Chapter 6. The Little Prince in The Ossuary (6)
# Procurement Mission (4), San Miguel.
The San Miguel flour factory was an old-looking wooden building, large enough to fit a dozen houses inside. There was a railway track passing right by it, which provided a clear view of its north and south side.
When the soldiers announced they’d pick someone to stand guard at the crossing, the participants who had already somewhat filled their bags volunteered themselves. They thought it’d be relatively safer to stand guard in an open space than to conduct a search inside a closed building. A healthy college-aged young man and a fat-bellied middle-aged man were chosen for the job.
Corporal Elliot led the rest of the team to the factory’s east side. There were a total of four entrances. One led to the office, as it was written on a sign, and the three others were for loading cargo. At the far end of the factory, there was a semi-trailer parked just right outside one of the entrances. Gyeoul tried to open the driver’s seat door, but as expected, it was locked.
All the entrances to the factory had been left wide open. Due to the lack of light inside, every entrance resembled a dark hole, but none of the participants had been provided with lanterns. It was such an essential item, but they had somehow overlooked it during the planning phase.
Since they had found the keys for the fire truck inside of the fire station, the keys for this truck might have also been left behind. Just as Gyeoul was thinking of entering the office, Private Guilherme called him from behind.
“Don’t tell me you’re planning on going inside alone again, are you? Should I go in with you?”
“No, we need the instructor outside. Just lend me your flashlight.”
“Hooah.”
Guilherme couldn’t help but be astonished at the boy’s guts. He then unclipped an angle head flashlight from his bulletproof vest and handed it to the boy.
Although the U.S. military had taken refugees as volunteers to reduce their soldier’s casualties, that didn’t mean they were okay with needlessly sacrificing refugees. However, with the exception of the boy, the participants were even more passive than they had originally expected, so the soldiers were eager to see the boy in action.
Gyeoul walked towards the entrance to the office with his rifle on his back and holding his machete. As soon as he entered, he saw a staircase wide enough for just one person. Except for a few steps that were right in front of him, everything else was covered in darkness. It was a very unsettling scene.
Just like he did at the fire station, the boy knocked on the wall with the machete so that if there were any mutants inside, they’d hear the sound and creep out. After hitting the wall a few times, he heard a mutant walking towards the staircase. Judging from the non-overlapping footsteps, it seemed there was only one mutant on its way.
Gyeoul carefully climbed up the stairs without turning on his flashlight. He was going to rely solely on the smell and sounds he could sense.
Amid the pitch darkness where seeing was impossible, two creaking sounds created a dissonant noise. A monotonous, grim noise played in the background. Gyeoul wasn’t scared, but his heart was beating fast. His senses were telling him so. It was an artificially created feeling regulated by the Control AI.
Notifications of new viewers’ messages flickered crazily in his periphery.
The mutants reeked of putrefying flesh. According to the information, once the pathogen tries to take over the mutant’s body, it causes an immune system malfunction, making its skin fester, and eventually rot. Not only that, but the infection also affects the respiratory system, producing a very coarse and sharp sound upon breathing.
Before he knew it, the unpleasant smell and sound were already right beside him. Gyeoul boldly stretched out the hand that wasn’t holding the knife, grabbing onto something.
“Skreee—!”
A horrible shriek scratched the boy’s eardrum. Gyeoul ducked and lifted the mutant’s lower body in one swift motion. The sound of the mutant’s heavy breathing passed right by his ear before it fell behind his back.
Thump!
The boy presumed the viewers who kept the「Sensory Synchronization」 on must have felt thrilled with that experience. It was something he had done intentionally.
The boy turned on the flashlight. The mutant that was struggling on the floor frowned with a shriek. Though mutated, its body was still that of a human’s. It would take time for its eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. But the boy didn’t allow that to happen and immediately thrust his machete into its open mouth. The mutant reflexively bit the blade, but couldn’t get the machete out of its mouth. The boy then put more weight on the machete.
Cruuunch!
Twisting the blade, the boy felt the crushing of its brain stemming from the tip of his knife. The mutant convulsed on the ground, but its struggle gradually decreased until it completely stopped. Finally, the mutant’s eyes rolled back and died while staring at the boy. The boy, however, remained unfazed.
The boy grabbed the mutant by its leg and dragged it down the stairs and out of the building. When he came out, the people that were standing guard outside pointed their guns at him, but soon lowered them after noticing it was the boy. Tossing the corpse by the entrance, the boy went up the stairs once again.
He entered the office and flipped the switch, but the lights didn’t turn on, so the boy started searching the office relying only on his flashlight. To his surprise, the first thing he found was an old pistol lying carelessly in an easily accessible drawer. There were also two small cartons of 50 round bullets, marked 45 ACP FMJ, and a spare magazine along with the gun. He didn’t know whether it was because he was in the U.S. or because it was a game.
Aside from the gun and ammo, he also found the keys for both the car and the silo. There was also a humidor filled with cigars, which he took with him to give it to the soldiers in case they liked it.
When he came down the stairs, Private Guilherme approached him.
“Did you get bitten anywhere?” He asked, with a stuffy-sounding voice coming through the gas mask.
The boy shook his head and spread his arms sideways. After giving him a thorough examination, the private raised his hand and gave a thumbs up. A short distance away, Corporal Elliot nodded.
“Guilherme, do you smoke?”
“Yeah, why do you—wait, hold on, are those Cohiba Robusto you’re holding?”
“Split them with Elliot,” the boy handed over the box to the private who was jumping with joy.
Cohiba Robusto was one of the finest handmade Cuban cigars which used to cost over 15 dollars a stick. Any heavy smoker would be pleased if they received a box full of such fine cigars.
“I found the key to the trailer. Mind if I check it out?” The boy asked for permission even though it was a trivial thing.
The two soldiers looked at each other. The corporal then gave him a nod as an answer.
The boy pushed the key into the keyhole of the semi-trailer and the door opened without any problem. After confirming that the door was fine, it was now time to see if the engine worked. Without further delay, the boy climbed up to the driver’s seat, inserted the key into the ignition hole and twisted it. The car started with a loud splutter, which made the people around noticeably more nervous.
Thankfully, the trailer had some oil left in the tank. The boy decided to move the trailer to the loading dock. Thanks to his previous runs, it wasn’t hard for him to drive even without the driving skill. Of course, he’d be able to drive more skillfully if he had it, but that wasn’t an urgent matter.
The boy went back into the building, this time through another entrance. Thanks to the sunlight shining through the cracks on the tin roof, the inside wasn’t completely dark, unlike the office. But there were still places here and there covered in shadows. It wouldn’t be strange if there was something hiding under those places. The other participants who had come into the building with him were so scared that they could hardly move a step forward.
Once again, to check if there were any mutants, the boy banged on a metal container sitting next to him. But no matter how long he waited, nothing came out.
Gyeoul then started walking around, checking every corner with his flashlight, but he couldn’t find any mutants. ‘This is unusual,’ the boy thought. Still, he didn’t let his guard down. There could be mutants that had lost their hearing lurking under the shadows.
“Whee, look what we have here!” Elliot exclaimed at the mountain of wheat and cornflour. If they could bring this back to the camp, they wouldn’t have to worry about food for months. It would have to go through a sanitary inspection, but the process was only in-name. Even the gas masks they were wearing were only for the sake of appearances. If they were really worried about getting infected, they should’ve worn a full-body suit instead of just a mask. It was proof that things were going badly in the Western part of the U.S.
Unlike Corporal Elliot, what Gyeoul was paying attention to was not the sacks of flour. Instead, he was looking at several sacks of seeds stacked up in a corner. He was thinking he could take those seeds to cultivate them, but there was a trap here. The seeds from certain companies would not germinate after the first harvest. These seeds were called terminator seeds; they were genetically modified seeds created to produce plants whose own seeds were sterile so that farmers would have to repurchase their product instead of being able to replant their own yield.
Because of this, one of Gyeoul’s previous runs had ended up with a bad ending. There was even an achievement for it.
「Achievement: No, my crops are eunuchs!」*
It was a catastrophe for the boy who had built a fairly stable community. The second year’s harvest had been close to zero. The members of the community blamed their leader, Gyeoul, and the community soon collapsed due to the shortage of food. The boy was, of course, killed in the process.
The boy then realized that he might have to explain this to his viewers. He hesitantly called up the viewers’ messages log. Whenever he did this, the world didn’t seem realistic anymore, and his immersion was interrupted.
The boy paused the game for a moment and activated the Teletype function. All his thoughts were instantly converted into letters.
「Han Gyeoul: Let me explain something for those of you who are new to the Days After Apocalypse. The reason I’m not taking those seeds with us is that they are terminator seeds. The terminator seeds are genetically modified to produce a high yield, but also to produce nothing in the following year. I’ve tried to farm them before without knowing this, and as you can see, I failed miserably. So, if you want to farm crops in this game, you have to either stick with the generic products like the logo-free sacks that I’m looking at right now or just get a ton of terminator seed bags and treat them like consumables. If you want to get the achievement 「No, my crops are eunuchs!」, you can try getting the bad ending. But it only gives you a buff that raises the crops’ resistance to blights and droughts, so I don’t think it’s worth the effort.」
Viewers’ responses popped up almost immediately.
「Legend12: They get so realistic in these kinds of details! lmao」
「Dew_crocodile: crops are eunuchs XD who named that achievement?!」
「updawg: I know this too. It’s a trick that the famous seed companies use to squeeze the farmers in developing countries dry. Especially Monxxxto, those fuckers are the worst. They took the patent to produce red hot peppers and spinach seeds, and there are still decades left before the patent expires. The Korean spinach you guys are eating is all American OEM products. Oh, by the way, Your Honor, it was my cat that wrote this comment.」
「VanDakHom: He’s reading the comments now, right? Dude, what you did with that zombie back in the stairs, it was awesome! I almost wet my pants when you did that XD Here, take my money」
[VanDakHom donated 10 stars.]
「Soup4sluts: No one asked you updawg」
「updawg: And why don’t u stfu asshole?」
「SnowyFox: Guys, don’t fight in the chat.」
[SnowyFox donated 10 stars.]
「Anko: Don’t stop them! just let them fight」
The flooding messages quickly replaced the previous ones, making it hard to read them one by one. The boy then counted the amount of virtual currency, 「Stars」, that he had collected so far. He had a few tens of thousands of won. For some reason, his heart became heavier.
Gyeoul closed the message log and resumed the game. The world came back to life once more.
When the boy looked around, Corporal Eliot was talking to his radio, telling the main force to bring the truck to the flour factory. The rest of the team was loading the food on the semi-trailer parked at the loading dock under Private Guilherme’s order.
When the boy walked up to help them load the food, Private Guilherme approached him and patted his shoulder.
“Just leave the rest to the others and take some rest, brave boy. You’ve already done enough today, don’t you think?” said Guilherme with a wink.
“…Alright.” The boy nodded.
Not much later, distant noises of vehicles could be heard. Outside, there were four military cargo trucks.
The master sergeant, the one who had been in charge of the participants’ body inspection back at the camp, came along as the vehicle commander. His name was Pearce. He was greatly pleased with the mountain of sacks that were more than enough to fill up the truck.
“We can finally put the KPs back to work.”
However, the elated mood only lasted until they heard a strange rumble coming from the northern exit. But they couldn’t get a clear view of the outside through the northern exit due to the grain silos and water tower obstructing the view.
“What’s that sound? Check what it is,” ordered Pierce.
At the instruction, Corporal Elliot radioed the volunteers who were standing guard at the crossing and asked them if they could see anything from the north. But the sign of disaster quickly became apparent from the sound rather than the sight. The rumbling noise was the sound of a train running on the railroad.
Knowing that trains weren’t supposed to be operating, the soldiers were disconcerted at the situation. Even more dumbfounding, however, was that the train was running straight towards some unattended vehicles left in the middle of the tracks without signs of speeding down.
Receiving the report through the radio, the corporal’s face turned pale immediately.
“Mother of…” The corporal turned around and started running outside as he shouted at the people inside the factory. “Everyone, get out!” And with that shout, the factory was filled with screams in no time.
Suddenly, a loud crashing noise was heard from outside. The train must’ve hit an abandoned car on the railroad. And almost immediately, a giant flaming lump of steel crashed into the factory. Wrecking through the northern wall, it rolled further into the building, destroying the machinery and beams of the building.
The train stopped thanks to the destroyed piles of wood, but the building began to collapse. Gyeoul barely managed to escape the factory, however, a large number of people ended up buried under the debris.
“Get rid of the wreckage! We can still save the people inside!” Covered in dust, Master Sergeant Pierce raised his voice. Due to the building being a single-story wooden building, there was a good chance that the people buried under the wreckage were still alive.
“Sir, look over there!” One of the soldiers shouted at Pierce.
In the direction he pointed were the train wagons turned upside down and in zigzag. From the doors and windows, things that resembled human beings began to crawl out. Those that had been flung out of the train from the collision also rose to their feet staggeringly.
“Raauurgh!”
“Shit! We got mutants here!”
It wasn’t just one or two. As if the whole train was packed with those creatures, they kept pouring out of the train like maggots crawling out of a rotten corpse. Some of the fairly intact mutants were even running fast.
“Kill them all!” The corporal exclaimed. But the majority of the participants had already fled far away. There were only a few people left to face the mutants.
The silenced gunshots poured out of their guns. They didn’t try to save bullets. They just fired madly at the mutants. One that tried to get over the trailer got shot almost instantly. Its head exploded, its eyes burst, and blood came spraying out from its’ chest.
Some of the mutants rushed towards the boy. Because the mutants didn’t stop even after being shot, Gyeoul aimed his rapid-fire rifle at their legs and pulled the trigger. It would be good if he struck their thighs, and even better if he could get their knees or shin bones.
“Keeek!”
The fallen ones struggled to get back up. The boy walked forward as he reloaded his magazine and stomped on their necks with his military boots. He then tightly gripped his gun and struck the jaw of the mutant in front of him. With the help of his skill, the mutant’s jaw completely crushed, its body falling backward.
Another mutant that had been running right behind it tripped over the falling mutant. After giving them a good kick, Gyeoul went back to firing his gun.
“Grenades! Take cover!” One of the soldiers shouted urgently. The boy looked behind and there were already several grenades flying his way. The boy hurriedly ran back and threw himself on the floor.
Boom! Kaboom!
Compared to the deafening noise the grenades created, the explosions themselves were rather small, producing only a few flashes and a bit of smoke.
But the boy knew that a hand grenade didn’t rely on the explosion to kill. It was a weapon that killed people by tearing them apart with the debris scattered by the blast. Anyone within a radius of 30 meters would be instantly killed. It was something he had learned through experience.
The mutants flew out like trees in a typhoon. The entire road turned into a bloodbath in the blink of an eye. Thankfully, the boy managed to get out of the grenades’ range.
While the grenades were still exploding, a mutant with a ragged body came crawling towards the boy. In his lying position, the boy laid his rifle on his stomach and pulled the trigger. Due to his unstable posture and poor aim, the bullet didn’t hit its head but its shoulder. The second shot, however, went right through its eyeball, killing it instantly. But when the boy lowered his guard, a new mutant appeared from behind the dead one. He must have missed it because it was hidden from his view.
The new mutant was already so close to him. The boy quickly pulled the trigger, but nothing came out of the gun. He couldn’t have used up all the bullets. It seemed like the round had jammed the gun. The boy rolled to the side and swiftly pulled out the bayonet from the rifle, sticking the bayonet into the top of the mutant’s head. Its rotten blood splattered onto his face.
The moment when he felt the crushing of its skull through his fingertips, an incredible chill ran down his spine giving him an indescribable pleasure. He felt satisfaction and fulfillment, but also a hint of guilt and sorrow.
After the explosions, the place sank into silence. The boy regained his footing while the mutants were still moving their tattered limbs. Before being bombarded by the grenades, the mutants, though they seemed sick or crazy, still resembled humans, but now they looked more like monsters. There was one with its guts spilling out, one walking with a broken leg, another one with its bones poking through its skin, and so on. But in the boy’s eyes, they were nothing more than a bunch of experience points.
Gyeoul grabbed his machete and slowly walked up to the staggering mutants. The gunshots fired by the other soldiers were starting to sound like distant echoes.
‘It has nothing to do with me.’ With that thought in mind, the boy drew a horizontal line with his machete on the mutant in front of him. Its head fell before its body collapsed on the ground. The boy then hacked at another mutant that was creeping on the ground. He was so focused that the only thing he could hear was his own breathing.
Another mutant approached him and a diagonally slashed machete tore apart its flesh from its temple down to its cheek on the other side. The impact dislocated its jaw and revealed its throat. Without hesitation, the boy shoved his machete into its throat and pulled it out by kicking its body away.
When the boy came back to his senses, he was standing alone among hundreds of the mutants’ corpses. He took a look around. Only the U.S. soldiers were there watching him, their faces pale. Several notifications informing him about the change in the soldiers’ favor were flickering in the corner of his view. Some had increased, but some had also decreased.
Gyeoul put away his knife and checked his rifle. When he pulled back the bolt and gave it a few shakes, the bullet that had been jamming the gun popped out and fell onto the asphalt.
“Don’t just stand around gawking! We got people to save! Come on, get to work! Ramirez, you guys stand on guard!” Master Sergeant Pierce raised his voice.
New vehicles arrived one after another. They had come to provide backup after being notified of an engagement. The arrival was quick, but due to the use of hand grenades, the battle had ended even faster, making the backup meaningless.
Comments