The Agricultural-Industrial Complex (2)
How long had he spent searching for rice seeds?
He had ransacked every seed shop he could find and scavenged countless farms, putting agonizing effort into finding viable seeds.
But seeds were ultimately food, and they had all been plundered long ago.
The only things he had managed to find so far were flowers, potatoes, ginger, and garlic.
He had pinned his hopes on the agricultural-industrial complex, but in truth, he had been skeptical about that too. There was no way seeds would just be sitting there.
But what about the wheat farm?
While any stored seeds were highly likely to have been looted, it would be a massive jackpot if he could find even a few ears of wheat left in the vast, sprawling fields.
A large amount would be ideal, but even a single handful would do.
If managed carefully, he could cover the territory's entire farmland with improved seeds within a few years.
Ofrin wheat. I never expected this.
A few years before the world went to ruin, the Rural Development Administration had succeeded in developing and propagating the world's first "Ofrin" seed.
The government had promoted it so aggressively that even Jeron had heard the news. This particular seed possessed an extraordinary history.
In the past, a significant portion of Earth's population relied on wheat as their staple food. However, about five percent of those people suffered from celiac disease.
Celiac disease was an autoimmune reaction triggered by gluten in wheat, and Korea had become the first in the world to successfully develop a seed that eliminated these allergen-inducing proteins.
Not only that, but Ofrin wheat was highly resistant to pests and diseases, could be planted in cool weather, and boasted high yields. Its protein content was said to be a whopping fourteen percent.
As far as Jeron knew, about one in ten citizens of the kingdom showed allergic reactions to wheat.
Those people were rumored to have been born with cursed bodies, but everyone kept quiet about it. It was a secret shared not just by the nobility, but by the royal family as well.
If I can just find those seeds, it'll be a jackpot.
Naturally, whenever he set out determined to scavenge a specific place, it was never easy to find.
The large stationery store and the dollar store he had discovered today were no exception.
Jeron calmed his racing heart.
Today wasn't his only chance.
While scavenging food and goods for his luxury trade strategy was important, bringing back a skilled technician like Mr. Kang was just as crucial.
Jeron spotted a small hill near the agricultural-industrial complex.
It seemed best to conduct a detailed reconnaissance from there first.
"Mister, do you see that over there?"
"Where?"
"Over by the massive tree."
A giant tree stood out inside the complex.
Near it, he could see creatures that looked like mutants moving rapidly.
"It's them."
"The complex is split between two groups of mutants. It's hard enough to handle one, but with four of them, I couldn't get anywhere near it."
Kang Yu-jung let out a soft sigh.
Though she desperately wanted to save her father, taking on all four alone would have been suicide.
She was planning to hunt them now, but before she met Jeron, she hadn't even dared to try.
"But I had to go anyway. I thought I had to save my dad, even if it cost me my life."
"If you had tried that, things would have gone horribly wrong."
"I'm just so glad. That I met you, mister."
Kang Yu-jung wore an indescribable expression as she recalled that time.
Jeron patted her shoulder.
"Save the thanks for when we rescue your father. The mutants are far apart right now—this is our chance to move."
"Right. There's a bicycle rack just ahead. I already repaired two of them."
"You had the foresight for that?"
"I obviously needed one, and I fixed the other in case the first one broke."
She said the bicycles had already been oiled and prepped.
Their first destination was the hill overlooking the complex.
Whirrr, whirrr.
Jeron and Kang Yu-jung rode south against the headwind.
Despite being fully geared for the cold, the biting wind seeped in, making them instinctively hunch their shoulders.
The national highway still presented a desolate landscape.
Vehicles crashed and overturned against the guardrails, alongside lingering scars of past explosions.
Dead leaves rolled over the asphalt, adding to the freezing atmosphere.
After riding for about ten minutes, a half-tilted road sign came into view.
Seosan Agricultural-Industrial Complex 500m
From this point on, they grew more cautious.
Knowing there were four mutants in the complex meant they had to approach as stealthily as possible.
Near the complex.
Jeron paused in front of the Ofrin farm.
World's First Ofrin Pilot Farm
Allergen-Free
High-Protein Flour Sales
Export Specialist
The farm's sign was barely hanging on.
The vast fields were frozen solid, and the greenhouses had been savagely torn apart, leaving only their skeletal frames.
Even those remaining frames showed signs of being bent and broken.
The farm was quite large, likely spanning around eight acres.
"Should we stop by the farm first?"
Kang Yu-jung stopped as well.
But Jeron shook his head.
He understood how anxious she was, but still.
"No. We can get goods anytime, but we can't replace a person."
"Thank you."
"Maybe not as much as you, but I want to rescue your father too."
And not just for the technical skills he possessed.
Kang Yu-jung also knew how close of a friendship Jeron and her father had built.
Living in a world with a rigid class system, she could guess how precious it was to have a friend like her father.
"Let's make sure to come back here together next time."
"Why?"
"Because I want to help."
He pushed that matter aside for now.
He didn't want to lose a survivor he had barely managed to find.
They got back on their bicycles and kept moving.
On the outskirts of the complex.
A walking trail connected to the complex came into view.
This was the destination they had spotted earlier.
Since they couldn't ride the bicycles up the trail, they parked them for a moment.
Then, they carefully climbed the hill behind the complex.
The time Jeron could spend on Earth had increased to half a day.
Because of this, his movements were incomparably more relaxed than before.
As the saying goes, it was better to be safe than sorry. Even though they knew the mutants' general locations, they couldn't rule out a sudden encounter with a roaming one.
Kang Yu-jung and Jeron walked slowly, keeping their crossbows raised.
Whoosh.
As the wind blew, eerie sounds echoed through the bare branches.
In peaceful times, one might have enjoyed it as the sound of nature, but in their current situation, it was nothing short of grotesque.
The walking trail had been neglected for so long that the asphalt was hideously cracked.
The metal structures were completely rusted, and dead leaves crunched under their feet with every step.
Since it was only a low hill, it took less than fifteen minutes to reach the top.
At the summit.
The agricultural-industrial complex lay spread out below them.
They could clearly see inside the complex with the naked eye.
Without a word, they both pulled out binoculars and began scanning the area thoroughly.
They searched desperately for any sign of Mr. Kang.
The perimeter wall surrounding the complex was horribly damaged.
Many of the shops had shattered windows and ruined entrances.
There were dozens of shop buildings here.
They ranged from seafood shops and agricultural produce stores to seed shops, farm equipment dealers, and even a blacksmith.
A large road split the complex into north and south, and the mutants seemed to have divided their territory based on that road.
It wasn't easy to find signs of human life.
To be precise, other than the wrecked cars and the mummified corpses scattered along the streets, there was no sign of anyone.
Was Mr. Kang really somewhere in there?
"Mister, look over there."
"Where?"
"The Haeoreum Seafood building."
It was a building with a half-collapsed concrete slab roof.
Near it, two mutants were leaping from roof to roof.
It was a chilling sight.
One was a normal-looking mutant, while the other was much gaunter and moved at a terrifying speed. It was clearly an evolved mutant.
"And the other two?"
"Over there."
Looking further south, he saw a muscular, bulky mutant similar to the one he had encountered a few days ago.
A strange tension hung over the entire complex.
"Are they about to fight for territory?"
"To me, it looks like they're just keeping their guard up. Their strength seems balanced."
"One thing I don't understand is why they're teaming up in pairs."
"Maybe one is protecting the other?"
"Is that possible?"
"It is if one is female and the other is male."
"That seems like a bit of a stretch."
"They're living creatures too, aren't they? It's safe to view them as creatures from another world rather than humans turned into zombies."
Jeron didn't know the origin of the mutants either.
Long-term survivors had simply put forward their own hypotheses over the years.
With the road as their boundary, the mutants kept each other in check but never actually clashed.
At the same time, they constantly searched for survivors, snatching up even the smallest animals if they spotted them.
He could see one of them chewing and swallowing a hunted rat.
As Jeron frowned, Kang Yu-jung quietly explained the situation.
"Since they travel in pairs, we have to take them out two at a time. Even if we succeed, we have to be careful. There's no guarantee the others won't come running."
It was a high-difficulty operation.
Jeron laid out the details of the plan.
"Once we deal with two of them, we'll immediately cross over to the Karen Continent. Then we'll come back a few hours later."
"That's really convenient. They can't break through the dimensional gate, right?"
"Of course not."
"Sounds like a good plan."
Having finished their discussion, they decided to deal with the northern mutants first.
The north was the territory of the gaunt evolved mutant, while the south belonged to the muscular one.
It seemed easier to handle the gaunt one first.
Jeron and Kang Yu-jung went into action.
Descending the hill as quietly as possible, they entered the northern entrance of the complex.
As they had seen from the hilltop, a massive zelkova tree stood there.
While Kang Yu-jung climbed the tree to set up a net, Jeron installed ten ankle traps.
The ankle traps were connected to the net; the moment a mutant stepped on one, the net would drop and bind them.
After finishing the traps, they climbed onto the roof of a two-story building next to the zelkova tree.
The wind was dying down, creating the perfect environment for a hunt.
"Yu-jung, ready?"
"Yes."
Kang Yu-jung was just as tense.
She had always been busy running away from mutants; this was her first time actively hunting them like this.
Once preparations were complete, Jeron dropped a packaged wild boar leg right into the middle of the ankle traps.
Thud.
The wild boar leg lay in the middle of the street.
Would the mutants really ignore it?
Sure enough, two mutants came charging from the distance at a ferocious speed.