April 3rd.
It was a day full of spring energy. Cherry blossoms had begun to bloom in Seoul, and the sunlight streaming through the window gaps was warm. Min Yeojin, who worked as a doctor at the Seoul Temporary Quarantine Center, arrived at work an hour earlier than usual today.
“Huh? Dr. Min. What brings you in at this hour?”
“There haven’t been any newly admitted Transcendents lately, so it’s been quiet. Why did you come in so early?”
When 9 o’clock came, staff members began arriving one by one, and seeing Min Yeojin already hard at work, they each made a comment.
“I’m going to finish all of today’s work during the morning.”
“Do you have other business in the afternoon?”
“Today is that kid’s birthday. I’m going to throw a party.”
“Hm? Oh, Number 13?”
Chief Park had probably said it without thinking, but a slight wrinkle formed between Min Yeojin’s brows.
“It’s Seo Haeju. Not Number 13. And the quarantined people are all equally human beings, so why do you keep calling them that way?”
Chief Park made a sour expression and said, “Ah, yes.” He was undoubtedly cursing inwardly about making a fuss over nothing so early in the morning. Pretending not to notice Chief Park grumbling as he sat down, Yeojin finished skimming through Seo Haeju’s documents on the computer screen he’d been looking at.
Seo Haeju. A Transcendent discovered at a highway vehicle accident scene on December 3rd, four months ago.
It was an accident scene that Yeojin had encountered on his way back from his dead younger brother’s columbarium. The scene was horrific. He didn’t know exactly how the accident had occurred, but the car was completely overturned and the vehicle damage was severe.
Drivers in the area had stopped their cars and were surrounding the overturned vehicle, trying to rescue even one more survivor. Yeojin also stopped his car and approached the accident vehicle. He couldn’t move anyway since traffic was blocked.
A middle-aged man and woman who appeared to be a married couple in the front seats seemed to have already died, and in the back seat, a young man who seemed to be their son was gasping and bleeding. Gasoline had begun leaking from the overturned vehicle, which could lead to a major explosion. Before a bigger accident occurred, they had to at least save the guy in the back seat.
Time was of the essence, but the back seat door was crushed and wouldn’t open, making rescue difficult.
“We can’t do this with our strength. We need to use machinery to open the door.”
“This looks like it’s about to explode. Get away.”
“But we still have to save the kid!”
“At this rate, we’re all going to die too!”
They split into two groups: those warning people to get away and those determined to somehow rescue the survivor.
“Ugh…”
The boy in the car, who had been gasping for breath with difficulty, made a groaning sound and opened his eyes.
“P-please save me. Please save me.”
They could hear the sound of the kid, having regained consciousness, pleading in terror.
“Stay still. I’ll rescue you soon.”
Yeojin said this to reassure the boy. But it wasn’t an easy task. Several adult men, including Yeojin, clung to the crushed door and struggled desperately to somehow open it. But the door showed no signs of opening.
That’s when it happened. With a crunching sound, as if something was being crushed, the car shook. People flinched in surprise and fell away from the car. The back seat door made crunching, crunching sounds as it seemed to crumple, and then with a crash, it fell off.
A door that wouldn’t open even when several strong men rushed at it together had crumpled like paper and fallen off.
“It’s a Transcendent.”
Someone muttered, and a chilling silence descended. The atmosphere changed in an instant.
While everyone was frozen, at a loss for words, the boy desperately grunted and crawled out through the door opening. No one tried to help the child. The people who had been trying so hard to rescue the boy suddenly all froze.
Only Yeojin rushed to the boy.
“Are you okay?”
The boy looked at Yeojin with his blood-covered face. The boy’s wide, swollen eyes were filled with fear and despair.
“M-Mom, Dad…”
The boy muttered with a trembling voice. Soon, tears flowed from his large eyes.
“What happened to Mom and Dad…”
It must have been a question asking what had happened to his parents.
“I’ll take you to the hospital. Just hang in there a little.”
Yeojin didn’t say anything about the parents’ deaths and only said that as he helped the boy to his feet. The boy sobbed like a child.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Mom, Dad, I’m sorry.”
While muttering apologies. The boy must have also guessed his parents’ deaths. Yeojin’s heart grew heavy too.
“Hang in there. You have to live.”
It wasn’t the right thing to say to a child who had lost his parents in an instant, but he could only offer such platitudes of comfort. People just stared blankly at Yeojin struggling alone to support and walk with the boy. Their faces were colored with fear.
“Everyone get away!”
Someone shouted that. Only then did people come to their senses and hurriedly flee, at which moment the car exploded with a boom. Yeojin instinctively pulled the rescued boy into his arms with his whole body to protect him. The boy fainted and Yeojin was also injured, but the wound wasn’t very serious.
Soon ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars rushed over. The boy was immediately transferred to the Seoul Temporary Quarantine Center where Yeojin worked. There would be no hospital anywhere that would accept a Transcendent.
The boy’s name was Seo Haeju.
He had only a slight tear on his head with no other significant injuries, but he showed symptoms of infantile regression due to the shock of the accident. The boy lost all his memories and regressed to a 7 or 8-year-old child.
Although his ability as a Transcendent had manifested during the accident, he showed no symptoms during his stay at the temporary quarantine center.
Even in tests verifying the abilities of Transcendents and detailed examinations, no findings came out. On the surface, he was a very ordinary child.
If Yeojin hadn’t directly witnessed Seo Haeju crushing the car door with his bare hands and escaping, he wouldn’t have believed the kid was a Transcendent either.
“As you can see, Number 13’s test results are all normal. In this case, we classify them as potential Transcendents without confirmed manifested abilities, as Zero Grade. These types sometimes have their abilities manifest again later, or if they’re lucky, they live their whole lives without their abilities manifesting again.”
Director Im Suhyang, the general manager and person in charge of the Seoul Temporary Quarantine Center, announced this at a meeting regarding Seo Haeju’s Transcendent grade determination. At that time, Min Yeojin asked this question:
“If his abilities continue not to manifest like this, couldn’t we release Haeju from the quarantine center and let him live like an ordinary person?”
“Number 13 has already manifested his ability once. We can’t release someone like a ticking time bomb who could suddenly explode at any moment into the world. A Transcendent can never become an ordinary person.”
“But right now he’s no different from an ordinary person.”
“Dr. Min Yeojin. Remember this. They are different from us. They are a calamity.”
At Director Im’s firm answer, Min Yeojin couldn’t say anything more.
Everyone gathered in the conference room looked at Min Yeojin with disapproving eyes. They cursed among themselves, saying “there he goes again.”
After the meeting ended, Seo Haeju, like other quarantined individuals, had a chip inserted in the back of his neck to control supernatural abilities. Even though he was Zero Grade, it was a measure taken because no one knew when supernatural abilities might manifest.
Starting several years ago, people with special abilities transcending human limits began appearing in various places around the world.
No one could know how or why they came to appear. Some said they were mutants whose genetic cells were destroyed due to rapid climate change and environmental pollution, and some said they were infected with a new infectious disease.
Even when experts from countries around the world put their heads together to research and analyze, they couldn’t figure out how they came to possess special abilities. They couldn’t even know in whom the abilities of a Transcendent would suddenly manifest. It meant that if you were unlucky, even someone who was ordinary until yesterday could suddenly awaken to supernatural abilities tomorrow.
People were terrified. And for good reason—these ability users were becoming a great threat to humanity.
They caused tremendous damage to their surroundings because they couldn’t control their suddenly manifested abilities. An entire city could be destroyed because of one ability user, and countless people could die. Even if it wasn’t something they wanted, the fact that the power they’d gained harmed people couldn’t be denied.
People began to call them this:
God’s Calamity.
They were like natural disasters that occurred suddenly without warning. They were literally walking calamities. Beings like tornadoes or windstorms that struck without warning.
For their own safety, people had to prepare for sudden disasters.
So the World Government Alliance named them Transcendents, classified them, and as soon as they were discovered, had them transferred to quarantine centers in each country for special monitoring. Korea also built its own quarantine center on Jeju Island, and currently about a thousand Transcendents were quarantined in Jeju Island’s quarantine facilities.
There were probably still undiscovered Transcendents, but that was the number of those quarantined for now.
When a Transcendent was discovered, they were immediately transferred to the Seoul Temporary Quarantine Center, and after completing a three-month quarantine period, they were given two choices.
First, become a Special Civil Servant and live using their abilities for the country.
Second, live their entire lives under government surveillance at the quarantine center on Jeju Island.
“However, Number 13 is still a minor, so even after the three-month quarantine period, he cannot make his own choice. In this case, a guardian must make the choice, but Number 13’s guardians are all dead. Still, Number 13’s birthday is approaching soon. Due to taking a year off from school because of illness, Number 13 will become a legal adult after his birthday. This means he’ll be able to choose his own future. For now, we’ll quarantine and observe Number 13 at our center until April, his birthday. That is all.”
Director Im ended the meeting regarding Seo Haeju with those words.
