Rust - Chapter 858



Only Krnovel

RUST -858

When I came face to face with Maru in the hallway, I had two choices: fight or run away.

“Run away!”

“?”

“!”

If they were humans, they would have been wiped out without being able to detect the hidden Maru, but there was one guy who had a particularly good intuition, so Maru was tired from having to calm down his sudden surge of murderous intent while trying to catch them.

Buzz-

A knife was stuck in the spine of the cannibal who was running away quickly. The one who shouted for them to run away and ran away first had a knife stuck in the spine, and the momentum of the ones who were about to fight died.

“What!”

“where are you?”

Certainly, even if the researchers had become cannibals, their fighting prowess was weak. They might have imitated predators in front of ordinary people, but they couldn’t even properly show their teeth in front of a truly dangerous Maru.

“Stealth suit?”

“Let’s shoot them all at once.”

They pulled the trigger towards the space where they couldn’t see anything, but Maru was already beside them.

???

!!!

An eerie sensation.

The moment I turned the gun aimed straight at him, feeling the sensation that I could feel because I had become a cannibal, my forearm holding the pistol fell to the ground.

Ugh-

The knife, which had cleanly sliced ​​through one of the cannibals, disappeared into thin air and sliced ​​vertically into the one next to it.

The remaining cannibals panicked at the sight of them being cut vertically left and right with a chainsaw in a slaughterhouse.

Doo doo doo doo doo doo-

Pavabababak-

Bullets shooting in all directions.

Bam-

Maru, who pushed in using the vertically chopped half as a shield, simply focused on breathing.

Hehehehehe

Hehehehehe

Haaaahhhhh

The loud gunshots suddenly stopped and the acrid smell of gunpowder lingered in the hallway. In that silence, there was a sound that stood out.

Kkeu- Kkeu-

Jjiiik- jeeeeik-

A grating, dragging sound following a groan.

At first, the sound of a cannibal with a knife stuck in his spine desperately crawling continued, then gradually stopped. When the gunshots stopped, he stopped crawling and looked back.

“······.”

Kujik – A corpse being trampled. A head floating up and being placed in a container. And a rippling space approaching us without a care.

The cannibal, who was urinating like a dog in front of a dog meat peddler, wanted to say something.

I want to live. I want to be saved. How can I live? I surrender. Yes. He stammered, his mind blank. What on earth do you want? Why are you doing this?

[What a funny kid.]

“······.”

Kujik-

‧

‧

‧

Those who stood before the blade of the floor would sometimes scream as the end drew near, ‘I did it to survive. Is it a sin to become a cannibal to survive?’

Occasionally, some would shout at Maru, saying, “Don’t you kill just like them?”, “Don’t you kill just like them to survive?”, and that Maru was just like them.

And some of them, terrified, wondered just as before. With such great power, why would they use it to kill them? What do they want?

‘Funny kids.’

It would be better if they were begging to be spared, those bastards were the ones who rationalized themselves while dying.

Why do you catch cannibals? Because you have experienced that you cannot coexist with cannibals. What did the cannibals do after eating the suppressant that Najuyeon made?

Taking a suppressant meant that one would suppress one’s cannibalistic instincts and live, in other words, that one would not eat humans.

For a cannibal who grows stronger the more he eats humans, not eating humans was like the idea of ​​a vegetarian vampire appearing.

A cannibal with weak dominance was dominated by a cannibal with strong dominance. In other words, living by eating suppressants meant choosing a life where you could fall under the control of another cannibal at any time.

Just as humans live in fear of becoming food for cannibals, cannibals also live in fear of becoming subordinates to other cannibals.

If there were cannibals who would endure that anxiety, if there were vampires who would exercise moderation in order to coexist with humans, Maru would have seriously considered coexistence, but there were no such cannibals. There were no vampires.

Why do we burn cigarettes when we know they are harmful to our health?

This was because it had a psychological effect of relieving stress and frustration.

So let’s say there is a food that makes you gradually stronger and more dominant if you just eat it. Why wouldn’t cannibals eat it?

After all, they are a new species that has transcended the humans that are currently roaming around. What’s wrong with receiving tribute in return for protecting them from mutated monsters and maintaining public order?

‘That’s because they’re not the kind of people who end up with tribute.’

It was a story that could only come out under the assumption that people lived off of minimal cannibalism. Isn’t it just a matter of throwing a death row inmate to a cannibal or handing over a vicious criminal?

Those who said that all became cannibals themselves. What will happen when the number of cannibals increases? After all the heinous criminals are eaten, it will be the turn of the petty criminals. Then what will happen after all the petty criminals are eaten?

There was also the variable of time. What would happen if the cannibal had been eating humans for a long time? The longer the cannibal had been eating humans, the stronger it became.

When a cannibal becomes stronger, what does that stronger cannibal want? Just as a rich person wants to become richer, a strong cannibal wants to become a stronger cannibal.

A vampire is stronger than a cannibal. A being capable of cannibalism more efficiently than a cannibal. It will try to become a being that only needs to eat blood, not flesh.

Will their desires end with them becoming vampires?

‘That can’t be true.’

As human desires are endless, it was perhaps natural that cannibals and vampires, the embodiment of such desires, were greedy.

Maru was able to confirm their greed on several occasions. And their greed always threatened Maru and his party.

So, if survival and safety were to be prioritized, cannibals and vampires were beings that had to be eradicated.

‘But why are you doing that?’

Maru placed the severed heads of cannibals in a container for preservation. There were enough of them to roll around the brain-drumming bio-terminal.

‘Na Ju-yeon would like it.’

Just as it is better to use the same performance and specifications when writing memory, it is also better to use bio-terminals with similar performance when making a bunch of grapes by gathering bio-terminals.

Phew

Phew

Haaaah

Maru, who had been regulating his breathing as if it were a habit, headed towards the next area displayed on the HUD. The hanging containers disappeared into thin air.

And then, as if chasing the missing space, the Syracuse defenders pushed into the building.

“Clear!”

“Clear!”

“Here it is. There’s a body over here!”

“Get your four pillars of destiny right!”

“What about the life response?”

Beep- beep- beep- the sound of the green waveform passing by was gentle.

“doesn’t exist.”

“There is nothing wrong with the motion detector either.”

“Damn. I’m late again.”

The platoon leader exploded with anger.

“What on earth is doing something like this?”

Limbs strewn about the hallway. Corpses with severed arms were common, and there were also some that were split left and right. And what all the corpses had in common was that they were headless.

“Why did you take my head?”

“Could it be loot?”

“You took it as a trophy?”

“Yes. Don’t you sometimes get guys like that?”

“That’s not just one or two, the reason you took all the heads of more than ten corpses is as trophies?”

“······.”

“······.”

Just like a little while ago, this time too, the criminal persistently took off the head.

Why on earth?

The forensic team, which had put blood in the diagnostic kit, nodded.

“It’s a cannibal.”

“What a headache.”

This was one of the research institutes under the Syracuse Hospital. The research was top secret, and even though it was a very secure institute, a headhunter came in and swept it all away.

‘You’re literally a headhunter.’

If they had killed ordinary people like this, there would have been chaos, but it was also strange that they only targeted cannibals and killed them.

‘Is he really the King of the Holy Kingdom as rumored?’

Why would the king go around hunting cannibals when he has nothing left to do? If he wanted to hunt cannibals, he could go to the Confederacy and do it. There was no reason to kill cannibals in the Empire.

“Take care of all the bodies.”

“Sir, this is East Side.”

“They say he showed up on the East Side.”

“3rd platoon, go here and clean up the scene. The rest will leave immediately.”

“ancient.”

As they opened the thick, tightly shut fire door at the end of the long hallway, a fierce snowstorm greeted them.

Woohoo-

The National Guard, riding on military snowmobiles, hurried along the road.

“Run at top speed.”

This is the Empire. Even if you catch a cannibal, it has to be caught by the Imperial Army.

‘It’s raw.’

The lieutenant recalled the battalion commander’s order to capture the cannibal.

I had many doubts, but I was a soldier. Following orders was the right thing to do. Especially in a real-life situation like this.

“Securing the cannibals is our top priority.”

“Are you talking about securing cannibals?”

“Yes. Capture the cannibal.”

“And. If you encounter a headhunter, fire a warning shot.”

“If you ignore the warning, you will be punished according to the rules.”

“Don’t forget, this is the Empire. This is the Imperial city. No matter what happens to the cannibals, it’s our job as the Imperial Army to do it. Does everyone understand?”

“ancient!”

The captain desperately hoped that the headhunter wasn’t the King of the Holy Kingdom. He wanted to get promoted, not become the center of diplomatic friction.

‘Headhunter.’

Come to think of it, one of the old nicknames of Vladimir Kalin, the King of the Holy Kingdom, was Headhunter.

Please no.

‧

‧

‧

[Imperial troops are heading that way.]

Since the assistant AI that was with Maru was analyzing an error, Ms. Kim informed us of the situation.

[What time will you arrive?]

[About 15 minutes. A snowmobile used by the Imperial Army. It seems to have decent performance.]

The pharmaceutical company building that Maru was targeting was brightly lit. The fact that the lights were on even though the power was off meant that they were well prepared to deal with this situation.

Even though the snow had piled up to 6 meters, the area around the building had been completely cleared, leaving all the doors and windows exposed.

Seeing the CCTV that operates properly even in temperatures below -60 degrees Celsius and the robot that automatically clears snow even in a blizzard, it seemed like a cutting-edge pharmaceutical company.

Click! (This is it.)

Squeak! (The search party that entered is not coming out.)

There were only two places the search rats did not return from.

‘This seems to be the biggest base.’

It seemed difficult to clear this place in 15 minutes. If the rat search party had checked the internal structure and had information on where the bastards were, then that would be an issue, but considering they would have to go in there alive and search, 15 minutes was not enough.

If we don’t get things done in time, we’ll run into the Imperial Defense Forces. If the Imperial Forces are coming this way, shouldn’t we go somewhere else?

[What about the other side? Are the Imperial troops moving in that direction too?]

[Yeah. The imperial army is going to the other side too.]

A wrinkle formed between Maru’s eyebrows.

[Aside from big places, what about small places?]

[The strange location confirmed by the rat pack appears to be where the Imperial Army is heading.]

Maru’s intuition was ticklish.

It wasn’t a sense of crisis, but rather a feeling of discomfort.

A different kind of uneasiness than when life is in danger.

[Bring back the rats.]

[Is that okay?]

The request to bring back the rat pack meant that death would be used if necessary.

[For now. I’m just trying to watch.]

[Okay.]

Maru decided to watch from outside instead of going into the pharmaceutical company. He had packed plenty of cannibal heads, so there was no need to move in a hurry.

The original goal was to catch cannibals and werewolves, kill them, and catch their tails. Now that the goal has been achieved, is there really a need to go out of your way to kill them directly?

‘And then you’ll know when you check.’

How would the Imperial Army, which had been chasing after him, react? Maru entered a building a little distance from the pharmaceutical company.

‘Should I go to a pharmaceutical company or come this way?’

Booooooooo-

A special vehicle runs roughshod over the snow. The snowmobile, which came running while creating a small snowstorm, stopped at the main gate of the pharmaceutical company.

Soldiers pouring down. More than half of them were armed with exosuits, and even those not equipped with exosuits were well-armed.

There seemed to be a brief scuffle at the firmly closed main gate, but then the door opened. The exosuit soldiers went in first, followed by the regular soldiers.

Kuung-

As soon as both squads entered, the main gate automatically closed.

‘It wasn’t the empire or the cannibals who made the detector.’

I thought they had created some kind of special tracker or detector because they followed so quickly, but that wasn’t the case. Judging from the scuffle at the entrance, it didn’t seem like the Imperial Army and the cannibals were even talking to each other.

But as time passed, there was no response from the pharmaceutical company.

‘If you go in, shouldn’t there be some kind of reaction?’

[How about elsewhere? How are the Imperial Army doing?]

[They’re fighting. They fought better than expected, so I think they’ve won some. There are also places that are requesting support.]

But the pharmaceutical company in front was so quiet.

‘Soundproofing?’

Maru’s intuition gave a small yes.

[I’m going in. If communication is cut off, please control the surrounding area.]

The loss of communication meant that death had been used.

[Okay.]

Bam.

Maru, who had blown up the CCTV, went inside by cutting out the window.

Hook – The scent of a wafting beast.

The hallway was filled with a thick smell of iron, along with the reek of werewolf slaughter.