Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 0
Chapter Title: Opening
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Inhale… exhale. Inhale… exhale.
With every breath, the gas mask clung to his face and then pulled away.
It was suffocating.
So much so that he wanted to rip it off right this instant.
The fact that he couldn't remember the last time he'd taken it off made it even worse.
Kanghyeok fitted a hose to his gas mask and connected it to a pack of viscous, liquid food.
Just then.
Vroooom!
A bus appeared over the ridge.
It was under the pale moonlight, on a cool, early autumn day.
Kanghyeok hid behind a fragment of broken asphalt and pulled out the hose connected to his gas mask.
He flinched at the sound his vinyl protective suit made.
He couldn't make a sound now.
He had to be extremely careful.
Because there were bastards he absolutely had to kill.
The ones on that bus!
He'd struggled to find out that the bus would pass through here, and he had to use them to locate their base.
He had to.
Grind!
Kanghyeok clenched his jaw so hard his face trembled and brought his eye to the sniper rifle's scope.
The moisture fogging up the inside of his gas mask was annoying, and only the mournful light of the moon and stars illuminated the darkness.
Still, the moonlight was bright enough to cast shadows, and his resolve to kill them was more intense than the sun, allowing Kanghyeok to aim perfectly at the bus driver.
Crack!
Just after the gunshot pierced the darkness.
The bus, having lost its driver, swerved and crashed into an abandoned car on the shoulder before coming to a stop. Kanghyeok got up and sprinted toward the bus.
Clank, clank!
He was a ridiculous sight.
A rifle and shotgun were slung over his body, and an assault rifle was in his hands. Every time his feet hit the ground, the guns clanked noisily against each other, and the kukri on his shoulder glinted in the moonlight.
An abnormal amount of weaponry.
A protective suit and a gas mask.
It was a strange and bizarre outfit, but the most striking thing was the suit he wore over the transparent protective suit.
Wearing a worn-out suit, Kanghyeok was not a soldier, a mercenary, or an office worker.
He was a survivor in this goddamn world.
When was the last time he’d seen another living person?
A month ago?
It was a gaunt girl who wouldn't leave the side of two blackened, rotting corpses.
There were many other bodies beside them.
All of them were corpses riddled with clear bullet holes, and quite a few were scorched by fire.
It was a common sight everywhere.
It had become a world where the living envied the dead, and it wasn't strange for the dead to be boiling in a pot.
The world had ended.
That was six months ago.
Click-clack!
Nearing the bus, Kanghyeok reloaded his assault rifle. Then he aimed the barrel at the figures in protective suits starting to emerge from the bus.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!
In the darkness, the muzzle flash illuminated the surroundings.
The bastards died without even screaming!
He didn't feel an ounce of sympathy for them.
Because these bastards were the ones who hunted down and killed survivors.
That last survivor, the girl, had been burned to a crisp while he was briefly away searching for food. Her body riddled with bullets.
Rat-a-tat-tat! Ping, pang!
The bullets, fired as if unleashing his fury, indiscriminately hammered their bodies and guns.
Just then, Kanghyeok sensed a presence at the back of the bus and switched to his shotgun. He then unleashed a blast at the rear window.
BOOM! BOOM!
Gunshots like explosions and dozens of pellets blanketed the bus.
Staring at the bloodstains on the shattered window, Kanghyeok broke open the shotgun.
Click-clack!
Heat and spent shells ejected, and Kanghyeok pulled shells from his pocket and slammed them into the shotgun.
BOOM! BOOM!
As the shotgun spat fire like a mythical dragon, a heavy silence fell. But he could still clearly feel the presence.
A sharp killing intent that even this deep darkness couldn't hide.
He couldn't understand the killing intent, resentment, and anger radiating from them.
Grind!
“How dare you.”
Kanghyeok switched back to his assault rifle and approached the front door of the bus.
As soon as he stepped onto the stairs littered with corpses,
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!
Bullets flew at him.
Kanghyeok ducked into a blind spot and waited for the shooting to stop.
The gunfire soon subsided. He could faintly hear the sound of someone reloading a magazine.
Kanghyeok burst into the bus.
Rat-tat-tat!
A few bullets came his way.
Some were reloading, and those who weren't fired in a hurry, hitting the wrong places. Kanghyeok moved deeper into the bus, pulling the rifle's trigger.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!
In the pitch-black bus, the muzzle flash lit up the surroundings.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Each flash revealed men spouting blood from their heads and their eyes, filled with a bewilderment that even their gas masks couldn't hide.
Click!
He was out of ammo, and one of them raised his gun.
Before the man's finger could even touch the trigger, Kanghyeok threw his rifle with all his might.
Crack!
The man's head snapped back.
Kanghyeok drew the kukri from his shoulder and closed the distance. As if on cue, another man raised his gun.
Smack!
Kanghyeok grabbed the barrel of the gun and twisted it aside,
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The bullets that erupted from the muzzle raked the bus from floor to ceiling.
As the others were caught in the stray fire and died, Kanghyeok headbutted the man on the bridge of his nose.
Crunch!
His crushed nose gushed blood, and his grip on the gun loosened.
Kanghyeok shoved him away and readjusted his grip on the kukri.
Then he swung it wide.
Shhhhlick.
Blood sprayed from his split shoulder and severed neck, splattering the ceiling.
“Gurgle! Gurgle!”
Letting out a grotesque scream, the man frantically fumbled at his neck. He seemed more afraid of the tear in his protective suit than the gash in his throat.
Kanghyeok knew why.
Have you ever seen skin boil?
If you've seen it even once, you can never forget it.
Like an anthill-covered ground, the man's skin began to move bizarrely, oozing fluid and bloody pus.
This is it. This is the reason.
The world ended because of this.
No one knows if it's a virus, bacteria, or a fungus. The world ended before there was even time to find out.
The only survivors were the very few who were lucky enough to be able to counteract it.
“Grrrgle!”
As if the disease had spread throughout his body, the man began to vomit blood.
Black blood seeped through the gas mask's filter, and his eyeballs turned red.
Once it gets to this point, death is certain.
Kanghyeok pushed the man aside and walked toward the others.
Was it because they'd seen the fate of the one whose suit was torn?
Or was it because they saw the kukri that could so easily slice through their vinyl protective suits?
They couldn't bring themselves to pull the trigger.
Perhaps they were overwhelmed by the thick, suffocating atmosphere.
What did it matter?
He just had to move, regardless of how they felt.
Kanghyeok gripped the kukri, like the fang of a beast, in a reverse grip and charged at them. They shifted their aim to his torso and pulled their triggers.
Rat-tat-tat-tat! Bang!
Kanghyeok severed the man's wrist.
“Aaargh!”
He slit the throat of the man screaming desperately,
Thunk!
and grabbing another's gas mask, he drove the kukri into the back of his head.
Whoosh!
He immediately shoved the man aside,
Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh!
and threw the kukri at the man at the back of the bus who was aiming for his head.
Thud!
With a heavy thud, the man crumpled.
“Haaa… hooo, haaa… hooo.”
Kanghyeok glared at the sole survivor, panting for breath. Each gasp made the gas mask stick clammily to his face, but his breathing wasn't as ragged as the other man's.
That man was the only one left alive.
Haa, haa, haa.
As if smelling the stench of death that filled the bus, the man panted even more heavily than Kanghyeok.
Kanghyeok stepped onto the blood-soaked floor and approached him, his face contorted in pain.
His chest hurt like hell.
He'd taken at least three bullets to the chest.
But thanks to his special suit, the bullets hadn't penetrated his body, leaving behind only the blunt impact.
“Wh-who are you?”
The man asked in English as he raised a pistol, and Kanghyeok reached out and grabbed it.
He could feel the man's trembling through the pistol, and see the fear in his eyes.
Click.
The moment the man tried to pull the trigger, Kanghyeok pressed a button on the pistol with his thumb and pulled.
Tink.
The gun didn't fire.
Instead, the magazine dropped to the floor, and the pistol's slide flew into the air. Kanghyeok spoke quietly to the man, who was left holding only half a gun.
“Kanghyeok.”
The man's body and mind trembled more than ever.
It wasn't the reaction he wanted.
It meant he knew who Kanghyeok was.
Kanghyeok was an employee of a company that operated strictly in the shadows. But he was well-known among those in the know.
Their main clients were typically world-class bureaucrats, high-ranking government officials, or military and corporate giants.
Their primary business was dealing with rebel forces or influential criminal organizations.
The company had a powerful presence and influence in the underworld due to its outstanding work.
And Kanghyeok was that company's ace.
And he was the last employee, the last agent, of a company that went bankrupt when the world ended.
“Tell me your affiliation, your objective, and the location of your superiors.”
He spoke with a look that promised dire consequences for disobedience.
The man's face twitched, and suddenly, a faint light from behind him illuminated his surroundings.
Kanghyeok instinctively turned his head.
“Son of a bitch.”
Despite having his face and jaw crushed, one of the fallen men was flicking on a Zippo lighter.
In his other hand, he held a fuel canister, and blood and tears streamed from his eyes.
Kanghyeok spun around and raised his rifle.
Then the man tipped the canister over.
Splish.
The pouring fuel hit the bus floor, and Kanghyeok's rifle spat a bullet.
Bang!
The bullet landed squarely in the man's forehead.
His head dropped limply, and the Zippo lighter slipped from his grasp.
Clink.
The moment the lit Zippo hit the floor.
Whoosh.
Flames spread across the fuel, and an immense heat filled the bus.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
Kanghyeok grabbed the sole survivor by the collar and tried to leap through a broken window. But he couldn't.
The man had grabbed Kanghyeok's wrist and was holding onto a bus seat with his other hand.
BOOM! FWOOSH!
Something exploded, and the flames grew even stronger.
Kanghyeok stared at the man with wide eyes.
The man's eyes were filled with a sense of duty.
A duty to never let Kanghyeok escape.
The determination to die with Kanghyeok was clear in his eyes.
FWOOSH!
The flames drew closer, and the man's vinyl protective suit shriveled and tore open.
“Guh! Guuuuh!”
Even as he was dying from the disease, the man didn't let go of Kanghyeok.
Death was approaching with the flames, but Kanghyeok couldn't take his eyes off the man.
Why?
Why the hell is he looking at me like that?
What the hell are they?
He couldn't understand what made these men act this way.
“Crazy bastards.”
Kanghyeok raised his shotgun and pressed the muzzle to the man's chest.
BOOM!
With a harsh gunshot, his only hope died. Kanghyeok shoved the man away and threw himself through the broken window.
Just after the ground scraped harshly against his body, fierce flames erupted from the window.
Kanghyeok stared blankly at the burning bus.
If the bus had been intact, he might have been able to get something. But the interior was completely incinerated, there were no survivors, and the bodies were engulfed in flames, leaving no possibility of gathering any useful information.
Kanghyeok felt a sense of futility and a profound loneliness.
Then, feeling a strange sensation on his wrist, he lowered his gaze.
“Dammit.”
The wrist the man had grabbed.
The protective suit was slightly torn in that spot.
FWOOOOSH!
Flames billowed from the bus, and Kanghyeok stared vacantly at his wrist where he could feel the breeze.
Fwoosh! Pop! Pop!
As the remaining windows shattered in the flames, Kanghyeok clutched his wrist and lay on the ground.
In that position, he looked up at the stars and moon that seemed ready to pour down from the sky.
‘Dammit, what a mess.’
Kanghyeok gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut.
He could feel the pain of his skin melting and his blood vessels bursting all over his body.
“Cough!”
As he coughed, blood and viscera surged from his mouth, filling the inside of his gas mask. His vision gradually blurred, and his heart slowly began to stop.
His consciousness faded, the line between reality and unreality blurring, and he saw a man who could only be described as a god. He died before that man's eyes.
And so, Kanghyeok died.
A future that had passed.
A future that had not yet come.
And at the same time, it was his most vivid memory.