Episode 24
Episode 24
I emerged from the underground passage.
With a massive fortune of 6.7 billion Ether tucked away.
It didn't feel heavy, but somewhere in my heart, a weight settled in.
Should I call it a sense of security?
The leisure I hadn't felt in a long time made my steps light.
Just as I was heading to the surface with the others.
"They're coming!"
"Waaaaah!"
A roar of cheers erupted.
As if welcoming heroes returning from the battlefield, people were clapping and cheering for the entire expedition team.
Even with faces still covered in dust, the expedition members couldn't help but smile.
That was when.
"Everyone, you've worked so hard!"
Kim Saet-byeol appeared, cutting through the crowd.
A bright smile, a neat posture. She looked flawless.
But that look in her eyes...
She's definitely up to something.
"By the way, who killed the most mutants on this expedition?"
As expected. A strange smile hung on her lips.
At that moment.
"Me!"
"I caught the most!"
"Hey, you just watched from the back! It's me! Me!"
The expedition members raised their hands all at once, as if they'd received a signal.
It was absolute chaos.
Watching the scene, Kim Saet-byeol couldn't hide a look of slight satisfaction.
'As expected. She was aiming for this.'
However.
Unlike them, there were those with a conscience.
"Hey, you bastards, have you no conscience?"
A thick voice rang out, piercing through the commotion.
"Exactly! How can you not acknowledge it even after seeing that miracle right in front of your eyes?"
A few people snapped at the liars, then immediately pointed at me.
"It's this person. He wiped them all out."
"That's right! If it weren't for him, how many of us would have made it back alive!"
Voices of defense erupted from here and there.
However, Kim Saet-byeol furrowed her brows slightly and continued as if troubled.
"Ah... then there's no way to prove it. The others are saying they're the ones who came in first."
As she said that, she cast a sly smile toward me.
'She must have planned this from the start.'
The crowd's mood grew restless.
"Then who gets first place? If it's like that, doesn't it mean no one gets it?"
Instead of answering, Kim Saet-byeol gestured to the subordinate standing next to her.
Then, a large TV that had been prepared beforehand turned on.
'She even prepared this.'
"This soldier here reportedly killed over 20 of them."
On the screen, a video played of a soldier subduing mutants.
It was quite an impressive scene.
The way he was dealing with dozens of Worker Mutants.
The crowd's faces stiffened.
"Hah... what the hell kind of bullshit is this."
"He's a total thug!"
Fingers were pointed.
But in this apocalypse world, the Shelter leader's power is heavier than military law.
Especially if it's Kim Saet-byeol, a relative of an Awakener; she was practically all-powerful.
"What did you say?"
When Kim Saet-byeol raised her eyes, the voices of complaint receded like an ebbing tide.
At that moment, I stepped forward.
"You just need proof, right?"
Kim Saet-byeol's gaze locked onto me.
"......That's right. If you can prove you caught more than 20."
"Here, take this."
I took out a USB drive and held it out in front of her.
"......What is this?"
"It's a USB."
"......You filmed the video and put it on there yourself in that short amount of time?"
"Is there any reason I couldn't?"
Kim Saet-byeol stared at me without a word.
Various things flashed through her eyes.
Bewilderment, wariness, and a subtle crack.
After a moment of silence.
"Fine. However, if it turns out to be a lie, you will be exiled immediately. Do you understand?"
"Sure, whatever."
There was no reason to be scared.
"Hmph!"
Kim Saet-byeol snorted and handed the USB to her subordinate.
As soon as it was connected to the TV.
The screen turned on.
And.
"......No way."
"How can that be."
Silence flowed.
What unfolded on the large screen was a massacre.
A scene of me moving alone and wiping out the mutants.
It wasn't just simple suppression.
Movements that flowed like water, a fight that extracted maximum results with minimal effort.
The mouths of those watching fell open on their own.
And.
"Th-that's a Blade Mutant!"
"Fuck, he caught that alone?"
The crowd's gazes froze.
In the soldier's video, there were only Worker Mutants.
There were no Blade Mutants.
I was killing that monster, with its razor-sharp forelimbs, all by myself—and several of them at that.
Even so, Kim Saet-byeol shook her head without a single change in expression.
"......The number is still insufficient."
"What?! Damn it, that thing should count as five Worker Mutants!"
"Look at its size and those blades! Tell that soldier to try fighting one!"
People rose up on my behalf.
But she was immovable.
'Whatever, doesn't matter.'
The video kept playing.
As the next scene appeared, the crowd's murmuring grew a level louder.
"Th-what is that?"
"Crazy, the mutant became a zombie?!"
"Is that possible?"
The scene where I injected the chemical I personally prepared into the mutant.
And the scene where that mutant started attacking its own kind.
Someone muttered in a low voice.
"......I've heard of it. When a whale gets cancer, the cancer cells in that area get cancer too. Just like that..."
Now there was no way out.
I slowly looked at Kim Saet-byeol.
Her face was turning red and purple, and veins were popping out on her forehead.
'Serves you right.'
If you were going to do that.
Why be so stubborn?
Public sentiment had completely turned.
Kim Saet-byeol, no longer meeting my eyes, forced her expression to calm and opened her mouth.
"......Fine. The winner has been decided. Mr. Chul-su. Give him the bead."
Awakener Kim Chul-su, who was standing to the side, slowly got up and handed the Awakening Bead to me.
"Ho-oh......"
The bead in my palm was lighter than I thought.
As I was gazing at its brilliant light,
"Hey."
Kim Chul-su held out his hand.
"Let's shake hands."
His gaze didn't exactly read as friendly.
He's probably planning to test something.
"Sure, why not."
I grasped his hand.
Kwad-deu-deuk—
Strength was applied to every finger joint.
He must intend to crush it with his grip strength.
That made sense.
If an Awakener used their strength properly, most human bones would crumple like paper.
'Yeah, this is a prosthetic hand.'
A high-tech prosthetic hand.
The sensation was no different from a real hand, but the internal skeleton was different.
'But I have no intention of just taking it.'
I slowly returned the pressure.
"Umm......"
Kim Chul-su's eyes wavered slightly.
It looked like the words 'What the hell is this bastard?' were written all over his face.
"Are we done here?"
"......Yeah."
Clutching the Awakening Bead, I quietly left the spot.
Just as my steps were heading toward home.
"......Why?"
I sensed a presence.
I knew without looking back.
Han Min-ah.
It was too clumsy to be stalking.
"Hey......"
"Just say it. I think I roughly know what it is."
"......Let me join your crew."
As expected.
It was as I predicted.
Han Min-ah was a fiery woman from the start.
A hot-tempered and straightforward personality.
That was her charm, but at the same time, it was also the reason she exhausted those around her.
That must be why she's lived alone until now.
She has the ability, but she couldn't find people who matched her vibe.
"It's not bad for an Awakener to join the crew. But there's a problem."
"What is it?"
"There's one more person besides me."
Han Min-ah's eyes widened.
"You had a crew? Someone who joined before me?"
"Yeah."
Han Min-ah narrowed her eyes.
"......It's a woman, right?"
"Why do you think that?"
"No, just......"
She trailed off.
It seemed like she stopped herself from saying something bad.
Anyway.
Strengthening our forces is always welcome.
Moreover, Awakeners were rare.
It was right not to miss them whenever I met one.
Han Min-ah kept her mouth shut for a moment and walked beside me.
I returned to the hideout.
Only Lee Su-ah was there.
"Where are the others?"
"They went out for a bit."
"Is that so? I have something to say."
I introduced Han Min-ah, who was following behind me.
"Her name is Han Min-ah. She wants to join our crew."
"...So?"
"What do you think?"
"As for me... you're the leader, so you decide."
"I'm... in favor."
"Then I'm in favor too."
It was easier than I thought.
But getting close is another matter.
"Nice to meet you."
"Oh my, oh my! You're so pretty!"
Han Min-ah with her overly excessive tension.
She grabbed Lee Su-ah's hand and shook it vigorously.
"Nice to meet you! Nice to meet you! I'm Han Min-ah!"
"Ah... I'm Lee Su-ah."
They greeted each other, but I felt a bit uneasy.
The feeling that Lee Su-ah finds it annoying?
'Well, they'll figure it out themselves.'
Thinking that, I went into my room.
"Now... what should I do with this?"
Awakening Bead.
I immediately sold it to the shop.
So, what I have in total is...
Ether Balance = 16.7 billion
"Wow......"
I can look at it over and over and never get tired of it.
To think I'm a 16.7 billion Ether owner...
"Then... how should I spend this?"
This was the most important thing.
It felt a bit wasteful to just spend it all on implants.
"What I need right now is... a place to stay."
It's already a lost cause in this Sejong Shelter.
The Shelter leader and that Awakener guy are on bad terms...
Living in a place like this would just be a headache.
"You can tell just by looking. They're framing me as not sacrificing even though I'm an Awakener."
I decline such political fights.
So the conclusion is...
"I should try building a shelter with this."
In the apocalypse, the most important thing is a shelter.
A shelter is power, and a means of survival.
"What would be good?"
When this happens, I should use the gallery.
[Any shelter-like things? Need a big hideout]
└[Sandebiseutan] : A shelter? I think there are tents and bunkers.
└[Doctor Repair] : There are modular types. But apart from the price, you need to use a lot of robots to install them.
└[T] : A shelter? Where would you find something like that?
└[Nova] : Recommend adding an AI to the shelter.
"As expected."
It was Doctor Repair again.
I sent him a whisper.
└[Gallery Owner] : How do I build a shelter?
└[Doctor Repair] : First, how big do you want it to be?
└[Gallery Owner] : About the size of a soccer field? But it might get bigger.
└[Doctor Repair] : Whoa... that's bigger than I thought? To do that, you need to buy construction robots separately. But it costs a shit ton of money.
└[Gallery Owner] : So, that means if I have the labor, I can do it cheaply, right?
└[Doctor Repair] : Yeah.
I found a way.
Labor?
Anyway, I have zombies from the Necromancer Gallery, golems from the Alchemist Gallery, and finally, robots from Cyberpunk.
It would be weird if I couldn't build it.
"Then the problem is... how much the shelter costs..."
I roughly ordered my prosthetic eye to calculate it.
-Calculating estimated Ether consumption...
-Calculation complete.
-A total of 12 billion is required.
"Ah..."
As expected.
It was incredibly expensive.
But I tried to think positively.
"That means 4.7 billion is left, right?"
Yeah, this is a lot left over.
Since I earned over 10 billion Ether at once, I lost my mind a bit.
"Then what would be good?"
Leaving the 12 billion alone...
I was planning to get implants with the 4.7 billion.
"Ah, what was that?"
There was one guy who posted on the gallery whenever he had a chance.
[Sandebiseutan] : Guys, can't you update the new Sandevistan? It's fucking inconvenient.
"Sandevistan?"
"The name kind of appeals to me?"