Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Behind a bush, beside a large rock.
I lay flat against the ground, holding my breath.
To avoid the raiders’ line of sight.
Clang! Clang!
When the steel pipe collided with the beak, the sound was like iron striking iron.
Judging by the movements, they were definitely non-Awakened.
After a prolonged struggle, the man was eventually pinned beneath the [Blade-Beak Chicken], which was about the size of an elementary school child.
Should I help?
I glanced toward where the raiders were hiding, but there was no reaction.
Looking closer, although he had been pinned down, the man was gripping both ends of the steel pipe and pushing back against the beak that was trying to stab down.
The Blade-Beak Chicken had bitten onto the pipe and was pressing the man down.
…Is that thing an idiot?
Instead of pulling out its beak and attacking the man, it just kept squawking and pushing forward.
The man seemed to have anticipated that.
He shouted to his wife.
“Honey, the net!”
The woman stuck the kitchen knife into her belt and pulled a net from her backpack.
No—looking closely, the net had been tied to the backpack.
What followed was quite a spectacle.
“Yebin, hold this.”
“Okay.”
The woman handed the backpack to the child.
Then, clutching the net, she moved to the opposite side.
She wrapped the net around both the man and the Blade-Beak Chicken.
They were moving urgently, but from an observer’s perspective, it was hard not to wonder what exactly they were doing.
A few minutes later.
The woman, grunting with effort, managed to trap both of them inside the net.
But that wasn’t the end.
Using the garlic-crushing end of the kitchen knife, she hammered dozens of stakes into the metal rings attached to the net.
For over ten minutes, the husband sweated heavily while enduring the attacks of the Blade-Beak Chicken.
“It’s done, honey!”
At his wife’s signal, the man shouted and pushed the steel pipe forward.
“Aaaah!”
The Blade-Beak Chicken was just as exhausted.
It was forced backward helplessly.
Their positions reversed instantly.
The Blade-Beak Chicken lay pinned to the ground, its claws and beak tangled in the net as it struggled.
The man released the steel pipe and slipped out of the net.
The wife immediately hammered another stake into that opening.
“Huff… huff…”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Hurry… give it to me.”
As the husband reached out his hand while gasping for breath, the wife ran to the bag and pulled something out.
Is that… a baton?
But the structure looked rather crude.
The man extended the three-section baton and attached the blunt kitchen knife to its end.
I couldn’t see clearly from afar, but it seemed some kind of mechanism was holding it in place.
The man stood up with the baton-knife and began attacking the Blade-Beak Chicken trapped in the net.
Or rather than attacking, it was more like repeatedly stabbing.
Because the knife wasn’t sharp, it seemed unable to pierce the chicken’s feathers properly.
Ten minutes later.
The Blade-Beak Chicken appeared dead.
The man was completely exhausted.
The woman pulled out the stakes again and removed the net, storing it back in the bag.
Then she detached the knife from the baton and approached the chicken.
…Don’t tell me that’s their only knife?
She plucked the chicken’s feathers and began dismantling it skillfully.
It clearly wasn’t her first time.
And while the sight was rather gruesome, the child watched it with curious eyes.
After a while, the man stood up and began helping his wife.
The raiders still seemed to be waiting for the work to finish.
I also moved a little closer, curious about the butchering method of the Blade-Beak Chicken.
That’s when I noticed the worn cloth patch attached to the man’s tattered jumper.
[Ahyeon – General Labor – 802]
Rough writing scrawled in black marker on a faded brown patch.
It was a mark distributed to shelter residents.
Mapo used black patches.
Ahyeon used brown?
Ahyeon Shelter was the closest shelter to Mapo Shelter.
I had heard they sometimes exchanged supplies, but I hadn’t realized even the patch colors were different.
Perhaps they lacked proper thread.
The patch had been stitched on using twisted strands pulled directly from the fabric of the clothing.
It seemed Ahyeon Shelter’s situation wasn’t good either.
Maybe that’s why they look like they’ve been exiled for a long time.
At least several months.
Possibly even years.
—Non-Awakened are parasites.
Their lives were a direct rebuttal to that statement.
The existence of people who survived outside shelters, organizing themselves and developing their own survival rules, left a deep impression on me.
But surely this family didn’t come all the way to Hyochang Park just to catch a single chicken?
For three people—parents and a small child—to live like nomads in this world would be incredibly harsh.
They must have some kind of base.
Perhaps even companions.
Maybe there was something like an exile survival zone somewhere.
I should secretly follow them later.
Just as the couple finished dismantling the Blade-Beak Chicken—
Three men suddenly stepped out from the forest shadows.
Their appearance was completely different from the family’s.
Their faces were smeared with camouflage cream.
Each carried a weapon—sharp machetes, steel pipes, and an axe.
The family noticed them too late.
Their faces turned pale as paper.
The man who looked like their leader smirked and raised one hand.
Sparks crackled across his palm.
An electric ability?
But it felt different from the D-grade ones I knew.
The sparks were weaker and smaller.
Probably E-grade or F-grade.
Which meant it wasn’t suitable for real combat.
Maybe just enough to ignite dry tinder.
But for the family, it was essentially a death sentence.
Regardless of grade, once someone awakened, their physical abilities far surpassed those of ordinary people.
“Drop everything you’ve got and get lost.”
The threat was simple.
The father, head of the family, bit his lip and placed the chicken, the backpack, and their weapons on the ground with trembling hands.
“H-Here it is. The chicken and the equipment… take everything.”
But the raiders’ greed clearly didn’t stop there.
The leader kicked the chicken on the ground and licked his lips.
“I said everything.”
“…What?”
When the man looked up in confusion, the leader’s gaze slid over the wife and daughter hiding behind him.
“You should hand over your daughter and wife too.”
The man’s head snapped up.
His eyes filled with fury and shock.
“What did you just—!”
One of the henchmen beside him snickered.
“But the kid’s too young to eat. If we raise her first, maybe ten years? Heh.”
A disgusting joke.
Whether it meant food, something sexual, or both.
Either way, they had crossed a clear line.
The father’s face, pale with fear moments ago, turned red with rage.
Animals would have shown more dignity than these men.
Watching from the bushes, my gaze grew cold.
Trash lower than animals.
Just as I’d heard.
Hyenas.
Parasites that avoided hunting mutants and instead preyed on weak humans.
I had already planned to attack them if I encountered them.
But now…
I decided to deal with them thoroughly.
Even if I spared them now, they would become enemies later.
Once I resolved to fight, I began setting up safety measures around my hiding place.
It would serve as both a trap and an escape route if my position was discovered or the ambush failed.
I can’t disassemble soil itself.
But anything embedded within the soil was different.
I placed my hand on the ground and focused.
Rocks beneath the dirt.
Plant roots.
Fragments of discarded plastic.
Various debris buried deep underground.
I targeted them.
[Disassembly]
The soil on the surface remained intact.
But the rocks and debris supporting it turned into blue particles and appeared beside me as materials.
As the ground collapsed slightly, a deep hole about the size of two adult fists naturally formed.
If I had dug with a shovel, there would have been noise and vibration.
But this ability created a perfect concealed pit in complete silence.
Immediately, materials from my bag were consumed for the next step.
[Crude Fragmentation Grenade]
[Wire]
Particles of light gathered in my hands, forming a dull lump of metal and a thin steel wire.
I carefully buried the grenade in the hole.
Then I connected the safety pin to an extremely thin wire I crafted from my materials—almost invisible to the naked eye.
The other end of the wire was stretched tight and tied to the base of a tree.
If they rushed toward me and triggered the tripwire, the explosion would tear apart their legs.
Once the trap was finished, I pulled out a new weapon from my bag.
A Y-shaped metal frame.
Attached to it was a tough, elastic tendon.
[High-Tension Bio Sling]
[Grade: D]
A throwing weapon combining mutant tendon and high-elasticity rubber to maximize tension.
Capable of firing small steel balls with enough force to penetrate concrete walls.
After encountering the Needle Hog, I had been thinking about this design during my journey here.
The elasticity of the D-grade Contaminated Wild Dog Tendon was on a completely different level from ordinary rubber bands.
It had enough durability and elasticity to launch dozens of kilograms of scrap metal without snapping.
If I threw stones or grenades myself, who knew where they would land.
But this was different.
Just pull.
Aim.
Release.
I used this a lot as a kid.
After becoming an orphan, I used to hunt birds with a slingshot when I was starving.
Eventually the birds themselves all turned into mutants, so I hadn’t used one in a long time.
But since it was something I manufactured myself, I quickly got the hang of it.
[Manufacture]
If I took pre-made steel balls from my bag, they would clatter and make noise.
So instead, I created ammunition right before firing.
The scrap metal in my bag melted into a cold sphere.
A perfect sphere.
Heavy.
I placed the steel ball into the sling.
The tendon stretched to its limit, transmitting a trembling tension into my fingertips.
My target:
The back of the raider leader’s hand.
The one arrogantly crackling with sparks.
The tension reached its limit.
I held my breath and released.
Fwoosh!
A sharp sound sliced through the air.
By the time the leader recognized it—
The steel ball had already arrived.
Thud!
A dull impact echoed through the forest.
“AAARGH!”
The leader screaming as sparks crackled in his palm.
The bones in the back of his hand shattered completely and bent at a grotesque angle.
As he writhed in pain on the ground, his subordinates panicked.
“What the hell?!”
“Who did that?!”
Before their eyes turned toward the forest where I was hiding, I quickly manufactured another steel ball.
Good.
First shot landed perfectly.
Unless he was a high-grade Awakened, he was probably only F-grade.
With his hand shattered, his electric ability was now sealed.
Fwoosh!
The second ball grazed another raider’s shoulder as he turned his head searching for me.
He collapsed screaming.
Only then did the raiders detect the direction of the attack.
“Over there!”
“Catch him! Tear him apart!”
Enraged, they charged toward my hiding place.
Four of them.
They split into multiple directions, zigzagging forward.
Fighting humans was different from fighting mutants.
In the chaos, I saw the husband grabbing his wife and daughter and fleeing.
Quick thinking.
That’s probably how they survived this long.
With the hostages gone, I changed tactics.
I set the slingshot down and pulled the safety pin from my belt.
The Crude Fragmentation Grenade left from the earlier trap.
One.
Two.
Three.
After counting three seconds, I threw it at their feet.
Thunk.
“Grenade!”
The leading raider dove in panic.
But it was too late.
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion erupted.
One raider collapsed bleeding from shrapnel.
The others staggered from the shockwave.
But it wasn’t over.
Two furious raiders burst through the smoke.
“You bastard!”
Their eyes burned with killing intent.
The distance had already shrunk to ten meters.
Their machetes flashed.
But they didn’t know.
They were stepping directly into the battlefield I had prepared.
Click.
The leading raider’s ankle caught the wire barely visible above the ground.
“Huh?”
The moment his expression froze—
BOOOOM!
A much heavier explosion shook the earth.
The grenade I had buried deep in the dirt detonated beneath his legs.
“AAAAAAH!”
A horrific scream erupted through the thick dust.
His lower body was shredded.
He collapsed instantly.
The man behind him was also torn apart by the blast.
The forest filled with the smell of gunpowder and blood.
Hell unfolded in seconds.
The surviving raiders froze.
Fear.
Fear of an unseen enemy.
Fear that even the ground beneath their feet was not safe.
“Don’t come closer! A-AAAH!”
The man whose legs were blown off screamed in agony.
Now was the time to finish it.
If they hid behind trees or rocks, things would get complicated.
So I had to prevent that.
I picked up the slingshot again.
This time, instead of a steel ball—
I loaded a grenade with the safety pin removed.
“A gift for you, trash.”
My aim point:
The thick branches above their heads.
Fwoosh—
The grenade traced a parabola through the air.
Just as they raised their heads to locate me—
Thunk!
BOOM!
A perfect airburst.
The grenade exploded against the tree branches.
Cover became meaningless.
Scrap metal fragments rained down like a storm.
“AAARGH!”
“My eyes! My eyes!”
The raiders collapsed, clutching their heads and shoulders.
None of them remained standing.
Only one.
The leader who had been shot in the hand earlier.
He sat frozen in terror.
“W-What… what is this…”
His trembling eyes darted between the sky and the forest.
Watching his men slaughtered before him had broken his mind.
The explosions had ended.
Now only groans and blood remained in the silent forest.
“Where are you?! Come out! Come out!”
He swung his machete wildly at the air.
The primal fear of an invisible enemy.
Inside the bushes, I calmly loaded another steel ball.
He would never see my face.
There was no reason to expose myself.
The stretched tendon vibrated.
Goodbye.
Thud.
The steel ball pierced his temple.
He collapsed like a wooden puppet without a scream.
That ended everything.
The forest fell silent again.
I remained hidden for a while longer, scanning the surroundings.
There could still be someone hiding.
Or someone pretending to be dead.
After several minutes—
Once I confirmed there was no movement—
I finally rose from my hiding place.
As I pushed through the bushes, the heavy smell of blood filled the air.
Some of them were still breathing weakly.
But I showed no mercy.
They had never shown mercy to the weak either.
I took out my steel knife and finished them.
Then I approached the leader’s corpse.
The tactical backpack on his back looked valuable.
Inside, there was no food.
Instead, there was a waterproof pouch.
Inside it—
A smartphone protected by a shock-resistant military case.
It was twice as thick and heavy as a normal phone.
A large external battery had been taped to the back with blue tape.
Carefully, I pressed the power button.
Bzzz.
The screen lit up.
Miraculously, the battery was still alive.
There was a lock pattern.
But that didn’t matter.
What caught my eye was the status bar at the top of the screen.
[Satellite Signal: Good]
[Server Connected]