Chapter 333
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 333
Chapter Title: 134. Discovery
While we were away, the Defender siblings left the territory.
According to Jeon Han, Ha Tae-hoon had briefly come out to see them off, but no one else had bothered to bid them farewell.
Not even his fellow rookie, Cheon Young-jae.
It was a sign that the rift between them ran deeper than I'd realized.
Of course, Defender didn't bother contacting me on their way out either.
Maybe he had enough decency to spare me the unnecessary call, but I felt a twinge of resentment that they hadn't left even a memo or a message.
"They're finally gone. Those people. What the hell were they even doing here?"
It was common enough to badmouth someone after they'd left.
Bang Jae-hyeok's mother, who had stuck close to her son out of concern for the Defender siblings' watchful eyes, was now openly trash-talking them to me in broad daylight.
"They were siblings, right? Always glued to each other. Doesn't that seem suspicious?"
I had no intention of defending the Defender siblings, but I didn't want to listen to their slander either, so I pulled Bang Jae-hyeok aside.
"I know."
He limped over, clearly already aware of why I'd called him.
"I'll keep an eye on it. But there was a lot of built-up resentment. Things were really bad between them. When someone unilaterally rejects your goodwill like that, even Buddha would lose his temper, right?"
"Even accounting for that, it seems a bit over the top."
"Can't you let them vent for just one day? She's my mom, but old folks like her need to let off steam somehow to feel satisfied."
There was no such thing as a country for the elderly, and it seemed good elders were just as rare.
It couldn't be helped.
Body and mind were one and the same.
Even the most noble spirit changed with time.
One might call it the weight of life a single person could bear.
There were variations, but everyone had their limits.
The saints who carried their crosses earned such reverence because they dared to shoulder a burden beyond what humans were meant to endure.
"......"
I thought of Rebecca.
She was the friend who worried me the most.
She hardly ever left her bunker anymore and had left all guard duty to Soo.
The only change was that she'd swapped Viva! Apocalypse! for Necropolis.
I went to see her.
"SKELTON."
She'd lost a lot of weight.
No energy, sunken eyes.
According to Soo, she spent her days lying in the dark bunker, just playing Necropolis.
Soo loved her mother, but her mother's persistent poor state was planting seeds of doubt in Soo.
Combined with the rebelliousness of puberty and growing disappointment, it was hard to predict where it might lead—but the odds pointed to an unhappy ending.
For a moment, the image of the Defender siblings flashed before my eyes.
Especially Da-jeong's warm smiles toward me every day—they lingered vividly in the corner of my mind.
"......Hey. Want to step outside for a bit?"
This couldn't go on.
"Where to?"
"Just to get some fresh air. It'll do you good."
"No."
"You should go anyway."
I picked up the power cable connected to the bunker and mimed cutting it with scissor fingers.
Only then did Rebecca sigh and rise from her seat.
Her disheveled military uniform, unwashed hair—she reeked enough to wrinkle noses from a distance.
I didn't let it show.
Soo, just back from patrol with her rifle slung over her shoulder, tilted her head at the sight of us.
I waved lightly to Soo, then opened the territory's main gate and headed down the slope with Rebecca.
We didn't speak until we'd descended the gentle incline onto flat ground.
"You don't like it here, do you?"
No need to mince words.
"Yeah."
Rebecca was frank too.
"What are you going to do?"
I asked as we walked.
"I don't know."
I'd suspected it before, but her recent behavior confirmed it.
She was still a woman from across the sea.
We had some connection, but it was born of necessity.
Aside from a bit of fondness for me, her feelings toward my comrades hadn't changed much since we first met outside my bunker.
She wanted to remain an outsider.
I'd watched so far, but now I felt I had to step in.
I won't deny that the Defender siblings' departure played a big part in this decision.
"If you go back to where you were, I'll help."
"Where? Daegu?"
"Nah, not there."
I turned east.
The village where Rebecca and her daughter had lived.
Now a ghost town, but for both of us, it held countless memories amid constant gunfire.
"There?"
"I'll help you pack up everything you need and settle in. What do you think?"
Taking a break was a good option too.
Her territory and mine were practically neighbors anyway.
Putting some distance while slowly trying to bond wasn't a bad idea.
Rebecca fell silent, eyes darting as she thought it over.
Doing her own calculations, no doubt.
Soon, her heterochromatic eyes fixed on me.
"I'll go."
About a minute of deliberation.
Classic Rebecca decisiveness.
But this wouldn't do.
It wasn't just about whether she went or not.
I let out a shallow sigh.
"You didn't talk to Soo about it?"
"Soo?"
Rebecca looked puzzled, then beamed.
"Soo listens to me. She's a good girl."
I remembered what Soo had said and done to me back in Sejong.
Soo's patience with her mother was nearing its end.
As the daughter grew, the rift between mother and child widened.
"What if Soo doesn't want to go?"
Rebecca stopped in her tracks, staring at me with her mouth agape.
I turned to face her squarely.
"What? Soo?"
"Yeah. What if Soo refuses to go?"
Rebecca muttered in English.
Caught off guard, apparently.
I left her there and walked on slowly.
The green fields and scattered small factories came into view.
"SKELTON!"
Rebecca caught up.
"What do you mean, Soo won't go?"
She might not know the term "puberty," so I pulled out my phone, looked up the English word, and showed her.
"......Puberty."
One word can carry more weight than a hundred.
"Soo... puberty......"
I gestured for her to be quiet.
Click-
A presence nearby.
She'd holed up showing an ugly side lately, but Rebecca was still a proper survivor from the apocalypse.
Her dazed face sharpened into a warrior's, rifle handled with expert motions to cover my flank.
I fell back.
Three possibilities: human, mutation, or wild animal.
All dangerous, but if picking the least, wild animal.
No rushing to judgment.
Gripping my rifle, I felt the axe on my hip, then backed away slowly with Rebecca.
If it was human, best to drop prone here.
But against a ferocious beast like a mutation, prone was unwise.
Going prone meant losing humanity's edge.
The broad field of view from standing on two legs.
Vision tied closely to firearms.
Especially for first strikes.
"......"
Scanning nonstop, I signaled Rebecca to find cover.
Despite recent lapses, she was from the world's top fighting force.
Her sturdy build moved swiftly; she secured a stone wall, tapped it with her stock to signal cover fire possible, then I sprinted back to crouch beside her.
"What was it?"
Rebecca asked.
I stared piercingly toward the sound instead of answering.
Rustling from the bushes soon followed.
Rebecca held her breath, tightening her grip.
"Hold fire. Only shoot on my order."
"Got it."
Rustle-
It came again.
Finger light on the trigger, breath held.
A black shape emerged from the bushes.
Rebecca laughed.
A cat.
Not a mutation—a normal one.
Like those from before the war.
"......"
Was my sense off?
It hadn't felt like just a cat.
Something else was there.
"SKELTON. It's a cat."
Rebecca, a cat lover apparently, grinned like her gloom was forgotten.
I watched impassively.
A kitten appeared before us.
Not one—two, no, three.
White and gray fur mix—not the native Korean Shorthair, but clearly a pet breed.
Soon the mother crept out cautiously, eyed us, then grabbed a kitten by the scruff and stared.
"......"
Not all beasts mutate.
If they did, humanity would've gone extinct long ago.
Mutation rates vary by area, but in places like our territory without nearby erosion zones, it's under 1%.
Yet they seem everywhere because each one's presence is overwhelming.
A single mutation's territory is a danger zone.
No threat here, but I raised my rifle anyway.
Click-
1% isn't fixed.
Like someone with heart issues facing daily death odds, animals risk mutation daily—and that spikes near monsters.
"SKELTON. Gonna kill it?"
I nodded.
"If not now, they might come for us later."
Rebecca muttered in English.
I added, looking at her,
"That's the world we're in."
"I know... but......"
She didn't like killing cats, it seemed.
Probably empathizing as a mother with a daughter.
Her uneasy face changed my mind.
More precisely, hold off on killing them now.
No need to add stress to her already burdened life.
Humans have stress limits.
Stress lingers, leaves scars.
"......Let's go."
Rebecca's eyes sparkled.
"SKELTON? Not killing them?"
"Looking at your face... feels wrong. Plus."
I held out my hand, gauged the breeze.
Pretty cold.
Current temp: 23°C.
Midday, yet dropping steadily.
Unprepared won't survive winter.
That calculation-born mercy ended absurdly.
Shortly after we left, a shrill cat yowl pierced the air.
It turned to a death cry, then silence.
I exchanged glances with Rebecca, raised my rifle toward the sound.
Rustle-
A slender shape emerged.
Eyes wide, it clutched the dead cat in its jaws—a weasel.
Bang!
I drew my pistol in a flash, blew its head off.
Not just cat vengeance.
Weasels were dangerous predators.
Mutated, worse than that black cat terrorizing areas.
Otters too—mustelids get terrifying when big.
High winter survival odds meant they all had to die.
"......It's dead."
Rebecca murmured at the carcasses.
I scanned pistol-ready for more.
If friends were around, wipe them out.
While I hunted weasels, Rebecca checked kittens.
One survivor, but guts spilling— not long.
She stared at the bodies as I returned from search.
"......SKELTON."
She clenched her fist, turned to me.
"I'll stay."
I stared.
Her unique eyes held a familiar resolve now.
"Yeah?"
Did the beasts' deaths teach her?
Nah.
She just needed a clear trigger.
Slash-
Rebecca's dagger skinned them expertly.
Not just the weasel.
Cats too, no hesitation—even asked my help sometimes.
"Hold it. Yeah. Pull steady."
Despite her dull image, she was a survivor like us.
Aided me some, but mostly endured chained to her young daughter.
Her survival difficulty was way higher than mine.
"......Pisses me off a bit, huh?"
Stacking pelts, she grinned lopsidedly at me.
I nodded.
"Soo's pissed too."
Rebecca gave a bitter smile, shook her head.
I walked ahead toward the territory; she followed with the skins.
No need for many words between us.
A fresh realization.
"Hey. That woman's got some serious handiwork."
Earning praise from Ha Tae-hoon in construction wasn't easy.
He watched Rebecca's skills with wide-eyed surprise.
Especially joining timbers seamlessly without nails—a technique even he didn't know.
I'd noted her carpentry when she built her cabin before.
Not just that.
She was skilled at hunting too.
Bang!
Sharp marksmanship aside, tracking animals by traces was no joke.
"One dog would make life easier."
We'd hunted the whole weasel family.
Butchering bodies smoothly, pelts skinned perfectly.
Trade-off:
Buzz- buzz-
The sun-drying clearing reeked, swarmed with flies—but no one judged her.
"Hey, American girl. Try some of this."
Bang Jae-hyeok's mother offered a drink.
Rebecca eyed the stranger's kindness coolly, then took the cup and downed it.
She gave a thumbs-up.
"Tasty."
No grand welcome or awkward chats.
Just naturally blending, cooperating.
Like clothes wetting in a drizzle.
That's how bonds begin.
Not expecting much, but at least no more iron walls and isolation.
"......"
I gazed at the empty bunker where the Defender siblings had stayed.
If I'd acted faster, could I have kept them?
I was 80% sure no—but here, I'll assume if I'd grabbed them, they'd have stayed.
"Park Gyu-ssi. Have some of this. Homemade red cider from yesterday."
It'd ease my mind that way.
"Thanks."