28화
Chapter 28
— Transaction occurring.
— System mediation required.
— The profit gained by the transacting party, Choi Han, is significantly low.
— Calculating......
— 11 billion Ether in value must be transferred to Choi Han.
"Huh?"
I blinked.
11 billion.
All those burlap sacks were worth 10 billion Ether?
While I stood there dazed, the system quietly added one more line.
— Ether balance: 29 billion Ether
"Holy......"
I couldn't believe it even after seeing the numbers.
29 billion.
2, 9, 0, billion.
No matter how many times I repeated it in my head, it didn't feel real.
It felt strangely detached from reality, like I was looking at someone else's bank balance.
I tried to count the zeros but gave up.
"This is insane."
I felt a little sorry for the people of Valkar.
But honestly, I even wished for another opportunity like this to come along.
'I'm rich.'
Of course, 12 billion had to be set aside for the shelter construction budget.
That was money I couldn't touch right now.
But the remaining 17 billion was Ether I could use entirely.
17 billion. As I rolled that number around in my head, the corners of my mouth curled up on their own.
"Why the look on your face?"
Han Min-ah asked, furrowing her brows.
"Did you win the lottery or something?"
Lee Su-ah tilted her head, too.
I didn't say anything.
I just smiled.
A while later, I had cleared out most of the space where the burlap sacks had been.
I slowly looked around the empty factory floor and gathered my thoughts.
The dust marks left on the concrete were a faint testament to where the sacks had been piled.
"What's the best way to do this......"
Building the shelter itself wasn't difficult.
The problem was the design.
A small space was enough for right now.
'But as time goes on, the things I need will increase.'
Troops, equipment, supplies, people. To be able to accommodate all of that, I had to build it with scalability in mind from the start.
There was nothing more inefficient than having to tear it all down later because there wasn't enough space.
In that sense, this factory was optimal.
"There are only low buildings around the factory."
I cast my gaze beyond the factory's outer walls.
A wide vacant lot surrounded it on all sides, and the buildings standing sparsely beyond that were all low and shabby.
'At best, they're two-story warehouses or temporary structures.'
Rusty iron roofs, crumbling outer walls in places, and a vacant lot where weeds had grown to knee-height as if no one had been there for a long time.
They were structures that didn't even need effort to demolish.
The vacant lot was wide, there were few obstacles, and there was plenty of room for expansion.
"This place will do."
The decision was made quickly.
"Alright, shall we build?"
I turned my gaze forward.
Twenty extinction units were waiting expressionlessly.
"AI, build it."
That one sentence was enough.
The extinction units started moving in unison.
They scattered to their respective positions and began working without a single hitch, as if they had shared the blueprints beforehand.
Silently, but quickly. The sight of twenty wills interlocking and operating simultaneously at a single command gave me a strange sense of being overwhelmed every time I saw it.
[1 ton of rebar is required.]
As long as I provided the materials, they took care of the rest.
This convenience was still amazing.
However.
The joy didn't last long.
Hammering sounds.
The sound of metal clashing.
The dull thud of heavy materials landing on the floor.
Lee Su-ah approached and asked worriedly.
"Is the noise okay?"
"Nope?"
Lee Su-ah looked dumbfounded at my irresponsible answer.
"It can't be helped. We have to build it. It'll be even louder by evening, won't it?"
Since the sound would echo more in the evening, it would affect even more distant areas.
"It can't be helped."
"Haa... Do we have to fight again?"
"Guess so. Bear with it. In return, the result will be satisfying."
Lee Su-ah took out her dagger, and Han Min-ah took out her staff.
Watching them, I asked the AI.
"How long will it take to put up the walls?"
[5 hours.]
"We're in for a mess."
For 5 hours, we had to deal with the zombies flocking toward the noise.
To do that.
I decided to equip a new implant.
"This time, the legs."
Both arms, both eyes, and the central nervous system.
Now only the torso, head, and legs were left.
"I shouldn't get too hooked on this, seriously......"
Replacing my body with machines.
At some point, I had gotten hooked on it.
But how could I resist?
Muscles that others spent months sweating and enduring pain to barely obtain.
I was obtaining dozens, no, hundreds of times the strength of those muscles with just a click of an implant.
"Let's see......"
I entered the shop and checked the list.
Then.
[Name] : Ignition Leg
[Category] : Lower-body propulsion implant
[Function] : 1. Muscle amplification
2. Rocket propulsion
3. Shock absorption and posture correction
[Required Ether] : 5 billion Ether
"The most important thing in a fight is the lower body."
All power ultimately comes from the lower body.
Whether shooting a gun, swinging a sword, or holding ground and pushing forward, it all starts from the soles of the feet.
"I need to invest the most money in the lower body."
It was only natural.
I replaced both legs with Ignition Legs.
Click... Click...
The final moment when it connected to my nervous system, a short electric shock-like sensation traveled up my spine and disappeared.
And.
"Wow......"
It was different.
Something was different about moving.
"It's definitely heavy... but it feels light?"
Contradictory feelings coexisted.
There was definitely weight on my legs.
When I took a step, spiderweb-like cracks split the concrete under my feet.
But I had only moved very lightly.
That gap strangely gave me a thrill.
"This is insane."
But it didn't end there.
The legs had a function called rocket propulsion.
"What's this?"
I was curious.
So I used it.
Click!
The calf area disassembled, and a small nozzle popped out.
Whoosh!
With flames, I soared straight up.
My vision flipped in an instant.
The ground moved away, and the sky drew closer.
"Whoa!"
Something welled up inside me.
I couldn't tell if it was a scream or a cheer.
Can I... fly with this!?
However.
[Rocket propulsion remaining uses: 2, recharge time: 2 minutes]
"As expected."
I couldn't fly.
It seemed to be a method of gaining explosive propulsion for a moment.
It was closer to pushing a jump to the extreme.
"First, let's land."
My body, having reached the peak, began to be pulled down by gravity.
Looking down, I could clearly see the rusty iron plates of the factory roof even from afar.
At a rough guess, it was easily 10 meters high.
It was strange.
I wasn't scared.
Boom!
I landed on the floor just like that.
The moment the impact traveled from my feet through my knees and upward, I felt the internal structure of the Ignition Leg receive and disperse it.
The concrete floor shattered in a circle, and a shockwave spread out.
Dust rose up.
But.
I was fine. My knees didn't ache, and my ankles didn't ring.
"Damn... even recoil absorption. This is crazy."
I wasn't hurt even after falling about 10 meters.
It was thanks to the shock absorption and posture correction on the Ignition Leg.
"That aside......"
My eyes, which had scanned the surroundings while soaring and coming down, had already calculated.
[There are 2457 of them.]
It was far more than the number of zombies I had dealt with so far.
Things were slowly dragging their feet toward me along the vacant lot, along the alleys, and from the shadows of the ruins.
Perhaps because there were so many, I could feel the low groaning sound coming like a wave from far away.
If it were the past me, I would have run away, but now it was different.
'Because I have implants.'
I used the Ignition Leg's rocket propulsion.
Boom, boom, boom!
Soaring upward, I took out a bracelet.
It was the electronic bracelet from the Sejong shelter.
This bracelet had one function.
Crackle!
That it would set off a loud alarm if it broke immediately.
Wail!
At the same time, I looked down.
Thousands were looking up at me.
Whitish, cloudy eyes were all facing upward at once.
Their faces were rotten and crushed in different ways, but their gazes were all the same.
A simple and persistent desire, directed at only one thing.
I wasn't scared.
Rather.
The ground got closer.
With both feet pointed downward, I fell right into the middle of the horde.
Crash!
I landed among the zombies.
A few caught under my legs were instantly turned into mush.
The rest were blown away by the shockwave.
"It's not over! Drive!"
The world slowed down.
At that moment, I moved like crazy among the zombies with the Ignition Leg.
In an instant, I wrapped wire around them.
[Drive ended]
Crackle!
I wiped out hundreds at once.
It didn't end there.
Mechanical arms and legs.
A low vibrating sound from inside.
— Muscle amplification, output limit released.
"Die!"
I swung.
Bang!
The moment my arm grazed them, the zombie's body couldn't withstand it and folded right over.
It broke.
It burst.
Every time my leg swung, the ground cracked, and everything standing on it was crushed.
Just.
Destroyed.
"Wow... this is insane."
I swung my arm again.
Bang!
The horde that had been rushing in was crushed entirely.
Not even a shape remained.
"It's like catching bugs."
To think it would change this much just because I changed my lower body.
Once again, I felt how important the lower body is.
But at that moment.
[Biological reaction detected]
The AI discovered something.
"What is it?"
[It is a human.]
A survival crew existing in Incheon.
Most of them were human waste who had been kicked out of the Seoul shelter.
Robbers, murderers, looters.
Guys who seemed to have picked only the dirty things among them.
Once the law disappeared, they were the type whose true nature tore through the skin and revealed itself.
Living hidden like rats.
Rotten teeth that would bite if they saw an opportunity.
However.
Clang! Clang! Whirrr!
As if they were doing construction.
Incheon suddenly began to seethe with ear-piercing noise.
"What the fuck is this!?"
"Where the hell are you doing construction, you crazy bastards!"
"Hey! Do you hear that? That's definitely a person!"
"Ah, fuck, today's a lucky day. If we catch a live one, we should cut off their fingers first."
They didn't see people as people.
In their mouths, 'person' was 'resource' and 'toy'.
"Isn't it more fun if they beg for their lives?"
"And if they cry, you can play with them longer."
Cackling laughter.
Completely broken humans who enjoyed even just imagining screams and pain.
Incheon.
Was no longer a place where people lived.