Chapter 249

Chapter 249

Knock, knock!

At the sound of knocking from early morning, Zeon got up and came outside.

When he opened the door, he saw a face he had seen yesterday.

It was Yu Se-hee and Black Lion.

Yu Se-hee said with an apologetic expression,

“Sorry! I woke you too early, didn’t I?”

“No. What is it?”

“There’s something urgent I need to tell you. May I come in?”

“Yes!”

When Zeon stepped aside, Yu Se-hee and Black Lion entered the house.

After looking around the house for a moment, Yu Se-hee said with admiration,

“So this is the fortress of the slums.”

“Fortress?”

“Yeah! That’s what people in the slums call your house.”

“Why?”

“The Dongdaemun people tried so hard to break it down, but they couldn’t get through. They mobilized everyone from Barrier Mages to magic-type and martial-type Awakened, but they couldn’t even scratch it. Ever since the Dongdaemun people went back in complete humiliation, people have called this place the fortress.”

“That’s amusing.”

“Anyway, it’s an honor. To get to see the fortress like this. Could you tell me what kind of barrier you deployed?”

“It’s nothing special.”

When Zeon shrugged, Yu Se-hee wrinkled her nose.

“You don’t intend to tell me.”

“Think whatever you want. But I’m sure you didn’t come this early in the morning just to talk about that......”

“Ah! Look at me. You know the man you subdued yesterday?”

“You mean the man named Garion?”

“Yeah! That man escaped.”

“What?”

“Sorry! He escaped when the Guards let their guard down. It’s my responsibility.”

Yu Se-hee bit her lip.

“You lost him that pointlessly?”

“That’s...... they said Garion suddenly came back to his senses, so they let their guard down.”

“What does that mean? Came back to his senses? Are you saying he wasn’t in his right mind when he attacked me?”

“I think he was brainwashed. When you subdued Garion, the impact released the geas placed on his brain.”

“Mm!”

Zeon crossed his arms.

It made enough sense.

Garion’s madness-filled eyes had definitely not been natural.

Above all, before becoming a Dongdaemun fanatic, he had been an ordinary merchant. For someone like him to suddenly become an Awakened with super-regeneration ability meant Dongdaemun must have pulled some kind of dirty trick.

“Is it possible to artificially create an Awakened?”

“It’s impossible without talent. Garion probably had potential, even though he hadn’t awakened. That unknown potential bloomed when he was brainwashed by Dongdaemun.”

“That makes sense.”

Zeon nodded.

Before awakening, no one knew what potential a person had.

No one knew what kind of trigger would awaken them either.

There were cases like Zeon, who awakened dramatically when driven into crisis, and cases where people awakened in the middle of ordinary daily life.

Because of that, artificially awakening someone was known to be almost impossible.

Yu Se-hee continued with a miserable expression.

“It seems Garion...... killed his entire family after being brainwashed by Dongdaemun.”

“......”

“He believed he had to do that to go to God’s side. Once the brainwashing was released, he realized what he’d done and went out of his mind. That’s why the Guards let their guard down.”

“He killed his whole family? With his own hands?”

“Yeah!”

“Haa! That’s insane.”

“Yeah! He said he didn’t even know why he did it back then. He said he couldn’t think about anything at the time. When he came to his senses, it was after he had killed his wife and children with his own hands....... He didn’t even know why he attacked you.”

“Whew! Then you don’t know where he went either.”

“I’m sorry!”

Yu Se-hee could not look Zeon straight in the face.

It was a situation where she would have nothing to say even if she had ten mouths.

At the same time, anger surged inside her.

It was anger toward Dongdaemun and Johan.

No matter how ruined the world had become, and no matter how far human ethics had fallen, what Johan and Dongdaemun were doing had crossed the line far too much.

“Anyway, Garion won’t try to take revenge on you. He realized that his enemy isn’t you, but Johan.”

“Dongdaemun may get noisy from now on.”

“Whew! I guess so.”

Yu Se-hee let out a long sigh.

---

Several days passed after Yu Se-hee returned.

Contrary to their worries, no disturbance occurred in Dongdaemun.

Zeon put away thoughts about Garion.

That was because something more important had come up.

“What the hell is that human doing without any news?”

Briel was furious to the tips of her hair.

The cause was Levin.

It had already been over fifteen days since he entered Neo Seoul, but Levin had not sent any kind of message.

“No matter how busy he is, he could at least contact us, couldn’t he?”

“Then do you want to go into Neo Seoul?”

“Into Neo Seoul?”

At Zeon’s words, Briel’s eyes widened.

Although she had lived here for a long time, Briel had never once entered Neo Seoul itself.

Even after gaining her freedom, she had never thought she wanted to enter Neo Seoul.

Being captured by humans and dragged all the way here had left her traumatized.

She had improved greatly after being rescued by Zeon, but her trauma had still not fully healed.

Because of that, she had never even attempted to enter Neo Seoul.

“Neo Seoul is......”

“It’s nothing special.”

“Hm?”

“It’s no different from the slums. It just has more buildings that are a bit bigger and flashier.”

“But the humans......”

“With your current ability, you could chew up every human who frightens you.”

Briel’s eyes trembled at Zeon’s words.

“Do you really think so?”

“If you go in, you’ll know for sure. What will you do?”

“Are you going to Neo Seoul too, Zeon?”

“I’m planning to go in this time.”

“Then I’ll go too.”

Briel worked up her courage.

Zeon looked at Briel with pride.

“Wait a moment.”

Having made a difficult decision, Briel soon ran into her room.

After stuffing the things she had made so far into the subspace inside her pointed hat, she came back out.

Only Briel knew what items were inside the pointed hat.

Zeon also placed some light luggage into his subspace, then headed toward Neo Seoul with Briel.

The two had almost arrived at the entrance to Neo Seoul when it happened.

“Waaaah!”

“What is that?”

Suddenly, people on the street gasped in astonishment.

Zeon and Briel looked toward where the people’s gazes were directed.

A massive transport vehicle was entering from there.

The large object loaded onto the transport vehicle was drawing people’s attention.

At a glance, it looked like an enormous rock.

But arms and legs stuck out like those of a human.

Though crude, it even had fingers and toes.

Zeon recognized the rock’s identity at a glance.

“A Go......lem?”

A Golem was an artificial lifeform created by Magic.

He did not know by what principle that enormous rock moved like a human. But they walked and moved like humans.

The difference was simply that they could not think like humans.

A Golem acted only according to input orders.

Briel murmured,

“Looks like they cleared some dungeon.”

A stone Golem was found only in dungeons. But dungeons where such enormous Golems appeared were rare.

There was nothing useless about a Golem.

The Golem’s core, its enormous stone body, and the magic circle engraved across its body were all subjects of research.

The Golem carried on the transport vehicle was over ten meters tall.

Such an enormous Golem was extremely rare. Naturally, it possessed tremendous value.

That was why they were transporting it with difficulty using a special transport vehicle.

CLANK! CLANK! THUD! THUD!

Then heavy footsteps sounded.

They were the footsteps of the Awakened escorting the transport vehicle.

The reason they sounded much heavier than others was because the Awakened were not ordinary humans.

They were mechanized Awakened whose arms and legs had been replaced with machines.

There was only one place in Neo Seoul that operated a raid team made up of mechanized Awakened like that.

“They’re Awakened from the West District.”

“Looks like they succeeded in clearing a Golem dungeon this time.”

“As expected of the West District. To capture such an enormous Golem. At that size, isn’t it Grade B?”

“Grade B? At that size, you should consider it Grade A. This is my first time seeing a Grade A Golem.”

People could not stop admiring the Golem loaded onto the transport vehicle.

Greed appeared in some people’s eyes.

If it really was a Grade A Golem, then its value was endless.

The body that looked like stone was surely filled with rare minerals.

Even more valuable than that was the core that made that enormous Golem move.

A core powerful enough to move a Grade A Golem was certain to have incredible value.

One could change one’s whole life with a single core. But no one dared think of stealing the core.

That was because the moment they touched that enormous Golem, they would become an enemy of the West District.

The moment one became an enemy of the West District, there would be no place to stand in Neo Seoul.

Knowing that, people only watched from far away and did not approach.

The mechanized Awakened watched the surroundings with sharp eyes.

They were ready to attack at any moment if someone approached without permission.

Among them, the one who stood out the most was the man walking at the front.

He boasted a body far larger and heavier than the other mechanized Awakened.

The man’s name was Park Woo-sik.

He was the captain who led the Machine Legion, the elite force of the West District.

People who recognized him whispered among themselves.

“Park Woo-sik personally cleared the dungeon?”

“That must be why they captured such a huge Golem.”

Park Woo-sik, captain of the Machine Legion, was one of the West District’s representative powerhouses.

Aside from his brain and part of his face, he had replaced his entire body with machines.

In a way, it was no different from having transplanted only his brain and face into a machine body.

Park Woo-sik’s appearance was truly fierce.

He was not the captain leading the Machine Legion for nothing.

Zeon silently looked at Park Woo-sik and the Machine Legion moving farther away.

A moment later, they disappeared through the entrance to Neo Seoul.

They had passed through without any special inspection procedure.

Only then did Briel open her mouth.

“Wow! That was really fierce. How can anyone even think of attaching machines to a human body?”

“I know.”

“Even Cha Jin-cheol was nothing but a child compared to that man.”

“Now that you mention it, I’d forgotten about Cha Jin-cheol.”

Since Cha Jin-cheol had been kidnapped by the Grim Reaper and turned into ash, there had been no reason to pay attention to him.

The district Cha Jin-cheol had belonged to was the West District.

“Because of that, there may be a problem with the West District. In any case, I’m the one who killed him.”

“Are you going to the West District?”

“I don’t intend to go there deliberately, but who knows? It depends on how the situation unfolds.”

“I guess so.”

Briel nodded.

Unless one was a god, there was no way to know how the future would unfold.

“Let’s go in too.”

“Mm!”

The two entered Neo Seoul.

An Awakened blocked them partway in, but thanks to the identification card issued by Mayor Jin Geum-ho, they were able to pass through quickly.

Once inside Neo Seoul, Briel’s eyes trembled as if an earthquake had struck them.

Ultramodern high-rise buildings that seemed to pierce the sky.

Clean streets without a single piece of trash.

People dressed in refined clothing.

A new world completely different from the slums was welcoming her.

“This is Neo Seoul?”

At the overwhelming sight she had never imagined, her mouth fell open.