Chapter 213

Chapter 213

“Snrrk! Humans.”

“Kill them.”

Ordinary Orcs did not possess anything like cold reason.

When they found an enemy, they attacked.

If they won, they ate them. If they lost, they were eaten.

Attacking first and asking no questions when they saw an enemy was the Orcs’ nature.

The Orc scouting party grew excited and attacked the moment they saw the buggies carrying the human Awakened.

THUD, THUD, THUD—!

The Orcs charged, kicking up clouds of sand and dust.

The sight of hundreds of bodies far larger than humans charging forward was intimidating enough to make one wet themselves.

“Prepare for battle!”

“Damn it!”

The Awakened gripped their weapons and prepared for battle.

The Orcs ran with a speed that seemed impossible for their enormous bodies.

They reached the Awakened in an instant.

CRASH—!

BOOOOM—!

With explosive roars, the Orcs and Awakened collided.

Jang Yong-beom’s party also joined the battle without hesitation.

SLASH—!

“Krrk!”

One Orc was split in two by Jang Yong-beom’s claymore.

Even though he had killed an Orc in one strike, Jang Yong-beom’s expression was not bright.

“These bastards are pretty tough. Everyone, be careful.”

“Okay!”

“Don’t worry, Captain.”

Aiden and Giselle answered while fighting their own Orcs.

Aiden dismantled an Orc using Super-Vibration, and Giselle caught the Orcs’ ankles with ice magic.

Lastly, Mountain clasped hands with an Orc and entered a contest of strength.

“Grrgh! I kill monster.”

As Mountain strained, veins bulged on his forehead and forearms.

The Orc met Mountain with pure brute strength as well.

“Snrrk! Human dies.”

“I win.”

Crrrreak!

Astonishingly, the winner of the contest of strength was Mountain.

A human had overpowered an Orc, a monster, with strength.

The Orc’s back slowly bent backward.

An expression of disbelief appeared on the Orc’s face.

“Snrrk! L-lie. I can’t lose in strength......”

CRACK—!

At that instant, the Orc’s back bent fully backward with a rupturing sound and snapped completely.

Mountain lifted the Orc corpse, whose broken waist now dangled loosely, and let out a roar.

“ROOOOAR!”

If someone who did not know had seen the sight, they might have mistaken Mountain for an Orc.

“That ignorant bastard!”

“Crazy monster.”

Even Aiden and Giselle, who were in the same party, shook their heads.

Mountain moved in search of his next victim.

They were, in name and reality, parties dispatched by Neo Seoul.

That meant they were made up of powerful Awakened.

Their combat strength was by no means inferior to the Orc unit’s.

As time passed, the Awakened overwhelmed the Orcs.

“Snrrk!”

“Kraaaak!”

The Orcs screamed as they fell.

Naturally, there were deaths among the human Awakened as well. But in the end, the victors were the human Awakened.

“Hah! Hah!”

“We won.”

The Awakened panted roughly and rejoiced in their victory. But Jang Yong-beom, who had led them to victory, did not look happy at all.

“All the buggies are wrecked.”

Under the Orcs’ assault, the buggies that had already been moving precariously were completely destroyed.

From now on, they had no choice but to walk on their own two legs.

“Damn it!”

“We need to inform Neo Seoul about these monsters. How are we supposed to walk all the way there?”

“We’ll dry up and die before we even reach Neo Seoul.”

The surviving Awakened sat down with despairing expressions.

Giselle, Aiden, and Mountain gathered beside Jang Yong-beom.

Although they had killed more Orcs than anyone else, they did not look especially tired.

Aiden asked Jang Yong-beom,

“What do we do now?”

“We return to Neo Seoul.”

“The vehicles are wrecked.”

“Our legs are still fine. We walk.”

“The others won’t be able to endure it.”

“Why bother worrying about the others? Tell them to survive on their own.”

“I wasn’t exactly worried about them either.”

Aiden smiled faintly.

Although they had come all the way here together after receiving the commission from Neo Seoul, he did not particularly think of the others as comrades.

What Aiden considered important were Jang Yong-beom, Giselle, and Mountain. He did not care what happened to anyone else.

The same was true of Giselle and Mountain.

In this cold world, only they could be called one another’s family.

Jang Yong-beom gave an order.

“Take everything useful from the broken vehicles. It’ll help us survive.”

“Yes!”

Aiden and Giselle immediately searched the vehicles and gathered items.

Mountain slung everything they had gathered onto his back, and Jang Yong-beom’s party left the area.

By the time the other Awakened came to their senses, not a single useful item needed for survival remained.

“Those fucking bastards! They took everything.”

“Hurry and follow them.”

The Awakened hurriedly followed after Jang Yong-beom’s party.

---

The sun was setting.

As the western sky turned red, Zeon’s group settled below a sand dune.

Zeon took a black lump out of his subspace. It was well-dried monster dung. It had the advantage of being oily enough to catch fire easily.

Zeon lit the monster dung and made a campfire.

In the meantime, Levin took food from the subspace backpack and handed it out to the group.

“Today’s meal is something special I brought from old man Clexi’s shop.”

“You still had this left?”

Eloy was startled.

Inside subspace, time did not flow.

In theory, if one placed food inside, it could be preserved forever without spoiling.

However, the capacity of a subspace was not infinite, so there was a limit to how much could be stored.

Levin had bought a large amount of food from the Goblin Market and old man Clexi’s shop and stored it in the subspace backpack.

“There’s still plenty left. We haven’t had many chances to take it out until now.”

“That’s a relief. I was getting sick of monster meat anyway.”

Eloy smacked her lips and received the food from Levin.

It was a steak made from cultured veal.

Hot steam rose from the steak.

“This is insane.”

Briel widened her eyes in delight.

Levin also handed a steak to Zeon.

“This one’s yours, Brother.”

“Thanks.”

“It’s all thanks to Briel making the subspace backpack.”

Levin tapped the subspace backpack and laughed.

The four began eating with smiles.

As Briel sliced her steak, she muttered,

“Eating like this almost makes it feel like we’re on a picnic.”

“A picnic in hell is still a picnic, I guess.”

Eloy threw cold water on the mood, and then the two elves began bickering again.

Since it was an everyday occurrence, Zeon and Levin paid them no attention.

Even though they fought like that, they never crossed the line.

Rather, they were growing closer through those verbal fights.

“Mm! It’s good, as expected.”

“Old man Clexi made it himself, after all.”

“I suddenly miss him.”

“Me too. He nags a lot, but his cooking is incredible.”

“I wonder if he’s doing well.”

“I’m sure he is. Who in the slums would dare mess with him?”

“That’s true......”

Zeon nodded.

Yu Se-hee, the Guildmaster of the Goblin Market, was his granddaughter, and he himself was the head of the intelligence group called Argos’s Eye.

At least in the slums, he possessed power that did not fall behind anyone else’s. Zeon could not imagine him being harmed by someone else.

The sky after sunset was filled with countless stars.

The four put their emptied plates into subspace and looked up at the night sky.

“The stars are clear tonight.”

“They are! That’s rare. They usually look hazy because of the sand.”

“Enjoy them while you can. Who knows when we’ll see them like this again?”

Because they had eaten delicious food, all four of them could enjoy the stars in the night sky with open hearts. But their peace did not last long.

“There’s a light over there.”

“Fuck! Looks like someone’s there.”

“It might be Scavengers. Everyone, stay sharp.”

People’s voices sounded from far away.

At that instant, the smiles vanished completely from the four faces.

“People.”

“What is it?”

They hurriedly stood and prepared for battle.

What were the odds of meeting people in this vast desert? Unless someone approached with a purpose, it was almost impossible.

At that moment, a group of people appeared over the sand dune.

They were the Awakened who had survived the Orc attack.

At their head stood Jang Yong-beom’s party.

Jang Yong-beom looked at Zeon’s group and said,

“There really were people here.”

“Humans lighting a fire in the desert without fear. Are they not afraid of monsters?”

Aiden clicked his tongue as he looked at the campfire.

Night in the desert was the monsters’ time.

The monsters that had slept during the day to avoid the blazing sunlight began moving in earnest. He could not understand Zeon’s group lighting a fire without fear at such a time.

Zeon stepped forward and said,

“That’s far enough.”

“What?”

“We claimed this place first. Do not come any closer.”

“Ridiculous. Since when does the desert have your place and my place?”

Jang Yong-beom’s voice sank coldly, and a chilling aura swept over Zeon’s group.

But Zeon answered without changing expression.

“Do you not know there isn’t a single person you can trust in the desert? How would we know whether you are Scavengers?”

“That’s a fair point. Fine! We’ll reveal our identity. We are Awakened dispatched from Neo Seoul. We came out to investigate the desert’s movements and were attacked by pig-like monsters, losing our vehicles.”

“You came from Neo Seoul?”

“That’s right. My name is Jang Yong-beom. I am an Awakened formally registered with Neo Seoul City Hall. The same goes for them. All of them are officially registered Awakened.”

“Jang Yong-beom?”

A strange light appeared in Zeon’s eyes.

Jang Yong-beom was the person who had saved him when he had been in danger of being killed by a Sandworm on his way to the Mana Stone Mine.

Zeon had not expected to meet Jang Yong-beom’s party in the middle of the desert, so he could not hide his surprise either.

Hiding his agitation, Zeon asked calmly,

“You said you were attacked by pig-like monsters?”

“That’s right. The vehicles we rode here were destroyed by them.”

“It seems you encountered an Orc unit.”

“So those monsters are called Orcs.”

“That’s correct. Come this way.”

Zeon lowered his guard and spoke.

To Jang Yong-beom, Zeon had merely been one of countless small connections that had brushed past him. But to Zeon, Jang Yong-beom was the benefactor who had saved his life.

A long time had passed since then, but grace had to be repaid.

Jang Yong-beom stared intently at Zeon.

It was strange that Zeon had suddenly changed his attitude.

“Do you perhaps know me?”

“I do.”

“How?”

“A long time ago, I traveled with you. You probably don’t remember.”

“Is that so? In any case, it’s fortunate you know me. We won’t have to go through any troublesome procedures.”

If Zeon had kept refusing to let them approach, Jang Yong-beom had intended to subdue him by force if necessary.

Jang Yong-beom looked at the campfire and said,

“Still, are you fearless? Or reckless? If you light a campfire, monsters will find you.”

“There are no monsters nearby.”

“How do you know that?”

“I already checked. You can stay here without worry.”

“Is that so? That’s a relief.”

Jang Yong-beom let out a relieved sigh.

He did not show it, but he had been under a great deal of stress from dragging along the cumbersome Awakened.

The fact that people who called themselves Awakened were all looking only at him had been both pathetic and burdensome.

When Jang Yong-beom sat in front of the campfire, the other Awakened also lowered their guard and approached.