unlucky for three generations. If they hold a grudge, they will chase you to the ends of the earth! Even if you try to find it and kill it first, it hides and troubles you like a cockroach."  

"But won't we be okay?" The human companion asked, glancing under his feet with his chin. In this building, alluding to the one next to the princess. They were now operating with a legend among the agents.  

The fact that immigration agents had a lot to do with them proved that there were so many alien criminals and that their security was weak. Thus, although not widely reported or heroic in the media, it had a famous name, at least among agents.  

"You're an agent who has run many operations like the Elder Dragon."  

An operation in which the heavy-assed old dragons directly participated was just as important, fatal, and dangerous. The fact that a non-dragon race was mobilized at such a site was, of course, only an auxiliary role for the dragon, but it was still a great thing.  

The case that Carl Hood knew had already filled his five fingers. This was the assigned mission of tracking down and eradicating the bombing of the committee’s district representative office. A hostage rescue operation in a jump ship that was hijacked and landed illegally at a Moscow terminal.  

The Oslo School sweeping operation was the main culprit in a series of abductions and massacres of extraterrestrial races in Europe. Finally, in the end, not a single line was reported in the newspapers and until the ‘7.1 Incident,' which had been passed on quietly among some agents.  

Carl tried to contain his anxiety. "Yeah, a veteran agent of that level must have a tune that can slap anyone. So you don’t have to worry too much…”  

"Ahhhhhh!"

The troll didn’t finish his words. It was because the colleague he was talking to was screaming like a tear.  

“What?! What’s the matter?”  

“Who is this?!”  

The other agents who stood guard on the roof rushed to the scene. The colleague, who knelt down continued to spit out a muffled scream. He then looked down at his two hands.  

Everyone who witnessed it was astonished.  

“No?!” From the tips of his fingers, blisters large and small swelled and burst, melting the flesh. The flesh dripped and dripped down like a thin dough.  

He was dissolving alive.  

"Wow!" Karl, who saw it, also saw traces of bleeding appear under the layer of his skin. Instead of melting like a human, he developed an inflammation and repeated his healing. However, other races without the innate ability to recover were struck in an instant.  

"It's poison!"  

A few managed to tear the detox scroll, but the already damaged body did not recover. At that time, gunshots rang out from the fence of Incheon Airport.

“Intruder!” While the agents resisted the poison, the guard, several times the usual number of people gathered to maintain an emergency alert, was confronting an unexpected enemy.  

"Shoot! Shoot!" Bullets then fell like rain. In the direction the turret rotated and fired, those who were clinging to the boundary between life and death were running towards them. They were a horde of zombies. Hundreds or thousands?  

The commander, who saw the appearance, clenched his teeth. Where the hell did he even get that number? The overland road leading to Yeongjongdo was the only bridge that was strictly controlled. It probably didn’t come from the sky.  

It was impossible to teleport so many times at the same time. then · · ·

"Damn it!"  

Their rag-like clothes clung to their rotten skin whilst being completely immersed in seawater. It took advantage of the strength of the undead, which did not interfere with movement even if they did not breathe.  

It must have been induced to walk on the shallow sea floor after increasing the weight with magic so as not to float on the surface.  

Tata that!  

Flames and dirt splattered on the floor along with a heavy gunshot. There were also zombies that were torn to pieces, but even with one or two limbs away, the undead running fiercely approached the fence.

Aaaaaaah!  

It was not a purposeless, unleashed movement. It was clear that there was a magician who controlled it somewhere.  

They only ran towards the terminal. It was the place where the jump ship that Princess Vermi was going to ride was moored.  

"Call the agents! Quickly!”  

Following his instructions, the guard who was holding the communicator suddenly screamed and collapsed. The missing communicator was covered in crushed flesh.  

Soon, people began to dissolve everywhere.  

***  

"Chief, I will update the situation."  

"Yes, brother. Come in."  

A man standing in front of the head of the Korean branch of the Solidarity for Human Rights reported the news he had just received.  

"The mercenaries have arrived at the scene. It is said that he just released poison and zombies."  

"It's a zombie… the base must be an orc or a goblin, right?"  

“Yes, it is.”  

It was a race that they wouldn't even care for, even if they disappeared. It was a method that was consistent with the definition and philosophy of human rights solidarity. In order to drive out the extraterrestrial race, it was aimed at weaponizing the murdered alien race. Still, the branch manager looked a little displeased.

"Will that be it? He failed even as a first-class disaster undead. Since the enemies have also experienced it once, they must have deployed undead and superpowers at the scene."  

"So this time, the mercenaries are going to use their own hands to kill Princess Vermi."  

Poison and zombies literally meant incidental means. The man nodded, knowing that for now, he had no choice but to wait patiently for the result.  

With that, he turned to the subject and asked, "Who is Oh Man-sik?"  

"I was detained at the Jenkinson Company headquarters. As you know, there is a dragon that has set a barrier directly… It seems that we cannot break through it with our own capabilities."  

"I can't help it. They give up."  

In the end, for them, the arrogance was nothing more than a one-time use and throw away hand. No matter how harshly the immigration office interrogated him, his tail would not be trampled on. He was the branch manager himself.  

"Oh, and the branch manager."  

“Yes?”  

"The North Korean warehouse thing."  

Recently, he had received a piece of information from the information organization of the Human Rights Solidarity. It was about the ‘treasure’ that was newly stocked there, like Jenkinson’s second rare. What intrigued them was that if something went wrong, Jenkinson’s political position would be shaken as a treasure so important.  

Biting the red dragon’s Achilles tendon was one of the long-standing aspirations of the Human Rights Solidarity. If there was a vacuum in the balance of power wherein the elder dragons fought each other, of course, there would be confusion among the politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen associated with them.  

There were so many things they could do to break the shackles they had placed on society. Therefore, the branch manager dispatched personnel to Mt. Bukhan several times, but again confirmed the conclusion that it was impossible for them to break through the barriers of Goryong.  

On the last attempt, they had gone quite deep, but suddenly a forest fire broke out. Perhaps it was part of a defense system to drive out intruders. Those who sent them had no choice but to return empty-handed in the end.  

"Chief, the truth is that the fire may not have been summoned for defensive purposes."  

"?!"  

The man told the story that there were rumors that Jenkinson had stolen something from the warehouse. The branch manager could not easily believe the story.  

"No, then maybe?"  

"Yes, it is possible to guess that someone made the forest fire and broke the barrier of the old dragon."  

The headmaster’s expression hardened seriously. “If that’s true…”  

Two questions popped into his mind. However, why did the fire spread and theft occurred on the day that the brothers of the Human Rights Solidarity approached the warehouse? Two, if there was a group that had really succeeded in breaking through the barriers of the Old Dragon… what was their identity?

***  

"Chief Secretary! Pick up the Stans and set off the jump ship right now!"  

“Yes? However · · ·!”  

As soon as a scream could be heard from outside, Minjun sensed that the attack had begun.  

‘Damn, you're so ignorant and brave!'  

Minjun immediately finished his ‘shortcut report' to the committee and fired the rest of the words at Blair.  

"Emergency Leap Code!" The chief of staff looked at him in amazement.  

How did he know that look?  

"The General Manager of Terminal Management is on an outing, so he should have left it to someone, of course not you?!"  

"Everyone… are you?"  

Since the outbound blockade had been lifted limited to Princess Vermi’s jump ship, even if one were to leave Earth right now, you could avoid collapsing with the dimensional barrier and being crushed. The problem was, this was a leap that could only be crafted by committees and could only be obtained through committees.

The point was that one needed a code to start the line.

Normally, one would have to get and enter the code after getting approval from the committee to take off each time, but he didn't have time for that right now. In addition to this, there was preparation for such a situation, the general manager of the terminal at the departure level had a separate code that permitted an emergency jump at his own discretion.  

Of course, this could not be abused recklessly because the committee would conduct an investigation after the fact.  

After all, wasn't it something that was made to be used at the same time as now? Minjun gave instructions to the rest of the agents over the radio. All the manpower that could currently move was to escort Princess Vermi and her attendants safely to the jumping-off line.  

In the meantime, he was thinking of doing something else on his own. He found the criminal who was terrorizing this place. This time, for sure!  

"!"  

The crocodile shouted something when he saw his back face as he left in a hurry. She was the only Stan in this room, so no one except the frying pan understood.  

In addition to this, Minjun didn’t look back. “I… Princess?”  

As Blair held out a frying pan, the princess mumbled something. This time, it was only the cookware that heard those words.  

“Okay. After all, we will meet again soon."  

***

Minjun, who came out of the terminal building and flew into the sky, soon discovered the cause of the incident. ‘You’re brave. As if to find him on his own!'  

Someone was standing where he was looking. As soon as he looked at it, a language that only Minjun could read came to mind.  

– Bounty: 200,000 talents.  

Reports and testimonies of long-term prisoners who were comparable to Minjun were sufficient grounds for the committee to set a bounty. The assailant had two charges: the murder of Bradley, an asset of the Commission, and terrorist acts on the dimensional leap terminal jointly invested by the Commission and the Korean government.  

He wondered what the consequences of his actions were.  

‘Bad bastard, this time I will surely kill you!'  

After reading the ‘message' left at the scene of Bradley's murder, Minjun thought of two suspects. However, one of them was quickly erased from his mind. There were three reasons.  

First, if her culprit was her, she couldn't leave her message in English. If she had a tendency to cling to her memories of the two happy days, she would have left her messages in the language of those days.  

To what extent was that obsession…?  

Minjun was assured. If the moment of reunion were to come one day, the other person would appear by reproducing the ‘human' body at that time. Even if the original body was returned, it was intentional.  

It was good to bet. And secondly, she had little black magic. Even by his standards, it was a bit clumsy. This was a bit odd, even assuming that as she regained her memories, she became able to use black magic, which she had not wielded while in prison.  

The body sacrificed at the site as a sacrifice of black magic remained in the form of organic matter instead of mummifying it or disappearing into dust like Minjun did.  

If it were her, there was no way she could overdo whatever she did and lack at what she did. She must have thought it was ‘shameful’ to show such traces in front of Minjun.  

Finally, and thirdly, the enemy… killed Bradley first, not Minjun. A bounty was set for damaging committee assets. Therefore, there were restrictions on his actions and it interfered with the killing of Min-jun.  

It didn't matter if the bounty was set after the final goal of ‘Minjun’s murder,' but before that, it was something to avoid as much as possible. Therefore, he confidently presumed the identity of the suspect and reported it to the committee.  

The suspect stood before his eyes. The moment their eyes crossed, the other party contorted their cheeks and smiled. A muttering voice could be heard clearly in his ears. It was English with a Nordic accent.  

"Finally, we will meet again. You can’t even imagine how much I missed you!”  

A few years ago, Minjun pushed the Norwegian school of Warlocks to annihilation. At that time, there were too many people to pursue, and they hid in every corner of Europe, so many elder dragons cooperated to hunt sheep, but the boss eventually lost it.

Meanwhile, the Master, who escaped at that time, foretold desperate revenge, but he harbored a grudge against eight elder dragons and one-quarter elf. Therefore, the Master of the Order devised a rational and dark plan like a warlock.  

First, catch and kill the weakest opponent. Aim for a situation that moved separately from the Elder Dragon!  

"How earnestly I longed for the day when we meet again like this one day and I will tear you to pieces with my own hands!" The person standing in front of Minjun was a notorious warlock who had not been arrested, despite the governments of 26 countries and eight elder dragons pursuing them.  

At the same time, for Minjun, he was the enemy of his former colleague. His mouth opened and a voice filled with anger leaked out.  

"Theo Christiansen!"  

***  

Hours before Incheon Airport was attacked, a woman entered a terminal of a certain dimension located close to Earth. The battle suit that tightly wrapped her whole body in one piece was neither the style of the earth nor the style of this dimension.  

Her clothes were also clothes, but since humans were so rare, she attracted the attention of many people. With her short hair neatly cut, she approached the terminal’s staff with her dance-like light steps.  

She seemed unable to contain her excitement.  

Even by her human standards, she was small by Aboriginal standards of this dimension, so the staff beyond her counter didn’t spot her right away.

“Hey.” She found a human looking up from below.  

“Ah! Sorry. I haven't seen it."  

“It’s okay. It can be."  

There then came a humming voice. "I'm here to get a jump code. I think the committee's permission has already been given."  

After confirming the identification number for her charter flight, the employee looked at her screen for a moment and then nodded.  

"Yes, the approval is complete and the code is out. But… the destination dimension is ‘Earth'?"  

Next to her dimension name was the terminal she would arrive at.  

‘Korea, Incheon.'  

"I don't know if you know this, but the committee has imposed a limited lockdown on this dimension right now. You are free to enter, but not when you go out, so once you enter, there is no promise of how long you will be locked up. Are you okay?"  

"Oh, it doesn't matter." The woman smiled brightly.

She then began to repeat it. "It doesn't matter."  

The receptionist was not accustomed to reading human expressions, but since he had seen a similar race a few times, he pointed out that it was a sign of joy.  

"Are you doing anything good?" She just let out a smirk without saying a word.  

Meanwhile, the staff tilted her head while checking her occupant information. According to what the list indicated, that woman was not human.  

‘Why does this race have to transform into humans? It must be quite inconvenient.'  

However, the question was quickly erased from her mind. In the dimensional world, there were indeed many different races, different cultures, and different tastes. It was a waste of time to dig up and devise the reason for all of that.  

The employee wrapped the chip containing the leap code around her antennae and handed it to her lady. Then, she asked as if she remembered it too late.  

“ · · · · · ·Ah! The call-sign is not registered at the destination level because it is a chartered flight, not a regular line. I can give it to you arbitrarily, but do you have a name you want?"  

It was referring to a kind of ‘provisional flight number’ to be registered on the Earth’s computer. Then, she answered firmly without a moment’s hesitation.

"Dell."