Rust - Chapter 313



Only Krnovel

RUST-313

Who are you?

While there was a moment of hesitation as to who this person was, how he got in, and what he was suddenly saying, one of the agents reported to Dan Brown.

“The NYPD chief is here.”

“Here? Without even contacting me?”

The agent who checked the earset spoke quietly.

“Yes. I heard it’s coming up right now. Should I stop it?”

What is this case… Is this an emergency? But still, New York is a place where communication and the internet all work.

“Send it up. I have to meet him.”

I was embarrassed because I thought it might be a difficult story to tell over the phone. Anyway, it was difficult to turn him away or make him wait unconditionally when the NYPD chief himself came in an emergency. The NYPD chief, who had come in like a bulldozer, let out a sigh of relief when he saw Dan Brown.

“It’s not too late. That’s fortunate.”

“Huh? You’re not late? What do you mean?”

The man who had been talking about Father took one look at the chief, took out a fancy invitation from his bosom, and handed it to Dan Brown.

The moment I reached out to receive it, the chief waved his hand and threw the invitation on the floor.

“Ouch- I suddenly feel dizzy.”

The chief picked up the invitation with his gloved hands, placed it gently on the edge of the desk, and began a staring contest with the unknown man.

The man politely bowed to the ridiculous excuse and left without saying anything, leaving only an incomprehensible sound in Dan Brown’s ear.

“The tide has already turned. I hope you make a good choice.”

“······.”

Talking about things that I don’t understand, and does the Department of Homeland Security look like water? What are they all doing here?

They say even a dog barks loudly in its own front yard, but seeing people barging in without prior notice and doing this made me feel more and more annoyed than embarrassed.

The chief, seeing that Dan Brown’s face had hardened, apologized and took out the evidence storage plastic bag and put the invitation on the desk in it.

“What are you doing now?”

“I didn’t have time to explain, so I had no choice.”

Judging by the fact that he was sweating profusely, he seemed to have come running in a hurry. When Dan Brown handed him a cold drink and a handkerchief, the NYPD chief wiped his sweat and took a cold drink before taking a USB from his bosom.

“Ugh- Let’s look at this first and then talk.”

As Dan Brown began to browse the material on his tablet PC, the current situation began to fit together like a puzzle in his mind.

In the early days of the second wave of the virus, the US did a very good job of containing the spread. Intermittent explosive disorder was immediately isolated, so there was almost no outbreak of variants.

The once safe New York was gradually becoming terrifying because of cockroaches and rats. The already troublesome cockroaches and rats began to multiply to an unmanageable level.

Not only did their numbers increase, but their size also grew. Furthermore, they began to move in groups like ants or bees.

‘Wheels in groups? Isn’t this… the thing that caused controversy in Japan?’

I remembered an incident that happened when I was dispatched to the Kanto region of Japan. Wheels surrounded and attacked a rescue team in the middle of winter under harsh conditions of snow.

I heard that the wheel that spread throughout northern China also has the same characteristic. It is said that it moves in an organized manner like an army.

China used to use the wheels for waste disposal and food. I don’t know what happened to them after the nuclear war.

‘If that wheel is spreading, it’s dangerous.’

It was a terrible thing that the wheels would ambush and attack as if they had intelligence. When the Japanese rescue team was dispatched, it was so dangerous that if Vladimir Kalin and Yania Kim had not been there, the entire unit would have been annihilated.

One wheel alone is enough to cause a headache, but now there’s rats running wild. Is Marado stuck in New York?

The rats living in the sewers of New York were not small. At some point, they started to grow bigger and bigger, and in an instant, they became as big as a person’s arm and started causing terrible incidents in the back alleys of New York.

An unbelievable series of events unfolded. They could eat people, destroy evidence, cut off communication, and even attack. If it weren’t for the CCTV, they would have committed crimes that would have remained unsolved.

“The rats from the Midwest came all the way to New York?”

Similar to the incident where villages near parks were attacked in the central region’s national forests. Communication was cut off, attacks were made, and evidence was destroyed, all in perfect harmony.

Following Vladimir Kalin’s advice, we carried out a wide-area artillery strike and bombing, and succeeded in clearing out most of them.

‘How did you get to New York?’

It was not a problem that could be overlooked because of their high reproductive capacity. If a pair of rats were left alone, they could increase to 1,250 rats in a year. Not 125, but 1,250.

‘Even if they can reproduce up to eight times a year, and even if their reproductive capacity suddenly increases, it’s strange.’

Director Dan Brown’s eyes became heavy as he handed over the data.

‘They say we failed to respond properly until the situation became like this…’

Was it because the people were scared and the military was evaporated in the aftermath of nuclear war that rats and cockroaches ran rampant? That wasn’t it.

New York has a large population, and its infrastructure was completely intact because it was not hit by a nuclear attack. In addition, the National Guard was still intact. If they had responded quickly when the signs appeared, they could have solved the problem.

“While the police were exhausted dealing with cockroaches and rats, they began to spread.”

“Those guys?”

“Cannibals, I mean.”

“Are you saying that New York also had a shortage of treatments?”

In response to Dan Brown’s question, the NYPD chief wiped his face with a handkerchief again.

“The problem got worse after Ojin Pharmaceutical ran out of drugs. It was impossible to keep all the citizens of New York safe with the generic drugs made by Riser Pharmaceuticals.”

A medication that needs to be taken once a week and three times a day. Even the production is insufficient. I could understand.

As Den Brown nodded, the director continued his story.

The cannibalism began in Chinatown, as in other cities. Fortunately, as the conflict with China intensified, the number of people visiting Chinatown decreased sharply.

“···It was easy to control at first.”

I thought that when medicine was properly supplied, cannibalism would not be a big problem, but that was not the case.

The already expensive cost of living in New York has skyrocketed due to the mutant virus outbreak and the aftermath of nuclear war, and many investment firms and financial companies have gone bankrupt, creating a large number of unemployed people.

Here, the influx of refugees from areas where the infrastructure was destroyed by nuclear war caused real estate prices, including food prices, to skyrocket. As the murderous inflation continued, New York gradually became a city that was difficult to live in.

Violent crimes occurred several times a day, and drug-related murders occurred every other day. Despite the mobilization of the National Guard, places where it was difficult to maintain public order increased rapidly.

“But somehow I managed to survive. Until they started selling food for cheap in fucking Chinatown.”

“Is it possible to sell food cheaply in the current situation?”

“Those damn bastards were making broth from cockroaches and selling it. They were using rats.”

The NYPD chief’s face turned bright red. He looked as if he couldn’t hold back his anger.

“That was the cause of the cannibalism. It was the cockroach. It was the bastards who ate it and sold it to people.”

Even as the director’s angry voice rang out, Dan Brown remained unmoved.

“Is this for sure?”

“Yes. There is a report from a genetic engineering professor at Brown University on the USB drive.”

The study found that the mutant virus that cannibalistic patients contracted was very likely influenced by the mutant cockroach.

“Harvard is known to be the best in biotechnology.”

“They ate too much Chinese and Japanese money. They were talking nonsense even in this situation. Yale and Cornell had similar results to Brown.”

“Okay. I understand that there are cockroaches, rats, and even cannibals running rampant. But what does that have to do with the invitation?”

“Dan Brown said, pointing to the invitation enclosed in a plastic bag. The director’s expression twisted into a grotesque expression.

“Because it’s an invitation from cannibals.”

What the heck is this…

“So you’re saying that the man you mentioned earlier was a cannibal?”

“I’m not sure, but they’re either cannibals or their lackeys who do their work.”

“How do you know that?”

“···After my wife and daughter went there after receiving the invitation, they became cannibals.”

There was a lack of logical connection. Given the circumstances, it could have been a delusion. Den Brown hid such thoughts and nodded calmly.

“I heard that droplet infection is also possible, but if the goal was to infect someone, wouldn’t spitting or coughing loudly be more effective?”

“···You don’t believe me.”

“Isn’t this a situation where you can’t believe it or not? Anyway, if it’s true that the cannibals invited me, what’s the reason? Surely the cannibals aren’t blatantly trying to seize power?”

“······.”

The director was silent. A cannibal who seeks power? Dan Brown frowned. No way. Even in the Department of Defense and Strategic Command? Wasn’t it some crazy act of opportunism?

The puzzle began to come together one by one. Where did it start? What happened? Why didn’t China, after being divided into seven, come together again? Why didn’t they fight each other when they were separated?

“What do you mean by Father and Mother?”

The director answered with a distorted expression.

“These are the ones who act as leaders among them.”

Just as there are entities that command cockroaches and rats, there are also such entities among cannibals, and that is what they are called.

Those guys? There are a lot of those guys?

======

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After Maru finished wrapping two gifts, he went down the hill.

The things that were gathered in a distant place caught my senses. Judging by the uneasy feeling, I thought it was them.

‘If you’re going to take it, you might as well take plenty.’

As I approached them, cutting through the bushes and leaving a trail of debris, I noticed something that definitely gave off a different vibe.

A kind-looking middle-aged woman greeted Maru and said.

“Oh, you’re here. I’ve been waiting for you. But where are Pink and Ben?”

Were they Pink and Ben? Maru shrugged as if he didn’t know. A look of doubt rose in the middle-aged woman’s eyes.

“Then how did you get here?”

“I was just coming down and saw a crowd of people so I came here, but what are they doing here?”

Looking around, there were several women who had their heads down. It seemed like they were trying to avoid being caught drooling.

The women around the middle-aged woman were all slender and plump, while the men were either slender or muscular. No matter where you looked, they were not the type of people who would fit in with a middle-aged woman.

‘I would understand if you were carrying a super-obese woman around as emergency food, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.’

Rather, should I say that it feels like a kind middle-aged woman is the real power?

“Ma. Mother. This guy is lying. I can smell him lying.”

A woman who had been burying her head next to him muttered as she glanced at the floor. Her face was still unable to swallow the drool that was flowing down her face. Her expression was one of anxiety, longing, hunger, and an overflowing appetite that was on the verge of turning into sexual desire.

Even though her expression was on the verge of turning completely crazy, she didn’t rush at me, so I thought she had raised her daughter well. She’s a different race, after all, America is a country where mixed race people are common.

“Lies? You met Ben and Pink?”

As the voice of the kind middle-aged woman changed, the mood of those around her changed drastically. Maru raised his sword sheath as the murderous intent rose up.

“I don’t know who it is, but if it’s the strange people I met up there, just knock them out for a moment…”

“Hold it. Don’t put your mouth on it.”

Kwaaaaah

Haaaak

Those who threw themselves toward the floor while screaming at the same time as the middle-aged woman spoke. Their reaction speed was unexpected.

Thump thump thump

The fact that they slow down momentarily means that they are not easy.

ha–

As Maru gripped the handle, the blade began to shake.

Krrrrrr-

The blade that had been chewing through the graphene composite material scabbard jumped out of the scabbard in search of prey.

Flash-

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Crackle- crackle- crackle- crackle-

A long, black solid line followed the sounds of cutting, slicing, and cutting.

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