Chapter 213
Chapter 213
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Contact
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「Seo Chae-young: Uncle, when are you coming?」
「Kang Ha-na: When are you coming?」
While gazing at the aurora in Alaska and lost in all sorts of pointless random thoughts, messages arrived from Chae-young and Ha-na.
The kids often sent messages like this after joining the raid party.
「Un-ho: Still a long way off.」
「Seo Chae-young: Uncle, I miss you.」
「Kang Ha-na: I miss you.」
Sorry, kids, but I didn't miss them all that much.
「Un-ho: Yeah.」
It was a hassle to reply, but I had to at least acknowledge them. If I didn't, the kids would bombard me with messages nonstop.
The kids started reporting everything, from which kid they fought with to trivial stuff I had no interest in.
「Seo Chae-young: ....And then..... Uncle, do you know what 13,606,432 times 17,403,326,743 is?」
Now the topic had even shifted to math.
They must be studying these days.
Was Chae-won teaching them?
But that problem wasn't cute at all.
Was this really an elementary school question?
It was just a calculation that took too long.
Of course, I had no intention of solving it...
「Un-ho: ......No clue.」
「Seo Chae-young: Sigh, you don't even know that?」
Yeah.... Good for you.
「Seo Chae-young: That's right......... When I solved it, Soo-ji unnie was shocked. She called me a genius.」
And so began the never-ending story...
'Please stop now...'
I even considered blocking them...
But I held back, figuring I'd face backlash from my women.
Kids really were awkward to deal with.
「Baek Seol-hwa: Chae-young, my lord and I have important matters to discuss right now, so save that story for later.」
「Seo Chae-young: Okay....」
Phew...
Seol-hwa's message came at just the right timing.
「Baek Seol-hwa: My lord, a survivor group has come down from the north. They say they're US Forces Korea troops, and it's a sizable group.」
「Un-ho: US Forces Korea?」
Were those the guys I helped who went that way?
「Baek Seol-hwa: Yes, given their uniforms and that they're foreigners, it doesn't seem like a lie. What should we do, my lord?」
「Un-ho: Seol-hwa, handle it yourself.」
「Baek Seol-hwa: Pardon? Is that really okay?」
「Un-ho: Yeah. Seol-hwa, I trust you.」
「Baek Seol-hwa: Th-thank you. I will repay your trust, my lord.」
If I were there, Seol-hwa might have teared up and kowtowed. It wasn't hard to say something that would make her happy when it was no big deal.
The Sejong City settlement no longer faced any major threats.
Plus, a system that ran smoothly even without me was now in place.
I had no intention of meddling in settlement management anymore. As long as my current hunting setup kept running fine, I didn't care what happened.
'Time to sleep.'
I'd lit a bonfire and tried to set the mood under the aurora I'd never seen before in my life, but now it was time to crash.
I burrowed into the gap between Blackie's folded wings beside me.
A new discovery I'd made on the way here.
I'd thought it riding on Blackie's back, but her feathers were incredibly soft and fluffy.
So I'd come up with the idea of her embrace.
Blackie's embrace was comfier than I'd imagined.
No comparison to a bed.
After that, Blackie had become my makeshift bed.
Blackie, who had been sleeping, cracked open her sleepy eyes to glance at me worming into her embrace and slightly lifted her wings to make it easier.
At first, Blackie hadn't liked me doing this, but now she was completely used to it.
I slipped into Blackie's embrace, savoring the cozy bed, and drifted off to sleep.
Taylor made contact with the Sejong City survivor settlement.
Leaving his subordinates waiting outside, Taylor entered the settlement alone. Knowing his abilities, his men wouldn't worry too much.
As a condition for entry, he surrendered his firearms and had his hands bound.
It was expected.
But to him, an Awakener with superpowers, it was meaningless.
The guard radioed in.
Taylor followed their guidance to somewhere while closely observing the settlement's survivors.
His first impression was that the survivors were far cleaner than he'd imagined.
It felt different from what he'd seen on screens.
They stood in stark contrast to himself, who hadn't properly washed in ages.
People glanced at him curiously.
It wasn't hostility.
Nor anxiety.
Just plain curiosity.
That's when Taylor spotted someone walking while using a smartphone.
'A-a smartphone?!'
No matter how he looked, it wasn't a radio.
It was the smartphone he'd once held endlessly.
And it wasn't just one.
He occasionally saw people staring at smartphone screens.
'An act?'
The sight was so surreal and detached from reality that he momentarily suspected it.
But there was no real reason for them to fake it.
'How?'
Harboring questions, he followed the guard. The place he was led to was the living room of an empty apartment's first floor, furnished with a table and chairs.
There sat an elderly man, a quite young woman, and a man who looked to be in his thirties.
The woman and the elder wore traditional Korean attire, swords at their waists.
The woman was strikingly beautiful, but her expressionless face gave her a somewhat cold air.
"Taylor Smith."
Taylor introduced himself first.
"You speak Korean well."
The thirties man said.
"My wife is Korean."
It was true, and he judged it could boost goodwill.
"That explains it. I'm Im Gu-seong."
Im Gu-seong's guarded expression softened a bit, so the wife story seemed to have worked.
"Baek Seol-hwa."
"I am Baek Tae-san, Sect Leader of the Heavenly Gate."
The elder and woman introduced themselves after Im Gu-seong. Taylor tilted his head, not quite grasping "Sect Leader of the Heavenly Gate."
"Are you the leaders here?"
Even if not the top leader, he figured they held high positions in the settlement. Otherwise, the guards wouldn't have brought him here.
"No. Our leader—my husband—is away briefly."
"Husband?"
The word was unfamiliar to Taylor, the foreigner.
"Would 'my husband' make it clearer?"
"Ah, yes, I understand."
She looked barely out of college... Married? She might just look young as an Asian.
He'd initially thought Im Gu-seong or Baek Tae-san held higher status, but Baek Seol-hwa was mainly leading the conversation.
'So Baek Seol-hwa is the de facto leader for now?'
Taylor suspected her being the leader's spouse played a big role.
"So, what brings you here?"
"We fled here from monsters we couldn't possibly fight. During scouting, we spotted you. Couldn't resist curiosity seeing you living peacefully."
"Planning to settle nearby?"
"Haven't decided yet. For now, we're just checking out the city."
"We can't control if you settle in Sejong City. But if you do, foraging food around here will be tough. We've gathered nearly all the city's food supplies."
"Then, on humanitarian grounds, could you spare us some food?"
It was a shameless request.
Taylor wasn't seriously expecting food, of course.
In this world, food was crucial.
Even Humphreys wouldn't share if asked.
Taylor just wanted to see their reaction.
"Do you have mana stones? We could trade food for mana stones."
"Mana stones? What's that?"
"Like this."
With that, Baek Seol-hwa produced a faintly glowing blue stone from thin air.
Taylor was startled.
'This woman is an Awakener too.'
It was a new power, but explainable as superhuman ability.
And the blue stone she pulled out.
He knew it well.
It dropped from mutant monsters stronger than zombies.
Humphreys had some, but not many.
He knew blue stones were somewhat special.
Humphreys had researched them a bit, but with no progress, they were treated preciously yet unused. Above all, the camp was too chaotic for proper research.
In the end, they were mostly souvenirs in Humphreys now.
'Trading those for food...'
Maybe they'd discovered something special about these blue stones.
'Should've collected more if I'd known.'
Baek Seol-hwa's demeanor was stiff, but more polite and refined than expected.
After talking with her, Taylor got his weapons back and safely returned to his group at Humphreys.
"Their leader has been away for a while. Currently, it seems led by the leader's woman, Baek Seol-hwa, and an elder named Baek Tae-san, head of some Heavenly Gate group. In my view, Baek Seol-hwa seemed stronger."
"And they've restored wireless networks for smartphone use? Impressive. She offered food in exchange for blue stones—what they call mana stones?"
Commander Daniel couldn't help but feel baffled yet intrigued by Taylor's report.
"Yes. They said the low zombie numbers here are because they've cleared most of them."
Blue stones from monsters... He got that they held value to them.
'But are they worth trading for food?'
The question arose, but it wasn't bad news.
"Were blue stones that useful? How many do we have?"
Daniel asked Walter beside him.
Even if valuable unknown item, it was useless to food-short Humphreys right now.
"Not many. Maybe some keep them as souvenirs..."
He'd killed a few likely monsters on the way, but hadn't bothered dissecting for them.
"To get food from them, we'll need those mana stones. Hunt more mutant monsters, then?"
"They even told me how."
As Daniel pondered, Taylor spoke up.
"What? They shared the method?"
"Yes. Head a bit further south to a place called Cheongju—plenty of monsters there. Catch those, and you'll get them easily."
Daniel frowned.
It was too perfectly crafted a story.
They needed mana stones, and were kindly told exactly where to get them.
Overly kind.
This wasn't the old peaceful world.
Couldn't take such kindness at face value.
"Trap potential?"
"Can't rule it out... But scouting it wouldn't hurt. I'll go check."
After some thought at Taylor's words, Daniel trusted him and approved the recon.