Chapter 20
Chapter 20
One of Hammer’s subordinates forced open the chest of the [Giant Mole] and pulled out a gemstone emitting a brilliant glow.
“Boss, that’s the third one!”
Hammer stuffed the core brought by his subordinates into his pocket and then shoved it into his backpack.
“See those bastards drooling while watching from up there?”
“Yes. Their expressions are quite something.”
Hammer grinned, baring his yellow teeth.
“Those idiots living comfortably under that pig bastard, collecting their salary every month—they’ll never escape that pathetic life. It may look safe for now, but in the end they’re nothing but dogs being raised in a kennel.”
He swung his sledgehammer once to shake the blood off and slung it over his shoulder.
“It’s been ten years since the world turned upside down. In this business, the only things you can trust are experience points and your own body. You have to grind your way up with your own strength to become the top dog. Got it?”
“We’ll remember that!”
Respect shone in the eyes of his subordinates.
Hammer wasn’t just strong.
He was a leader with his own philosophy.
Though that philosophy was built on the brutal barbarism of survival of the fittest.
One of the raiders watching him spoke with emotion.
“Hearing you talk reminds me of the old days. Ten years ago, when we were locked up in the Mapo police holding cell. If I hadn’t met Brother Karambit, Sister Viper, and Brother Hammer back then, I’d have died on the streets.”
Holding cell.
At that word, Hammer’s eyes narrowed.
That day ten years ago.
The night of chaos when the Collapse began.
The law of the world crumbled, and a world where violence alone ruled arrived.
“Yeah. We got lucky.”
Hammer chuckled.
“Remember when we caught those cops screaming while running away, broke one leg each, and threw them to the mutants?”
“Hah, how could I forget! While the mutants were busy tearing them apart, we looted the armory and escaped! Hahaha!”
“The world’s become a good place. Back then we’d have gotten life in prison. Now guys like us are the law—and justice.”
“That’s right, boss! We’ll awaken soon too and each grab our own territory!”
“Yeah. Keep working hard and be patient. Even if you can’t find your talent, you can still awaken by forcing enough experience points.”
Hammer gripped the handle of his sledgehammer tightly.
“When all of you awaken and you’re ready, we’ll gut that pig bastard and become the rulers of Mapo. We just have to trust Brother Karambit and follow him.”
“Yes, boss!”
Standing on a road thick with the smell of blood, they talked as if they owned the world.
“Tch. We’ve wasted too much time. Sister Viper’s going to be pissed. Check the drone’s location.”
One subordinate immediately pulled out a crumpled paper map from his pocket.
It was a crude handmade map of Mapo District drawn with a ballpoint pen.
He traced a route with his finger and nodded.
“About 600 meters away. If we go straight from here, we’ll reach it soon!”
Compared to the workshop’s map that marked GPS coordinates in real time, it was a pitiful analog method.
But for most people, it was the best they had.
“Good. Move quickly.”
Hammer led the way, crossing the center of Gongdeok Five-Way Intersection.
But when they passed the center and approached the southwest side near the old Gongdeok Station entrance—
“See that?”
Hammer pointed his chin toward the subway exit.
The entrance had been completely sealed with thick concrete walls.
Above it, faded yellow caution tape remained, along with a crudely sprayed warning message in red paint.
[DANGER — NO ENTRY]
An ominous atmosphere.
The subordinates swallowed nervously.
“Yeah… I heard about that. Early in the Collapse, soldiers went inside to build a shelter…”
“Rumor says an entire battalion entered there and not a single one came back.”
“Is there… some monster inside? Like a plant-type Aberrant?”
“It’s all classified military information, so no one knows. The strange thing is that everyone who went in just… vanished.”
“Vanished?”
“Yeah. Nothing’s known about it. That’s what makes it scary. So stay quiet when passing by.”
Near Exit 3 of Gongdeok Station.
An access road leading into a collapsed apartment complex.
The alleyway was thick with shadows.
At sunset, it looked like a place where ghosts would emerge at any moment.
A perfect location for an ambush.
Walking at the front, Hammer suddenly raised his fist.
“Stop.”
The three men behind him instantly halted and took up defensive positions.
Hammer signaled with his chin.
“From here on, those rat bastards might pop out. Tell Sister Viper to prepare covering fire. We’re moving in.”
“Yes, sir.”
One subordinate grabbed the radio mic attached to his military vest.
“Viper, Viper. This is Hammer. We’re approaching the target location. Respond if you hear this. Over.”
But only silence returned.
[Kzzzt… kzzzt…]
Only harsh white noise crackled through the speaker like metal scraping.
The subordinate looked flustered and slapped the side of the radio.
“Huh? Sister? Can you hear me?”
No response.
Hammer frowned deeply and clicked his tongue.
“Cleaning that scope again? Damn germaphobe.”
“No… it’s not that. The connection seems dead. Just noise… like the power’s out.”
Annoyed, Hammer shoved him aside and pressed the in-ear receiver in his own ear.
“Brother Karambit, this is Hammer. We’ve arrived at the site. Signs of the rat bas—”
[KZZZZZZZT!]
“AAARGH!”
A sharp noise pierced directly into his ear.
Hammer screamed and ripped out the in-ear device, throwing it to the ground.
The sound was too ominous to be a simple malfunction.
His violent reaction made the surrounding subordinates uneasy.
“Boss, what’s wrong?”
“…It’s dead.”
“What?”
“It’s dead, idiot. I can’t hear anything.”
Another subordinate ran over urgently.
“Boss! I tried contacting the team on Mapo Boulevard too—no response.”
“What? All radios are down? At this distance?”
Hammer’s face hardened.
If one radio failed, it might be bad luck.
But every radio—plus communications with nearby troops—cut off?
That wasn’t coincidence.
Someone had interfered intentionally.
Then the radio operator’s face turned pale.
“Boss… isn’t this jamming? The noise pattern’s not normal. Could the military or the Capital Defense Command be ambushing us?”
Fear spread among the men.
For raiders, the most terrifying enemy wasn’t mutants.
It was heavily armed soldiers.
But Hammer snorted in disbelief.
“Bullshit. The military? You think those stingy bastards would waste expensive jamming equipment just to catch small fry like us? They’re the type who’d cry over a drop of fuel.”
Hammer, a former NCO, knew them well.
Jamming signals in a tiny operational zone like this?
Impossible.
“This is the work of someone in our line of business.”
Hammer tightened his grip on the sledgehammer.
He quickly narrowed down suspects.
Someone nearby with equipment capable of signal interference.
Someone who could manipulate communication networks.
And someone who had always hated Karambit’s faction.
There was only one answer.
“…That bastard.”
Manager Jeong, the direct subordinate of the Pig, ruler of Mapo District.
His nickname came from his past as a sex offender who had once worn an electronic ankle monitor.
The men murmured at Hammer’s words.
“You mean the Pig is trying to kill us?”
“Who else? Brother Karambit’s been pushing back on tribute payments lately. They’re trying to make an example of us.”
Everything fit together.
“Those military drones might’ve been bait from the beginning.”
The men’s expressions changed.
Fear faded.
Anger and betrayal filled its place.
Nothing enraged gangsters more than betrayal by their own side.
“Tch!”
One spat on the ground.
“I never liked those pig bastards anyway. They sit in hotels enjoying air conditioning while we bust our asses outside like dogs.”
As the mood turned violent, Hammer smiled with satisfaction.
Anger was far more useful than fear in battle.
He slung the sledgehammer over his shoulder, eyes blazing.
“Good. I planned to deal with those bastards sooner or later anyway. If they draw the knife first, backing down would make us look weak.”
Hammer cracked his neck from side to side.
His massive muscles expanded, radiating intimidation.
“Spread out! That sneaky bastard’s probably hiding in some rat hole nearby laughing.”
The guy only knew how to mess with machines.
In a fistfight, he’d be weaker than a woman.
“We’ll smash his head and take it as a trophy. I was planning to take it slow, but if they want it like this, we have no choice.”
“Yes, boss!”
“Kill everything you see.”
Mistaking the smell of death for the smell of betrayal—
Hammer’s group stepped carefully into the battlefield Kang Shinhyeok had painstakingly designed.
When Hammer’s group fully entered the narrow alley, I pulled the wire I was holding beneath the rooftop railing.
Click.
A crisp mechanical sound echoed through the alley.
From the launch devices I had installed in advance—
Needle Hog spikes fired.
WHOOSH!
As expected, Hammer’s reflexes were incredible.
The moment he heard the sound, he reacted, twisting the handle of his sledgehammer and deflecting the incoming projectile.
CLANG!
“That’s all you prepared?”
Yeah…
It was obvious.
The Awakened I had encountered in the shelter were completely different from those who survived in the wild.
Hammer’s performance was impressive.
But after repeatedly analyzing the footage, I concluded his Hardening ability was at best E-Grade.
Hammer himself was probably F-Grade or E-Grade.
Shelter Awakened definitely wouldn’t have reacted to that attack.
But Hammer deflected it easily.
Still, there was no reason to be disappointed.
That was just a zeroing shot.
A test to confirm tension and firing angles of the mechanical launcher.
Without hesitation, I pulled the second lever all the way.
Six launchers embedded in the alley walls opened simultaneously.
THUNK! THUNK-THUNK! THUNK!
Rubber and tendon mechanisms snapped loudly.
“—?!”
Hammer’s pupils shrank.
It wasn’t a single projectile.
Under the sunset sky—
A rain of spikes filled the entire alley.
Hundreds of Needle Hog spikes poured down like a disturbed hornet nest.
“Get down!”
Hammer hardened his entire body and shoved his subordinates aside.
But it was too late.
Even predicting that response, they couldn’t escape the sheer volume of my trap.
SHSHSHSH!
“AAAGH!”
“Boss—!”
These weren’t simple darts.
They were Needle Hog spikes.
The sound of flesh tearing and bones breaking mixed with screams.
Three non-Awakened subordinates became human pincushions and died instantly.
“You… rat bastard…!”
Only Hammer survived thanks to Hardening.
But he wasn’t unharmed.
THUD! THUD!
Spikes pierced his shoulder, thigh, and side where Hardening had activated imperfectly.
Blood splattered, though none penetrated deeply.
[Boss! Did you see that? Reaction speed: 0.03 seconds!]
Picker transmitted the data.
[The moment he saw projectiles flying from all directions, he hardened his skin instantly. It can only be described as innate combat instinct!]
Dozens of spikes stuck out of Hammer’s body, yet none hit a vital point.
He yanked them out one by one with cracking sounds and glared toward the rooftop.
So even Needle Hog spikes couldn’t easily kill an Awakened.
“Electronic ankle monitor… you bastard!”
Hammer’s eyes turned bloodshot.
This wasn’t just a simple ambush.
Obtaining this number of spikes and setting up such precise launch devices required enormous funds.
Not something driven by personal grudges.
It proved there was financial backing behind it—
The Pig.
“That pig bastard really spent money on this! Fine. Let’s go all the way!”
Enraged, Hammer dragged his sledgehammer forward.
“If I catch you, I’ll rip your limbs off!”
He searched the walls for footholds, preparing to climb.
But I had already moved.
There was no reason to fight that monster head-on.
“Picker, confirm location.”
I moved behind the rooftop, out of his sight, and aimed my High-Tension Bio Sling into the sky.
I planned to fire indirectly like artillery.
—Wind: northwest, 3 m/s! Distance: 72 meters! Elevation: 55 degrees! Fire now!
Following Picker’s calculations, I pulled the sling to its limit.
The sling didn’t only fire steel balls.
It could also launch a modified Molotov cocktail—a glass bottle filled with oil and fitted with an Ignition Plug Fragment.
FWING!
The bottle arced through the air and landed directly above Hammer’s head.
CRASH!
“AAARGH!”
He couldn’t have expected a Molotov.
And this wasn’t an ordinary one.
I had modified the internal fuel with white phosphorus.
A normal Molotov burns around 1,000°C.
But this incendiary ignited instantly on contact with oxygen, exceeding 1,300°C.
Even hardened skin couldn’t withstand white phosphorus burning continuously until oxygen was cut off.
And maintaining Hardening clearly required significant mental energy.
Hammer covered his face with his arm, but flames spread across his shoulder and hair.
He probably thought his hardened skin could withstand fire.
But moments later—
White smoke billowed from the burning phosphorus.
Hammer inhaled sharply.
That smoke was phosphorus pentoxide gas.
It pushed Hardening to its limits with extreme heat while poisonous fumes attacked internally.
A double assault.
“Cough! Cough!”
Hammer choked, rolling across the ground to extinguish the flames.
But I gave him no time.
I pulled the sling again.
Steel balls flew toward him.
Of course, firing blindly in an arc reduced the power.
But with flames surrounding him, defending with Hardening would be difficult.
THUD. THUD.
The sound of metal striking flesh echoed—then stopped.
[He’s moving!]
“Where are you?! Come out!”
Hammer roared through smoke and flames.
Despite everything, his condition didn’t seem too bad.
What?
He still wasn’t dead?
Awakened were monsters beyond imagination.
[You’ve been spotted, Boss!]
At Picker’s shout, I threw myself aside instinctively.