Apocalypse Hunter

It was his fourth time heading to Ard Point. The first time was when he initially arrived, second time was with Leona, the third time was when he slaughtered the Reavers, and the fourth time was to recover the weapons.

At this point, Zin couldn’t believe that he had to come back to Ard Point for so many reasons. However, he could not give up such a large number of chips within his reach, so he had to return.

Leona didn’t complain, but she looked at the ground and murmured some ominous-sounding curse words. Charl and Zin had no problem physically. Charl walked pretty swiftly with his uniform on. And unfortunately, the moment that Leona was waiting for didn’t come.

“… What is that?”

Zin took out something from his bag, startling Leona.

“A potato.”

“Where did you get that?”

“You’re not thinking that I just harvested in this wilderness, are you? I bought it while at Shera.”

“I mean, are you saying you bought… ah.”

Zin bought fourteen days worth of food in Shera after Charl said that he’d be paying for the meals.

Zin didn’t like eating monster meat either. He packed food since someone was going to pay for it.

Leona wouldn’t get to witness Charl chewing ghoul meat in disgust. She became angry at Zin who was very thorough with trip planning.

“If you really want that meat, I could certainly get it for you.”

With a smile, Zin realized what she was thinking, and Leona ducked her head.

“No thanks…”

There was no way Charl would be eating monster meat when there were other options available. Charl didn’t know what Leona and Zin were talking about, and he waited for the meal preparations.

“Anyway, can I ask you a question?”

“What is it?”

“How did you kill the Reavers? I thought I heard something about a chipbox…”

Charl couldn’t understand how a powerless kid had managed to kill most of the Reavers.

Leona explained how she triggered the detonation of the chipbox and shot an arrow with it attached. She said that a huge explosion took out most of the Reavers, and Zin finished off the remaining Reavers with his shotgun. They were done with the meal by the time Leona finished telling the story.

“Hmm, you’re quite a courageous kid.”

“You keep calling me a a kid. I have a name, you know—Leona!”

“Ah, sorry, Leona. You’re very intelligent.”

“Intelligent?”

“He’s talking about your swift actions.”

Zin explained to Leona who didn’t understand Charl’s compliments.

“Ah… nah, I dumped and wasted all the chips that exploded.”

Charl couldn’t stop laughing at Leona’s story.

“Other people either run away from me or stay quiet, but you don’t seem to be afraid of me.”

“I’d rather say what I gotta say and die instead of living as a cowardly mute.”

“Hahaha! I like your spirit!”

Charl laughed even louder, seemingly pleased to hear those words. Charl seemed to be a rather affable and outgoing person than a quiet and noble man. It was possible that he had to stay quiet since all the people in the city were afraid of him.

“Hey, Mister Soldier.”

“Mister?”

Charl was surprised hear her say mister, and he looked at Leona. Leona kept on talking without stopping.

“What do the Wargrave guys do?”

“Hmm…”

At Leona’s question, Charl pondered with a hardened face. Then he looked at Zin.

“Do you know what Wargrave is all about?”

“Somewhat.”

“I’m curious to know what you mean by somewhat. Can you tell me?”

Charl passed the question of what people thought about Wargrave to Zin. Looking at Leona, Zin replied:

“It’s a group that solely occupies MCPs.”

“Hmm… so that’s what people believe.”

“What’s an MCP?”

“You can think of a black hole where the nastiest monsters flood out of it. The Wargrave takes care of the rare beasts appearing in the MCP area and monopolizes the chips.”

“When you say nastiest, how nasty are they?”

“Maneaters would be considered a joke.”

“Crazy…”

Leona shook her head in surprise.

“But, if the Wargrave is taking care of those monsters, aren’t they good dudes then?”

Referring to the officer as a dude was a dangerous act, but Charl didn’t seem to take offence.

At Mass Confusion Points, referred as MCPs, many monsters appeared, and they were extremely deadly. The Wargrave built fortresses around all the MCP regions within Asia and hunted down the monsters.

Their motives were unknown, but from a civilian perspective, the fact that they took care of extremely dangerous monsters was a good thing. Even though some time had passed since the Wargrave had appeared, the civilians admired them yet kept their distance from them.

The answer to Leona’s question was simple.

“You’re forgetting the fact that I’m a hunter.”

“I know that. So?”

“I get more business when the monsters are problematic to people, and having less access to monsters that contain a lot of chips is a problem for me. The Wargrave takes care of all the big monsters, so that’s not good for me.”

“I see…”

It was a crappy perspective, but it was the reality. The more the Wargrave hunted big monsters, the fewer monsters Zin could hunt. To the hunters, the Wargrave weren’t welcome.

“Frankly speaking, what the hunter said is correct. We’re not surrounding the MCP because of the civilians. We don’t accept any civilians or refugees heading our fortresses.”

Sometimes they attacked or killed them. The Wargrave was not a group that acted for good. The only reason they seized the MCPs was for their own benefit.

In fact, Zin had explained the nature of the Wargrave simply and correctly.

“Then what are you doing? What’s the reason?”

“Well, I’m low-ranked, and I don’t know much.”

Charl shrugged. Leona couldn’t ask anything further, and Zin stayed silent.

The Wargrave was a very important military group that kept things in order in the post-Apocalypse era. However, they didn’t exist for the humans.

Leona wanted to say something, but she couldn’t think how to say it. She realized that the pretty and clean-cut officer was not as annoying as she thought.

Charl was thinking about the statement that Zin made before.

The Wargrave takes care of all the big monsters, so that’s not good for me.

It meant that Zin was capable of hunting the big monsters. And it didn’t seem like he was bluffing. And Charl could sense the frustration that he felt.

There were hunters who were dissatisfied with the Wargrave’s monopoly on MCPs. Hunters received requests and earned chips when the people were in trouble. Hunters became richer when the world was unstable. Therefore, the peace that the Wargrave created wasn’t good for the hunters. Hunters mostly hated the Wargrave for this reason.

However, no hunter was annoyed by the fact that they couldn’t hunt the monsters that appeared at MCPs.

Charl looked at the fireplace with a hardened face.

Ard Point had many great traits as a shelter. There were many buildings and walls, and it was big enough to inhabit a thousand people with the assumption that the nearby farmland would be in use.

New people would find those people-less walls and it would serve as a village for them. However, seven days weren’t a long enough time for a new resident to appear.

Ard Point was still empty.

“Ard Point was brought down even with such walls? It’s as good as a castle…”

Charl couldn’t believe that a village with such great walls had been overrun.

“Tall walls aren’t enough to overcome the difference of power a weapon brings. Zin looked at Charl whose group had its weapons stolen.

“Ancient-Korea’s weapons aren’t at all usable.”

Charl found broken arrows stuck to the ground, and he walked into Ard Point with mixed feelings. The once-quiet Ard Point had become an eerie place.

“Only a couple of days have passed, but this place feels so old and rundown.”

Leona shivered as she felt the creepiness even in the afternoon. Zin headed to the coordinates where he buried the weapons and started to dig up the steel box with a shovel.

“I’ll help you.”

“No, it might blow up if you hit it by mistake. Let me do it.”

“Fine with me…”

As Zin was digging, Leona and Charl looked at the junkwagons.

“Interesting machine… So they’re operational?”

Charl was amazed that such crappy machines worked and nodded his head. As a Wargrave who had a different lifestyle and weapons compared to civilians in the post-Apocalypse era, Charl was intrigued by the junkwagon.

Forgetting about her first impressions on Charl, Leona grew close to him after seven days of travel. Compared to the multipurpose special vehicle that the Wargrave used, the junkwagons were pieces of trash. However, Charl was busy looking at the junkwagons here and there.

“Oh… so this is the reactor. Looks crappy yet efficient… And this would be… the engine… ah, this must be the fuel device.”

Although the junkwagon was crappy, it had a simple structure, and Charl kept on investigating the junkwagon as if he were mesmerized by it. Leona hadn’t been as bad as Charl.

“Mister, you’re like a kid…”

Charl laughed after hearing Leona’s words.

“Is that so? It hasn’t been long since I left the fortress. I don’t get to patrol outside the fortress that often…”

As time passed, Charl grew closer to Leona as well and kept asking questions. Even yesterday, he asked Zin if he could hunt some ghouls so that he could try some ghoul meat. Zin was not the type of person to decline any request for chips, and he accepted to hunt one for 10 chips.

And of course, Charl puked as soon as he took a single bite of it.

Leona was happy to see Charl examining the junkwagon. Charl didn’t stop there, and sat on the driver’s seat after putting in a couple of chips in the fuel tank.

“I suppose all vehicles have a similar mechanism?”

—clank! clank! clank!—

“Oh. Wow!”

The engine revved, and Leona was surprised.

—vroom! vroom! vroooom!—

“Hmmm… is this working? Oh, there we go!”

As Charl kept turning the ignition key, the engine started with a loud noise.

—vrrrrrrooooom!!—

With the engine started, the junkwagon began making loud noises everywhere. Leona stood up when she saw that the junkwagon had turned on, and when Charl waved at her, she jumped and sat on the junkwagon.

“Should we go for a ride?”

“Yeah! Yeah!”

The engine noise was so loud that they had to yell to hear each other. Charl smiled and shouted as he grabbed the steering wheel.

“Hold on tight! We don’t know when this thing’s gonna break down…”

—clunk!—

“Hey.”

And then the junkwagon wouldn’t start.

“I can understand that a kid might do whatever, but a Wargrave officer shouldn’t act like this, right?”

Zin blocked them in front, a sullen look on his face.