50. Hunter (2)
50. Hunter (2)
Let's deal with this and go.
Since I'm currently stuck at Lv.4, the Hunter was someone I had to track down anyway.
It seemed several times stronger than I thought, but as long as I didn't let my guard down in my current state, I felt I could kill it.
'......'
Also, because of this commotion, Infected are swarming in.
If I drove a vehicle like this, Sentient Beings might get attracted and follow me all the way to Bugang-myeon, potentially leading to a continuous battle.
I'm in a situation where I can't leave right now.
'Of course, I'll have to get some compensation from the 32nd Division.'
A few drones won't cut it.
Even if my ability is good, I only have one life.
I entered the first-floor hallway.
What I saw were the corpses scattered about earlier, and the Hunter that had vanished somewhere.
I should clear the corpses first.
ㅡKkudeudeudeuk
The metal crumpled and rose into the air all at once.
ㅡKkwadeudeudeuk
ㅡKkudeudeudeuk
I could hear the sound of flesh and bone being crushed.
Unlike the appearance of the City Hall, the hallway was incredibly narrow, so if I tried to move while clearing the corpses, I'd be in danger.
The compressed corpses left a thin layer of blood on the floor.
I don't know how many people it killed and hung up, but the hallway floor was bright red.
And for defense, I found a few metal objects, reshaped them, and floated them in several layers around me.
If I set it up like this, even if there's a strong attack, I won't die before I can react.
The next problem is tracking,
which didn't seem too difficult.
Perhaps because I killed a few Infected in the first-floor hallway earlier, there were still wet bloodstains here and there. I could see them leading toward the stairs at the end.
However, there was no reason not to open the doors.
ㅡKkudeudeudeuk
ㅡThung!
ㅡThung!
Since those were made of metal too. I crumpled all the doors and headed upstairs.
#
I could find the bastard quickly.
It was shoving the corpses hanging from the second-floor hallway ceiling into its own body.
I wondered why it was eating, but I could see its body recovering the more human corpses it consumed.
'Wow...'
That's a real crazy bastard.
Guns and grenades don't work well, and even if it gets hit by something like a missile, as long as it doesn't die, it eats human corpses to recover.
More than that, how many people must have died here?
The hanging corpses were a mix of soldiers and civilians; it seems they were completely wiped out.
'The people rescued from Sejong, and even the people rescued from Cheongju.'
It's ironic.
Aren't the people rescued first supposed to live? Instead, the people rescued later lived, and the people rescued first all died.
Is this what life is like?
ㅡTadadadadak
As I was thinking that, the bastard came running at me at a crazy speed.
I blinked once, and the bastard that was at the end of the hallway was now 2m in front of me. However, my superpower was faster than the Infected.
ㅡKwang!
The door crumpled and slammed into where the bastard's head was.
Other metal objects also slammed into the bastard's limbs all at once.
Metal objects embedding themselves all over the body of the bastard that had the form of four humans.
ㅡKadeudeudeudeuk
ㅡChwaaaaak
ㅡKkul-leok
ㅡKkul-leok
Even so, the bastard wasn't dead yet. The embedded metal was slowly pulling out, and flesh was filling in the gaps.
Therefore, I used the method I had used before in the Cheongju Branch basement lab.
ㅡKwadudeudeuk
ㅡPpu-jik
ㅡPpudeudeuk
Rebars tearing through its body,
and the rebars that were stuck in its arms and legs cut off its limbs.
ㅡPuchut
ㅡPuchut
ㅡKkul-leok
ㅡKkul-leok
The Hunter bleeding all over its body.
What's creepy is that even in such a painful situation, unlike other Infected, it didn't let out a single scream.
Even while like that, the Hunter was tearing off its own body to try and escape.
However, even if it tried to cut itself off like a lizard, the parts that needed to be cut were now too big.
ㅡKkul-leok
ㅡKkul-leok
Rebars churning inside its body.
Twisting flesh.
ㅡKkudeudeuk
How much time had passed like that?
It had been dozens of minutes since the rebars started tearing through the Hunter's body.
ㅡKkudeudeuk
The focus in the human heads attached to the Hunter's body suddenly vanished.
#
The Hunter stopped moving.
Did I get it?
ㅡTok
ㅡTok
I poked the bastard a few times with metal scraps from a distance.
Still suspicious, I completely dismantled the bastard's limbs... no, appendages.
'......'
And then I brought up the Nexus Core.
===================================
Nexus Core : Metallokinesis lv4[5/100]
===================================
It went up.
By 5, no less.
I thought it would stingily go up by 1, but this was unexpected.
Even the one from before, the one that breathed fire and regenerated its body with fire, didn't give me even 1, but the Hunter gave me a whopping 5.
But...
'Honestly, it deserves to.'
Because if I had let my guard down even a little, I would have died.
And if I had met it at Lv.3 instead of Lv.4, I too would have died without being able to do anything, just like the corpses here.
No, if there had actually been two of those bastards, it would have been quite dangerous.
'......'
Because with just floating rebars, I wouldn't be able to block the attacks of a bastard that can slice through tanks in two places at once.
I have one body, and one pair of eyes.
I can float metal in places I can't see, but that means I can't block non-metal attacks coming from places I can't see.
In fact, my body was drenched in sweat right now.
'Surely there aren't two of them in here, right?'
However, contrary to my expectations, another one didn't pop out. Up to the 6th floor, corpses were hanging in bunches, but there were no more Infected.
Suddenly, the strength drained from my body.
Well, I've never had such a tough time until now.
Most Infected died when shot with a gun, and even if guns didn't work, they all died with a little bit of superpower usage,
'Even if we count the one at the Cheongju Branch as an exception.'
Since a naturally occurring Infected is this powerful, I can't help but be tense.
This means that an Infected even more powerful and threatening than this one could definitely emerge.
Even if we assume the Abomination and Hunter are on the same level, it means there could be Infected that are even more troublesome than them.
It meant the Infected confirmed by the 32nd Division weren't all of them.
'......'
The more this happens, the more important superpowers become.
On top of that, the power of people and groups becomes important, and even though the military was sliced up by the Hunter, they are a regular army without superpowers.
If humans with superpowers gather and fight back, it should be manageable somehow.
'Still, the IN Company is the problem.'
There's no answer to that, so I don't have the ability to go to the Sejong Special City IN Company right now. I don't know about getting military support, but going to the center of Sejong City, where there might be a few more Hunters, is a bit tough.
Right now, weren't there traces of the Hunter all over the place?
'.......'
It means there's another Hunter besides the one at the Special City Hall.
Plus, there's another infection zone over there that neither I nor the military knows about.
'This is tough.'
It would be great if I could send something like a drone for reconnaissance in advance,
I thought it would be fine if I taught the kids to do it and had them look at it with me.
Though that's a story for the future.
For now, I'll wait here, and once the Walkers and Runners outside disappear a bit, I'll just leave.
I sat in the break area with 5 chairs on the 6th floor of the Special City Hall and looked outside.
ㅡKkeuuuu
ㅡKkieeeee!
I could hear the screams of Infected that had been drawn by the commotion but couldn't find their target.
#
In the end, I spent a day.
Night of the 27th.
ㅡDeolkeong
ㅡDeolkeong
I escaped Sejong Special City and headed to the logistics center base.
I took a quick look at the tumor infection zone, took some pictures from a distance,
passed through two checkpoints, and met the Second Lieutenant.
Then, I turned on my smartphone and talked about the Hunter I met, the Sejong Special City Hall, and Sejong City.
"This is what happened. That place is completely smashed."
"......."
Second Lieutenant Kim In-seop was expressionless, but I could see he had a lot on his mind.
A man who wouldn't continue the conversation.
I waited quietly.
The first words that came out of his mouth.
"....Thank you for your hard work."
"I almost died. Seriously. That Hunter thing or whatever, it didn't even die from guns, did it? Did you know about it? It seems like that bastard completely smashed the Sejong Special City Hall side."
If so, that's a bit annoying.
"No. We definitely drove it away with our personnel. However, we didn't know it would retreat to attack the City Hall instead of us. And, it could be a different individual."
"How did it retreat?"
"It killed about 20 people, and while we were moving toward the bridge, it suddenly disappeared. So we thought it had taken a lot of damage from our firepower and retreated."
"Was there only one Hunter?"
"Yes."
"Then that means it could be a different individual."
"...That's correct."
"And this."
I showed him the infection zone.
"...I haven't seen this. It seems to be new."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
"Well, that's fine then. So, if that Hunter comes here, can you stop it?"
"...It's possible. We've finished planting Claymores all over the place. However, we'll have to think a bit more about advancing."
"I suppose so. Do you see this? A tank cut in half."
"...Yes."
If that's the case.
Well, it is the military.
And they're the military that has survived until now.
Well, it's not certain, but I thought it would be better to keep a closer eye on the Sejong side.
They'll handle that themselves, though.
As I was thinking that, the Second Lieutenant said.
"...We will give you more compensation. Is there any item you want?"
"You know, the information you get from this side."
"Yes."
I didn't say it, but I think they are getting it.
"Can you just give me that?"
"Information? Isn't that something we agreed to give you before?"
"No, I misspoke. In real-time. Like, where and how many were killed. What Infected are there, what's where. Who contacted whom. Things like that. Can you send me just the important stuff in real-time?"
"......"
A moment of silence.
Soon, the Second Lieutenant nodded.
"Understood. Then I will give you a military radio."
"So that means it's possible?"
"Yes. I don't think there will be any particular problem."
This is good.
It means information will come in right away.
The Second Lieutenant kept his lips shut and nodded.
After a little while, he handed me two radios.
"These are connected to here. We will contact you."
"That's good."
"However, you must be within 5km to contact us."
He then explained the method. Because it uses an internal communication network,
he asked me not to contact them unless it's an important message.
"That much, sure. I understand."
"Do you need anything else?"
"Can you just give me a few more Claymores? I don't really need anything else."
A group with 70 soldiers and about 200 civilians.
Being able to get information that a group I don't have to be responsible for obtains was actually more beneficial.
'Though they'll probably filter what they give me.'
Besides... it's more convenient to leave a friendly group that can afford to die.
Also, they need my strength, but there's a limit to what they can give us.
If I make them owe me a debt like this, it should be manageable.
#
That's how I returned.
The intact I-Pension.
'Feels like I've been gone for a fucking long time.'
Even though I was actually only gone for two days.
No, two days is a long time to be gone.
I can see Seo-yoon waving from the pension in front. Next to her, Eun-bin was nodding while looking this way.
I guess the two of them were on duty this time.
I thought the military would be there, so I tried to go further into the Sejong side.
Actually, the Cheongju side might be safer.
"You're here?"
Yun-ji is the one opening the door.
I nodded.
"Yeah, nothing happened?"
"Ah. Yes. Nothing happened, and A-rin-ssi completely succeeded in taming the pigeons."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, but they were laying eggs and then stopped. Well, Eun-bin-ssi says pigeons don't lay eggs every day, but..."
"Then it must be that."
Since she's a doctor, she must have a lot of other knowledge.
I really need to find some chickens.
If I just get hens to lay eggs, I'd get one a day.
"Where are the kids?"
"Well, Tae-jun-ssi, Young-jun-ssi, and Yu-rim-ssi are doing something outside, saying they're doing a 'smart farm' or something."
"Smart farm?"
"Yes. They said they found some kind of booklet inside and are trying to do something with it."
"And A-rin is playing with the pigeons?"
"Yes."
"And what about you?"
"Well, I don't really like that kind of thing."
she said, pointing to a book.
It seems she was reading a few books from inside.
Looks like some kind of self-help book.
"It's good for killing time. Although it's not fun."
"We can go to a bookstore later. Let's stop by a bookstore when we go to level up your ability."
"...Yes."
"Ah, could you call the kids from upstairs? I'll bring the kids from outside."
"Ah. Yes. They should come here, right?"
"Yeah."
Certainly, there's a lack of things to do. So now, since I've learned everything about that side through the military radio, while I level up the kids' abilities,
I should be able to find things to farm.
'If I have time, I'll check out the Abomination side.'
The Abomination keeps getting pushed back.
But now that I know about the Hunter individual, it's inevitable that it gets pushed back.
#
I finished explaining the outside.
The kids nodded.
"Theeen, are we going to level up our abilities?"
"Yeah. I think it's right to reach Lv.3. Especially since I got pushed back this time because of the Hunter."
The order is to quickly level up the strength-enhancement siblings first, then Seo-yoon, Eun-bin, Yun-ji, A-rin, Tae-jun.
"Are, are we going to catch Mirrors?"
"That's right. So before catching those, let's level them up first. Young-jun, Yu-rim, can you do it?"
The siblings who are still Lv.1.
"Even if I can't, I'll do it."
"...Me too."
It's great that they have the motivation.
"Yeah."
Actually, there were problems, but the siblings were able to quickly reach Lv.2.
"Uaaaa!"
"Heuk.. heup.."
Young-jun, who was screaming out of habit from blocking at the cultural center, and Yu-rim, who was shedding tears because that's just her personality, were able to quickly achieve Lv.2.
Young-jun had the memory from that time, and Yu-rim's genes didn't go anywhere, so they were able to quickly deal with Walkers and Runners.
"You'll need an adjustment period. Let's keep it at Lv.2 for now. And, just in case. Let's leave it for now. It might be a waste of time later."
""Yes.""
Besides, strength enhancement wasn't that good of an ability.
If by any chance we can replace that ability later, it would be better to change it.
Still, the siblings seemed satisfied.
Well, they can hear things they couldn't hear before, and they've gotten stronger.
"Be careful, don't break anything."
"Okay."
Next is Seo-yoon. Seo-yoon's ability needs to increase so we can gather more people.
"Stay well, and listen to that well."
"Yes."
"Seo-yoon, you brought your gun, right?"
"Yes."
The night of the 28th, a day later.
I headed to Cheongju with Seo-yoon.
#
To southern Cheongju.
From Cheongju Elementary to Imedi Apartment, from Imedi Apartment to the underground shopping center.
ㅡBang!
The bullet pierces the Mirror's head.
"Oh, it went up."
"Really? Time... won't work. Let's just go to my place."
That's how we headed to Hope Villa.
It goes without saying, but it was exactly as it was when we left before.
"...The electricity hasn't been cut off."
"Still, we have to prepare now. Get solar panels, get power tanks."
"You know about those things?"
"I saw them at the logistics center. Maybe they'll let me know there. I'm going to wash up first."
"Ah. Yes."
That's how we washed up.
The quiet inside the villa.
The sky was already brightening.
Seo-yoon opened her mouth.
"...Being here like this, I'm reminded of that day."
"Why, when it was just the two of us?"
"...Yes."
Back then, I was definitely on edge. Because we were thrown into a ruined world with nothing.
"I think you complained about me smelling back then."
And we even did things I can't talk about.
"Ugh. Don't talk about that time. It was when we couldn't wash."
Seo-yoon snapped.
I laughed.
Seo-yoon quietly opened her mouth.
"Still, it worked out well somehow."
"Worked out well, my ass, there's still a mountain of things to do. Our lives are hanging by a thread."
"Because of that Hunter?"
"That too."
There's the Abomination, there's the IN Company, there's that tumor infection zone, why are there so many fucking things?
"Well, the military said they'd push through Bugang-myeon and try to do something."
"With 70 people, it won't work."
Pushing to Bugang-myeon, sure, let's say they do it with luck, but Sejong or Cheongju are hopeless.
Even if we ignore the abilities, there are too few people.
Right now, isn't our base stuck in Nami-myeon because of people?
"Then do we have to keep living there from now on?"
"Most likely."
Of course, it seems like something will happen before that.
"Oppa is always negative."
"You have to live negatively. You have to assume the worst-case scenario so you can respond to it. Well, it's not that being positive is bad. That's good in its own way too."
"It's just that this is what I think."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah."
ㅡTak
ㅡTaktak
Seo-yoon asked.
"When it gets dark, are you going to go back right away?"
"I have to. Or is there something you want? Food... I can't buy it for you, but I can go to a department store or something and get you what you want."
"No. That..."
But what Seo-yoon wanted was something else.
She quietly approached me while I was lying down and hugged me.
I shut my mouth.
"......"
"......"
A strange atmosphere flowed.
#
In the end, we did it.
It was a racy atmosphere, so it couldn't be helped.
"Shall we go?"
"...Yes."
Leaving the shy Seo-yoon behind, we returned to I-Pension.
After that, the rest of the people also leveled up to 3.
April 1st.
Seo-yoon will have to wait a bit, and Eun-bin, well, I don't know for sure, but she'll find out someday. What was clearly shown was Yun-ji, Tae-jun, and A-rin.
Yun-ji is now at the level where she can even block bullets. Her strength seems the same, but maybe her durability has increased? Maybe when she reaches Lv.4, she'll be able to bend rebars with those arms.
Tae-jun just increased in size. He now has a 2m x 2m x 2m Subspace. Of course, he can't use this for attack yet.
A-rin just increased in number. It increased to about 30. As for the size, I'll have to test it a bit.
And April 2nd.
ㅡMr. Kim Yu-seong. Can you hear me?
In the meantime, there was an attack by a Sentient Being at the logistics center base.
They blocked it without trouble, but it was natural that there was a consumption of bullets, so Second Lieutenant Kim In-seop made a decision.
ㅡApril 7th. I plan to subjugate the Sentient Being base in Bugang-myeon.
He said he plans to send 1 platoon to Bugang-myeon to subjugate them to eliminate the threat of the Sentient Beings. Originally, he said he would do it after moving the logistics center, but it seems he changed his mind.