Surviving in the 121st Century - Chapter 96



Only Krnovel

The tank’s engine roared loudly. It was like a cracking sound like metal was being crushed. With that loud noise, the tank, which had been leisurely running, gained a surprising amount of speed.

A long plume of dust rose behind the tank as it raced down a shallow hill. It looked like a huge flag was flying behind the iron horse.

Jincheol, who was standing on the tank, lowered his posture and touched the ground with his hands. Behind him, he could see the surrounding scenery pouring down from left to right and forward, and the huge dust cloud that the stone-fisted tank had raised. He could also hear the various engine sounds echoing beyond the dust cloud. He could also hear the screams of the looters who were covered in dust and screaming.

Soon a bike appeared, tearing through the dust.

The guy on the bike was lanky and skinny, and his whole body was covered in tattoos that were drawn like a joke. When he found Jincheol crouching on the tank, he opened his eyes wide and made a “Kkeuee-” sound, and flicked his tongue. It looked like he was threatening to eat Jincheol.

Jincheol laughed out loud because he was so dumbfounded. If he did that, wouldn’t more dust end up in his mouth?

Starting with him, steel trucks, bikes, skeleton-decorated armored tanks, etc., appeared. They, like the skinny guy, were all haphazardly built, and they were running while kicking up a lot of dust. The sight of them coming down the short hill looked like surfers creating waves and riding them down.

Desert surfers. If they weren’t trying to eat this guy, it would have been a romantic scene. While Jincheol’s admiration continued, they came down from a small hill and entered a dry plain with nothing blocking them.

At that moment, a spark flashed among the men running toward him. Of course, sparks flew from the seat next to Jincheol. A man named Olog appeared, standing on top of the approaching steel truck, holding a long rifle. He had fired that rifle.

Shogi, who was running ahead, heard the gunshot and turned around. Then, he took out a long rifle from Uher’s backpack. She shouted.

“It’s dangerous! Get inside!”

After the shout, she put the reins of Uhuru around her waist, put her legs together on one side, and sat down so that her body was facing the side of Uhuru. She naturally put the rifle on her shoulder and got into a position to shoot.

“Tsk tsk tsk!”

There was a sound of air leaking out of her mouth as she aimed her rifle. As if it was some kind of signal, U-Heo-R, who was running in front of the tank, slightly moved to the side. Of course, Sho-O-Gi’s view, which had been obscured by the tank, was completely clear.

Meanwhile, a couple more gunshots rang out among the looters. Bullets flew, sparks flying from the tank’s armor. But Jincheol, as well as Snow, kept a low posture and watched what Sho-o-gi was doing. There was such a dynamic quality to the armored nomad’s movements that was eye-catching.

The next moment, Sho-o-gi’s rifle aimed at the rear opened fire. Jin-cheol’s eyes, which had been staring at the end of the gun, quickly turned to the looters. One of the Ologs, who was holding a rag-tag rifle and making a noise, fell backwards, blood spurting out of his left eye.

“Ooh. It stings a bit.”

He could be called a sharpshooter, as he sat on a galloping ox (horse, Uheur) and aimed from behind, hitting the enemy with a single shot. Shogi immediately pulled the bolt, flicked out the empty cartridge, took a new bullet from his belt, and loaded it. At the same time, long bullets were inserted between the fingers of the hand holding the body. It was a posture for loading the bullets of a single-shot rifle more quickly.

Five shots were fired in quick succession, and three more fell backwards with bullet holes in them. Instead, the distance between them was shortened significantly.

“Meat! Meat-! Meateeeee-it!”

This is the guy who was sticking out his tongue at Jincheol. He was glaring at me with bloodshot eyes and white foam at the corner of his mouth. As he was the guy running at the front, his bike was right behind the Stone Fist tank.

The bastard was holding a blade in one hand that was either an axe or a saw, and he aimed it at Jincheol and shouted.

“Meat! Eat!”

“Are you so hungry that your intelligence has declined?”

Jincheol looked at the squeaking guy with a grin, and the guy took it as a laugh and threw the axe saw he was holding at Jincheol.

The flying blade was caught in Jincheol’s hand so naturally. When the plunderer Olog saw it, his eyes widened and he shouted.

“Meat! My knife! Give me my knife!”

“Okay.”

With a thud, the axe-saw thrown by Jincheol sank into the guy’s head. The guy, who had been leaning back with his eyes wide open, rolled back along with his bike. However, the other looters following behind did not bother to avoid it and simply stepped on it.

Rather than being frightened by the sight of their comrades dying, their shouts grew louder. The steel truck began to close in behind the tank.

“Meat! Let’s eat meat!”

“Let’s eat it boiled! Let’s eat it grilled! Let’s eat it raw!”

“I’m hungry! I’m hungry!”

The marauders who had been crouching inside the iron tank rose up. In their hands were bladed weapons such as swords and axes, as well as small crossbows. The only one among them who was holding a rifle stood up and aimed at the iron.

“meat!”

Jincheol reflexively lowered his body, and a bullet whizzed past his head with a pinging sound. At the same time, the body of the steel truck hit the back of the truck with a thud.

“Meaty!”

“Kuwaaaaak!”

The looters with the blades were coming towards us, screaming. They were wearing clothes that looked like rags, but the knives in their hands were shining brightly.

Jincheol was the first to come over and saw the axe blade about to cut down this side of the head, so he quickly approached and raised his hand. In an instant, Jincheol dove into the bastard’s arms and twisted the arm holding the axe. With a loud snap, the thick arm of the ogre changed into a 360-degree rotational form.

“Ugh!”

I caught the axe that the bastard dropped and cut off his neck. The scream that was about to burst out as his neck split open was also muffled.

While the body of the thief fell under the truck with a thud, another thief jumped forward. He seemed to be about to fall over Jincheol and onto the tank. Jincheol simply extended his leg and kicked the thief in the face. The looter fell down with a snapping sound from his neck.

“You! Meat!”

As the two died in an instant, the looters in the steel truck glared at Jincheol with angry red eyes. Their grumbling breathing could be heard amidst the roar of the tank and truck engines.

At that moment, the guy who had fired the rifle first finished reloading and aimed his gun at Jincheol again. Jincheol quickly threw the axe, and the guy whose face was split open fell down and fired a bullet in the wrong direction.

“Eww!”

Absurdly, the bullet hit the back of the guy who was driving the truck. After a single scream, the guy behind the wheel groaned and fell over. The truck that was pushing the rear of the tank also started moving in the wrong direction.

“Get that guy out of here!”

“I got this! It won’t come off!”

“What are you doing! You’re missing the meat!”

The steel truck, which had been squawking among itself over its dead driver, then tried to force the driver out of his seat, but as if it had touched something wrong, its front wheels swung to the side and it rolled over with a crash.

“Eww!”

“Oh, meaty!”

Since there were no belts or anything like that, the looters riding on it were thrown in all directions like water droplets splashing from a wet towel. Those who were thrown here and there were crushed to death by other trucks and skeleton-decorated tanks more than Jincheol Son.

“Oh my.”

As Jincheol was looking at that piece of crap, he saw Snow throwing a metal ball into the air. Jincheol thought it was a flash grenade, but then he saw the metal ball fall to the ground and explode, flipping over the bike and truck that were running.

Shogi, who was firing his rifle from behind, looked at Jincheol, who easily sank a truck, and Snow, who was taking out a third of the looters with a steel ball, and lowered his gun with a blank expression. While she took out two enemies with five bullets, the two of them were destroying the looters.

At that moment, a tank adorned with skulls appeared through the black flames of the explosion.

It looked hideous from afar, but up close, its horror was even more horrifying. Not only skulls, but also spines and ribs were proudly displayed here and there on the tank. Among them, there were black, dried bones that looked like they had just been deboned.

“Wow. Is that a turret?”

But what caught Jincheol’s eye more than the hideous decorations was the small turret attached to the top of the tank. The gun barrel hidden between the skeletons slowly moved, aiming at this tank, or Jincheol and Snow to be exact.

When Shogi saw that, he shouted as if this time it was really dangerous.

“Get inside! People get blown up by shells!”

But at the same time as the warning sound, the skeleton tank’s turret opened fire. There was no time for Jincheol or Snow to dodge.

In fact, Jincheol didn’t even dodge. He just raised his left arm as if he was holding an invisible, transparent shield. With that movement, the pattern on the armour worn on his left forearm glowed slightly, and a translucent white screen appeared in front of him.

Surprisingly, the shells fired from the skeleton tank were torn apart as if they had hit armor the moment they collided with the translucent membrane, and scattered in all directions. They did not even break the translucent membrane, and they had no effect on Jincheol beyond it.

While the looters, Shogi, and even Snow looked on in surprise, Jincheol put away his shield and smiled while looking at his left arm.

“It’s okay.”

[It’s not just okay! It’s a product of science and technology that contains the essence of an ancient civilization! Please give it a cool name that matches its technological prowess!]

“Um, self-defense weapon?”

[···Are you that? What is that? That thing that’s like a rattle or something? It’s been years since the times changed! You old man, you’ve been around for over ten thousand years!]

Even after seeing Jincheol block the shell, it was hard to believe, so the hatch of the skeleton tank opened and an Olog popped its head out.

It was an Olog wearing what looked like a small dinosaur skull as a helmet, and it was glaring at Jincheol and his left arm with squinted eyes. Then, after checking Jincheol’s face again, it screamed.

“Meat! Eat!”

A bastard who is out of his depth. As Jincheol was thinking that, the bastard banged on the ceiling of the skeleton tank as if sending a signal inside. The skeleton tank’s gun moved again and aimed in this direction.

“Not twice.”

Jincheol jumped up from his seat. Jincheol’s body flew high as if it had wings, and he flew in a parabolic arc towards the skeleton tank. Olog, wearing a skeleton helmet, stared blankly at Jincheol flying towards him, then quickly disappeared inside.

Jincheol landed on the skeleton tank with a thud and was struck by the stench that stung his nose. It was a terrible smell, a mixture of rottenness and blood.

“Fuck.”

Jincheol, who had been mumbling briefly, approached the wide-open tank hatch. The moment he put his head in, the skeleton helmet waiting inside shot something. A bluish mass of light flew into Jincheol’s face.

But Jincheol avoided the mass of light by slightly opening his head. He had been through too many fights to be taken by surprise like this. Jincheol then dove into the hatch without even looking.

“this guy!”

“Whoa! It’s meat! The meat came in on its own!”

“The legs are mine!”

The screams of the marauders echoed from inside the large skeleton tank. At the same time, there were also blue balls of light that burst through the skeleton tank’s armor with a swoosh-swoosh-sound. The armor plates with holes in them were red hot and melted away.

However, it only took a moment for the voice and the strange gunshot noise to die down. The skeleton tank that had been chasing Jincheol and his party excitedly also stopped at one moment.

The other raiders who had been chasing Stone Fist’s tank, whether the skeleton tank and skeleton helmet were the leaders, stopped chasing Stone Fist’s tank when they saw the skeleton tank stop and ran towards him. Stone Fist, who had been running hard, also stopped in his tracks when he realized that their pursuit had stopped.

“···”

One of the bike-riding marauders looked at the silent skeleton tank with a puzzled expression. Why is it silent? Just as he was about to utter that thought, a blood-covered skeleton helmet suddenly rose from the hatch.

The skeleton helmet that had raised its body like that quickly shouted when it saw its subordinates surrounding the skeleton tank.

“Hey, come here! Come here and stop this meat-”

At that moment, a hand suddenly shot up from behind him and grabbed the back of his neck. The bastard made a crunching sound and cowered like a rat bitten on the back of his neck. Jincheol, who then raised his body above the hatch, had blood splattered all over his face.

He glanced around at the looters surrounding him, just as the skeleton helmet had done. But he paid them no attention, and then grabbed Olog by the scruff of his neck and yanked him forward, thrusting what he was holding in his hand.

It looked like a pistol, and from a 21st century perspective, it looked like something out of a movie or game that would shoot a laser. And to Jincheol’s eyes, the pattern and style engraved on the pistol were clearly those of Ophesis.

Olog, who had fallen forward and lost his helmet, trembled under the increasingly stronger grip. Jincheol whispered to him.

“This may be a bit random, but I have a feeling you have some kind of connection to those fucking idiot ancients. Where did you get this?”