SWNOVELXO Chapter 204
Episode 204. Dreamcatcher (1)
Dr. Chae looked around. All he could see was concrete and asphalt. They had been searching the city center of Seoul all day, but found nothing unusual.
On the first day of the attack, hundreds of employees tried to avoid coming to work in various ways, and some even attempted suicide.
The Foundation immediately sent people to the field to track down the employees who refused to come to work and set up a surveillance network to prevent Foundation staff from committing suicide or self-harm. So far, so good.
To solve the problem, they ultimately needed to find the beings behind this. The Seoul Branch seemed to think it was the enemy Special Forces, but Dr. Chae wasn’t convinced.
It could be monsters or other combat assets. There’s no guarantee it’s that Special Forces, right?
Once again, Dr. Kim was right.
The Foundation staff had tried every means possible to block the attacks over the past two days. Dreamcatchers were hung on every office door, and worry dolls were placed on every desk.
It’s unclear if it worked, though.
“This is Dr. Chae. No unusual findings in Yeonnam-dong. Only caught a three-eyed cat. Moving to the next area.”
[This is the Command Center. Confirmed.]
They were searching all over Seoul, but the enemy Special Forces remained elusive. It was questionable whether they could find the enemy this way.
The problem was that most neighborhoods had too many unusual occurrences. They were only catching things unrelated to the current situation.
“This is Dr. Chae. Are the Precognition and Remote Viewing teams making any progress?”
[This is the Command Center. Still tracking.]
Dr. Kim will probably be furious when he returns.
It was embarrassing. The Seoul Branch had a few mages, but their response to large-scale mental attacks was limited to suicide prevention training, and they couldn’t even properly track the enemy.
It just goes to show how strong the enemy is.
It was time to think. Dr. Chae was also a staff member of the Foundation’s Seoul Branch. Two days ago, he sensed someone trying to attack his dreams.
Being a mage, Dr. Chae simply dispelled the nightmare and went back to sleep normally. But many Foundation staff had fallen victim to nightmares.
They were now fighting an invisible enemy. They reduced REM sleep by administering benzodiazepines, placed worry dolls and dreamcatchers on desks, homes, and bedsides.
They monitored each other to prevent self-harm, and managers promised vacations or bonuses. These measures weren’t entirely ineffective, but the war involving supernatural phenomena was still ongoing.
Here’s the strange part.
No matter how skilled a mage or a team of mages is, could they really affect thousands of people from a distance while hiding their origin?
It seemed unlikely.
You can’t hide a nuclear explosion. It’s only natural that hiding a large-scale magic affecting thousands of minds would be difficult.
The enemy is inside Seoul, hiding with incredibly powerful magic. We need to think more about how they’re doing it.
Ah, I remembered.
The Seoul Branch is currently at war with the Special Forces ‘Dreamwalker.’ They’re using various means to respond, but haven’t found the root of the problem yet. The enemy Special Forces are hiding somewhere in the vast concrete jungle.
I just thought of a solution.
I immediately picked up the phone.
“Support Department Head, are you listening?”
[Yes, yes.]
“Support Department Head, there must be some tools used in rituals related to dreams, right? Do you know what they are?”
[I’m not sure.]
“We’ll use incense. It’s not just for dreams; various rituals use incense. A large-scale ritual like this would require multiple ingredients.”
[So?]
“The Foundation’s standard substance for dream-related rituals is a lavender mixture. If we release moths tuned to track the lavender mixture, they’ll follow it.”
[Does that… make sense?]
“Everything we’ve tried so far has failed. If the enemy could be detected by the Precognition or Remote Viewing networks, they wouldn’t have started this fight.”
[Moths. Got it.]
“There’s probably a hunting cyborg moth made for this purpose somewhere. Ask around, we’ll deploy it for this mission.”
[I still have a lot to learn.]
“You just don’t know much.”
[Yes, that’s right.]
“Here’s my thought. If the enemy is Foundation staff and planned to hide for more than a day, they would naturally counter precognition and remote viewing. If magical means are blocked, we need to use non-magical methods.”
Hmm, I heard the Support Department Head pondering over the phone. He seems to have a lot of doubts.
“One more thing. We can store information about the Special Forces ‘Dreamwalker’ on a hard drive, attach it to a drone, and have it fly around Seoul to find areas where the information degrades. That’s where the enemy Special Forces are hiding.”
[Ah. That’s a good idea.]
This requires a few assumptions, but no matter how powerful the enemy is, they can’t be without weaknesses. There must be a way to counter them.
“Lastly, the enemy is hiding somewhere in Seoul and exerting influence on the Seoul Branch, right? Dispersing people as much as possible is also a solution. Employees outside Seoul weren’t affected much.”
With that, three solutions were in place.
[Uh, okay.]
“Good luck.”
[I’ll get to work then.]
The call ended.
Honestly, Lee Hwa didn’t want to be in the Command Center either. The situation was so chaotic it barely qualified as a command center.
It wasn’t a fight against a powerful enemy, but more people were deployed to the field than ever before.
Even excluding the mobilized police, 24 teams were roaming the city center. The Command Center, responsible for controlling the situation, was a complete mess.
The bigger problem was this.
The Special Forces and the Seoul Branch’s high-level combat assets kept encountering everything but the targeted enemy Special Forces.
Dr. Chae caught a three-eyed cat, Nanami destroyed some underground church of a dark cult.
Hasti picked up a ghost jar. They were wasting time on small fry.
Being too thorough isn’t always good; they’re spending time isolating things that could’ve been left alone.
“Everyone!”
The Command Center’s attention turned to the Support Department Head… well, not exactly. The Seoul Branch didn’t listen to the Support Department Head that much.
“The Administrator has sent orders.”
Now the attention was on the Support Department Head.
“It’s something like, ‘strong magic comes with a strong price,’ or something like that…”
The Support Department Head swallowed hard.
“The conclusion is this. We’re sending all operators in the field documents related to the Special Forces ‘Dreamwalker.’ Information degradation will be clearly observed in the closest areas.”
One of the scientists in the Command Center scratched his head. The atmosphere was generally skeptical.
“Hmm, I don’t think perception hindrance works that way. There’s no evidence that physical distance greatly affects information degradation.”
“Ah. Is that so?”
The head of the Anti-Magic Department, Dr. ■■■, nodded. He seemed to be pondering.
“We’ll find out. Let’s send the Special Forces information to the operators searching Seoul and have them access it from their locations.”
Still, Lee Hwa thought Dr. Kim’s words made enough sense.
It doesn’t make sense. The reason we haven’t found any clues despite all this is that the enemy Special Forces are using destructive information degradation or magical concealment to cut off tracking.
And with incredibly powerful magic at that.
Magic comes with a price, and the larger the magic, the more obvious the traces. Magic used to conceal something would be the same.
“Files sent.”
“Uh, receiving error rate reports.”
“How’s it going?”
The operator staring at the computer screen frowned. Field personnel began reporting the error rates of the transmitted files.
“Active information degradation detected. Mapo-gu, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Yangcheon-gu, Dongjak-gu. Severe information degradation observed centered around Yeongdeungpo-gu.”
The Support Department Head let out a sigh of relief.
“So the epicenter is Yeongdeungpo-gu?”
“Deploying personnel to Yeongdeungpo-gu. Helicopters are moving to Yeongdeungpo. All field personnel will converge on Yeongdeungpo.”
Dr. Chae took out the supernatural phenomenon ‘Target-Oriented Compass.’ It had been spinning aimlessly until now, but as soon as he heard “Yeongdeungpo,” it pointed straight west.
He wasn’t sure if this was real.
It helped find the three-eyed cat earlier, but can this really be considered a target?
Is this even a supernatural phenomenon? It might just be a weird-looking variant. Dr. Chae ran in the direction the compass pointed.
The enemy Special Forces might be nearby. They wouldn’t converge on Yeongdeungpo chaotically. What is the Command Center even doing?
“This is Dr. Chae. Command Center, confirm enemy location. Can we deploy helicopters?”
[This is the Command Center. Enemy location still unknown. Multiple helicopters are being deployed to the field, so proceed carefully into the operation area.]