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Chapter 75 – Invader I

1

Since we’re on the topic of movies, let me clarify my preferences. I’m particularly fond of alien movies. To be more specific, I lean towards disaster, invasion, SF, and apocalypse genres.

You know, movies like “War of the Worlds” (2005) or “Independence Day” (1996). Those kinds of films.

Some might find my taste a bit unexpected.

“Why would anyone enjoy experiencing Earth being invaded by aliens, especially when it feels just like real life? What’s enjoyable about that?”

But that’s a question from someone who doesn’t understand. It’s because movies and reality are not entirely the same that they’re enjoyable. It’s almost like watching a fantasy unfold.

In these movies, awakened individuals are usually absent. That’s where the first “realism error” occurs.

“Wow… So these aliens suck human blood for fuel, manipulate the environment, but their lower bodies are weak. A single swing with a pickaxe could bring them down…”

“Their strategy is bizarre too. They’ve been lurking for thousands, even millions of years, yet they didn’t bother to scout Earth’s ecology beforehand? Why? Even a year of reconnaissance could have revealed all the flaws.”

“Maybe they’re just stupid…?”

“Ah. Well, nothing we can do about it.”

Just by listening to Simaryeong and Seo Gyu’s conversation while watching a movie, you can understand how people in this era perceive SF alien invasion disaster movies.

The lack of realism actually makes it more enjoyable, almost like a fantasy. Although I’m sure that wasn’t the director’s intention.

If I were to pick a movie with relatively good realism among them, it would be “Sudden Rich: Land of Annihilation” (2018). It depicted well how the emptiness is perceived by ordinary people.

Anyway.

There’s one cliché that almost always appears in these movies.

“The seemingly invincible aliens that plunge humanity into despair actually had one fatal flaw -”

I call this the “Achilles cliché.”

Someone might argue that Achilles wasn’t technically human, but from the perspective of the people of Troy, he might as well have been an alien.

In the movies, aliens either die en masse due to Earth’s viruses after joining the anti-vaccine movement, or their brains explode from the strange waves generated by country music. But in reality, the awakened beings aren’t so kind to humanity.

However, occasionally, very rarely – truly, like something out of a movie – benevolent beings with an “Achilles gun” appear.

Among them, the kindest alien I encountered was in Turn 98.

2

Honestly, at first, I didn’t even realize it was an alien.

Not because I’m stupid, but because this being truly made people confused.

“A meteor!”

“Over there, over there!”

“Do you think it’ll come this way…?”

From a distance, it looked just like a meteor.

The timing of its appearance was also curious – exactly 9 years later. In other words, it happened when the continent-level anomaly, “Meteor Shower,” had already devastated Gyeongsangnam-do and was joyfully sprinkling its urine all over the world.

Naturally, when something meteor-like falls from the sky at that time…

“Ah, another meteor shower acting up again.”

That’s the only way to perceive it.

Moreover, this “meteor” fell not inland but in the middle of the East Sea. And not near Ulleungdo, but in the Japan Basin, near the Japanese archipelago.

I’ve never heard any news about Atlantis moving from the Atlantic to the East Sea, so the area was truly uninhabited.

So I didn’t pay much attention to it. Being a Regressor, I was too busy taking care of the oceans’ ecosystems to worry about such things.

But after the Meteor Shower incident, the stories became a bit strange.

“Doctor Regressor, did you see a meteor fall towards the East Sea last night…?”

“Yes?”

“I guess not. A shooting star fell last night. Hmm. I thought it might be another Meteor Shower. It became a hot topic on SGNet, but nothing happened in the end…”

“Oh, it’s around this time of year that meteors fall into the East Sea. It turns out it was just an ordinary meteor.”

I heard several eyewitness accounts after that, but I lived quite detached from the matter for a while.

After all, around 100 tons of rocks fall from space to Earth every day. It just happened to fall into the East Sea and coincided with the “Meteor Shower” event, but it wasn’t a particularly special event.

But then, one day.

During Turn 98, I happened to be visiting Kanazawa, Japan. I had a meeting with the Magical Girls Association, which boasted the largest influence in the Japanese archipelago, equivalent to the Awakened Beings Federation in Korea.

By the way, this group is filled with lunatics similar to us but with completely different directions in which they’ve evolved their eccentricities. There might come a day when I mention them again.

It’d be better if that day never comes.

Due to the delay in the meeting, I ended up walking along the beach with the dispatched Magical Girl until late at night.

“So, I hope you can assist us in the Inunaki subjugation battle with Doctor Jang’s abilities.”

“I can help. But as I mentioned last time, hand over the camera.”

“Come on, even if you say that, the camera… You know it’s a rare item, with only three in existence. Instead, provide us with sufficient compensation… Oh?”

“Hmm?”

Despite the chilly weather, the Magical Girl stubbornly insisted on wearing a gaudy frilly fashion, holding a black umbrella even in the dead of night, pointing towards the East Sea.

While her fashion sense might have been a rare sight anywhere on Earth, something even more astonishing was unfolding in the direction of the East Sea.

I witnessed it, thanks to my training as an Awakener being several levels higher than others and my greatly enhanced vision.

“…….”

“Wow! It’s a shooting star!”

The Magical Girl bounced excitedly on the sandy beach. Unfortunately, I couldn’t match her excitement.

Because.

“…A saucer?”

“Huh?”

“No, that… fell in the East Sea. It’s not a meteor, it’s a saucer… a disk-shaped aircraft?”

“Uh, an UFO?”

The Magical Girl smirked with a tone that made me want to bite my tongue. Fortunately or unfortunately, I had become accustomed to their behavior, so I could nod my head somewhat calmly.

Yes, an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO).

It was the moment when extraterrestrial beings made their debut on the stage of Earth.

3

As Magical Girls were present at the scene of the sighting, the investigation team was quickly formed.

Perhaps due to the power of the word “UFO,” the Magical Girl Association took the matter seriously.

“We’ll dispatch the aircraft carrier ‘White Blossom’ for the investigation mission. Doctor Jang, please join us!”

“Oh, yes. Well….”

By the way, the Magical Girl Association possessed a total of 13 regular aircraft carriers. In terms of the days when civilization thrived, they were considered the strongest maritime group on Earth, along with the U.S. Navy.

They were all small fishing boats and cruise ships illegally modified and labeled as aircraft carriers. Why they engaged in this cosplay between Magical Girls and aircraft carriers? How could I possibly know?

Their headquarters building’s formal name is ‘5th Shin Tokyo-Nowgong Castle: Unknown Shrine.’ They’re complete lunatics, aren’t they? And they always call me “Doctor Jang.” I wouldn’t want to visit if it weren’t for work.

Anyway. Yeah. This turn is definitely not about these lunatics. And it shouldn’t be. Because they… Well, they’re nothing, really.

Anyway, we arrived at the suspected area where the meteorite fell and proceeded with the search operation.

And then.

“We found the craft!”

Seven hours after starting the operation at sea, we found the UFO. Despite their mental quirks, they were competent individuals who accurately captured the flying saucer floating on the surface.

The Magical Girls gathered on the deck and chattered excitedly.

“Wow. Doctor Jang was right. It’s not a meteor, it’s a UFO…”

“Observation. Fell from the atmosphere and collided with the surface. Judgment. Exterior relatively intact. Conclusion. Product of civilization far beyond human science.”

“……!”

“Incredible. Waves are rising on the surface. Should we approach rashly, what if aliens pop out from inside?”

Buzzing.

The UFO dipped momentarily beneath the surface with the waves before resurfacing, repeating the process like an engine room inside a car’s hood, with complex pipes connecting the saucer’s surface.

The first encounter with extraterrestrials.

Even I, who had experienced countless battles and situations, felt slightly tense.

“For now, there’s no response. It seems like we’ll need to enter first to establish communication or engage in combat.”

“Meow…”

“I’ll be the first to enter. Anyone following?”

“Meow. We’ve been working hard for seven hours. It would be meaningless to retreat now, so I’ll follow. Lead the way.”

I nodded and, entrusting the rear guard to the Magical Girls, boldly entered the UFO without hesitation. Despite their eccentricities, they were professional hunters of the bizarre.

Squelch, squelch.

The interior of the UFO was dark, with water already reaching ankle-deep due to flooding. As soon as I stepped into the corridor, a pungent smell, reminiscent of gasoline, pierced my nostrils.

“Stars – guide humanity’s dawn.”

Sparkle.

As the Magical Girl recited the spell, luminous orbs resembling lanterns began to float around her slowly.

Once the area was illuminated, other Magical Girls also initiated their spells one after another.

“Presence – detection – visualization.”

“… … … …”

“Even though there was no sound, your footsteps are imprinted on my chest.”

In an instant, our reconnaissance team armed themselves with sight, radar, telepathy, and stealth magic.

This was the driving force behind the Awakeners continuing their resistance against the millions of bizarre beings that had descended upon the archipelago. It was a different kind of magic from the one cultivated by Tang Seorin.

Tang Seorin’s magic was a faction developed solely by her, with songs and rhythms as its core, and Latin lyrics merely an addition to her tastes. On the other hand, this type of magic consisted solely of poetry.

In fact, for magic-type Awakeners, this “poetic magic” was fundamental. Tang Seorin’s “soul chanting” was a faction developed solely by her.

“It’s strange.”

We communicated via telepathy.

“Even if we expand the detection magic range, we can’t sense any presence. Machinery, machinery, machinery everywhere.”

“Speculation. Non-biological extraterrestrials. Hypothesis. Entities whose entire bodies have been replaced by machinery.”

“It’s a complete maze here. There’s a high possibility of ambush, so we mustn’t let our guard down.”

“I really can’t feel anything strange. Doctor Jang, is there anything unusual?”

“Nothing. Wait, hold on―”

Pause.

The Magical Girls all stopped in unison at my words. It was a well-trained response. They all waited for my further reaction without even questioning “What’s wrong?” or “Why?” It was even more commendable considering that they weren’t using their peculiar tone. If it weren’t for their strange way of speaking, they would have been quite reliable individuals.

I swallowed the thought that they would have been trustworthy individuals if not for their peculiar speech patterns and took five steps forward.

Tap, tap.

I touched the “object” lying in the corridor ahead with the tip of my sword. Despite trying to provoke a reaction, there was no response from the object. It just lay there, surrounded by the ankle-deep water.

“…They’re dead.”

Since there was no longer any need to communicate via telepathy, I muttered under my breath.

“Meow?”

“They’re already dead. All of them.”

In the dark corridors of the UFO, the bodies of aliens, melted to the point of being unrecognizable, lay strewn across the passageway, covering it densely with over 120 corpses.

4

The 98th incident, the “East Sea UFO crash,” ultimately remained an unsolved mystery.

Why did highly advanced extraterrestrials, far superior to current human civilization, perish inside their own spacecraft? Were they already dead before crashing into the East Sea?

I couldn’t hide my curiosity about this new bizarre occurrence.

After all, it was a mystery related to aliens. How could I resist it?

Thus, in the next turn, the 99th, we were fully prepared.

This time, instead of searching after the UFO crash, we decided to preemptively go to the crash site and wait.

“Meow? You want to use an aircraft carrier? Oh dear. Even if you’re Doctor Jang, our association only has seven military resources, and we can’t lend them out lightly….”

“Next time you go to tackle the Inunaki Tunnel, I’ll help you without any conditions.”

“Aircraft Carrier No. 1, White Blossom, setting sail!”