Inevitable, Not Coincidental (3)
A deafening roar erupted as a hail of bullets swept through the air.
Blood pooled from the corpses scattered in every direction, and mutants prowled the grounds, tearing the raiders to shreds.
Park Dae-sung spotted his destination ahead.
Boom!
He hurled an explosive at the building. One of the walls collapsed, exposing the interior.
And with it, the horror inside.
"You absolute bastards!"
A furious roar burst from Park Dae-sung's throat.
Human corpses hung inside the building like carcasses in a butcher shop.
The solar-powered cooling system kept the air freezing, and the cold draft escaping into the warm air created a thick, white mist.
Park Dae-sung's eyes turned bloodshot.
"Elder! We don't have time!"
Yoon's urgent shout snapped Park Dae-sung back to reality.
They had resorted to this reckless plan because they both had something to achieve.
Knowing they couldn't breach the stronghold with just the two of them, they had devised the highly dangerous plan of drawing the mutants in.
For the past week, these raiders had worked tirelessly to lure the mutants roaming the city center out to the outskirts.
Their efforts had paid off, significantly reducing the mutant population inside the city.
But the flip side of that coin was that making this much noise would draw the mutants wandering the outskirts right back to this location.
Since the captives were destined to be eaten by the raiders anyway, they figured creating chaos was their only shot.
The core of the plan was for Park Dae-sung and Yoon to use the distraction to rescue their respective loved ones.
They had prepared for this day for a long time, and once they were ready, they executed it without hesitation.
Finally, Park Dae-sung arrived in front of the warehouse where he suspected his granddaughter was being held.
Click.
But then.
Behind them, a raider baring yellowed teeth aimed a gun at their backs.
"Heh, did you think only we were gonna die? We're taking you with us!"
The man was completely out of his mind, high on drugs.
Most of the raiders didn't live in a sober state of mind.
Seeing that he didn't look despairing even in this situation, he had likely inhaled a near-lethal dose of inhalants.
Despair filled the eyes of Park Dae-sung and Yoon.
Splat!
Just as they thought the mission had failed, the raider's head exploded.
Blood and brain matter sprayed in all directions.
Park Dae-sung and Yoon stood frozen, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
"What in the world...?"
It wasn't a shot fired by another raider.
Park Dae-sung turned his gaze toward the mountainside, the direction from which the bullet had likely traveled.
A scope glinted in the distance.
Whoever it was, they had saved them from the brink of death.
Park Dae-sung gave a brief nod of gratitude toward the mountain and pushed forward.
The inside of the building was freezing.
The bodies of survivors hung like meat, and on one side lay the grim remnants of where they had been butchered.
Foul-smelling plastic bins were piled high with entrails, and severed heads with wide, staring eyes lined the floor.
It was a gruesome scene straight out of hell.
There were two holding cells in total.
The raiders had thrown people into this refrigerator-like facility and left them to rot.
Park Dae-sung and Yoon's voices echoed through the space.
"Ji-eun! Are you there?"
"Honey!"
They searched frantically for their loved ones.
Even in their panic, they did not forget to unlock the cell doors.
There were about ten people in each cell, but half of them had already frozen to death.
"Th-thank you!"
A few of the survivors immediately bolted out of the cells.
If they were lucky, they might escape both the mutants and the raiders.
"Grandpa!"
A teenage girl shouted from the second cell.
Park Dae-sung's face lit up.
Bang!
He shattered the padlock with a gunshot.
He saw his granddaughter shivering in the corner of the cell.
The elderly and the weak had already perished, leaving only a few relatively healthy men and women alive. The moment the door opened, those who could move scrambled out.
Park Dae-sung stripped off his coat and wrapped it around his granddaughter.
"My sweet girl, you've been through so much."
"Grandpa... I..."
"Save your breath. We are getting out of here together."
His granddaughter nodded silently.
Even now, bullets rained down outside.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
"Aaaargh!"
"Nooo!"
The area outside the warehouse was a warzone.
It was tragic, but from here on out, it was every man for himself.
Opening the cell doors in this living hell was already an act of immense mercy on Park Dae-sung's part. He had no obligation to ensure their safe escape.
Park Dae-sung passed the first cell.
There, Yoon was cradling the corpse of a young woman, weeping hysterically.
"Honey! Open your eyes! Honey!"
"My friend! Your wife has already passed. It is tragic, but we must leave now!"
"Ugh! I'm... I'm fine. Thank you for everything."
Yoon seemed to have already accepted his fate.
Though they had met by chance, they had worked toward the same goal.
He was one of the few sane people left in this godforsaken world.
Losing Yoon like this was devastating, but Park Dae-sung was not alone.
He had to escape with his granddaughter, who could barely walk after being locked in the cold room for so long. He did not have the strength to drag Yoon out as well.
Park Dae-sung made a swift decision.
"Thank you for standing by me until now."
"I hope to see you in the next life."
Ping! Ping!
Yoon pulled the pins of his grenades, his face set with grim determination. He was ready to leave this world.
Park Dae-sung had seen countless people fall into despair.
To find the will to live in this wretched world, one needed an anchor.
If Park Dae-sung had found his granddaughter's corpse instead, he would have made the exact same choice as Yoon.
Not many could lose everyone they loved and carry on as if nothing had happened.
Park Dae-sung bid farewell to Yoon and ran toward the back exit.
Yoon would hold the front for at least a brief moment.
A voice filled with despair echoed through the area.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
"Aaaaah! Die, you bastards!"
The rapid fire of an assault rifle rang out.
Just as Park Dae-sung and his granddaughter slipped out the back door, a massive explosion rocked the warehouse.
Kaboom!
While gunpowder weapons weren't very effective against those tough mutants, a grenade blast would at least slow their advance.
Park Dae-sung ran along his pre-planned route.
He paid no attention to the raiders' shelter, which had now devolved into absolute chaos.
His only focus was survival.
Entering the forest, Park Dae-sung and his granddaughter hid behind a massive tree, gasping for breath.
"Skreeeech!"
But a problem arose.
Mutants had followed them.
Is this the end?
Park Dae-sung's physical condition was as good as any young man's, but the journey here had drained his stamina.
And his granddaughter?
She was still unable to move properly due to prolonged exposure to the freezing cold.
All he had left was a single handgun.
Park Dae-sung made up his mind.
It was better to end their own lives here than to be eaten alive by mutants.
"My child, I am sorry."
"It's... it's okay, Grandpa. I got to see you again. I have no regrets."
"Haha..."
Park Dae-sung swallowed a bitter sigh.
He had spent years searching for his granddaughter.
He had lost many people in his life, but his heart had never ached as much as it did today.
His last remaining hope of survival was about to be snuffed out.
Click.
Park Dae-sung intended to send his granddaughter first.
He didn't care if he was torn apart by mutants, but he couldn't bear to let his granddaughter suffer that agony.
Just as he was about to pull the trigger—
Whoosh!
Arrows that could only be described as waves of light streaked through the air, striking two mutants.
Boom!
"Skreeeech!"
Black fluid sprayed from the mutants' bodies.
Their movements slowed down drastically.
Park Dae-sung looked toward the direction the arrows had come from.
There stood a foreign boy, heavily armed, radiating a mysterious energy.
A blue light enveloped the youth.
Could it be... that power?
The mutants had also grown stronger after using a similar blue light.
And now, a human was wielding that very power?
Another arrow of light flew, this time piercing the mutants' heads.
Thud! Thud!
"Skreeeech!"
The creatures collapsed.
Whether they were dead or not, it had bought them precious time.
"Elder! This way!"
Fluent Korean reached Park Dae-sung's ears.
He hoisted his granddaughter onto his back and squeezed out the last of his strength.
"Skreeeech!"
As expected.
The commotion was drawing even more mutants up the mountain.
Park Dae-sung finally came face-to-face with the foreign boy.
He was dressed peculiarly.
He wore armor that looked like it belonged to a medieval knight, but he carried a modern outdoor backpack and had a sniper rifle slung over his shoulder.
With a sword at his waist and a crossbow attached to his pack, he looked anything but ordinary.
The boy guided Park Dae-sung and his granddaughter behind a thick tree.
Park Dae-sung's eyes widened in sheer disbelief.
As if by magic, a portal connecting to another location materialized before them.
"Let's go."
"No, what is this...?"
"If you stay here, you'll die. I went through all the trouble of saving you, so why would I lead you to a bad place?"
Park Dae-sung nodded.
This boy had saved them.
If he wanted them dead, he wouldn't have gone through all this trouble.
The boy possessed extraordinary abilities, and it was a stroke of divine luck that they had crossed paths with him.
The old man and his granddaughter took the boy's hand and stepped through the portal.
Swoosh!
With a sensation like passing through a surface of water, they arrived in a completely different place.
The boy hastily closed the portal behind them.
"..."
They were in a room that looked perfectly safe.
The phrase 'dumbfounded' was invented for situations exactly like this.
Before they could even process what was happening, the boy turned around and smiled.
"Are either of you hurt?"
***
This was the lord's chamber in Castle Rebion.
The grandfather and granddaughter were so shocked that they couldn't utter a single word.
Jeron understood their state of mind completely, so he sat quietly in his chair and waited.
It had been an incredibly close call.
If the other escapees from the cells hadn't bought them time, the two might not have made it out alive.
Furthermore, if that middle-aged man hadn't sacrificed himself, they likely wouldn't have survived either.
Their escape was the result of many complex factors aligning perfectly.
Is this old man really the person Kang spoke of?
The thought lingered in Jeron's mind.
Kang had told him that he was able to make it this far because of an old man he met at the brink of death.
Thanks to that old man, Kang had acquired advanced technology, suggesting the elder's background was far from ordinary.
The old man Jeron saw today also moved with unusual precision.
His movements were professional enough to rival special forces, and the weapons he used during the battle were extraordinary.
An automated machine gun?
That was a level of technology even the current Kang couldn't replicate.
After some time had passed, the old man composed himself and spoke in a calm voice.
"Thank you. It couldn't have been easy to help someone in a world like that."
"It used to be the natural thing to do."
"Haha, so you know about the old days?"
"I can't explain everything right now, but yes, I know quite well."
"I was truly shocked earlier. Your ability to wield that mysterious power, and how we traveled to a completely different place..."
"Elder, this is not Earth."
"Not... Earth?"
"Yes. This is a different world from Earth. In other words, you have crossed dimensions."
"...That is hard to believe."
"You don't have to look far. Just look out the window."
The old man stood up and walked over to the terrace.
Though the territory was still shrouded in darkness, a bright moon illuminated the city.
It was a highly developed city, with sentries keeping a strict watch atop high stone walls.
But the most shocking sight of all was the three moons hanging in the sky.
It was undeniable proof that this was not Earth.
Jeron approached the stunned old man.
"Elder, by any chance, do you know a man named Kang? He used to run a blacksmith shop, and I heard you saved him while he was searching for his daughter."
"K-Kang?! Do you mean Kang from the blacksmith shop in Eumyang-myeon?"