Chapter 125

Chapter 125

Choi Su-wan was an Awakened.

And he was an Awakened who had merged with machines.

Both his legs and one of his arms were mechanical.

Awakened who merged with machines were extremely rare compared to martial-type or magic-type Awakened.

First of all, the rate of awakening itself was low, and even if one awakened, the chance of successfully merging with machines was rare.

This was the greatest disadvantage for mechanized Awakened.

They were merely able to merge with machines; they did not possess the ability to create machines.

Only when they successfully merged with existing machines could they display abilities equal to or greater than those of martial-type or magic-type Awakened.

Because of that, whether mechanized ability users succeeded or failed depended on how good a machine they could merge with.

From that perspective, Choi Su-wan was quite lucky.

That was because he belonged to the faction under Kim Hyun-soo, the ruler of the western part of Neo Seoul.

Kim Hyun-soo was a pure Korean.

He believed that since Neo Seoul’s origin was Korea, pure Koreans should rule this land, and he worked toward that goal.

The West District worshiped an extremely advanced mechanical civilization.

They had recreated computers that had vanished more than a hundred years ago, and used them to manufacture many machines.

Perhaps because of that, there were particularly many mechanized Awakened in the West District.

Choi Su-wan was one such Awakened.

Although his awakening grade was low and he had not been assigned high-quality machines, he had still been able to attach mechanical prosthetic legs and an arm that possessed power comparable to a Grade E Awakened.

His mechanical legs could produce a speed of over seventy kilometers per hour, and his steel prosthetic arm could produce destructive power comparable to that of a martial-type Awakened of the same grade.

The good thing about mechanized Awakened was that, when their grade rose, they could switch to a better body.

In the West District, machines, or rather bodies, had been prepared for high-ranking Awakened. As long as one’s grade rose, one could become as strong as desired.

Choi Su-wan’s dream was to someday become a high-ranking Awakened and switch to a powerful body.

But before that, he had to survive.

“Huff! Huff!”

Choi Su-wan was running at high speed through the outskirts of Neo Seoul.

His face was drenched in sweat, and confusion was plain in his eyes.

Whoosh!

At that moment, a sharp sound cut through the air.

“Fuck!”

Choi Su-wan spat out a curse and swung his mechanical prosthetic arm.

CLANG!

With a metallic sound, an arrow bounced away.

But it was too early to feel relieved.

Whirrr!

A chain that flew in right after wrapped around his legs.

Because of that, Choi Su-wan staggered and fell.

“Damn it!”

Choi Su-wan quickly broke the chain and stood up.

The chain could not restrain him. The problem was that it had delayed him.

“Fucking bastard! We finally caught you.”

“He’s insanely fast.”

“Mechanical bastards are always the most troublesome. They never get tired.”

The ones who appeared were men in shabby clothes.

There were three of them in total, and all of them wore masks over their faces.

Choi Su-wan shouted.

“What the hell? Who are you? Why are you chasing me?”

“You’re asking because you don’t know?”

“So you’re Scavengers after all.”

Choi Su-wan gritted his teeth.

Scavengers did not exist only in the desert.

They existed in Neo Seoul too.

They thoroughly concealed their identities, attacked other Awakened, and stole everything from them.

The Scavengers surrounded Choi Su-wan and said,

“Now that you know, why don’t you give up resisting? That would be better for both of us.”

“Yeah! Let’s not waste sweat for nothing. We’ll spare your life.”

“Heh heh heh!”

Choi Su-wan shouted angrily.

“Don’t make me laugh! Who said I’d let you take me so easily?”

He charged at the Scavenger in front.

Although he had fled because he was outnumbered, Choi Su-wan was confident in his strength.

‘All I need is one hit. Just one hit......’

As long as it landed, he could instantly render his opponent incapable of resisting.

Then it happened.

The leading Scavenger suddenly grinned, pulled something from his chest, and threw it.

Fwoosh!

The object he threw suddenly spread wide in midair and wrapped around Choi Su-wan as it was.

“What is this?”

What had wrapped around Choi Su-wan’s entire body was a translucent net.

The net, made of an unknown material, tightened around his body like giant tentacles.

“I just have to tear apart something like this.”

Choi Su-wan roared and exerted his strength.

Explosive energy was supplied to his mechanical limbs, producing tremendous output. But the translucent net wrapped around his body merely stretched greatly and showed no damage at all.

“What the hell is this?”

“Heh heh! It’s an item we got from the White Bear Caravan. I wasn’t sure about it, but its performance is definitely reliable.”

“It’s the best item for Scavengers like us.”

The Scavengers smiled in satisfaction.

Choi Su-wan, on the other hand, could not hide his panic.

“You got this item from the Caravan?”

“That’s right! They said that in a place called the Akutsk Colony, they hunt monsters using items like this. I thought it would be useful for human hunters like us too, so I bought it, and its performance is definitely solid.”

“Grr!”

Choi Su-wan once again tried to tear the net apart, but it was no use.

The translucent net wrapped around him had been made by processing the hide of a small monster called the Bloodsucking Marten, and its tensile strength was enormous.

Because of that, it was not easy to tear with physical strength alone.

For a low-ranking Awakened like Choi Su-wan, who could only use physical strength, it was practically a disaster.

One of the Scavengers pulled a small rod from his waist.

“There’s still one more thing left to test.”

“What is that now?”

“Heh heh! They say that near the Akutsk Colony, there’s a creature called the One-Horned Electric Eel. Inside its body is an organ that generates high-voltage electricity, and apparently, it’s a masterpiece. It can generate an enormous high-voltage current in an instant. This rod has the One-Horned Electric Eel’s electric organ built into it.”

“Then?”

“Right. It’s a kind of electric shock baton. The output is just a little strong.”

The Scavenger pressed the electric shock baton directly against Choi Su-wan’s chest.

Crackle!

Electricity sparked, and Choi Su-wan’s body convulsed violently.

His muscles contracted under the high-voltage current, and he could not even scream.

After a while, Choi Su-wan lost consciousness.

“Hey! It worked. It worked.”

“Fuck! Its performance is definitely solid.”

“Good. Hurry up and remove his limbs.”

The Scavengers laughed and clung to Choi Su-wan.

They removed Choi Su-wan’s mechanical legs and arm from his body.

Normally, machines bonded to a mechanized Awakened did not come loose. That was because they were recognized as a complete part of the body.

But when one was struck by this electric shock baton obtained from the White Bear Caravan, the bond weakened. The high-voltage current temporarily paralyzed the system.

Clack! Clack!

Indeed, the Scavengers easily removed Choi Su-wan’s prosthetic arm and legs.

“It’s done.”

“Jackpot.”

“We’ll make good money if we sell these. Heh heh!”

A mechanized Awakened’s prosthetic arm or leg was traded at a rather high price.

They could be transplanted into the body of another mechanized Awakened, or they could be disassembled and used only for parts.

“What do we do with this bastard?”

One of the Scavengers pointed at Choi Su-wan, who now had only his torso and one arm left.

He had only lost consciousness and had not died yet.

His companion’s answer was simple.

“What do you mean? We kill him. It’d be troublesome if he came looking for revenge.”

“Right! Let’s kill him.”

That decided Choi Su-wan’s fate.

Crack!

Their punches burst Choi Su-wan’s head apart.

Choi Su-wan twitched for a moment, then breathed his last.

“Hey! Contact the other bastards too and tell them to buy the goods coming out of the White Bear Caravan. They’re a jackpot.”

“Where did such lucky charms come from? Heh heh!”

“Let’s go!”

The Scavengers leisurely disappeared into the darkness.

---

“Things have gone crazy.”

“What?”

At Old Man Klexi’s sudden words, Zeon looked puzzled.

“It seems some of the goods released by the White Bear Caravan have flowed into the hands of Scavengers.”

“I thought the White Bear Caravan’s goods were sold only to verified people.”

“The Scavengers must have bought the goods that were sold that way.”

“That could happen.”

Zeon nodded.

It had already been a week since the White Bear Caravan settled in and began selling goods.

During that time, many items had flowed into each district of Neo Seoul. It seemed some of those goods had then fallen into the hands of Scavengers.

“Scavengers are using the items released by the White Bear Caravan to hunt other Awakened.”

“Is the damage severe?”

“From what I’ve grasped, dozens have already fallen victim.”

“That many?”

“If you include the victims I haven’t identified, there will be even more.”

Old Man Klexi’s expression was extremely serious.

The Scavengers’ main area of activity was the desert.

They thoroughly hid their identities and targeted Awakened or passersby.

They were mostly based in the desert, but there were also those who lived inside Neo Seoul.

However, the reason they had not been a problem until now was that using Skills inside Neo Seoul left traces behind.

If they were tracked based on those Skill traces, they could be caught, so they had restrained their activities as much as possible inside Neo Seoul.

The reins of those Scavengers had come loose because of the goods released by the White Bear Caravan.

The various items made to efficiently hunt monsters were also good for hunting humans.

In particular, the damage caused by nets made from Bloodsucking Marten hide and electric shock batons made from One-Horned Electric Eel organs was severe.

These two items allowed them to subdue other Awakened without using their own unique Skills.

Low-ranking Awakened had no choice but to fall helplessly.

In addition to those two items, the Scavengers were using other items to hunt Awakened.

That had not been their original purpose, but the Scavengers were finding and testing the optimal combinations to use against Awakened.

Because of that, the damage to the Awakened was growing.

“Neo Seoul must be in an uproar.”

“Every district has gone on emergency alert.”

“They probably never imagined the Scavengers would use the goods released by the Caravan.”

“They’re creative bastards, that’s for sure. To think of hunting other Awakened inside Neo Seoul with items.”

“There are madmen everywhere.”

“The problem is that there are too many of them. For now, this is only happening inside Neo Seoul, but before long, the same things will happen in the slums too.”

What Old Man Klexi worried about most was the same thing happening in the slums.

Neo Seoul at least had fairly well-maintained public order, but the slums had no such thing.

If the same thing happened there, the damage would inevitably be far greater.

People dying was unavoidable, but he wanted to avoid great chaos breaking out in the slums because of it.

“What about City Hall?”

“Hm?”

“This is happening because of the goods released by the White Bear Caravan. Is City Hall just standing by?”

“There has been no response at all.”

“Really?”

“I don’t think they’re not responding because they truly don’t know. It feels like they’re deliberately looking the other way.”

Old Man Klexi frowned.

He had built his experience in Neo Seoul and the Mana Stone Mine.

He had met and fought countless people, but there was no one as difficult to understand as Jin Geum-ho, the mayor of Neo Seoul.

Jin Geum-ho was an incomprehensible existence.

He was the center of Neo Seoul, yet he almost never appeared openly.

If he had acted openly as he had in Neo Seoul’s early days, the city would never have been divided into several districts.

That was how absolute Jin Geum-ho’s power was.

Yet, for some reason, at some point, Jin Geum-ho had completely stopped all external activities and had all but gone into seclusion.

As a result, the other districts had been able to grow, and rulers had emerged.

“It’s frustrating because I can’t tell what he’s thinking.”

Old Man Klexi let out a sigh.

Zeon looked at City Hall beyond the wall.

‘He must have instigated all of this. For what reason? Is he trying to use this opportunity to reorganize Neo Seoul’s order?’