Rust - Chapter 559



Only Krnovel

RUST -559

The hordes of rats that had warmly welcomed Maru were reduced to fresh corpses.

Jerk- Jerk-

Those who watched in real time as the swarm of rats turned into fresh gray leather and spread out like a carpet, and His Majesty the King calmly walked over it, were engulfed in silence.

‘That’s why they say it’s better to be alone.’

Ki-soon was dumbfounded by the mass murder unfolding below.

“Was it like that? Since when has it been like that?”

Kim Yang also answered Ki-soon’s question, which started with ‘I’ and asked about ‘I’, with a face that said, ‘That’s a bit much.’

“Last year? It’s definitely stronger than it was then.”

The places where Maru had been exuding life were mostly closed spaces. Most of them were laboratories or secret research centers.

Even if you think about the crows at Chojin Indoor Stadium, it was the same. They couldn’t subdue the entire large indoor stadium at once.

“How much was it?”

“In terms of range, it’s about half a basketball court? And it only caught those who were close by. The killing power was greatly reduced as you went further back.”

But not now. The killing radius was almost 15 meters. Both Ms. Kim, who answered, and Ki-sun, who asked, were speechless.

The radius of the sudden death was 15 meters, and the range of the life-threatening impact was almost the size of a soccer field.

‘It’s not even a death field.’

Is that really not the case?

Ki-sun changed her mind.

The space Maru walks on is turning into a DEATH FIELD. If you don’t call that a death field, then what else can you call a death field? That’s why you can see the problems Maru has.

‘If I hadn’t taken the cardiac stimulant Na Ju-yeon made, I might have died of a heart attack like those rats…’

I could know because I experienced it firsthand.

“If we go on a mission together, do we only do long-distance sniping?”

“Yeah. Most of the time. Why is that?”

You can easily attack enemies by using the skill. The moment you use the skill, nearby enemies of the same type will also be affected by the skill.

Ki-soon seemed to know why Maru had been so stubborn about going.

To maximize your fighting power, you had to go alone.

If you want to make decisions and act based on your sharp intuition, you need to be alone.

okay.

Maru always had to be alone.

‘Fuck.’

It was a sudden surge of emotion.

======

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The loud sound of sirens spread throughout the underground bunker.

Waaaaa …

[Area 2 is closed. All researchers in Area 2 are requested to leave.]

[I repeat, Area 2 is closed. All researchers within the area are requested to collect their research materials and leave immediately.]

“What happened?”

“A rat has entered the bunker.”

“A bunker built to prepare for nuclear war was breached by rats?”

“It was unexpected that a monster rat could penetrate reinforced concrete.”

I knew that the mutated rats were dangerous, but still, this was a bunker. Not just any bunker, but a bunker for radiation and biochemical warfare.

She couldn’t understand how a bunker built to withstand even World War III could be breached by a mere rat. Whether she understood it or not, the reality was that a swarm of rats was swarming in.

“Let’s give up on the pierced side and spray nerve gas inside.”

“If VX gas is used in a confined space, it is difficult to recover for more than 6 months.”

“The important thing now is to stop the rats. If we leave the rats that have breached the outer wall of the bunker alone, they will breach everywhere and ruin the entire place, but that won’t work. If you don’t want to use nerve gas, tell me an alternative.”

“···All right.”

“Okay, Chief Researcher.”

“yes.”

The man wearing thick glasses nodded.

“See if you can replace it with rats. There must be a reason why Yamazuki Pharmaceutical and Takaichi Shinyaku use rats and cockroaches.”

“I will do that.”

Sim Eun-young’s voice became cold and somber.

“We don’t have much time. If we fail to mass-produce a rapid cure this time, we will have no choice but to choose between the Empire and the Confederacy.”

That would be the worst. The researchers would be locked up for their entire lives, never seeing the light of day, and the command would be wiped out one by one by accidents like traffic accidents and robberies.

“What about the Holy Kingdom?”

“The reason the King of the Holy Kingdom came to San Francisco this time was to order us to destroy the recipe for the rapid cure. If we are to join the Holy Kingdom, we must destroy the recipe for the rapid cure with our own hands. Is there anyone who still wants to go?”

For the Charlotte Group, rapid cures were not just a cure; they were the first step toward rejuvenation and eternal life.

What is aging?

In Sim Eun-young’s opinion, aging was simply a disease that led to death.

‘If aging is a disease, then like any other disease, there must be a cure.’

Charlotte researchers, including Sim Eun-young, took note of this point. After much research, they succeeded in obtaining the healing factor from humans.

The method they found, paradoxically, was not a new one. Humans have been using similar methods to fight diseases since ancient times.

For example, they used inoculation as a way to prevent smallpox, and they extracted human insulin and used it when they realized that insulin was needed for diabetes.

Later, smallpox was used in cows and insulin was extracted from pigs, but the first step was clearly to use humans. The same was true of rapid therapeutic drugs.

At first, humans infected with the mutant virus were used as culture media, but it was difficult to extract sufficient quantities from humans alone.

From a purity perspective, it would be best to culture it in humans, but from a mass production perspective, it would be necessary to culture it in other animals.

So what animal would be good?

Although there is some variation depending on the species, the common house mouse can become pregnant up to eight times, with an average of six times per year.

The number of babies that can be born at one time is 8. The gestation period is 26~27 days. If we only consider the maximum number, the number that a male and female pair can give birth to in a year is close to 400, and if we consider the babies that are born and grow up to reproduce, the number increases to over 1,200.

The same goes for cockroaches.

A female cockroach lays eggs approximately 10 to 15 times a year, laying 22 to 28 eggs at a time, so the number of cockroaches in a year skyrockets to 400.

If you watch the cockroaches grow and have babies, and those babies have babies, just like rats, you’ll see that they’ve multiplied to over 2,000.

So Yamazaki Pharmaceutical and Takaichi Shinyaku tried to cultivate rapid-acting therapeutic ingredients using rats and cockroaches, respectively.

In the end, both companies succeeded in cultivating and extracting the cultures, but failed to control and manage the cultures.

Both Chairman Sim Eun-young and Charlotte’s researchers knew about this, so they had avoided using rats and cockroaches until now, but now they were in trouble.

“If we have no choice but to use rats and cockroaches, let’s find a way to use the rats that have infiltrated the bunker now.”

Since it would be difficult to handle the large numbers coming in, the original plan was to kill them with nerve gas and open a suitable hole to secure the test subjects and cultures, but it failed in less than a day.

Killing them with nerve gas was fine. The problem started with the hole left open to secure the test subjects and cultures.

The rats were so smart. They quickly filtered out the area containing the colorless and odorless nerve gas, and then rushed to the hole where they could survive.

When they reached the point where they were crushing each other, they began to enlarge the hole. The passage that had been narrow enough for one to pass through at a time quickly became a tunnel that could accommodate several, and seawater from the tsunami began to flow in through this large hole.

Sim Eun-young and the researchers had no choice but to put down the barrier again.

Then, the rats also try to survive by digging inward, and when the barrier is lowered again to block the rats from entering and nerve gas is sprayed, the water level rises as the rats bypass it and dig in again.

“Mr. Chairman, you must flee to LA.”

“Can I take the altar fragments with me?”

I couldn’t give up the equipment I brought from Korea and Japan. I had to assume that there was no way to obtain precision equipment in this messy situation.

“It’s difficult. I don’t know what caused it, but the fragments of the altar have become too unstable and dangerous to approach.”

“How was the communication with the headquarters building?”

Without the fragments of the altar, the black tentacles could not be controlled.

“The connection has been lost. The communications cable appears to have been physically severed.”

“Who the hell is this…? Is it the Holy Kingdom?”

It was Chairman Shim and the security team leader who decided that it was the Holy Kingdom who created the communication blackout, as they did not know that the rats had cut the communication cable.

“I’m not sure, but it’s very likely.”

“···Contact the Holy Kingdom. I will give up the recipe, so please help me.”

This was the best method, as it would take a long time to restore the recipe if you only had the altar fragments.

“All communications with the ground have been blocked.”

“Huh? Surely. You haven’t lost contact with the other bunkers, have you?”

“Yes. It’s completely disconnected.”

“······.”

Are you saying that you were going to bury the whole bunker and destroy the recipe?

Anger flowed out of Sim Eun-young’s eyes.

“Abandon the bunker and escape. Focus all your efforts on securing the fragments of the altar.”

The furious escape operation failed from the very beginning. Five emergency exits were blocked by the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami, or were swarming with rats.

The idea of ​​using nerve gas to capture rats that have taken over the escape route is rejected.

Not only was there a shortage of equipment, including gas masks, but given the speed at which the rats were burrowing, it was not a situation that could last even six months to a year.

“Let’s use a fusion.”

“Mr. Chairman!”

“Be quiet. We don’t have time. If we continue to lose contact like this, the military will risk turning its back on us.”

There are probably several reasons why the Charlotte Group was able to establish itself on American soil, but the biggest reason was that it embraced returning American soldiers.

The abundant supplies and manpower that Charlotte brought became the infrastructure, and the returning American troops chose to use Charlotte’s infrastructure to newly expand their power rather than fight and destroy Charlotte.

The relationship that had been a win-win for both sides was shaken by the earthquake and tsunami. Sim Eun-young could feel it because she had experienced such situations many times.

“I will not hear any objections. If the fusion breaks through and escapes control, I will dispose of it.”

Under Sim Eun-young’s cold orders, the operation to secure an escape route began.

The man in the straitjacket shook his head, clutching his forearms. His voice mumbled like a broken cassette on repeat.

“There. There. There. There. There’s something inside me.”

“It exists! It exists!”

[Chii-Fusion. Transport completed to emergency exit 3.]

“There. There. There. There. There’s something inside me.”

“It exists! It exists!”

[CCTV footage confirmed. A swarm of rats is gathered at the entrance.]

[How did you fucking rats know?]

[No problem. What happened to the barricade?]

[Almost everything is installed.]

[Okay. As soon as the barricade is set up, we’ll start the operation. Check the flamethrower again. If the fusion gets out of control and falls back, we’ll fire immediately. We’ll fire without any orders. Understood?]

[Old. Flamethrower without command when out of fusion control. Confirmed.]

“It exists! It exists!”

“I know. I know. I know. I know!”

[Fusion. Abnormal reaction.]

[Damn. Where’s the barricade?]

The test subject, who had been rocking back and forth, began to twist from side to side. The tightly bound restraint garment slowly began to tear.

[It takes 5 minutes, not 10 minutes.]

[Okay. Open the door!]

[Open the emergency exit.]

Beep- beep- beep- beep- beep-

Cheeeeeeek-

As soon as the door opened, rats bigger than my forearm swarmed in.

Sizzle- sizzle-

Tick- squeak- tick-

“Ah- I know- inside me- I know!!”

“It exists! It exists!”

A swarm of hungry rats swarmed the man, swarming him. Flesh was torn off in an instant. Blood spurted out and bones began to appear.

As one rat, having torn open the soft stomach of its prey, sank its teeth into its favorite part, the liver, a black tentacle emerged from it.

Click!

Black tentacles digging into the rat’s eyes.

Sizzle!

The rats were busy enjoying their dinner, not caring about their struggling companions.

Click!

Sizzle!

And then a few more began to squirm and fall down again.

One rat became two, two became thirty in an instant. Only then did the rats suppress their appetite and look around.

What lies ahead is half-eaten prey and scattered comrades.

Take?

Click? Click?

Why did he die?

My dead comrades trembled and then rose again, one by one.

Zurilyric!

Black tentacles protruded from the eyeballs and swung towards the swarm of rats as if looking around.

Chugak-

At the same time that the head of the rat at the very front was pierced, rats and swarms infected with black tentacles began to tangle together.

A half-eaten corpse was caught on CCTV raising itself up in the face of a feast of chaos and carnage.

Churi ri ri ri rik!

Black tentacles stretching out in all directions.

[oh my god.]

[······.]