Chapter 1. The Escape Master <Elephant Mole Cha Seo-un>

Why do middle-aged people in hiking gear sit on the ground and pull weeds in the middle of spring, not in the mountains but along the streets and riversides?

At first, I thought they were volunteers from a mountain club, but now I know they are not.

“Come on, shepherd’s purse.”

Seo-un threw the shepherd’s purse he had dug up from the ground into a yellow rice sack. The sack was thick with wild greens, but this was an example of over-packaging. After washing and preparing the greens, they would shrink to one-fifth of their original size.

It’s said that shepherd’s purse grown along such streets has lead and cadmium levels exceeding the standard...

Here we go again.

Old habits die hard. I still can’t let go of my past self who insisted that all ingredients must be organic and of domestic origin. In those days, I wouldn’t even look at produce without the GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) certification.

“Mugwort rice cake, rice cake soup, broth...”

Seo-un, who was picking mugwort from the roadside with a waddle, tightly closed his mouth. It had been a long time since he had a conversation with anyone. He was doing this silly word game just to make some noise, so he wouldn’t forget how to use his vocal cords.

They say if you go from rich to poor overnight, you might as well commit suicide. But once I get out of here, I plan to find that angle grinder and smash it.

Why?

Because I, who was once wealthy, am living so well.

Right now, I am living exactly like the character in ‘The Glass Bead Game.’ If Josef saw me now, he would have made me the master instead of that character.

“No comparing an ‘elephant mole’ to a ‘master.’”

A voice that seemed to be embedded in his brain rather than his ears echoed.

Seo-un ignored the voice, stood up, and looked back at the mountain behind him. It was a gentle hill that could be climbed and descended in about an hour. He lifted the thick rice sack, which felt as light as a bag of snacks filled with nitrogen. Still, it was cumbersome to carry, so he tied the opening with a rope and slung it over his shoulder.

Seo-un saw mugwort and shepherd’s purse by the roadside as he headed towards the mountain but decided not to be greedy. He had enough for a few days, so he needed to focus on finding protein.

He climbed a rough path that could barely be called a hiking trail, narrowing his field of vision to look for mushrooms on tree stumps and old trees.

I wouldn’t mind finding some shiitake or matsutake, but I was lucky to find some oyster mushrooms attached to a rotten log. As soon as he saw this excellent source of protein, he quickly approached but didn’t grab it with his hands.

Once, he had touched a mysterious red mushroom and fainted for a whole day.

Seo-un picked up a fallen branch and poked the mushroom stem.

“Unbelievable, to find such a thing! A taste that could kill one of two people! A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!”

The voice in his head sounded again, using a sales pitch like a supermarket at closing time, but he wasn’t naive enough to believe it.

It’s probably a deadly poisonous mushroom.

He threw the branch, now contaminated with poison, far away and picked up a new one to poke all the visible mushrooms. He had never done this even as a snot-nosed kid, and he had never even had a runny nose.

“Do you have constipation?”

This one must cause diarrhea.

“Experience the life of a sailor in a stormy sea.”

This one must cause seasickness and vomiting.

“The last chance to quit drinking for life! Even alcoholics can be forcibly treated.”

This mushroom will destroy your liver.

Feeling tired of poking, Seo-un decided this would be the last one and poked the mushroom on the log.

“It’s an edible oyster mushroom.”

The sudden serious tone made him feel annoyed, and the following words were even more ridiculous.

“Four cups of kelp broth, three tablespoons of soybean paste, one tablespoon of minced garlic, a little sugar, half a block of tofu, half a zucchini, and add onions and scallions to taste. Boil the onions, scallions, and zucchini finely chopped in the broth with the soybean paste. It’s perfect for finishing a bowl of rice when mixed.”

“...”

He tried hard to suppress the curse that was about to burst out. Why did it have to give him a recipe for mushroom soybean paste stew? It’s not like there was any soybean paste or broth around here.

Seo-un picked the oyster mushrooms with his bare hands. The amount that filled both his hands was a comforting sight. When he looked up, the sun was much lower than when he had climbed up. Seo-un slung the now heavier rice sack over his shoulder and started to descend the mountain.

“Starting at 7 PM tonight, mutants will invade the ‘Northwest’ area where ‘Elephant Mole Cha Seo-un’ is staying. Even a slight touch from a mutant will result in certain death for ‘Elephant Mole Cha Seo-un’! But it’s fine. The elephant mole is a master of escape. When a predator appears, even a lover will be abandoned.”

“Messenger, do you have to speak in my voice?”

The voice embedded in Seo-un’s head was none other than his own.

“...”

Moreover, it always spoke like this.

Seo-un called the voice that provided him with information a ‘messenger,’ but it never gave any direct answers when asked.

“Why a mouse?”

He only muttered to himself.

***

When Seo-un was around 21 years old, mutants and late-blooming species (晩生種) appeared in the world.

Late-blooming species originally referred to crop varieties that bloomed later than others, but now it was used to describe those who had awakened special abilities.

It was said that late-blooming species could manifest without any specific trigger, and the abilities they were given were diverse.

There were those with combat abilities strong enough to rival a nation’s military, and those with specialized mental abilities. Conversely, there were also those with weak telekinetic abilities, barely able to lift a dumbbell.

Initially, the government tried to manage the ability holders, but the situation changed drastically with the appearance of mutants.

All kinds of animals, insects, and even plants could become mutants, and it was impossible to predict when and where they would appear.

While existing weapons could suppress mutants, the scale of damage was uncontrollable. Mutants as large as school playgrounds were not uncommon.

They were mutants, but they were essentially monsters.

“Northeast, Southwest, Southeast.”

Seo-un muttered, plucking mugwort leaves one by one.

“Northeast, Southwest, Southeast, Northeast...”

As the leaves disappeared, his movements became slower.

“Southeast.”

The last remaining leaf was Southeast.

Seo-un pulled out another stem of shepherd’s purse with a blank expression. While plucking the leaves, which were more numerous than mugwort, he repeated the sequence: Northeast, Southwest, Southeast.

“...Southeast.”

This time, the last remaining leaf was also Southeast. Seo-un clicked his tongue and picked up another stem of shepherd’s purse. He tried this five times in a row, but Southeast always came up.

There was no other choice. This time, he would try the petal divination without Southeast. More accurately, it should be called wild green divination.

Fine, this time it’s Northeast.

Seo-un washed the wild greens in the water he had collected. He squeezed out the water and formed the greens into a round lump, placing it in a faded Tupperware container. The two green lumps looked like grass regurgitated by herbivores, but he didn’t frown at his daily ration.

“Mutants will appear on the ‘Northeast’ island. The only area where no mutants will be generated after 7 PM today is ‘Southeast.’”

His head throbbed. He had cheated the petal divination to avoid going to Southeast, but if it was the only area without mutants...

Seo-un checked the time on his wind-up wristwatch again. It was still before 6 PM, so he had enough time to move, even if it was tight.

Seo-un looked around the makeshift shelter someone had built to escape from mutants. He had stayed in this shelter at the foot of the mountain for about two weeks, leaving traces of his stay everywhere.

He rolled up his down sleeping bag as tightly as possible and picked up more branches from the shelter’s floor. He drew the four areas to organize his movement radius.

Northwest

Mutants: 0

(DK) Northeast

Mutants: 0

(Hororororo) Southwest

Mutants: 0

(Tugon) Southeast

Mutants: X

(Ownerless)

If the city where Seo-un lived were simplified, it could be divided into four areas in the shape of ‘田’.

Of course, the areas were not perfectly square, and their actual sizes varied. It was similar to how cities like Siheung, Ansan, Gunpo, and Anyang were divided for administrative purposes. However, there were no mayors for each area; instead, powerful guilds existed.

The Northwest was managed by ‘DK,’ the Northeast by ‘Hororororo,’ and the Southwest by ‘Tugon.’ The Southeast was a chaotic area where multiple guilds fought for control.

People referred to these four areas collectively as ‘1) Naraka (那落迦).’

1) Naraka (那落迦): In Sanskrit, it means ‘hell.’