A Cart Full of Hope
Even as he wandered through the other floors, filling his pockets to the brim, a few ignorant creatures approached him or tried to launch surprise attacks. In the end, they all became meat and hides, and just like the rest, they ended up in his pockets.
“Not enough.”
Since he was already gathering supplies, he figured he might as well take plenty. Kang Tae-sung even dragged around a shopping cart, stuffing anything that might prove useful inside.
He grabbed plenty of shoes and socks in every size, and he crammed thick winter coats into the cart as well.
Finally, when he reached the entrance on the first floor, he lined up the carts in a row and connected them with plastic rope like a train.
“Whew.”
Once he’d gathered everything, the sheer volume was staggering, yet there were still plenty of things left that he could take if he wanted.
Kang Tae-sung gave one of the connected carts a light pat, then turned his head slightly to look deeper into the mart.
“You were lucky.”
He didn’t know whether the words were meant for himself or for the monsters holding their breath somewhere in the shadows. Either way, he spoke them aloud before walking out through the shattered, wide-open entrance of the mart.
‘They call it aggro, right?’
He’d heard that the more monsters you killed, the higher the numerical value would climb, drawing even more monsters toward you. Strangely enough, however, almost none came charging at him.
‘Is this the difference between the system and reality?’
Monsters certainly resembled beasts in some ways, but they weren’t as stupid as actual animals. As long as they hadn’t entered a frenzied state, they usually had enough sense to tell whether something was their prey… or if they were about to become someone else’s.
Of course, there were always a few brainless ones, but they were the exception.
‘Maybe the ones that charged me were affected by that aggro value.’
When he thought about how the weaker ones had come running with gleaming eyes, it made sense. Perhaps the higher the aggro value, the more likely even intelligent monsters were to attack.
But for now, as Kang Tae-sung returned to the road pulling over ten rattling carts behind him, not many monsters dared to rush him.
He ran into a few lizard-like creatures that had shed their feline skins and several boar-shaped monsters that looked completely out of place in an urban landscape. He stabbed them without hesitation, but in the process his wolf-bone spear finally broke.
He hadn’t thought much of the weapon to begin with, so he didn’t feel particularly attached to it.
Still, with a slightly regretful expression, Kang Tae-sung glanced back toward the rear of the large mart—most likely the distribution warehouse.
In that parking area, ownerless semi-trucks stood scattered about, and between them lay the corpses of what had probably been people. The bodies looked like they had been there for quite some time. Perhaps they had been trying to gather supplies from the warehouse.
It wasn’t a bad idea, in theory.
But Kang Tae-sung had chosen not to head that way because he could sense an overwhelmingly large number of monsters gathered there. It would have been far too much trouble.
‘They might have eaten everything by now.’
If the monsters had any intelligence at all, they would have realized that the risk outweighed the reward. Especially once their numbers grew too large—dealing with them quietly became impossible, which only attracted even more newcomers. It wasn’t a situation he particularly wanted to walk into.
‘Still…’
If he really needed to, he wouldn’t rule out coming back later.
Krrraaang!
Another wolf came running from far away. Kang Tae-sung stepped away from the carts he’d been pulling and waited for it in the middle of the road.
He picked up a broken piece of concrete from the ground, held it in his hand, and hurled it at the creature that was charging toward him with its jaws wide open, ready to tear him apart.
Thud.
With a somewhat dull sound, the concrete chunk lodged itself in the wolf’s mouth, shattering several of its sturdy teeth and breaking apart halfway. It then pierced through the soft tissue inside its mouth and embedded itself deep in the creature’s skull, destroying part of its brain.
No matter how hard the concrete was, the monster’s body was so tough that the fragment didn’t burst out the other side of its skull. Still, it was more than enough to kill it.
The wolf couldn’t stop its forward momentum. It slid across the asphalt like it was ice-skating and came to a stop right at Kang Tae-sung’s feet.
‘I guess spears don’t drop that often.’
This one hadn’t given him anything special besides the usual byproducts wolves dropped. The others he’d encountered while moving had been the same.
It seemed the probability of equipment items dropping from monsters wasn’t very high.
Only then did he wonder if the wolf-bone spear he had discarded might have been a valuable item after all. But considering its durability, he doubted it.
He continued on his way, turning the occasional charging monster into meat and loading it onto the spare cart connected at the back. By the time he reached the 4th District, his points had already climbed past fifty.
Points: 56.317
***
Children ran around excitedly in their new clothes and shoes.
Elderly people, unsure what to do with themselves, picked up one of the thick coats piled high and tried it on.
Beyond them, Kang In-hye couldn’t hide her joyful expression and was practically bouncing in place. In contrast, Kang Yeon-sung stared at his oldest brother with a serious face.
“You went alone?”
“That’s right.”
“I clearly told you it was dangerous…”
“If I caused the problem, I should be the one to clean it up.”
Kang Tae-sung spoke calmly.
In a way, one could say the food distribution had been cut off earlier because he had stepped in. So this was the least he could do to make up for it.
“That’s not the issue here. That place—how could you go there by yourself? …And you! Is this really the time to be happy?!”
“…I’m sorry.”
Kang In-hye, who had been beaming while looking at the cart full of unknown meat, flinched at Kang Yeon-sung’s sudden shout. She quickly lowered her head, glancing around nervously.
“Store it properly so it doesn’t spoil. That should be enough to last for a while.”
“Yes, oppa. This is really such a relief. Thank you.”
She didn’t ask what kind of meat it was. There was no need to know, and even if she did, it wouldn’t make her hesitate.
Kang Yeon-sung watched Kang In-hye struggle to pull the heavy cart away, then turned back to his oldest brother.
“No matter how strong you are, people still die.”
“I can tell whether a place will kill me or not. And besides…”
Even if it was a place that could kill him, Kang Tae-sung said he was confident he could escape without dying. However, his expression as he spoke didn’t match his words. His face looked bitter, as if he were recalling something unpleasant. He reached out and patted his youngest brother’s shoulder.
“I told you this morning. I awakened.”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember the points I showed you then?”
“It was… around 25, right?”
Kang Yeon-sung knew exactly how difficult it was for an ordinary hunter to obtain that many points. He had seen it clearly during his time in the combat support unit—how many points the hunters he admired possessed.
But points alone couldn’t prove true strength. Points accumulated little by little just by hunting.
Yet when Kang Tae-sung showed the back of his hand again, the number that had been only about 25 that morning had now become this.
Kang Yeon-sung forgot what he was about to say and could only fall silent.
“Do you believe me now?”
Kang Tae-sung replied in a slightly mischievous tone, then dismissed the points display and ruffled his youngest brother’s hair with that same hand.
“I got a message from our second brother earlier.”
“From Han-sung?”
“He said he was glad you came back. He also congratulated you on your awakening. He said he always knew you were a man with real power…”
A man with real power.
The memory of Han-sung quietly approaching him whenever he was alone, chatting away, made Kang Tae-sung smile faintly.
“And… he said he might be discharged. He said it was only a possibility, but it seems pretty likely.”
“Discharged?”
In the current situation, there was no job as stable as the military. Of course, it was dangerous work that put one’s life at risk, but ordinary people faced life-threatening danger every day as well.
“Did something happen?”
“Apparently there are connections and lobbying even in the military. If you don’t pull strings or pay bribes, it’s hard to get assigned to a good unit…”
He had concluded that if he stayed in the rear doing odd jobs, he would never awaken in his entire life.
“……”
So far, his younger brother’s judgments had rarely been wrong. This time would probably be the same.
“What happens to the family if he gets discharged?”
Should they head out early to go meet him? When Kang Tae-sung asked, Kang Yeon-sung replied that it wasn’t certain yet.
“He said not to worry about the family. Oh, and if we were thinking of going there, we should forget it. He’s planning to bring the family back to our hometown.”
“How?”
The distance between there and here was easily hundreds of kilometers. With monsters swarming everywhere on the ground, how exactly did he plan to bring them back?
But the answer came soon enough, along with a sight that proved the government had not abandoned the cities in the provinces.
***
Creak. Creak—.
Huff. Huff.
There was nothing on the office desk. Or rather, everything that should have been on it was now scattered messily across the floor.
In its place, leaning against the desk, was a woman who didn’t look like an adult at all. Her clothes were somewhat dirty.
She was bent forward, resting her upper body on the desk to support her weight. Her expression made it clear she was desperately trying to endure something.
Even though her face was flushed red, she was biting down hard, doing everything she could to keep from letting any sound or emotion escape her lips.
Behind the woman who was half-collapsed over the desk, a man stood in stark contrast—roughly in his early thirties—roughly releasing all those suppressed feelings along with heavy breaths.
His slightly protruding belly swayed back and forth in time with his thrusting hips, jiggling in a rhythmic motion that repeatedly covered and revealed the woman’s backside.
When her hips started to slip off to the side, he grabbed them with both hands and pulled her back into position. After a few more thrusts, he let out a hollow sigh-like groan and released everything he had been holding back.
Whether he didn’t have any tissues for cleanup or simply couldn’t be bothered, he simply grabbed his underwear and pants and pulled them up. Then he gave the woman—who was still slumped over the desk—a sharp slap on the butt.
“Good work.”
He placed something in her dangling hand. Only then did the woman, who looked completely drained, slowly gather her clothes and leave the room.
What she held in her hand were three ration tickets—enough to exchange for three days’ worth of supplies, or one day’s rations for three people.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
After the woman left the room, a knock sounded as if it had been waiting for her to exit.
The man opened the window to ventilate the room a little, then turned toward the door.
“Come in.”
============== Author’s Note ==============
Thank you.
See you next time…