Mr. Magical Girl

Chapter: 121. What on Earth is This?(3)

How did it come to this?

I buried my head in my hands, hunched over at the horrific mess unfolding before my eyes.

“Ugh! Master! What are you doing?”

“I’m lamenting the horrors of the world.”

My student only tilted his head in confusion, not offering an answer, and turned back to the table.

…I totally get what my senpai must feel.

“Thank you, Abin…”

In this room, apart from me, Han Abin was the only sane person left, the only one not participating in the war going on right in front of us.

In a world governed by the law of the jungle where one fights to consume more than others, what’s happening right here could be considered a microcosm of that.

“That bread over there…”

“Unni, eat the meat first!”

“Bro! That’s my fry!”

“Eat your own! It’s yours!”

That’s the gist of it.

When I returned with food, the kids blinded by hunger kicked off a battle royale.

And the food I thought would last us a few days was already dwindling.

Well, I guess coming from animal monster lineage, it’s only natural they’d have an insatiable appetite.

And maybe that’s why they’re gnawing on raw meat out of impatience instead of waiting to cook it.

That more mature side of them is probably just a facade. They’re not old enough to control their desires.

The sight of them shoveling an absurd amount of food into their mouths wasn’t that shocking considering their appearance is human-like, but inside they could be as wild as their younger brother, Lin.

Yeah, let’s chalk everything else up to that.

But what’s up with Sihyeon?

Did she starve too?

I tried to recall for a moment, thinking back to those intense training days when she’d devour everything in sight, including stealing Abin’s food.

She wasn’t really starving on a regular basis.

I looked up at the table where the remnants of food were flying everywhere.

Sihyeon was still battling it out with kids much younger than her.

…Is there a tendency for her to adapt to her surroundings?

Just a bit ago, she was playing hero games with the kids but now she’s brawling for food like them.

…What does it matter? As long as they’re eating happily, right? Isn’t that what food is for?

Thinking I should buy more if there’s time tomorrow, I turned to the relatively sane Abin.

“What did you do today? I hope you weren’t just cooped up at home.”

“Uh, us? Nothing special. We just checked out the underground waterway with Lin, and I taught her a few words…”

Most of Abin’s story revolved around Lin.

I felt a twinge in my gut when I heard Sihyeon and Lin sparred, but it sounded like Abin thought it was just a playful show.

It seems like Sihyeon’s monster blood made it hard for her to control that instinct.

It must be the first time the students are meeting non-hostile monsters, and they seem to be adjusting better than expected.

“Anything planned for tomorrow?”

“Is it going to be our outing tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I found a source of information.”

I might not say I found someone who came from there, but…

There are no specific plans. Playing with Lin isn’t set in stone or anything.”

“Then let’s make it a plan to go out tomorrow.

Make sure to pass that on to Sihyeon.”

After conveying the necessary details, I snatched a piece of bread from the table, stuffed it into my mouth, and got up from my seat.

“Where are you going?”

“Going to sleep.”

“Already?!”

“I’m strangely tired.”

Maybe because I’ve been meeting too many people, my wits felt worn out.

Waving goodbye to Abin, who was wishing me a good night, I headed to my sleeping quarters and flopped onto the freshly laid out blanket.

While still stiff, it felt much more comfortable than yesterday as my consciousness was dragged into the void.

“So who are we going to beat up today, Master?”

“I said we’re meeting people.”

I’m pretty sure I mentioned it a few times already, so why is this still happening?

After dragging Sihyeon and Abin to the meeting place, ten minutes had passed, yet there wasn’t any sign of our contact.

In that time, I dealt with merchants who pretended to know me and Sihyeon, who was babbling happily about something.

Even after I told her I wasn’t about to beat anyone, she pulled out a hammer and launched a question barrage at some poor merchant.

“So, what’s this?”

“It’s a centipede!”

“Master eats this, is it good?”

“Why don’t you buy it and find out!”

“Even so, isn’t centipede a bit much? What about using shrimp instead?”

I guess not cursing is a skill.

Maybe because I was there, the merchant was trying to temper his words, but Sihyeon wouldn’t let up with her questions.

I figured I should do something nice and maybe buy something for him on the way out, seeing how pitiful he looked.

“By the way…

“Do you think Sihyeon is getting dumber by the day?”

…Don’t ask me.

It’s half a complaint, so just listen.

“She graduated from university, and when you hear her speak, she sounds pretty smart, so why does she choose to behave like such an idiot?”

…In psychology, there’s a notion of an ego formation stage issue…

Childhood affection or…

Here comes the doctor talk.

…Oh wait, he actually is a doctor.

With all the charlatans who are oxymorons that I’ve been running into lately, it slipped my mind that he actually is qualified.

Ego formation or childhood…

“It’s not tasty!”

…I think she might just be a plain fool.

Watching that chaos made me pity the shopkeeper, snatched the skewers from Sihyeon, and shoved one into my mouth, grabbing two more for good measure.

I stuffed the last skewer into the shopkeeper’s hands, and as I was trying to get the centipede’s legs off my mouth…

“Did you wait long?”

A voice I heard yesterday echoed, and I replied curtly.

“Is that so? Well then, let’s go.”

Without further excuses, the man uttered just that and began walking ahead.

“Huh? Master, is that him?”

“No, that’s our guide.”

With a brief end to our conversation, we closed our mouths and followed behind him.

We slipped out of the noisy market into a maze filled with power cables and pipes.

Though the stench was still unbearable, this maze of sewers still carried a familiar odor for my students.

The man in front glanced back to see if we were trailing him and stepped up his pace.

“Keep up.”

I echoed that comment to my students and quickened my own pace too.

The pipes brushed past us, creating sparks as the wires flickered like faint lights, etching their glimmers into our eyes.

Gradually, we picked up speed.

I turned back to check on Abin, but she still seemed to manage fine.

How many intersections did we pass?

The wall texture changed. From gray concrete to something mixed with trash.

Upon spotting the wall, I noticed a gray ramen pack clinging to it.

Weak walls made up of plywood, compacted trash, and some unknown adhesive material.

These weren’t infrastructures but just walls expressing one’s territory.

Having passed through the foundational base at the very bottom, we were now entering the residential area where people live.

A chaotic, dirty place brimming with everyday life.

We could see the people here that we hadn’t encountered in the concrete maze.

People huddled around cheap CRT televisions.

A woman was washing clothes in black water.

A man raised a syringe with a smile.

They showed no interest in us, the galloping intruders.

They barely glanced our way, reacting with an annoyed attitude as we brushed past them.

That’s all there was.

They seemed too tied up in their business to react.

Thus, we returned the same.

My two students looked like they wanted to say something about this living environment but were busy running after us.

So, we continued without mentioning their way of life.

Once again, the walls changed.

Crumbling concrete,

Walls riddled with holes. Metal rebars dangled precariously.

It felt like we were in an abandoned building.

And amid them, flickering lights danced.

The residents of this level.

They’d either be thugs, members of a certain group or predators of this territory.

Real predators of the landfill that were different from the petty thieves.

They locked their gazes on us through the gaps in the walls.

Judging who we were, where we belonged, how much wealth we had, and whether we were worth eating.

Then those eyes seemed to fade when they noticed the man striding ahead.

Like they recognized he was someone else’s guest.

So, they lost interest.

We too disengaged our focus and kept running.

Abin almost tripped over her own feet, but Sihyeon caught her just in time.

Once again, the walls shifted.

Now, there was no uniformity.

Walls made from bamboo appeared.

Concrete-free, revealing only iron frames.

Clean walls made from marble emerged.

Holes pierced through, leading outside of the landfill. Nothing lay beyond.

“Haah… haah… What is this?”

Abin questioned, panting heavily, feeling the oddity.

“It’s a distorted space.

Another reason why the Association gave up on the landfill.”

“The inside is larger than it seems, and if you enter from the outside, who knows where you’ll end up?”

I hurriedly caught Abin as she teetered unsteadily and threw her onto my back.

“It’s going to speed up more, so bear with it even if it’s embarrassing.”

“Ah! Only you’re being mean!”

Ignoring Sihyeon’s complaints, I pushed off towards the distant figure of the man.

Even with a superior-ranked hero pursuing him, he was increasingly widening the gap.

Of course, it wasn’t full power, but a normal person couldn’t move like that.

This is… weird…

Seeming to sense it, Abin behind me let out a breath, pointing it out.

Well, it would be strange not to notice.

The man in front flickered away, fading in and out.

And with every flicker, he increased the distance.

“I said the space was twisted earlier, right?”

“By using that, he can do something like this.

Putting a hand on the wall at some point, he just glides forward.

If he opens a door somewhere, it might lead to the foundational section below.

If he lifts some décor, he may be in another location.

That’s the place where reality becomes possible.

A landfill powered by Otherworld’s power, cobbled together.

We raced through that space.

Continuously.

Continuously.

“We have arrived. It’s impressive to see you following so well.”

“Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Is there no problem?”

“I think I might throw up…”

One worn-out student who was dying despite being carried, another one trying to flaunt but ready to collapse.

“Well done.”

Heavy… ugh.

As I passed Abin over to Sihyeon on her back, the quaking Sihyeon let out a strange noise as she collapsed, leaving me free to stare at the door.

A plain concrete wall.

Then there was the steel door affixed to it. A typical green steel door you often see in office buildings or apartment corridors.

“Is this it?”

“Yes, let’s head inside. Oh, I’ll open the door. There are procedures after all.”

With that, the man stretched out his hand towards the doorknob.

And then, he twisted it.

Once to the right, once to the left.

Even with my eyes on it, I couldn’t discern the procedure, but there must be some hidden mechanism.

Click.

And then, the door opened.

At that moment, we crossed space and found ourselves indoors.

We hadn’t crossed a threshold, yet we reached the room. It must be a result of spatial distortion.

The room’s appearance was far from luxurious by any means.

Dingy decorations hung from the ceiling, clearly old and disorganized, while the sofa behind us was frayed.

Red threads embroidered the ceiling.

Yellow fabric covered the furniture.

A blue pattern was etched into the fabric.

That’s how I could summarize the place.

Many eyes focused on us.

Countless gazes from those in this room were directed at us.

“Well then, please rest comfortably.”

The man who led us into this room uttered those final words before vanishing, and we arrived at our destination.

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