Zzzzt—
Just because the main reconnaissance drone was made doesn't an the preparations were completely finished.
As a drone expert, Ha Tae-hoon also had to adjust the supporting drones to assist the main one—Super Skeleton.
Zzzzt—
Thanks to that, my garage slowly started to fill with the peculiar scent of soldering and occasional flashes of light.
"I've always liked making things since I was a kid," Ha Tae-hoon said while adjusting the drone.
"Blocks, model kits, circuit boards, I didn't care about any of them. But damn, my mother recomnded that I go to school."
"Your mother?"
"Yeah. She knew. She knew that being a Hunter was dangerous, but it also had an incredibly promising future. Didn't you have the sa experience? There were probably a few kids in your class from well-off families, right?"
At Ha Tae-hoon's question, I imdiately thought of my classmate, Lee Sang-hoon, and nodded.
"Yeah, there were a few like that."
Cheon Young-jae, who had been listening from the side, chid in.
"We didn't have kids like that."
Cheon Young-jae was working on attaching armor plates to the main reconnaissance drone, Super Skeleton Ho.
"Before we even enrolled, Kang Han-min showed up."
Zzzzt—
When the na Kang Han-min was ntioned, a strange silence filled the garage, as if it had been agreed upon beforehand.
For old-school Hunters like us, the na Kang Han-min carried that kind of weight.
He changed the world.
There may have been "Awakenings" before his ti, but no one had ever had such a dramatic and incomparable awakening, like Kang Han-min and Na Hye-in.
He was the one who proclaid the end of an era and, at the sa ti, the harbinger of a new world.
The nickna Savior was an understatent for Kang Han-min—it was far too simplified to describe who he really was.
It was quite a while before any of us spoke again.
That is, until I brought out my homade dish made from vegetables I had grown and canned ham for dinner.
"What's this? Did you make kimchi?" Cheon Young-jae asked, lifting up the salted vegetables I had prepared with his chopsticks.
"Kimchi needs fernted seafood," I said.
"With all the supplies, why didn't you bring any fernted seafood?" he asked.
"Yeah, I wonder too."
While Cheon Young-jae fussed about the kimchi, Ha Tae-hoon silently ate the ham and salted vegetables, finishing his bowl.
"Sotis, I miss my mother's kimchi," Ha Tae-hoon said, perhaps sensing my gaze or feeling like talking.
"She was a persistent woman."
"Did she live well?" Cheon Young-jae asked slyly while swallowing a bite of salted vegetable.
Ha Tae-hoon nodded as he looked at Cheon Young-jae.
"Yeah. She lived well."
"I see. I never asked, but I could kind of tell. You seed like the son of a well-off family."
"Because of my looks?"
"No, not that. It was just the way you acted, spoke, the habits. You could tell you were raised in a good ho, unlike soone like Heo Jae-hyeok from a poor family."
"Still, we're all just the sa now," Ha Tae-hoon said with a half-smile as he finished his bowl with fried luncheon at.
"The rice is a bit old."
I responded to his complaint about the rice.
"We're growing new rice."
"Growing? You're farming rice now?"
"Trying a few things," I said.
"Alright," Ha Tae-hoon set his spoon down.
Then, staring at , he asked a question.
"Did you lose your family during the war?"
"Yeah. They were killed by the Chinese."
Ha Tae-hoon said it with an indifferent tone.
"You know about the chemical bombs that fell on Gangnam, right?"
"I heard about it."
"I can't forgive the Chinese."
Ha Tae-hoon muttered in a flat tone, almost as if whispering to himself.
"So when I see Chinese people, I try to kill them whenever I can."
"Please hold off during this operation."
The extended work on the drones wasn't just about adjusting the supporting drones but also about adding armants to the main drone.
Ha Tae-hoon installed a 5.56mm rifle and automatic feeding device on Super Skeleton Ho.
He called it an insurance policy, but he had already heard my operation plan.
My plan, however, didn't consider combat as a scenario.
As I had told the two Hunters earlier, Super Skeleton Ho was not a warrior but a thief, sneaking past the Chinese and using the information only I knew to retrieve hidden data in a desk.
The mont we engage in combat, my operation will essentially have failed.
Even after hearing the full details of the plan, Ha Tae-hoon still insisted on adding weapons, probably because of his hatred toward the Chinese.
In truth, no one in South Korea harbors less hatred for the Chinese than I do.
As for , I consider the downfall of humanity to be the "fate of the human race."
Most Koreans, however, still carry a deep-rooted hatred for the Chinese.
I’ve heard stories of terrorist attacks and massacres against the Korean Chinese during the early stages of the war.
Whether those stories are true or not is still uncertain, since the governnt’s influence is barely there, and I don't have enough information to verify it. But it is true that after that, people who identified as Korean Chinese have practically vanished from South Korea.
The two gang leaders who had once tried to take over my shelter may have sensed this racial hatred and co for that reason.
Ha Tae-hoon seems to have that unshakable, eternal hatred ingrained in him.
"It's a Blade-type suicide drone. 100% dostically made."
He had been passive about the operation at first, but now he was enthusiastically bringing out hidden weapons. Maybe it was also about the value of my shelter, but I felt that his stronger motivation was his hatred for the Chinese.
"If things get really bad, we'll consider it. For now, let's keep it stored."
I didn't deny his hatred.
I had a similar one myself.
I just restrained it.
"Instead of killing a few Chinese, the fact that we’ll have the items they're desperately searching for will hit them harder. Like I said before, they're quite desperate. Just look at how they gave up Manchuria."
Even as we adjusted and modified the drones, reconnaissance continued.
There was a brief commotion when we ca under anti-air fire, but Ha Tae-hoon's high-altitude reconnaissance drone kept sending us useful information.
Judging from a few photos and short videos, it seed like the Chinese didn't know the exact location of the Tomb of the Forgotten.
They had five bipedal drones identical to Super Skeleton Ho, but instead of searching for the Tomb of the Forgotten, they were rummaging through a different building nearby.
The Tomb of the Forgotten had communication equipnt clearly visible on its rooftop, making it easy to locate, yet they were wasting their ti searching the wrong place. This made suspect that the Legion faction might have fed them faulty information.
It wasn’t 100% false, but just enough to deceive them.
If that's the case, our chances of success have gone up a bit.
"Well then, shall we begin?"
*
Even though drones are used, we still need to get closer to the operational area.
Unless we were flying high like a long-range reconnaissance drone, the main exploration drone, Super Skeleton, walks at an average speed of 2.4 km/h.
In an ergency, it can rush at nearly 8 km/h, but because it's a copy product, there's a high chance that balance issues will arise.
Our Chinese military is positioned to the southeast of Jonnen's tomb.
This is the closest route to the Legion faction's control area.
The distance between them and the tomb is about 2 km, but they've set up a temporary camp about 400 ters from the tomb.
We plan to set up our camp in an area farthest from the Chinese military.
It will be in the northwestern region from the tomb.
I compared pre-war maps and aerial photos to set up our route and hideout.
Coincidentally, the area we were hiding our truck in was partially eroded.
It seems a penetration-type monster had taken up residence there, but there was a suitable building on the outskirts where we planned to hide the vehicle.
"That looks like a monster's territory. Do you think it's okay?"
Cheon Young-jae questioned as he looked at the map.
"Just because it's stained with grayish-white doesn't an it's all under the control of penetration-type monsters. The ones they manage are the labyrinth-like nests in the central eroded areas. Other than that, they're indifferent."
"If the professor says so, it must be true."
"The real issue is what kind of monsters are in there."
"What do you think is the worst type?"
"In this situation, a necromancer."
"Yeah, I figured."
In the aerial photos, zombies were scattered across the area.
They weren't in large groups.
Only a few straggling zombies were wandering around.
No caterpillar-types were visible, but the chances of encountering them were very high if we entered the area.
We left the bunker after noon.
Moving vehicles during the day is dangerous, but we had no choice.
At night, we'd have to feel our way through the streets, unaware of the obstacles, hostile zombies, and monsters that lurked ahead.
The vehicle would naturally move at low speed, and we'd engage in combat with zombies or caterpillar-like inhuman enemies at intervals.
According to Ha Tae-hoon, the Chinese military launches high-altitude reconnaissance drones twice a day to monitor the surrounding 10 km from the sky. Their reconnaissance drones are ineffective at night, though.
They can detect clear indicators like lights, but they can't distinguish objects that blend into the darkness.
To avoid detection by the high-altitude drones, we had no choice but to move at night.
But traveling by car in today's world is hardly safe.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
We ca under gunfire on the outskirts of Seoul.
Tatatatang!
Bang! Bang!
It wasn’t sporadic shooting but rather an ambush involving at least three people.
Ping! Piti-tang!
Bullets ricocheted off the armored panels on the truck's engine and the driver’s side door.
"Don't stop, keep going at a constant speed."
I gave Ha Tae-hoon the order and signaled Cheon Young-jae in the cargo area.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Two rifles opened fire.
Although no casualties were sustained, a scream was heard, indicating the bullets had passed very close.
"Ah, damn it!"
The shooting abruptly stopped after that exclamation.
Getting shot at 8 km outside of Seoul symbolized a grim reality.
There were no other incidents besides that brief and chilling encounter.
As the increasingly hot sun set, the darkness crept in.
The almost full moon rising was a bad on, but we didn't have the luxury of waiting until it set.
Clank—
Cheon Young-jae and I got out of the truck to conduct a preliminary reconnaissance.
"Okay. Move forward."
Instead of heading straight to our destination in the truck, we walked ahead to clear the path, and the truck followed us.
It was a cumberso and ti-consuming thod that drained our stamina, but security was the priority.
We couldn’t let the Chinese notice our presence.
"Zombies. At least 10 of them. There might be more."
"We’ll respond with cold weapons."
"Are you joking?"
"Are you not confident? 18 of them?"
"It’s not that. I’m just a bit bothered."
Snap!
Whack!
We handled the small group of zombies with cold weapons—Cheon Young-jae with a hamr and with an axe.
Cheon Young-jae was certainly a top-tier expert.
His skills in both close combat and marksmanship were impressive.
Had the Old-School Hunters not lost their edge, this guy might’ve earned the Golden Fleece.
Of course, the Golden Fleece isn’t given solely for high personal combat ability.
There must be accomplishnts, like Baek Gyu, for instance.
"Alright. We're almost there."
After an extended night maneuver, we arrived at a steel-reinforced concrete structure 1.2 km from Jonnen’s tomb.
It was a skeletal building, but its location was good, and the structure was solid.
What stood out were the many exposed steel rebars through the half-finished building.
This was a well-constructed building with no missing materials.
"Can’t see any monsters?"
Cheon Young-jae ntioned the caterpillar-type.
"They probably moved towards the Chinese military."
We crossed over a ridge.
After setting up a simple camp and position on the building’s third floor, we took out a humanoid combat drone made of steel, plastic, and semiconductors weighing nearly 45 kg from the truck.
Wiiii—
The Chinese characters flashing on the tablet's operation screen were botherso, but as Ha Tae-hoon had said, this drone was dostically produced.
"Good. It's perfect."
He tried to bring out another drone—especially a suicide drone.
"No combat. Ha Seon-bae."
I warned him seriously while glaring at him.
Ha Tae-hoon showed a slight resistance but quickly hid his expression and answered nonchalantly.
"It’s insurance."
"······."
I didn’t push the issue. It was an important mission ahead, and breaking a team mber’s pride was sothing I could avoid.
In the end, it seed like the right decision.
But the real problem ca after that.
"Shit!"
Ha Tae-hoon swore, which was unusual for him.
He was operating a night reconnaissance drone.
While going against the route leading to Jonnen’s tomb.
There were things on the screen that couldn’t be overlooked.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Tatatatang!
Enemy combat drones were positioned along the route.
From primitive wheeled drones to fixed artillery emplacents.
The Chinese didn’t know the exact location of the tomb, so they had deployed defensive forces covering a large area.
"It won’t be easy."
Ha Tae-hoon wiped his sweat with his sleeve and turned to face .
His expression was unusually grim.
"I’m not good at piloting, actually."
Cheon Young-jae added from the side.
"I’m drone illiterate."
I was the sa.
I had drones, but I had no skill in using them for combat or stunts.
The problem was that our Super Skeleton drone would need to take out at least three automated drones to get to the tomb.
"······."
Was there any way around this?
We had one guy who was good at making things, one drone illiterate, and one beginner at piloting drones.
With just these three controlling, it seed impossible.
In the midst of feeling hopeless, a faint smile appeared on my face as a certain person’s face ca to mind.
"Hey."
I asked Ha Tae-hoon.
"Can our Super Skeleton drone be operated remotely?"
"Remote operation? It’s possible."
"Could it be done from Chuncheon?"
"Just barely. The response might be a bit slow though."
Ha Tae-hoon tilted his head, looking at .
"Why? Do you have a good pilot?"
"Yeah."
I smiled and nodded.
"We’ve got the best pilot."
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