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Illustrations: posted in discord

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Dark night.

Lee Yeonwoo tossed and turned. He stared into the pitch-black void, blinking.

\'War, they say. At least I\'m not going to the battlefield.\'

The doomsday cultist\'s plan to descend the afterlife had stopped. Caught up in the accident he\'d created, they\'d lost the capacity to proceed.

Plus, they\'d likely been swept up in the possibility he\'d implemented - the possibility of the enemy\'s misfortune.

But a strange unease refused to dissipate.

His heart pounded, nerves on edge. In the darkness enveloping the hospital room, it felt like a monster could leap out at any moment.

\'This is childish imagination... No. It could actually happen. I can\'t let this continue.\'

Yeonwoo sat up, then reached into his bag to pull out a fluorescent vest, a stone, and a gun. His hands moved busily.

After donning the fluorescent vest and gripping the stone and gun in each hand, he felt a bit more at ease.

Yeonwoo fell asleep around dawn.

"Yeonwoo? Where has this person gone?"

A voice rang out. Yeonwoo slowly opened his eyes, feeling the stone and gun in his hands.

He saw Mark Jung grumbling as he paced around the hospital room. Bundled up completely in a padded jacket, gloves, and scarf, Mark Jung suddenly wore an anxious expression.

"Did he run away? Because he doesn\'t want to observe? Or did he have some kind of accident?"

His face, already blue from the cold, turned deathly pale. Mark Jung stamped his feet in place.

"We can\'t have an accident now. We don\'t have the resources to deal with one."

Almost all resources had been invested in the war. Information resources were monitoring the doomsday cultists and hostile groups, while combat personnel were on standby at the battlefield and major regions of the world.

If Yeonwoo caused a critical failure of an accident now...

Mark Jung urgently pulled out his phone, then saw Yeonwoo\'s phone in the corner of the bed and trembled.

"He didn\'t even take his phone?"

This needed to be reported to the director immediately. There was no telling what might happen.

Just as Mark Jung raised his finger to dial his phone, Yeonwoo put down the stone and took off his fluorescent vest.

"I\'m right here."

A voice thick with sleep.

Mark Jung whipped his head around to look at Yeonwoo. He let out a sigh of relief for a moment, then quickly adopted a dumbfounded expression.

"Why are you sleeping with perception-distorting gear on?"

"I\'ve been feeling a bit anxious lately."

Yeonwoo yawned widely, then rubbed his sleepy eyes. In that brief moment, his fatigue dissipated. The vitality of rainwater.

Mark Jung let out a sigh.

"As long as nothing\'s happened, it\'s fine."

"Has the war started?"

Yeonwoo looked at Mark Jung with wide-awake eyes, and Mark Jung sat down heavily in a chair. He took out his laptop and placed it on the table.

"It\'s about to start now."

Mark Jung, looking as if he\'d aged years in an instant, tapped on his laptop.

Then he brought up a screen split into multiple sections. People and anomalous entities were facing off across a black river. The company and allied groups on one side, hostile groups on the other.

"This is the observation screen from the company. To explain briefly-"

"I\'m hungry. Can we order something to eat?"

Mark Jung was at a loss for words for a moment, then belatedly nodded.

"Hospital food- no, you\'re being discharged tomorrow. Do as you like."

Even if they called it war, this was closer to a battle between anomalous entities. A war conducted under rules and agreements.

A war to blow away the afterlife and destroy anomalous entities, the source of contamination.

No idea what the other groups were thinking, though.

"Then, a boxed meal..."

And Yeonwoo, who had been tapping on his phone, came to his senses. The anxiety circling his mind. A war breaking out far away, but with unknowable repercussions.

His dull mind snapped awake. Yeonwoo waved his hand.

"Never mind. Please continue."

"The afterlife is part of a two-dimensional plane that fell into our world like a meteor."

Mark Jung skimmed over it. He started his explanation from the afterlife.

A two-dimensional plane operating under different laws, or completely contaminated by anomalies. The afterlife was a part of such a two-dimensional plane that had fallen near Earth, into our dimension.

"The center of the afterlife, which slightly overlaps with Earth, is that black river. If we just destroy that river, the magicians from the Metaphysical Literature Society and our company can perform a grand spell to completely banish the afterlife."

Yeonwoo sharpened his senses.

Looking at the screen, two countdowns were running.

One for the time remaining until the war began. The other for the time remaining until the afterlife\'s banishment. The ticking time felt like a burning fuse.

\'Will the war go as the company wants? Is the banishment 100% certain?\'

As he fidgeted anxiously, time passed.

The war began.

---

---

Beep-!

The clock announced the start of the war.

The seals on the isolated anomalous entities were released, payment was made to the anomalous entities, and the anomalous entities exerted their power.

The screen split into dozens of sections simultaneously turned into chaos. Flashes of light, observation devices engulfed in darkness, filters creating static. The speakers spat out noise that couldn\'t even be called sound.

Yeonwoo forgot his anxiety and stared blankly at the screen, then turned his head.

"I can\'t see anything."

"Just a moment."

Mark Jung clicked his mouse and enlarged one of the somewhat intact screens.

————!

The speaker vomited a thunderous roar. On the screen, a red giant was rising to its feet. A giant causing flames and mushroom clouds.

As it shouted, shock waves burst forth, vaporizing the black river. No, the afterlife was simply overturned by flashes of light, heat, and radiation.

Yeonwoo instinctively realized.

That was a real nuclear explosion.

"The Red Giant, an anomalous entity sealed by the company. This is why we keep the world\'s governments in check."

Mark Jung stared into space as if recalling a memory, then explained vaguely.

"World War II, or was it during the Cold War? Some country tried to create weapons using nuclear power and anomalies, and accidentally created this entity. It\'s easier to understand if you think of it as the spirit of nuclear explosions."

"That\'s insane."

Yeonwoo couldn\'t help but curse.

What the hell. No matter how many dice he had, this was a danger he couldn\'t even get close to.

\'If that thing tries to kill me...\'

Wouldn\'t running away with the dice be the answer? Don\'t even think about getting close.

Meanwhile, the Red Giant caused a few more explosions. Explosions occurred with each of its steps. Mushroom clouds shot up like some kind of mushroom farm.

And yet, something stood before the giant.

"Is that... a demon?"

"Looks like the demon of world wars..."

An old man wearing what looked like a World War II-era military uniform spread his arms wide, his mouth split in a grin.

His voice could be heard.

"Sacrifices! Thank you!"

In a place where the concept of war was maximized, in front of the worst weapon of war, it was absorbing the concept it presided over.

The old man\'s white hair turned black, his wrinkles disappearing. A dark mustache appeared under his nose.

"Youth, my prime is returning!"

Yeonwoo was taken aback. This seemed like they\'d only done the enemy a favor.

But Mark Jung wasn\'t surprised, and sure enough, the attack continued.

Suddenly, several people appeared before the demon. People with halos, bathed in holy light. They shouted a brief "Amen," then raised their fists.

The demon\'s expression twisted.

"The Spear of Longinus?"

"Demon, back to hell."

Bam! They punched the demon.

Miraculously, the effects of the nuclear explosion didn\'t reach their surroundings. No, it was indeed a miracle.

"There\'s an anomalous entity in the Vatican, a spear called the Spear of Longinus. If you\'re stabbed and die, you resurrect as an anomalous entity after 3 days. But it disappears after 40 days."

This time, the Vatican\'s exorcists and the company\'s demon hunters had volunteered themselves.

And so the brawl continued. The haloed figures surrounded the demon, throwing punches, kicking, and sometimes lashing out with whips.

The Red Giant stood dumbfounded for a while, then let out a small wail before beginning to destroy the black river and the surrounding world.

Mark Jung turned the screen.

Ghosts screamed.

"The living have invaded!"

"Run away!"

"There\'s nowhere to run!"

As the ghosts fled helter-skelter, a shadow fell over them. The shadow of a bird. A blue bird swooped down on the ghosts.

It came down hard, stomping on ghosts with its legs and pecking their heads with its beak. The struggling ghosts became dazed like people who had lost their minds.

Then they staggered to their feet and grabbed other ghosts.

"Let go!"

The heads of the captured ghosts were also pecked by the blue bird\'s beak. And so those ghosts also lost their minds.

The blue bird, now grown larger, opened its beak wide as if annoyed and took a deep breath. The air currents in the area, the minds of nearby ghosts, were all sucked in.

All those ghosts became slaves of the blue bird.

"A bird that pecks minds. The company had it sealed away."

"The company did this too?"

Yeonwoo\'s jaw dropped.

\'They do this and then worry about contamination?\'

While keeping such things locked up like some secret weapon? Isn\'t the company actually the reason anomalous contamination is so serious?

Mark Jung smiled awkwardly.

"Well, they all have research value. And if we save them, they might come in handy someday."

Meanwhile, the blue bird flew around the afterlife, sucking up the minds of ghosts, and instantly grew in size.

A body large enough to block out the sky. Below it, an army of ghosts following its flight.

That\'s when it happened.

Rustle-

Suddenly, a curtain fell over the screen. A curtain you\'d expect to see on a theater stage.

The influence of an anomaly. Affecting even the camera and screen.

As Yeonwoo tensed and leaned back, the curtain opened. Beyond the curtain was a stage. A narration was heard.

A deep male voice.

"And so the band of heroes completed their preparations. With the help of the great sculptor, they gained an army, and with the help of the great blacksmith, they forged a cage to seal the evil bird."

An army of statue knights on horseback and soldier statues stood in formation. Beyond them was the army of ghosts.

In front of the statue army, a man in brilliant armor raised his sword.

"It\'s time to overthrow the evil bird that enslaves humans! Fear not! Glory lies before us!"

The soldier statues simultaneously struck the ground with their spears.

Mark Jung muttered.

"The Hero Theater Troupe..."

"Is it reality manipulation like a director?"

"Probably."

The ghosts and statues charged simultaneously, clashing in battle. The man in brilliant armor, along with archers and mages, fought fiercely against the blue bird.

Similar evenly matched battles took place in various locations. The afterlife was engulfed in war. Powerful evil spirits that could no longer bear it sprang forth all at once, but were instantly vaporized.

Yeonwoo placed his hand over his pounding heart.

\'Never, ever go to a battlefield or large-scale combat zone. If it looks like a battlefield, immediately roll to escape.\'

Having established one more rule for survival, Yeonwoo focused his eyes on the screen.

And the war situation began to flow in a direction different from the company\'s expectations.