Surviving in the 121st Century - Chapter 101



Only Krnovel

Episode 101

She wasn’t crying. She was just kneeling with a blank expression on her face, staring blankly at the distant eastern horizon. Even as Jincheol and his party stopped the chariot and approached, Shogi remained motionless like a stone statue.

“···”

The acrid stench of coal and corpses. Blackened, charred remains and the wreckage of a shattered tank. It was a sign of death and destruction.

The children of Gar, who had welcomed Jincheol in the past, were now all dead and corpses. The tent they had stayed in for the night had burned down, leaving only its frame tilted, and the pot that had boiled Uheor’s meat was rolling around among the ashes. There was no one alive there. Even Jincheol’s keen senses could not sense the pulse of anything living on this land.

Jincheol felt a bitter taste linger in his mouth when he saw the broken jar in the middle of the ruins. The people of Gar who had given him alcohol and meat and given him a place to sleep were all dead.

The death of those who had sent him kindness. Jincheol felt a bitter taste in his mouth. He had never thought he would see such a sight again.

Jincheol, who was looking around the ruined Gar, silently walked next to Shogi. Then he looked at the eastern horizon she was looking at. The river in the plain and the wide plain beyond the river. At the end of it, the winding hilly boundary between the sky and the earth. If there were souls, did the dead cross over to the next boundary beyond that boundary?

“···”

Shogi was still silent. Jincheol, who had glanced at her, soon began to move slowly. Even so, Shogi’s eyes were focused on the other side, but the eyes of the others, Doljumeok and Snow, followed Jincheol.

And soon those two people also approached Jincheol and started helping him.

For a moment, a rustling sound was heard. Sho-ogi’s eyes, which had been staring into space, finally looked at Jin-cheol and his group. They were cleaning up the ruins.

They cleared away the burned and collapsed tents and houses, collected the corpses lying inside, and also gathered the remains of the corpses that were strewn here and there like trash. Some of the corpses were almost completely destroyed, but none of the three of them complained or cursed, and they worked busily.

“···”

Sho-o-gi, who had been motionless, got up. He approached them and began to help them with the cleanup. No, they were her family, so the word “helping” didn’t seem right. It would have been more accurate to say that Jin-cheol and his group were helping her.

He cleared away the ashes and gathered the dead. Shogi pieced the dead together one by one with a blank expression on his face.

By the time the sun had set far to the west, the body collection was complete. Jincheol and the other three were all covered in soot. Instead, the bodies of the forty Shogiant Gars were neatly arranged in the center of the Gar.

But among those corpses, there were two miserable, nomadic corpses. Unlike the other Ologs who left behind charred corpses, those corpses had only a few trinkets left. Even that was something that Sho-o-gi had barely managed to find after searching the entire land with such ferocity. The corpses were Sho-o-gi’s mother, Golin, and her father, Shoggiant.

After finishing collecting the body, Jincheol took out a water bag from the tram and poured it on his head. Snow and Doljumeok, who were also covered in soot, also drank the water and poured it on their heads to cool down. Jincheol turned his head to offer the water to Shogi as well.

“···Hi.”

Unlike them, Shogi did not rest. He picked up a broken shovel from the rubble of Gar and started digging the ground. Stone Fist muttered when he saw that.

“The sun has already set. What should I do when the sun rises tomorrow···”

Instead of answering, Jincheol walked up to Shogi. Then, like Shogi, he picked up a stick from the rubble and started digging. Snow, who had been quietly watching them, also walked up to them and dug. She dug up the ground with her spear and removed the dirt with her bare hands.

“···Working in the dark will damage your eyesight. That’s what I meant.”

Looking at the others, Stone Fist said this and got on the tank he had parked, parked the tank near the digging area, and turned on all the headlights to illuminate the surroundings. The surroundings that had been darkening became much brighter.

Soon, Doljukkim got off the tram and was holding two small shovels in his hands. He handed one of them to Shogi.

“···”

But she took one look at the shovel he held out and continued digging with the shovel she had been using. Doljumpuk scratched his head as if embarrassed. Instead, he threw away the stick that Jincheol was using next to him and quickly snatched the shovel. It was a sturdy shovel because it dug the dirt well.

The four men dug the ground for the bodies to lie in all night, laid the collected ogre, and filled it in again. There were too many rocks and pebbles and the soil was hard, so digging was not easy, but over forty bodies were buried in the ground, each with their own mound.

Before I knew it, the sky had darkened. The sun had disappeared, and the plains, unlit by the headlights of the trams, looked pitch black, as if they were immersed in darkness. The place where Jincheol and Shogi were, looked like islands of light drifting in that dark sea.

The last graves they dug, covered in dirt, were those of Shogiant and Golin. Their bodies were barely traceable, but they had graves of the same size as the others. However, it was inevitable that their height was much lower than the other mounds.

After the last body was buried, Shogi looked around at the rows of graves with blank eyes. Her siblings, relatives, and family were buried there. Her past was buried beneath the ground.

At that moment, Snow, who had been digging the earth and setting up the spear in the ground, closed his eyes, lowered his head, and muttered.

“···Mother of vengeance who lies behind the moon. Give them the peace of the stars and the meadows, and a small hand to go beyond without any fear or anger···”

Shogi’s eyes, which had been blank, suddenly turned to her. She spoke with her still blank eyes and a deeply penetrating voice.

“I know the Southern God, the Mother of Vengeance.”

Snow, who had been muttering with her eyes closed, raised her head and faced her. Her front was dark with her back to the headlights of the tram, but her red eyes were shining brightly in that darkness.

Sho-o-gi continued speaking.

“We do not believe in that god. Your god is too weak compared to the great Tolkan. But Tolkan does not speak much about the rest of the dead. He says that we must be more faithful while we are alive, that after death there is only rotting flesh. We must hunt, eat, and live with all our might. Such are the teachings of the Gar that he left behind.”

She neither frowned nor frowned. Her face was covered in soot and dirt, but her expression was the same as before. Amidst that expressionless face, a teardrop flowed down.

“···But Golin, my mother would have known. I just haven’t learned yet, but the great Tolkan must have taught me what lies beyond death. I just don’t know yet because I haven’t studied hard enough. There must be more. Death, that little mound of dirt, isn’t the end. Isn’t that right? Doesn’t the Southern God say so?”

Snow looked at her quietly with calm eyes. Then, he spoke quietly.

“Only the dead can know the world after death. So all we can do while we are alive is to return what we have received. Just take revenge. For your family who still lives inside you. Before they completely leave your heart. Before they are forgotten and lose their meaning.”

“···”

A faint spark flashed from the blank and empty eyes of Shogi. Her face slowly regained strength. Her gaze turned slightly to the side. A new dawn was approaching in the eastern sky where darkness had gathered last night.

Shogi said as he looked up at the dawn sky.

“Why did you come here?”

“···Those I was chasing. I followed their trail.”

At Jincheol’s answer, Shogi looked at him once. But she soon turned her gaze back to the eastern sky.

“Who are you chasing?”

“Ophesis. The ancients, the forgotten empire you call them. Old ghosts, I guess.”

Shogi was still looking at the dawn sky, but Snow and Doljumeok’s gaze was turned towards Jincheol.

“So that’s what they did. Why did they massacre my Gar?”

“Well, I guess you thought the people of Negar knew how to get to Tolkan’s tomb.”

“No one has ever found Tolkan’s grave. Neither his father nor his mother would have known. So does this pile of ashes represent his anger?”

“That’s highly likely, but… think about it more. Were there really no clues? It’s unlikely that they just barged in here.”

Shogi shook his head.

“As I said, Tolkan left behind a teaching that we should be more faithful while alive than after death. Do you believe that Tolkan left behind a real tomb? Then what do you expect to find in that tomb? His chariot? The treasures of the old sky? Those who truly know Tolkan’s teachings know that his tomb is nothing more than a wild rumor···”

“Yes. As you said, it is more likely to be a venting of anger. I noticed while making the graves here that there were also Ologs who were not of your Gar. Also, many of the corpses had deep burns.”

Sho-o-gi looked at Jin-cheol.

“What does that mean?”

“Remember those rascals we met on our way to Karakol? The leader of that rascal had a firearm. The burns were probably caused by that gun. So, if you exclude the Ophesis, these guys are a bunch of rascals who hold powerful artifacts.”

“···Are you saying that my class was just plundered?”

Jincheol nodded.

“Maybe these Ophis guys are just imitating their ancient ancestors.”

“What imitation?”

“Imitating the ruler. Considering all other races as his slaves.”

Sho-o-gi frowned and blinked. Dol-ju-fist had a similar expression. It seemed that the two of them had a hard time accepting Jin-cheol’s words. However, Snow had a stiff expression.

However, Shogi soon shook his head, seeming to shake off his distracting thoughts, and looked at Jincheol with eyes that were now beginning to burn brightly.

“Are you going to keep chasing them?”

“okay.”

“Chasing after them?”

“I must get revenge.”

“Did something happen to you too?”

Jincheol shook his head.

“No. Your revenge.”

“···You are not our teacher. But why?”

“One night’s worth of drinks.”

A hint of bewilderment appeared in Shogi’s eyes as he tried to burn brightly.

“···Are you going to help me get revenge just because of a little piece of trash?”

“It’s a world where you can’t find the police or even the courts. It’s closer to swords and fists than laws and regulations. In this wide-open, desolate land, if it’s just for a night’s hospitality, it might be worth taking up the sword instead.”

Sho-ogi looked at Jin-cheol as if he didn’t know what to say, then turned his gaze to the side. At the end of his gaze was Snow.

Snow said, pulling out the spear he had stuck in the ground and shaking off the dirt.

“I will help you.”

“Why you?”

“Help avenge the innocent. That is one of the teachings the Mother of Vengeance left behind before she left behind the moon.”

So did the Rabitos help too? Then, Shogi’s eyes turned to Doljukki. Doljukki looked at Jincheol and Snow with puzzled eyes, then quickly changed his expression and beat his chest with a firm face.

“We are all children of Tolkan. We are like the same family. We cannot allow strange ancients and such to cause trouble in this land! Of course I will help!”

“···”

Oh, you punk. Either give me a more plausible reason, or just be honest and say that you’re interested in Shogi. Jincheol, Shogi, and Snow looked at him with cold eyes. Cold sweat dripped down Doljumeok’s head as he met those eyes.

“···Where is the destination of those people called Ophesis?”

Sho-o-gi, who had taken his eyes off Dol-ju-mi-kun, looked at Jin-cheol and asked that. Jin-cheol then lightly flicked the chip hanging around his neck with his index finger and asked.

“What are the next coordinates?”

[Have you already forgotten what I told you? I told you that the coordinates are updated once every three days. There’s still one day left.]

“Can’t you find out sooner?”

[Then why don’t you just give me a satellite! These guys were able to install a dummy terminal on their small intranet because of the advanced AI I gave them! And it’s not just any advanced AI! It’s a great AI that has been thinking for ten thousand years…]

Jincheol put down the whining Bonchip and pulled out the water bag that was hanging on his waist. He poured it on his head and threw the remaining water to Shogi. Jincheol said to her who was holding it and looking at him.

“I don’t know the final destination. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop, right?”

“···”

Instead of answering, Shogi poured the water bag he had received over his own head. Then he gathered the weapons he had salvaged from the wreckage of Gar and placed them on Uhur, who was smart enough to drink water and graze on his own, and climbed on board.

As she started to move, Doljumeok also got back on the tank. As the engine started, Jincheol and Snow got on the tank.

Jincheol shouted while looking at the Shogi in the lead.

“Can you see where I have to go?”

As dawn broke, Sho-o-gi scanned the ground around Gar with sharp eyes, and soon, as if he had found a trace, he struck U-heo-ru’s side and started running. Jin-cheol also spoke while banging on the empty tank.

“The guide is coming! Let’s follow him!”

“···I can see it too. I’ll go even if you don’t say anything.”

As day dawned in the eastern sky, an Olog woman riding a beast that looked like a cross between a cow and a horse, carrying a long rifle, ran out. Behind her, an armored tank with its turret removed, its engine and tracks revved up, followed. Its direction was west.