Chapter 662
Behold the fleeting visage of energy being torn asunder.
Oxidizing beings.
Cinders of flame disappearing.
A mirage that flutters and vanishes into thin air.
The dying gasp of flames swallowed by the darkness of night.
Once bright, now akin to a specter that fades without a trace.
Look at those energies being ripped and shattered.
‘So this is where it is.’
And within the rifts of that torn energy.
The wallpaper concealed as a door is torn apart, revealing a hidden space beyond the wall.
What comes into view is a virgin land that once occupied the space itself, blocking human access with illusions.
‘No, I can’t call this a virgin land. It has felt the touch of human feet and lacks purity in its landscape. This place would be better referred to as Terra Incognita.’
Terra Incognita.
An unknown land.
Where barbaric tribes breathe life.
A domain filled with monsters that defy the gods.
The place before Jinseong now closely resembles such a locale.
Whooooom—
As the space unveils itself, a deafening noise assaults the ears.
Like servers lined up as if following the scene of a bustling metropolis with high-rise buildings.
Countless wires, though somewhat organized, still felt chaotic, and the sound of servers running reverberated, filling the entire space like a vibration.
And wrapped around the servers in a translucent tube, as if to cool the scorching heat emitted, was a sight reminiscent of vines growing rampantly on the skyscrapers of a world long since ruined.
Perhaps it looked alien in nature.
Inside the translucent tube flowed a liquid glowing with a blue luminescence; it was a coolant that Jinseong had seen several times before.
A coolant made by infusing water with cold properties, infused with magical attributes.
Though it works well, it’s expensive, and without proper maintenance, it can lead to accidents, making it primarily used in specialized industries or laboratories. Furthermore, as time passes, the magical energy contained within the coolant diminishes, necessitating periodic replacements, thus making it nearly extravagant for general use.
Therefore, that means.
‘The school is involved here.’
This location isn’t just a mere club of students, nor is it something secretly created by outsiders.
The usage of coolant that requires regular management and replacement implies that administrators regularly come and go within this place, meaning it’s right to assume the school, at the very least, and possibly the government, is entangled in this matter.
‘If the school is involved… they are either turning a blind eye to the government or military actions… or are certainly actively participating in them.’
Then what purpose does this facility serve?
Is there a reason to create such a facility within a school building that disguises itself?
It’s not even a secret passage or a bunker—what could possibly warrant hiding such a thing with special abilities at the end of these stairs?
Jinseong stroked his chin and stepped forward.
He glanced slowly at the servers.
He saw graphic cards being cooled yet still running hot as if they were going to explode at any moment, and a cooler shaking as though pleading with Jinseong to rescue it from this horrifying duty.
He noticed heat periodically bursting from the tubes between the servers and confirmed that the servers were laid out in a specific pattern.
‘The heat being expelled serves the roles of fire and wind… and the tubes act as water while drawing lines in three-dimensional space. The servers are embedded in the ground, fulfilling the role of wood, and simultaneously serving as pillars and axes… Let’s see. The lights on the ceiling have been modified to emit ultraviolet and far-infrared rays, making them representative of the sun, while the mist released periodically simulates clouds.’
At first glance, it seems like a typical server room.
But the more one looks closely, the more one realizes that everything is intentionally laid out.
From the positioning of the servers to the devices themselves.
All of them triggered certain thoughts in Jinseong.
‘This is a formation technique.’
A formation technique.
A technique based on the five elements.
Of course, unlike the original five-element formation, it incorporates wind and, based on that wind, integrates the sun and clouds, creating the element of sky. It is a formation that imperfectly imitates nature based on the five elements.
No, it might not even be about imperfectly imitating nature.
‘A closed space, a maintained ecosystem. A trapped nature…’
This server room consists solely of machines.
It bore an uncanny resemblance to a terrarium.
‘The cut dodecahedron must have been for this purpose.’
Jinseong believed that the person who created this formation had drawn heavily from terrariums.
And it made sense for that terrarium mimicry to utilize this cut dodecahedron most effectively.
‘I’ve never seen something like this using a cut dodecahedron in a three-dimensional formation technique… Hmmm. I wonder why such effort was put into creating this at the end of the stairs. It truly piques my curiosity.’
A sense of anticipation welled within him.
There’s typically no reason to invest effort into something trivial.
The grander a place appears, and the more one discovers new elements upon each visit, the more its value inevitably grows.
Thus, with hopeful anticipation, Jinseong walked forward softly.
With each step he took, he left footprints, and from those footprints, mushrooms sprung up like fairies.
It was not difficult at all.
Didn’t he possess materials obtained from someone closely associated with fairies?
Using that as a medium for magic would be a breeze.
Imitation is easiest when it is close at hand, isn’t it?
The more similarities there are, the broader Jinseong’s options become.
His interest in magic.
A desire that had morphed into an obsession.
All of that embodies Jinseong’s power and his path.
If he could endure the cost, then what could he not achieve?
And thus, his steps imitating the fairy drew closer to the truth.
And from his footprints, mushrooms began to sprout and move.
These mushrooms, dropping spores, contaminated the space.
An uninvited guest in a trapped ecosystem.
A nuisance that could malfunction machines.
And akin to a spy connecting with the mushrooms outside.
Thus, the server room became enveloped in mushrooms.
Swish.
And boldly coming forth like a flag, a single mushroom rose high.
Ah.
This place has now fallen into his grasp.
It has been seized by the uninvited intruder who ripped through the formation technique.
And thus, it had no choice but to reveal its hidden secrets.
‘Is there another space?’
In the end, the secret has been uncovered….
***
What lies within the trapped space?
Camouflaged by a formation, creating a terrarium from servers.
What on earth was so vital that it needed to be hidden to such an extent?
‘Hoh, how intriguing. What clever ones they are….’
The secret lies here.
In the form of tungsten structures and a liquid possessing energy storage capabilities.
Tungsten pillars shaped like square pyramids, seemingly created to resemble a pyramid.
Two spheres made from diamagnetic materials floating around the pyramid.
Lines of energy making the diamagnetic materials orbit around the pyramid.
Countless tubes filling the surfaces of the pyramid.
And in the spaces between those tubes, falling liquid streams from the top of the square pyramid to the bottom….
Tick.
Drip.
Drip.
The falling liquid with a soft sound enters a device resting on the ground.
And the device, with a buzzing sound, processes the liquid and disperses it everywhere, each movement colored differently as it flows through transparent tubes to places unknown.
And as those tubes spread, they begin processing through the devices standing in every cardinal direction.
Jinseong could grasp the significance of this equipment.
No, he had no choice but to understand.
For it resonated closely with the actions he undertook not long ago.
No, it had even advanced beyond anything Jinseong had achieved.
To make a comparison, it was like the difference between stone tools and a steam engine.
‘Hoh, Aida, Iarin. You were misinformed. This is neither the dragon vein nor the qi possessed by the earth. This has been birthed from you, condensed from the things you spilled….’
Energy.
This facility was currently collecting energy.
Its scope encompassed the very building in which Jinseong now stood.
And the target was none other than….
Students.
Those enrolled at Seoul Specialization High School for Ability Users.