Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Park Jintae’s face stiffened.
As if a giant spoon had scooped out a mound of ice cream, one corner of the garbage hill had been carved away in a large chunk.
It wasn’t a natural collapse.
The cut surface was far too smooth, and the debris that should have been scattered around had completely vanished.
“With this level of destructive power… at least B-grade.”
At Ma Seokwoo’s grave voice, Park Jintae nodded heavily.
His sharpened senses were sending a warning.
Something that was not human—something monstrous outside normal parameters—had passed through here.
“This place was perfectly normal just a few days ago. And overnight the terrain changed like this.”
Frowning, Park Jintae examined the surroundings.
He had led hunting squads and fought countless mutants, but he had never seen traces like this.
None of them could even imagine it.
That these incomprehensible marks were not the work of a monster—
But the result of Kang Shinhyeok’s [Disassembly] ability, the very person they had driven away.
“There’s a body here!”
At Ma Seokwoo’s shout, Park Jintae moved quickly.
A horribly mutilated corpse lay sprawled across the dirt.
It had been torn apart so badly that the original form was barely recognizable, but the mark on the tattered clothing was clear.
[Carrier]
“…Judging from the traces, this was the work of contaminated wild dogs.”
Park Jintae said while examining the wounds.
Bite marks and claw marks.
The handiwork of familiar creatures.
“There were dozens of exiles.”
“Yes. Judging by the footprints, they were moving in a group.”
Park Jintae pointed to the ground.
His hypersenses never overlooked such information.
“With that many people, the wild dogs probably didn’t attack recklessly.”
“Right. Wild dogs are cautious. Even shouting and threatening them can keep them from charging in.”
The situation was easy to imagine.
The terrified exiles ran desperately.
Only after reaching the garbage hill—where they could hide—did they relax.
And at that moment, when their guard dropped, the wild dogs that had persistently tracked them probably attacked the stragglers.
“Tch. Idiots. Didn’t they realize this place was even more dangerous?”
Typical non-Awakened behavior.
Kim Cheolmin sneered at the corpse.
But the ridicule did not last long.
Because as they climbed further up the hill following the traces, an unbelievable sight appeared before them.
“Ugh… the smell…”
A foul stench stabbed their noses—chemical fumes mixed with the smell of blood.
The place looked like a scene straight from hell.
Across the blackened ground lay scattered piles of white bones that had melted down.
“What the hell is this? Even the bones melted?”
Ma Seokwoo stared in shock.
This wasn’t normal predation.
There were mutants that chewed bones.
But none that melted them like this.
“Is this… an acidic solution? No, it’s much stronger than that.”
The party’s healer, Lee Sujin, covered her nose as she cautiously approached.
Because of her class, she frequently interacted with the shelter’s pharmacists.
“This isn’t simple digestive fluid. It’s a venom so strong it feels almost artificial. It melted even a mutant’s bones like jelly…”
Her words caused fear to spread across the party members’ faces.
A venomous mutant.
One of the most feared opponents among Awakened.
Physical attacks could be blocked or dodged.
But poison—even a slight graze could be fatal.
“A mutant that emits powerful poison… we’ll need to be careful.”
Park Jintae gripped the sword at his waist tightly.
At that moment—
While examining the collapsed bone pile, he suddenly stopped.
Among the bones, there was one large skull that still retained its shape.
Twice the size of a normal wild dog.
Traces of a grotesque horn on the forehead.
And a scar on the jawbone.
He recognized it.
No—any hunting squad from Mapo Shelter would.
After a moment of silence, Park Jintae spoke in a low voice.
“…This is Doberman’s skull.”
The moment the words fell, the air froze.
“D-Doberman? That insane dog?”
Kim Cheolmin stumbled backward in shock.
Doberman.
The leader of a contaminated wild dog pack.
A notorious Named Mutant that had once pushed an entire C-grade large hunting squad—including Kim Cheolmin—to the brink of annihilation.
Its cunning and brutality had made it a symbol of terror in the shelter.
“That monster… died like this?”
Kim Cheolmin’s voice trembled.
A Named Mutant that hunted dozens of C-grade Awakened…
Now reduced to melted bones.
Wiped out together with its pack.
“The situation is obvious.”
Cold sweat ran down his face as he spoke.
“There’s a monster nearby that we don’t know about. At least B-grade—or something like Doberman… an [Aberrant Mutant].”
Park Jintae stared beyond the garbage hill, into the unseen darkness.
“It had enough power to carve the terrain as a territorial mark. Doberman’s pack must have been starving after being chased away. That’s why they took the risk of hunting the exiles.”
“But here…?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, they didn’t know the garbage hill was where that monster was resting. As you can see, the result was total annihilation.”
An unknown monster wielding deadly poison.
An overwhelming predator that even Doberman couldn’t match.
And it lurked right next to the shelter.
As a former soldier, Park Jintae knew very well how dangerous it was to encounter an Aberrant Mutant unprepared.
“Mission aborted.”
Park Jintae gave the order decisively.
“Everyone return to the shelter immediately. This is an emergency.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
The hunting squad members turned around instantly.
Behind them, the wind blowing across the garbage hill sounded almost like a monster’s laughter.
The squad hurried down the hill.
Without realizing it, Kang Shinhyeok had been marked as a dangerous unknown mutant.
I disassembled the steel box I had built earlier using leftover materials.
The steel plates turned into blue particles and were absorbed into [Storage].
So the connection reached this far.
Standing on the garbage hill, I looked toward the Han River.
Then I turned my body to the left.
Through the collapsed forest of buildings, the faint silhouette of Namsan appeared.
With Namsan Tower gone, this was how people unfamiliar with the geography found Namsan.
After all, Seoul was surrounded by mountains.
“Yongchang Park… this way, maybe.”
My destination was Hyochang Park, located along the path toward Namsan.
The reason was simple.
[Blade-Beak Chicken]
An F-grade mutant said to inhabit the area.
Its appearance was grotesque.
But its meat was rumored to be even chewier and richer than native chicken from before the collapse.
A delicacy that only appeared on the tables of high-ranking shelter officials.
I had once tasted a scrap of meat stuck to a bone they threw away out of curiosity.
But I had never eaten the real thing.
It was delicious.
My mouth watered.
Goodbye insect-shell nutrition porridge.
I wanted to chew real meat like a human being.
Though I wasn’t sure mutant meat counted as “real.”
I heard some shelters had succeeded in raising actual livestock.
But I had no idea where.
On the ruined four-lane road lined with abandoned cars—
Just as I stepped between the wrecks—
A metallic screech rang out.
“Kieeek!”
Bursting out from beneath a car hood was a hedgehog-like creature covered in rusty steel spikes.
An E-grade mutant.
[Needle Hog].
The moment it spotted me, the spikes along its back bristled.
But I didn’t panic.
I pulled out a Crude Fragmentation Grenade from my belt.
Pulled the safety pin.
Calmly calculated the distance.
Bounce it off the car behind it… and detonate right in front of the creature.
The simulation in my mind was perfect.
Confidently, I swung my arm.
But reality was cruel.
Whoosh—clang!
The grenade flew far to the right of where I aimed.
It bounced off an unrelated rock.
Then exploded in an empty clearing far behind the creature.
BOOM!
Dust rose into the air.
I stared blankly.
“…Ah.”
Combat-type Awakened had things like throwing correction and trajectory prediction.
That’s why they could hit their targets easily even with rough throws.
But me?
I was a production-type class.
“Kiiieeek!”
Startled by the explosion, the enraged Needle Hog stomped the ground and charged.
Its speed was like a tank.
There was no time to pull out another grenade.
Too late to dodge.
[Manufacture]
Flash!
Blue particles wrapped around my body.
Time slowed.
The Needle Hog’s gleaming eyes rushed toward me—
And suddenly everything went dark.
The particles combined instantly.
Forming a thick [Small Steel Box] completely enclosing me.
BANG!
A massive impact slammed into the metal.
The Needle Hog had rammed its head into the steel plate at full speed.
The metal dented inward.
But it didn’t break.
I survived.
Cold sweat ran down my back.
But it wasn’t over yet.
“Kiiik! Kiik!”
The creature shoved its snout into the gaps between the bars of the box.
The openings were wide enough for its head to wedge in.
At this rate, I would become hedgehog food inside the box.
“Not happening.”
I placed my hand on the inner wall of the box.
[Modification]
My method worked like this.
Zzzing—
The metal bars melted like liquid.
Then instantly reformed into a tighter lattice.
The Needle Hog shrieked in confusion.
Its snout was stuck.
Perfect.
With my other hand, I touched the metal panel near its exposed neck.
[Partial Disassembly]
Puff.
Part of the steel plate turned to powder and vanished.
A hole the size of my palm appeared.
A perfect firing angle.
I pulled out my Elastic Control Iron Spear, shortened to baton length and strapped to my belt.
“Goodbye.”
Thrust!
The spear shot through the hole and pierced the Needle Hog’s neck.
The creature collapsed without even managing a dying cry.
“Whew…”
The [Blueprint Library] allowed me to register things I designed myself.
I registered this steel box as [Mobile Bunker].
Because [Storage] remained connected to me no matter the distance, once the design was registered I could manufacture it without thinking about the structure again.
This would probably become my main method of fighting mutants for a while.
I exited the box and processed the corpse.
Checking the loot—
Since it wasn’t a Named Mutant, there was no core.
Instead, by disassembling the countless spikes covering its back, I obtained dozens of [Steel Spikes].
They were quite hard and sharp.
“Can I attach these to a weapon?”
Iron spear and steel spikes.
The combination sounded good.
I immediately took out the Elastic Control Iron Spear.
I intended to embed the spikes into the spearhead to increase lethality and add bleeding effects.
[Enchantment Success]
[Enchantment Failure]
Out of many spikes, only five succeeded.
The reason for failure:
Capacity exceeded.
Each item had a capacity for [Enchantment] materials.
This spear already had a D-grade material, Contaminated Wild Dog Tendon, applied.
D-grade materials took up a lot of capacity.
There wasn’t enough space left to add dozens of E-grade Steel Spikes.
Of course, there was one way to increase the limit.
[Work Protocol Level Increase]
Well, even tuning had to follow balance.
I decided to store the remaining spikes for later.
Since I would return along this route again, I poured chemicals over the corpse to dispose of it.
If left alone, other mutants would gather around it.
Finally—
The dented steel box that had saved my life.
I obviously couldn’t just leave it behind.
[Disassembly]
The box broke down into resources.
[Scrap Metal – 15 kg]
Disassembling items I had manufactured only returned half the resources.
In other words, perpetual motion was impossible.
Anyway, that fight had consumed fifteen kilograms of scrap metal.
But ruined Seoul had scrap everywhere.
I searched nearby ruins and replenished the missing metal.
My bag grew heavy.
Dozens of kilograms of scrap metal.
Yet thanks to my strengthened body, it didn’t feel heavy at all.
I remembered struggling to carry a 30 kg crate just before my exile.
Back then Kim Cheolmin had said:
—Move. Useless bastard.
A cruel truth.
In this world, non-Awakened people were useless.
That’s why I had been expelled from the shelter.
Ten years after the collapse.
The world was changing.
Finally a dense forest appeared.
With no buildings nearby, this had to be Hyochang Park.
Looking closer, collapsed park structures stood among the overgrown vegetation like gravestones.
I approached quietly.
Then I sensed movement in a clearing deeper in the forest.
Holding my breath, I observed.
An odd scene unfolded.
Three people who appeared to be a family.
A middle-aged man.
A woman.
And their young daughter.
The girl was at most five or six years old.
Clearly a member of the EZ (Earth Zero) generation, born after the collapse.
They held rusty pipes and blunt kitchen knives.
Their expressions were desperate.
Exiles like me.
“Over there! Drive it right!”
“Honey! Be careful!”
Inside their encirclement flapped a single Blade-Beak Chicken.
A desperate hunt for a single meal.
Watching them rely on each other, struggling together…
I felt the weight of the word family that I had almost forgotten.
But—
My gaze didn’t linger on that desperate, beautiful family bond.
Instead, instinctively, I looked toward the shadows behind them in the forest.
Predators higher on the food chain were hiding there.
Three men.
Faces smeared with camouflage paint.
Crude weapons in their hands.
Raiders.
They snickered quietly, waiting for the family to catch the chicken.
Once the hunt ended, they would attack both the prey and the hunters.
“Heh… work a little harder. When the meal’s ready, we’ll eat it.”
Their whispers carried on the wind.
Maybe it was because I had awakened.
My hearing had definitely improved.
The family hunted the chicken.
The raiders hunted the family.
And…
I watched them all.
“Right. Humanity disappeared long ago.”
I had simply lived unaware inside the shelter.
Muttering coldly, I tightened my grip on the spear.