Rust - Chapter 923



Only Krnovel

RUST [RUST]-923

The rumor that the rebel saint was dead spread like wildfire.

As survivors’ testimonies poured in that the saint had been murdered by demons from government forces, controversy over the massacre of civilians continued.

The government denied in a statement that it had carried out any operation to assassinate rebel leaders and that the killing of civilians was a fabrication by the rebels.

The rebels then claimed that the government forces had lured in the South Korean military, disabled their electronic devices using EMP (Electro-Magnetic Pulse) bombs, and sent the demons.

The photo shown as evidence showed the corpses of civilians piled up one on top of the other. Ki-sun laughed when he saw the photo.

“If you are in the Garden of Death, you won’t even be able to leave a corpse behind, but it will just become fertilizer. What kind of corpse is a corpse?”

“······.”

The bodies in the photos didn’t appear to have any obvious injuries. However, the expressions of pain and distortion were so vivid that they were etched into people’s minds. It was as if they were slowly suffocating to death while still alive.

“Is it suffocation?”

It was a place where the rebel stronghold was located, surrounded by thick volcanic ash and dust.

What if that saint had the ability to allow people to breathe even in volcanic ash and dust? What if there was someone else with the ability to breathe who was swept away along with him?

Even so, it wouldn’t have caused immediate suffocation. All it had to do was run away. Even if you just moved a little bit, the volcanic ash and dust would have decreased significantly.

“You should have worn a mask and moved before you suffocated.”

“Right. That’s right. Oh, and it’s a bit strange.”

Ki-soon turned on the video as if he had found something strange. It was weather data taken from a stratospheric airship. In East Asia and Southeast Asia, when it rained, it rained a lot.

The same was true in the Philippines. The problem was that there were areas where volcanic ash and dust did not disappear even after tropical rains fell.

“If you look here, doesn’t it look similar to the area around Tokyo, Japan?”

The Kisun was definitely similar to the area around Tokyo on Honshu, Japan, and the rebel stronghold in Mindanao, southern Philippines. Although the scale of Japan was much larger, the phenomenon of volcanic ash and dust remaining was definitely similar.

“Because it’s Japan···.”

If you think about it, Japan was strange. Even if there was a lot of volcanic ash and dust, it would be washed away after two or three years of typhoons and winds. But most places are still covered in volcanic ash and dust.

“Even if volcanic ash and dust erupt periodically, it is unusual for it to be this thick.”

It was the same when Kim Yang’s expedition team checked the sinkhole in Tokyo, Japan. Volcanic ash and dust were like thick fog. And is it a coincidence that the same phenomenon also occurs in Mindanao Island in the Philippines?

“I need to check it out.”

“Should I go right now? I heard it’ll be like a riot if you kill it and poke a beehive?”

“That’s why I have to go now. I don’t intend to fight, I just want to look around.”

Anyway, I was planning to scout the area under the cover of the Ripper suit. If there was no death to be caused, I was planning to take advantage of the commotion and just inspect the central area filled with volcanic ash and dust.

What if there were sinkholes in the Philippines? What if sinkholes were something that caused the volcanic ash and dust to not disperse? Maru shook his head as he thought about the monster crouching inside.

“I’m just going to go check if there’s a sinkhole.”

“A sinkhole? Here too? Didn’t you say that the sinkhole was caused by a nuclear attack?”

“The government forces might have dropped the nukes to clear out the rebels. We don’t know the situation here.”

“The nuke, or the altar or its fragments, might have had an effect?”

“So I’m going to go and see for myself. To see if there’s a sinkhole.”

“···okay.”

Maru, dressed in a ripper suit, headed straight to the center of the rebel-controlled area.

‧

‧

‧

Government officers believed that now was their chance to push back the rebels.

“It is certain that the fake saint of the rebels is dead.”

“It’s already been four days since he disappeared from the front lines.”

The rebels’ false saint waged psychological warfare by saying that he would also eliminate government troops if they were under the monkey’s curse.

There were quite a few cases of government troops going over to the rebels due to the propaganda and curse. So seeing that the fake saint who had been so powerful due to the monkey curse was quiet for a few days, it was clear that he was dead.

“Even if he’s dead, the monkey curse still exists in that jungle. What if we start fighting and the curse spreads like it did last time?”

The government troops did not move even after hearing the news that the troublesome saint had been killed. This was because the jungle was cursed by monkeys even though the saint, the spiritual leader of the rebels, was dead.

“General. They say that the Korean soldiers who fled because of the curse survived.”

“What? Is that true?”

“Yes. They say that the clear traces of the curse suddenly disappeared.”

“Send someone over right now to check.”

And rumors began to circulate that the Korean army, which was supposed to have been annihilated by the monkey’s curse, had been revived. The Philippine government confirmed that the rumor was true.

The Korean soldier who should have died from the curse was still alive after 5 days. This happened when Maru dealt with the guy. The curse naturally disappeared when the one who placed the curse died.

The Korean and Philippine government forces did not know the correlation, but one thing was certain: the monkey curse had disappeared.

“If the curse is gone, it is time to wipe out the rebels.”

The front lines, which had been in a standoff due to the monkey’s curse, began to become engulfed in saturation.

“There is no curse. Charge!”

“They are the ones who summoned the devil. Revenge!”

Although the government forces had a slight advantage in firepower, the rebels’ desire for revenge for the assassination of their spiritual leader made up for the lack of firepower.

The front lines began to burn again.

Thud- thud- kookung-

Artillery fire and gunfire echoed through the jungle sky. Taking advantage of the fierce fighting, Maru broke through the rebel-held front line and entered the center filled with volcanic ash and dust.

The scenery had changed drastically. The jungle, which should have been a deep green, had now turned into a jungle made of dark gray concrete.

Crustling rustling-

The sound of thin pieces of concrete breaking with every step I took was drowned out by the distant gunfire.

‘Have you emptied the village?’

After the man died, the rebels had fled, leaving the village empty. The streets were littered with abandoned household items and mannequins.

‘Well, it was strange that people were sitting here in this kind of air.’

Maru’s gaze turned to the mannequin.

‘······.’

It wasn’t a mannequin. It hadn’t been dead for long, but the corpse had turned into a mannequin. The volcanic ash and dust that had settled on the corpse had somehow hardened it.

‘I should take one as a sample when I go back.’

As we passed through the rebel stronghold and into the center, the jungle became more and more bizarre. The bushes that seemed to be made of cement were like avant-garde works of art, or like the scenery of an alien planet from a movie or novel.

What was most unusual was the feel of the surface. Rather than being rough, it was smooth, and seemed moist and tender, as if it were made of fresh intestines rather than volcanic ash and dust.

‘There’s no point in spreading death.’

The mass killings in Korea and the fighting in the Philippines have revealed the weakness of the Garden of Death: it is strong when it can harvest life, but it is difficult to maintain without life.

The stronger life becomes, the stronger death becomes.

Ironically, the more death there is, the more life there is. On the contrary, in a place where life is hard to find like now, the Garden of Death was not something that could be used for long.

Kwajijik- Kwajijik-

The smooth floor cracked like ice with every step I took. How long had I been walking like that?

Maru was able to find a place where several small sinkholes were gathered together. The large one was about 5m in diameter, and the small one was about 2m in diameter. The sinkholes were crowded together, and at first glance, it looked like a cheese with holes in it.

It wasn’t the gigantic sinkhole that Kim Yang had discovered in Tokyo, but it was a sinkhole. Maru raised his head and looked around.

‘This area is particularly thick with volcanic ash and dust.’

The visibility was like that, and so was the sensor range.

‘Is there a monster down here, like in the sinkhole in Tokyo?’

Maru threw a grenade into a sinkhole about 2 meters in diameter at the very edge. Judging from the small sound of the explosion, it seemed like the grenade exploded somewhere incredibly deep.

‘···Hmm. Is it different from the one in Tokyo? The scale and the number of sinkholes are also very different.’

I waited for over 10 minutes, but there was no response from the sinkhole. As Maru was about to turn around, something came up from the 2m deep sinkhole.

‘pangolin?’

The animal was called the Philippine pangolin (Manis culionensis).

‘Is he dead?’

Although it was a bit different from the Japanese monsters that oozed pus and oozing fluid as if they had been burned, it was definitely dead, judging by the cracked shell and the gray-white cement pieces that seemed to replace the places where the shell had peeled off.

Even so, it looked around as if it were alive, then fixed its dead gaze in the direction where Maru was hiding.

At the same time, Maru stabbed the pangolin’s head with his Nuclipse. Crunch – the space was chewed and the pangolin’s head completely disappeared.

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■——–

As the pangolin’s head was erased, air surged from the many sinkholes that had been ripped open. The sound and vibrations reverberated as if it had been transformed into a giant pipe organ.

There was a sound of something crawling up from below. Maru immediately retreated after putting the remaining body of the headless pangolin into a storage container.

‧

‧

‧

Ki-soon was speechless.

“I couldn’t believe it. They say the one who put the curse on was pretending to be a saint and lifting the curse.”

“okay?”

“Wow. Did you know? They say that the curse on the Korean soldiers a few days ago was lifted because the rebel saint who was supposed to lift the curse disappeared. Isn’t he really a good person? He put a curse on them to make them fear the most, and then he lifted it and doubled their faith.”

“Isn’t that what you were asking to do?”

Maru, who had come back after checking the sinkhole, spoke dryly, as if he was more concerned about that. Ki-sun’s eyes narrowed at Maru’s answer.

“It’s different. How is it the same?”

“Okay. Let’s say it’s different.”

Ki-soon nodded at Maru’s reaction.

“Did you check the sinkhole? While you were in the rebel-occupied area, did you clean up the rebels?”

“No. I just came to check the sinkhole.”

“There was a sinkhole.”

“There were monsters too.”

“What? That undead monster was here too?”

“It wasn’t a person, it was something like a pangolin(?). It was similar.”

Maru said as he took out the samples from the preservation container. One sample was a pangolin with its head missing, and the other was a corpse that had been transformed into a cement statue? A mannequin.

Kisun picked up a preservation container containing a small(?) pangolin with only its body remaining. The scar from its head being torn off was clearly visible.

“I can’t really see any blood stains on the cross-section.”

While looking around the barrel, a pangolin suddenly made a whooshing sound and lunged at Ki-sun’s head with its limbs spread out.

puck-

The headless torso of a pangolin slammed into the transparent container wall.

Thud- thud- thud-

A series of repeated movements.

“Eww- Ah. Shit, I almost fell over. Can this thing move without a head? Isn’t it supposed to be unable to move without a head?”

“···Put that down.”

Cheeeeeeek-

The impact was so strong that the flesh and scabs from the severed neck were slowly melting the container.

‧

‧

‧

The sample was sent directly to Na Ju-yeon.

[Only pangolins have changes in their blood and cell tissue. Humanoid monsters haven’t gotten that far yet.]

“Not yet? Does that mean it’s changing?”

[It is difficult to say for sure whether it is changing like a pangolin because there are not enough samples. However, compared to the existing samples, there is definitely a change.]

“Are you sure that monsters are weak to salt?”

[Yes. It’s not just refined salt, it’s salt extracted from the sea. And the salt that was made using sunlight and sea breeze was effective.]

It was said that sea salt made with sunlight and sea breeze was effective.