A Fated Encounter
Leaving the industrial complex behind, Jeron mounted his bicycle.
It would take about an hour and a half to reach Yujin Industries.
Though the distance was considerable, he was in no particular hurry, so he pedaled slowly, keeping his ears tuned to the surrounding environment.
Just five minutes away from the Seosan Industrial Complex lay Seosan Central Hospital.
Following the highway straight past the hospital would lead him directly into downtown Seosan.
As Jeron rode past the front of the hospital, he came to a sudden halt.
"Why is it so quiet?"
Even from a distance, there was absolutely no sign of movement within the hospital grounds.
Jeron found this highly suspicious.
On a ruined Earth, food and water were the top priorities, but medicine was a very close second.
Long-term survivors knew all too well just how crucial medical supplies were.
Since pharmaceutical companies no longer existed, survivors raided pharmacies and hospitals at every opportunity.
And if the target was a general hospital?
It meant access to high-value medications that could never be found in a neighborhood pharmacy.
In a world ravaged by disease, a hospital was a destination every survivor had to visit at least once—which also meant the risk of encountering mutants was exceptionally high.
For such a prime scavenging spot to be this quiet was cause for suspicion.
"Did the mutants migrate toward the noise when those raiders were running around Seosan firing their guns?"
It was a reasonable assumption.
If so, it meant the hospital was likely empty.
Jeron hesitated, tempted to go inside and investigate, but ultimately got back on his bicycle.
A logistics company like Yujin Industries was one thing, but a hospital interior was far too dangerous.
Even if it looked quiet, it could be a survivor shelter, and in that case, he couldn't rule out the possibility of getting shot.
Raiding a hospital required much more caution.
The day to scavenge the hospital might come eventually, but that day was not today.
"Once my mana capacity increases, I should bring a squad of knights with me."
To deal with mutants effectively, he needed a force at least equivalent to a knight order.
Smacking his lips in anticipation, Jeron turned toward Seosan at the interchange in front of the hospital.
The road conditions remained abysmal.
Neglected for years, the asphalt was cracked and buckled, and abandoned vehicles littered the lanes.
The air felt somewhat warm.
Green shoots were pushing their way through the cracks in the asphalt.
Mana flowed into him, rich and abundant. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but the mana felt far more active now that spring had arrived compared to the winter.
Jeron breathed deeply, circulating the mana through his body. Thanks to this, he felt none of the usual side effects of sleep deprivation.
He had grown so accustomed to the desolate scenery that it now felt almost peaceful.
Until a sudden explosion shattered the silence.
Boom!
Startled, Jeron instinctively ducked.
"Are those crazy bastards at it again?"
He quickly pulled his bicycle over to the shoulder, ready to dive for cover at a moment's notice.
This time, the explosion had sounded relatively close.
Mutants were highly sensitive to sound. If there were any active in the area, they would be swarming toward the source of the blast.
He scanned his surroundings intently.
—Skreeeech!
A chilling screech echoed, drawing closer to his position.
Judging by the sound, there was more than just one or two.
Jeron quickly hid beneath a half-collapsed bus. He braced himself, ready to open a dimensional portal if things went south.
Opening a portal consumed a massive amount of mana, so he preferred to avoid it if possible, but in an emergency, he would have no choice.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The ground trembled faintly as mutants began to flood the road.
The light, agile variants couldn't possibly make this much noise; there had to be muscular, hulking evolved mutants mixed in among them.
Jeron kept his eyes glued to the road.
Judging by the chaotic flurry of footsteps, there were easily over twenty of them.
It seemed the raiders had been working hard to lure the beasts out to the city outskirts while Jeron was away on the Karen Continent.
The mutants swept past in a flash.
Boom! Boom!
Another series of explosions rang out, and the mutants instantly veered sharply toward the noise.
"..."
It felt as though a hurricane had just swept by.
Jeron crawled out from under the bus and tried to pinpoint the source of the noise.
"It sounds like it's near the downtown area."
He frowned.
This forced him to alter his route slightly.
It was vital to map out the exact movement paths of the mutants.
In this godforsaken world, even a moment of carelessness could be fatal. Even someone as capable as Jeron could be torn to shreds in seconds if surrounded by a few evolved mutants, so caution was paramount.
Sighing, Jeron looked around for any high ground.
Rather than heading straight into the city, it was safer to scout the area first.
Fortunately, there was a low hill nearby.
Jeron veered off the highway and began his ascent.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Boom!
Even as he climbed, the thunderous din of battle continued to echo.
At this rate, it wasn't just a simple accident; someone was actively fighting.
A war between humans, perhaps?
By now, the survivors must have realized that firearms were largely ineffective against mutants, whose physical defenses could easily shrug off bullets.
Yet, the conflicts between humans never ceased, even after the end of the world.
Clashes between survivor groups and raiders were common, and whenever organized factions collided, bloodshed was inevitable.
He had thought enough time had passed that those capable of waging war had died out, but apparently, that was not the case.
The hill Jeron was climbing was a local park with a designated hiking trail.
Though overgrown from years of neglect, the stone steps remained relatively clear of weeds.
The scenery blurred past him as he moved.
Since reaching the 2nd Circle, Jeron's physical conditioning had reached absurd levels. A simple hiking trail was nothing to him now.
Even his backpack felt light, proof of the overall physical enhancement he had undergone.
Before long, Jeron reached a flat clearing halfway up the hill.
It was a wide, open space.
Various outdoor exercise machines stood rusted and abandoned, and a smashed vending machine caught his eye.
It was a common sight in this ruined world.
Jeron immediately walked to the edge of the clearing and raised his binoculars.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Locating the source of the noise was easy.
The gunfire was still ringing out continuously.
Roughly two hundred meters away.
An astonishing sight unfolded before his eyes.
A shelter built into the hillside was being assaulted by just two individuals.
It was a fairly large shelter, yet its defenders were being systematically cut down one by one.
'Is that a raider camp?'
He couldn't fully grasp the situation yet.
As for the attackers?
They were two remarkably swift men.
They moved around planting explosives, while an unmanned machine gun set up at the bottom of the slope spewed fire.
The attackers looked like ordinary survivors.
One was an elderly man who looked to be over sixty, and the other was a middle-aged man in his mid-forties.
Just two men were utterly dismantling an entire settlement.
They were highly proficient with modern firearms, and their movements were exceptionally disciplined.
With so few humans left alive, what kind of grudge could drive them to completely obliterate a survivor camp?
As the explosions continued to rock the area, the noise finally drew the mutants, who began to tear into the settlement.
Boom!
Buildings began to collapse one after another.
As several structures crumbled, the wall of one particular building blew outward.
And revealed a horrifying sight.
"Those sick bastards!"
Fury surged within Jeron at the gruesome spectacle, a sight he hadn't seen in a long time.
Truthfully, he had no intention of getting involved in this fight. He had only climbed up here to scout.
In this era, the line between good and evil was incredibly blurry, and interfering risked drawing unnecessary resentment.
Not meddling in the conflicts of others was an unwritten rule among Earth's survivors.
But he could not turn a blind eye to cannibals.
Even in a lawless world, there were lines that should never be crossed.
Jeron finally understood the actions of the elderly man and the middle-aged man.
He understood why they were fighting so fiercely to destroy this place.
"If it were me, I'd have shot them all too."
Inside the ruptured building, human corpses were hung up like butchered meat.
Severed limbs were scattered everywhere, and bodies hung upside down from the ceiling.
It was nothing short of a slaughterhouse.
To make matters worse, living humans were locked in cages on one side like livestock, fueling Jeron's rage even further.
Click.
Jeron immediately set up his sniper rifle and attached a silencer to the barrel.
Helping them was fine, but he couldn't risk his own life to do it.
Tracking the movements of the two men, Jeron calculated how he could best assist them.
Danger lurked everywhere.
As the mutants ran amok, tearing the raiders apart, the two men were pushing their way toward the cages amidst the chaos.
Jeron could piece together what had happened.
If a loved one had been kidnapped by these monsters, such a vengeful crusade was entirely justified.
In a world with laws and order, vigilante justice might be condemned, but this was a dead world.
Irredeemable trash like this was better off dead.
Pfft!
Whenever the two men were about to be overwhelmed, Jeron fired a shot.
Some of his targets were mutants.
While it was difficult to kill mutants with a rifle, he could easily provide support.
By distracting the mutants, he created openings for the two men to advance.
Watching their high-stakes acrobatics made his palms sweat.
The elderly man and his companion maneuvered deftly, narrowly escaping the clutches of the mutants time and again.
Utilizing the rubble and buildings for cover, they displayed tactical movements that surpassed even elite special forces.
Then again, anyone who had survived this long couldn't possibly be ordinary.
Mr. Kang and his daughter had shown impressive skills, but they were nothing compared to these two.
Finally, the men reached the human pens.
Just then, a raider snuck up behind them and aimed a gun.
Pfft! Pfft!
Jeron pulled the trigger without hesitation.
The raiders aiming at them collapsed, their heads pierced by his bullets.
The elderly man's gaze suddenly shifted toward Jeron's direction.
Although the distance was too great for the man to actually see him, he gave a slight nod. He had realized that someone was watching over them.
The two men then disappeared into the structure housing the cages.
Watching the elderly man's extraordinary movements, Jeron suddenly recalled something Mr. Kang had mentioned before.
"The old man is barely 160 centimeters tall, but his movements put special forces to shame. You could call him a true survival expert."
"Surely... that can't be the same old man Mr. Kang was talking about?"