Hermit Wizard
Chapter 10

The Upside-Down World (1)

After returning all the Waterbirds to their original dimension, I felt fatigued, weighing heavily upon my body. As I was stretching out on the couch in the living room and watching the TV, I spoke.

“I can’t do the lesson today. I used up quite a lot of Mana.”

[What? The summoning time wasn’t that long, wasn’t it?]

I smiled awkwardly and said, “No…actually, the Mana leaked out like tap water while I was using the interpreter magic…”

[…]

Immature magic was also bad in mana efficiency.

[…You always make excuses for wasting too much, Mana. Because you keep relying on me every time, your magic doesn’t improve at all!]

“Ah, yes, this disciple lacks in training… but I’m really tired today.”

My eyelids were kindly telling me how ridiculously low my level of spell casting was. Why did I use so much mana in a spell that wasn’t really useful? I could be considered to be like an inexperienced driver (lack of intuitive understanding of magic) who had stepped on the accelerator with side brakes (poor spell control) but barely managed to move a few hundred meters (poor interpretation quality) and only succeeded in making the fuel evaporate into the air (exhausted).

This was almost as if the spell had failed.

[It’s a good thing. If that giant had been more talkative, you would have used up all your Mana and collapsed, exhausted. You would be right behind in such a battle.]

“…If I were in a dangerous situation, I wouldn’t use this magic. Should I just have you interpret from now on?”

Parvache clicked his tongue and lamented.

[Ah, Purbagios! Why did you send your cane to this mushy motherfucker?]

Upon hearing his complaint, I spoke in a tired voice.

“Did God send you to me? It was me who called you. Anyway, I’m glad, the Channel wasn’t pierced from this side, but from the Ashpim Giant’s dimension…”

Looking back at the giant’s end, it said that it had seen the Seed form even before the Channel was opened. It seemed that the seed wasn’t made here but in another dimension. In other words, it didn’t seem like the Truth-Seekers were wandering around here. I lay awake on the couch, watching TV again, and closed my eyes without realizing it. Suddenly, a piece of breaking news rang in my ears.

It was said that armored vehicles and armed troops had finally gathered around the Channel and were besieging it. That would be enough to stop and deal with the additional giants popping out. As soon as it came out of the Channel, it was best to launch a bomb from a distance. When the situation was cleared up, a question arose from within me. In this world where there had been no record of completely open Channels since the beginning of human civilization, why had this happened now and in a place close to me? One day, ten years ago, wasn’t the Channel planted in my body related to today’s incident?

“Haaaaaammm…”

I yawned loudly and closed my eyes. Since the first event of its kind in civilization’s history had occurred twice in a row, if I calculate the probability, it may not happen again for the next few thousand, or even tens of thousands of years. Perhaps today’s events were recorded as the last event to break my peace in this world if I could live in hiding without encountering a Truth-Seeker.

And from today onwards, humanity would study and discuss this event for a long time, perhaps for a long time spanning over generations. It may be left as an eternal mystery that would never be overcome by our civilization’s intelligence and science. I thought of this and fell asleep with strange emotions brewing within me.

**

Time passed; the moment I woke up again, I was hooked to watching TV once more. I realized how absurd and uncomfortable the thoughts I had been thinking were. What happened at Mapo Bridge was just a part of what happened to the world on that day.

“…What is ‘The Only Channel’? Damn it.”

Breaking news continued to flash on the TV screen. However, the content was no longer the Mapo Bridge case that took place several hours ago.

[Ah, are you awake now?]

Parvache spoke as if I didn’t deserve it. I think he had been watching TV by my side until now.

“…What’s all this crap?”

I kept changing channels and asking Parvache. Similar screens were appearing on any channel. However, the places where the situation unfolded were very different, even at a glance.

[What the hell? Now, you’re fucked up here.]

Huge Channels similar to the one that appeared on Mapo Bridge was opened in places all over the Earth, and beings from other worlds were freely entering and roaming on Earth. Yes, the world was turned upside down.

***

According to the anchor, more than half of the Channels still remained long and torn, and nothing had come out of it. However, it went without saying that its appearance had sent countries around the world into a frenzy.

“…How many were open?”

[After listening to the broadcast, over 200 have been identified so far.]

“No way. How many hours did I sleep? Are you saying that those 200 new ones were opened recently?”

As I asked back absurdly, Parvache said.

[It’s 3 a.m. now. You have slept for almost 12 hours.]

It was the body’s reaction to refill the consumed Mana, after all. Parvache, frightened by the news, tried to wake me up by yelling, but I didn’t wake up at all.

[At the time the Mapo Bridge Channel was opened, it seems that more than 200 channels were opened in less than 10 minutes. When this neighborhood got into trouble with the Mapo Bridge broadcast, several countries were turned upside down because of Channels in their territories. And if something has already popped out of the Channel…there is no such thing as the same race for each Channel. Even human-type creatures have slightly different species. And each of them is a race that cannot exist in the same dimension. In other words…]

“…Are all of those Channels connected to different dimensions?”

[I think that’s very likely. I told you, this dimension is screwed.]

My head was throbbing, so I wrapped my face in my palms and sighed.

“You said that the dimension where the Asphim Giant came out is the Origin of the Channel. Are all those Channels the same? Over 200 dimensions have channeled here at the same time?”

[If that assumption is correct, it would mean that the Truth-Seekers of many dimensions have completely opened up adult Channels in their dimensions at one time and intentionally unified the destinated dimension to Earth.]

“What is that? What kind of multinational—no, is this a multi-dimensional allied invasion scenario?”

Parvache rambled because he was confused as well.

[No, it was the Truth-Seekers who opened the Channel anyway, but they aren’t interested in aggression or domination. What they intend to do…no way, I don’t know what they’re thinking about…, but this is a conspiracy. One ensued by many Truth-Seekers.]

“Sigh…”

[The hypothesis that interdimensional Truth-Seekers can communicate has been suggested for a long time, but damn, the records about Truth-Seeker in the Akashic Records aren’t accessible to me! If I had had a little more training before I became a spirit body…]

While listening to his murmur, I realized a possibility and asked Parvache.

“Isn’t that giant lying? Maybe, the Mapo Bridge Channel was also pierced by the Truth-Seeker in this world, and aren’t all other Channels like that? Isn’t that more realistic than the conspiracy of over 200 Truth-Seekers?”

[All those Channels opened with almost no time difference. No matter how strong a Truth-Seeker is, he can’t use the power of Complete Opening more than 200 times within that short time. And as you know, there is only one Truth-Seeker in each dimension.]

“Ah, what the hell! I don’t know what the intention is, but looking at the result itself is very disturbing.”

The problem was that there are 200 cases. Fortunately, Earth remained intact while I slept, but more than half of the Channels haven’t yet identified the other side’s dimensions. What if the Channel’s inhabitants prefer to eat, catch, or enslave rather than talk to human-type creatures? And what if one of them had the power to turn this civilization upside down? I don’t have as much knowledge to properly judge this situation, but governments in each country also have peering ears and eyes. In most cases, whether something comes out of the Channel or not, barricades had been installed, and troops were queued up.

Since they already know what has happened in other countries such as Korea, they will have to prepare thoroughly for any contingency.

***

When something popped out of the Channel, it didn’t always attack or threaten humans. It was a lucky case.

Gray-eyed humanoid creatures emerged from a channel in Hong Kong’s Central Station, and they attempted to speak in a language they didn’t know. However, surprisingly, the Hong Kong police officers and reporters at the scene who held the camera from a distance naturally understood the meaning of the language heard as a sequence of unknown sounds.

“Fortunately, this is the dimension of civilized humanoid life. Ah! These are really very tall buildings. I salute you for the noble intelligence that made this technology possible. Will you lead us to the rulers of this Earth? We only hope for a phased public/private engagement to have a peace treaty at both levels and the governing body’s approval. We are the vanguard from the dimension of ‘Dellu##A#Khem.’ Oh, ‘Dellu##A#Khem’ cannot be translated as a proper noun. If you measure our dimension, the position is the 23rd dimension, on the 1044th level, and the 52nd Aliu## #Kam, huh? Why can’t Aliu###Kamdo translate? It is the basic term for dimensional recording coordinates. Of course, it exists in your language… ah, no, it doesn’t?”