Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Going Out
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-Splattersplattersplatter!!
Rain poured down relentlessly, as if a hole had been punched through the sky.
-Thud. Thud.
Cheon Su-ho wandered the streets aimlessly in a daze.
He had no idea where he was even going.
He was simply moving his legs on autopilot.
Cheon Su-ho had ultimately been excommunicated.
As the next sect leader.
As Baek Seol-hwa's betrothed.
His guaranteed future was gone.
He had lost everything.
By the sect's principles, they should have crippled his dantian and cast him out.
But to the end, his soft-hearted master worried he'd lose his life pointlessly to monsters and stopped short of that.
Where had it all gone wrong?
Rain lashed mercilessly at his face.
'Junior sister...'
If only he hadn't ambushed that guy...
Would things have turned out differently?
"Urk!!"
He had lost his junior sister due to his own mistake.
No, it was worse than just losing her.
She had become that bastard's plaything.
"Uwaaaah!!!"
A searing frustration boiled over, and he screamed.
After yelling for a long while, his legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground, tears streaming endlessly.
More than the fact of his excommunication,
imagining his junior sister in hell made his chest tighten until he thought he'd go mad.
He wanted to save his junior sister from being toyed with by that monster.
'How?'
He had been excommunicated from the Heavenly Sect.
No one would help him.
But that guy was overwhelmingly stronger than him.
His paltry martial arts would be like throwing an egg at a rock.
He belatedly understood why his master had shrunk from facing that man.
Even if the entire Heavenly Sect had mobilized,
they might not have been able to do a thing.
It was while he lay there in the rain, drowning in despair.
"What is that? A zombie?"
"Dunno."
"He's wearing hanbok, so maybe one of those sword guys' people?"
Cheon Su-ho lifted his head at the voices.
Through the downpour, he spotted people in raincoats.
They looked like survivors from a group he had occasionally run into while hunting monsters.
"Looks like a drowned rat... but not a zombie... still seems human?"
"I'll be away for a few days."
I gathered the kids and told them.
I had been thinking about scouting new hunting grounds for a while.
Now I planned to follow through on the schedule I'd put off amid the chaos of bringing Baek Seol-hwa.
Her presence actually made me feel better about leaving.
"Huh? Where to?"
Han Su-ji asked.
"Thinking of heading to Cheongju for a bit."
It wouldn't take long to get to Cheongju.
But I was allotting extra time to scout a good spot for a save point.
"The distance means contact will be tough."
Extending comms range would require relays,
which felt pointless without constant upkeep.
Obsessing over that stuff had no end.
"Sh-should be fine, right...?"
Su-ji looked a bit stunned by my sudden announcement.
"Please go with peace of mind, my lord."
"M-me too!"
The kids said it was fine, but their faces said otherwise.
Like they were reluctantly letting me go even though holding me back wouldn't work.
Their expressions softened my resolve a little.
But with Ji-ah, Seol-hwa, and Su-ji, even mid-tier Corrupted Beings wouldn't be an issue.
Corrupted Beings hardly ever came this far anyway.
Plus, the Heavenly Sect was on somewhat better terms thanks to Seol-hwa.
No need to worry that much.
And...
Something felt forgotten...
But I couldn't put my finger on it.
'Eh... probably nothing.'
Survival camp leader Jang Seo-won was talking with a man named Cheon Su-ho whom his subordinates had brought in.
From what his men said, it was no exaggeration to call it picking him up off the street.
As a newly arrived faction anyway, he took interest.
He thought it worked out perfectly.
Cheon Su-ho sat blankly with hollow, dead eyes, as if he'd given up on everything.
Perhaps because of that, he answered Jang Seo-won's questions faithfully, even if they came out of nowhere.
The group's name was the Heavenly Sect.
From what he'd heard, they'd fled monsters from Gyeryong Mountain and washed up here.
'Lives with multiple women, and he's pretty strong...'
Multiple women was par for the course in this world, but "pretty strong" caught his attention.
Before the Heavenly Sect settled in,
he seemed to have lived in a school building with that man.
Even through those hollow eyes, Cheon Su-ho showed intense hatred when speaking of him.
There had been friction with that man,
and he'd been exiled for breaking sect rules trying to kill him, so they were clearly enemies.
All that "junior sister" talk suggested he'd lost a woman to him.
A textbook case of a young man in despair over losing his love.
'Did the Heavenly Sect not drive out those monster cat bastards?'
Cheon Su-ho seemed to know nothing about the monster cats.
'Did they just leave?'
Jang Seo-won naturally dismissed the absurd idea that the strong man had handled them alone.
From further talk,
the Heavenly Sect seemed quite welcoming to incoming survivors.
It reminded him of their own camp's early, soft days.
They too had taken people in humanely at first, but grew selective over time.
No choice, really.
Resources were finite, food shortages loomed.
Had to pick and choose.
The Heavenly Sect might turn picky like them soon enough.
A group worth keeping tabs on.
Time to infiltrate some spies.
Best gather intel while you can.
"What will you do now?"
Jang Seo-won asked Cheon Su-ho.
At the question, those hollow eyes turned to him.
Even if exiled for breaking rules,
he didn't seem like a total scumbag from the stories.
He'd been a big shot in the Heavenly Sect, so his combat prowess was likely high.
No drive left, sure,
but undeniable talent.
"If you're an Awakener, we could offer good treatment."
Jang Seo-won said to the dejected, dazed Cheon Su-ho.
I chose Cheongju mainly because it was closest.
The map shouldn't differ much from my old world's,
though eras and exact world differed, so not fully reliable.
Still, probably similar enough.
Follow the signs, and the road should be straightforward.
In one hand, a thick, ridiculously long spear from Manz.
Backpack on my back, strolling leisurely along the road.
Didn't need the backpack,
but Inventory was too eye-catching a skill for others.
If I ran into survivors,
I didn't want stares like I was some freak monkey,
or to draw folks itching to show off against me.
So it was camouflage gear.
Pretend to pull from the bag if needed.
Lazy as I am, who knows if I'd bother.
-Grrr!!
A wandering zombie on the road charged with a gurgling throat sound.
Zombies were a hassle because they were filthy.
Best take them out from afar.
Even a splash of zombie blood would gross me out too much to wear the clothes.
-Thwack!
The spear tip crushed the zombie's head, dropping it.
After walking a while longer, people running my way appeared.
3...? No, 4.
Two men, two women.
[Two F-Rank Awakeners.]
Outdoor gear on all four, but three running.
A young man who looked like a Body Enhancement Awakener carried an older woman on his back.
Behind them, two massive zombie Corrupted Beings pursued.
The two men's similar faces despite age gap suggested family.
'From Cheongju way?'
Wanted to ask about things there, but they looked desperate.
The young woman, probably the daughter,
hurled weak lightning at the Corrupted Beings while running.
But her unskilled power only made the zombie Corrupted Beings flinch without real damage.
Was it an attack,
or just to piss off the zombie Corrupted Beings? Some half-baked electric steaming.
'Would've been better if she was a Fire Awakener...'
They spotted me strolling casually from the opposite direction and flinched, but fear of the rear kept them coming.
"R-run away!!"
The young man carrying the middle-aged woman yelled at me.
He passed, followed by the older man and young woman.
Their glances at my leisurely pace brimmed with confusion.
The pretty young woman, fed up, shouted at me.
"M-Mister, run! What are you doing?!"
Then she ran off as if she'd said her piece.
The pursuing zombie Corrupted Being lunged at me.
The massive zombies' filthy, grotesque forms were always off-putting.
My arm moved, spear shooting out in an instant.
-Thud! Thwack!
From max range, I pierced their heads.
The giant zombies crumpled almost simultaneously.
-Thump. Thump.
"Huh? Wh-what..."
She must've glanced back while running.
Her slightly hollow voice carried at the Corrupted Beings dropping so easily to my attack.
As always, I pulled a hand axe from Inventory and split the zombie Corrupted Beings' heads.
Then it hit me.
'Oh... backpack concept...'
Forgot.
No, too accustomed to Inventory's convenience.
Eh... fine.
Just be careful next time.