101. Raider Group (2)
"Ye..yes.."
"Are portals really opening? And you can move around as you please?"
"Y-yes, that's right. But..."
"How do the portals open? Do they contact you to open them, or do they open at a set time?"
"They contact us."
"How."
"Originally they used walkie-talkies, but recently it changed to a Communication ability."
Of course.
If a VIP dies, it's all over, isn't it?
"Right?"
"Th-that's right."
Portal ability.
It's definitely an ability I want to have.
"You've never seen an Ability User? A Portal user? Not even once? Under what circumstances do the black trucks and military trucks open?"
"I... I don't know that much! The portal opens regardless of which truck comes, and we're just in a relationship where we eat what the soldiers give us and trade. People suspected of being Ability Users don't even come here...!"
"The portal must be big."
"Yes. Enough for a truck to pass through. It can adjust its size, too. The problem is... uh, it's incredibly slow to open. It takes 20 minutes."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
I can check if the information is correct with Seo-yoon, but anyway, I want it.
So that means the Chungju Warlords have both portals and communication.
"More importantly, about the recent communication, do you know of a Communication ability user?"
I have a hunch about this.
Ha-yoon.
"Ah, yes there is. I heard our Hyung...nim making a call. I heard it was Second Lieutenant So-hyuk who recently gained the ability."
So-hyuk?
"Not Ha-yoon?"
"Uh... I don't know."
"How do you know he recently gained the ability?"
"During the trade a few days ago, he said he can do communication now, so he'd contact us himself for trades from now on!"
I see.
Ha-yoon and Woo-hyun, who disappeared.
But So-hyuk, who suddenly gained the communication ability recently.
The black trucks that come here, the warlords who possess IN Company trucks.
This is exactly that.
They made a Human Pill and just gave it to someone else, didn't they?
To be precise...
"They ground them up."
It's definitely IN Company.
But that's actually a good thing.
If I just learn the method of grinding them up, it means I can grind up these shitty bastards and distribute the abilities to decent people.
Why, they extracted abilities by grinding people up at GP Biotech, right? It must be certain.
It also means they need people with high compatibility.
"Yes?"
"Never mind. Anyway, that means there's a Portal user and a Communication user in Chungju? And you guys are contracted with them?"
"Ye..yes..."
"It doesn't seem like a contract using an ability, so it must be a verbal or written contract, right?"
"Yes."
A curious face.
But the man doesn't ask.
This connects to this side, too.
I mean, even if people can be self-sufficient with preserved food and farming, they can't give up meat.
Aren't we raising chickens right now?
That's why the warlords subcontracted to these gangsters.
They traded because they were far away and had the potential to be useful.
Well, I roughly understand. It's just that a really foul stench is wafting from that Chungju side.
Then... what should I do?
Attacking this place before touching Chungju doesn't seem like a good choice.
This place probably isn't that important from Chungju's perspective.
Of course, given that they send soldiers to trade using the portal ability, it's a place they're cutting some slack for.
Even so, since it's a connected place, there's a possibility that information will leak.
'They probably left it as an information source.'
Maybe it's already leaked, though the probability is low.
One thing is certain: if I kill everyone here, the surveillance from the Chungju side might increase.
In that case, this man.
I could make a contract with this man, who has a decent ability, to extract information this way and that, and then attack the inside of Chungju.
'But I don't like it.'
These bastards are the ones who kidnapped, raped, and hung people up in the mart.
I asked the woman.
"You there."
The woman looks back at me with dead eyes.
"You look like you're planning to die soon."
"......"
"Why were you captured here?"
"......"
The woman doesn't answer.
Has she completely lost her mind?
"If you don't say a word, I'm going to keep this man and his group alive and use them."
Then, fire appears in the woman's eyes.
"...Must kill..."
"What?"
"You have to kill them all. These bastards. They're bastards who did things even humans shouldn't do. They killed kids in front of their moms, investigated the abilities of people in the apartment community, and only took the good abilities."
"W-wait..."
I gagged the man.
"Tell me what they did. These guys."
The woman opened her mouth.
#
It was exactly as I expected.
The surviving community of Sumi Apartment in Naesu-eup.
They had managed to hold out with just the mart in front, but they reached their limit, so people gathered together and went to find a logistics center.
However, there was already a gang of thugs here. They killed all those people and made the people here slaves.
That was recently.
Surprisingly, the woman hadn't been captured long ago.
'Of course.'
The woman's family all died.
Most of the people who followed them died, too.
This woman.
So, only Na-yeon Choi, who has the Area Surveillance ability, and Ji-soo Jeong, who has the Taming ability, survived.
Of course, Ji-soo Jeong died and was hung on the roof of the mart.
The man's face looks like he's in trouble.
Well, of course it does.
That's what you'd expect from thug bastards or punks.
I've seen it myself, after all.
Well, the fact that they kill people for not listening just means this man wasn't lying.
"So everyone else is dead?"
I ungagged the man.
"N-no, sir."
"Then where are they?"
Na-yeon spoke instead.
"...They'll be in the prison."
"Prison?"
"There's a police substation in the middle of here. There are iron bars inside. They only take them out and use them when needed."
"Ah."
Then it'll be easier.
"Take them out only when you need to use them, kill the useless people, and keep only the necessary humans locked up?"
"Yes..."
"Then only your gang is outside?"
"Yes."
"How many of you are there in total?"
"About 30...!"
"How many here, and how many at that pig farm place?"
"There are twenty here and ten over there. We send ten people out as a dispatch."
The man begs earnestly.
"Who are the good Ability Users?"
"Uh... uh... Taming, and me! And two with Arm Enhancement!"
"No other good abilities? Na-yeon. You tell me."
"...I don't know."
I see.
"What's your name?"
"It's Jong-hoon Lee...!"
"Alright, Jong-hoon. Do you have a list of civilians who are currently in the same state as Na-yeon, or are working? The people you said are in prison."
"Uh..."
"Do you need time to think?"
"N-no, sir..! I, I was just trying to get the number right. Including this woman, there are seven...!"
"Is that right?"
"...Yes."
"Seven? Why so few?"
Ah.
I understood.
"Because you killed them all?"
"...Th-that's right."
"Do you know what all their abilities are?"
"Uh... I, I have them written down."
"Where?"
"Up, upstairs."
"Go."
"Here, here it is."
I picked up the smartphone.
"It's 'ㄱ'. The password."
"Alright."
The place I opened had names written on it.
Chan-mi Lee 21 Strength
Seung-jin Choi 24 Plant Manipulation
Yoon-ha Park 21 Strength
Sol Han 26 Stamina
Da-som Lee 23 Stamina
Dong-wook Jeong 24 Water Manipulation
Two men and four women, huh.
So you killed everyone else you found except these people.
"There must have been better Ability Users, right? Definitely."
"We killed them."
"Really? You wouldn't be able to kill people with Psychokinesis, Vibration, or Fire abilities."
However, the answer came from the woman.
"They have guns."
"Guns? Ah. You must have received them from the warlords."
On top of that, these guys' abilities included Paralysis and Speed.
Then it's certainly possible to kill them with guns.
Unless it's a weapon with an extreme advantage against guns, like Psychokinesis or Metal Manipulation.
That makes sense.
That Water Manipulation guy, Dong-wook Jeong, is like that too.
More than that, the abilities of the people they kept alive are all like that.
"I guess you kept the two men alive to use for farming. And the women, except for Na-yeon, you kept alive to fuck?"
"...Yes."
"I see."
I'm conflicted.
What should I do?
#
Normally, I would have killed them all right now.
They're shitty bastards anyway, and keeping them alive just annoys me.
However, I need to catch the Portal user.
In addition, the researcher who knows the method of grinding people up for transplantation.
'This is difficult.'
The easy way is just to destroy everything.
I'm confident I can go to Chungju and destroy it just like other places.
Because metal is bound to be in any place where people live.
Since I reached Lv.6, I have defense, so I can just wear a gas mask and collapse the building from afar or up close, and that's it.
But with this method, it's too hard to extract the desired Ability User and the desired information.
'If only I had a portal.'
Seriously.
Subdue them, take them to Seo-yoon through the portal, and extract the information.
How great would that be?
It was an ability that would make life much more convenient in the future.
Therefore, I decided to turn back this time.
If I destroy this place, information will definitely reach Chungju.
Then they'll be on guard.
I have to leave it alone until the next portal opens.
When it opens, I'll kill everyone, go over, and kidnap the Portal user.
And I'll extract information from the guys coming from the Chungju portal connected to this side.
'If I subdue them and they die, it's an IN Company accident, and if not, then not.'
Therefore.
#
I came outside and subdued the men I saw one by one.
"I caught the four standing at the entrance. Are they inside the house?"
"Yes."
"Tell me one by one. Where they are. If the count doesn't match, you die."
I floated in the air and subdued the humans.
Since it was dawn, quite a few were sleeping, but what can you do.
Picking the locks and searching the inside was finished in an instant.
Since they were sleeping in the first place, subduing them was easy.
Twelve subdued like that.
Ten men, two women.
There are women too.
"There really aren't many, are there?"
"Yes..."
They followed, floating behind me.
It seems there are no abilities like Arm Enhancement. No, wait, they can't get out because they're floating in the air.
There might be some hidden ones, but that doesn't matter.
Actually, it doesn't matter if my information reaches Chungju.
If I mess up, I'll just crash and burn.
The last remaining police station.
"Is this the police station?"
"Yes."
I opened the door.
What I saw were three tattooed men sitting in a slouchy posture.
"Huh?"
Those words were their last.
Not that I killed them, though.
I slammed them into the wall.
"Recite it."
"In order, it's Strength, Stamina, Strength."
"Is that so?"
Strength can't break the state of being strongly subdued right now.
Maybe if they were Level 4. Level 4 isn't just some walk in the park; it's a level you can only reach by catching Flowers or Crawlers.
"Fifteen. What about the five?"
"To be precise, there are 19 people on this side. Including those... three from earlier."
"Including you, that's nineteen."
"Yes."
That's enough for now.
I looked at the fifteen men behind me who didn't understand the current situation, and as I was about to speak, I said to Jong-hoon Lee.
"You explain it to them."
Following that, I crumpled up nearby vehicles to block the entrance of the police station.
Jong-hoon Lee looks at the door blocked by iron as if it's absurd.
The man looks at me and Na-yeon beside me.
He was startled and opened his mouth.
"O-okay, I understand!"
"Good."
Na-yeon asked.
"Is that... going to be okay?"
I silently took out a gun and crumpled it.
Crackle.
The gun dropped to the floor with a thud.
Dozens of eyes turned toward it.
"Jong-hoon. Try doing something else if you want."
"N-n-no, sir!"
"......"
Na-yeon also shut her mouth.
Well, if they're in the iron bars, they must be inside.
"Na-yeon, they're inside here, right? Those people."
"Ah, yes."
"Follow me."
I headed inside.
What did they call this? Ah, right, the detention center.
Inside the detention center within the small police station, there were people.
Six young men and women, handcuffed, naked, with their dicks and pussies just hanging out.
Wow...
They made them into livestock.
Their dead eyes turned toward me.