Chapter 140

Chapter 140

Scavengers were exactly what their name implied: plunderers.

They survived by attacking others, killing them, and looting their possessions.

Even a hundred years ago, when the side effects of terraforming had turned the entire Earth into a desert and humanity had stood on the verge of complete extinction, Scavengers had existed.

They had chosen to survive by killing their own kind, humans, rather than fighting monsters.

Because of that, humanity had been forced to wagae war not only against monsters, but against Scavengers as well.

After Neo Seoul firmly established its system, the Scavengers lost their place and fled into the desert. That was why people believed that Scavengers no longer existed in Neo Seoul.

Even if any remained, people thought there would be only a very small number of them.

But as if to prove that such assumptions were wrong, the number of Scavengers attacking the White Bear Caravan’s fortress was enormous.

At a glance, there seemed to be more than three hundred of them.

“Hehehe!”

“Die!”

The Scavengers, who had lived while disguising themselves as normal people and ordinary Awakened in Neo Seoul, released their desires as if venting all the resentment they had suppressed.

“You dog-like bastards, how dare you......”

“Block that side.”

“Send support over here.”

The Awakened of the White Bear Caravan fought without a trace of panic or fear.

The distance from Akutsk Colony to Neo Seoul Colony was several thousand kilometers.

No matter how much Damian guided them along routes that avoided danger, they could not avoid every monster.

Among the enemies they had faced were Scavengers.

Even in brutal environments where it seemed impossible for people to live, the Scavengers survived.

The Awakened of the White Bear Caravan had gained experience while fighting them.

Naturally, they knew how to deal with Scavengers.

One of those methods was to fight while relying on the fortress.

They deliberately left only a narrow entrance open and lured the Scavengers in.

No matter how many Scavengers there were, the number of people who could pass through the narrow entrance was limited.

“Krraaagh!”

“Kek!”

The Scavengers screamed as they died.

“Fuck! This will not work.”

“Let’s climb the walls.”

In the end, some Scavengers chose to climb the walls. But preparations had already been made for that as well.

Crackle!

Sparks suddenly burst across the fortress’s outer wall.

A high-voltage current flowed along the outer wall.

The Scavengers who had been climbing the wall like cockroaches were electrocuted and fell in droves.

“Hehehe! How dare Scavenger trash that feeds on rotten meat try to crawl up here?”

A bald man appeared on top of the wall.

The man’s name was Nadan.

He was an Awakened who used lightning-type magic.

His rank was not high.

He was only D-rank.

Even so, the reason he could display such power was that the outer wall of the fortress was made from a special material.

It conducted electricity well and amplified it several times over. That was why, even though only a D-rank Awakened had sent current through it, countless Awakened fell like flies.

“Hahaha! Come at me as much as you want. The White Bear Caravan will never fall.”

“That son of a bitch......”

“Someone shut that bastard’s mouth.”

The Scavengers grew enraged at Nadan’s mockery.

Several Scavengers climbed the wall again.

“Idiots!”

Watching them rush in like moths to a flame, Nadan tried to cast his magic.

If he sent lightning through it, the Scavengers clinging to the wall would fall in droves.

But Nadan could not cast his lightning magic.

Thwack!

An arrow that flew from somewhere pierced his head.

“Kek!”

Nadan looked in disbelief toward the direction the arrow had come from.

A Barrier had been spread over the top of the fortress, yet the arrow had pierced through it.

Nadan wanted to know why, but he was given no chance.

After flailing for a moment, Nadan fell.

His life had ended.

“A nobody showing off like he was something special......”

Someone sneered while watching Nadan’s corpse fall.

It was the Awakened who had fired the arrow from a long distance.

He was quite far from the fortress.

A group was positioned around the Awakened.

They were heavily covered in robes and masks to hide their identities.

They looked similar to the Scavengers, but their nature was different.

The largest man among them spoke to the man who had fired the arrow.

“You bastard! You only pierced the Barrier because I gave you a buff, yet you act so proud.”

“Come on! Boss, did you have to say it like that?”

“Stop showing off and get ready for battle.”

“Yes, sir!”

The archer Awakened answered and returned to his position.

At that moment, a slender woman walked out from the group.

The woman said to the Awakened called Boss,

“It is about time we prepare to join the battle. Brixton!”

“Right now, I am not Brixton. I am merely one of countless Scavengers. Do not forget that, nun!”

“Hmph! Do not call me a nun either.”

“If only you had succeeded with your brainwashing in the first place, we would not have needed to arrange something this troublesome.”

The woman called a nun was Kim Jae-kyung.

Kim Jae-kyung and Brixton had led their subordinates into the contest for the Spirit King’s Crown.

However, there was one absolute condition attached.

Their identities could never be revealed.

That was why they had disguised themselves as Scavengers.

After glaring at Brixton for a moment, Kim Jae-kyung looked back toward the fortress.

The battle between the White Bear Caravan and the Scavengers was reaching its peak.

Countless corpses were strewn around the fortress entrance, and the defensive line at the entrance looked as though it would collapse at any moment.

Many Scavengers had died, but their momentum had yet to break.

“Just a little more.”

“Fuck! It is almost open.”

The Scavengers shrieked and struggled desperately.

Brixton, who had been watching the scene closely, said,

“Good! It looks like it has almost been breached, so now we can join in. We will sweep in all at once and wipe out the Scavenger bastards and the caravan Awakened together.”

“Yes!”

Brixton’s subordinates answered in unison.

But their eyes, visible above their masks, were strange.

All of them were bloodshot red.

Kim Jae-kyung looked at them and shook her head.

‘Those insane Berserker bastards.’

They were Berserkers in the truest sense.

They believed God was with them and could throw away their lives without a second thought.

Kim Jae-kyung also followed Johan fanatically, but even she felt overwhelmed by the sight of Berserkers who were more fanatical than she was.

“Let’s go! Before the others interfere, we will clean everything up and leave.”

“Yes, sir!”

Brixton and the Berserkers charged toward the fortress.

“Mad bastards!”

Kim Jae-kyung shook her head and followed behind them.

With the addition of Brixton and the Berserkers, the battlefield became even more chaotic.

“Kraaagh!”

“What are these bastards?”

“Fucking things! Kill them all.”

Malice and screams ran wild, and blood sprayed everywhere.

In that way, the White Bear Caravan was becoming a land of death.

---

News that the White Bear Caravan’s fortress had been attacked spread throughout the entire slum.

People watched the battle unfolding in the desert from the rooftops of tall buildings on the outskirts of the slum.

“What is going on? How is it going? A new group joined the fight.”

“It is too far away to tell.”

“Damn it! This is when you need binoculars.”

Ordinary people could tell only that a battle was taking place. They had no way of knowing the details.

That did not mean they had the courage to approach the fortress.

Ordinary people like them would certainly be killed in an instant before they could even get close to the fortress.

It was a little frustrating, but this distance was the best they could manage.

It was then.

“Move aside, you vermin.”

“Get all of these things out of the way.”

A group appeared on the rooftop of the tallest building.

They drove away all the slum dwellers who had been on the rooftop.

The slum dwellers did not dare resist and hurried downstairs.

The leader of the group looked at the battlefield and muttered,

“They are fighting well.”

A rope was coiled incongruously around the waist of the leader, who was wearing a suit.

It was an item called the Warden’s Binding Rope.

The leader of the group was Cha Jin-cheol.

He was the confidant of Kim Hyun-soo, the Overlord of the West District, and the man who had attended the auction as his proxy.

Kim Hyun-soo had given him the Warden’s Binding Rope, which he had purchased at auction, as a reward.

A staggering ten tons of mana stones had been used to purchase the Warden’s Binding Rope.

Such an unimaginably valuable item had been handed to Cha Jin-cheol without any price.

Naturally, Cha Jin-cheol’s loyalty toward Kim Hyun-soo could only deepen further.

Cha Jin-cheol gave the order.

“We do not have time. Prepare to fire the Railgun.”

“Yes!”

His subordinates answered and moved in perfect order.

They began connecting the long metal tubes they had brought with them.

A long tube, ten meters in length, was assembled.

It was the part that would become the barrel of the Railgun.

A Railgun was originally a weapon fired by a powerful electromagnetic field.

The problem was that, in the present age, it was difficult to generate enough electrical power to fire a Railgun.

The West District had replaced that with magic and Awakened.

The core of the method was to strengthen the barrel that became the Railgun through Enchanting, and to generate an immense amount of power with mechanized Awakened.

Because a single shot required an astonishing amount of power, it was not especially useful against moving objects or monsters.

They had no reason to wait for the Railgun to charge.

But a motionless fortress was different.

No matter how much magic treatment and how many Barriers had been applied to it, a Railgun should be able to pierce that thick wall in a single shot.

Once the Railgun was installed, dozens of Awakened gathered around it.

“Charge it.”

“Charging!”

Along with the answer, the mechanized Awakened placed their arms against the Railgun’s barrel.

Whirrrr!

In that instant, their arms transformed with a mechanical sound.

Their arms, which had changed like chargers, connected to the Railgun’s barrel.

The mechanized Awakened began supplying power to the Railgun.

Wooooong!

As the power charged, a resonant sound rang out from the Railgun’s barrel.

Because the Railgun was so massive, it took a long time to fully charge.

At last, when the Railgun was fully charged, the mechanized Awakened who had served as human batteries fell away.

“Krgh!”

“Hah!”

Their faces were deathly pale after exhausting all their mana.

As many as thirty Awakened collapsed from exhaustion. But Cha Jin-cheol did not even glance at them as he gave the order.

“Fire.”

“Fire!”

Along with the answer, the only Awakened still standing fired the Railgun.

KWAANG!

The shell, flying at tremendous speed, instantly blew away one side of the fortress.

At the sudden explosion, the Scavengers and the East District Awakened stopped fighting for a moment in surprise.

They, too, had never expected the fortress wall to be blown apart.

But that lasted only a moment. Once they grasped the situation, they raised their momentum.

“The wall has collapsed.”

“Fuckers! You are all dead now.”

“Sweep them all away.”

With the massive barrier that had been blocking their way destroyed, the Scavengers and East District Awakened surged into the fortress like a flood.

A look of panic appeared on Alexandro’s face.

“What did they attack with? To destroy the wall in one blow.”

“It’s all right. We already expected this much.”

Damian, on the other hand, was calm.

No matter how much the walls had been reinforced with excellent materials and covered in magic and Barriers, he had not thought they would hold until the end.

The wall had fallen sooner than expected, but this much was not a problem.

Damian looked toward Neo Seoul and muttered,

‘Come quickly, elves. The thing you want so desperately is right here.’