Monsters Adapt
The house had already collapsed, and since it stood far from the city center, bringing the family to the 4th District was unavoidable.
They had considered picking one of the many empty houses rather than staying in the school gymnasium, but the lack of electricity outside the gym posed a problem. Combined with the general inconvenience and the safety benefits of staying with a larger group, they ultimately decided to remain in the gymnasium.
“It must be uncomfortable for you. Are you sure you’re all right?”
Kang Tae-sung’s parents greeted Kang In-hye warmly, as if she were their own daughter, and nodded repeatedly to reassure her.
“The military family housing wasn’t exactly luxurious either.”
Kang Yu-ri glanced at Kang Han-sung while speaking, but he was deep in conversation with Kang Tae-sung and hadn’t heard them.
“I heard there were quite a few people here, but it seems rather empty?”
Kang Yu-ri looked around as she spoke. The scattered bedding and empty spaces suggested far more residents than the roughly twenty people currently present.
“It’s because it’s work hours.”
Kang In-hye smiled faintly. She had only stopped by briefly while helping elsewhere.
“Work hours?”
“The children are studying at school, and those who dislike that or have other tasks are working around the district.”
“What kind of work?”
Kang Yu-ri asked because she wondered if there was anything useful she could do. Kang In-hye waved her hands, saying it was fine for today.
“The elderly and children, who lack strength, collect waste from the septic tanks and move it.”
They dug pits on vacant lots or riverbanks outside the 4th District and dumped the night soil there. Kang Yu-ri wondered why they bothered.
“Because there are so many people, the septic tanks fill up quickly?”
“That’s part of it, but…”
Kang In-hye looked toward Kang Tae-sung, who was still talking with Kang Han-sung. She had been carrying out his instructions for several days, though she wasn’t entirely sure of the reasoning behind them. Still, there was no reason to hide it.
“Monsters eat the waste?”
“Have you never heard of that, unni?”
“Not at all. Tae-sung oppa said that?”
“Yes. Human excrement contains a fair amount of what he called mana, and some monsters consume it…”
“Is that so? I wouldn’t know. Han-sung oppa might.”
“Anyway, if we dump the waste outside the district like that, fewer monsters will come looking for people themselves. That’s what Tae-sung oppa told us.”
At the time, Tae-sung had called it the simplest way to create a symbiotic relationship. Some monsters struggled to sustain themselves through breathing alone and needed to consume food or other living beings. For those creatures, human waste could satisfy them without the need to hunt people. Even monsters with a degree of intelligence would recognize human intent and stop hunting deliberately.
“The downside is that monsters drawn to the waste might increase the overall number around here.”
That was a problem for later. For now, preventing monsters from entering the district took priority. Tae-sung wanted an environment where people could survive even without him. If monsters gathered at the waste sites, they would likely fight among themselves rather than target humans.
Of course, his original plan to leave the city for his family had reversed, but he hadn’t mentioned that yet.
“Children with a bit more strength or… a more violent streak were assigned to the territory-securing team.”
The territory-securing team cleared rubble from collapsed buildings and removed obstacles from the streets. Even the stronger or more stressed youths couldn’t casually lift heavy concrete debris with their bare hands. Without heavy machinery, they focused on what they could manage—filling sandbags to repair the fence around the school and, when possible, breaking rubble into smaller pieces.
“You made them do that kind of work?”
Kang Yu-ri glanced at her eldest brother. Tae-sung’s expression remained blank as he spoke with Han-sung, yet something about him felt different from before—quieter, but somehow more solid. Was it just her imagination?
‘Well, he did say he became an Awakened.’
Even Han-sung, who had been in the military, hadn’t awakened. No one seemed to know exactly how Tae-sung had done it, and he himself only gave vague answers. No one would believe the absurd story about killing wolves.
“So what can I do?”
Kang In-hye chuckled at the sight of Kang Yu-ri rolling up her sleeves, eager to help immediately. Somehow, she felt the place would grow a little livelier from now on.
“So government officials came along too…”
“They just hitched a ride on the transport plane. I applied for discharge the moment I heard about the plan.”
Kang Tae-sung nodded at his brother’s words. The transport plane he had seen in the city hall parking lot had been large enough to carry substantial supplies, and indeed several crates had been unloaded. They were supposedly relief supplies. Soldiers from the government forces handled the unloading, while several men in suits conversed with Headquarters personnel. The suited men had soon entered the city hall building, so Tae-sung hadn’t heard what they discussed, but Han-sung’s account suggested their purpose wasn’t merely delivering aid.
Moreover, the people who arrived on the transport helicopter included far more than just government officials and soldiers. There were clusters of ordinary civilians, similar to Tae-sung’s own family, and others openly advertising themselves as Hunters with various weapons and armor.
“Seoul is getting more dangerous by the day.”
Han-sung spoke with a hardened expression. His rear-echelon unit had focused on post-battle cleanup rather than direct monster combat, yet even that work revealed the changes taking place.
“They’re getting stronger?”
“It’s not public knowledge yet, but most of the military knows. The monsters are growing stronger.”
The monster corpses Han-sung had seen early on resembled nothing more than large, fierce beasts. Their hides could still be pierced with a standard military bayonet before rigor set in. Over time, however, something shifted. Part of it was the appearance of new species—monsters covered in hard scales that proved far more difficult to penetrate. After a certain point, firearms saw increased use. The corpses were far more damaged than before, and it became more efficient to use automated butchering systems to secure byproducts.
“Still, nothing beats a bullet. With suppressors, the noise stayed manageable, so we could take them down without much trouble…”
Then came the moment when rifle rounds stopped penetrating their hides. What had once gone clean through now merely lodged in the skin, or failed to pierce at all—as if the guns themselves had lost power.
“From then on we started relying more on grenades and explosives… but the cost became a problem. The higher-ups noticed something was wrong. The expenditure per operation multiplied several times over.”
Han-sung said he first considered discharge around the time the higher-ups began restricting the use of explosive weapons.
“Firearms haven’t changed much in testing, but the monsters started lasting longer… It felt off. The brass kept demanding we conserve ammo without understanding the field situation.”
Similar complaints had begun circulating among civilian Hunters as well. Monsters seemed less affected by gunfire than before.
“They adapted.”
Kang Tae-sung replied matter-of-factly.
“Adapted?”
“Monsters inherently know how to raise their physical defenses. Think of it like tensing every muscle in your body at once.”
“But they’re still bullets.”
“If their bodies were like a human’s, the rounds would punch through easily. If they were that weak, we wouldn’t need to fear them in the first place.”
There would be no reason for their byproducts to fetch high prices either. Having seen countless monster corpses, Han-sung could follow his brother’s explanation.
“When guns were still effective, the monsters simply hadn’t adapted to their speed yet. The bullets reached them before they could react.”
Eventually, however, the creatures adjusted to that velocity and began reinforcing their bodies to reduce the impact, according to Tae-sung.
“Still, they can’t maintain that kind of reinforcement indefinitely, right?”
Han-sung looked puzzled. For a human, sustaining full-body tension for more than a few minutes would be exhausting. How could monsters do it? Then he remembered the answer Tae-sung had already given.
Because they were monsters. Their bodies differed from humans’.
“They can’t maintain it forever, though. That’s clear.”
That was why monsters were still being hunted. Once the reinforcement wore off, ordinary bullets could wound them again. The real issue was the sheer cost of ammunition required to fight them during that window.
“So that’s how it’s going.”
Han-sung recalled the growing preference among civilian Hunters for traditional weapons over firearms.
“If you have to hammer at a rock for a set amount of time anyway, a gun or a blade makes little difference.”
“A stronger gun would change things, but the cost-effectiveness wouldn’t be worth it.”
Besides, more powerful firearms produced greater noise—noise suppressors couldn’t fully conceal. Now understanding why cold weapons were gaining favor among Hunters, Han-sung looked at his brother.
“But how do you know all this so well?”
“I’ve killed a lot of them.”
Tae-sung answered without hesitation.
“……?”
Of course he had killed many—that was how he awakened. Yet Han-sung couldn’t shake the feeling that his brother’s words carried a deeper meaning than simple experience. He tilted his head in confusion.