Rust - Chapter 754



Only Krnovel

RUST -754

Fooddd-

The sound of the dark blue wings disappeared in an instant. It was a strange phenomenon even though I was watching it right next to me. Maru looked at the crow that had flown up without a sound.

A crow glides as if it were an owl or an owl gliding, and lands quietly on the CCTV. The crow tilts its head from side to side to check its position.

After deciding where to stick it, I brought the small device I was holding to the side of the CCTV. With a click, the semicircular device was attached to the CCTV.

After a while, a CCTV screen appeared on Maru’s HUD (head-up display).

[CCTV access granted. Connected to the situation room management server.]

“You see the detective’s face in the CCTV footage from the Dongtan beauty salon? Find him.”

[Connection restriction is lifted to secure computational power.]

The Ripper suit’s auxiliary AI connects with Kim Yang’s Black Drake, sharing computing power with the entire expedition airship and taking control of the CCTV in the Dongtan area.

[—Location confirmation. Currently driving on Dongtan-daero. Vehicle type is Megira. Vehicle number is 485gu3638.]

[There is one passenger in this vehicle. Would you like to check the identity?]

“No. Can you tell where it’s going?”

[Currently unknown. We will soon be entering an intersection, so once the direction is determined, we can calculate the probability.]

The auxiliary AI calculated the probability of whether or not you had entered an intersection.

[The vehicle is entering Dongtan Cheonggye-ro from Dongtan-daero. There is a high probability that it is currently moving toward the expedition team’s base.]

‘Did you use the detective as bait?’

“Is there anything unusual around the vehicle? Is there a tailing vehicle or something?”

[There is no unusual movement on nearby CCTV. It appears to be moving alone.]

“···Contact Ms. Kim and tell her to capture him if he approaches the vehicle.”

[Delivered.]

I came to catch the detective, but the target was heading towards the expedition base.

‘Did I take a wasted step?’

Tsk-

Since I had already come to Dongtan, I felt it was a shame to just go back.

‘Since I’m here, I should see it with my own eyes.’

Maru’s plan was to secure Chuncheon and Wonju, then send immigrants to Chuncheon and Wonju and from there to the Shinsung Kingdom.

But when I actually got in, the situation was a mess. Not only were most of the women of childbearing age pregnant or planning to become pregnant, but it had become a surveillance society that rivaled the No. 5 system.

The plan to secretly gather immigrants and send them to Chuncheon and Wonju became difficult. Above all, since the benefits were being given to pregnant women, there was no reason for women of childbearing age to move to the Holy Kingdom.

If you get pregnant, you get a house, a basic income, and a 50% to 80% discount. There is no reason to go to the Holy Kingdom.

Even if information about cannibals is controlled, anyone with a sense of humor would realize that there is something strange about the current system of mass pregnancy inducement.

[It has been confirmed that the SNS accounts of those who questioned the current situation have been blocked or deleted.]

Monitoring, which was supposed to prevent sexual crimes and crimes that go unnoticed, was now censoring the lives and thoughts of ordinary citizens.

Maru shook his head at the irony.

A country where digital currency issued by the central bank controls transactions, neighbors spy on each other, and all social activity is censored.

Could we recruit and bring immigrants here?

‘First, let’s find the cannibals in this neighborhood.’

Now that we have control of the CCTV, we can start tracking the cannibal by going to an empty store and starting from there.

‘If you’re the cannibal in charge of Dongtan, you must know a lot.’

“Analyze the CCTV footage to see if there is a place where cannibals gather.”

[Video analysis begins.]

If we catch the detective, we’ll be able to find it faster.

While waiting for the calculation results to come out, Maru infiltrated the empty store.

Suddenly I looked across the street.

It seemed like a famous cafe, with the seats filled with young women.

The face, which was hard to believe was the end, was overflowing with an Instagram-like atmosphere.

‧

‧

‧

The guards captured and killed the scattered cannibals.

Caw!

As the crow fled, the cannibal pecked out his eyeball and fell out.

The bodyguard who had been in hot pursuit put both hands on his eyes and blew off the head of the struggling cannibal, shouting, ‘Ugh, ugh – my eyes. My eyes.’

puck-

Unable to shake off the crows that watched and tracked them from the sky, the scattered cannibals literally fell prey.

Kim Yang frowned at the image that appeared on the HUD.

[No. Why is everyone like that?]

[······.]

[······.]

[Everyone suddenly became a hair enthusiast?]

[······.]

[······.]

[After seeing me shoot someone in the head, does everyone else want to shoot someone in the head?]

At first, when we were surrounded, we were desperate to hold out, so we went all out, but now that all the hardships are over, isn’t it time to chase down and wipe out the guys who ran away?

[If it’s hard to capture it alive, it’s okay to kill it. If not, at least leave its head. Don’t you think so?]

Don’t you really think that you should keep your head still, at least for the sake of extracting fresh information?

Do you really have to say it out loud? Can’t you just figure it out?

The order Maru sent was delivered to Kim Yang, who was about to give a long speech.

[An order has been given to capture the detective.]

[Detective? What detective?]

CCTV footage appeared on her HUD. She zoomed in on the footage and saw that it was the detective who had come to the Dongtan hair salon.

[How am I supposed to catch that? Do you know where it is now?]

The screen was added. The detective in the Megira car was coming towards the base. So he was coming here on his own feet.

‘Ah- the highest dignity and the length of the road have crossed.’

After understanding the situation, Ms. Kim immediately checked the nearby map.

If the detective coming now isn’t an idiot, he’ll try to identify the base from a little further away.

‘You’re going to try looking through a telescope, right?’

If so, then it means that at least a large number of exosuits will be revealed to be killing and slaughtering 20,000 to 30,000 pigeons.

Then, enemies will swarm this way, and since there is a floor, you can solve the problem here and there, but it will be tiring all the same.

I didn’t like that.

‘It’s best to prevent them from coming here in the first place.’

Ms. Kim decided to block the detective’s path.

‘The kids nearby···.’

Her eyes quickly scanned the status board that appeared on the HUD.

[Alpha Team, Bravo Team, currently at the indicated location. The target is a detective. The target is moving towards the base in the car shown in the video. We must capture them alive, so proceed with caution during the operation.]

[Okay, move alpha.]

[Yes. To the Bravo Operation location.]

Huh-

Should I go too?

It’s a hassle to go from here.

Should I go anyway?

There were no more cannibals running away. If there were any cannibals still alive, they would have dug a hole in the ground and hidden there.

‘I brought a psychometer. I’ll be able to find the hidden guy right away.’

Kim Yang called Erica and asked her to search for the hidden cannibal. However, contrary to her expectations, Erica turned pale and shook her head.

“That… The residual thoughts are too strong, so I can’t find it.”

[Residual thoughts? If the residual thoughts are strong, isn’t it easy to find?]

“That’s not it. It’s all around here. The residual thoughts are so strong that other memories have been erased.”

Shock and horror.

The will to live was flowing out.

And then the despair of inevitability and certain death.

The face of Erica, a psychometric power user, became increasingly haggard.

“I. I. I can’t stay here any longer.”

20,000 to 30,000 pigeons died, and the residual thoughts they let out as they died. The last wishes of the cannibals, who had mental powers stronger than those of ordinary people, spread like poison just before they died.

Erica returned to the airship with unsteady steps as she boarded the lander.

Kim Yang nodded at the judgment of the Supreme Dignity. Didn’t the detective know that the psychometry would show an error and tried to catch him?

As expected, Baekjeong.

He’s an expert at catching things.

Huh-

Then wouldn’t Black Horse be good too?

‘The black horse is the best at sniffing out cannibals.’

It was Kim Yang who came to mind, a black horse foal leading a group of females and going ‘hehehe’ happily. Come to think of it, there was a fuss about that Mark 2.

‘Are they looking for cannibals in Canada now?’

When I think of a black horse running happily through the vast expanse of Canada…

Huh-

Running around?

If a black horse runs around Dongtan-daero, it will be posted on SNS right away. It will attract the keen attention of the police and citizens, not the people who are looking for cannibals.

As expected, the highest dignity.

There was a reason I didn’t call the black horse that was galloping across Canada.

huh.

Kujik- Kim Yang, who had trampled the remains of the pigeon, walked slowly.

‧

Lee Moon-sik, who was holding the steering wheel, turned the air conditioner button to the maximum.

“Detective Han. Is this what we’re doing?”

Not only was communication cut off with a special force comprised of superhumans, but sending only two detectives to the scene of a flock of 150,000 pigeons collapsing? Even if one detective was a veteran and capable person, it was crazy.

“If we want to find traces or track them, we have to go inside, but how can we get in? We’re just going to make a show of it and leave. This is it.”

“If they tell you to do something, you have to do it. What power do we have? You might have to throw your mother in the stone. I hear all sorts of things happen these days. Be careful what you say.”

There was a rumor these days. It was said that if an elderly person goes to the hospital, they will lose all their savings in hospital bills in about a year.

The current situation itself was strange. The government, the National Assembly, and the Martial Law Command were working as one body to create a controlled state.

The reason why the rumors that the elderly were being sorted out were not just rumors was because the many elderly people who used to be there began to gradually disappear.

seoul.

In a city of over 9 million people, the elderly population was approaching 2 million.

So, past tense.

At some point, it became difficult to find elderly people in Seoul, and now, two years after the war between the United States and China broke out, it is difficult to find elderly people in the metropolitan area.

A fleeting scene along Dongtan-daero. A long line was forming at a famous restaurant even though the temperature was over 40 degrees, and a ‘For Rent’ sign was hanging right next to it.

As it was getting close to lunchtime, there should have been a lot of people out for lunch, but wherever I looked, there were only women and it was hard to find any men.

Despite this, the government announces that the population is still at 40 million. There are broadcasts mixed with hope that the elderly population will be able to rise again even though the mutant virus outbreak has significantly reduced it.

Who. What. How is it that we can get back on our feet and revitalize the economy? It’s already been two years since crimes that only psychopaths would commit started to break out here and there.

A large-scale conscription has begun again in an attempt to reduce the soaring crime rate. Even as a detective who is always on the scene, I can’t help but feel that something is strange.

“Can’t you even speak?”

“Be careful. I don’t care, but don’t get caught. You’ll be taken to the military.”

“Isn’t that crazy? You have a decent job as a detective, but you’re in the military.”

“Since the military police are insufficient, they might arrest him if he is a detective.”

“Oh, please don’t even joke about that. I’m in my thirties now. Thirty.”

“They said that the law was changed so that anyone up to the age of 39 can be drafted as long as they meet the conditions.”

The detective, who was turning the air conditioner vent with one hand, made a half-screaming sound.

“Ah- why is the air conditioner like this? It’s really hard to turn on an air conditioner like this in the scorching sun during the day when the temperature is over 40 degrees.”

“······.”

A detective silently checked the map that appeared on his tablet PC. The satellite GPS was out of service, but there were repeaters aplenty on the rooftops of buildings in the metropolitan area.

Even with all those repeaters, cell phones had a hard time, but location information and text messages were somehow available, so there was no problem with map services running.

“Detective Han, the road is blocked due to construction?”

A detective glanced up to check the front and checked the tablet again. There was no sign of construction on the map.

“Looks like this update is late again.”

“There are more than one or two places that are seriously short on manpower, so conscription? Seriously.”

Han Tae-sik spoke as if trying to appease Lee Moon-sik, who was exploding with anger.

“If you turn right, there’s a road that goes around, so go that way.”

“Are you sure there’s a road over there?”

A detective waves a tablet PC with a map floating above it instead of answering.

“Then I’ll go.”

And on the road they entered, there was another no-entry sign.

“Detective Han. You said there was a way?”

“······.”

A soft engine noise echoed from behind the building materials piled haphazardly here and there on both sides of the road.

OMG-

The new exosuit revealed itself and surrounded the stopped car in an instant.

[Freeze!] (Don’t move!)