79. Approaching Truth (1)
79. Approaching Truth (1)
May 10th, dawn.
5th month of the apocalypse.
To be precise, 5 months and 3 days.
It took 5 months since the world ended to finally get a lead.
'It's thanks to my superpower.'
Metallokinesis.
If I didn't have this, could I have even stood a chance against those soldiers over there?
Probably not.
No, I would've been killed by the Infected before I even met the soldiers in the first place.
'......'
===================================
Nexus Core : Metallokinesis lv5[0/100]
===================================
Something like a game.
The letters "Nexus Core" formed by creepy veins rising up.
Actually, you can infer it from "Nexus," but when you hold a serum, this appears.
=========================
Innovation nexus corporation.
Checking Nexus Energy.
Compatibility: 41.3%
User Compatibility: 97.2%
Nexus Core: Improve Speed available.
You can replace Nexus Core: Metallokinesis lv5 with
Nexus Core: Improve Speed lv.1.
Do you want to replace it?
Y/N
=========================
Innovation Nexus Corporation and Nexus Energy.
It's true that Nexus Corp created the superpowers.
Something that grants superpowers based on user compatibility.
'This thing must have caused the infection.'
I don't think the superpower that appears after consuming the blood of an Infected is unrelated to the infection.
Here's the question.
Infection, sure, IN Company created it. Infected, too, IN Company created them. Up to this point, that's plausible.
But, did IN Company really create this Nexus Core that seems to be a mix of superpowers, AI, and a status window?
'How on earth?'
It's not sci-fi, it's not fantasy, how on earth did they make something like this?
No, broadly speaking, I can accept that they could make this thing that rises on the back of my hand.
But how did they create superpowers?
And how did they make it link with this Nexus Core to allow for enhancement?
#
Mt. Goryeo, Cheonan.
It was on the map, so I could find it easily.
A village hall a bit away from a rural village.
A luxury hotel that appears if you follow the small path next to that village hall.
[High Hotel]
I watched the hotel from a distance.
The location isn't even good.
Cheonan... it's not like it's a place with that many people.
I doubted why they built a hotel in a place like this, but it was immediately resolved.
'They built it to make a bunker.'
Or they intended to use it for another purpose.
It doesn't matter if it's not.
They're using it for that purpose right now, aren't they?
Watching from afar,
there were several military vehicles and IN Company vehicles parked in the parking lot.
On top of that, just as Si-woo Park said, quite a few soldiers were walking around the hotel, including the rooftop and the surroundings.
They clearly look like guys guarding the hotel.
It's really good to have good night vision at times like this.
'The surveillance is intense.'
They probably heard that Si-woo Park disappeared, so that's why.
Or not? Whatever.
Anyway, they are using the hotel quite properly.
However, that hotel is also a decoy.
The real one is the bunker that goes down the stairs inside that hotel, capable of accommodating over 200 people.
'A bunker, huh.'
According to Si-woo Park, it's a bunker used by the personnel of the IN Company Sejong Branch,
and the higher-ups of the 37th Division and the 17th Fighter Wing...
Are they really the higher-ups? Anyway, high-ranking people are using it.
That means the GP Biotech factory in Cheonan, Cheonan University, and the Jeungpyeong County Office, which I haven't even been to yet, were just decoys.
If it weren't for Si-woo Park, I wouldn't have been able to find a place like this.
More than that, I didn't hear this kind of information from other soldiers, so I wonder why they let Si-woo Park out so openly.
'If it were me, I would never send an insider outside.'
The guys I messed with.
Two soldiers and Sergeant Gyu-min Han. Even those two didn't know about this.
That means it's certain that the personnel who were here were fixed when they made the deal with IN Company.
'What could be the reason?'
Did they just let him go because he's their son?
Because there are no parents who can win against their children.
Or did they think there would be no problem if they just kept Si-woo Park's mouth shut?
But that's the warlord's situation, and IN Company would be different.
Well, for whatever reason,
it's meaningless.
The important thing is that I know about it now and came all the way here.
Now. Then, how do I get in there?
'What else is there?'
I'll just put on a gas mask and charge in.
This is the second time I'm using it, other than when I killed the Balloons at the logistics center last time.
I put on the gas mask I got from the IN Company bastards and pulled up my hood.
I didn't particularly carry a weapon. There will be plenty of guns once I get there anyway.
I got out of the vehicle and headed to High Hotel.
#
There is only one way.
And naturally, there was a checkpoint there.
The gun crumples and turns into metal.
"What the fuck!"
"Uh?"
Those two words were the last for the soldiers standing guard.
Two soldiers with holes in their heads fall down.
ㅡCreak
A soldier runs out in surprise.
He also dies with a hole in his head.
I wonder if there are more, but there aren't.
Three.
I see something like a CCTV. It's probably an internal CCTV.
Of course, it was meaningless as it shattered as soon as I saw it.
Even if they saw it, I'm wearing a gas mask and a hoodie right now, so they wouldn't know who it is.
The hotel becomes chaotic, as if they immediately realized the intrusion.
Soldiers quickly come out.
Of course, they died pierced by bullets as soon as they came out.
The soldiers' guns move to the other side of the hotel.
Then, I aim at the guys running out to the other side of the hotel.
ㅡRat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Guns firing in the air.
ㅡArgh!
ㅡ!@$!@$!
ㅡ!@$!@$!$
The soldiers fall down in a panic.
There's no one responding properly. There's no one with a powerful superpower either.
Because the incident happened in the back,
and the gunfire rang out from there, they move from here and there to where the gunfire came from.
I took that opportunity to open the hotel door.
ㅡCreeeak
A flashy interior.
A soldier in the lobby holding a walkie-talkie, listening to ㅡ!@$@! something or other.
I see soldiers standing next to him with guns, looking annoyed.
ㅡClick
The gun rises without a word.
"Uh... uh?"
ㅡRat-tat-tat-tat!
The gun fires back at its owner.
All the soldiers are dead.
Just seeing this implied that there were important personnel in the hotel.
ㅡ!@$!@$
The outside becomes chaotic.
I ignored it and checked the inside.
ㅡRat-tat-tat-tat!
'Did they say the stairs in the right building?'
Where is the right building?
I thought, but it was easy to find.
Because two soldiers popped out from a door in the corner over there.
I killed those guys and went down, and I saw a basement, and there was an open emergency door inside that basement.
And the iron stairs visible inside that emergency door.
'......'
This must be it.
I headed that way.
The iron stairs led deep underground, just like something out of a game.
The surroundings felt like a nuclear bunker.
ㅡClang
ㅡClang
ㅡClang
The sound of metal ringing.
What I see is the entrance to the underground bunker.
'Wow.'
There's a place like this in Korea.
Well, it could exist. It's plausible that some large corporations or high-ranking people would have built several of these.
'Assuming they didn't mutate.'
Looking at what IN Company does, it seems they didn't even tell them.
Or not?
I can just go in here and ask.
The bunker entrance with [innovation nexus corporation] written on it.
It looks incredibly sturdy,
and it doesn't look like it would be pierced by missiles or anything like that. Maybe they thought of that, as there was surveillance above, but there was no surveillance here.
'......'
However, it gets ripped apart meaninglessly by my superpower.
ㅡWhirrr
The door opens.
ㅡGrrr-grrr-grrr
There was a suspicious sound as if something got caught inside, but the door opened well.
Dust rose, but since I was wearing a gas mask, it wasn't a problem.
But if there was a problem.
It would be that as soon as the huge bunker door opened, countless gun barrels were pointed at me from inside.
ㅡRat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
ㅡRat-tat-tat-tat!
The sound of submachine guns and rifles rang loudly through the basement.
#
People fell.
No, countless people fell.
People whose bodies were pierced along with their guns by the bullets that turned back.
"Argh!"
"Fuck... fuck!!"
Sometimes there were humans who were still alive and spitting out curses, but I killed them all.
'There are so many.'
Even if I roughly count the number, it seems to be several dozen.
IN Company personnel and soldiers. People guarding the bunker.
As I cleared their corpses and moved on, there was something like a negative pressure room behind them.
'They probably do surveillance one more time here.'
The problem is that I already heard from Si-woo Park that poison gas comes out here?
I have a gas mask, but poison gas is dangerous even if it just touches the skin. Other chemical weapons are also extremely dangerous.
Therefore.
ㅡCr-cr-cr-crack
ㅡZap
ㅡZzzzt
I ripped the inside of the negative pressure room apart and entered. In the end, it's metal.
ㅡCr-cr-cr-crack
The door opens.
Then what I see is.
'Wow.'
A luxurious hallway.
And like a high-class hotel. No, what should I call this? A space more luxurious than a high-class hotel was revealed.
#
There were some soldiers and IN Company personnel inside too.
Civilians... there were also humans who looked like high-ranking people.
Even so, since they were people using firearms, they just died as they were.
ㅡSquish
ㅡSquish
I walked on the red carpet soaked in blood.
"Argh!"
"Kyaaaak..!"
The funny thing is, were there no humans who looked like families?
Mostly men in their 50s or 60s and women who looked to be in their 20s.
'......'
There's no reason not to kill them.
I ripped open all the doors that looked like guest rooms on the left and right, but there was no human who looked like Young-ho Park.
There was no human who looked like a chief researcher either.
ㅡClick
ㅡRat-tat-tat-tat!
Soldiers or IN Company bastards kept coming out from somewhere and trying to kill me.
A long hallway.
I kept walking and killing people.
Soldiers. INSSs. And INRSs wearing epaulets.
Humans who looked like researchers.
Well, various people.
'......'
Even so, the target, Young-ho Park, was not visible.
The guy who looked like a chief researcher didn't appear either.
Because the guy who was in that family photo wasn't there.
When I reached the end of the long hallway, a Y-shaped fork appeared. The left side was a structure with guest rooms lined up, and the right side was labeled as a laboratory.
The right side is probably the place where something related to IN Company is.
I blocked the back by ripping off a metal door and headed to the left.
#
I ripped off all the doors, but the key personnel didn't come out.
'Where did they run off to?'
However, according to Si-woo Park, there is no exit to go outside from here.
Then they must be somewhere inside here.
Are they in the laboratory?
But the left path of this Y-shape also had several rooms.
Especially a place like this.
I ripped off the door that looked like a VVIP room and examined the inside.
The smell of women and cigarettes, and the rotten smell of a man wafted up. It's certain that someone was here a while ago, no, just a moment ago.
But they disappeared.
Just in time for me to enter.
'......'
I came outside.
ㅡSquish
ㅡSquish
I walked, stepping on the corpses of men, women, and children.
They couldn't have gone far yet. Unless they had an ability that only appears in games like portals or gates, they wouldn't have been able to escape.
And when I went all the way down the left path.
My body stopped completely.
To the point where I couldn't do anything.
ㅡClick
ㅡRat-tat-tat-tat
Then, gunfire and various attacks flew from both sides.
Of course, they all flew back and killed the guys who were there.
'It's paralysis.'
Paralysis is a dangerous ability.
But I realized that the ability that bound me was not paralysis.
The man in front of me.
'Young-ho Park.'
It was binding.
"Kill him!"
The soldiers behind him used their abilities all at once.