Rust - Chapter 969
Only Krnovel
Rust [RUST] – Episode 969
The Hunters’ Association was teeming with hunters.
“The market is jumping around, just jumping around.”
“They said that after the northern ants reduced their territory, there were more monsters, but then suddenly the supply changed.”
A large monitor on one wall displayed the current market price, while the monitor on the opposite wall displayed things like urgent requests and other things to watch out for.
“Watch out for wasps?”
“They say a giant wasp has appeared.”
It was the appearance of a wasp that was over 20 inches (50 cm) long. With a stinger that was 7 cm long and was said to be able to penetrate armor, it was a species with a fairly high price per animal.
“How do you catch that?”
“The beekeepers who used to keep bees said there was a way to catch them.”
“There’s no way to solve that, right?”
“Would you solve it?”
“Don’t even think about going that way. It’s not just the wasps that are the problem; there are also a lot of mosquitoes in that wetland area.”
“Mosquitoes? Isn’t it obvious that there would be mosquitoes in wetlands and forests?”
“Not only are there mutant mosquitoes, but there are also a ton of ticks.”
“Hey, you can just apply mosquito repellent and you can just wear thick clothes to avoid ticks. What a joke.”
“They say that if you get bitten by either of them, your life is in danger.”
“······.”
“It’s not a check. Watch out for mosquitoes. These guys mutated, but they didn’t grow much in size.”
“Especially the Adidas mosquitoes, they’ll all disappear in one go. You guys figure it out.”
Among the mutated insects, most grew larger, but only mosquitoes and ticks grew that much. They only grew about 1.5 to 2 times larger.
It didn’t feel like a mosquito that was about 1.5cm to 2cm had grown to 3cm to 4cm, but it was even bigger for a tick.
Instead, mosquitoes have mutated to fly faster and their wingbeats have become almost inaudible. The mosquitoes have become more toxic due to the virus they carry, so much so that one bite can be life-threatening.
The sight of mosquitoes swarming the incapacitated victim and sucking his blood was literally terrifying.
This is the same with ticks. They were ticks that dug into flesh with incredible force. Once they got in, they were so firmly embedded that they had to be surgically removed, and the females laid eggs inside the flesh.
“I thought it was spring, but it’s summer right now, and the bugs are fucking crazy. They’re fucking crazy.”
“Mosquitoes, bedbugs, and ticks aren’t worth any money.”
A hunter put his hand on the reception desk with his face still bloodshot.
“Five Type A potions.”
“What kind of potion is this? It’s not even a potion for kids.”
An old man with a bushy white beard took out five pale pink ampoules and placed them on the table as he spoke.
“Type A potion is better than something like Emergency Trauma Treatment Ampoule Type A.”
When I put five gold coins up, the old man shook his head.
“The price has gone up.”
“What?”
“What can we do? Everyone takes it because they can get a lot of it even after paying for it.”
“This is driving me crazy.”
Only after a few more silver coins were handed over did the five ampoules fall into the hunter’s hands.
“There is no case?”
“I’ll give you this as a service.”
“What about the service? They used to give it to you if you bought five.”
“I told you. There are more people looking for it now.”
As the hunter turned around with the ampoule case in hand, the next person immediately took his place.
“Monster bullets. Do you have a new model?”
“Yes, but the price is a bit high. Is that okay?”
“How much does it cost?”
A price appeared on the monitor on the table. An ambiguous price. If it’s expensive, it’s expensive, but if you consider the effect, it’s not an unbearable price.
“You’ve risen.”
“It goes up when more people look for it.”
The man nodded with a slight frown and placed a gold coin on the table.
“Eight boxes. No, ten boxes.”
“Here it is.”
Although there were some people who traded using terminals on their wrists, most traded using coins.
Maru, who entered the association in hiding, checked out the atmosphere. He could definitely confirm the vivid scene.
‘The prices of cures and monster bullets are rising.’
‘Are mosquitoes, bedbugs and ticks the problem?’
‘The pest problem hasn’t been reported yet.’
‘The counter side is unexpected.’
Buying and selling. All done by older people.
‘Where do you dispose of monster corpses and classify them? At the back?’
The sorting work at the back seemed to be done by the elderly and women.
‘Even the elderly and women would be able to hunt sufficiently if they wore exosuits.’
Looking at the age and gender of the hunters, there were almost no elderly or women.
“Did you hear that? They caught a snake with a bounty on it?”
“Where? I told you that snake is really dangerous and that you should avoid it as much as possible.”
“Wasn’t that a snake with special abilities?”
“I thought 9 or 10 people went missing while trying to catch him. How did you catch him?”
“Those fucking idiots. Goodbye.”
“Well, those guys are special.”
“What kind of know-how do you have for catching snakes? It was dangerous from the moment you didn’t bring crows and wolves.”
“If it’s missing, then it’s dead. But you caught that snake? You guys are amazing.”
“What are you catching? It looks like the king has come.”
“The King? Ah- Those bastards won the lottery.”
The hall was abuzz with the hot news.
‘I think I’ve seen it all.’
The moment Maru turned around, his body brushed against that of a hunter who suddenly jumped in.
“Huh? What is it?”
“what?”
“No, I think I brushed past something.”
“Okay. Let’s go catch some owls tonight.”
“Isn’t it dangerous? If you want to catch it, you have to go at night, and you can’t take a crow with you.”
“That’s why it’s expensive.”
The rippling space disappeared outside the Hunters’ Association.
‧
Starting with several strongholds in the north, Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec were all settled in just over a month, the effect of releasing the monster hunt to the civilians.
As soon as the brave ones who rushed in first started to touch money through hunting, the sales of high value-added products began to become active.
As the rumors that hunting just one monster bear would allow one to live comfortably for months turned out to be true, more and more people started to want to become hunters, and as they achieved some success, a cycle of more people wanting to become hunters began.
[There are not as many casualties as I thought.]
“Even though it’s the second generation, the exosuit’s defense isn’t bad. The crows and wolves help too.”
After checking with the crow and wolf first, if it didn’t seem right, they left, so everyone was getting a piece of the action except for the unlucky cases.
[I think it’s right to leave administration to artificial intelligence. Even if the face-to-face work is done by people.]
“Is that so?”
[It is true that phone consultations, text messages, and online consultations should also be done by artificial intelligence.]
Even when I was Governor General of Canada, I was the only one who introduced AI when there was a serious shortage of manpower.
Ki-sun, who had been enduring racial discrimination and insults while saying that keeping a job was important, did he experience any side effects after gaining psychic abilities?
“Why are you suddenly like that? As if you have a hatred for humans or something?”
[Suddenly? You’re not doing this out of the blue, are you?]
Ki-soon laughed bitterly.
[I thought it wasn’t true and wanted to prove it wasn’t true, but as time goes by, I feel like I was wrong.]
Where should we find human value? There are certainly valuable humans, but acknowledging that there are worthless humans is a contradiction in itself.
Who decides the value of a human being? To be able to determine the value of a single person is no different from those who say that we must distinguish between those who live and those who die, those who rule and those who are ruled.
If the value of all humans in the end times were the same, then it would be like Maru’s value and a human who sacrifices his own child to become a cannibal.
Where can you find a story as hypocritical as that?
Ki-soon changed the subject with a self-deprecating smile.
[If you think it’s wrong, shouldn’t you change it? By the way, it’s only been a month since the monster hunt began, but things have settled down quite well. The overall economic figures are also on the rise, and exports have also increased.]
There were clear signs of economic recovery overall, with the exception of a slight increase in the consumer price index.
[The most important thing is the unemployment rate. The situation has improved a lot as the unemployment rate has dropped significantly. With crows and wolves joining the hunt, there have been almost no cases of them attacking other hunters.]
It was the best move under the circumstances.
[Because the demand for special bullets for monsters is so high in Korea and Southeast Asia, the supply of monster byproducts is always insufficient. I wonder if we should consider raising the price of special bullets for export.]
Trade was also going well. In Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and the Empire, the Holy Kingdom’s special bullets for monsters and old multipurpose batteries were selling like hotcakes.
In particular, the Empire continued to order massive quantities of special ammunition in preparation for the Panama Canal conquest. Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia also continued to place large orders as they attempted to reclaim areas controlled by the monsters.
“It seems dangerous to go further north. There are bugs and monsters with awakened abilities starting to appear.”
The further north they went, the harder it was to support the hunters. The plants had not completely mutated, but they were certainly mutating.
Even if it were a plant that had not mutated, it would not have been able to survive the annual temperature range from -70 to -80 degrees Celsius to +40 to +45 degrees Celsius.
As the mutated plants spread, giant herbivorous monsters took hold, and large carnivorous monsters followed them to hunt them. Insects that decompose their traces also proliferated.
Hunters who had borrowed older exosuits were still unable to hunt giant herbivorous monsters, giant bears, or feline monsters.
“Rather than expanding north, it would be better to go west.”
[Where to? To Chicago?]
“That way.”
[Chicago and Milwaukee also suffered earthquake damage.]
There was a kingdom built by a group of traitorous rats in the Chicago underground. Once they were wiped out, the Inquisition rats moved in and left them without a care.
Milwaukee didn’t care after China nuked it. Minneapolis was just a place I stopped by when I went to Seattle for work.
“Chicago, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis aren’t completely ruined. If you build some accommodations and recruit some hunters, they’ll be relatively easy to move around on the lakes and rivers, so they’ll be good hunting grounds.”
It was also close to Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, and unless the airship was going to be sold to the public, it would be nice to be able to travel on water.
[Are you not planning on releasing small airships to the public?]
“That’s difficult. We also escort airships with crow squadrons during the day, but there aren’t enough crows to meet civilian demand.”
[Okay? Then I’ll post an announcement that we’re opening hunting grounds in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis.]
“okay.”
[Ah- and speaking of the Empire. I heard that old man Den signed martial law.]
“Martial law?”
[It seems like when you block one side, the other side opens up. They’re just trying to shake things up politically.]
“Anyway, we won’t intervene. We won’t accept any imperial refugees either, so make sure to let the border know.”
[Okay. If you contact Mr. Den, I will handle it within my line.
“Okay.”
Maru readily agreed to do so when Gi-sun said she would take care of it herself. It was good because as long as she kept to the principle of non-intervention, there was no need to listen to uncomfortable stories.
‧
‧
‧
Hunters who were pushed out of their northern hunting grounds rejoiced at the news of the expansion of the Southwestern hunting grounds. The cities announced as hubs were Chicago, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis.
A daily regular flight was launched to each city, and a lakeside route connecting the floating city was also opened.
As various small conveniences were added, quite a few hunters began to move to the southwestern hunting grounds. As the northern hunting grounds, which had been saturated, became more spacious, various problems disappeared.
The crazy, scorching July passed and August arrived. With temperatures rising from around 40 degrees to 45 degrees, the term “murderous heat” became a fact rather than an idiom.
Once it rained, it poured down, and after the rain, the temperature soared and became sweltering hot. It was a weather that made it hard to breathe when I went outside.
The empire, which initially controlled over 30% of the Panama Canal, was unable to advance beyond 50%. It was virtually in a stalemate due to the counterattacks of the winged ants and the attacks of the army ants.
The Panama Canal conquest, which was expected to be completed within a month, dragged on for over three months, and the empire’s situation was rapidly deteriorating.
At first, criminals with multiple criminal records, including violent criminals, were sent to the penal units. Later, even petty criminals were taken to the Panama front.
Characteristic race. When a certain skin color made up 70-80% of the penal units, protests broke out. The protests turned violent, and martial law began more than a month ago.
While the imperial army, which had been preemptively suppressing ants and spiders, was rebuilding the city destroyed by the earthquake and tsunami and maintaining public order, insects including ants and spiders began to recover in numbers.
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