Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Owner of a Workshop in a Ruined World (21)
KWAANG—!
With a thunderous crash, the rooftop railing where I had been standing just moments ago was blown away entirely.
Concrete blocks shattered into fragments and rained down like a storm of debris.
Embedded among the cloud of dust was the object he had thrown—an enormous sledgehammer.
“…Hah.”
A dry laugh escaped me.
He threw a sledgehammer across dozens of meters, through several walls, all the way up to this height?
The power behind it was practically that of a siege weapon.
[Wow… that lunatic. Is that a catapult?]
[Picker] voiced the same thought I had.
“You traced the projectile’s trajectory and found my location, didn’t you?”
[Affirmative. It was thrown with precise targeting.]
As expected. His combat instincts were exceptional.
I couldn’t afford to underestimate him.
I raised the output of the [Mechanical Reinforced Exoskeleton] to its maximum.
Hiss—CLANK!
The hydraulic cylinders shrieked as I kicked off the rooftop and leapt forward.
Like performing parkour, I jumped across to the roof of the adjacent building.
“Found you! You rat!”
A beast-like roar erupted from below.
When I glanced down, Hammer was climbing the wall with his bare hands, tearing at drainage pipes and window frames as he scaled upward.
In the middle of doing that, he even retrieved his sledgehammer.
The sight of that massive body climbing a wall one-handed while carrying a hammer looked like the reincarnation of King Kong.
[Boss! At this rate, he’ll catch you within fifteen seconds!]
“You calculate fast!”
I was sprinting almost as if flying using the [Hydraulic Greaves], but the delay between bursts was the problem.
In those brief moments, Hammer kept closing the distance.
The screen displayed by [Picker] floated before my eyes like a rearview mirror.
The figure chasing me—scorched by flames and soaked in blood—looked like a demon crawling out of hell.
From the look of Hammer’s ability [Hardening], he should only be a low-grade Awakened.
How could someone like that be this strong?
I genuinely couldn’t understand it.
“Electronic Ankle Monitor! You bastard!”
What the hell was an electronic ankle monitor?
Kang Sinhyeok could only stare in bafflement…
The loose hoodie he wore to conceal the exoskeleton.
The backpack stuffed with equipment.
And the circumstantial evidence that he used electronic devices while having a similar build.
Hammer’s misunderstanding had hardened into certainty.
“You coward hiding behind machines! Today I’ll rip your throat out and mount your head on Pig’s desk!”
I appreciated him mistaking me for someone else, but being called an “electronic ankle monitor” wasn’t exactly pleasant.
[Boss!]
When I looked at the mirror again, a rock was flying toward me.
I threw my body sideways, and the reinforced exoskeleton screamed in protest.
Running away like this was impossible.
The hydraulic cylinders would overload soon.
I never expected the restriction—being unable to use explosives freely because of possible support from other raiders—to be this severe.
[Please use that method quickly!]
I was about to do that anyway.
It was getting dark enough, and the time had come.
“Prepare it.”
[Yes, Boss!]
The 3D map data transmitted by [Picker] overlaid itself across my vision.
The destination highlighted in red.
It was the only prison around here capable of trapping him.
Without hesitation, I dashed into the entrance of a building—an abandoned structure that had once been the Mapo Financial Center of a certain bank.
“Where are you going, you rat!”
The crashing noises behind me were getting closer.
He wasn’t simply breaking through doors.
That madman was smashing straight through the walls and charging in a direct line.
KRAK! BOOM!
Ordinary masonry walls were nothing more than paper to him.
But—
Even someone like you can’t break through this wall.
I crossed the lobby and ran toward the innermost section, past the area where a massive iron door had been torn away.
The zone containing the VIP rental vault room.
Back when this place stored cash and gold bars, the floor wasn’t a normal slab.
But in front of my [Disassembly] ability, everything was equal material.
Hammer stormed into the lobby with terrifying momentum.
“Got you!”
The moment he spotted me, he leapt forward, raising the sledgehammer high above his head.
The enormous mass accelerated toward my skull—
[Disassembly]
“Huh?!”
The ground beneath Hammer’s feet collapsed.
It wasn’t merely the first-floor floor giving way.
Beneath it existed the bank’s pride—a “Second Underground Vault,” surrounded on all sides by special alloys and reinforced concrete.
BOOM—!!
“Ugh!”
A dull yet heavy impact echoed upward, like slabs of metal smashing together.
This wasn’t an ordinary basement.
The floor, walls, and ceiling were all perfect sealed chambers made of reinforced walls more than fifty centimeters thick.
Looking down through the hole in the floor, I smirked at the bewildered Hammer below.
No matter how monstrous his strength was, even an Awakened couldn’t smash through those walls and escape sideways.
At least not before the fire show I had prepared finished.
Without delay, I opened my backpack.
Dozens of [Oxygen Canisters] and [Gasoline Containers].
I poured every bit of that flammable waste through the hole, dumping it onto the trapped rat inside the vault.
“Wh—What is this? Oil?”
Hammer’s confused voice echoed from the vault floor below.
By the time he realized the situation while feeling along the smooth metal walls, it was already too late.
I tossed a lit [Molotov Cocktail] down into the hole.
“For a coffin, this is quite an expensive place.”
WHOOSH—BOOM!
The small flame met the gasoline vapor trapped inside the narrow sealed vault and instantly transformed into an explosive inferno.
“KRAAAAGH!”
The special alloy walls reflected the heat inward instead of letting it escape.
And what made the flames rage even more violently were the [Oxygen Canisters] I had thrown in with them.
The high-concentration oxygen turned the red flames into near-white heat.
The underground vault had become a full-scale incinerator.
Watching the flames surge upward, I activated my ability again.
[Manufacture]
Gathering nearby debris and scrap, I sealed the hole with a thick slab of reinforced concrete.
The mouth of the inferno closed.
Every tiny gap was perfectly sealed with [Manufacture].
“Grrr… AAAAARGH!”
Beyond the thick concrete floor, a horrifying beast-like death scream vibrated through the structure.
It was sealed so perfectly that even the smell of burning flesh couldn’t leak through.
The air had been cut off.
Inside, the oxygen canisters would cause the fire to rage violently before turning the chamber into a suffocating vacuum.
Burn to death or suffocate.
Either way, the result was the same.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
The pounding vibrations gradually faded.
Yes—no matter how strong an Awakened was, this was a place he couldn’t break.
Had twenty minutes passed?
I created a tiny hole with [Partial Disassembly].
Then I gave an order to [Picker], who was waiting beside me.
“Picker. Scan it. Don’t go inside.”
–Yes, sir!
The interior of the underground vault was covered entirely in soot.
Poisonous gas and lingering heat distorted the image feed.
At the center of that hell lay a massive shape, collapsed like a lump of charcoal.
[Picker] fired a red laser and scanned Hammer’s body.
–Boss! Confirmed! His heart’s stopped, and he’s not breathing. He’s completely finished!
Picker’s confident report.
But…
Something inside me was warning me.
Was it the survival instinct born from ten years of scraping by?
Or was I simply overly cautious?
Hammer was a martial-type Awakened who used [Hardening].
A physical powerhouse who turned his muscles into steel and even had some resistance to poison.
But… would an Awakened’s ability remain active after death?
While Kang Sinhyeok hesitated—
Endure. Wait until he comes down.
Inside the blackened body, Hammer was using every ounce of strength to maintain his ability.
His heart had stopped.
Not because he was dead.
He had applied [Hardening] to his heart muscles, forcibly halting the heartbeat.
He also hardened his respiratory muscles like stone to prevent even the faintest breath from escaping.
The longest he could maintain cardiac arrest was three minutes.
Until just before the brain suffered damage.
It was the final gamble—staking his life itself.
That electronic-ankle-monitor bastard… trying to check me with machines. It won’t matter.
Hammer knew well how the Electronic Ankle Monitor operated.
If the machine declared someone dead, he would descend without suspicion to collect the spoils.
The moment that happened, Hammer would restart his heart and rip the man’s throat out.
Pain?
His entire body had already suffered severe burns; the sensory nerves were gone.
Only one thing remained.
The murderous desire to drag his enemy down with him.
He waited for the sound of footsteps.
For the man to widen the hole and lower a ladder.
But one minute passed.
Then two.
No movement came.
“Still feels suspicious.”
Instead of widening the hole, I took a sling and a heavy steel ball from my bag.
–Boss? I told you he’s dead! I confirmed it!
“You still test a stone bridge before crossing it.”
–But I did test it! With a scan! Don’t you trust Picker’s precision scan?!
“Of course I trust it. But you don’t know much about Awakened either, do you?”
–Well… that’s true…
“There’s no need to rush. Let’s wait.”
If he was dead, it would be a finishing confirmation.
If he wasn’t, it would be the final blow.
I aimed at Hammer’s head and pulled the sling’s rubber band to its limit.
Then fired the steel ball through the hole.
FWIING—!
Fast and precise.
The steel ball struck Hammer’s temple.
THUNK!
A dull sound rang out.
Not the sound of a skull breaking.
It sounded like a hammer striking a steel beam.
And then—
“GRAAAAAAAAH—!!”
The blackened mass that had been stuck to the floor sprang up like a coiled spring.
The corpse that should have been dead suddenly leapt upright, screaming in agony.
–Eeeek! It’s a zombie!
Picker shrieked and retreated.
“Crazy…!”
Even I felt chills run down my spine.
I suspected it, but he had really survived in that state?
He hadn’t died.
He had hardened the organs inside his body and focused entirely on defense.
But that meant he couldn’t withstand my steel-ball attack.
Hammer glared upward with bloodshot eyes.
His facial skin had melted away, exposing all his teeth—an appearance straight out of a nightmare.
“Urrgh! I’ll kill you!!”
With his mouth melted and speech slurring, he screamed while trying to climb the wall.
Startled, I opened my bag again and pulled out every [White Phosphorus Incendiary] I had.
SHHHAAAH!
The underground vault was engulfed once more in white hellfire.
“Ghh—AAARGH! AAAAGH!”
The savage screams made my heart pound violently.
But this time, even [Hardening] wouldn’t stop it.
Continuous extreme heat would eventually break through any limit.
The sound of him clawing at the walls echoed desperately, but I sealed the hole again.
“Haa… haa…”
I collapsed onto the floor, breathing heavily.
Cold sweat poured down like rain.
If I had trusted only Picker’s data and gone down…
My throat would already have been torn out by that monster.
Awakened were beings far beyond my common sense.
A monster capable of even faking death.
The chilling realization carved itself into my mind.
As expected… if it’s not a confirmed corpse, don’t approach it.
Today’s lesson was painful but certain.
Whenever possible, never face an Awakened directly.
Much later, when I opened the underground vault again, not even bone fragments remained.
Even the strengthened body of an Awakened was nothing more than burnable trash.
But among the ashes, something gleamed brilliantly.
Three [F-Grade Cores].
The only loot salvaged from the inferno.
“…Wait. That’s not all.”
In the center of the ashes lay the enormous hammer Hammer had held until the very end—
the [Sledgehammer].
If it had been ordinary steel, it would at least be blackened or warped by heat.
But that hammer…
It retained a smooth shine as if it had just left the factory.
“This doesn’t look like an ordinary item…”
I approached carefully and grasped the handle.
It was heavy.
Without the [Mechanical Reinforced Exoskeleton], lifting it would have been difficult.
As I examined it closely, the status window reading [Sledgehammer] slowly changed.
[Ground Breaker]
[Grade: ???]
[Durability: ??? / ???]
[Information Analysis Impossible. Work Protocol Level Insufficient.]