Chapter 1

Chapter 1

1. Drawing Cards (1)

-Well, more unwelcome news today. A mana storm is rolling in, right? Step outside without protection and you’ll get mana poisoning—dizziness is just the start, and you get mana burns on your skin as a bonus!

Of course, Gangnam doesn’t have to worry. The Association’s purification barrier keeps it clean. As for the rest of us? We’re used to it.

The radio announcer’s voice came through.

Damn it, another mana storm.

On nights when the mana storm warning sounds, delivery fees double. It’s hazard pay, but really, it’s just dumping work nobody wants to do onto someone else.

For a guy like me, though, it’s actually a day of opportunity.

I lowered the helmet visor and started the motorcycle.

[Guro-gu → Gangnam-gu. Distance 18 km. Estimated time 47 minutes.]

The magic navigation system displayed the route.

The problem was that this route required crossing the Han River.

‘Ah, please. Just let me get through today.’

Why?

To cross a Han River bridge, you have to pass through a checkpoint barrier, and that one’s pretty strict. Especially for someone like me.

Vroom, vroom!

The motorcycle engine roared to life with a rough sound.

A used bike at least ten years old. My entire fortune.

“Hah, this damn mana storm.”

I rolled the motorcycle out.

It hadn’t even properly moved north yet, but somehow a hazy blue fog already hung outside.

I immediately slipped out of the narrow alley and headed for the pickup spot.

Mana-light signs swayed in the storm’s wind.

[Eumji Workshop – Engraving and Modification Specialist]

[Magic Tool General Store]

[Used Mana Stone Purchase]

Familiar signs flashed past.

I stepped into the Eumji Workshop among them.

“Anything to deliver?”

“This.”

He must have been busy with engraving work; he didn’t even turn around.

The delivery item was some kind of bracelet.

The mana circuit engraved on the bracelet shimmered, so it was probably something hard to sell officially.

“Thanks for your work.”

I loaded the item he handed over onto the motorcycle.

A sealed package weighing about 3 kg. A person living in Gangnam looking for something like this. It probably wasn’t anything good.

But did I need to care?

Just moving it was my job.

Vroooom—!!

Before I knew it, the main road.

As expected, the streets were quiet, and the surrounding scenery began to slowly change.

[Hanseong Magic Engineering – Beyond Your Limits]

[Daereung Mana System – Better Engravings! Better Life!]

Massive advertisements lit up the stormy night sky.

Even this area was a completely different world from where I lived.

And right now, I was heading somewhere even more different.

“Please prepare your mana identification card.”

The Mapo Bridge checkpoint I had reached before I realized it.

I prepared as the AI voice instructed.

Whirrr—.

Two security golems slowly approached me.

Red sensors extended from bodies over 4 meters tall and scanned.

“Here, identification card.”

-Jeong Dojin. 27 years old. Mana Sensitivity F-grade, residence Gwanak-gu Sillim-dong.

“······.”

I waited for the inspection to finish.

Just let me through, just, just···.

Last time at another place, they picked on me, asking why my sensitivity was F-grade and why someone like that was coming here.

Mana Sensitivity F-grade.

There was a grade, but it was an extremely, extremely rare case that almost never actually occurred.

‘That damned [Mana Leak Syndrome].’

Hundreds of years ago, Gates appeared in the world.

Of course, that was long ago, so now the Gates have almost all disappeared.

But the mana that came out from inside the Gates never vanished.

As that mana seeped into the world over a long time, everyone came to possess mana. Of course, using that mana to cast magic well was a separate matter.

-Delivery confirmed. Pass.

‘···Okay. It just went through.’

Screeeech.

The moment the identification card check ended, the gate lowered with a bizarre metallic sound.

I crossed the bridge right away.

Then the world changed again.

Magic airships flying through the air.

Super-tall skyscrapers soaring high into the sky.

Mana hologram advertisements covering the outer walls of buildings.

Every time I entered this neighborhood, the feeling was strange.

It was the same Seoul, but it felt like a completely different country.

‘Genesis Tower is···.’

I found the destination in a completely different world.

Of course, it wasn’t that difficult.

I just had to find the tower that soared the highest.

[Destination reached. Deliver to the 87th floor reception.]

I delivered it to the reception as instructed.

Immediately, an alert popped up on the app.

[Delivery complete. 45,000 won has been deposited.]

“Rode 18 km through a mana storm for 45,000 won. Fuck.”

I wasn’t sure if this was right.

But what could I do.

Rent, district tax, whatever.

I had to do it to live.

* * *

“Huff, huff···.”

How far up the slope had I climbed.

The place I lived was Seoul, Sillim-dong.

This place, called the Gray Zone, had been pushed back little by little until now people were gathered living all the way at the mountain peak.

Thanks to that, the rent was cheap, but···.

“Hey.”

While I was barely climbing the slope, a homeless person lying by the roadside spoke to me.

“If you’ve got something to eat, hand it over. I’m starving to death.”

“······.”

Did I leave food somewhere?

He was half-threatening me to give it up.

But it was dangerous to carelessly treat someone as just a homeless person.

This person too had his whole body tightly wrapped in a coat despite the hot weather, but would he wrap himself for no reason?

You could tell just by glancing at the exposed skin.

They were ‘Mana Aberrants’ whose bodies had partially transformed like monsters.

“Sorry. I’m about to starve to death myself because I don’t have any money right now.”

“Damn it, you bastard. Not even making money···.”

Swoosh.

The homeless person lay back down on the ground.

He was probably just testing me.

The situations of people coming here were all more or less the same.

Ding!

On the way up, I stopped by a nearby convenience store.

The part-timer spoke to me as if familiar.

“Ran out?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Sigh, kid. Here, eat this. It’s past the date, but it’s fine to eat.”

Swoosh.

Park Mincheol, a friend working at the neighborhood convenience store.

Since he knew my situation well, he would set aside discarded products and give them to me now and then.

“How much do you make working part-time here at the convenience store?”

“Why, you gonna work part-time too? But you···.”

I know, I know.

A world where everyone possesses mana.

In such a world, [Mana Leak Syndrome], where mana continuously leaks out even if you just stay still.

You needed basic mana to do even this kind of convenience store work.

In other words, it was a job I couldn’t do because I had no mana.

“I know. I can’t even do this kind of work. I was just curious, so I asked.”

“···Well, around here, you still get about 2 million a month.”

2 million a month.

If I could just earn that, it would be great.

It was a dream-like salary to me.

Ding!

“Welcome!”

In the meantime, another customer arrived.

But something felt off somehow.

Long wavy hair and a hat pressed down low. Eyes constantly looking left and right anxiously. Exactly the impression of someone being chased by something.

‘If this were somewhere like Gangnam, there wouldn’t be anything to be careful about.’

The public safety there was incredible.

If anyone tried to do something suspicious even a little, they’d rush in immediately.

But what kind of place was this?

A place where all sorts of people from all over the country gathered.

Moreover, a place with the highest magic crime rate and also the lowest mana density.

“G-give me one cigarette.”

The person wearing the hat bought one cigarette in a trembling voice. While doing so, he kept looking outside the window.

‘···Police?’

Wondering what was outside, I looked, and saw a group of police hurriedly passing by.

Seeing that, the man quickly lowered his head.

Ah, this feels bad···.

“Here you go!”

“······.”

Whoosh.

The man who received the cigarette hurriedly headed for the door.

···Is he just leaving?

Thud.

“Huh?”

At that moment.

Something fell from the body of the man who was about to leave.

A small purple stone.

It was a small size that looked about the length of one finger joint.

Ding!

The man didn’t seem to notice it had fallen and just left.

I thought something might happen, but thankfully it didn’t.

Did I misunderstand?

I’ve been through so much that I suspected first for no reason.

“Hey, right now on the floor······!”

Just as I was about to tell him something had fallen.

“Catch that bastard!!”

As if they had been waiting, the police rushed in the moment he came out.

The man was caught by those police and immediately handcuffed. A strange light shimmered from those handcuffs. They were handcuffs that blocked mana.

“······.”

So he really was a criminal.

Thus the man was taken away.

I wasn’t curious about what he had done.

Scenes like this were quite familiar.

Swoosh.

I quietly looked at the stone I had picked up in my hand.

···I don’t know what it is, but it can’t be helped.

I put the picked-up stone into my pocket.

“I’m going too.”

“Yeah, take care.”

After a casual greeting, I left the convenience store.

* * *

That night.

I ate the triangular kimbap Mincheol gave me while watching TV.

-Today, the Mage Association announced the status of certified mages produced in the second quarter of this year. The total number of new certified mages nationwide in the second quarter was counted at twelve. This is a decreased figure compared to the same period last year······.

News about mages came on.

It was common knowledge that the learning process was difficult, so the fees were expensive, and for high ranks, even if you had money, you needed talent to learn.

‘Well, it’s not a story that has anything to do with a guy like me.’

What could I, who doesn’t even have mana, do.

I immediately changed the channel.

[Special Feature: The Life of a Mage]

Mages of the Republic of Korea, how do they live!

“Hm?”

It’s a special broadcast about mages.

These things are secretly interesting.

How should I put it··· it feels like indirectly experiencing the life of a successful celebrity.

I wonder how long I watched.

Compared to my own life for no reason, I just turned off the TV.

Swoosh.

As I did, my gaze naturally turned to the desk.

The purple stone placed on top of it.

The one I picked up at the convenience store earlier.

‘Just looking at it, it’s not an ordinary stone.’

I opened my phone and searched.

Most of it was unrelated talk rather than the information I wanted.

But me, Jeong Dojin.

A man who keeps challenging interviews even knowing he’ll fail.

‘Something will come up.’

I kept turning the search pages.

Page 10, page 30, page 78···.

‘Huh? Is this it?’

In the middle of that, I found one similar photo.

[Mana Stone]

A mineral in which mana has crystallized.

“Huh? A mana stone?”

I know what a mana stone is.

They say it’s a stone containing mana.

However, this wasn’t a common thing.

From the start, it couldn’t even be traded unless you were a certified mage, and the routes to obtain them were also done privately.

‘Well, I heard you sometimes get them if you do things like requests. Was he someone handling requests?’

Anyway.

This is a mana stone?

Wouldn’t selling something like this make quite a bit of money?

‘Ah··· that’s illegal.’

I momentarily misunderstood again.

If I, who isn’t even a certified mage, tried to sell this, I’d get investigated for everything.

···Ah, I thought I might make money.

“······.”

I blankly stared at the mana stone like that.

They say there’s quite a lot of mana in here.

If I use this, will I get some mana too?

‘Even if I do, it’ll all naturally leak out after some time passes, but since I can’t sell this anyway even if I keep it, wouldn’t it be okay to experience living with mana for a little while?’

Curiosity arose.

I naturally folded the hand holding the mana stone.

And as I had often heard···.

‘I think they said to do it with a feeling of pulling.’

I wonder if it’ll work for me with Mana Sensitivity F.

It’s not doing something with my mana, but just pulling the mana from the mana stone, right?

So I just tried it.

Then.

Wooooong.

“Ugh, huh?”

Something entered.

I felt something warm flowing from the fingertips to the wrist, from the wrist to the arm, and then to the heart.

It was hard to express, but I felt the sensation of mana filling up.

‘···Is it really working?’

It was clearly a purple stone.

But now it was a situation where the purple light was faintly disappearing and changing to a gray light.

It seems that much mana had escaped.

However, my body was still the same.

I definitely felt the mana filling up, but I also felt the sensation of it disappearing by that much.

It was almost at the level of pouring water into a bottomless ditch···.

‘Let’s keep going.’

Then I should keep filling more.

While I’m at it, pressing hard.

I wonder how long I did that.

It was when about 1/3 of the mana stone’s purple light had disappeared.

[Condition achieved.]

[Trait is unlocked.]

[Acquired the ‘Level Up’ trait.]

[Leveled up.]

“Huh?”

What did I do?

[Reward is given.]

Whirrrrr—.

Something appeared before my eyes.

Three large cards spun with a whir.

The cards that had been spinning round and round gradually slowed···.

<​Passive>[Mana Recovery](Common)

-Mana recovery amount +10%

<​Active>[Fireball](Common)

-Common magic of the fire attribute system

-Acquire Fireball magic.

<​Passive>[Card Rank +1](Common)

-Increase the rank value of the desired magic card

···Uh, uh?

What is this?

© Jeongkim#1mtau