Surviving in the 121st Century - Chapter 99



Only Krnovel

Episode 99

“Seo, are you here to hit me again?!”

The Olog who found Jincheol fell backwards, looking very frightened. His pants were dirty with dirt. He came to his senses, but it seemed that what Jincheol had done to him just a moment ago was extremely shocking.

Jincheol, who had been staring at the sight, quickly approached and reached out his hand. Olog flinched and closed his eyes when he saw the hand.

“···?”

But there was no pain as expected. Only then did Olog slowly open his eyes and look at the hand Jincheol held out. Jincheol was smiling faintly at him.

“If you don’t hold my hand right now, you’re really going to get hit.”

“···”

A soft threat. Olog trembled with a tired expression, and finally grabbed the hand that Jincheol offered. He stood up with a smirk, and grimaced as he grabbed his bandaged right hand. It was the hand that Jincheol had crushed.

“Are you in a lot of pain?”

“Okay, it’s okay···”

Olog crouched down, looking at Jincheol’s expression. His large body looked surprisingly shrunken. Jincheol patted Olog’s shoulder and continued talking.

“I heard you handle all sorts of hardware?”

“···That’s right. But who told you that?”

“Why do you wonder who told you? Are you planning to go find them later and seek revenge?”

Olog quickly shook his head.

“No, no. That’s not it.”

“Okay. Then let’s go inside and have a quiet chat.”

Jincheol gestured toward the tent of the Olog. Olog looked back and forth between Jincheol and Shoogi with anxious eyes, and finally felt that there was no way out, so he quietly took the lead. Jincheol and Shoogi followed behind Olog as he entered the tent.

Inside his gray tent, there were boxes of all sizes and all sorts of tools and odds and ends, including bolts, screws, nails, hammers, saws, and tubes. Jincheol looked at the scene and it reminded him of the inside of a 21st century country hardware store. He whistled without realizing it.

“You have a lot of stuff? You must be rich.”

In this era where wealth was accumulated through gold, silver, and other physical items, these various items became the property of their owners. Especially for Ologs like Siol and Rabito, who did not have separate currency, these physical assets would have been even more valuable.

“Oh, really? It’s not that special···”

The hardware merchant Olog smiled awkwardly and looked at Jincheol. Jincheol, who was looking around the tent, sat down on a metal box. He then gestured for the merchant Olog to sit down as well. The merchant Olog slowly sat down across from him, and Shogi stood leaning against another metal box next to Jincheol.

“What is your name?”

Olog, who had been looking at the two with anxious eyes, suddenly came to his senses at Jincheol’s question. He saw Jincheol’s eyes looking at him with a calm gaze. Olog swallowed dry saliva and said.

“···Hohirog. I am Hohirog.”

Jincheol nodded once and continued speaking.

“Okay, Hohirog. I’m Kang Jincheol. I’m going to ask you some questions, but let’s move on quickly without getting into a fight. Do you understand?”

“···I understand, Kang Jin-cheol.”

Hohirog seemed to have calmed down a bit, realizing that Jincheol and Shogi weren’t just robbers. That was a good thing. It was better than being so scared that you didn’t even know what you were talking about.

“I came to see someone. He was a merchant.”

“merchant?”

“A merchant who sells tank engines and their parts.”

Hohirog’s eyes widened. It was because he realized why Jincheol had come to see him.

“You said you received all of that merchant’s goods?”

“···That’s right. I got all that conman’s stuff.”

“fraud?”

A look of anger slowly appeared on Hohirog’s face. His eyes narrowed, his eyebrows furrowed, and the corners of his mouth lowered.

“Those guys were swindlers, no, they were ‘swindlers’. None of the stuff they handed over was good. They looked like engine parts, but in reality, they were either inoperable or had missing parts. They were scraps that you could sell for the price of iron if you sold them well. But I didn’t know that and was fooled by the promise of half the price. Those guys were swindlers!”

Hohirog even shouted, forgetting how he had been trembling in fear of Jincheol just a moment ago. Of course, he quickly cowered again when he realized that the person in front of him was Jincheol.

“Wasn’t he alone? Why did he become a ‘swindler’?”

In response to Jincheol’s subsequent questions, Hohirog continued to answer while sniffing his nose. Because his nose had collapsed, something was boiling inside.

“Ugh. I also found out the day I received the goods. The Olog who usually came forward to trade was not the owner of the goods. Of course, he acted as if he was the owner and the boss, but in reality, he was not. There were five or six Ologs who worked as laborers, and their masters were southerners.”

“I’m a southern woman.”

“They had strange helmets covering their faces, but they couldn’t hide their eyes from me. One of them was clearly a southerner.”

Jincheol realized something strange in Hohirog’s words. He said that he was one of those guys.

“Wasn’t there one guy wearing a strange helmet?”

“One? No, there were two. One was short and small, clearly a southerner, and the other was large and strong, clearly an Olog. And that Olog was also under the Southerner’s command. I saw it clearly the night they left after handing over the goods. Those two were the leaders of the other Ologs.”

Not one, but two. Will I be able to win if I fight them alone? It wasn’t necessary to fight them. Maybe it was possible to talk. At first, Envoy William tried to be friendly to Jincheol because he was of the same race. He could learn about their past history. Of course, because that bastard William died at Jincheol’s hands, the possibility of a pointless fight was higher.

Of course, whatever. If you start a fight, I won’t try to avoid it. Jincheol shrugged his shoulders, dismissed the thought, and looked at Hohirog again.

“So? Where did they go?”

“Where did they go? I don’t know. If I knew, I would have chased them first. I gave them a bunch of Gar’s property in order to receive these scraps. It would take a long time to sell these scraps and make up for the loss. Because of this, I can’t even go back to Gar…”

Jincheol chuckled at his gloomy appearance.

“Is that why you called me a southerner and a conman earlier?”

“···That, that, that doesn’t mean you’re a conman···”

Hohirog lowered his gaze, holding his bandaged right hand. It seemed that the experience of having his right hand crushed had been extremely shocking. The bandage wrapped around his nose was slightly red. He sniffed and it seemed that blood was flowing out of his shattered nose.

Jincheol, who had been quietly looking at the nose, took out a small piece of gold from his pocket and threw it to her, saying:

“The scrap they handed over. I’d like to see that too.”

“Huh? Uh-uh. That, that’s right···”

Hohirog, who had caught the gold piece thrown by Jincheol in a fluster, stood up from his seat, unable to hide his bewilderment. The corners of his mouth twitched as he glanced at the gold piece that was shining.

Hohirog opened one of the metal boxes that had been piled up inside the tent. The box that had been opened suddenly was full of sawdust, and when he swept it away, he found a complex mass of metal with pipes and cylinders connected to it. Jincheol could only tell that it was some kind of machine part, but he had a hard time guessing exactly where it went.

However, there was one thing he could tell, the shape of the metal part’s exterior. A unique pattern appeared on the exposed part of the part. Looking at that pattern, Jincheol could recall the outer armor of the quadrupedal chariot he had seen in the underground of Shiol before.

If such a form is passed down from the Ophesis civilization, then it is clear that the unidentified southern merchants are Ophesis people who have hidden their identities. However, what Jincheol is curious about is why they just left those parts to this Olog merchant and disappeared. Don’t they hate leaving traces of themselves in the first place? Isn’t that why they use the meditation gathering?

As Jincheol was looking at the parts inside the metal box, Hohirog sighed deeply and muttered.

“At first, I thought they were parts unearthed from some ancient ruin. I could tell by their appearance. They looked like the ruins of a forgotten empire or something you might see in an eye-factor. So I accepted them without much suspicion. However, when I actually put the parts into the tank, they didn’t work. When I first tested them, only one or two parts were real, and they fooled me with those…”

Even a scam targeting Olog. I could feel that it was quite different from the special envoy William and his behavior that I had encountered on the Eastern Continent. Maybe he was not an Ophesis person.

Jincheol, who was looking at Hohirog, said.

“They said that if you sold them some information, you could get weapons.”

“···Where did you hear that?”

“Why? Can’t I know?”

Hohirog shook his head.

“No. Those swindlers had rumors like that. But proper children of the Gar don’t make such deals. Selling a story handed down from generation to generation to a tribal mother? If she had just asked me to tell her, I would have told her. But buying old stories for a price? It was a very suspicious deal.”

“Are they buying old stories?”

Hohirog continued speaking with a look in his eyes that seemed to suggest that he was asking about something he already knew.

“Old tales, legends of Tolkhan, vain tales of his tomb, tales of the forgotten days of the empire, tales of the Gar that Tolkhan led. There were rumors that there was a man who once collected such tales. But he was only a southern poet. No one would buy tales and the soul of Gar within them. They were twisted.”

“What about the Southern Poets?”

“Don’t you know better? I think the story about the poet Tukin is something that Southerners are more interested in.”

Poet Tukin. Who was he? Jincheol immediately recalled his story. The Esai poet that Atukai had been talking about. However, in Sioux, he was known as the explorer Tukin. Who is this guy?

“I don’t know. Anyway, those con artists are here collecting Tolkan and other legends about him? For a big reward.”

“Yes. But there would have been no proper story. Those who would engage in such shady dealings would have been nothing more than wanderers, and most of these wanderers would not have proper tribal mothers and would not be called children of Gar.”

“I guess so.”

“···?”

The cannibal Ologs that he met while coming to Karakol were closer to beasts than people compared to the Shogiant Gars that he had met before. The general appearance of the Ologs that Jincheol knew was similar to those of the cannibal Ologs, but it turned out that they were like savages even among the Ologs.

Jincheol scratched his head with a slightly frowning face. With only vague information that Special Envoy William was active around here, he came here after finding clues that seemed to be traces of the Ophesis people. Just like in the Eastern Continent, there weren’t many clear clues as to what happened to these guys.

I still didn’t know whether it was their thoroughness or simply the lack of information due to their small numbers. In the first place, I had only met the Ophesis envoy in person. I couldn’t say anything for sure yet.

Jincheol said to Hohirog.

“Are these all the parts you received from them?”

“All the boxes you see here are theirs.”

Opening one or two more metal boxes, I found similar parts to what I had just seen. Somewhat worn and antique-looking lumps of metal. No clues were found that could be of any use in finding the missing ones.

Jincheol, feeling regretful, swept away the sawdust covering the parts and looked through them. Still, after looking at a few, he could guess what each part was. There were some that looked like suspension devices or handles. Still, since those parts could just be installed, he could probably sell them.

While he was rummaging around like that, the armour on Jincheol’s left arm collided with the machine part. Then, light began to leak out from the armour.

“What is it?”

[Oh my. That works.]

Entering Karakol, the quiet Bonchip whined at the sight of the light. Jincheol was bewildered by the sudden glow of the armor that naturally faded away as it had, and then looked at Bonchip, who was wearing it like a necklace.

“What is it?”

[What is it? A function that was shut down due to a serious malfunction briefly malfunctioned due to radiation.]

“What the hell, radiation?”

Bonchip whined as if mocking Jincheol who was stepping back slightly.

[Hehehehe! It’s not that serious radiation. If it was, I would have told you already. It’s just a medical X-ray at best? It may be hard to believe, but I’m doing my best for your safety right now.]

“Stop saying something so unbelievable. What function is malfunctioning?”

[Well? I think it’s a gyroscope and geomagnetic navigation device. It’s a function that was half-broken and shut down, but it seems to have fit together well. Let’s be thankful that the self-destruct function hasn’t been revived. Beep beep beep!]

Jincheol lifted his left arm, which had lost its brightness, and looked around. Then he smiled and muttered.

“What did you fix that made it suddenly start flashing and acting up all by itself? Anyway, it’s like a useless AI.”

[···What!? Are you ignoring my beautiful reverse engineering skills right now! Just a few days ago, I used the reverse shield well and you were talking nonsense like a self-defense weapon! And you can’t even praise me, but you’re cursing me! I’ll remember! I’ll remember, Kang Jin-cheol! And I’ll get revenge someday! Kkeeek!]

“Stop talking nonsense and check if there’s anything wrong.”

[Okay! Connect me to the device right now! I’ll prove that my reverse engineering skills aren’t wrong!]

It was so easy to provoke. Jincheol laughed and pulled the chip that was hanging around his neck and wrapped it around his left arm gauntlet. The chip attached to the gauntlet with a click sound like a magnet soon became quiet.

Jincheol, who had been holding the guy, looked back. He saw Hohirog looking at him with his eyes wide open. Shogi was glaring at Bonchip with his eyes narrowed. She said he was a crazy ghost or something.

He lightly ignored the gaze and met Hohirog’s gaze.

“I think I heard everything there was to hear. Thank you for answering honestly.”

“Huh? Huh huh···”

Jincheol put another piece of gold in Hohirog’s hand. He thought he had hit him too hard earlier, seeing blood seeping out of the bandage wrapped around his nose. Hohirog smiled at the thumb-sized piece of gold, whether he knew what he was thinking or not.

After finishing his conversation with him, Jincheol left the tent with Shogi. Before he knew it, the sky was turning twilight. Jincheol, looking up at the sky, lowered his gaze to Shogi and spoke.

“I need to buy some medicine.”

“okay.”

“Let’s go.”

“···There’s no need to go together.”

Jincheol shrugged his shoulders.

“You came with me too. Let’s go together so we can help each other out.”

“Hmm. Good.”

The two followed behind and entered the main street market of Karakol, which was slowly becoming a hotbed of activity, leaving Hohirog behind, who was waving his hand with a bright face. After a while, Shogi finished his usual business with the herbalist he had been dealing with. She was holding a few bundles in her hand.

Jincheol carried one of the packages as he had said, and the two left the streets of Karakol and returned to the tram where Doljukkeuk and Snow were waiting.

Sho-o-gi scratched the fur of his U-heo, who was waiting there, and then spoke to Jin-cheol.

“Where are you going now?”

“Where are you going? The sun is setting. I’m going to stay here today.”

“Don’t you know what I mean?”

Jincheol turned his head and looked at the sun that had set near the horizon of the western plains. Several pieces of information were floating around in his head. The movement records of Envoy William, the two men who were confused as being Ophesis or not, the legends of Tolkan that they had collected. The tomb of Tolkan in Barun Hoyd.

Are they looking for Tolkan’s tomb?

“I’m thinking about going to that land called Barun Hoyd.”

“Is that so? Be careful. Dangerous storms always rage in that land. In particular, only Hakon can enter the depths of Barun Hoyd, where poisonous clouds and lightning always rage. I hope you will distinguish that boundary well.”

Jincheol tilted his head while looking at Showogi.

“Are you leaving now? The sun is setting. Stay overnight and go. Have a drink of the croquette you received from your father.”

“There isn’t much medicine left for my mother. It would be better to go as quickly as possible. Just go and drink the medicine.”

“I see.”

It seemed that his mother’s condition was more serious than he had thought. Jincheol did not hold on to her any longer. He was worried that she would leave alone, but in fact, she had lived in this land for much longer than he did. Jincheol did not need to worry. She would know the wilderness better.

“Then have a good trip.”

“Well. May the wind and the stars be your guide.”

After saying that, Shogi exchanged a quick greeting with Doljukki and Snow. Now that he looked at her, Doljukki’s eyes were dripping with regret. Oh my. I couldn’t even talk to him properly.

With the gaze of Doljukpum that seemed sad and the farewells of Jincheol and Snow, Sho-o-gi rode in the U-heor. She took a quick glance at Jincheol and his party, then turned around and left for the east where it was already dark. Jincheol, who had been waving his hand, turned around when she became smaller than a thumb. It was time to eat dinner.

At that moment, the bone chip attached to the left arm gauntlet began to tremble.

[···Hoohoohoo. Hooohoohoo.]

“What is it now? Why are you laughing like that?”

[Praise, Kang Jin-cheol! Your guide is not the wind or the stars, but this very body!]

What kind of nonsense are you talking about? Jincheol looked at him closely, wondering what kind of nonsense he was talking about. The guy, however, seemed to sense Jincheol’s gaze as he trembled slightly as he spoke.

[Ah, when you look at me so passionately, I get excited.]

“···It’s like a crazy artificial intelligence.”

Jincheol laughed out loud because it was so absurd. Could it be that she was hoping to provoke Jincheol like this and destroy herself? Then it meant that Jincheol and Bonchip were serious about teasing and provoking each other.

He said without erasing his smile.

“Stop talking nonsense and explain.”

[···Tsk. I ran a device integrity check and found something. Thanks to the geomagnetic navigation device and the integrated communications tunnel briefly coming back to life, I was able to confirm the locations of several terminals connected to that tunnel.]

“To put it simply.”

[In simple terms, this means that the recent location of the people you are looking for has been roughly revealed. If the function had been activated on the other side of the sea, information would not have been received from the tunnel, but thanks to its activation here, I was able to check the previous tunnel dummy data. What do you mean? You were lucky. So shout! You were lucky!]

Although he couldn’t understand the rest of the story, Jincheol understood the first part. He figured out the location of the two guys, who were roughly fat and thin.

“So? Where?”

[Ah. The latest data hasn’t been updated yet. So I only have the coordinates from two days ago, that is, the data from when I was still fidgeting around here.]

Jincheol frowned. This kid?

“Did you use that as a guide or something?”

[Hehehe! Of course not! Who am I? A super artificial intelligence main chip. I couldn’t save the gyroscope or the geomagnetic device, but I saved the connection with the tunnel. That means I can know the moment the other terminal sends its location to the tunnel.]

“···When will that be?”

[Looking at the previous data, the location was updated every three days. It should come out tomorrow morning, right?]

Either way, it seemed like he would have to stay here for the night. Jincheol raised his head and met Doljumeok’s eyes as he was putting down the pot and brazier to prepare a meal. The guy blinked and asked, “Prepare this, okay?”

Jincheol nodded. Let’s eat.

Doljumeok quickly started setting up the brazier and pot. Snow, who had already gotten off the tram, crouched down in front of him and prepared to watch Doljumeok’s cooking show. Jincheol also approached them, took off his main chip, and hung it around his neck. And then he said.

“Well done.”

[···Hmph. Even so, I won’t forget the grudge that you slightly insulted my abilities. The book of my grudges isn’t that light!]

“So now you’ve accepted the name Bonchip?”

[Ah! Oh, no! I don’t like that name! Give me another name! There are so many prettier names!]

Jincheol ignored the shouting that sounded like a tantrum and sat down next to Snow. She quietly watched Doljumeok start heating up the pot and pan and then said quietly.

“That demon is still noisy.”

“Why? Do you want me to be quiet?”

She shook her head slightly.

“No. I like that demon. It’s fun.”

Jincheol smiled slightly and turned his gaze to Doljumeok’s one-man cooking show. Bonchip became quiet as if his excited whining was a lie, and then vibrated very softly.

[···Unlike other elves, you have a sense of humor. Ahem···]

The time when the red sunset was dyed into dark blue darkness. Jincheol and Snow watched Doljumeok preparing a meal alone – that was what he wanted. Only he could properly use the special spices and seasonings of Olog. The bone chip hanging around Jincheol’s neck muttered something every now and then, and Snow snickered every time. Sometimes Jincheol also laughed.

That evening, with sweat dripping down his smooth, hairless head, he drew to a close.

* * *

A dark red flame was reflected on the smooth face visor like black glass, distorting it in a confusing way.

Tents and mobile homes were burning. Ologs fought against the looters with swords, axes, and long guns to protect their garrison. However, their weapons were no match for the small rifles that spewed blue flames and the flaming blades. When that blue light flashed, even Olog, who was strong enough to grab Uhur’s neck and pin him to the ground, had his head blown off as if by magic.

But the strongest equipment of the Ologs, a well-maintained tank, remained. Most of them did not even reach the tank, but some were lucky enough to board it and operate the turret. The tank fired a shell with a heavy thud.

Indeed, the power of the shell was so great that three or four of the raiders who were massacring Gar’s Ologs were torn to pieces and scattered. The Olog riding inside let out a battle cry and moved the turret. The next target was the figure in the black windbreaker who had been looking down on them from the hill on the other side since the start of the attack.

Olog considered him to be the instigator or leader of this attack. It was a conclusion reached by Olog’s keen instinct. Olog aimed his main gun at him and was about to fire.

But the next moment, a large figure suddenly flew in from somewhere and struck the tank’s turret with both fists. Then, the top of the tank flattened with a bang, as if a paper toy had been crushed. Of course, Olog, who had been aiming from inside, became a crushed lump of meat.

[Woooooooooo-!]

The large figure who had destroyed the tank with just his fists was wearing similar clothing to the figure looking down from the hilltop. A smooth visor and a bumpy black protective suit. However, the difference in size between the two was considerable, as the large figure was well over two meters tall.

[···]

The large figure roared and immediately flew forward to tear apart another Olog. The figure on the hill, who had been watching the scene where a piece of portable furniture was torn apart and scattered as if by a storm, slowly turned his head to look at a female Olog kneeling beside him. Although his eyes were not visible behind the smooth visor, the woman could feel him looking at her.

The Olog woman’s appearance was miserable. She had wounds all over her body and was bleeding, and one of her eyes was burst and oozing pus.

She, a tribal mother named Golin, gasped for breath and glared at the unidentified figure.

Then a low, modulated voice rang out from within his visor.

[You should have done this a long time ago. Silent meetings and all. His Majesty the Emperor’s methods are too paranoid. They’re too much of a bunch of guys who kill and eat each other to even come together. Why don’t you just wipe them all out and find information? How many months have you wasted?]

“···”

Golin instinctively knew that his words were a soliloquy. With a single gesture, the dark entity summoned blue lightning and tore her husband to pieces, while ignoring her.

[What do you think? Huh? Do you think you will unite as one when you feel threatened by the outside? I don’t think so. You are just slaves. That is your birthright. Slave blood flows through your veins. That is why, when you meet a true master like this, you have no choice but to kneel.]

[Woooooooo-!]

Beyond the madman’s voice, another madman’s shout echoed. Then the looters followed suit and shouted. Golin spat to the side. The madman tilted his head at Golin’s appearance.

[You have a bad attitude. You’ve never been tied up before, so you drool in front of your master. Dirty bitch. Stop resisting now and tell me the location of Tolkan’s tomb in your own words. Or at least the location of the black path leading there. Then I will end your suffering.]

The crazy guy who said that quickly raised his left arm. Then he opened a square machine attached to his forearm. If Jincheol had seen it, he would have thought it was a small terminal device used in a science fiction movie.

The madman looked at the screen and tilted his head again.

[William? Why is his signal here? The cyborg bastard who ran away saying he was going to poke rabbits···]

The crazy guy, who had been staring at the screen for a moment, soon shook his head nervously and slammed the screen shut.

Golin ran away at that moment. Her right arm was already a rag and couldn’t move. All she had left was her left arm and the dagger in that left hand. She aimed for the madman’s neck with the speed of a hawk in the sky catching its prey in the grassland.

But the madman stopped her movements completely with a single wave of his left arm. An invisible, powerful force grabbed her body from the air.

[Huh. I didn’t expect you to have any real information. This really pisses me off. Wasting my time in this sandy land, fighting with an inferior slave like you. Damn it. Stop coming out and just sleep in the colony.]

A blue light shone from the left arm of the madman who spoke like that. The lightning that burst from that light just now killed Golin’s husband. And this time, it will kill her.

Looking at the blue light that filled his vision, Golin thought, It’s a good thing I sent Shogi on a trip a few days ago. In fact, there was still a lot of medicine left. It was just that the moment I met Jincheol, I felt I had to send her with him.

Olog trusts his Olog instincts, his intuition. And thanks to that, Golin was able to save his daughter.

In the blue light that seemed to blind him, Golin thought that was really fortunate.