98. Lv.6 (1)
Daytime on the 28th.
Afternoon, having returned to I-Pension and taken a nap.
Inside the pension, which had been cleaned up so quickly that only a few traces remained, I picked up a piece of paper.
Here is a summary of the Infected identified so far:
Walker, Runner, Siren, Mirror, Abomination, Flower,
Crawler, Sentient (Intelligent Creature), Hunter, Balloon, Stalker (Nest), Screamer, Spore, Hive.
A total of 14 types.
Among these, the Sentient.
I suspect the Intelligent Creature clusters are likely the most dangerous things for the people currently surviving.
Of course,
In terms of destructive power or pure danger, the others would be more dangerous.
Like the Hunter that crushes tanks, or the Abomination that even smashes buildings.
However...
The only ones that actively hunt humans are the Intelligent Creatures.
I mean, the others attack humans too, but the Intelligent Creature clusters are the only ones that roam around and attack intelligently.
They said the Intelligent Creatures were the ones leading the Wave that came out of the Hive.
And the thing that attacked our base right away was an Intelligent Creature cluster that the 32nd Division in Bugang-myeon failed to wipe out.
'...Probably... the groups that have survived until now are only the ones capable of surviving against them.'
Or they were lucky enough to settle in a place where there are no Intelligent Creatures.
In the end, life is all about luck, right?
Right now, I was able to level up and survive like this because I was in a place without Abominations or Hunters.
Cleaning them up... isn't difficult.
I just need to invest a few days, take So-young and Seol-hwa, go to Bugang-myeon, locate where the clusters are, and wipe them out.
The problem was the Intelligent Creatures that regenerate or are hiding.
'If these things revive like Hunters or Abominations, there's no answer.'
Or if there's something like a Hive nearby.
I tried to watch the Abomination regenerate, but now a problem has arisen on this side.
'......'
This is difficult.
In fact,
It's true that a problem has occurred globally.
Assuming Cheol-woo's words are true, IN Company, which spread this, must have lost its power and turned into a warlord faction.
The surviving groups are also dealing with Infected and are self-sufficient, so they wouldn't be any less capable than the Cheonan Warlords; if anything, they'd be more so.
Individuals who aren't in groups would be avoiding the Infected and slowly gnawing away at logistics in cities or the countryside.
'It really is an apocalypse.'
I looked up at the sky.
A sky without a single speck of dust. Clean air. It had been like that since February or March, but the air had been getting clearer and clearer.
Yellow dust and whatnot should be blowing in from China, but since most of the factories are destroyed, it's only natural.
If it were just zombies, I'd only have to think about people, but the reality is a world where insane Infected stronger than the military are roaming around, and insane Ability Users are running wild as they please.
'China, the US... foreign countries, huh.'
Foreign countries aren't something to think about yet.
What I need to do now is grow my power while building a self-sufficient group.
Still, seeing that water and electricity haven't been cut off yet, there is hope.
Si-woo said there's an Ability User related to it, and Cheol-woo said he suspects there is. Anyway, it's certain that there's something like an Ability User...
ㅡSwaaaaa
Clean hot water comes out of the bathroom immediately.
And now, it's not a problem even if the water is cut off.
Because Hyun-jun is a lv.4 water Ability User. Electricity... I'd really have to rip a solar generator from somewhere, but I could probably live without it.
Because if I go a little way from here, there's a river.
'I don't know.
Hive, vaccine, IN Company, Ability Users, Infected, etc. There are many problems scattered about, but I have to deal with the Intelligent Creature clusters right now.
The Hive is far from here, so it's a situation where I can just watch it for now, and I plan to go look for the vaccine once the main base is stabilized, and the same goes for IN Company.
Ability Users... I can just gather them. And Infected, well, I can just kill them.'
'......'
How annoying.
I was just about to stabilize the main base and Multi, and start roaming around while leveling up, but then work pops up.
Well, it is a place I neglected in the past, though.
'I have to deal with it.'
In the past, I would have just let it slide, but I have my people for times like this.
"Oppa, let's eat. Food."
"Alright. What's on the menu?"
"Rolled omelet. Young-jin-ssi grew some green onions, so she tried making it. Ji-hye-eonni did."
"Is that so?"
What I saw when I went out was a feast laid out.
There was meat, and unlike the early days, the table was set with many delicious things. There's even spicy stir-fried chicken. Wow.
I mean, even though there are attacks, the people in this world have long since adapted.
Well, they're people who have gone out and killed tons of Infected, so the only ones who haven't adapted are the ones who are already dead.
That's how time passed.
#
"This is green onion, and this is carrot."
"Carrots seem to take longer."
"Yes. In terms of time, probably... about 7 days? It will take. One week."
"Still, they grow quickly."
"Yes. So I think we can adjust the quantity a bit. You know Tae-jun's ability. We can just put the seeds in there and plant only what we need."
Self-sufficiency became easier.
Now, it's to the point where self-production is possible.
If you combine Kim Young-jin's Plant Growth ability, A-rin's Taming, and Kim Hyun-jun's water ability, infinite supply is now possible.
Of course, since seeds are scarce, we have to go get many other things, but putting it differently, it means that if we grow the seeds again, cultivation is possible.
'......'
After that, I decided to create iron at the main base to build a temporary fortress.
I gathered a bunch of scrapped cars from the surrounding Nami-myeon and piled them all up on both sides of the main base entrance.
About 3 stories high.
You can see outside from our pension rooftop, but now you won't be able to see inside from outside the pension.
With Ha-eun's barricade ability added to this, now even decent-sized guys can't even get inside.
As for Multi, well, Kim Hyun-jun will block it well on his own.
I saw that the inside was running well, and I looked for Seol-hwa and So-young.
#
Night of the 29th.
We came out under the dark sky, Seol-hwa, So-young, and I.
"We're going to start by patrolling Bugang-myeon."
I made cleaning up the surroundings the top priority.
I judged that there are no Hunters or Abominations, but there are Intelligent Creatures. In other words, Sentient clusters.
I'll check Bugang-myeon until June 1st, and then it's time to check Nami-myeon for the next 3 days.
"So-young, you need to keep a good eye out. Seol-hwa, if there are guys bunched up within 40m, tell me."
"Understood."
"Got it."
Intelligent Creature, they say, but they're not that smart yet.
I mean, they don't use guns or tools, right?
Cheol-woo talked about the evolution of Infected... he said it's an increase in intelligence, but it was clear that there's a limit due to the nature of the Infected.
It feels like they can't catch up to the human brain.
Of course, their intelligence might increase further someday.
'Ah, fuck.'
Right now, cleaning up was the priority.
"Over there. The Infected are bunched up."
Therefore, it didn't take much time to clear out the Intelligent Creatures inside Bugang-myeon.
And it didn't take much time to realize that there were no survivors at all inside Bugang-myeon.
2 days.
That was the time it took to look around all of Bugang-myeon and clear out the Intelligent Creatures.
June had arrived.
#
June 1st.
Nexus Core : Metallokinesis lv5[40/100]
I raised it to 40.
While killing the regenerated Abomination.
After that, I patrolled Nami-myeon for 3 days.
"It doesn't seem like there are any."
"Really?"
"Yeah..."
"Can you distinguish people?"
"No... it's too far from here, so it doesn't work well. I can only do it if they're bunched up or far away."
"That's a shame."
Nami-myeon didn't have much.
It was a quiet neighborhood to begin with. The strongest Infected was about a Crawler.
Since there were no Sentients either, that says it all. Although for the people of Nami-myeon, even just Crawlers, Walkers, and Runners would have been hell.
'......'
There might be survivors, but we couldn't find them.
We didn't have the time for that either.
'I'll have to look around for a few more days.'
Because right now, the threat of the Infected was greater.
Nexus Core : Metallokinesis lv5[70/100]
And so, June 10th.
'......'
For now, I don't see any Intelligent Creatures regenerating inside Bugang-myeon and Nami-myeon.
Should I call that a blessing in disguise?
It's certain that I'll need quite a few defensive Ability Users.
It's this dangerous with just Intelligent Creatures, so if a Hunter or Abomination comes, there's no answer.
IN Company.
Chungju.
And questions related to civilization.
Curiosity about other IN Company headquarters and branches kept welling up, but I put it off for now.
Because if I get behind here while looking for that, there's no answer.
"Ugh..."
"Can't you do more?"
"No. I'm just a little tired."
I reinforced the barricades further with Ha-eun.
Now, most of the farmland has been cultivated.
The chickens have also increased tremendously.
Because of the 80% faster harvest, we can now store food.
Rice and wheat have issues like harvesting and threshing, so what's currently planted are famine crops like potatoes and sweet potatoes.
And fruits, etc.
They say they're growing chili peppers and things like that too... so now, there's no worry about food.
The problem is the Infected.
I wiped out the Intelligent Creature clusters near Nami-myeon and Bugang-myeon for now, but I don't know when they'll appear again.
In the end, it's a people problem.
Trustworthy humans.
'......'
Well, even so, killing the Abomination was the priority right now.
And so, 10 days passed, June 20th.
I glanced at the letters created by the gross veins rising on the back of my hand.
Nexus Core : Metallokinesis lv6[0/100]
It seems there is a level above 6.
That means... there could be Infected stronger than Hunters or Abominations that I don't know about.