Those Who Hunt the Golden Chests (1)

For two days after I put up the post, comments and private messages poured in without pause. We took in everyone who met the conditions, and already more than a hundred people were living inside our school — our F-Rank Shelter.

Does a hundred sound like a small number? It isn't. Not even close.

Right now, the Bulletin Board lists twenty Shelters in the Busan area. Most of them will only take Awakened, so cracking fifty occupants is a struggle. We were only able to hit that number because we took in ordinary civilians as well.

Why so few people to begin with?

Shelters are still going up even now. Factor in the ones that never made it onto the board and the real count is probably a lot higher. On top of that, the stronger Awakened don't need a Shelter at all — they can hunt monsters well enough to get by on their own, so they have no reason to join one. And since the overwhelming majority of survivors are ordinary civilians, getting through the door of a Shelter that requires at least one Awakened in the group is no easy feat.

So why not just fill the leftover spots with civilians?

I've said it before: food is a problem, and it isn't the only one. An F-Rank Shelter caps out at two hundred people. Monsters roam the area constantly, and every time the shield takes a hit it has to be repaired — which costs Coins. That's what made it so hard. Even the Shelters that cherry-picked Awakened and nobody else didn't really have a choice.

But the moment this post of mine hits the board, every other Shelter is going to start taking civilians just to fill their numbers. And the reason is this — the new feature that unlocked the instant our Shelter hit a hundred people.

That was the Shelter Shop. And of everything on that list, the Siege Tower was the one you had to install no matter the cost. A thousand Coins was a steep price, but it was non-negotiable. The towers fired electric bolts at any monster that wandered near the Shelter, and they did a staggering job of keeping the creatures from getting close at all. So everyone chipped in, pooled their Coins, and we put up the maximum of five around the building. Thanks to that, we weren't cooped up inside anymore — we finally had a stretch of ground we could actually walk.

The other upgrades were no joke either. Climate Control let us regulate the temperature inside the building without electricity or a boiler, and in weather this close to winter, that wasn't a luxury. It was a necessity. On top of that, the Surveillance Cameras let us watch the school's perimeter on a screen. Once this information got out, every other Shelter would start taking civilians just to scrape together a hundred people.

Okay. Posted it to the board.

Hoping as many ordinary civilians as possible would find their way into a Shelter, I started getting ready to head out with the students.

After we'd opened the Shelter, the first thing we did was go around to the students' homes, one by one, and bring their families inside. The numbers weren't high. Most of them were missing — alive or dead, nobody could say. Given how much time had already passed since this whole thing started, that was probably inevitable.

"Ssaem. Do you think our families will be okay?"

"Yeah. They'll be fine, so don't worry."

Maybe it was because he'd already seen the carnage at the other houses. Jin-hwan didn't seem to be holding out much hope.

"Let's pull up the map first."

"Yes, sir."

The map we'd bought from the shop wasn't any ordinary map. It marked hidden chests along the routes we traveled. Besides the Golden Key I'd already gotten my hands on, killing monsters sometimes dropped Copper Keys and Silver ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Keys as well. Use those keys on the matching chests and you'd find all kinds of items inside, so checking the map whenever we moved had become a habit.

Honestly, the rewards from copper chests weren't much. One-star items, and every now and then a two-star piece — that was the ceiling. Silver chests, though, were a different story. Word was they dropped three-star items, and every so often even a four-star. We'd only found one so far, but the item that came out of it… Min-cheol used his Silver Key, and an M16 assault rifle popped out — a class-exclusive weapon. It was only three-star, but as a weapon built for his class, the thing hit like a truck. If a silver chest held something like that, what on earth was sitting inside a golden one?

Nothing around here, huh?

No chests in the vicinity. We checked the map as we went and kept walking. Sure enough, Bugbears kept turning up along the way. I was sick of them by now. I left them to my summoned monsters and we pushed on a little farther, until a cluster of villa buildings came into view. Jin-hwan pointed at one of them.

"Ssaem. That's my house."

"Alright. Let's go."

The street was dead quiet. Maybe everyone nearby was already gone. We stepped through the villa's entrance and found the first-floor unit already torn open — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the thick steel front door crumpled inward, the stench of blood thick enough to choke on. Jin-hwan's place was on the third floor. Unit 301. Climbing the stairs, the monster corpses and the blood smeared across the walls made my heart lurch in my chest. We stopped right in front of the door.

Knock. Knock.

Jin-hwan rapped on the door, careful and quiet. Nothing. He knocked again. Still nothing.

In a situation like this, there were two possibilities. Either nobody was home — or they were already dead inside. We'd walked in on another student's parents, butchered by monsters in the most horrific way imaginable, and Jin-hwan couldn't bring himself to open the door. I gripped his shoulder hard.

"Jin-hwan. Brace yourself, and open it."

He nodded. Whatever was waiting on the other side, he was ready to face it. His hand trembled as he reached for the door-lock keypad.

That was when it happened.

Crash!

The sound of a window shattering from inside the apartment.

"What the hell?!"

Jin-hwan punched in the code and we burst through the door. The window was smashed. I rushed over to it and caught sight of someone already fleeing down below.

"Mom! Dad!"

Jin-hwan's parents lay there as cold corpses. They hadn't been dead long — warm blood was still pouring from their throats, spreading across the floor.

Goddamn it. Was it that bastard?

The man running away. He was the one who'd killed them. Had to be.

"You son of a bitch!"

Jin-hwan sprinted to the window and threw himself out of it. Then he was gone, tearing after the man at a dead run. Min-cheol and I scrambled outside ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠after him and joined the chase.

Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.

Jin-hwan's parents had been alive just moments ago. Maybe it was because we'd knocked on the door from outside. They were dead now, and it was starting to feel like it was my fault.

"Hah— hah— hah— where'd he go?"

Jin-hwan had been leading the chase, but he'd lost the man somewhere along the way. He whipped his head around, scanning every direction. Had we missed him? We looked everywhere. No sign of him.

Rustle.

A small sound reached my ears. I eased toward it, and there it was — a little puppy, trotting along.

A dog?

Something was off. The puppy looked straight at us, then started slinking away in the opposite direction, slow and careful.

Wait. Don't tell me—

I moved toward it, and the thing picked up speed. Suspicious now, I closed the distance fast — and in a blink, the puppy's body warped into the shape of a man.

Pop!

I knew it.

The man who'd been running from us in the shape of a dog. I caught up right behind him and drove my fist into his back with everything I had.

Thud!

The instant I hit him, he kissed the pavement and went down. Jin-hwan caught up a second later and was on him.

Thud!

Jin-hwan put every ounce of strength he had into the punch, slamming it into the man's face. The blow left him half-conscious, his eyes glazed and rolling. Jin-hwan didn't look like he had any intention of stopping.

"You piece of shit! Why the hell did you do it?!"

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Jin-hwan hammered the man's face, demanding an answer with every blow. I pulled him off before he went too far.

"Jin-hwan. Keep that up and you'll kill him."

"Then let him die!"

"We need to know why he did it."

I got Jin-hwan to stand down, then looked at the man on the ground. I put a knife to his throat and spoke, slow and even.

"Why did you do it?"

"I… I didn't do it."

"You didn't."

"No. They were already dead when I got there."

He claimed Jin-hwan's parents were already gone by the time he arrived. That didn't add up. What reason would this man have to go to Jin-hwan's house in the first place?

"Then why were you there?"

"B-because of the Golden Key."

"The Golden Key?"

"Yes. I heard the people in that house had a Golden Key. I went to warn them. That there are people out there hunting Golden Keys."

The Golden Key. The same key that dropped from monsters. This man said he'd come to warn them about people targeting those keys. But by the time he got there they were already dead, and when he heard the noise outside the door, he figured the hunters had come for the Golden Key — so he ran.

"Who are they?"

"Lately there've been people killing anyone who has a Golden Key. Someone who goes by ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the nickname Golden."