Surviving in the 121st Century - Chapter 105



Only Krnovel

Episode 105

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Jincheol and his party robbed the looters and began to pursue them again.

The marks left by the tank’s tracks are not easily erased. The raiders, who called themselves Ol-Gar, continued to run toward the northwest, maintaining a large group, although they split into smaller groups here and there.

After starting again and tracing the trail without stopping, the wide open plains soon ended. At the end, a low, winding hilly area continued. The ground seemed to be undulating.

Jincheol sat on the chariot and continued to look around, not only following the trail that Sho-o-gi was following. This was because the unfamiliar terrain was strange, but also because there were those who continued to join the trail of the Ol-Gar raiders and those who dispersed.

These guys are crazy. Jincheol thought as he touched his chin. The main force continued to advance toward one place, but a sort of reconnaissance force was constantly joining them and then dispersing again. Perhaps all the wandering Ologs in this wilderness came to meet them once in a while?

As I continued to chase, the afternoon began to set. The sun was setting near the west, and the world became more and more dark and light due to the lack of light.

The party proceeded through the low hills and came to a slightly higher hill. It was only slightly higher than the other hills, but there was almost nothing higher than that hill, so they could see the whole surrounding area at a glance.

Jincheol stopped the group there. Shogi, who was ahead, quickly turned back.

“What do you see?”

“I see a campsite with a fire lit.”

Jincheol said that while looking into the distance. Shogi and Snow also quickly looked in the direction Jincheol was looking, and they could see smoke and light rising faintly from the other side of the hilly area that was really getting dark. Shogi’s eyes sparkled.

“It’s them!”

She took out the rifle that she had hung on the wall as if she was going to run out at any moment. Jincheol jumped down from the tank and said.

“Let’s not just rush in, let’s do some reconnaissance first.”

“···I get it.”

The tank was parked there and ready to be launched by the Stone Fist at any moment. The engine was an engine, and the sound of the moving tracks could not easily be hidden in this quiet hilly area. To pull the tank was to foolishly charge straight ahead.

Jincheol, Shogi, and Snow prepared their weapons. Shogi tied Uher to the chariot. The face that resembled a cow made a moo-ing sound and tried to lick Shogi.

Jincheol, who was looking at Shogi scratching his face with a sunken expression, spoke briefly.

“let’s go.”

Three people started running up the hill. Jincheol, dressed in light clothing and carrying a club and a flamethrower he had taken from looters, Snow, wearing an owl mask and running as nimbly as a wild animal, and Shogi, holding a rifle in his hand, a sword and a hatchet on his waist, and emitting fiery eyes.

The three of them kept going up and down the winding hill. As they kept running without stopping, Sho-ogi’s breathing started to get rough. Even marathon runners run on flat ground, but now they were going up and down a low hill repeatedly. Even Snow, who was wearing a mask, was getting out of breath. In fact, Jin-cheol, who wasn’t breathing, was the strange one.

Sho-ogi, who was soon dripping with sweat, looked at Jin-cheol as if it was strange. Snow, who was wearing a mask, was also breathing hard, but Jin-cheol was running ahead with a calm look. That suggested that Jin-cheol was keeping pace with them.

As they ran, the sun sank deeper. The slanted sunlight illuminated the rolling hills, and the elongated shadows fell deep into the lowlands, creating a landscape that looked like blood-red islands floating in a black sea.

The three of them started to climb up the hill again. Jincheol, who was running slightly ahead of Snow and Shogi, lay down flat when he reached the beginning of the ridge of the hill. His eyes looked at the campsite set up on the hill on the other side.

A little later, Sho-ogi ran up to him and lay down, panting for breath. Snow also ran up, lay down, and squeaked for a moment. Jin-cheol looked at the hills over there and asked Sho-ogi, who was panting like that.

“What do you think?”

“···Wh, what?”

Shogi, who had been desperately trying to catch his breath, suddenly raised his head. Jincheol spoke again without pressing him.

“Those guys gathered over there. Something feels different about the atmosphere.”

At those words, Sho-o-gi strained his eyes and began to look at the hills on the other side. On the ridge, six Olog tanks were parked, and tents and bonfires were set up around the tanks as pillars. There were about thirty Ologs gathered there, but the atmosphere was not very bright.

“The guys we robbed earlier in the day weren’t that gloomy. The looters we fought before that weren’t that gloomy either.”

As Jincheol said, the looters were not that gloomy. It would be understandable if they had nothing to eat, but they had already plundered many Gars and had plenty of food. Thinking about the behavior of those who burned Gars and tortured the Ologs, they should have been drinking and partying like crazy even now. Sho-o-gi, who had been catching his breath and looking at them, suddenly stood up.

Then he fired his rifle into the sky.

“···What is it?”

“They are not the marauders we were chasing.”

They could be seen moving busily after hearing the sound of the gunshots of the Shogi. The Ologs who had been gathered around the campfire quickly ran to the chariot and climbed onto the Uhuru they had tied up. They each drew their weapons and looked around.

Then, upon discovering the shogun standing tall on this ridge, five or six Uheoru riders immediately began to run towards them.

Shogi shouted loudly as they approached within earshot.

“I am Shogi, the daughter of Shogiant!”

At her proud shout, the Uhur riders stopped, holding their reins. One of them saw her and shouted:

“I am Becher, son of Salicere! What is happening here, Shogi, daughter of Shogiant!”

“We’re chasing the looters!”

At Sho-ogi’s shout, the riders looked around at each other and exchanged some brief words. After a while, Becher shouted again.

“Why them?”

“plural!”

At those words, Becher left the other riders behind and climbed up the ridge alone. He tilted his head slightly when he noticed Jincheol and Snow getting up, but soon opened his mouth when he saw Shogi.

“Was the Shogiant Gardo attacked by those who called themselves Ol-Gar?”

“···All my teachings were burned down. My brothers, father, and mother all died. I am the only one left.”

Becher nodded, looking into Shogi’s glaring eyes.

“Then we are not enemies. We are also people who want revenge on those guys.”

At those words, Jincheol stood awkwardly with his hands on his waist. I ran for nothing.

Jincheol and his party were naturally invited to the Becher campsite. After a while, Doljumeok, who had heard gunfire and quickly came running with a tank, looked as if he had lost his temper at the fact that they were not the enemy.

The armoured vehicles and olrogs gathered in the camp were all Gar warriors who had been attacked and damaged by the Ol-Gar raiders. Most of them, like the Shogi, had gone out for a while on business outside and returned to find the Gar burned down.

“Are there really this many attacked Gargas?”

Becher nodded in response to Shogi’s question while listening to the explanation.

“It’s been quite some time since some of the drifters who were wandering the wilderness and the southern cities started to band together and call themselves Ol-Garni. It seems to have started from the northern crossroads cities, but there were no major problems until then. Even then, it was just a few drifters who got together and robbed southern merchants.”

These are the guys that Jincheol and his party had also encountered. They were marauders who drove around in tanks decorated with skulls and ran around like they were crazy from hunger.

“But in the past few days, five Gars have been completely burned down. If even the Shogiant Gar burned down as you said, then there are six Gars. Most of them are small Gars, but the warriors who joined yesterday were warriors of the Chachar Gar. They also escaped the fire thanks to their hunting.”

“Cha char?”

The stone fist sitting next to him made a surprised expression. He quickly whispered under Jincheol’s gaze telling him to explain.

“···It is the largest of the Gars east of Karakol. If I remember correctly, they had hundreds of warriors. There were rumors that if their power grew any further, they would try to unify the east.”

Some of the Olgrs gathered around the campfire nodded with slightly hesitant expressions, as if they had heard Stonefist’s whispers. Of course, they soon realized their situation and fell into depression.

“All the warriors here are survivors of the burned Gar, or warriors who escaped for other reasons. They all came here for revenge, just like you.”

“Then why did you set up camp here? We should chase after them immediately.”

Sho-o-gi said that with a stern expression. His eyes, which were quickly looking at the other Ologs around him, seemed to be asking if he was scared or if his desire for revenge had already weakened. Becher raised his hand to signal for them to calm down and continued speaking.

“There’s a reason we set up camp here.”

“For what reason?”

“They scattered here.”

“what?”

Becher looked like he was just transitioning from a young man to middle-aged. His eyes were calm and his speech was firm and steady.

“We arrived here around noon today. However, we had to stop the pursuit for a while because, as I said, they split into small groups and scattered in all directions. They split into one tank at most, two tanks at most, and they split up to the north, south, and west. We were discussing whether we should chase one of them or split up into groups and chase them one by one.”

The wanderers who had been united as one, saying, “Ol-Garni,” have now split into smaller groups and scattered. Becher said, looking at the campfire with a stern face.

“We couldn’t make a decision easily. These are no longer just a band of wanderers. They used to be, but not anymore. They are armed with strange artifacts, unlike the previous raiders, and they have chariots that are faster than any Gar. And most importantly, they are led by a giant warrior, Avaganth. That warrior is the problem.”

“What’s the problem? Whether it’s a giant or something else, if you get a bullet in the head, you die.”

Becher shook his head.

“If he were just a strong warrior, I would have said the same thing. But he is a monster. Is it really true that the old heavens were created by gathering Haakon’s wrath as rumored, that no one could stop him? Do you know how Chachar Gar, with its hundreds of warriors, was destroyed? They fell not because they could not stop the raiders, but because they could not defeat that one Avagant.”

He gestured toward Olog, who was standing at the edge of the campfire, and the group’s eyes turned to him. Olog, who received the gaze, made a very uncomfortable expression, then threw a piece of sackcloth into the campfire and said,

“···That’s true. Bullets and tank guns didn’t work on him.”

“Are you saying that you were hit head-on by a tank gun and survived?”

In response to Jincheol’s question, he nodded with a distorted expression. Now that he looked at it, it wasn’t just discomfort, but an expression he had forced himself to distort to hide his fear.

“···It was a shell fired right in front of his nose. It hit him squarely in the chest, and he stumbled backwards. However, when he straightened up, all that was left on his chest was a bit of soot. Then, in a rage, he tore the tank apart with his bare fists. The soldiers riding on it were torn apart like sheets of paper. They all died like that···”

His hand, which was breaking and throwing the knife, was trembling slightly. Becher looked at it with bitter eyes and said.

“The other raiders, even though they have powerful weapons and tanks, are not a big threat. Most of them are mentally unstable, so they will run away if they feel that their position is at a disadvantage. So the fact that they are scattered means that you can hunt them down one by one.”

“Then why were opinions divided?”

Jincheol, who was asking the question, immediately realized the answer. Becher slumped his shoulders as if embarrassed and gave the answer that Jincheol had expected.

“···Someone will meet Avaganth. And even the one who destroyed Chachar Gar cannot be defeated with just one tank and eighteen warriors.”

It was a chance to defeat the Ol-Gar guys individually, but at the same time, someone would definitely be torn to pieces by the Avagant. That’s why they couldn’t do anything and set up camp here. The gloomy look Jin-cheol felt didn’t seem to be simply because Gar had been destroyed.

Jincheol, who had been looking at them for a while, opened his mouth again.

“Have you ever heard of anyone other than that giant called Avagant?”

“Others?”

“Why is there a guy wearing that weird helmet, that is, a helmet?”

Becher, who had been making a puzzled expression, turned his head and looked at Chachar’s warrior. Chachar’s warrior nodded.

“I know who you are talking about. There was one who wore a helmet similar to the one worn by Avaganth. He seemed to be leading the raiders from behind. Surprisingly, Avaganth seemed to listen to him. But he never once came forward to fight.”

This is what a sneaky kid is. A guy who works hard and a guy who uses his brain. So the reason he’s causing this trouble now is because of the guy who uses his brain. Are these kids really causing this trouble to find Tolkan’s tomb or something?

Jincheol, who had been thinking about it for a while, shook his head to shake off the thought. There’s no way to come up with an answer if you keep thinking about it like this. It would be faster to just chase after those guys, knock them down, and ask them.

Jincheol turned his head to Shogi.

“What do you want to do? Do you want to move with these guys?”

“No. I’ll keep chasing them.”

Jincheol nodded at her firm answer. Shogi’s goal was to avenge his family. It didn’t matter if his opponent was strong or weak.

“Let’s rest here for tonight. We can figure out their exact location tomorrow morning.”

“···Are you sure you can really know?”

Jincheol chuckled at her slightly anxious question.

“Haven’t I already told you? I met you while chasing them. No matter how much they split up, I can still track down the masterminds. The other raiders will be wandering the wilderness, so we can catch them later.”

Shougi nodded.

“Okay. Then I’ll rest for now.”

She said so and went to the Stone Fist chariot, took out a blanket, and started to rest. Naturally, Snow also went to join them.

Becherman, who heard their conversation, said that he seemed a little confused.

“I don’t know how you heard our story. Are you going to chase after Avaganth now?”

“okay.”

“···Hmm. Maybe I can track their exact location?”

Jincheol nodded in response, and Becher’s groans deepened. The Olog avengers also fell into deep thought and became quiet.

Before I knew it, the sun that had been hanging on the horizon had completely disappeared, leaving only a reddish trace in the western sky. Another day had ended.

Sho-ogi and Snow were resting inside the tank, while Jin-cheol and Dol-ju-muk were sitting around the campfire with the other Ologs. There were dozens of people gathered, but no one said a word.

At that moment, Becher, who had been chewing on his lips and thinking for a while, opened his mouth.

“if···”

When Jincheol looked at him, he hesitated. Jincheol saw that and said briefly.

“You want to follow me?”

“···Is there a way to fight Avaganth?”

Jincheol shook his head at the earnest look in his eyes.

“We’ll have to see what kind of guy he is to know. I can’t give you a definitive answer.”

Special Envoy William Lambert easily slaughtered dozens and hundreds of underground White Rabitos with the weapons of Ophesis technology. Although Jincheol defeated him, it was also because the Special Envoy’s target at the time was not Jincheol and he did not know about Jincheol. If he had known about Jincheol from the beginning and tried to assassinate him, it would have been a much more difficult fight.

This time it was the same. They were doing strange things in this wilderness, such as finding Tolkan’s tomb, and Jincheol was not included. In Jincheol’s opinion, that was the greatest weapon he had.

“···Okay. Then I will go with you.”

“Are you okay? You might be the first to get torn to pieces.”

“Then I will just follow the leader who left first.”

He said so with a wry smile. Soon after, the other Ologs also expressed their intention to join. Jincheol nodded. They were all gathered to avenge their families. There was no way to stop them if they were willing to risk their lives.

At that moment, a buzzing sound came from his chest. At the same time, a faint light flowed out from the armour worn on Jincheol’s left arm.

[Ow. That’s weird.]

“What is this? Why is it like this?”

[This is because the communication function is activated.]

“Communication functions? Is there something like that?”

[Of course not. It’s just a trace of the previous terminal device. It responds, but communication itself is impossible. It seems like someone tried to communicate and the trace device responded···]

Jincheol’s face hardened. Who is calling?

The next moment, there was a shushing sound of something cutting through the wind, and then something fell on top of the tank parked at the campsite. There was a loud noise like a shell had landed, and of course there was dust.

The faces of the gathered Ologs changed. Olog, who was a warrior of Chachar in particular, seemed to have sensed something and could no longer hide the fear he had been trying to hide until now. He pointed to the slowly settling dust with his trembling hands and spoke.

“Ah, Avaganth… Avaganth-”

At that moment, the turret of the tank flew like a plate and crushed three or four of the Orlogs. A thick lump of blood flowed out from under the iron. Jincheol’s eyes, which had been looking at them, turned back to the dust.

A giant, over a meter tall and with muscles so massive that he looked like an inflated balloon, was walking toward me, churning through the dirt.

“What the heck, what the Hulk is this…?”

If it weren’t for the helmet on his head and the panels attached here and there to his upper body, as Jincheol had imagined, there would be no difference between the green giants in American movies. Of course, this one looked much duller.

Everyone there was taken aback by his sudden appearance. Even Jincheol stared blankly at him. And the guy also stared at Jincheol.

The guy tilted his chin.

[···Not Willy. But Willy signal?]

Willy? Could it be that he was calling William Lambert Willy? The moment Jincheol thought that, fists the size of pot lids filled his eyes. Immediately afterwards, lightning struck and his vision blackened. His body was thrown out as if he had been pulled by a rope from behind.

[Not Willy! Fake Willy! Kill them all!]

“Ji, Jincheol!”

Jincheol’s body was slammed into the side of the tank that was standing on one side by the fist of the guy who flew like a shell. Doljufuk made a blank expression at the sight of the tank that was crumpled and Jincheol stuck there, unable to see properly. Jincheol didn’t move. That Jincheol died like that?

“Wow!”

Becher, who had come to his senses while standing next to him, pulled out the dagger he had been wearing on his waist and rushed at Avagant. The guy who had been shouting something while raising both his fists high after blowing away Jincheol, turned his chin towards him and suddenly extended his hand.

“Die!”

Vecher stuck a dagger into his hand. However, the sharp dagger failed to penetrate the creature’s flesh and broke with a squeak. Immediately afterwards, the creature’s large hand completely covered Vecher’s head. Vecher’s front turned black.

Wajajak, Becher’s head and part of his upper body were crushed like tofu.

[There’s no Willy! I’ll kill them all!]

The Avaganth that had crushed Becher as if it were a joke raised both fists high and shouted again. The Olrogs who saw that split into two. Either they turned around and ran away, or they pulled out their guns like stone fists and struck the guy.

“Woooooo!”

Stone Fist pulled the trigger and bolt of the rifle he was holding in succession. The other Ologs also fired their guns in fear. As a result, gunshots rang out repeatedly and sparks flew from Avagant’s body.

But the bastard slowly lowered his hand and turned back to Stone Fist, as if he had not been harmed at all. Swish, the bastard’s hand approached Stone Fist.

“···Fuck.”

Stone Fist, who saw that hand, had no intention of running away and unconsciously muttered the words that Jincheol usually uttered. Although he did not know what they meant, it seemed like the perfect word to use at that moment.

Dying like this? If this was going to happen, why did I come back? No, at least I can die on my homeland, so it’s fortunate. Stone Fist felt his heart calm down for a moment. The moment of death he experienced on the Eastern Continent. At that time, he just wanted to see this dry wilderness again. And now that he has seen enough of that scenery, he has no regrets.

As the black hand filled his vision, Stone Fist’s mind was filled with calm.

[Waaaah-!]

The vision that had been covered in darkness suddenly became clear. The startled Stone Fist hesitated and stepped back. He saw Avaganth, who was holding his arm and screaming, and a white longsword piercing through his arm. The blade had come flying from somewhere and was embedded in Avaganth’s arm.

The stone fist turned its head. Jincheol, who had been hit by the tram, was approaching with brisk strides, sniffling and bleeding from his nose. His face was covered in blood thanks to the blood flowing from his torn forehead.

He said, glaring at Avagant with his bloody face.

“Where did this piece of shit get the lead? Do you want to get crushed with that fake Daphne helmet?”

As he spoke, his eyes caught a glimpse of Becher, whose head had been crushed. Soon, an old anger flared in his eyes as he glared at Avagant.

As Bonchip said, it was the club of science.