Seeing that they quieted down, Kim Tae Hoon’s gaze pa.s.sed over them.
On a road that had become a graveyard for cars, there was a dump truck slowly moving on the road followed by a line of vehicles, like ducklings chasing after the mother duck.
There were also soldiers that surrounded the cars.
“Hey hey, be careful, careful!”
“Sorry sir.”
“Be careful when moving the bodies around. We might not be able to give them a proper funeral, but you gotta at least show the minimum amount of courtesy.”
“Yes sir.”
“If you look at it in a certain way, handling dead people is happy work. It’s another indicator that I’ve survived.”
Some of the soldiers who were moving the cadavers off to the side were using jumpers to cover their faces.
“Monster Stone extraction complete.”
“Quota of ten, complete. Permission to smoke a cigarette, sir?”
“Sure, I completed ten as well. Let’s smoke together.”
There were other soldiers who were searching for monster corpses and then retrieving monster stones from their chest.
And from time to time there would be a plume of cigarette smoke rising into the sky in between work s.h.i.+fts.
Kim Tae Hoon sighed while watching the scene.
‘It’s a relief that there isn’t as much of a commotion as I thought there would be.’
January 2.
After what seemed like an eternity, the new day started. Under the banner of the newly named Mek Clan, Kim Tae Hoon and his subordinates left the 1121st Unit’s barracks and headed towards Bucheon Stadium.
It wasn’t a very long distance.
Being about 5 kilometers away, it should have taken them an hour to reach it.
However, even though the Mek Clan had left at 7 in the morning, it wasn’t until 2 am near dawn when they arrived at Bucheon Stadium.
They had spent a lot of time clearing the roads so that the dump truck that was carrying the weapons could pa.s.s safely, along with the other vehicles behind it.
‘There weren’t many monster attacks.’
It was a time consuming task.
Moving the owner bereft cars was an extremely time consuming task, and since the roads were clogged with traffic accidents, it wasn’t something the clan could clear without Kim Tae Hoon and Bang Hyun Wook’s help.
It was also a task that had to be completed.
‘In the end, we secured a path from the stadium to the military base.’
After all, the dump truck wasn’t just a truck. It was a weapon that gave the soldiers an incredible advantage against the monsters and it was a storage unit that was full of weapons.
Securing a path for the dump truck was a priority for the clan.
Clearing the path was similar to creating an emergency exit, providing another lifeline for the clan.
‘It’s dangerous to hole up in an apartment or similar buildings. In regards to residence, it’s much better to settle in the military base or the stadium.’
It was also important to properly take care of the bodies there as well.
The place where you are buried becomes your grave, but the place where you die becomes your h.e.l.l.
The difference between the two was huge.
Giving the bodies rest is one way to still keep some sort of order and civility in this new world.
“Huh? There, over there!”
“What is it? What’s happened? Ah!”
“That’s a lot of smoke. Doesn’t it look like a fire broke out?”
“A fire doesn’t give off that amount of smoke? It’s an apartment complex is it not?”
At that moment, all eyes turned towards the beacon of smoke that rose between the apartment complexes in the distance.
Kim Tae Hoon also turned his attention towards the smoke.
‘It’s starting now.’
The smoke that everyone could see was another reason why they needed to maintain a trace of order.
The origin of the smoke.
There are no chimneys where the smoke can come out of, so if there was no fire, would there be smoke?
It is a fire.
The cause of the fire was also obvious.
“But what caused the fire?”
It was minus 10 degrees celsius outside, and not only was the temperature not rising, but the wind was blowing as well.
Isn’t gas and electricity provided during a winter like this?
In the end, they’ll have to resort to old-fas.h.i.+oned methods that humans had to use before the advent of sufficient technology.
“They must have lit a fire to warm their bodies. Without a fire, they’ll freeze to death.”
They definitely must have lit a fire.
Common sense would dictate that they should have come outside and looked for a metal barrel, and then filled it with a large quant.i.ty of firewood before lighting it on fire.
However, a lot of people would instead make fires in their homes using portable gas burners and cans of butane gas. But to be fair, this world was already one not within the bounds of common sense.
“Should we go help?”
There were no firefighters that could be dispatched at the moment.
“We’ll probably just have to wait until the fire puts itself out. Unless it starts to rain. But there’s no way it’ll rain in this weather. It would be pretty amazing if it does.”
“But if the fire spreads from the apartment complex sir?
“Well······.”
The society that humans had built is surprisingly fragile, and can easily be compared to a giant matchbox.
“I don’t know what’ll happen next, but regardless of what happens, I doubt we’ll be able to do much about it.”
“I’m getting gooseb.u.mps sir.”
Many things apply to disasters such as earthquakes, not things like monster attacks.
Many experts say. When a major disaster like an earthquake occurs, there are more deaths in the subsequent disasters, like a fire or a collapse of infrastructure.
‘The real chaos is just beginning.’
In such a situation, the monsters would be like merciless G.o.ds.
‘Hmmm.’
At that moment Kim Tae Hoon turned his head.
A desolate road full of trashed cars entered his sight.
However, Kim Tae Hoon’s intuition told him that the silence was just a facade.
Intuition, the Hobgoblin’s Intuition told him that there was a strong presence nearby.
“Prepare for battle!”
Kim Tae Hoon yelled out loud.
Awoooooooooh!
As soon as Kim Tae Hoon spit out his words, an eerie howl rang in his ears, causing his legs to tremble.