Chapter 307

Chapter 307

When Zeon arrived at the Red Horn Crocodile Crew’s base after following Jetoya, he frowned.

A sight too horrific to behold lay before him.

Countless children’s corpses were scattered everywhere.

Arms and legs had been severed, and heads rolled across the floor.

Internal organs and blood spilling from split-open bellies soaked the floor.

“D......amn it!”

Jetoya turned his head, unable to keep looking at his friends’ bodies.

Whether he liked them or hated them, he had lived with them for over ten years.

He had grown attached to them, both bitterly and fondly.

Seeing those people dead in such a gruesome state made his stomach churn until he felt like vomiting.

Zeon said to Jetoya,

“If it’s too hard, wait outside.”

“No. I can endure it.”

Jetoya gritted his teeth and answered.

At that moment, Briel said,

“It doesn’t look like they left long ago.”

A few pieces of luggage that seemed to belong to the Helbrin Mercenary Corps were rolling on the floor.

That meant they had left in such a hurry that they had failed to take their belongings.

Zeon let out a faint sigh.

“Hoo! I’ll have to acknowledge their danger-sensing ability, at least.”

“Then you’re saying they knew we were coming in advance?”

“I don’t know that, but I’m sure they realized the danger early when their comrades didn’t return after some time.”

“No, if their comrades didn’t come back, shouldn’t they have gone looking for them?”

“They’re not beings you can understand through ordinary thinking like that. Their thoughts and senses are all aligned for survival. If they can survive, they can brush off a comrade’s death as if it’s nothing.”

A deep furrow formed between Zeon’s brows.

Even Zeon, who prided himself on having seen all kinds of human beings while wandering the desert, had never seen a group like this before.

They were the classic type: weak before the strong, strong before the weak, but they were more cunning than other Scavengers and more savage than monsters.

They avoided those stronger than themselves thoroughly, but toward those weaker than themselves, they were cruel beyond measure.

As if they refused to let anyone weaker than them remain in the world, they tore into them like mad beasts.

On top of that, their danger-sensing ability was excellent, so the moment anything felt even slightly strange, they immediately moved their base.

“This is going to be a difficult game of hide-and-seek.”

Zeon looked troubled.

The sewer was as complex as a maze.

Tracking the bastards through a sewer like this would not be easy even for Zeon.

At that moment, Jetoya said,

“I can find them. No one knows these sewers better than I do. It doesn’t matter where they hide. I can definitely find them.”

“We have to move faster than them. If we’re even a little late, we won’t even see their tails.”

“I can do it. No, I’ll do it. Definitely!”

Seeing Jetoya burning with fighting spirit, Zeon nodded.

“Fine! I’ll leave the tracking to you.”

“In exchange, you have to keep your promise.”

“The magic power generator?”

“Yes!”

“I’ll definitely keep it.”

“I’ll trust you.”

Jetoya, who normally trusted no one, somehow felt he could trust the man before him.

Even he did not know why.

He only instinctively realized that, at the very least, this man was not someone who would say two different things with one mouth.

Jetoya began tracking in earnest.

In the desert, Zeon was the best tracker. But in the filthy underground sewers, Jetoya was the best.

If Zeon used sand to grasp and track the location of his prey, Jetoya used the moisture filling the underground sewers to pinpoint his target’s location.

“Sniff, sniff!”

Jetoya stopped briefly at a fork and smelled the air.

He pointed to the right and said,

“The scent is mixed in this direction.”

“You can distinguish smells even in this stench?”

“If I set my mind to it, I can distinguish the scent I want even among hundreds of smells.”

“Really?”

“People like you who come down from above have a distinctive dry smell.”

“Dry?”

“Yes! Especially people who’ve been out in the desert for a long time. Their smell has a rough, crumbly feeling. That smell is mixed into the right passage.”

“That’s impressive.”

Zeon smiled.

If Jetoya could truly track the Helbrin Mercenary Corps by scent, the situation changed.

That meant they could track them directly without wasting unnecessary time.

Jetoya entered the right passage and said,

“I’m going to run from now on, so don’t fall behind.”

“Don’t worry.”

“Just run.”

The moment Zeon and Briel answered at the same time, Jetoya began sprinting through the sewer at terrifying speed.

Jetoya was a human optimized for the underground world.

Like a lizard, his hands and feet stuck tightly to the walls and floor. Because of that, he could sprint across water-dappled walls as if they were flat ground.

With this ability, Jetoya had managed to avoid the pursuit of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps Awakened who had chased him for a long time.

“Wow!”

Briel was so impressed by the sight of Jetoya racing while hanging upside down from the ceiling that she burst out in admiration.

Zeon also admired Jetoya’s ability.

‘At this level, he should be considered a new kind of human altogether.’

A new kind of human optimized for the underground world.

As expected, humans were clearly animals that adapted to their environment and evolved.

“This way.”

Jetoya came down from the ceiling and headed into the left passage.

The whole time he ran through the passage, he kept sniffing.

He was gathering information from the air in real time.

He said with a confident expression,

“They’re not far now. We’ll catch up soon.”

“Understood.”

Zeon nodded and looked around.

They had already passed dozens of forks.

In the meantime, they had entered deep underground.

It felt as though they had gone several dozen meters farther beneath the surface.

If Zeon had been alone, he would not have reached this place at such speed.

At that moment—

“Aaah!”

As if proving Jetoya’s words true, someone’s faint scream came from ahead.

Zeon increased his speed and said,

“I’ll go first.”

In an instant, he passed Jetoya, who had been running ahead, and disappeared into the darkness far ahead.

Jetoya stared blankly for a moment at the place where Zeon had vanished.

“Wow!”

“What, you’re surprised by just that?”

Briel scolded Jetoya.

Jetoya flared up and said,

“How could I not be surprised? He’s faster than me.”

“Zeon’s ability isn’t limited to that. You’ll know if you ever go up to the surface.”

“But I’ll die if I go up to the surface.”

“What?”

“As you can see, I’ve completely adapted underground, so if I’m exposed to sunlight, I’ll dry up and die.”

Humans from the generation above Jetoya could still go up to the surface if they set their minds to it. But children like Jetoya, who had completely adapted underground, could not endure the sunlight and heat of the surface.

“Ah, sorry!”

Briel hurriedly apologized.

She had not imagined Jetoya had such circumstances.

“No, it’s fine! Someday, if I Awaken too, I’ll be able to go up to the surface and endure it.”

“You haven’t Awakened?”

“As you can see.”

Jetoya shrugged. But he did not look discouraged at all.

That meant he believed he would Awaken someday.

Of course, that assumed he survived until then.

---

Zeon had left Jetoya and Briel behind and run ahead. Just as he turned a corner—

A fine silver line entered Zeon’s eyes.

He instinctively lowered his head.

Slice!

In that instant, a lock of his hair was cut off by the silver thread.

It was a trap the Helbrin Mercenary Corps had installed.

The silver thread, made by synthesizing monster by-products and titanium, was sharp enough to cut through even the sturdy body of a martial-type Awakened in an instant.

Moreover, its placement was exquisite.

It had been installed at face height, where armor could not protect.

If Zeon had not discovered it in advance, he would have had everything above his nose sliced off while running.

Just by looking at how Zeon’s hair had been cut, one could tell how sharp and vicious the silver thread was.

The moment Zeon barely avoided the silver thread, attacks flew toward him.

“Die!”

“You fucking bastard!”

The ones screaming as they attacked were the Awakened of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps.

The martial-type Awakened swung weapons loaded with aura, and the magic-type Awakened fired all kinds of Skills.

It was an attack launched before he had any time to dodge.

Zeon’s response was simple.

He crossed both arms to protect only his head and took every attack with his entire body.

If he had been an ordinary Awakened, he would have lost his life to that single attack. But Zeon had his robe made from Leviathan’s hide.

It simply repelled most attacks.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

With explosive roars, Zeon’s body shook. But unlike how it looked from the outside, he had not taken even the slightest impact.

The moment he blocked one wave of attacks, Zeon counterattacked.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Dozens of Fire Missiles flew toward those who had attacked him.

“Ghk!”

“Kuh!”

Those who had attacked Zeon were forced backward with stifled groans.

Only then did Zeon straighten his back and look at those who had attacked him.

The men wearing turbans around their heads and deshada were Awakened of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps.

At their center stood Hassim.

“Kaaak! Ptooey! I wondered if it might be you, and sure enough, it was.”

Hassim spat on the floor and looked at Zeon with a sickened expression.

When the subordinates he had sent to capture Jetoya did not return even after some time, he had sensed something ominous and moved away.

The sewers were vast, and there were many Crocodile dens.

If something felt unpleasant, there was no reason to stubbornly stay in one place. So he had moved in search of a new nest, and the place he had found was here.

Zeon’s gaze moved behind Hassim.

Dozens of people were gathered together, trembling.

They were the elderly, the weak, and women.

The men were already all dead and rolling across the floor.

The Helbrin Mercenary Corps had slaughtered them before Zeon arrived.

“You should’ve come a little later. Then we would’ve cleaned everything up neatly.”

“I’ve met plenty of humans worse than monsters, but among them, you’re the worst.”

“Hehe! What an honor. To receive such praise from a strong man like you. Fuck!”

“You’re Hassim of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps, correct?”

“Looks like my subordinates spilled it. That’s right. My name is Hassim. As you can see, I hold the position of Captain of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps.”

Even as he answered, Hassim secretly examined Zeon from head to toe.

Just looking at him on the outside, Hassim could not tell that Zeon was such a powerful Awakened. But he was a monster who had survived the explosion Alton had poured all his mana into.

The tenacity with which he had relentlessly tracked the Helbrin Mercenary Corps after they switched to Plan S, and the cruelty with which he had killed Hassim’s subordinates in an instant.

The opponent was truly strong.

And such a powerful man had chased them all the way into these filthy sewers.

Hassim spoke with a dumbfounded expression.

“I have no idea what grudge you have against us to chase us so desperately like this. Did you perhaps have family in one of the survivor villages?”

“Then what grudge did you have against the survivor villages when you attacked them?”

“Kuh! I asked a foolish question.”

In the desert, the strong plundering the weak was no crime.

At least, that was the law of the desert.

That was why Hassim’s mercenaries felt no guilt over plundering survivor villages.

The same applied to Zeon’s case.

If he was stronger, they would be eaten. Conversely, if they were stronger, it was only natural for them to trample Zeon.

Hassim called someone’s name.

“Alton!”

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!

No sooner had he finished speaking than explosions erupted around Zeon.

Having noticed Zeon’s pursuit, Hassim had ordered Alton to install explosives in advance.

The explosion was focused on Zeon alone.

Its power was tremendous.

Hassim shouted,

“Everyone, prepare.”

He knew.

An explosion of only this level would not be enough to do anything to Zeon.

FWOOSH!

At that moment, a single Fire Missile shot through the explosion.

“Kraaaah!”

Alton screamed and collapsed.

The Fire Missile had pierced through the center of his brow.

“Fuck!”

Having suddenly lost his most important combat asset, Hassim gritted his teeth.