Surviving in the 121st Century - Chapter 103



Only Krnovel

Episode 103

He looked like an old man.

But judging by the bulging muscles of his neck and upper body that still remained, it was clear that he had been a veteran when he was still in good health. That is, if he wasn’t currently nailed to a wooden pole with his limbs blown off.

Blood spurted from the places where his eyes had been gouged out, and there were marks of pain on his upper body tied to the pillar. However, these marks of pain and wounds seemed to show the strength of this Olog. After all that pain, he was still alive.

At that moment, Shogi, who had seen his face up close, muttered as if he was groaning.

“Urgamal···?”

His eyeless gaze swept over her.

“Who···? Who are you?”

Shogi hesitated a little as he answered.

“···Shogi. I am Shogi.”

“Shogi… Shogiant’s daughter… Did she come with you too?”

“···no.”

Did he sense something from Shogi’s answer? The old man named Urgamal, who was an Olog, lowered his eyeless gaze that had been directed at Shogi to the floor. Jincheol saw that and said.

“What happened here?”

“Who are you talking about now?”

“Kang Jin-cheol. What about you?”

“···Urgamal. I am Urgamal. The hunting father of this Gar···”

The hunting father. Roughly the same position as the chief. So they kept him alive while they wiped out all his teachings. And it wasn’t hard to guess why. It was probably because that was the way to make the old man suffer the most.

“···They suddenly came rushing in. Marauders. They were just here to kill, steal, and eat··· They came rushing in···”

Urgamal’s body trembled. It wasn’t fear. He slowly raised his head, his face distorted with anger.

“They played with my children, my family. They are fools who have forgotten the teachings of Tolkan and Gar. If it weren’t for that giant, I would have torn all those wanderers to pieces…”

“giant?”

The old man’s gaze turned towards Jincheol’s voice. It was as if he could see Jincheol then. Of course, only blood and pus flowed from his already plucked out eye.

“A giant… a giant bigger and stronger than any Olog. He crumpled metal plates with his bare hands and tore my children’s bodies in half. A giant with the power of an enraged Haakon… ”

Jincheol, who was facing the old man, could recall the wreckage of the tank that he had seen upon entering this ruin, shattered like a hotteok. Did he do that with his bare hands?

“And the sorcerer who summoned that giant. There was a sorcerer who wore a strange helmet. The sorcerer who summoned the lightning bolt of hatred… He killed Tsubeto… Tsubeto, didn’t even leave a corpse behind…”

The anger that had been boiling on his face turned into sadness and despair the moment the name Tsubeto was mentioned. The emotional fall was so deep that he suddenly felt his body shrinking as he was tied up.

“Who is Tsubeto?”

“···Tribal Mother. My wife. My love···”

Bloody tears flowed from his eyes. At the same time, Jincheol could feel it. His life was coming to an end. Despair was killing him, who had been living tenaciously.

“Why did they raid your school?”

“···The sorcerer asked for the way to Tolkan’s tomb. But even the dumb Uher could sense that he didn’t really want to know. He just wanted to burn my gar···”

Jincheol’s eyes sank. A human race that just wants to vent their violence and cruelty without any clear reason. They are a familiar type. They are monsters that can be commonly seen in the flames of battlefields. There were such guys among the rabbits of the Eastern Continent.

Just looking at the sight of those monsters that could be seen anywhere, whether ten thousand years ago or later, Jincheol could only feel something bubbling deep inside him, where he had thought he was at peace.

“When did they leave?”

It was Shogi’s question. Urgamal lifted his chin toward her, looking completely exhausted.

“Are you chasing them?”

“Yes.”

“Then what about Shogiant’s Gardo···?”

“···okay.”

“Revenge···?”

“certainly.”

Urgamal nodded his head weakly in response to her answer.

“They left early this morning. To the west. I heard noises.”

“Thank you. I will say it again, I will definitely get revenge. For me, for you, Urgamal, and your Gar.”

“···”

Shogi said this in a seething voice and turned around. Then Urgamal spoke.

“···The pitch-black path will only be revealed the moment the sun rises above the horizon.”

The gaze of Jincheol and the others was focused on Urgamal. He slowly lowered his head and whispered.

“That’s what he wanted to hear… the road… to the grave… Tsubeto…”

His body sagged. The strength that had allowed him to continue breathing even when his limbs were cut off disappeared into thin air along with his last breath.

Jincheol, who had been looking at his body for a moment, reached out. He pulled out the rope and nails that had bound the old man to the pillar and laid his body on the floor. He closed his empty eyes that had been shedding tears of blood and stood up, and saw the group with complicated eyes.

“···Let’s go.”

The party followed him in silence. After leaving the ruins, the party started the engine of the stopped tank and climbed onto the Uheor. They did not say a word to each other as they left the ruins behind.

The trail was heading west as Urgamal had said. The tire tracks of numerous tanks and trucks stretched out. Not only was Sho-ogi in the lead, examining the trail, but Snow, sitting next to Jin-cheol, also remained silent until then.

After a while of going like that, Jincheol suddenly jumped down from the tank. Snow immediately tapped the inside of the tank to signal Doljumeok to stop, and Shougi, who was running in front, also stopped and looked back.

Jincheol, who had come down to the ground anyway, looked around at the many tracks and wheel marks. Shougi approached him.

“What is it? Why are you doing that?”

“Do you see this? Some of these guys are splitting off here.”

On the floor that Jincheol was pointing to, there was indeed a part of the orbital mark that was separated from the rest and was moving away to one side. Shougi raised his head and looked in the direction where the mark was leading.

Like the river in the plain where her teaching was, this area was not all plains. There were a few valleys and even low rocky mountains. The trail continued toward a place where such rocky mountains stood out like fortresses in the plains.

Shougi looked at Jincheol again.

“Should we follow that trail? If we do that, we might miss the main force…”

“It wouldn’t be a good idea for the four of us to fight them all head-on. If possible, it would be better to break up their forces little by little. We could also find out what’s going on with them.”

“But who knows how far this trail will lead? If we chase the little guys, we might lose sight of the main force.”

Jincheol flicked the chip hanging around his neck with his fingers.

“With this guy, there’s no way I’ll miss it completely. And I’m sure there are a few of them gathered on that rocky mountain.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. It smells.”

Shogi, Snow, and Doljukki, who were listening from the tank, all sniffed with puzzled expressions. Shogi tilted his head and said.

“What’s that smell? I don’t smell anything.”

“My nose is a nose that even Toby acknowledges. The smell I smelled in the jungle right now is coming from between those rocky mountains.”

“···?”

He said it as a joke, but Jincheol was serious. It smelled. The smell of charcoal from the fire and the smell of various spices mixed in. It was the smell coming from the pots of the Ologs.

* * *

The sight of the rugged rocky mountain rising in the middle of the plains gives a sense of stability, as if you have entered a natural fortress. In fact, it is higher and has more cover than other places, so it is not wrong to feel like it is closer to a fortress than other Gars.

Inside that natural fortress, a dozen or so tight-haired Ologs were sitting huddled together around a campfire and a pot.

The food was plentiful. A stew made with a variety of spices and vegetables was boiling in the pot, and meat was hanging over the campfire, cooking deliciously. There were also plenty of jars of komrak.

Among them, one of the larger Ologs looked around at the others with his chin raised arrogantly, then unsealed the jar of Komrak in front of him. Then he held the jar up high and shouted.

“Meat and alcohol!”

Then the other Ologs followed him, each holding a jar of corn and shouting:

“Meat and alcohol-!”

The big guy continued to shout.

“Who is this thanks to!”

“Thanks to the captain!”

“Who are we?”

“Sukishi! Sukishi Gar!”

“Yes! We will teach too! There is plenty to eat! You will never be hungry again! We don’t need that stupid tribal mother or hunting father! Now we will teach for real!”

“Sukishi! Sukishi! Sukishi!”

Sukishi laughed. The cheers of his subordinates really felt good. Not long ago, there were only two of them, but now there were more than ten. If his subordinates kept increasing like this, it seemed like he could really grow to a size worthy of being called Garra.

Of course, whether a gar without a mother or a woman could be called a gar was another matter, but Sukishi was too happy to think about such things now. Hearing the cheers of his subordinates, he soon poured the komrak he had been holding high onto his face. About half of the komrak in the jar spilled out.

More than half of them flowed to the floor, but Sukishi didn’t care. They were just looted kombucha anyway.

“Hahahaha!”

The other Ologs also seemed very excited and laughed at the sight of the captain wasting his comrades’ money.

This land was harsh and desolate. Wasting food like that was nothing short of a sin. That’s why the Ologs who originally lived in Gar felt pleasure in breaking some taboo when they saw the Komrak flowing to the ground like that.

Soon they followed the leader and tore off the komrak and poured it on their own faces. Rather than drinking it properly, they threw it away, but no one pointed it out or cared. In a moment, the place where they were sitting was filled with komrak.

“Hahahahaha!”

Seeing that, Sukishi laughed even louder. His hunting father had laughed that loudly in his old Gar. But Sukishi couldn’t laugh along with him then. It was because most of Gar’s Uheul had been decided to be passed on to his older brother.

Unable to accept the inheritance, Sukishi beat his brother to death and fled from Gar. What followed was a life in the wilderness and starvation. Although he moved around with a couple of people in similar situations, it was an unstable and unstable life.

Just as they were contemplating heading south like other wanderers, a strange rumor began to spread among the wanderers. It was said that a huge Gar had appeared that only accepted wanderers. Moreover, it was said that they were very powerful.

Sukishi went to find them, thinking she was being fooled, and found out that the rumor was true. No, the rumor was not even half true. The Gar that Sukishi joined had the power to burn down one of his former Gars in one night.

Moreover, they did not force him to do anything. To be precise, they demanded that he follow orders, but they did not ask him to conserve supplies or observe the customs of the tribal mothers, as other teachings did. In that teaching, tribal mothers did not exist in the first place.

The strange group he joined began to move once they had grown to a certain size. It was from then that the looting and massacre began.

“Eat! Drink!”

Sukishi shouted as he picked up a piece of meat hanging from the bonfire. He took a big bite and the unique aroma of the meat along with the aroma of the spices that had been generously poured in swirled around in his mouth. Back when he was in Gar, he couldn’t be this wasteful.

It didn’t matter anymore. They would eat happily and if they ran out, they would just loot again. Now that he and his men were gathered here, they would figure out the locations of the nearby Gars and return to the main base. Then the main force would move to loot the nearest Gar. Then there would be more meat and alcohol. Until then, they would just waste everything they had brought.

“Sukishi! It was good that I followed you. Thanks to you, I don’t think I’ll ever be hungry again.”

“Hahaha! Of course! Now I won’t risk my life starving and rob the southern merchants! No, of course I’ll rob them too! But now I don’t have to risk my life! I can just kill them with this!”

As he spoke, Sukishi took out a rifle that had been lying down next to him. Unlike ordinary rifles, it was something smooth and had many curved patterns. It was a weapon given to him by his new teachings.

“See? I’ve never received a firework this big! That means I’m a very important warrior!”

“Ohhh… As expected, Sukishi. Garu gave me something big…”

“Sukishi. Then, has Sukishi ever talked to Gar’s hunting father?”

“Hunting father?”

“That giant. Isn’t he our Gar’s hunting father?”

Sukishi snorted.

“He’s not like a hunting father. He’s just a dumb dumb. He’s strong, but he’s got this firearm—”

At that moment, with a bang, the head of Olog, who had been questioning him, exploded. Sukishi, startled by the spurt of blood, opened his eyes wide and quickly turned his head toward the sound of the gunshot. He saw Olog leaning out from the other side of the rocky mountain where they were sitting, aiming his rifle.

“···Raid, ambush! What are those guards doing?!”

“No one stands guard!”

“What?! Why?”

“Didn’t Sukishi say we should all eat together?”

“Anyone who stands guard must of course be eliminated!”

Sukishi aimed the firearm he was holding at the stupid subordinate, intending to kill him first. However, before the firearm could fire, the bastard’s head exploded with a loud gunshot.

“Move, you idiots! She’s the one!”

Even without Sukishi’s shouts, the Ologs were moving. Each of them was holding a gun and aiming at the Olog woman who had appeared on the other side. Soon, a series of gunshots rang out. The woman who had been aiming at them hid behind a rock.

“You dare to rob us? Alone? You stupid bitch. I’ll cut off your limbs and boil you and eat you.”

A low “Wii-” sound rang out from Sukishi’s gun as he muttered. Blue light flowed from the curved pattern, shining from the tip of the barrel. He aimed the tip of the barrel at the rock where the attacker was hiding. He intended to blow the rock away.

But instead of blowing the rock away, he turned his head. It was because of the tram that appeared on the rocky mountain entrance with a rumble of tracks.

“Tank…? Could this be Gar’s attack?”

Sukishi’s face distorted. It was because she suddenly had a gut feeling that it might have been one of the survivors of the attacked Gar.

“···It’s no use trying!”

His flare gun was aimed at the tank. A single shot from this flare gun could melt down any tank, tank or not.

“hey.”

“···?”

At that moment, a voice suddenly came from the side. Sukishi, who was aiming at the tank, turned his head and saw a tall Esai. No, judging by his short ears, he didn’t seem to be Esai…?

“···You bastard!”

The next moment, before Sukishi could turn the muzzle of the firework gun on him, his hand quickly snatched the firework gun away and hit Sukishi’s head with the butt of the gun. Sukishi fell down with a broken head and a disfigured face.

Jincheol, who had easily taken down the guy, slung the rifle he had snatched over his shoulder and faced the other Ologs who were looking at him with blank expressions.

One of them said it with that exact same expression.

“Who, who are you?”

Jincheol didn’t answer. He just held the rifle he had snatched up upside down and slowly walked towards the guys.

[Who are you! The ancient pot harvester who returned after ten thousand years! Come taste the club of science! Hehehe!]

Instead, Jincheol swung his rifle like a whirlwind, along with the voice of Bonchip who answered. The butt of the rifle, which was originally made with the power of plasma high-temperature bullets and which could only be called magic in this era, shattered the skulls of the Ologs.