Chapter 833 – 833. Frontier Darkness (5)
Early morning when the sun starts to rise.
As soon as they woke up, Cha Han-seong and Ju-hong set up their tents and started moving.
Perhaps it was because he lived in a group with Heilang members, who had a tight training schedule, and now he woke up automatically in the morning.
It has become a daily routine to check one’s completely ingrained habits and smile slightly bitterly.
After skilfully organizing their surroundings, the two of them walked on a steep mountain path.
It was a shortcut that could quickly reach the village marked on the map.
One day of homelessness was enough.
The second day was Cha Han-seong’s choice because he didn’t want to face the night with the cold night wind if possible, and Ju-hong agreed.
“Ugh. My back hurts…”
“I can’t help it because I’m homeless.”
Cha Hanseong smiled bitterly.
Although there was a sleeping bag, it was not a refreshing morning, probably because I slept on the cold street.
Even if it was shabby, I desperately wanted to rest on the bed of the inn.
“Let’s go quickly and rest.”
“Huh. OK.”
There were also small happenings while walking all day in the morning.
They were also attacked by monsters that popped out of the mountains midway through, but thanks to the experience of spending a long time as adventurers, the two easily dealt with the attacks of monsters.
Even though fatigue may remain in their bodies and minds, the skill of the two in handling the monsters easily surpassed that of most veteran adventurers.
“Surely…”
“Looks like it helped…”
As Cha Han-seong and Ju-hong thought the same thing in their heads as they easily cut down and crushed the attacking monsters.
The two were clearly feeling their own growth.
Although they did not develop endurance and survivability while running away from Ash, like the Black Wand members, the battle they had with Emilia’s bloody doll unit was a great experience for the two of them.
“Compared to those dolls…”
“Isn’t this much a big deal?”
The two people who looked at each other and asked each other realized that each other’s opinions worked and burst into laughter.
“Oh~. It was really nonsense. What are those dolls really?”
“I almost died several times.”
Cha Han-seong nodded in agreement with Ju-hong’s grumbling words.
Emilia was truly an out-of-standard existence.
Aside from her basic specs and combat power that each individual doll has, what she had to stick out was the strategy and tactics of attacking and responding in various patterns while manipulating dozens of dolls at the same time.
Emilia collected combat data from her engagements with Cha Han-seong and Ju-hong, and based on that, she responded by standardizing her effective tactics and attack patterns.
The number of the pattern increased as the battles continued, and later it grew to the point that Cha Han-seong or Ju-hong could not handle it, and caught her off guard.
The truly terrifying thing about her puppet, Emilia, is her self-learning ability to systematically envision its tactics and powers.
“And the doll didn’t even use all the dolls.”
“Uh? Really?”
“…”
Ju-hong made a startled expression as if he had heard an unexpected story.
If that’s the case, isn’t it a story that the fighting ability of the puppet unit that lightly overwhelmed him was not his strength.
“… You haven’t seen the golems Eunhyeon made.”
“What? Did you make a golem too?”
It was an unprecedented story.
But I had seen Cha Han-seong.
The sight of Emilia remotely controlling a gigantic golem that appeared in movies such as ‘Optimus’, ‘Bumblebee’, and ‘Megatron’ to lightly trample and tear the beasts and overwhelm them.
If the formation of the ‘Auto Golem’ unit was added, the strength of the doll unit that Emilia could control would rise several times ridiculously lightly.
“… Ask yourself later.”
Seeing Cha Han-sung’s complicated expression and delaying his explanation, Ju-hong couldn’t help but harden his impression.
“What was this oppa really doing here…”
Juhong belatedly recalled what kind of position he was in in this kingdom of Pernias, and more broadly, in this continent.
He might have a grand plan behind the scenes to control a large number of powerful people and control the entire continent.
For some reason, it reminded me of the final boss of a villain dreaming of world domination, something you would only see in a movie.
But that’s Eunhyun, I couldn’t imagine it.
As they walked through the mountains while chatting about miscellaneous things, they saw a small village in their field of vision.
“I can see the village!”
“I’m going to rest a little more today.”
“Homelessness for two days in a row is Eva. Really!”
It is unavoidable to sleep under a blanket in the cold night breeze, but it is natural to want to avoid it if possible.
With the expectation that they could rest comfortably tonight, Cha Han-seong and Ju-hong moved closer to the village.
The scale of the village seen from afar was not that great.
“Hmm… Isn’t the village that big?”
“I wish there was an inn.”
Cha Hanseong let out a small sigh and muttered in response to Ju-hong’s words.
It was a small village with about 20 buildings, and usually in such a small village, there was no such thing as an inn where travelers could rest.
Well, it is a village located in a place where the roads are not maintained.
Since it was a place rarely visited by merchants or adventurers, it would have been difficult to make a living even if there were accommodations such as inns.
“Ha… I wish I could get a room for the residents and sleep in it…”
Even if there was no inn, there was a way to rent a room from a villager and sleep there if you paid a reasonable price, but in this case, it was not a big deal.
There were many cases where there were villagers who were wary of strangers who came to visit the village they went to sometimes.
Especially in the profession of adventurers, their personality was revealed in their attitude and behavior, so the villagers had no choice but to be vigilant and cautious.
Closing that gap was really annoying.
“For now, it’s okay because I have enough money, right?”
“What… I hope so.”
However, the closer they got to the village, the more strange they felt.
“The village… Are you quiet?”
“I know? Why are you so quiet?”
I reached the beginning of the entrance, but the inside of the village was still.
Normally, there should be at least a human presence, but the atmosphere in the village was cool and quiet.
Like…
“People… Is there no one?”
There was not a single person in the village.
Only intact buildings existed, not a single person was visible.
“…”
Cha Han-seong and Ju-hong, who naturally entered the village, looked at each other with firm faces and nodded.
The two of them agreed that they should investigate the village.
After about an hour to investigate the inside of the building divided into left and right sides.
Cha Han-seong and Ju-hong met again near the entrance of the village where they had first parted.
Ju-hong cautiously asked Cha Han-seong.
“… How was it?”
“…”
Cha Han-seong did not answer her question, but Ju-hong was able to grasp the current situation just by looking at his seriously hardened expression.
In fact, he didn’t even have to ask.
It was because, as a result of his investigation, he was convinced that Cha Han-seong would not be much different.
There were no people in the village at all.
Laundry hung out to dry, stored grains and food, beds and tables in buildings, etc.
The traces of people full of vitality were full, but there was a sense of heterogeneity that they could not be seen.
It was strange, but it was too strange.
‘It’s as if only the people in the village have evaporated.’
-What’s going on in the South?
Suddenly these words came to my mind.
Cha Han-seong was convinced that the situation in which the villagers evaporated had something to do with what was happening in the south.
Cha Han-seong, who was contemplating something with a heavy expression, opened his mouth after a while.
“How will we do it?”
“Huh?”
“Should we rest in this village as we originally planned?”
“Ah.”
Ju-hong realized the meaning of what Cha Han-sung was trying to say.
Originally, the plan was to get rid of fatigue in this village, take a rest, and move again tomorrow morning.
Fortunately, it would be possible to grab a building in an unoccupied village and go inside to avoid the night wind, but this is another issue.
Can we really rest in peace in this obnoxious town where the inhabitants have disappeared as if they had evaporated without leaving a single one behind?
“Hmm…”
Juhong was worried.
To put it bluntly, I hated spending the night in such an uncomfortable place.
“Still, we came this far, let’s rest.”
“Are you really going to be okay?”
“First of all, I am very tired and I hate homelessness. If I were alone, I would have thought about moving too much, but now we are two. Shouldn’t we rest while we can?”
“Hmm.”
In fact, Cha Han-seong also agreed.
The fact that the current situation in this village is like this is sufficient to suggest that other villages may also be in a situation where villagers have disappeared like this.
Then it wasn’t bad to take a day off here and recover from fatigue.
One thing that bothered me was that the root cause of the disappearance of the villagers might have some effect on them, but they decided not to neglect their vigilance.
“Okay. So, let’s install the alert artifact first, get something to eat right away, and solve it in the evening. Get some rest and leave early tomorrow morning.”
“Okay. Good.”
◆ ◆ ◆
‘This…’
It slowly opened its eyes at the sweet scent flowing through its nose.
‘It’s been a while.’
It was the smell of prey that I hadn’t smelled in a very long time.
Intoxicated with the delicious and appetizing scent, it moved to the point of awakening its slumbering consciousness.
It was a dark night even though it was shining brightly as if the moonlight had engulfed the whole.
The cold night wind blew coldly, but it didn’t bother me at all.
Rather, the smell of prey carried by the wind stimulated its instincts and appetite.
‘I want to eat.’
I’m hungry.
Thirsty.
No matter how much I eat, I just want to quench this unsatisfied thirst.
It was a monster itself, as if intelligence didn’t exist, and only the instinct of a beast that greedy for food preceded it.
‘It’s over there.’
Attracted by the smell of its prey, it looked toward the house where it thought its target might be.
In the dark, without making a sound, he secretly entered the house.
Concerned that the prey might notice and run away, it killed the prey with as quiet a step as possible.
It slowly approached its prey.
The action was so familiar and there was no hesitation.
Through trial and error several times, he supplemented his problems and learned how to hunt his prey.
And when they finally reached the room where the prey was supposed to be.
Weeeee
It stopped the hand it had reached for the doorknob to open the door and stiffened its body abruptly.
‘What?’
I didn’t know what the fuss was about.
The alarm sound that made the ears loud was a ‘variable’ that he had never experienced before.
It felt embarrassing for the first time in a long time.
That variable creates bewilderment, which in turn creates confusion and hesitation.
Should I continue hunting, or should I run away?
It was a short hesitation that made me hesitate because I couldn’t choose.
Kwajik!
That short hesitation was enough time to drive it to death.
As soon as the door was broken, a surprise attack of sharp blades protruding from inside attacked it.
“Cheer, whoa!”
I couldn’t escape the sword that pierced my neck.
It couldn’t let out a single scream and had to vomit dark blood along with its breath.
“All… I thought it was extinct, but no way…”
Cha Hanseong, who swung his sword in a surprise attack and quickly pierced its neck, muttered with a confused expression.
“I never thought vampires would still be around.”
His voice went cold.
