Chapter 13 – We Are Hunters! (1)
1.
From the large super mall that Kim Tae Hoon was at, it was about 5 kilometers to the military base located in Ojeong-dong.
When he left the supermall, his goal was to reach the Ojeong-dong army base by 4 am.
Furthermore, Kim Tae Hoon was willing to mobilize all of his means to achieve his goal.
He knew better than anyone the importance of thoroughly accomplis.h.i.+ng one’s goals in a time of conflict like this.
But at this moment, Kim Tae Hoon was still sitting at the police station with the clock well beyond 3 am.
He even took the opportunity to boil some water in the portable pot and drink some coffee.
“Hyungnim, is it ok to be so leisurely?”
Looking at Kim Tae Hoon, Bang Hyun Wook expressed his doubt.
While enjoying the coffee’s flavor, Kim Tae Hoon replied to Bang Hyun Wook in a quiet voice.
“It’s too dangerous to move out while your bodies and minds are in such an unsteady state. First of all, we have to make sure that whether it’s your mind or your body, you guys are limber and ready to move out. So might as well just drink coffee. This is my first time trying this brand…….”
Of course it’s not that Kim Tae Hoon had given up.
Now that the three of them weren’t in their optimal condition, there just wasn’t much they could do.
A giant monster that no one could explain had spread terror all throughout Bucheon, and that fear had rooted itself in every corner of Kim Tae Hoon’s body and mind.
Moving out in a situation like this without a.s.sessing the situation would be the same as moving while being poisoned.
“In addition, the situation is different now that the dragon has appeared. Things have changed.”
Most importantly, this didn’t apply to only Kim Tae Hoon.
That unidentified dragon had exuded its presence all throughout Bucheon, showering fear upon the city.
Therefore, every living thing residing in Bucheon was exposed to that fear.
After the pandemonium caused by monsters’ initial raid started from 4 pm on December 31, the situation had now lulled to a stop.
The boat that had been floating silently by was overthrown by a huge wave.
“Insane…… most of the people who experienced the fear must have fainted or died. Especially with the temperature it is now…… we can’t expect proper help from anyone and if we fall unconscious or get stunned we’ll just freeze to death.”
Ahn Sun Mi said, adding her opinion to Kim Tae Hoon’s.
After having experienced the fear that came accompanied by the dragon, the words of the doctor were very persuasive.
Drip!
While filling up Ahn Sun Mi’s empty coffee cup, he complimented her observation.
“It would be nice if everyone was like that, but the problem is that it won’t be like that.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s more likely to go crazy, not just faint.”
The dragon fear is very intense. But not everything was affected by the dragon fear.
At the moment, both Bang Hyun Wook and Kim Tae Hoon were a little stiff, but not completely stunned. Amongst the survivors, there will be those who are awakened, and if they have a high Energy ranking, then they will survive.
“Whether it’s a human or a monster.”
Or monsters.
“It’s not like the monsters have disappeared.”
The monsters haven’t left Bucheon city.
The monster that are responsible for turning Bucheon into a ghost town weren’t even dead.
So where did the monsters go? Did they leave Bucheon and go to Seoul or Incheon?
Rather than leaving, it was far more likely that the monsters who had already attacked humans and had their fill would probably hole up in the buildings to rest for the night and escape the cold winter weather.
Aren’t places like subway stations frequently used as shelters for humans?
“If I were a monster, I would search around for food, even if grudgingly.”
In such a situation where an apex predator makes its appearance, other monsters would either go crazy or attempt to fill up on food before finding some deep and secluded area to hide.
In other words, the monsters are currently out and about.
“The monsters who are out right now are those who were able to still keep their wits after having been exposed to the dragon.”
The monsters that are active now are at least stronger than the common goblins and the weaker orcs.
He needed to watch out for creatures like that black orc.
Kim Tae Hoon got them to quickly fill up their stomachs, then ushered them into a more secluded area to hide.
After listening to Kim Tae Hoon’s explanations, neither Bang Hyun Wook nor Ahn Sun Mi asked any more questions.
Kim Tae Hoon drank hot coffee to warm his frozen body, and ate chocolate to calm his mind.
In the silence, Kim Tae Hoon took a look at his right hand.
His right hand slowly became stained in black.
It was the ability he took from the black orc, Black Skin.
With the rank his Energy was at currently, Kim Tae Hoon could only turn the skin up to around his wrist black.
The skin that turned black made him feel as though he was wearing some sort of iron cloth.
It even felt as solid.
At least he wouldn’t be harmed if hit with a coa.r.s.e knife, or if he were to smash through a window, it would only leave tiny scratches.
‘If you kill a monster, you get some sort of reward.’
Above all, this was proof.
It was proof that killing monsters gave benefits.
’I can’t help but wonder what else I can get by killing monsters.’
Although his mind was still recovering from the dragon fear, the evidence before him couldn’t help but motivate Kim Tae Hoon to come up with some method to kill more monsters.
Kim Tae Hoon took another sip of his coffee, a pale smile on his face.
2.
Along the dark roads surrounded by buildings on either side and densely packed with cold cars housing the frozen corpses of many citizens inside…
There were two goblins that were dining.
Clinging on to frozen corpses, they were ripping off chunks of the body with their teeths like dogs.
Ggiiii, Ggiii!
It was hard to watch the scene.
Giiii!
The goblins had the strength to tear off chunks of human flesh with their sharp teeth, but that was based on the fact that the bodies had long since gone cold and limp.
The body of a frozen person in this weather was different.
They were tasteless.
It was difficult to even swallow a small bit of flesh. Whether it was chewing, swallowing, or just devouring, it was not pleasant.
It was a meal purely for the purposes of survival.
The goblins that had been stuffing themselves in order to survive suddenly grabbed at their own throats.
Ggik, Ggik!
While gasping for breath they began to struggle.
“Huuu”
In that short time, a youth with a baseball bat let out a breath and smashed the goblin’s head.
Bbak!
Having smashed the back of the goblin’s head, one of the goblin’s eyes dislodged halfway out of its socket.
Carrying through with his momentum, the youth smashed directly downwards onto another head.
Kiik!
The goblin that had been wanting to exhale suddenly had its mouth tightly closed. As a result, the goblin’s tongue which had been hanging out was chomped off, and its teeth clashed together.
Juljuljul, the goblin spewed blood from its mouth like a fountain, covering the floor.
The youth that had appeared, Bang Hyun Wook, drew a circle with his hand.
Then Ahn Sun Mi revealed herself.
Ahn Sun Mi approached a dead goblin with a knife in her hand, and flipped its body around so that it faced the sky. Then, with a knife in hand, she stabbed the sharp blade into the lower part of the goblin’s body, right below the solar plexus.
Then she shoved her hand into the deep wound.
Ssook!
Ahn Sun Mi’s arm quickly entered the goblin’s body until she was elbow deep. When she pulled her arm out, their was a red gem grasped in her fingertips.
She did the same thing on the other goblin’s body. She made an incision below where their solar plexus would be, then she reached upwards and retrieved the gemstones from their hearts.
The next person to appear was Kim Tae Hoon.
Kim Tae Hoon was holding a plastic kerosene bottle in his right hand. He sprinkled the kerosene onto the goblins’ bodies.
“I was wondering, but why are you spraying the kerosene on their bodies?”
“The only things that would eat these bodies are monsters, so if they’re going to eat them, then I might as well poison them a little.”
Kim Tae Hoon curtly explained.
Having wiped her hands of blood with a towel, she stretched out her palm towards Kim Tae Hoon. There were two monster gems sitting on her palm.
“Here.”
After receiving them, he handed one to Bang Hyun Wook.
“Eat it.”
Without any hesitation, Bang Hyun Wook listened to Kim Tae Hoon’s orders and swallowed the monster stone that was still covered in blood.
Even with the thick stench of blood, he still swallowed it.
Before long, while stroking the area under his solar plexus, Bang Hyun Wook said, “I feel a bit full now.”
As they started moving, the scenery before them was exactly as Kim Tae Hoon had predicted.
There were monsters that feasted on human bodies as though they were driven by something.
Kim Tae Hoon didn’t ignore these monsters. He hunted them.
Bang Hyun Wook and Ah Sun Mi were on the frontlines.
“Bang Hyun Wook, be wary of your surroundings when you swing that bat. Never relax on the battlefield.”
“Understood.”
“And Ahn Sun Mi.”
“Command me.”
“Stab your knife into the eyes of these two dead ones.”
Following his orders, Ahn Sun Mi stabbed the red eyeb.a.l.l.s of the goblins with the end of her knife without any hesitation.
Along with the unsettling sound of the eyeb.a.l.l.s being popped, red liquid spilled out of the eyes.
It was like the tears of a dead soul.
Bang Hyun Wook, while watching that scene! Let out a short breath. It wasn’t a sight that he could easily get used to even after having seen it multiple times.
But that was the reason why Kim Tae Hoon ordered it.
‘It’s a relief that they’re getting used to it. Maybe it’s because she’s a doctor, but Ahn Sun Mi got used to it fairly quickly.’
Unlike Bang Hyun Wook and Ahn Sun Mi, Kim Tae Hoon was not an ordinary person.
Generally, a civilian was very reluctant to kill. Many people were even unable to feather a dead chicken let alone kill something.
They were unable to fight against a monster even if their lives were in danger.
And at that moment of hesitation between life and death, they die.
Kim Tae Hoon was trying to give Bang Hyun Wook and Ahn Sun Mi some experience.
Experience of slaughter.
It wasn’t something that humans had to experience while going about their lives, but now, it was impossible not to.
From now on, one had to kill to survive.
“But, that’s the destination, is it not?”
There weren’t only monsters there.
“Let’s rest our eyes a bit before we move any further.”
“What? If we got a little further, we’ll have reached the military base, no?”
“There are sentries that do not welcome anyone who approach at night. If I were in charge of that military base, I would send down an order to issue a warning to those who approach at night so that they would reply back within two seconds when warned.”
There was no guarantee that the soldiers in the army base would welcome any survivors.
If the army is functioning the way it normally would, then there’s no way that they wouldn’t set a watch.
On top of that, the sentries will be very nervous. The punishment for not keeping proper watch during this time would not be the same as before. Any punishment doled out during this time would be very severe so as to make sure that the army was not caught unprepared.
“For now, let’s just rest.”
More than anything, Kim Tae Hoon and his party were extremely exhausted.
They needed time to rest.
Whether they were running or fighting, they needed energy.
“We’ll approach the military base when the sun begins to rise.”
Kim Tae Hoon began to look around for a spot they could hole up in to rest. However, there weren’t any appropriate buildings that he could use.
Kim Tae Hoon eventually decided to take refuge in an SUV.
Dulkuk!
After opening the frozen door, everyone took residence in the car.
The inside of the car was cold, but it was still more comfortable than hunting in the cold streets.
This was the first rest they had in awhile.
However, they couldn’t rest for long.
Tang!
When dawn had just barely arrived, instead of the cry of a rooster’s crow, the loud sounds of gunshots woke them.