Chapter 27
Chapter 27
Owner of a Workshop in a Ruined World (27)
While heading toward the unmanned exchange depot near Mapo Shelter to retrieve the [MP5 Submachine Gun], Picker suddenly shouted from the sky.
[Boss! Two o’clock direction, 300 meters ahead! Multiple biosignatures detected!]
“Two o’clock? Isn’t there another unmanned exchange depot over there?”
[That’s correct, Boss!]
Unlike the depot where my item was waiting, that one sat in a school field beside the mountain.
[But… the atmosphere feels suspicious! I smell something—something really foul!]
“Where do you even have a nose?”
[The nose of my heart! This is definitely the combined scent of sweaty bachelors and blood! One hundred percent bad guys!]
I stopped moving and looked down over the rooftop railing.
The drone was dramatic, but its instincts were often useful.
“Share your vision.”
[Yes, Boss!]
The aerial view from Picker appeared over my status window.
In the corner of the school field near the collapsed stands.
The depot’s defense turret was visible.
Just outside the boundary stood a group of humans.
The situation didn’t look simple.
Three men armed with firearms.
And one man being dragged along the ground.
As I moved across the rooftops toward them, their voices became audible.
That was the thing about the post-collapse world.
With all normal city noise gone, voices traveled incredibly far.
“Heh. Hey, scream louder. The thing will smell the blood and come.”
“Mmmph! Mmph!”
The captive struggled desperately with a gag stuffed into his mouth.
His thigh was bleeding badly, soaking his pants.
“Don’t worry. If you run hard enough, you might live.”
“Yeah. Even if the Iron-Tusk Boar has thick hide, it can’t survive that turret.”
“It’ll be shredded in three seconds.”
From their conversation, I could guess the situation.
When I had sniped the viper sniper from the Mapo Police Station rooftop earlier—
I had learned many things through Honeybee eavesdropping.
Including this.
—That guy? Totally useless.
—Yeah. Threw him as bait for an E-grade and he didn’t last three minutes.
And humans were even sold as bait on Union Market.
Seeing it with my own eyes filled me with anger.
Bastards.
[Boss. It’s in the forest!]
Snapping out of my thoughts, I followed Picker’s pointer toward the mountain.
The Iron-Tusk Boar was an E-Grade Named Mutant whose hide was so thick that rifles barely scratched it.
After the Collapse, mountains had become lawless zones.
Even hiking trails were overgrown.
And if a boar you couldn’t shoot charged through that dense brush—
Even Awakened would struggle to survive.
“It’s coming. It smells the blood.”
Listening to the raiders, I thought quietly.
I wasn’t a hero who rescued hostages.
The world after the Collapse followed the law of the jungle.
Everyone had to survive on their own.
Like the Ahyeon Shelter exile family I saw in Hyochang Park.
Even now, I could still see Team Leader Choi’s face in my mind—the man who abandoned me at the scrap hill.
That was why I didn’t rush to save hostages.
The weak were not necessarily good.
Living as an orphan after the Collapse taught me that lesson deeply.
Most raiders weren’t even Awakened.
They were exiles or criminals driven out of shelters.
That hostage was more likely a raider than someone like me.
But raiders left alive would become future trouble.
And now that I had seen them—
It was better to eliminate them.
That was my rule.
And the benefits were clear.
Kill the trash.
Use them as bait.
And harvest the core of the E-Grade Named Mutant Iron-Tusk Boar.
[Boss, excellent plan! If we record the turret firing, we can analyze its performance and internal structure!]
Oh.
I hadn’t even considered that.
“But would Union Tech tolerate something like this? Ammunition is expensive. And a turret like that must consume a lot of electricity.”
[Sharp observation, Boss! There might be consequences.]
“Hm.”
I wanted to see the turret fire.
But attracting Union’s attention worried me.
Still, my decision came quickly.
This wasn’t the depot storing my MP5.
If something happened here, it didn’t matter.
My GPS location also showed somewhere else.
But there was one issue.
I didn’t know whether the hostage was a raider or an exile.
So I needed to hide my identity.
And right now I was supposed to be Thunder collecting a delivery.
[How about transforming into Black Suit?]
Right.
No choice.
I opened the blueprint I had prepared earlier.
[Lightweight Ballistic Suit]
The spare special fibers and metal materials in my backpack disappeared instantly.
Black fibers spread across my clothes.
Hexagonal shock-absorbing pads attached to elbows and knees.
Thin ballistic plates locked over my chest and back.
Finally—
Steel particles gathered before my face.
A composite material combining carbon’s lightness with aluminum’s rigidity.
Click.
Cold metal touched my skin.
A blank gray mask with hollow eye sockets.
Not just for concealment.
The mask distorted my voice, producing a metallic resonance.
This was the Black Suit.
Transformation via [Manufacture] took barely one second.
[Wow~ Boss! Amazing! Just like I suggested! But are you really using that voice?]
“…Voice distortion is necessary. Quiet.”
CRACK!
A thunderous sound erupted from the forest.
[The pig has appeared!]
The mutant had caught the scent of blood.
The senses of mutants were terrifying.
“Hey! Run!”
The raiders kicked the hostage’s rear.
“Run or you’ll be pig food!”
“Mmph! Mmph!”
“See that turret? Reach its range and you’ll live!”
A lie.
Once he crossed the boundary, the turret would consider him hostile.
12.7mm bullets would shred him instantly.
The hostage didn’t know that.
He ran desperately toward the red boundary line.
The blood on his leg was clearly a wound the raiders inflicted to attract the mutant.
After all, not everyone owned a U-Link.
[Boss! Distance thirty meters. Wind west-northwest two meters per second!]
At Picker’s call, a rope with weighted ends appeared in my hand.
A primitive but effective restraint weapon.
I swung it.
Whirl—
The sound vanished in the wind.
Thwack!
“Ah!”
The rope wrapped around the hostage’s ankle.
He crashed face-first.
The bait lay motionless.
Mutants often ignored unmoving prey.
“What the hell was that?”
“Who did that?!”
The raiders looked up toward my rooftop.
Too late.
My High-Tension Bio Sling was already drawn.
The tendon-string vibrated.
Snap—
[Boss, nice shot!]
“Gah!”
The leader’s forehead exploded with blood.
The steel ball penetrated his skull.
Blood scent spread into the forest.
The man must have been Awakened to survive the initial impact.
ROOOOAR!
[Wow, it’s huge!]
The giant shadow burst from the forest.
A body the size of a small house.
Steel-like tusks.
The Iron-Tusk Boar.
[Easily 1.5 tons! How many pork servings is that?!]
“You can’t eat it anyway.”
And mutant boar meat supposedly tasted terrible.
The monster ignored the fallen hostage.
Instead it turned toward the raiders.
“Shit! The boar!”
“Boss! Get up!”
The raiders panicked.
They abandoned their leader.
Typical raider loyalty.
In my hands were two Incendiary Grenades.
BOOM! BOOM!
“AAAAH!”
Flames erupted on both sides of them.
They retreated in panic.
The boar charged at over 100 km/h.
BOOOOM!
Three raiders flew through the air like bowling pins.
They landed inside the turret’s restricted zone.
[Warning. Unauthorized Awakened and mutant detected.]
[Immediate engagement protocol activated.]
[Threat Level: High]
Machines had no mercy.
The ten-second countdown only existed during peaceful times.
“No… please…”
One raider begged.
But his body was already shattered.
“Please… spare me!”
[Target locked. Firing.]
WHIRRR—
The turret rotated.
KRAKRAKRAK!
The 12.7mm heavy machine gun roared.
When the smoke cleared, the air smelled of gunpowder.
The turret’s barrel emitted white steam.
…Incredible.
[Boss! The boar corpse is outside turret range!]
Only the Iron-Tusk Boar had survived the barrage.
Its hide absorbed most of the damage.
Human bodies were unrecognizable.
Even after death, its hide was tough.
But my skills had improved.
When I cut it open, a glowing crystal appeared.
[E-Grade Core]
Satisfied, I stored it.
Next I examined the corpse.
Experience from butchering Contaminated Wild Dogs helped.
First, the hide.
Much stronger than dog hide.
[Hardened Boar Hide]
Next, the tusks.
Using [Disassembly]—
[Mutated Iron Tusk] ×2
Then the leg tendons.
Not marked as special materials like before.
Still worth collecting.
[Iron-Tusk Boar Tendon] ×4
I was about to leave when I sensed heat deep inside the chest cavity.
Not normal body heat.
A strange energy pulse.
“What?”
Inside the ribs was a fist-sized organ still twitching.
A red mass pulsing with life.
[Boss! Special material!]
The special material of the Iron-Tusk Boar.
[Rampaging Heart]
I quickly stored it.
Since this was Union territory, I used Disassembly carefully.
Then burned the corpse with incendiaries to erase traces.
When everything was done, I looked at the last survivor.
The hostage.
He sat trembling.
“Please… spare me…”
Seeing me destroy the raiders so brutally, he had even wet himself.
[What do we do with him?]
“First we determine what he is.”
I grabbed his hand.
He froze.
I inspected his palm.
I was a Carrier.
I knew how to tell exiles from raiders.
Exiles had labor calluses.
Raiders had gun calluses.
And blade scars told their own stories.
This man—
Was an exile.
“Not a raider.”
The man flinched.
“N-no… I’m not.”
“Exile?”
“Yes.”
After a few questions, I gave him food.
A bottle of water.
Energy bars.
He stared at the food.
Then saw my mask and quickly bowed his head again.
“Take it and leave. Don’t wander in my hunting ground.”
He grabbed the supplies and limped away.
Watching him disappear, I knew.
Soon rumors would spread.
About a masked hunter in a black suit.
A Raider Hunter.
[Boss, ‘Leave my hunting ground!’ sounds like a 1990s action movie line.]
“…Shut up.”