Chapter 255 – Shelter Manager Goes to Sell Shelter in New City.
Muck, muck.
I ate food provided by slave traders.
My lanky body was not marketable, and I guess I valued myself quite high, so I gave it to them similar to what they ate.
Is this a consideration to give it at least some fleshing out before it is sold?
This is in contrast to the women who were imprisoned together, who were given a large potato and ate it hungrily.
They were hungry for a better meal in front of me, but they weren’t cruel enough to covet my butt.
A potato is thrown in front of my face.
“Please eat mine too.”
It was the lady who lifted me up.
“You were so thin. You need to cheer up quickly.”
Her eyes filled with tears as she looked at my dried, twisted body. It was truly no different from an angel.
“Thank you.”
I accepted without hesitation.
If you are starving to this degree, you shouldn’t suddenly eat food, but that’s just an ordinary person’s story.
There is no such weakness in my body, which was destroyed in many ways by Artemis.
“You look fresher than you look.”
The angel girl smiled as she watched me eating.
“Because I have a strong nature.”
After eating 1.5 servings, I feel satisfied. When I drank as much water as I could, the world seemed different.
My condition, which seemed like I was about to die, suddenly changed, and my limbs gained strength. My dull senses became sharper and my mind became clearer.
Would you say it feels like a vampire who has been mummified for hundreds of years is revived and comes back to life when blood drips from its tongue?
The anxiety and helplessness that was inside me was blown away like a dandelion seed in the wind.
“Oh my, I think I’ll live a little longer now.”
“Wow.”
The angel girl smiled awkwardly at my good-natured appearance, and another girl sighed as if she were an idiot.
As if the person who was to be sold as a slave was carefree like a fool.
But those aspects seemed fresh to me.
Is it because I’ve gotten used to the residents at the shelter looking at me as if I were their master?
“I will definitely repay this favor.”
I bounced my swollen belly and put my hands together.
I like the court of the Three Kingdoms. It is said that he always returned the favor to anyone who received something from him, and on the contrary, if he owed something to him, he returned it twice as much.
I plan to pay back twice as much to the girl in front of me who showed me two acts of kindness and to the slave traders who fed me big taffy.
“Ha, returning the favor? How? We are done now!”
“Those bastards! People buy and sell people.”
As the women hugging her knees spoke gloomily, the angel girl came to her side and comforted her.
But it doesn’t seem to have much effect. This is because the noise of metal bars rattling on the broken road endlessly stimulated their despair.
* * *
First, this was Korea, the Earth I left from. This is also Korea, about 3 years ago before departure.
“Really? “It’s not a joke?”
After hearing the date from the angel girl, I asked in bewilderment, but what came back was a look of pity.
“I think you starved and suffered for too long. “At least close your eyes.”
“No, I feel like I’ve slept as much as I need in my entire life.”
As my body was filled with moisture and nutrients, my mind started rolling enough to look back on the past situation.
What is certain is that something went wrong during the warp from Tanis to Earth.
The warp device had been left unattended for a long time, and even mutant infectious agents had infiltrated it and were interfering with the system.
It could be said that it was the worst situation since even the party operating the control panel was under attack.
Even if the aim is off by just 1 mm, the shot will miss by a large margin at a distance of 500 m, so how amazing is space jumping?
It’s unfortunate that it fell to the wrong place instead of the spacecraft’s warp device, but the fact that it’s in the same Korean territory can be considered a stroke of luck.
If it had fallen in China or the middle of the ocean, it would have been in someone’s stomach by now.
“Three years…”
It wasn’t difficult to accept the time difference. If there was a distortion of space, it would be no wonder that a distortion of time occurred.
Isn’t space travel a subject commonly covered in mass media?
When I think about it up to this point, I understand that the nanosuit was broken. Among the suit’s functions is hibernation for when stranded in an emergency situation.
Reducing the body’s metabolism to its limit, sequentially breaking down components starting from the least important, and entering a hold-on mode.
Then, it is possible to survive like a hibernating reptile.
Of course, that doesn’t mean it can last for three years.
“Did you drift for about a few months in warp space during the three years that passed in real space?”
Distortion of time and space axes.
This was the most reasonable decision I could make right now.
The problem was whether Artemis could know about my situation.
The nanosuit has a transmitter that can track its location, but this also consumes battery power and its range is limited.
Those rags that were disassembled to the limit to sustain life and then discharged cannot reveal my location.
Wireless communication is possible with a brain implant, but without a separate auxiliary tool, the transmission range is comparable to Bluetooth. That’s because they put a chip in the brain, not a cell phone.
After understanding the situation, I finally had time to observe the outside world.
I looked everywhere while running through the iron bars.
Fiery.
When you apply strong force to the bars, a burning energy flows through the faint remaining muscles.
I stopped applying force and took my hand away. A red, swollen palm and a slightly curved window were visible.
One meal would not be enough to restore strength.
Thanks to my improved nervous system, I could feel cell tissues starting to divide and proliferate throughout my body. Although it is still only a small amount.
“Thank you again for helping me climb up and giving me food.”
I bowed my head to the angel girl crouching in the corner.
“It’s nothing.”
She smiled faintly and hugged her knees.
Do you have a bright personality by nature? Even with her worn-out clothes and dusty bare feet, the nobility of her good spirit could not be hidden.
“My name is Seo Jin-su. “What is your name?”
“It’s Hyeonmyeong.”
“That’s a good name to remember. As you can see, I am in no mood because I have gone through a difficult experience.”
I pointed to her skeletal body, and she nodded.
While explaining my past journey one by one, I decided to just receive sympathetic looks rather than being treated like a crazy person.
“So, can I ask you something?”
“What are you curious about?”
I pointed out the window with my thumb.
“It seems like I’ve been running for a long time, but I haven’t seen any infectious agents during that time.”
According to the road sign we saw on the way, our current location is Chungju.
It is located right under the central region, a hell of infectious agents. It was a very dangerous place at the time when the colonies were moving south.
Then Myeong-ah crawled towards me.
Then he stretched out his index finger and pointed to the sky outside the window. It’s a pretty finger, but it looks pitiful because it’s full of grime.
“Do you see that?”
I looked where she was pointing, but all she could see was clear sky.
“What? There is nothing but clouds.”
“That one.”
I moved her seat a little and sat next to her. I focused my gaze on her fingers as if holding on to her gun.
“Ah.”
And then I found a small aircraft floating in the sky.
Although it was very high up, I was able to barely make out its shape with my enhanced eyesight.
It has a unique shape that is different from both a drone and an airship. It looks like a satellite floating below the atmosphere.
“I don’t know much, but I heard it sprays a drug that kills monsters. You can find it in many places other than here. Before I was caught, I often used it to find directions instead of constellations.”
She looked sad for a moment.
“They appeared in the sky and the monsters started falling. “It’s not completely gone, but compared to the past, it’s heaven.”
“Haha, I guess it was successful in the end.”
“Yes?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
The vaccine appears to have been properly transmitted to the spacecraft’s warp device. Looking back, the gun and small props I was holding were also gone.
In incomplete transmission, is success easier with lower mass?
I don’t know because I’m not an expert on warp.
“It was three years ago that something like that appeared in the sky, right?”
“I guess that’s it.”
Of course it is.
“The infectious agents haven’t completely disappeared?”
“Sometimes the military goes on clearing operations.”
Myung-ah pointed to the driver’s seat.
“They also argued over going back to avoid monsters and going straight to save gas. But now there are no such huge monsters as big as elephants.”
“Hmm.”
We talked about a few more things, but there was no useful information.
This girl also didn’t know much information because she was from the countryside, and the other women were in no mood to talk to her because they had their faces buried in her knees.
Anyway, I was relieved that the vaccine I had worked so hard to obtain was safely delivered to Artemis and that the purification work was in progress.
She sat down next to me and asked how she got caught.
“I was so starving that I was stretched out on the side of the road when I heard the sound of a car and asked for help. It turned out to be a slave dealer.”
She responded with a face that didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and told me her situation.
It is said that one day, when she was making a living as an apprentice haenyeo at a small camp on the coast, she was kidnapped while returning alone in the evening.
“Because it is a remote village and security is bad, I always wanted to go to the police station, but I never had the chance. In the end, it ended up like this.”
She smiled bitterly.
“Police?”
“It’s a new city in Gyeonggi-do. Everyone just calls it Police. “Except for that place, the rest of the place is just a small village that is embarrassing to call a city.”
“… Isn’t that a place right near the sea?”
“That’s right.”
There is no way Artemis opened the shelter…
When the Gyeonggi-do area became safe, did people gather around wealthy shelters and create a city? I don’t think Artemis would be the type to allow that.
“I think Mr. Jinsu is very bright. It looks like he went through a lot of hard work, but he quickly regained his energy and was very curious.”
“From what I see, it seems like the opposite.”
I’ve overcome the risk of death several times, and I have faith in myself, so I’m acting brave, but the girl in front of me really had nothing.
Even though only a bleak future awaits him, it seemed amazing that he smiled and talked to me in an ordinary way and showed kindness.
“One time, while I was collecting seashells, I saw a huge monster corpse floating in the sea. Oh my god! It looks like a shrimp, but it’s much bigger than a whale?”
An image of a giant monster throwing a nuclear punch from the back door of the shelter passed through my mind.
“Didn’t those two eyeballs stick out?”
I lifted my two index fingers and held them diagonally above my head.
“Is it so! It certainly was!”
“That’s not a shrimp.”
“Then what is it?”
“I guess… No, now that I think about it, is it something else? I don’t know either. Haha.”
The effect of the vaccine was amazing. It seems that the large objects roaming the sea have also been cleared away.
* * *
The cars that picked us up didn’t stop until evening.
“I’m going to sleep here.”
“Let’s go, set!”
When the boss, a middle-aged man, declared, the second-in-command weasel ordered his subordinates to prepare for camping.
“It’s rice.”
The youngest gave me food through the bars. I think we are given two meals a day.
“Please eat mine too.”
Myeong-ah tried to give up what was hers again, but this time she refused.
There is at least some right thing to do. No matter how thin I am, you can’t just eat a whole day’s worth of food, right?
While I ate, I concentrated on overhearing the slave traders’ conversation. The enhanced hearing was able to capture everything, even when they were making noises from quite a distance away.
“Are you really going to the police?”
One of my subordinates asked.
“Then you would have come all the way here just to throw expensive oil into the air?”
The boss answered.
“No matter what, what we do is work, so it’s a bit difficult to go that far.”
“What?”
The boss’s voice started to sound irritated.
“It’s dangerous, isn’t it? Last time, I heard that some century-old guys were doing business in the police and were ruined. I heard that those who managed to escape were even sent to China with a bounty on them.”
“Even the one who escaped to China was eventually caught and brought back.”
“Wow, those are really toxic things.”
When the subordinate, who felt the boss’s displeasure, tried to make an excuse, the other subordinates also added support one by one.
“Oh, you idiots.”
The boss shouted as if he was frustrated.
“The century-old guys secretly brought drugs to the center of the police and were killed. “It’s not a problem to just secretly leave people behind in the outskirts, man.”
Judging from the sounds coming, it seems like the subordinates are still confused. The boss sighed.
“This business won’t last long. “I heard that soon the polis will try to stop the slave trade nationwide.”
“Yes? Really?”
“This is information obtained from a reliable source. I’m sure.”
“Then what will we eat from now on?”
“Either I should go to China or I should just pick up waste paper like before.”
Mate!
The boss applauded and brightened the mood.
“Anyway, this is the last chance to sell our products at high prices. How much can you get if you take it to a village? The last step is to take a leap and change the industry.”
“Yes! “Brother.”
Only then did the subordinates, who were impressed, repeat in unison.
After hearing that, I couldn’t stop the corners of my mouth from raising.
Isn’t there an old saying that even if you go to Moro, all you have to do is go to Seoul?
The current situation felt like hitchhiking differently. Of course, you can never let down your guard.
From then on, the slave traders discussed what they would do for a living in the future, and chatted in anticipation of the food and drinks they would eat and drink in the polis and the entertainment there.
You can hear the sounds of people eating and drinking voraciously.
And at some point.
Ta-ta-ta-ta!
The sound of a helicopter coming from afar made them shut up in an instant.
“Oh fuck!”
One of the slavers let out an insult, but it was barely a whisper.
I looked towards where the helicopter sound came from.
That place is a highway more than a few hundred meters away from here.
Since it was a higher ground than here, I naturally looked up and saw the heavenly army marching majestically.
Tilrotor helicopters are flying in the sky. It is a futuristic design that seems to be a strange combination of organic and inorganic matter.
If you look at the faintly visible lower armament, some aircraft have rockets attached, while others have completely exhausted their weapons. It looks like he came from a battle.
A bunch of robot soldiers were marching on the road. The reason it wasn’t called a march is that everyone was running at an incredible speed.
People have to walk because they get tired, but robots don’t have that.
The sight of them running down the road at the same speed as the occasional combat vehicle gave off a fearsome majesty.
Some helicopters were transporting walking weapons suspended by thick wire.
Approximately 4 m in height. It has a fierce appearance, with four inverted legs, an upper body reminiscent of a shark, and huge cannons attached to both hands.
Boo!
Occasionally, a giant flying object resembling a stingray would appear and pick up a combat vehicle.
Like an airplane that uses problowjobnt, it hovered above the vehicle, then eight arms came down, hugged the vehicle, stored it in its arms, and flew away.
A drone carrier is also visible. It is much more compact than the large airship shape of the past.
Has a new floating gas been developed to replace helium?
Below, instead of the usual six, there were 20 drones lined up. Now, it truly lives up to its name, Mothership.
When I saw it, I was completely dumbfounded. It wasn’t the common sense military I knew.
100%. Needless to say, it is Shelter’s army.
In today’s world, or even before the infection war, no country could operate such an army.
I don’t know what the hell Artemis was doing at the armory for three years.
The sight of them marching against the backdrop of the burning twilight of the sky was truly the army of the gods. No one would even dare to think of fighting back.
“If I could have taken them to Tanis, I would have brought them the vaccine while blowing my nose.”
Complaints mixed with laughter came out.
“You’re crazy, fuck.”
“It’s an army from another world.”
“It’s not like they’re making a movie together.”
Meanwhile, the slave traders were so discouraged that they said one word at a time.
Various types of aircraft fly constantly, making their own sounds, and numerous robots and vehicles run across the land, making it difficult to even hear conversations due to the noise.
“Heng! Those bastards.”
However, the boss of the slave traders was not discouraged.
“Until now, we’ve been busy defeating the southern monsters, but now that that’s over, aren’t we going to kill people like us? Anyway, I think they are some kind of apostles of justice. “It’s all about making a living, you bastards.”
Looking closely, it appears that Shelter’s army is returning after clearing out the remaining infections.
“But isn’t it cool? Plus, thanks to them, I can travel around safely.”
Taaak!
“Oh my.”
It looks like the youngest guy said something without notice and was hit hard.
I thought while holding on to the iron bars. I’m thinking about yelling loudly here.
If I can let them know that I exist, I will be able to become free and show hell to these damn slave traders.
But will your voice really reach you?
Needless to say, if you fail, you will be completely screwed. If you get beaten up, it won’t end well and your hair may get chopped off.
In the end, I gave up.
This was because I thought my voice would not be able to reach me because it was too far away and the noise of the advancing army.
For now, let’s just calmly eat the food they give us and wait for us to reach Police, the city on the outskirts of Shelter.
I smiled sinisterly to myself and looked at them.
