Kaang!
A massive axe swung with tremendous force.
I hurriedly drew the [Kitchen Chef’s Knife] and barely managed to block it, but—
“What a piece of junk gear...!”
The power packed into that chop was considerable.
With my original weapons, I’d have endured it without issue.
But with a shop-bought chef’s knife, it was a bit much.
If I tried to take it head-on, that chop would split my skull along with the knife.
I had no choice.
I flipped my grip, held the knife in reverse,
and bled the strike off the flat of the blade—only then did I barely turn the axe aside.
“Good thing I sparred often with Gwangil.”
His punches were so strong it was hard to block with a wooden training dagger,
so I ended up learning a defensive technique like this by necessity.
And—
maybe he recognized the way I redirected the blow.
“...What!?”
The eyes of the man who swung the axe
went wide.
Either way,
instead of opposing the force in his axe,
I took it in, let it carry me, and slid far back.
“What are these guys.”
I
identified the enemy in detail.
[Ingredient Identification (Enhanced)]
[Awakened: Park Junggu]
[Job: Barbarian Lv.26]
Seeing that, I couldn’t help but frown.
“Level 26.”
He was a serious heavyweight.
And—
however he interpreted the fact I’d blocked such a man’s attack—
“You’re... not one of the ones who deserted from our group.”
These people who’d tried to subdue everything in sight—
a flicker of shock lit all their eyes.
“He blocked the Captain’s strike.”
“He doesn’t even look properly equipped... blocked the Captain’s axe with that little knife?”
“No... he didn’t block it. He redirected it. Might be a dangerous enemy.”
The people who’d spread out to subdue the other raiders
closed in around me,
drew weapons, and started watching me warily.
Unlike those raider punks,
they had decent gear and genuine skill.
“What is this now?”
I had no idea why I was suddenly surrounded by people like that.
“D—damn it. They chased us all the way here...”
“We ran this hard and they still didn’t give up?”
Voices of the raider punks behind me.
Only then
could I roughly guess the situation.
“They were blatant criminals. In contrast—”
When I identified the men in front of me,
not a single one had a shady job.
“They’re probably a normal survivor group.”
And
they’d come from that normal group to catch these raider punks.
Meaning—
“They have absolutely no reason to fight me!”
I immediately raised both hands.
“Let’s calm down. I—”
I was about to make it clear I had no intention to fight...
“R—right. Yeah.”
“We’ve got our senior!”
The raider punks behind me—
who’d fallen into deep despair the moment they spotted their pursuers—
“S—sir!”
“Please, just spare us this once!”
suddenly clung to my legs
and shouted.
“Who are you calling senior!?”
I wanted to yell that,
but it was already too late.
“‘Senior,’ huh.”
Those normal survivors—
their eyes stabbed sharply into me.
“It’s not like that!”
I hurriedly denied it,
but—
“Right, he doesn’t seem to be the one who deserted from our group... but it’s clear he’s in league with them.”
—meant nothing.
I sighed and said,
“You look like you’ve come to apprehend these three.”
“That’s right.”
“May I ask why?”
“Simple. They committed serious crimes in our group and ran.”
The man unhooked the axe from his back and said,
“We considered just letting them go, but they’re criminals our group produced. If they go out and do evil to others, that’ll be rooted in our own failings... so we have to take responsibility and deal with them.”
When I dipped my head and glanced down,
the three criminals didn’t look like they planned to deny it—
they just trembled.
“Hard to believe, but I met these guys for the first time today. If you’re going to take them, I won’t interfere. Do as you wish.”
“S—sir!?”
They whimpered and shouted,
but I didn’t have the bandwidth to care about punks who’d tried to rob me.
“Well now...? ‘First time’ and yet they’re calling you ‘sir’ like it’s nothing and clinging to you the instant danger shows up. Does that sound right to you?”
“I admit the situation looks a bit odd. But I swear I have no reason to fight you.”
“Hm. You never know.”
“I’m telling you—!”
“Even if you’re right and you’re not in league with them.”
The burly middle-aged man who’d swung the axe at me
narrowed his eyes and looked at me.
“I think we have plenty of reason to fight.”
“What do you mean.”
“Heh. Do you really need to ask?”
The man spoke
like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Out here in the outskirts... living all the way out in the zone where that ‘Black Wall’ is in sight.”
“...?”
“Ordinary people have no reason to operate in such a dangerous place, do they?”
Same with those raider punks.
And the line this man just dropped.
“Is this an area people don’t usually come near?”
A place where the number of monsters is abnormally high,
and I hadn’t felt a single human presence.
I’d thought it was odd,
but it seemed there was a reason humans avoided this whole stretch.
“Either you’re in with those punks... or, if not, you did something serious in another group and ran.”
Just being the sort of human who roamed a place like this
was proof enough that you had a dirty tail.
“Judging by how you turned my blow, your skill’s decent—your character’s another matter.”
He clenched the huge axe in both hands,
smiled brightly, and said,
“You’ll be subdued anyway... but until then, I hope you can entertain me a little.”
“......”
He raised his aura,
smiling like he was truly pleased.
We hadn’t known each other long,
but I could tell right away what kind of human he was.
“A battle maniac.”
The type you often see among warrior-class Awakened.
People who, only after the world went to hell,
awoke to the violence inside them that civilization never brought out—
madmen who find their reason to live in fighting and enjoy battle itself.
“...What should I do.”
They looked fairly strong.
Besides the guy with the axe, several others had decent levels.
But—
“If I have to run, I can.”
Alone would be insane.
But two vampires still dwelled in my shadow.
However—
“From what I heard... those people sound like a normal group, far from criminal.”
In that case—
Hmm.
“Do I really need to run?”
Mm.
Decision made.
“All right, criminal punk! Resist all you like!”
With that,
the burly man hurled himself at me.
Call it luck—
we saw that type often in our unit,
so I also knew well how to handle them.
“You told me to resist all I want...”
I moved to meet his charge,
and I—
“I’ll really do it my way.”
“...Huh?”
Thunk.
I dropped the dagger in my hand to the floor,
laced my fingers, and put both hands behind my back.
“...What is this supposed to be?”
The man, who’d been stoking himself up, eager for a fight,
scowled and asked.
“You told me to resist all I want.”
I shrugged.
“So I’m resisting exactly as much as I want.”
“Resist? To anyone looking, that’s no resistance.”
“Yes. This is how much I want to resist.”
“...So you have no intention of resisting.”
The most efficient way to deal with battle maniacs—
is not to fight them.
“S—sir!?”
When I surrendered meekly,
the ones who panicked were the criminals behind me.
“What are you doing! If you do that, they’ll haul you off!”
“Judging by where you were, you’re a criminal too, aren’t you! If they catch you, it’s not going to end well—”
At that,
a few of the assailants reacted.
“‘You’re a criminal too,’ huh...”
“You talk like you don’t really know him.”
“...Maybe he really isn’t with them.”
Between me not resisting
and the raider punks’ words,
they seemed to gain a bit of trust that I might not be with those three.
“Hoo... I thought it might finally be a proper fight for once. What a letdown.”
Their captain, too,
slung the huge axe over his back and said,
“I don’t know who you are. But the suspicion you’re in league with them isn’t completely cleared yet.”
My original plan
was to cross into Gyeonggi Province, make safe contact with a sizable group,
get information from them,
and if Gyeonggi’s people were in danger, help as much as possible to save them.
And—
“I can’t leave people who are likely criminals unattended. If you truly don’t plan to resist, you’ll need to come with us.”
“......”
That first plan
ended up coming together in a very, very strange way.
*****
“We’ve successfully apprehended the criminals. Time to head back.”
“Everyone stay sharp. We’re near the [Black Wall]. One °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° misstep and we could be surrounded by monsters.”
“Yes.”
In the end,
I found myself tied with a thick rope by people I’d never met,
being dragged off to somewhere.
“How did it end up like this.”
No—
the reason was obvious.
“Those punks.”
Far off,
the three of them were being dragged as well, bound like me.
From what I heard,
they’d committed serious crimes within the group these assailants belonged to.
“Of all things, they had to be the first ones I met...”
The reason this got so tangled
was simply because they were the first humans I’d run into,
and I tried to get information out of them.
It hits me afresh:
“Life was easy with the unit.”
Operating alone without my own power base
is a lot harder and messier than you’d think.
“As expected. I need to secure a force.”
That was my thought,
but putting it into action felt tangled from the first button.
“For now, I’ll just go with them and see.”
The fortunate part was—
because I chose not to resist,
their attitude toward me was comparatively less sharp than toward the three criminals.
And thanks to that—
“May I ask one thing?”
“What is it?”
Like this—
I was allowed to ask a question of the young man holding my rope.
Since I was being taken anyway,
and it was my choice, I planned to go without complaint.
Still, there was one thing to ask.
“Where are you taking me?”
“...‘Where’? You asked something equally strange when you spoke with the Captain.”
I still hadn’t properly grasped Gyeonggi Province’s situation.
To me,
what he said sounded quite foreign.
“Obviously to the [Association] branch.”
“...?”
Association.
“Association, huh.”
......
What is that?
****
Kaang!
After a long walk and a night on the move,
the place I arrived at, captive among them, was—
“Impressive.”
a survivor base walled by a broad, towering rampart.
“Captain of the Combat Division! You’ve returned!”
“Mhm. Open the gate.”
“Yes! One moment!”
The people on the wall confirmed our approach,
and the heavy gate rumbled open.
Inside,
I saw a small town, seemingly built by repurposing a few buildings.
“So they encircled a cluster of buildings with that rampart.”
In itself, that wasn’t anything special.
Bases that used existing buildings were common.
What was special was that thing:
“An incredible wall.”
Tall and sturdy-looking,
the kind you wouldn’t think ordinary humans could raise.
“Do they have an engineer like our corps—or an Awakened with a similar job?”
Once inside,
despite the rough exterior, it was relatively warm.
Large bonfires burned here and there,
and it seemed they circulated that heat within the wall to keep the place warm.
I could also see people moving about.
“Their faces... aren’t bright.”
Well,
judging by the environment alone, this looked worse than Gangwon Province where I’d been active.
Life wouldn’t be easy here.
Even so,
though I expected their lives to be hard—
“...This is a fairly decent group, though.”
As a group,
it looked reasonably normal.
Thinking of what happened at Myohyangsa,
I wondered if this place might also have a higher ratio of non-Awakened or some such,
but—
[Ingredient Identification (Enhanced)]
after a look,
they were a solid group mainly composed of Awakened.
It had gotten a bit tangled,
but this was exactly the type of group
I’d wanted to make first contact with.
Right.
The problem was...
“Inside.”
Kaang!
...that the tangling
had gotten very tangled.
A group that looked like it had real scale—
they even had a jail made of some special material.
“Try anything funny and you won’t be forgiven... best to behave.”
Saying that,
the man shut the door and left.
And so,
in the dead of winter,
I was tossed into the middle of a holding cell.
“We’ll start with you three. We’re going to hear in detail why you did that garbage. Move.”
With that,
the three raiders were dragged out by force.
“You’re next. Wait here.”
“Sure.”
And so,
I was left alone in the cell.
With nothing in particular to do
and no one to talk to,
I sank quietly into thought.
“So then... what now.”
First,
I began a few checks.
“The wall looks pretty solid, but...”
Probably the same material as the giant rampart outside.
Sure, this was a building meant to hold Awakened.
No plain concrete cell that would crumble to a casual punch.
[Elemental Cuisine]
Ssshh...
“As expected. This works.”
I reached a hand to the wall while triggering a skill.
Very slowly,
the surface turned liquid and drooled away.
“If it comes to it, I can escape.”
With that confirmed,
I could take my time and read the situation.
“My first goal—crossing the wall—was a success.”
In the worst case, I’d considered the possibility the people of Gyeonggi were already wiped out.
Despite the extreme environment,
I’d now confirmed there were humans left who could build a wall and live within it.
From here,
what mattered was how I acted.
“Top priority... confirm whether my people and the families of my unit are alive.”
But—
I couldn’t do that alone.
“I’ll need help from the locals.”
To pull it off, first,
I needed to help them
and earn their goodwill.
“My secondary goal is also to help the people in this region.”
The problem was the method.
And that was something I had to puzzle out here.
“Because I can’t reveal anything about the Legion.”
The penalty for crossing regions.
Because of that,
I couldn’t disclose that I’d come from beyond that wall.
Chief among which was the Legion itself.
Which meant—
“I can’t reveal that I’m part of the force broadcasting the radio spreading through this place.”
We got jumped right when I wanted to hear it properly,
but—
“Those raider punks definitely mentioned the radio.”
When I first planned to cross into this place,
if the Legion’s radio had spread properly and was helping people,
I’d intended to reveal at once that I was dispatched from the Legion.
“Getting them to believe me would be an issue... and even if they did, whether they’d truly feel goodwill toward the Legion would be another issue.”
Either way,
if I said I was Legion,
there was a good chance I could quickly win goodwill.
“...But that path is closed now.”
Right.
Maybe that’s for the best.
If I were a member of a normal survivor group,
and I met someone claiming they were ex-Legion—
“Could I trust them completely?”
The answer was no.
“First I’d be extremely cautious.”
It’s not just an issue of whether the other person truly came from the Legion or not.
Even if they did—
“At this point, the Legion as an organization wouldn’t feel purely trustworthy.”
A military unit broadcasting radio that helps survivors.
Looked at that way, you might think it’d be strange not to trust them,
but sadly, this world doesn’t work so simply.
“In apocalypse scenarios... few things corrupt as readily as a military unit.”
In movies and dramas,
a powerful military unit often falls to corruption by its own strength
and preys on survivors instead.
For now, they were benefiting from our information,
but separate from that,
whether they could truly trust the Legion was unknown.
And—
“I also can’t fully trust them yet.”
In that situation, bringing up the Legion and making it messy—
instead,
“It might be better to claim I’ve been living alone as a solo survivor.”
You know how it is.
If you’re a warrior or assassin-type,
you sometimes solo just to survive.
“I couldn’t do that as a chef.”
But right now—
I’d just have to act like I could.
****
“...Your turn.”
After making that decision and waiting quietly,
it seemed the interrogation of the other three had finished.
My turn came.
“......”
Gulp.
But—
why was it?
“...You.”
The people who opened the cell and looked at me—
their faces were tense.
“Is it true... that you came across from the Demon Realm?”
No.
Seriously.
“What even is that.”
