Phobia
The Bug Summoner spewed blood as if hemorrhaging from the inside out, then doubled over and retched, purging everything that had been festering in its gut. And even as it did, it kept rising higher and higher into the air until it vanished from sight.
'So it wasn't enough to kill it after all....'
Won-goo kept several backpacks stashed inside the Trailer, each packed for a different contingency. Among them, Backpack No. 9 was the one he pulled out when there was someone he absolutely had to kill.
The rounds inside weren't the kind the Trailer automatically supplied. He had sourced them separately — and soaked every last one in extreme poison.
For the bastards he truly wanted dead.
The one regret was that the deeper the apocalypse ran, the less effective this kind of trick became. Survivors kept growing stronger, and their resistance to toxins grew right along with them. The poison Won-goo had brewed would have qualified as lethal-grade in the old world, but calling it a guaranteed killer at this stage of things would have been a stretch. It was extreme poison, sure — but depending on the target, plenty of people could ride it out.
The Bug Summoner wasn't an enhancement type either, but if it had invested enough in toughness-type traits, the odds were good it wouldn't die from this.
"So how'd it go?"
His crew had arrived right on cue. Fresh asked the question.
"How do you think? It bolted. That list of yours is wrong."
"......?"
"You didn't see it on your way over? I put a serious hurt on that thing."
"Figured as much."
"I landed wounds on it, but.... can't say whether it'll die."
"Director Gong. You alright?"
"Fine and dandy, as you can see."
"Looked like you bagged a couple of them."
"Which is exactly why I'm in a mood. Those things bleed a lot, you know?"
Won-goo said it while staring at the burnt insect corpses.
"That your hidden card, then?"
"You could call it that."
"You must've burned through a mountain of coins."
"What's the point of even saying it. Fresh, you owe me big time for this one."
"I said that much before we even started the job. So what's the play now — we ran the whole operation and still couldn't bag it?"
"The job IS handled. That thing's never coming back to this area."
"Couldn't it just hole up in a shelter?"
"If it were dumb enough to do that, it never could've pulled off something like this in the first place."
"And if it does come back?"
"Why're you worrying about that, Montage? Hell, we just make up a profile and put it out there."
"You think that'd actually turn something up, it'd have......"
"Ah, for chrissake...."
Won-goo's face scrunched in open irritation.
"You planning to keep spouting nonsense? Shove it in Montage's face and just focus on the ones that went missing recently. Then we'll get a hit."
"Ah — right. My head's all scrambled."
"And that bastard's a shelter veteran, isn't it."
"Is it?"
"It recognized me. So that's a dead giveaway, no?"
"Dead giveaway, yeah."
"Dead giveaway."
It had been agreed that Won-goo would be the one to open the Coin Office. Neither Montage nor Fresh raised any objection — he'd contributed the most to this fight, and he'd burned through the most money doing it.
No joke, the coins he'd flushed away running the flamethrower mode into the red had been substantial. Won-goo never spelled it out, but Fresh and Montage had both roughly caught on.
You are the first to enter Coin Office C-7070. A first-entry reward will be granted.
A reward granted for entering a Coin Office for the first time. Won-goo had collected a good number of these back in the day.
You are the first to enter the last remaining Coin Office. Reward tier increases by one stage.
The last remaining Coin Office. Which meant that of all the countless Coin Offices scattered across the world, this was the only one that had never been activated.
An intriguing list. All three could honestly be called excellent rewards — almost too good for a mere first-office-opening bonus.
Slastone Candy was comparable to the bootleg enhancement products floating around on the market. The difference was that while street-grade boosters were mass-produced junk, Slastone Candy was the artisanal stuff — considerably stronger than your average booster, with far fewer side effects. So even if Won-goo picked it, it wouldn't have been a bad call.
But because it was a consumable, Tol's Blood-Drinking Sword was the far better long-term pick. A weapon with a refreshingly straightforward option — it drained the enemy's blood and delivered it to the wielder. A life-stealing effect was always valuable. It would've been a fine fit for Lee Hyun-sung, whose Gift could strengthen weapons, too — except Hyun-sung already carried a blade with better options than that.
So Won-goo chose the second reward.
Dairos's Transceiver.
Compared to the other two, it might have seemed underwhelming. Put it in the hands of someone who couldn't use it properly and it was basically garbage — an item worth nothing.
But to Won-goo, it was anything but.
Equip it to the Trailer, and he could control it remotely. And once the Trailer became remote-controllable, the possibilities exploded. The Trailer grew stronger with every coin invested in it, capable of real-time repairs if you dumped enough gold into it. With remote operation, he no longer had to peel off crew members to stand guard whenever the Trailer was left far behind. There was even a milestone trait for remote control, for exactly that reason.
Won-goo had never invested in it, though. Traits were that precious. The common wisdom was simple: if an item could do the job, don't burn a trait slot on it. Won-goo had known that, which was why he'd held off — and now, the item he'd been waiting for had finally appeared as a reward.
You have selected Dairos's Transceiver.
Dairos's Transceiver was tiny — no bigger than a fingernail. Whoever wanted to operate the vehicle simply put on the matching lens and that was that.
"Did you get something good?"
Jeon Hye-ji asked.
"Something usable. Everyone else done?"
"You said we're supposed to step aside when you pick rewards like this."
"Nobody ever invites me to the staff dinner, though."
"Fresh went back to the shelter to wrap up the job, Hyeong-nim."
Lee Hyun-sung added the explanation.
"And that Montage character?"
"He says he has work to hold onto, and to meet again before long."
"Professional. I like it. Let's head back too."
"Was there not much to gain this time?"
"What do you mean, not much? We cleaned up the neighborhood, didn't we? These ecosystem-disrupting freaks are best put down before they get big."
"Other than that...."
"Fresh will bring the rest in on his own. Well... considering what I spent this time, it nearly breaks even. But I got a reward out of it, so."
"What kind of reward?"
"Something this family desperately needed."
The Trailer had always come with a remote function. It had been there from the start, back when he first chose the Trailer line at the Temporary Shelter. But that function only worked over a very short range, and every use cost him money — so unless things were truly dire, Won-goo never touched it.
Once the transceiver was installed, though, he could move it however he pleased. Best of all, the operating range was enormous; he could drive the thing from quite a distance away.
Like right now.
"Oh.... so now you can move it around from outside whenever you want?"
"That's right. And with this in hand, we can chart a different course going forward."
"What kind?"
"It means investing more into the Trailer. That's not a discussion for right now. Jo Mu-sa."
"Y-yes?"
The moment he was called, Jo Mu-sa visibly flinched.
"Why didn't you tell us you had an insect phobia? We nearly got split in half during the retreat, you punk."
"I'm sorry...."
Jo Mu-sa bowed his head low.
"Spare me the sorry and tell me WHY you didn't say anything."
"I didn't know it would shake me this badly. I mean, I knew I hated bugs, but...."
"Everyone hear that? This is exactly why I tell you to fill out your contracts with every detail of your personal history. Because sometimes, when something blows up later, there's no patching it. We got lucky this time — but luck can go the other way. And then what? You die. Dying alone is the best-case scenario. But one person's mess can drag the whole crew down with it. So somebody tell me — did any of us get into this line of work because we wanted to die? Is that why you joined the family?"
"No, Hyeong-nim!"
Lee Hyun-sung roared it out, and the rest of the crew echoed him.
"Now, Jo Mu-sa didn't know this about himself either, so there's some excuse this time. But it doesn't happen again. When we get back, everyone rewrites their personal profiles and submits them. What traumas you have. Every illness you've ever had — all of it, written down. Criminal record? That goes in too. I got caught at a sobriety checkpoint once — that goes in. Lost my shirt gambling and nearly had my fingers taken with it — write that down too. Got it? Fine detail, thorough detail, every last detail. That's how you prepare. Am I clear?"
"Yes, sir!"
Everyone answered at full volume.
"And I know you might think this trip was thin on gains, but there WERE gains. Items and coins aren't the only measure. Seeing how the rest of the family fights — that's a gain too, if you want to call it one. On top of that, we came out of this with one genuinely useful connection. Montage in particular — that man's abilities are going to earn their keep many times over. The point is: it pays to be on good terms with him. And now we know about Jo Mu-sa's phobia. There were some dangerous moments, but we got the chance to close that hole — so that counts as a major gain too."
Two days later, Fresh came by again.
THUD!
Just like his last visit, Fresh kicked the door open as he entered. His reaction this time, however, was very different.
"SHIT—!"
Fresh was sprawled on the floor clutching his foot.
"See that? I TOLD you he'd do it again. This kid never learns."
Won-goo laughed at the sight of Fresh flat on the ground.
"Argh, DAMN it! What the hell!"
"What else? I changed the door. Solid steel and heavy as sin."
"You son of a.... I think my toe's cracked."
"Save the drama. Get up."
Won-goo extended a hand.
"Dan-shin! Bring us some honey tea."
"Right away, Director!"
Fresh and Won-goo sat facing each other. One by one, the crew members drifted over to the table and each left a few silver coins behind. Watching them, Fresh's face contorted.
"You son of a bitch. You BET on me?"
"That's what you get for traipsing around with no manners. When you enter another man's home, you show some respect. Finished the job early, I take it?"
"Just like you said — I put the profile out everywhere. They picked it up right away."
"Of course they did. The bastard left its whole base of operations behind when it ran."
"By the way — when you saw it back then, was it a man or a woman?"
"A man? Wasn't it a man?"
Fresh pulled out the profile and showed it to him.
"Not a man. It was a woman."
"Hm.... that's not impossible, I suppose. But you're sure it's actually a woman? Not just posing as one?"
"No telling."
"You didn't know either? You were active in that shelter."
"I'm not tied to that one shelter, am I? Besides, I hate gukbap. You know that. I don't eat anything that isn't sweet."
"I'm well aware you eat nothing but the things that'll kill you."
"That's the ONE thing I love about the apocalypse. You can shovel in the worst garbage food imaginable and it barely touches you."
"Sure, keep loving it. So she ran a gukbap house?"
Won-goo said it as he paged through the file. The Bug Summoner's real name was Kang Yu-min. A beauty with a strikingly developed jawline — large, well-defined eyes, nose, and mouth that gave her an almost delicate look at first glance. What set her apart from the typical beauty, though, was that square, Western-style angle of her jaw.
Which meant one look at her photo was impossible to forget.
"Went by Yangji Gukbap. It was the shelter's famous restaurant. Everyone's saying they can't believe it."
"That's how these bastards always are. 'There's not a soul in this whole wide world kinder than her.'"
"Right. They all swore up and down they couldn't believe it — right up until they saw the secret room in the back of the shop. And inside...."
"Spare me. I can guess. It was a freezer, wasn't it."
Fresh nodded.
"Anything else turn up near that shelter?"
"Nothing. No body surfaced either, so it's alive, presumably."
"It's still going to have a rough time of it. What I put into it wasn't just poison."
"What, is there a curse on it or something?"
Won-goo nodded.
"Seriously?"
"Nothing powerful."
As survivors grew stronger by investing coins, things like poison and disease had stopped being much of a threat. These days even cancer would heal on its own. Instead, it was curses that inspired real terror among survivors.
The vast majority of curses applied regardless of the target's toughness. Which meant, in most cases, they didn't heal naturally.
There were ways to break a curse — but none of them were simple. A very weak one could be dispelled at a shelter's facilities. Anything beyond that, and you had to track down a specialist who dealt in curses.
"Still, a curse? You deal in that stuff too? Did you have talent like that on staff somewhere?"
"I just got lucky and picked it up somewhere. Do you have any idea how rare curse-workers are?"
"Fair point.... the bastard even had a nickname going. 'Coin.'"
"Minimalist."
"Me and Montage circulated her profile and description to all the shelters in the region. By now she'll be blacklisted everywhere, so she won't stay on the run long. Her features are too distinctive."
With that, Fresh set a pouch of coins down on the table — telling him it was a little more than the agreed amount.
"What about Montage's side?"
"I'll need to swing by there next."
"Sounds exhausting. You stopping in again on your way back?"
"We'll see."
"Isn't this too much? You got enough left for yourself? You'll want to be generous with Montage too, no?"
"Packed plenty for him as well."
"You're not overextending yourself?"
"I didn't do a damn thing in this job. And one of your family members got hurt, Director Gong."
"Unbelievable...."
"I'm off."
Jo Mu-sa — Insect phobia.