Hiding a House in the Apocalypse-Chapter 119.6: Tool (6)

The footsteps, which had approached loudly and boldly, paused briefly in front of the warehouse before resuming in a more cautious and stealthy manner.

That short stop and change hinted that it was good news for us.

It meant one of them might be a sensory perceiver.

They had planned to inform us of our location beforehand and strike all at once.

The quiet footsteps soon shifted once again, this time to explosive and violent sounds of running.

Tack, tack, tack, tack!

It was one person.

Probably the most daring among them, a sort of assault leader.

"Bastards!"

He stopped just in front of the wall we were hiding behind, threatening us as if he were about to reveal himself any second.

He might be testing our weapons.

After all, this was an era where everyone was armed with firearms, and at the very least, crossbows.

As previously discussed, we refrained from using firearms and took a few steps back.

The brief silence returned.

And then...

Thud!

A shockwave.

The fanatic Awakened had used his power.

It was a flawless Over 5-Level shockwave.

"Go on. Go on. Slowly. Slowly."

A faint North Korean accent could be heard in his voice.

Step, step.

The hesitant footsteps sounded closer as they re-formed and approached directly in front of us.

"Alright, let's go."

The footsteps split into two sounds.

The leading footsteps came from behind, while the following footsteps approached us from the front.

It was like someone singing the lead and the others echoing the chorus.

"......"

I signaled to Defender.

No firearms.

I had read the Awakened's thoughts.

He was slowly advancing, intending to place his team within the range of the reverse field’s protection, while trying to push in his forces armed with melee weapons.

It was a strategy that might be viable if the Awakened was on the team.

But he had chosen the wrong opponent.

Inside the warehouse were two ferocious beasts.

And those beasts had utilized close combat with countless humans.

"Hello, cuties?"

The fanatic appeared, protected by his reverse field.

A tall, broad-shouldered man with a strong presence showed his gaping blackened teeth as he flashed a grin.

He charged.

From both sides.

The man, showing his teeth, raised his arms, but he didn’t have a weapon.

He was only wearing knuckles.

He probably killed many people with those knuckles and had gained some confidence from that.

Thud!

"Aaaaah!!!!!"

A human fist is weak.

What makes humans strong isn’t the fist itself, but the power of the grip and the strength of the shoulders connecting to the arms.

I drove an axe into the man’s arm and ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ used another axe to strike the screaming man’s neck. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Thud!

I looked beyond the collapsing man.

Defender had driven a dagger into the neck of another fanatic.

He shoved the dead fanatic aside and tackled the fanatic that had followed.

Snap!

After a brief delay, I caught a glimpse of Defender handling the second fanatic.

There was one problem.

I faced forward.

The 5-Level Awakened drew two pistols and aimed them at us.

Bang! Bang, bang, bang, bang!

As soon as we took cover behind the warehouse, the retaliatory gunfire rang out.

The accuracy of the shots didn’t seem that high.

The bullets were ricocheting in absurd directions.

But someone with a firearm is always stronger than someone without.

Hoping for the opponent to make a mistake and charging in with no other choice would be a suicidal move.

"These bastards?!"

But I wouldn’t let that guy go.

I signaled Defender, who was taking cover behind the wall near the entrance.

Defender nodded and stuck his body out from behind the entrance.

Bang! Bang!

The retaliatory gunfire immediately rang out, but Defender had only briefly shown himself.

"Hey! Hey! Come quickly!"

The Awakened was calling for reinforcements.

Behind the frantic screams, I could hear the sound of footsteps stumbling backward.

Click—

A firearm appeared as the man emerged from the other side, aiming it at us.

"Aaah!"

In the dim light, I clearly saw the man aiming his firearm in his eyes.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

What I was waiting for was the sound that would follow the gunshots.

Screech, screech—

The magazine ran out.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Defender, who had been behind the wall, grabbed one of the bodies and threw it toward the entrance.

Bang!

That was the final gunshot.

Both pistols had run out of ammunition.

I heard the sound of an empty trigger clicking as it hit the ground, and I sprinted out.

Thud!

The man with the pale face tried to create a shockwave, but my eyes were already calculating the distance between him and me.

5 meters.

The minimum range of the reverse field deployed by the Awakened.

It could probably be reduced a little more, but it would never reach zero.

Even the monster the Awakened had mimicked was constrained by this minimum range barrier.

"Don’t come!"

I closed the gap to within 4 meters and fired.

The fanatic pulled the trigger, but it was only my shots that rang out.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three shots in rapid succession.

Beyond the collapsing man, I could see the fanatics who had surrounded us.

Fortunately, only a few were armed with automatic weapons.

Most were armed with melee weapons.

In an area swarming with zombies, it would have been a rational choice, but at least here, it worked in my favor.

I withdrew calmly into the warehouse in front of the fanatics.

I looked toward Jang Ki-young.

The short but intense battle we had just fought had no effect on him.

Under the rusty light, he was still moving, completely absorbed in making his 'secret weapon.'

I exchanged glances with Defender.

We kicked the bodies lying on the floor and placed them in front of the entrance to create an obvious barricade.

It was a small shock tactic.

Outside, there were at least 30 fanatics.

If they all charged in at once, even we wouldn’t stand a chance.

But that was a rare scenario.

A person’s life is unique to them, and this was true for both them and us.

Honestly, who would want to die?

I felt the expected effect spreading among them.

There was no response.

It seemed that after wiping out the Awakened and the others in an instant, their morale had been shattered.

But they wouldn’t retreat.

They had too many numbers to retreat.

They would probably come up with another method after some consideration.

"Professor."

I called out to Jang Ki-young.

"What is it, Park Gyu?"

"I don't have much time."

"Alright! Alright! I'll make it fast! It's almost done! Damn it! I still have to make something for Daram! Where the hell is Daram? Is she off gossiping about Woo Min-hee, Jang Soo-ji, Ko Jeong-a, Han Yeo-ul, Na Hye-in, and the others again?"

Jang Ki-young sighed.

"Why does she live like that? Why does she compare herself to others over trivial things? With a body bestowed by God, yet with such a twisted mind, she can't rise above!"

Despite everything, Jang Ki-young seemed to have a keen understanding of Kim Daram's true nature.

Anyway, even amidst this brief silence, the fanatics were eagerly planning their next attack.

"Call more brothers! We need more brothers!"

A woman, likely the commander, shouted orders to the followers from behind a vehicle.

I checked through the mirror.

The fanatic leader wore a white robe that covered his entire body, and across it, in elegant calligraphy, were the Chinese characters 萬流歸宗 混世一統—"All Rivers Return to the Same Source, Unifying the World."

"Is that the Heo Jun you were chasing?"

I asked Defender.

"No, Heo Jun is a man."

Defender’s gaze shifted toward Jang Ki-young.

In the end, the root of all this trouble was Jang Ki-young.

With the sensory perceiver dead, escaping through the back route should be much easier now.

The more time we waste, the worse it gets.

"Can’t we just take the professor and leave?"

"...... I’ll talk to him."

Then Jang Ki-young shouted.

"It's done! It's done!"

Jang Ki-young raised the item from the table triumphantly.

"......"

It was no different from what I saw earlier.

It was a grotesque object made by attaching two metal cylinders together—its purpose unclear.

Holding the worthless item, Jang Ki-young looked at me and smiled broadly.

"Professor. See? This! This!"

"What is... this?"

"It’s a specialized weapon for General-type monsters."

"Is that so."

"Yes. With this, whether it’s a general-type or anything else, it’s no problem. Our real hunters can kill them with this! With just this!"

I didn’t understand.

Are we really supposed to kill a monster that has never been hunted before, using this crude junk?

The monster that even a Level 11 Hunter from North America tried to hunt but went mad before coming back?

What’s more terrifying than Jang Ki-young’s appearance—his nose gone due to zombification—is his thoughts.

Watching him with a blank expression, Jang Ki-young straightened his face and, like a drunk man, began shouting.

"Hey! You! Park Gyu! Everything I’ve taught you is correct. I know exactly what you're thinking!"

"......"

"You think I'm wrong, don’t you? Huh? You think I’m wrong, right? You treat me like a fraud! Hey! Do you think I don't know you?"

"...... Professor."

Did he know?

Did he know and pretend not to?

Had he welcomed me warmly in front of the apartment, knowing full well my cynicism, and then left me his notebook just before death?

The sound of a vehicle was heard outside.

It seemed like reinforcements for the fanatics had arrived.

The sound of Defender reloading his magazine was sharply clear in the silence.

"Watch."

Breaking the stifling silence, Jang Ki-young spoke.

"I'll show you. The practicality of the new tool I’ve developed!"

"Professor."

"Ah! Wait a minute! Just a little! I just need to pour fuel in here, and it’ll be ready!"

Jang Ki-young, who had been shouting and scolding just moments ago, now smiled brightly, as if nothing had happened.

"You’ll be surprised! Haha! Yes! You’ll be surprised! Even the great professor!"

Thud—

Something dropped behind me.

Instinctively, I identified the object that had fallen to the ground.

A grenade.

Without hesitation, I leapt forward and grabbed it, throwing it outside the door.

Boom!

The grenade exploded in the air.

"Skeleton."

Defender looked at me with slight shock.

I nodded and raised my firearm.

"Let’s hold out just a little longer."

The stubbornness of the dead is almost gone.

A little longer.

Just a little longer.

"Waahhh!!!"

With a roar that seemed to signal their departure, the fanatics rushed forward as a group.

They weren’t foolish; they didn’t charge straight at us.

Thud— thud— thud—

Several deadly objects fell into the warehouse.

I gave up on covering the entrance and retreated deeper into the warehouse.

Boom! Boom!

Grenades exploded one after another, and one of the thrown objects released a thick smoke in all directions.

A smoke screen.

Through the thick smoke, I could see shadows of figures holding various weapons.

"Cease fire!"

I shouted to Defender and opened fire.

Bang!

My aim was at the ceiling, far beyond the smoke.

There was no shockwave.

"Fire!"

Tatatatang!

Tatatatang!

Both mine and Defender’s guns fired at the same time.

Under the relentless barrage of automatic gunfire, the fanatics in the smoke screen fell helplessly.

"Uaaahhh!!"

Occasionally, one of them would dart out from the smoke.

Bang!

One bullet silenced them.

The second wave was broken.

When the thick smoke cleared, piles of corpses and wriggling wounded fanatics were revealed.

A fanatic, with a wound on his leg, glared at us with bloodshot eyes and tried to say something.

Bang!

Defender finished him off with his pistol.

"We’ve taken down about twelve."

Quickly counting the bodies, Defender reloaded his rifle.

He scanned the outside for any movement.

Dead silent.

Looking through the mirror, I saw the fanatics retreating behind.

It seemed like they had finally figured out who we were.

But this fanatic had a secret weapon.

"Heo Jun brothers! Call the Heo Jun brothers!"

The fanatics began chanting strange incantations in unison.

The chant seemed to be in Chinese, though even if it were in Korean, I wouldn’t have understood it.

Jingle—

With the sound of a bell, a pale monster appeared from beyond the darkness.

A monster.

With a pale body and many unreadable Chinese characters scrawled across it, the monster, led by the fanatics, was approaching us.

"What is that?"

Defender muttered as he looked at the monster.

I don’t know either.

It’s an unfamiliar type.

But if my memory serves me right, that thing is a type first discovered in China.

A new species discovered just before my retirement.

Its Chinese pronunciation is "Lu Bu." In Korean, it’s "Yeobo."

A small and combat-focused type.

Not an infiltrator.