Chapter 14
Chapter 14
The next morning.
I opened my eyes feeling refreshed.
After setting up my tactical backpack to head out to the waste hill, I removed the splint and rotated my ankle.
The throbbing pain had vanished as if it had never existed.
So it’s fully healed now.
Alright. Time to start hunting for [Blueprints].
My route would start from the ruins of the collapsed villa district near the [Workshop], then loop around to the entrance of the waste hill where I used to stay before returning.
But the moment I stepped outside the workshop, I ran into a problem I hadn’t anticipated.
“…That stands out way too much.”
The waste hill was visible in the distance.
Until now I hadn’t paid attention, but because I had shredded so much scrap metal using [Disassembly], a perfectly sliced cross-section of the hill had been exposed.
Anyone looking at it would immediately think: Something happened here.
If a shelter reconnaissance team or a sharp-eyed raider passed by and saw that, it would instantly raise suspicion.
The damage was already done.
Fortunately, the [Workshop] was located quite far away, buried beneath the villa district.
It shouldn’t cause major trouble.
If I had continued living inside that steel container, it would have been a disaster.
From now on, I needed to use [Disassembly] more carefully.
I had already planned to conserve mental energy anyway.
If I casually dismantled entire obstacles just to clear paths, my travel routes and activity zones would be completely exposed.
The materials created by [Disassembly] scattered as powder instead of forming cubes, so that part wasn’t an issue.
Come to think of it, I should also start improving the living environment.
After staying here a few days, issues like ventilation and water supply were becoming noticeable.
I had been farming [Bottled Water] while scavenging, so drinking water wasn’t a problem.
But it would be nice if I could pump groundwater freely like in the shelter.
To do that, I needed to raise my [Work Protocol] level as quickly as possible.
Target only electronics.
That was the rule.
Don’t touch the big chunks.
Just extract the valuable cores buried inside.
Precision strikes.
That was the key principle for this farming run.
Before long, I reached the ruined villa district near the workshop.
Collapsed walls and railings bent like candy sticks greeted me.
[Disassembly] only recognized targets that were clearly within sight, and I had to physically touch them to activate it.
In other words, sweeping up treasures buried several meters deep inside rubble remotely was impossible.
“Something feels like it’s down there.”
Unlike the surrounding debris, a wide flat section of wall had fallen completely onto the ground.
Whatever was beneath it might still be in decent condition.
If I dismantled something that large, I would waste the mental energy needed for electronics.
But smashing it by force would create too much noise.
Mutants would come swarming.
I picked up a suitably long steel pipe lying nearby.
I shoved the pipe deep into the gaps between the collapsed building debris.
“Hup.”
Using it as a lever and pressing down with my body weight, the massive concrete slab creaked and shifted slightly.
Even an Awakened’s physical strength couldn’t lift it.
“But now it’s possible.”
I pulled the [Mechanical Reinforced Exoskeleton] from my bag and equipped it.
This time the steel pipe bent instead, unable to withstand the weight.
Maybe I should use several pipes?
Too annoying.
I’ll just try lifting it.
“…Huh?”
To my surprise, the concrete slab slowly lifted.
My arm and leg strength had increased, and an Awakened’s waist was sturdy enough to endure the strain.
What’s underneath?
Between bricks, broken glass, and rotting wooden beams, a pale plastic object caught my eye.
After estimating the position, I lowered the slab again.
Then I walked onto the slab and prepared to use [Disassembly], but stopped.
“It’s not a pillar… let’s break it.”
Better to conserve mental energy.
Placing my palm against the concrete slab, I activated the Hydraulic Gauntlet.
Crack.
The concrete crumbled like soft fruit.
The target appeared beneath it.
A dusty, oil-stained old fan head.
The blades were broken, and the casing was cracked.
To ordinary people, it was trash.
But to me, it looked different.
[Broken AC Fan]
(Disassemblable)
The motor was still intact.
Unfortunately it wasn’t the DC motor I wanted, but it didn’t matter.
A motor was still a motor.
Maybe I could obtain a lower-tier technology blueprint.
There was no need to pull the fan out.
I simply touched it.
[Disassembly]
Whoosh.
The junk fan oxidized into blue light in my hand.
In the end, even outside the shelter I was still doing manual labor.
But it didn’t bother me.
Before, I had been forced into that labor.
Now it was work for my own future.
I thought I’d find them easily.
But if electronic devices were too heavily damaged, [Disassembly] couldn’t be used.
And there were far fewer intact items than expected.
Thinking about it, that made sense.
Ten years had passed since the collapse.
Even the Mapo Shelter warehouse had been filled with salvaged components.
Functional electronics had already been farmed long ago.
Most electronic devices were inside homes, shops, or offices.
You had to clear massive amounts of rubble just to find one.
So I changed my approach.
Instead of looking below, I looked up.
There, hanging precariously from the second-floor living room wall of a half-collapsed villa, was a black object.
A wall-mounted TV with its screen shattered like a spider web.
In this ruined world, climbing to the second or third floor was dangerous.
It made you easy to spot by [Raiders] or [Mutants].
But if I climbed briefly, used [Disassembly], and came down immediately, it should be fine.
Even if I encountered raiders, I could simply pass through a wall.
Then use [Manufacture] to rebuild the concrete afterward.
Climbing the ruins was easy for me.
The piles of rebar and concrete blocked the staircase, but I only needed to [Disassemble] enough to pass through.
Once I reached the second floor, I confirmed the TV was in fairly good condition.
It hadn’t been crushed by debris.
Based on experience, the better the condition, the more effective [Disassembly] would be.
I was excited.
A TV contained everything—display panels, a mainboard, speakers, countless circuits.
With anticipation, I grabbed the corner of the TV.
[Disassembly]
Blue light enveloped it as usual.
But—
“Ugh…”
A needle-like pain stabbed my temples.
It wasn’t just dizziness.
It felt like most of my mental energy was being drained at once.
TVs were complex.
Thousands of components and delicate circuits intertwined.
Trying to dismantle such a device without understanding its structure consumed enormous mental energy.
But the reward was sweet.
The experience gained was far heavier than when dismantling the [Broken AC Fan].
Maybe the difference in condition mattered too.
[Blueprint Fragment: LCD Panel (1/10)]
[Blueprint Fragment: Speaker Unit (1/5)]
[…]
None of these fragments were immediately useful for building drones.
But they were still technologies I could use someday.
Once the LCD panel blueprint was complete, I could install screens or monitors in the Workshop.
Besides, simply obtaining derivative blueprints still increased Work Protocol experience.
“Not bad.”
After a short rest, I continued searching the ruins.
A crushed DC fan.
This time I was sure.
[Blueprint Fragment: DC Motor (2/5)]
“Good. Three left.”
Once I collected five DC motors, the full blueprint would be complete.
Then I could move toward the higher-tier BLDC motor.
With a clear roadmap, even exhausting farming wasn’t boring.
Next was a dusty Wi-Fi router wedged between debris.
Unfortunately the Wireless Transceiver Module blueprint didn’t appear.
Instead—
[Blueprint Fragment: Low-Power Antenna (1/5)]
“Low-power antenna…”
I hadn’t expected that, but it must also be a drone component.
Take it.
Next was a built-in navigation system inside an abandoned car with its passenger window shattered.
[Blueprint Fragment: GPS Receiver Module (1/15)]
Right.
GPS would obviously be part of a drone.
As I continued sweeping through the ruins, even unknown components began appearing as blueprint fragments.
Some even completed quickly.
[Blueprint: Vacuum Chamber]
[Blueprint: Laser Irradiation Device]
[Blueprint: Quartz Oscillator]
“What the hell are these…?”
At first the names confused me.
But when I checked the item details, realization dawned.
“Ah… so that’s what it is.”
These components were used in almost every electronic device requiring precise timing.
Computer CPU clocks.
Digital watches.
GPS receivers.
Communication equipment.
My Disassembly ability was like having the most patient private tutor imaginable.
I had heard that intelligent people enjoyed studying because they understood things easily.
That was exactly how I felt now.
Every time I used [Disassembly], knowledge accumulated inside my head.
And the more I did it, the stronger my ability became.
There was nothing better.
“Alright. I’ve recovered enough. Let’s move again.”
I brushed off the dust with a grin.
Even though my body and mind were exhausted, the smile wouldn’t leave my face.
Heh.
[Blueprint: Vacuum Chamber]
[Blueprint: Laser Irradiation Device]
[Blueprint: Quartz Oscillator]
Perhaps because I had completed these three blueprints, no new fragments appeared for a while.
Only raw materials dropped.
Then I noticed a dish-shaped object half buried in rooftop rubble.
It wasn’t a household satellite TV dish.
This one was much larger, rougher, with complex exposed circuits.
“A satellite receiver?”
Before, I wouldn’t have dared touch it.
But now I could roughly estimate its value at a glance.
It was either military equipment—or something used for special purposes.
I approached and placed my hand on it.
[Disassembly]
“Ugh…!”
This headache was different.
It wasn’t just the number of parts.
The density of information flooding into my mind was on an entirely different level.
[Blueprint Fragment: Atomic Clock (1/5)]
Pressing my throbbing temples, I stared at the message window.
“…Atomic clock?”
I immediately thought of the Quartz Oscillator blueprint I had just obtained.
Quartz crystals oscillated at precise frequencies to measure time accurately.
The Atomic Clock was a higher-tier technology.
It measured time using atomic vibration frequencies—so precise it would only drift one second over tens of millions of years.
If quartz oscillators were used in watches or wireless communication modules, atomic clocks were used in ultra-precise systems like GPS.
Only after obtaining the Atomic Clock fragment did I realize the real problem.
“…I have no idea what any of this actually means.”
The knowledge entered my mind automatically.
I understood the technology itself.
But I had lived longer in the post-collapse world than before it.
I had no idea how to use it.
Half the applications listed by the system were terms I had never heard before.
“No wonder books were treated like treasure in the shelter.”
Before the collapse, almost all information was digital.
Now electricity was scarce.
It was barely enough for essential survival devices like refrigerators and groundwater pumps.
So books had become extremely valuable.
But even books wouldn’t help me much.
Finding the exact book containing the information I needed would be like picking stars from the sky.
“If only there were someone I could ask.”
The face of Section Chief Kim came to mind.
If Section Chief Choi supervised the B1 carrier teams, Section Chief Kim oversaw B3—the level where I worked.
He had said he used to be a professor before the collapse.
Maybe that was why he took interest in someone like me who wanted to learn.
He had secretly let me read books and taught me many things.
I had forgotten about him.
But remembering him now left me strangely melancholic.
“No more blueprint fragments… maybe I’ll make a watch.”
I had gained plenty of Disassembly experience.
Trying Manufacture wouldn’t be bad.
Once Work Protocol reached level 3, Disassembly would become stronger too.
Most people outside now guessed the time by the sun’s position.
If the sun was overhead, it was noon.
If the sky dimmed, it was evening.
That was it.
In a world where electricity was precious, mechanical watches belonged only to the privileged.
In the shelter, broken watches salvaged from ruins had been sorted separately.
Even if the glass was shattered or the band broken, if the mechanical movement was intact, it was treated as strategic material.
“Those were all sent to the Capital Defense Command.”
In military operations, timing was everything.
They were willing to pay anything for accurate time.
A bitter memory resurfaced.
Years ago, a B-grade mutant appeared near Mapo Shelter.
A monster far beyond the shelter’s defensive force.
Everyone thought they were going to die.
Then suddenly the armored division of the Capital Defense Command appeared and crushed the mutant.
People praised them as saviors.
But the rumors that surfaced later were shocking.
Before arriving at Mapo, the mutant had already destroyed two smaller shelters.
Mapo Shelter had been saved only because it regularly paid tribute.
They weren’t soldiers.
Not shields protecting the nation.
They were a massive armed organization operating strictly on interests.
And the power that made that possible—
Was the genuine technology created by the pre-collapse nation that they monopolized.
Satellite communication systems from aerospace research labs.
Semiconductor manufacturing equipment from advanced precision factories.
K-series self-propelled artillery and tanks.
“…Could I dismantle those with my ability too? And rebuild them?”
My heart pounded wildly.
If I could dismantle them myself, understand their structures, and reproduce them in the workshop—
No.
Create something even better.
A faint smile appeared on my lips.
The Capital Defense Command—the power even the shelter elites bowed to?
Even they wouldn’t be able to do anything to me.