Chapter 131

Chapter 131

Zeon’s question was simple.

“Tell me every nest you know.”

“Fuck off, bastard.”

The Scavenger screamed.

The sight of him shouting with veins bulging on his forehead was reminiscent of an evil spirit.

Even after suffering such grave injuries, the Scavenger’s unbroken glare was enough to make even Briel shrink back.

But it did not work on Zeon.

“Do you really want to make this so troublesome?”

“Don’t make me laugh! You think I’m scared? Ptooey!”

The Scavenger spat bloody phlegm. But Zeon simply conjured flames and burned the phlegm away in midair.

“Fucking bastard!”

Even after his final act of defiance came to nothing, the Scavenger’s spirit did not break.

Zeon kindled flames in his hand.

“I suppose I have no choice. I did not want to use this method.”

“Heh! Bastard. Bluffing again......”

“You’ll know soon enough whether it’s a bluff or not. Clench your teeth.”

Zeon grabbed the Scavenger’s wrist with the hand wreathed in flames.

Sssssss—!

The tremendous heat burned flesh and melted muscle.

The Scavenger’s mouth fell open at the unbearable pain.

He tried somehow to endure it, but the burning pain was not something a human could withstand.

“Aaaaaagh!”

In the end, the Scavenger let out a terrible scream.

He thrashed, trying to escape Zeon’s grip, but it was no use.

Zeon’s hand tightened around the Scavenger’s arm with the immense pressure of a press.

Unable to endure the pain burning all the way down to his bones, the Scavenger finally shouted.

“Ghhh! I’ll talk. I said I’ll talk......”

Only then did Zeon withdraw the flames from his hand.

“So, the nests?”

“The only nests I know are this one and Nest No. 3. Nest No. 3 is located......”

BANG!

At that moment, a gunshot rang out, and the Scavenger’s head burst apart.

Before Zeon could dodge, the Scavenger’s blood splattered all over him.

“Zeon!”

Briel shouted in shock.

But Zeon showed no sign of panic as he looked in the direction the gunshot had come from.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!

At that moment, gunshots rang out one after another.

Zeon hugged Briel and pressed himself against the passage wall, avoiding the bullets.

But the bullets had not been aimed at Zeon and Briel.

They had been aimed at the Scavengers lying on the floor.

Under the merciless hail of bullets, the Scavengers’ bodies burst apart.

The power was truly terrifying.

They were not ordinary bullets.

Only magically treated bullets could burst apart the sturdy bodies of Awakened like tofu.

“A Magic Gunner?”

Zeon looked in the direction the bullets had come from.

Ordinary bullets did not work against Awakened or monsters.

Their bodies were powerful enough to deflect most physical attacks outright.

Because of that, the weapon called the gun had stopped advancing and gone obsolete. But it had made a splendid revival through the hands of Enchanters.

Enchanters had discovered how to reinforce firearms and bullets with magic, and through them, their power had risen dramatically.

They did not work on large monsters, but they showed great power against small species and low-grade Awakened.

Awakened who used firearms made by Enchanters were called Magic Gunners.

Magic Gunners were specialized in handling firearms.

Under the Magic Gunner’s merciless shooting, every Scavenger who could have told Zeon the truth ended up dead.

“So you’re destroying the evidence.”

BANG!

As if answering his words, an especially powerful gunshot rang out.

At that moment, Briel stepped forward and spread both arms.

“Shield!”

A translucent membrane appeared in front of the two of them and blocked the bullet.

The bullet’s power was so strong that the shield shattered like glass. But the bullet also broke against the shield and fell to the floor without advancing any farther.

At that moment, Zeon shot toward the place the bullet had come from.

Briel followed behind him.

Tap, tap, tap!

The Magic Gunner’s presence vanished into the darkness.

He was fleeing after destroying all the evidence.

Zeon and Briel tracked him at terrifying speed.

Once they passed through the dark passage, a wide space appeared.

It was a space about ten meters in every direction.

A bed, a sofa, chairs, a refrigerator, and simple household items were furnished inside.

It was the nest.

Through the door on the opposite side of the nest, they saw a man in a black military uniform fleeing.

Zeon and Briel chased the man without even taking the time to look around the nest.

Just as they were about to reach the door the man had fled through......

KRA-BOOM—!

A tremendous explosion erupted inside the nest.

Just before they were caught in the explosion, Zeon hugged Briel and shot out at terrifying speed.

He felt tremendous heat and a powerful blast behind his back.

If he was even a little late, they would be swallowed by the storm of flames.

Zeon gritted his teeth and increased his speed.

He saw light up ahead.

It had to be an exit leading outside.

Without thinking any further, Zeon threw himself out through the exit.

BOOM!

Immediately after he escaped, flames erupted from the exit.

Having avoided the flames by a hair’s breadth, Zeon searched for the Magic Gunner without even taking a moment to catch his breath.

The Magic Gunner was fleeing through a narrow alley.

Zeon let Briel go and said,

“I’ll track him. You follow behind.”

“Got it.”

Briel answered at once.

Even if she went with him, she could not match Zeon’s speed. It was better to give him room and follow later.

Zeon immediately began pursuit.

Once he increased his speed, he saw the Magic Gunner fleeing far ahead.

Perhaps sensing Zeon’s pursuit, the Magic Gunner fired bullets.

BANG! BANG!

He fired without even looking back, yet the bullets flew precisely toward Zeon’s forehead.

His skill was frighteningly accurate.

But the bullets were blocked by the Gauntlet of Extreme Heat.

Ting, ting, ting!

With metallic sounds, fragments of the bullets bounced in all directions.

“Chit!”

When his attack failed, the Magic Gunner clicked his tongue.

His fleeing face was filled with unmistakable confusion.

‘Who would have thought the nest would be raided?’

His name was Jacob.

He was a Scavenger and the manager of Nest No. 7.

The moment he realized that the other Scavengers had been defeated by Zeon, he moved to destroy the evidence.

He destroyed the nest and eliminated the wounded Scavengers. And as soon as he finished his task, he fled.

‘Fuck! Where did a monster like that bastard come from?’

A nest had been taken down in an instant.

This was the first time anything like this had happened.

It meant his opponent was that strong.

A powerhouse against whom even his attacks as a Magic Gunner did not work at all.

He had never expected to encounter an Awakened like that in the slums. That was why he was even more flustered.

‘Just a little farther.’

Scavengers always prepared an escape route.

Jacob was no different.

His trump card was the square where the largest number of slum residents gathered.

‘Fuck! I didn’t think I would have to use this.’

What Jacob pulled from his chest was a detonator.

He had hidden a bomb beneath Dongdaemun’s square.

It was a special item made for hunting large monsters.

Its power was just as tremendous.

If the bomb exploded, everyone in the square would die. If that happened, the situation would spiral completely out of control.

His plan was to use the chaos to escape.

If the bomb went off, countless people would die, but there was nothing he could do about that.

Survival came first.

Even at that very moment, Zeon was closing the distance at a terrifying pace.

There were only about twenty meters between them.

He would be caught in only two or three seconds.

There was no room to hesitate.

Just as Jacob was about to press the detonator......

CRASH—!

An enormous impact struck Jacob.

“Gah!”

Like a bowling pin, he was sent flying and slammed into the ground.

Someone had attacked him by surprise.

The shock felt as if his entire body were being taken apart, and Jacob could not even scream.

Then the person who had attacked Jacob spoke.

“You traitorous bastard! Finally found you.”

He was a Black man wearing a black coat and sunglasses.

He carried a sword on his back, and beneath his coat, he wore a bulletproof vest.

Inside the coat, he had a machine gun, and on his thigh, a pistol.

Jacob’s face twisted when he saw him.

“Ra......ven.”

“Good to see me, right? I’m happy to see you too.”

The man called Raven spat on the ground and muttered.

In the meantime, Zeon arrived.

When Raven saw Zeon, he held out his palm to stop him.

“That’s far enough, kid. I’m taking this bastard.”

“You barged in midway and now you’re claiming the right to him?”

Zeon looked at Raven as if he found the whole thing absurd. Raven bared his white teeth and laughed.

“Kid, do you even know who I am before you run your mouth?”

“And do you know who I am before you start talking?”

“Hah! A slum Awakened bastard who doesn’t know his place is running his mouth. You’d better shut that mouth before I rip it open.”

A vicious glint burst through his sunglasses.

Raven was no ordinary Awakened.

His unusual outfit, his gaze, and his murderous presence all proved that.

He continued,

“I’m taking this bastard, so forget everything you saw and heard today. Then you’ll at least keep your life.”

“Judging by your clothes and equipment, you seem to be from Neo Seoul. Why are you trying to take him?”

“You want to know why? If you know, you die.”

Raven gave a thin smile.

He was not underestimating Zeon.

He was simply that confident in his own abilities.

Jacob struggled to get up. But his body hurt as if it had been shattered, and he could not move.

Spitting blood, he muttered,

“Gah! You hound...... of the East District.”

At that moment, Raven’s eyes turned savage.

Jacob had leaked a secret.

Having learned an important piece of information, Zeon muttered,

“A hound from the East District. Then he must be connected to the East District too.”

“Ptooey! You’re a sharp bastard for no reason. Yeah, that’s right. That bastard’s a deserter. He was from our district, then deserted and became a Scavenger.”

“Could it be that not only him, but a significant number of Scavengers are made up of deserters from the East District?”

“Hah! This is ridiculous.”

Raven looked utterly fed up.

He was genuinely surprised by Zeon’s reasoning, which had inferred that much from the single phrase “hound of the East District.”

Zeon’s guess was true.

A significant number of the Scavengers causing trouble this time were from the East District.

Unlike the West District, where mechanized Awakened formed the mainstream, the East District was centered around combat specialists under the absolute ruler Sedon Price.

The East District consisted of descendants of U.S. forces and international students who had been stationed in Korea.

With descendants of former soldiers forming its core, they used all kinds of weapons, magic, and powerful physical abilities in combination.

They were not simple Awakened, but beings like trained soldiers.

They were absolutely loyal to their ruler, Sedon Price, and carried out his orders with the precision of machines, without a single margin of error.

As a result, the East District was filled with forced discipline and an oppressive atmosphere.

Those who rebelled against that atmosphere and broke away from the East District became the leadership of the Scavengers.

They secretly established nests and supported the activities of existing Scavengers.

Until then, it had not become a major problem.

After all, it had all happened in secret, so it had not tarnished Sedon Price’s reputation.

The problem began when the Scavengers armed themselves with items that had flowed out of the White Bear Caravan.

As the Scavengers gained confidence and their raids became more active, the East District found itself with a fire under its feet.

If the truth became known that the boss of the Scavengers was a high-grade Awakened who had broken away from the East District, it would smear mud across Sedon Price’s face.

That was why Sedon Price had released hunters like Raven.

Their mission was one and only one.

To eliminate the core Scavengers who had broken away from the East District.

Raven drew the pistol from his thigh and said,

“I told you. If you know why I appeared, you die.”