A Damned World

Jeron lingered for a moment, keeping a close eye on the surroundings.

With a commotion of this scale, they would be lucky if mutants didn't come swarming in.

A cold wind pierced through his collar.

The stench of blood drifted up from the asphalt.

The scene laid out before him was nothing short of a horror movie.

When the area remained quiet even after five minutes had passed, Jeron cautiously made his way down the mountain slope.

Stepping onto the road to inspect the scene only made him frown deeper.

Following the smeared trails of blood stretching across the ground, he found a young man and a young woman lying in opposite directions. Both had already succumbed to excessive blood loss.

The scavengers had shot the couple in the thighs, crippling them just to watch them crawl along the road in a desperate bid for survival. To make matters worse, they had riddled their chests and necks with bullets, leaving them absolutely no chance of survival.

If left like this, the bodies would only become food for the mutants. Within a few days, they would undoubtedly vanish without a trace.

Had Jeron not learned magic, he would have walked away, but now he could easily give them a proper burial.

He carried the bodies of the elderly man and the young couple down the mountain slope.

"Dig."

Mana surged ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠violently.

While magic relied heavily on the mana stored within one's circles, the ambient mana in the surroundings also influenced the spell's strength.

Even though he used only a minuscule amount of his own mana, a massive hand materialized and excavated the earth in an instant.

Jeron paid his respects to the newly made graves before returning to the road.

He left the scavengers' corpses exactly where they lay.

Those merciless bastards deserved no dignity in death.

Furthermore, he intended to claim everything they ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had carried.

"Three rifles, one pistol, and two magazines. Not a bad haul."

Both scavengers wore watches on their wrists.

Perhaps out of vanity, both the man and the woman wore Rolexes.

He couldn't think of an immediate use for them, but he gathered them as spoils of war anyway.

In addition, each scavenger carried a multi-tool knife, and he found a few packs of cigarettes in their pockets.

"Mr. Kang will love these."

It wasn't that the Karen Continent lacked tobacco, but Jeron never went out of his way to smoke.

In the primitive medieval world, people believed tobacco was good for one's health, but from a modern perspective, it was nothing more than toxic smoke that ruined the body.

Still, Mr. Kang was a heavy smoker who usually puffed away on terrible, low-grade tobacco, so this would make an excellent gift.

After stripping the scavengers of their belongings, Jeron inspected the interior of their truck.

The cabin reeked of stale cigarette smoke and a heavy, chemical scent of glue. As expected, these scavengers weren't roaming this ruined world in their right minds.

Two bottles of whiskey rolled around in a corner of the vehicle. He also found a pair of sunglasses in an eyeglass case and took those as well.

Jeron briefly contemplated pulling the car battery but decided against it.

Dismantling vehicles wasn't his area of expertise, and if he truly needed it, he could always bring Mr. Kang along later. Besides, they already had spare batteries back at the shelter.

Once he tossed all the items through the portal, his rather unpleasant farming run came to an end.

Leaving the blood-scented road behind, Jeron mounted his bicycle.

Click. Clack.

The noisy rotation of the pedals echoed along the national highway.

After a thirty-minute ride, Jeron arrived in Eumyang-myeon.

He had only stopped by because he had to pass through Eumyang-myeon to reach the shelter, not because he intended to scavenge here.

He paused for a moment in front of the detached house where he had spent so much time with his family in his past life.

Though Jeron usually carried himself as if nothing was wrong, the trauma of his past life had not fully healed.

It might have been different if he never returned to Earth, but scavenging here every few days naturally dragged up old memories.

Before he knew it, he was opening the front gate.

The house still looked like an abandoned ruin, but it was more than enough to evoke the past.

A phantom image of his wife flashed before his eyes—standing by the gate, waiting anxiously for him to return from a life-threatening scavenging run.

A mundane yet precious conversation between husband and wife.

Jeron had always risked his life to support his family, and returning home safely to see his children's faces had been the highlight of his day.

Three graves sat neatly in a corner of the yard.

Despite the biting cold, Jeron sat in front of his wife's grave and chewed on a piece of beef jerky.

Sitting still after riding his bicycle caused his sweat to dry, rapidly dropping his body temperature.

"I'll come back again."

He cut his sentimental thoughts short.

Jeron mounted his bicycle once more and pedaled hard.

Eumyang-myeon remained locked in its usual desolate state.

There was no sign of human life, nor any mutants.

This land had been utterly abandoned by living things.

With not even animals remaining, it felt as though he was the last soul left on Earth.

The sign of Yuhan Pharmacy, where he had first obtained antibiotics, was now tattered and hanging by a thread.

The wasteland, untouched by human hands, was decaying further with each passing day.

Whir!

Jeron rode past the town center and reached the outskirts.

A cold wind blew from the north, dragging the temperature down even further.

A small river lay completely frozen.

Following the road that ran alongside the riverbank, he reached an area nestled between the mountains and the water.

Jeron immediately recognized the strategic value of this location.

With the river right below the mountain, fresh water was guaranteed, and they could catch freshwater fish for food.

They could live deep in the mountains and only descend when they needed to gather food. It was an ideal survival site.

Behind the river, a path barely wide enough for a single vehicle wound up the mountain.

Though it lay completely exposed now, it looked as though it had once been camouflaged to block entry.

"Tire tracks."

A bad sign.

These tracks looked relatively fresh.

The fact that the camouflage had been left undone meant the people who once lived up there were likely dead.

It was highly probable that mutants had visited this place recently.

Jeron set his bicycle aside, slung his backpack over his shoulders, and began walking up the mountain path.

Shhh!

The wind blew, scraping rotten leaves across the ground.

Tree branches swayed violently on either side.

His nerves grew taut.

After walking up the path for some time, he spotted an off-road vehicle that had crashed into a tree and flipped over.

Inside the vehicle, a skeletal corpse remained slumped over the steering wheel, its head resting against the horn.

Judging by the state of the remains, the accident had occurred less than a year ago.

Having lived in a ruined world for so long, he could estimate the time of death simply by looking at the rate of decay.

If people had lived here until a year ago, the timeline didn't align with Kang Yu-jung or her father. They had abandoned the shelter three years prior.

Taking his time, Jeron took a detour and reached a hill overlooking the shelter.

There stood a fairly old lookout post.

Mr. Kang had mentioned building it back when he lived at the shelter.

Without that information, Jeron would have never known a lookout post even existed in a place like this.

Jeron peered down at the shelter through his binoculars.

A gruesome sight unfolded before him.

"What on earth happened here?"

Bloodstains and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mangled corpses littered the area.

Judging by the piles of bones, roughly twenty people had met their end here.

Adjusting the focus of his binoculars, he noticed clean holes pierced through several of the skulls.

Some of these people hadn't been killed by mutants.

The clues suggested a clash had broken out between the survivors and a group of scavengers.

And then, the mutants must have swarmed the place afterward.

Since the destruction of the shelter also seemed to have occurred about a year ago, he concluded there was no immediate threat.

Jeron cautiously scanned his surroundings as he descended toward the shelter.

Up close, the devastation was even worse than it had appeared from afar.

Household goods lay scattered everywhere, spent shell casings littered the ground, and trails of blood marked the desperate paths of those who had tried to flee.

Smashed vehicles, discarded firearms, and even severed limbs lay strewn about.

He doubted hell itself could look any worse.

On one side of the shelter, he spotted a camper van that likely belonged to Mr. Kang.

Clicking his tongue, Jeron began gathering the weapons first.

"Twenty-three crossbows and twelve firearms."

A decent harvest.

Finding twenty-three mechanical crossbows was a massive windfall.

Even Mr. Kang had mentioned that crafting such precise crossbows was no easy task. Though they were old and worn, they could easily be restored to mint condition once they passed through the hands of a skilled engineer.

Inside the half-collapsed tents, he found canned food, alcohol, lighters, and lamps.

The fact that these survival supplies remained untouched meant ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the place hadn't been looted over the past year.

Jeron piled the weapons and useful items in one spot, then decided to check the camper van.

The interior of the camper showed clear signs of habitation and remnants of modern civilization.

A bathroom, a kitchen, a bedroom, a refrigerator, a microwave, and even an air conditioner.

Though worn, such amenities in a ruined world were luxurious enough to rival a hotel.

Solar panels were installed on the roof of the camper, and electricity was still running inside.

A workshop-like space remained at the back of the vehicle, housing a considerable number of tools and components.

It seemed someone had tried to carry on Mr. Kang's work of crafting weapons, as several failed prototypes rolled around the floor.

The true prize here was the mechanical parts.

"Not bad."

He would definitely need to bring Mr. Kang here at some point.

Since there were no signs of mutants or hostile survivors, bringing Mr. Kang to salvage the necessary equipment and parts would greatly accelerate the development of the territory.

With the scavenging mostly finished, Jeron recalled the diary of the deceased survivor before preparing to return to the Karen Continent.

The owner of the diary had asked whoever found it to take the crossbows and bury his family's remains.

Since he had already resolved to fulfill that request, he set out to find them.

Jeron looked around.

So many bodies were tangled together that it was impossible to tell who was who.

He could only estimate their location based on the diary's description.

Moving slightly away from the main shelter, he spotted a pine tree with a heavily bent trunk.

Perhaps due to a pine wilt disease outbreak, this was the only pine tree left standing in the area.

"Is it around here?"

He doubted whether the bodies would still be intact after all this time.

Searching around the pine tree, Jeron discovered the mummified remains of a woman and a child who appeared to be around four or five years old.

The man's memory had been accurate.

His family had died exactly where he said they did.

Jeron gathered the remains, just as he had done on the road earlier.

With this, his goal was accomplished.

The mana of the Golden Key would likely run dry after transporting all these weapons, so he planned to cross back over to the Karen Continent now.

Thud.

Just then, Jeron's foot caught on something.

It was a broken dashcam.

It must have been thrown from one of the vehicles when it flipped over.

After a brief hesitation, Jeron pulled out the memory card and pocketed it.

I hope I can connect this to a smartphone.