Chapter 50
Chapter 50
“Kiiieeek—!”
The boiling red slime lashed its tentacles through the air like whips.
A blue flash narrowly skimmed past their tips.
My noisy scout—no, now equipped as an attack unit as well—Picker was having the time of his life.
[Kya-ha-ha! Jelly boy, you’re on a completely different level from that slow bear and me!]
Picker darted between the slime’s tentacles with dazzling maneuvers.
Was it because he had risen one rank, from [E+] to [D+]?
His speed had increased so much that it was hard for my eyes to follow.
And he wasn’t just dodging.
From the [High-Pressure Nozzle] attached to the underside of his body, white refrigerant sprayed out continuously.
Sssssss—
Wherever the refrigerant touched, the red slime hardened into white frost.
The enraged slime twisted its body grotesquely and chased Picker, but catching an airborne drone was no easy task.
[Oh? Not there, huh? Here maybe? Still can’t catch me?]
Picker hovered right in front of what appeared to be the slime’s “face,” blinking his lens.
[Nyeh-nyeh! Stupid jelly! This big brother just ranked up to D+!]
He loudly announced his rank promotion across the battlefield.
Judging from the way his lens kept glancing toward Porter, he was clearly trying to make sure Porter heard it.
…Had it bothered him that he used to be lower rank than Porter?
The slime swelled in fury, but Picker shot upward mockingly and dropped a refrigerant bomb on its head.
[Express delivery: rapid freezing!]
KWA—!
The high-pressure cold, amplified by the power of the [Frost-Bound Orb], struck the slime’s core directly.
I watched from behind a safe building and shook my head.
“His mouth never stops…”
No wonder he had never lost a keyboard battle on the survivor forums.
He sounded like he was just running his mouth, but Picker’s movements were perfectly calculated.
Whenever the slime tried to gather heat, he sprayed refrigerant.
Whenever it shrank inward, he provoked it to stretch out again.
Crack—crack!
The effect was undeniable.
The slime’s surface, which had been boiling like lava, began cooling.
The liquid mass passed through a gel state and hardened into solid matter.
The sound echoed across the battlefield.
Finally, when Picker dumped the last of the refrigerant, the giant slime stopped moving.
It looked like a massive wave frozen in time.
A gigantic ice spike rising from the asphalt sea.
At its tip hung a grotesque red candy.
[Frozen, huh? Can’t do anything now, huh?]
Picker circled above the frozen slime’s head, sounding a triumphant fanfare.
Then he turned his lens toward a corner where his companion was stuck.
[Go! Bear! The table’s already set!]
In the ruins of a collapsed building nearby—
Porter, who had been knocked away earlier by the slime’s tentacle, slowly rose to his feet with the grinding sound of his tracks.
The impact had been strong enough to collapse a concrete wall, yet he showed no visible damage.
Instead, he silently increased the rotation of his engine.
There was a strange sense of anger in the way he did it.
Vroooom—!
Porter’s lens flashed.
He stared at the enormous frozen slime mass hanging precariously on a thin pillar of ice.
[It seems that once frozen, you are as light as air. Allow me to teach you gravity.]
BANG!
Blue flames burst from the exhaust behind Porter.
Temporary overdrive mode—[Nitro Booster] ignition.¹
The tracks that normally crawled forward slowly now spun madly, tearing up the asphalt.
KUUUUUOOO—!
Like a rampaging tank.
No—
Like a shell fired from one.
Porter accelerated instantly and charged toward the ice pillar.
The [Mutated Iron-Tusk Ram]² attached to his frontal armor gleamed ominously.
KWA—ANG!
With a thunderous crash, the world turned white.
Porter’s ram struck the frozen slime’s core—right in the center.
CLINK!
The massive disaster ended with the clear sound of glass shattering.
Tens of thousands of ice fragments exploded outward like fireworks.
Glittering in the moonlight as they fell like powdered snow.
Amid that beautiful yet brutal scene, Porter did not stop.
Clank, clank.
Among the shattered fragments, a red block of ice—likely the slime’s core—fell to the ground.
Porter reversed, then drove forward again.
Crunch. Crack.
His tracks mercilessly crushed the frozen core.
Confirmation kill.
The battle was over.
After the storm of ice subsided, silence fell across the battlefield.
Only then did I step out from behind the wrecked car where I had been hiding.
Ice shards crunched beneath my feet.
“So it’s finally over.”
[Did you see that, Boss? Did you see it?!]
Picker buzzed excitedly as he flew onto my shoulder.
[Look at that stupid bear! Without my perfect support, he would’ve melted into scrap! Upgrading me was clearly the right decision!]
Despite Picker’s bragging, Porter said nothing.
He simply moved back and forth across the road covered in ice fragments.
Almost as if savoring the weight and sensation of the shards beneath his tracks.
Perhaps that was his own way of enjoying victory.
Leaving them alone, I walked toward the center of the wreckage.
Even shattered, this was no ordinary creature.
An aberration.
Something not from Earth.
Surely something useful remained.
“This is…”
Among the ice fragments, a strange red glow caught my eye.
All the other pieces had frozen and shattered, but this one continued pulsing stubbornly.
A red mass that writhed like a living heart.
I carefully reached out and picked it up.
[Armus Flesh]
Rank: B
A fragment of tissue from the extraterrestrial predator Armus. A cluster of shape-memory cells capable of nullifying physical attacks and freely altering form.
“B-Rank?”
My eyes widened.
It was by far the highest-ranked material I had seen so far.
Then where’s the core?
I picked up the red crystal lying beside it.
But contrary to my expectations—
It wasn’t a [B-Rank Core].
[C-Rank Core]
“Why is the core only C-Rank?”
The material was B-Rank, yet the core was only C-Rank.
The balance didn’t make sense.
As I wondered about it, Picker focused his lens.
[Boss. Doesn’t this energy pattern feel familiar?]
“Familiar?”
[Yes! It matches that fat pig earlier—99.8% identical wavelength!]
Ah.
Now it made sense.
This slime—no, this creature called Armus—didn’t produce its own core.
When it devoured Pig, it must have absorbed the [C-Rank Core] in Pig’s heart and used it as its energy source to rampage.
“So Karambit’s core… must have been consumed already.”
Still, this was an incredible harvest.
One [C-Rank Core].
And a [B-Rank Special Material] that could freely change its form.
Ideas for how to use it were already spreading through my mind.
Just moments ago, a massive red heat signature had filled the screen.
Now it had vanished from the radar as if it had never existed.
“Uh? It’s gone!”
“Sensor error? Reboot it!”
The soldiers panicked and murmured among themselves.
But Lieutenant Colonel Kang Cheol-min, standing atop the command armored vehicle, remained calm.
It’s finished.
He had already guessed that Kang Shin-hyeok hadn’t fled north because he was overwhelmed.
Every Awakened had a hidden trump card.
He simply didn’t want to reveal it.
He had suspected it.
But to think the man would freeze and shatter a monster that even the military’s firepower couldn’t burn to death.
Kang narrowed his eyes.
“Colonel! Target signature disappearance confirmed!”
The adjutant ran up with the report.
“This victory belongs solely to our Logistics Department’s independent operation.”
There wasn’t the slightest hesitation in his voice.
“…What?”
The adjutant blinked in disbelief.
Ignoring him, Kang grabbed the radio.
“Third platoon. Immediately search the abandoned buildings around the battlefield.”
His finger pointed toward the silent ruins hidden in the darkness.
Hyenas drawn by the lights of battle.
And the eyes that may have witnessed this impossible scene.
“Rats who saw the battle will be hiding. Kill them all.”
“K-kill them? They might be civilians…”
“Anyone approaching an [Aberration] has the guts of a raider. Leave no witnesses.”
The adjutant swallowed at the chilling order.
Kang grabbed his shoulder and spoke quietly.
“Until now, the logistics division has been treated like leftovers. But if we report that we eliminated a B-Rank-class aberration, our standing inside the military will change.”
“But it will eventually be exposed.”
“It won’t. We’ll turn the bomber into the logistics division’s hidden card.”
“The bomber?”
“Didn’t you see his ability? It’s on a completely different level from ours. If we sign an independent contract and receive ammunition and shells from him, our logistics division will be able to conduct operations independently.”
The adjutant’s eyes narrowed.
In this collapsed world, everyone—logistics or clerks alike—had to hunt mutants.
But logistics had been excluded from most operations and gained no experience.
Because they were pushed aside by other factions in the military.
If the enemy earlier had been a well-known mutant rather than an [Aberration], even if it were B-Rank, the operations division wouldn’t have handed the mission to them.
Subordinate units wouldn’t have refused support either.
“So… we’ll get a cut as well?”
“Yes. Just like Colonel Park Jin-seop in the operations division.”
If they had failed to deal with the giant slime?
Colonel Park would have used it as an excuse to frame Kang.
If the slime had devoured the Mapo shelter?
Kang would have been forced out of the military.
And the fate of retired soldiers was simple.
Either become a raider—
Or be eaten by one.
After finishing the farming, I walked toward the defensive line where the soldiers were waiting.
In my hand was a piece of the slime’s shell, still steaming—collected as evidence.
“Huh? He’s coming!”
“Look! I think he really killed it!”
The soldiers watching from afar began murmuring.
Their expressions were complicated.
Gratitude toward the savior who eliminated the monster that had nearly killed them.
And awe—mixed with fear—toward the unknown powerhouse who had accomplished what even the army could not.
At the center of their gaze stood Lieutenant Colonel Kang Cheol-min.
He folded his arms and stared at me with a hardened expression.
Click.
The adjutant behind him instinctively tightened his grip on his rifle.
Kang raised his hand to stop him.
I walked up and tossed the slime fragment toward him.
“The slime has been dealt with.”
Silence.
Then the soldiers erupted into cheers.
“Waaaaa!”
“We’re alive!”
But Kang did not smile.
Suspicion flickered in his eyes.
“Good work.”
He spoke briefly.
Then stepped closer and lowered his voice so the others couldn’t hear.
“But I cannot officially thank you.”
Just as I expected.
That was how the military worked.
“I will report to headquarters that our unit eliminated it through a joint operation. If it becomes known that we received help from a civilian—an unidentified Awakened—it will create problems for me.”
My eyebrow twitched.
What, no praise and no reward?
“Surely there were witnesses.”
Just as I was about to show my displeasure, Kang added with a strange smile.
“We took care of them.”
I barely maintained my composure.
So they had eliminated the raiders who witnessed my fight with the slime.
Soldiers were soldiers after all.
“Instead.”
He took out a business card and slipped it into my pocket.
On the scribbled memo were an emergency frequency and a password.
“There’s something I want to discuss in secret. Contact me later through this channel.”
“…What kind of discussion?”
“A trade.”
Kang glanced sideways at my equipment.
“The gear you’re using… and the skill you showed modifying that defective warhead earlier. That ability is something we desperately need.”
He patted my shoulder and stepped back.
“It will be a good offer, Bomber.”
Kang then issued the order to withdraw.
“All units, withdraw! Take the wounded!”
As the line of military trucks drove away, I touched the memo in my pocket.
A backroom deal with the military.
I had considered the possibility.
But I hadn’t expected the connection to form like this.