Rust - Chapter 986



Only Krnovel

Rust [RUST] – Episode 986

As the hunter economy began to turn, people began to come into contact with death more often.

Most of the animals they hunt are mutated, and if they haven’t grown in size, they’ve gained some kind of ability.

He had grown bigger, stronger, and smarter. That meant that traps like Olmu were almost impossible to deal with.

Even if the trap was successful once, it was not caught in the vicinity again, and some monsters even released the trap and escaped.

Ultimately, there was no choice but to fight and catch them directly rather than using traps, and this always meant risking one’s life.

“By the way, isn’t it strange? The cat and the dog are gone.”

“They said they left on their own because they thought it might cause a mutation.”

If there had been a dog, it would have been easier to track them down, but it was hard to see the dog. The same was true for the cat.

“Hey, it’s just a rumor.”

“Didn’t you say that in the early stages of the mutant virus outbreak, there were a lot of people who secretly killed dogs and cats?”

As the news spread that the mutated virus could be transmitted to animals and that infected animals could then transmit it to humans, many people have reported abandoning their pets. In foreign countries, there have even been news reports of people throwing their pets from high-rise apartments.

“No way. We’re family. Would you hurt your family?”

“If a pet poses a danger to the family, it may be abandoned.”

Just as some people may think of dogs and cats as friends, but not family, the people who call them family start arguing.

“Not a pet, but a companion animal.”

“You crazy kid. The word companion is used for people. It’s not used for dogs or cats.”

“You’re being a jerk. You’re being a jerk. Are dogs and cats the only animals?”

“I want to raise crows or rats in our kingdom these days. They also understand what I say.”

“Oh my. They’ll raise you.”

“That’s right. He’s really smart and good at his job.”

Because the temperature was so cold, reaching minus 60 to minus 70 degrees Celsius, it was impossible to hire a crow mercenary to do reconnaissance. The same goes for rats.

“Ugh- It’s cold. Hey- Let’s use our abilities a lot. They’ll grow if we use them.”

“And then when the sun goes down, we freeze to death?”

They were the ones who grumbled at those who had the ability to control the flow of air. It was because of their ability that they could go hunting even in the bitter cold.

It has the ability to maintain body temperature like a buff, or it has the ability to block cold air and maintain warm air like it does now.

“Stop talking and get ready.”

“yeah-”

“Old story-”

Hunters unloading their exosuits from the sled and equipping them.

“Take a spare battery. And a net.”

“I packed everything.”

“You know, whatever it is, they’re not easy guys, right?”

“Where are the beginners here?”

“It’s telling me not to relax.”

“yep-”

The diameter of the oyster is approximately 2 to 2.3 meters. It is almost the limit of the size that an exosuit can be used for.

[What’s it like inside?]

[It’s quite deep. I went in up to 40m, but is there more?]

If you look at the drones operating normally, there weren’t thousands of them.

[Is it a rabbit hole?]

[Did you catch a rabbit nearby?]

[Yes, it was quite substantial.]

[Did you guys sweep it all away?]

[If it was all swept away, why would there be a cave here?]

[Rabbits have high reproductive capacity, so they multiply quickly.]

There was a high probability that it was a rabbit hole.

[Put the drone deeper. Find another entrance.]

[yes.]

If the rabbits had gotten smarter, they would have made several escape routes. It would have been better to find them in advance.

[Found it here.]

[There is an entrance on this side too.]

There were rabbit tracks and burrows dug through the accumulated snow and ice.

[Team 1 enters. Teams 2 and 3 wait at their respective entrances.]

As the hunters armed with exosuits entered the rabbit hole, the rabbits inside fled towards the escape route. A group of about 20 rabbits split into two and ran towards the escape route.

Teams 2 and 3, who had been waiting, pulled their triggers at the rabbits jumping out of their holes. The coil guns using gunpowder and electricity emitted fire with a thumping sound.

Puck- puff puck-

[crazy-]

[These kids-]

Rabbits the size of urban electric cars ignored the bullets piercing their bodies and rammed their bodies. The exosuits rolled around as if they had been hit by cars.

[Billy!]

[Shoot the leg!]

[Bridge. Bridge!]

The rabbit that was running while the space shook slipped. The rabbit that was running away was shaken by the power of psychic power. The slipping rabbit tried to get up in a hurry, but it was unable to escape because the power of psychic power disturbed its balance.

Hurrrurruk-

Another rabbit’s eyes lit up with flames. A hail of bullets rained down on the rabbit, who stopped dead in its tracks as flames shot up in front of his nose.

Various abilities were displayed, such as the eyes becoming smooth like ice, or the ground exploding with electricity as if an electric shock device was buried in it.

However, of the 20 rabbits that escaped from the hole, only about half were caught. There were three injured.

[Shouldn’t this be something you should watch?]

[7.62mm seems a bit cumbersome.]

Until last year, I could easily catch rabbits, raccoons, and foxes. But now, it wasn’t easy. If I hadn’t awakened my ability, I wouldn’t have been able to catch even three or four, let alone fifteen.

[Yes. Whether you use more than twenty rounds of 7.62mm or five or six rounds of 12.7mm, the bullet cost will be similar.]

[Let’s try changing it to 12.7mm next time.]

If the bullets had been fired properly, they would have all been caught. It was a pity that the party lost almost half of the 20 that were caught.

And then something suddenly surrounded them.

Krrrrrr-

Growl-

[wolf?]

[No, it’s small.]

[It’s a wild dog.]

[A wild dog?]

Dogs that had never been seen before had turned into wild dogs and were surrounding them.

[Throw two rabbits far away.]

[A C-]

As rabbits were thrown to the left and right, the dogs scattered left and right. The hunters started running while equipped with exosuits.

[Damn. A stray dog ​​all of a sudden.]

[Request emergency assistance from the association.]

[I can hear the insurance premiums rising.]

[Who was that kid that was talking about companionship earlier?]

The faces of the hunters who had been running around giggling became hardened. It was because of the pack of wild dogs blocking the path they had come from.

Krrrrrr-

Grrrrrrrr-

[It looks like these kids have no intention of letting us go.]

I thought the two rabbits were the bait, but they were not. They were just tricking the dogs into thinking they had fallen for the bait.

Kwaaaaang-

Tudadadada-

The howls of beasts and the sounds of gunfire dyed the pure white forest red.

‧

‧

‧

[It is said that a pack of wild dogs attacked the hunters.]

[It is said that the number is as small as thirty and as large as over a hundred.]

Maru frowned at the report from the artificial intelligence Diana.

“A wild dog? There aren’t any dogs around Ottawa.”

It wasn’t just Ottawa. There were no dogs in the big city and its surroundings. It was hard to see cats, let alone dogs, and then suddenly there was a pack of wild dogs.

[The Hunter’s Association estimates that they came south from the northern forest.]

“You came down from the north?”

[Yes. It is reported that dogs that were in the vicinity of the city went up to the northern forest immediately after the incident and then moved south in a pack four years later.]

“······.”

Did people abandon their dogs in the distant forest? Did the surviving dogs come down as wild dogs? Let’s leave the dogs aside, but what happened to the cats?

Could it be that the rodents that were supposed to be eaten as food mutated and suffered the reverse? That couldn’t be the case. If you look at the cats in the Japanese hospital, the mutated cats also hunted in packs.

‘That means the cat pack is still in the forest.’

The reason the wild dogs moved south was most likely because there was less prey. As the pack grew larger, they needed more prey.

The pack of wild dogs, which had steadily increased in number over the years, had only a limited number of prey to hunt. They could not hunt a giant bear that had mutated, nor did they always succeed in hunting a moose or buffalo the size of a single-family home.

Even if a pack of a hundred wild dogs were hunting buffalo or moose, at least twenty or thirty would have been killed at a time. Unless the situation was really difficult, they would have shifted to targeting animals of similar size or smaller.

‘If rabbits, raccoons, and rodents were relatively easy prey to hunt, then wild dogs would likely come down south.’

The problem was that the dogs attacked the hunters who were armed with exosuits.

Since it became smarter through mutation, it would know that the exosuit was a human weapon. Even though it must have known about the gun, it must have attacked because it was confident of winning.

“What about the casualties?”

[In Ottawa alone, twenty-three people were killed and forty-two were seriously injured.]

Did you know the hunters were coming?

Even so, the pack of wild dogs attacked the hunter after he finished hunting.

‘Look at this?’

If it wasn’t a coincidence, it was intentional.

Moreover, with twenty-three dead and over forty seriously injured, it was clear that the pack of wild dogs was looking at humans as prey.

‘A pack of wild dogs attacking humans.’

The fact that they attacked heavily armed hunters means that they have tasted human flesh.

“Where are they?”

[Currently confirmed to be in northeastern Ottawa.]

It was Maru who stood up holding the New Clips.

‧

Miss Kim contacted me to find out how.

[You want to go alone? Me?]

Ms. Kim, who intervened, saying she wanted to go together. She was armed with a special core armor.

“When are you coming from Montreal? Grab something nearby.”

[There are no wild dogs here.]

“Why isn’t there one?”

[There really isn’t one.]

“If it’s not there, look around Quebec. I’m sure it’ll be there.”

[really?]

“Okay. And don’t go alone. Take the kids with you.”

[why?]

“They’re the ones who ate humans. More than twenty of the Hunters, armed with old-fashioned exosuits, died, and over thirty were seriously injured. If the Association hadn’t sent a rescue team, the death toll would have been higher.”

[Ugh- Okay.]

Kim Yang’s face somehow changed into an expression of anticipation.

“The hunter can become the prey at any time. Never let your guard down.”

[Okay.]

The ship that sent Miss Kim to Quebec arrived northeast of Ottawa.

[Shall we gather people?]

“Okay. Move back those inside the line.”

Judging from the fact that they created their own request to subdue wild dogs and formed a subdue force, the response of the Ottawa Association was not bad.

‘I guess we can leave it to the Hunter’s Association.’

I thought it would be good to allow each person to return to their respective major cities as well as the political sector.

‘Should we try to promote Ottawa to a free city as a demonstration project?’

It wouldn’t be a bad thing if it could reduce the political burden and allow us to focus on space exploration, although it wouldn’t be the same as what Leon Bonnard and Dan Brown did.

As soon as a human walking alone, wearing a thick winter coat, came into view, several wild dogs began to circle around the veranda, as if they were out on a scouting mission.

Judging from the fact that they didn’t rush in rashly, they were definitely ones who had experience fighting humans. The fact that they were walking alone meant that they knew how strong a human they were.

The wild dogs that had been irritating Maru here and there retreated as if they had lost interest. Maru did not chase the dogs that were retreating, but instead walked in the direction where the rabbit hole was.

By the time I reached the rabbit hole, the bio-sensor started flashing red dots. I looked around, but there was nothing but a white forest.

‘This is it. Is it moving by digging in the snow?’

At some point, the vital signs that had been marked with red dots suddenly disappeared.

“Wow- this is real.”

The disappearance of bio-signals meant that there was an ability to erase bio-signals.

Kwang-

Before Maru could finish his exclamation, the dog’s snout pierced through the snow, aiming for Maru’s ankle.

Phew-

The black vine that had dug into the dog’s muzzle lifted the dog up.

Kkuddeuk-

The snow and ice broke away, revealing a hollow passageway inside.

Krrrrrr-

Kwaaaaang-

The wild dogs that had been waiting in a line in the snow bared their teeth and rushed toward the veranda.

Chorrrrrr-

A black vine sprouted from under Maru’s feet and tore through more than twenty wild dogs. The dogs were swept away in the blink of an eye.

Beep- beep- beep—

The sensors returned to normal again, and an arrow pointing down the rabbit hole appeared on the HUD (Head-Up Display).

Crackle-crackle-

Beep- beep- beep-

The sound of footsteps on snow and the rhythmic beeping of sensors penetrated the quiet forest.

The rabbit hole that they arrived at had turned into a stray dog’s nest. The number displayed on the sensor alone was well over 100. It was a scale that could be considered to be at least 2-3 groups gathered together.

Kiiing-

Bb-

The puppies, who looked like fluffy dolls, ran towards Maru. Maru, who had been coldly watching the puppies running towards him while wagging their tails like propellers, snickered.

“Wow- look at these kids.”

The expressions of the pups who had been innocently rushing towards me changed to evil, as if they thought they had closed the distance enough.

‧

[Really? The kids did that?]

[So, don’t be fooled by the dog’s wagging tail and don’t let it get close.]

Kim Yang nodded at Maru’s explanation.

If you think back to when you had to be careful of women, children, and the elderly when you were working, it would be the same with stray dogs. They would let their guard down as puppies and then attack you.

[Okay.]

[You all heard that right? Don’t let your guard down just because it’s a puppy and be sure to dispose of it properly.]

Clank-

Kim Yang pointed his gun at a pack of wild dogs.