Rust - Chapter 644

Only Krnovel

RUST -644

French cannibals had a strange taste when cut. American cannibals were hard when they became higher-ranking. A hard, repulsive taste.

But the French cannibals were different. Sticky, tough, and clingy. A slimy sensation like cutting through a swamp ran up Eclipse’s blade.

Squeak-

The anti-government forces felt that sensation particularly strong. It was almost the same as when you cut down a slug-eater. Maybe they looked like normal humans on the outside, but their insides had changed to be like snails.

‘If the western rebels are like this… would it be the same for those who rose up in the south?’

It was highly probable. Maru imagined France overflowing with slug-eaters. Imagined giant snail-eaters writhing all over the city.

‘Damn. Just thinking about it makes me sick.’

Thud thud-

With increasingly sharpened senses, he could sense the cannibal moving across a simple brick wall.

Big-

The decapitated cannibal’s head broke through the wall and seeped into the building next door. That was where the anti-government forces’ command center was located.

‧

As Maru swept away the provisional government army command center, the government army’s attack was halted for a moment. The anti-government army, which was being pushed back moment by moment, barely managed to catch its breath.

“The government forces’ attacks have stopped.”

“The siege?”

“It is as it is.”

“Are you planning on shelling again? Where is the militia formation?”

It’s been a long time since they started forcibly infecting ordinary citizens and using them as soldiers. And that’s not going to last long now.

Now it was time to select men and women without distinction. Old people could be used to control appetite, and children were more efficient as food.

It is already known that eating a whole one improves physical abilities. Since it is easier for young children to eat a whole one, children were the first priority resource to secure.

“There is a shortage of sheep.”

“Isn’t mating enough?”

“Maybe it’s because of the circumstances, but it seems like the baby isn’t listening well.”

“Break through the encirclement, no matter what. We have no choice. We have no choice but to go south and seek refuge.”

Compared to the bustling government military operation control room with over twenty people, the anti-government military operation control room was deserted. There were only seven people, and two of them were messengers, so only five people participated in the operation meeting.

Wearing a tattered military uniform patched up in a haphazard manner and civilian clothes over it, he looked more like a terrorist or a homeless person than a member of the military.

The commander, who had been talking while spreading out a paper map, sniffed around and suddenly knocked on the desk. Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock- Morse code for emergency.

Chojajak- The five people who had been standing in a circle and holding a strategy meeting took out their guns. At the same time, the messenger opened the door and ran out.

Dadadak!

Big!

I hadn’t even run a few steps when I saw the decapitated body of the messenger, as if by some invisible guillotine.

!!!

The headless body, which had been staggering forward a few more steps due to the momentum of the run, fell forward with a thud. Next to the rolling head, drops of blood spurted out as it fell, flowing down into the empty air.

???

“A drop of blood in the air?”

“Over there!”

“Shoot!”

At the shout of one person, five guns opened fire. The rippling space that had been holding the drops of blood began to move.

The loud sound of gunfire filled the wide space, but that was all. In the dark space where there was no electricity, the light from a makeshift lantern and tactical light flickered.

“My nose was blocked by the smell of blood.”

“Was that right?”

“I don’t know.”

“Bbeep! Bbeep! Bbeep!” (Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!)

“quietly!”

As silence descended, the sound of squeak-squeak-was heard from the door riddled with bullets. Only the sound of debris falling. There was no sound of guards rushing to this place as if poking a hornet’s nest.

“······.”

A soft sound broke the silence.

“B-T-T-Eung···.” (Si-Baal···.)

“I told you to shut up, didn’t I?”

“!”

“!!”

The four of them quickly turned their guns after seeing the face of the man who had sworn at them, but the tactical lights on their guns illuminated the trajectory of the blade as it pierced through their comrade’s chest and then rose vertically upward.

Iron Pudeok – A Y-shaped collapse of the upper body from the chest to the head.

“ah!”

“Shoot!”

“Tsk!”

Four people, startled, fired their guns into the air. In an instant, one side of the wall was in tatters.

Ting- titi ding-

A bright yellow brass shell bounced to the floor and sank into the thick, flowing red carpet.

Clank clank-

Clank-

The screams and cutting sounds of the four people formed a single harmony, with the shadows rising silently behind the backs of those who were hastily trying to change their magazines.

‧

The cold weather is below minus 40 degrees Celsius.

The evening darkens into purple.

And the shadows created by the collapsed buildings here and there.

The city, which was large enough for death to dwell in, became increasingly quiet.

When both the provisional government forces and the anti-government forces sensed that something was strange about the city that had fallen silent, it was already too late. The command center had been destroyed, and the scattered troops were melting away without even being able to scream.

[Hermi- fuck-]

The mercenaries nodded their heads involuntarily at Dewey’s swallowed curses. The sight of the historic city of Nantes turning into a giant tomb right before their eyes was terrifying in itself.

[Chiik- Don’t just watch, let the people go.]

Under Dick’s command, the mercenaries opened containers and warehouses containing civilians.

[oh my god.]

[JE···.]

A few people with weak stomachs vomited at the sight of the anti-government forces wrapping up the people.

[Ugh-]

The guys in Montreal were mercenaries, so to speak. Except for Dick and Dewey, most of them were just rookies who had never been in a proper fight.

Those who just happened to have an awakened ability and because that ability was a physical ability, they chose to become a mercenary because they could make a lot of money among the options of being a soldier or a mercenary.

[Get out of my way.]

[If you can’t come in, come out here.]

Dick and Dewey took the lead and sorted out the situation. Everyone in the container was frozen solid, but most of those trapped in the warehouse were alive.

[There is not enough medicine.]

[Damn. What are these guys thinking?]

Even if they were alive, there were too many patients with frostbite.

[What were you thinking? At first glance, it looks like you intentionally set up the statue.]

[So they can’t run away?]

[Or would you have left it like this?]

There were no children or old people. There were only a few men, and most were women. Even among them, it was assumed that they were pregnant.

Even the civilian evacuation area on the provisional government side was the same. Although they weren’t locked in a warehouse, there were clear signs that an entire area had been closed off.

Dick and Dewey felt the hatred they had buried rising again. Their lost family and friends must have been treated this way too.

[But what happens to these?]

[We won’t be able to catch and kill all the cannibals.]

[That’s right. If we let them go like this, they’ll either freeze to death, starve to death, or end up in the stomach of a cannibal···.]

It was realistically impossible to find and kill all the cannibals hiding in every corner. After leaving Nantes, it was obvious that the people they had saved would once again become cannibals’ lunch boxes.

If you were to fill 22 airships with fully armed troops, that would be roughly 500 to 550 people.

If you only put in people, excluding the military, it would be possible to load twice as many. Considering that most of them are women, it would be possible to load up to three times as many.

The mercenaries who thought, ‘I can carry it all with just a few round trips’ changed their stance after 300 tons of gold were discovered in the Nantes gold depository.

Even if only 1% was received as performance bonus, it would be 3 tons. 142.8kg of gold per person. In front of the enormous amount of gold, the story of the survivors disappeared.

======

Choaaaak-

Maru frowned as he roughly washed the blood off with water. It was okay to hear that there was nearly 300 tons of gold in the gold vault in Nantes.

It was because they knew that each country was storing gold in preparation for disaster. They also wiped out the cannibals who had lost their command center and were scattered here and there, in order to make the search easier.

But the mercenaries were out of their minds, and they were blurting out stories about performance bonuses. Maru couldn’t understand that.

‘What on earth did you do to deserve performance bonus?’

If I had to be picky, it would be that he reported that the entire Provisional Government Army command was made up of cannibals and that he helped rescue the survivors. Asking for 1%, or 3 tons, as performance bonus for that was insane by any measure.

Beep-

[The demand for performance-based pay is excessive.]

Maru replied to Gisun’s text.

[No matter what, isn’t that just being unconscionable?]

[That’s the culture of these kids. They were the ones who caused trouble in Montreal too.]

[But still, why are you blatantly telling me to listen to you?]

[I guess that’s because you’re holding the hilt anyway.]

Maru was honestly dumbfounded by Ki-soon’s calm response. Was that how it was supposed to be? Should I say that it was just like those who were filtered out by psychometry?

After seeing the report from the auxiliary AI supporting the mercenaries, Maru became even more dissatisfied.

At first, he seemed to be concerned about the survivors as if he had a concept, but as soon as he got gold, he immediately changed his stance and slept with a woman he was half-asleep with.

Most women say they are pregnant, so what do you mean they sleep with you? The women were the same.

[Even if it’s okay to reveal money, is it okay to do that with a pregnant woman?]

[The situation is the situation, right? And that is private life.]

[······.]

[So what are you planning to do next? Are you planning to bring all the survivors from Nantes?]

To be honest, I just wanted to leave it alone. Most of the survivors were women in their late teens to early twenties, and the gender ratio was completely broken, with more than 10 women for every 1 man.

Even if the sex ratio is like that, the biggest problem is that he is not in his right mind. Since he was rescued in a situation where he could be eaten at any moment, it is safe to assume that he has PTSD.

[All sorts of problems will arise. Above all, it cannot be filtered out by personality.]

You’re asking Erica to do psychometry on a woman with PTSD in her tens of thousands? Is there anything you can do about it?

Maru was not sure whether to take them with him, as he believed that a civil society with good character was the foundation of a prosperous kingdom.

Ki-sun also agreed with Maru’s thoughts.

[Because it can muddy the waters. But it is also true that it is necessary to put out the fire at our feet right now.]

The sex ratio of the Holy Kingdom was the opposite. Unlike the early days of the nation’s founding, there were definitely more men now. In particular, there was a severe shortage of young, unmarried women. This was because over 100,000 returning soldiers had been recruited.

[You want to pair up a pregnant woman with a returning soldier? No matter what, that won’t do.]

[I’m not saying we should force anything. I’m just saying that we need to get the gender ratio right, even if it’s just a rough estimate.]

[···Let’s think about it.]

‧

Dick Herold couldn’t come to his senses.

“Are you telling me to lead a mercenary force and operate in Europe?”

[The scope of activity has expanded from France to Europe. The work is the same.]

The story of selling arms to the forces resisting the cannibals and securing gold. Dick couldn’t say that the mercenaries he had joined were going to receive their performance bonuses and return to the Holy Kingdom to enjoy a happy life. Dick sensed that it wasn’t the right atmosphere, so he held back his words.

“It’s difficult for the seven of us to exert our power.”

[We need to go to the place where 38 people are defending. And we need to recruit mercenaries from among the French provisional government forces and anti-government forces, not cannibals, and increase their size.]

Dick squeezed his eyes shut. It was a story about expanding the size of the mercenary force.

“When will I be able to return to the Holy Kingdom?”

[I’m talking about performance-based pay, so you have to show proper performance.]

‘Fuck.’

It was Dick who swallowed the curse.

It was clear that King Vladimir Kalin was angry, as he had specifically mentioned the achievements. Dick was not stupid enough to show it so openly.

“Yes. Performance. I understand.”

[Then let’s immediately recruit mercenaries and start looking for the scattered ones.]

I decided to find the 38 mercenaries again.

‧

The regular soldiers who were part of the anti-government army wanted to leave and not respond to the mercenary recruitment. Maru did not bother to keep them unless they were cannibals.

The provisional government soldiers were different. They had seen the equipment used by the mercenaries of the Holy Kingdom, but there were rumors that their performance bonuses were paid out of 300 tons of gold.

The mercenary force, which had grown to several hundred units in an instant, moved to find the 38 mercenaries. It was not easy to reach the mansion that was being defended.

If Dick and the mercenaries were to move at a rate of 25 to 30 kilometers per hour, they could only move 25 to 30 kilometers per day, leading regular soldiers and refugees along the way.

It was an inevitable choice, as it was certain that the refugees would die if they were abandoned. Maru used 22 airships to transport the survivors to Montreal.

The journey of moving, carrying, and moving again continued. After five days of traveling, they arrived at the old house where 38 people were said to be defending, but there was no trace of them.