Surviving in the 121st Century - Chapter 47



Only Noblemtl

Jincheol first laid flat on the floor. When Jincheol did that, Doljumeok also fell down, and when the two people did that, Ramien also fell forward in surprise.

“Why? What is it? Why are you doing that?”

As soon as Jincheol saw the bike rabbits from far away in the forest, he fell down, so Ramien, who couldn’t see them, looked around frantically and asked Jincheol why. Fortunately, Jincheol didn’t need to explain further. Ramien also shut his mouth when he heard the roaring sound of the bike engine.

At that moment, Jincheol quickly reached out and covered Ramien with the fallen leaves that were all over the floor. He had a puzzled expression on his face, but he obediently covered himself with the fallen leaves blanket.

Doljumeok, who had seen Jincheol’s actions from the side, seemed to have noticed the meaning and dug into the fallen leaves like a mole. Jincheol, who had covered Ramien, also roughly camouflaged himself with fallen leaves and watched the movements of the bike in the distance.

What the hell, is that a hover bike? A bike without wheels? There were two Rabito bikes flying in, scattering leaves as if they were low-lying. The engine roared, and Rabito was sitting on top of it, wearing something that looked like black sunglasses, his long ears fluttering.

Those two fancy hover bikes flew through the forest, weaving between the trees as if they were performing tricks, but they never found Jincheol and his group and started to move away. It felt like they were just riding to kill time rather than searching.

“···It doesn’t seem to fit the size?”

Jincheol slowly got up and muttered. The size of the Rabbit riders and the hover bikes they rode on were a bit out of sync. The bikes were much bigger than the riders.

“Hog-riding crazy guys think the bigger the hog, the cooler it is.”

Ramien stood up next to him and said that. Although he didn’t explain the context, it seemed like he knew what Jincheol saw and why he said that. He shook his head and shook his clothes.

Jincheol asked.

“Hog? Is that called a hog?”

“Yeah. And the crazy guy who rides it is called a hog racer.”

“Why are you crazy?”

“Haven’t you seen them? They’re riding hogs without any safety devices. If they crash or make a mistake in control, they’re all gone. It’s like they’re crazy people who turn themselves into shells and fly around.”

Jincheol chuckled.

“Haven’t you ever flown in the sky?”

“Don’t compare me to those people who are crazy about the speed and thrill of flying a Hog. After all, I’m a fighter pilot who graduated second in his year at flight school.”

Ramien straightened her clothes with a somewhat fresh expression. Jincheol quietly watched her actions, and her eyes widened slightly.

“Are you a woman?”

“···Why does that suddenly matter? I’m a soldier.”

Suddenly, Ramien’s expression hardened at Jincheol’s question. He even took a step back. Even though it was just a question about gender, he was extremely defensive. Jincheol shrugged.

“I was just asking. I’m new to Rabito, so I still can’t tell the difference between a man and a woman.”

“···Really? Then, you should know it now.”

“I’m a man too.”

The voice of Doljumeok suddenly interrupted. The two people’s eyes naturally met. Doljumeok was standing up, shaking off the fallen leaves.

Jincheol said.

“···Don’t you know that?”

“Why? You might not know. Just as we are unfamiliar with Rabito, wouldn’t Rabito be unfamiliar with us?”

Is that so? Jincheol looked at Ramien again at Doljumeok’s plausible opinion. However, she shook her head as if she felt sorry.

“Even in the Central Continent, Esai and Camponi live there, though they are rare. You can also see Baika and Olog trading. I knew from the beginning that you were men.”

The Central Continent. In Shiol, they call this the East. Anyway, this guy and that guy, they’re all the same, right? Jincheol thought about it and shook off the fallen leaves stuck to his clothes.

But soon he had to lie down again, because the distant sound of the Hog’s engine was getting closer again. When he lay down, Doljukkeuk and Ramien were startled and also lay down.

Soon the hogs came flying in, and they passed through the trees along the same path as before.

“···But why are you hiding? There are only two of you.”

As he watched the hog racers moving away, Doljumuk said that. Jincheol replied with a tired expression.

“Then kill me? If my clothes get dirty for a bit, we can both pass without any trouble.”

“Aren’t they the ones who brought down the airship? We almost died. Let’s just hunt them down for revenge. There are two of them, so we can fill our bellies.”

Ramien, who had nodded at the previous words, hardened her expression upon hearing the following words. She opened her mouth as if she couldn’t understand what she had just heard.

“That… that, just now… you mean hunting and filling your stomach…?”

“There will be two of you, so there will be some meat. You will be able to eat your fill.”

“···Uh, that’s not, like, stealing food or anything··· right now···?”

“?”

Doljukkeuk made a blank expression as if he had no idea what Ramien was trying to say, and she gained unspoken confidence from that expression, so she stood up in a hurry and quickly pulled out the pistol she had on her waist.

“What? Are you asking me to fight?”

“What are you!? You’re going to, you’re going to eat, people, people right now!?”

Doljukkeok, who saw her trembling gun, tilted his head as if he still didn’t understand why she was doing that. In the end, Jincheol, who had been lying down, had to let out a deep sigh and stand up from his seat to block the gap between them.

Ramien, with frightened eyes, looked at Jincheol, sniffling nonstop. Jincheol slowly placed his hand on her pistol and lowered the muzzle. Fortunately, she did not reject his touch even though she was panting.

Jincheol said.

“Didn’t you just say you knew Olog?”

“···Oh, Olog, and eating people, what does that have to do with anything···?”

Jincheol felt that there was a gap between her and their common sense.

“Where did you see the log you saw earlier?”

“···Port. On the trading ship of Baika.”

“aha.”

You said you saw Ologs wearing bomb necklaces. Jincheol shook his head slightly. You can’t say you know Ologs when you see Ologs carrying things on leashes.

“Then you must have seen those friends’ necklaces too?”

“···necklace?”

Jincheol made a motion to wrap his hand around his neck. Then Ramien also made an “Ah-” sound.

“Why are they wearing it?”

“What··· Then the Olog race is all···?”

“Not all of them. They’re basically like that.”

“···”

Ramien looked at Doljumuk with complicated eyes. Her hands trembled as if she felt the urge to immediately point the pistol at him and pull the trigger.

But soon, when he saw Jincheol standing between him and himself, his expression slowly calmed down.

“···Then, you’re not trying to eat me right now?”

“Of course. We’re on the same side now, right? They don’t eat on the same side either.”

Jincheol quickly answered as he looked at Doljumeok. However, Doljumeok blinked as if he didn’t know what he was talking about. It was as if he was asking, ‘Wasn’t that Rabito an emergency ration?’

In the end, after Jincheol narrowed his eyes and glared at him, Doljumeok nodded.

“I won’t eat it. I, I’m on the same side. For now.”

“···”

She looked at Doljumeok with complicated eyes, and eventually put the gun away. Jincheol sighed when he saw that. They didn’t become close to each other.

Then the hog’s engine roared again. The three of them lay down again, and saw two more hogs passing by. Stonefist said.

“I don’t know what it is, but they keep circling the same spot. I think they’ve found our traces.”

“No. They’re just… playing.”

At Ramien’s rebuttal, the two men’s gazes turned to her. She continued speaking with a look of indifference on her own.

“I told you, those people are a bit crazy. There’s even a story that if they meet an enemy scout hog, they race instead of fighting. Have you been passing the same tree for a while? Maybe those two are racing each other.”

“Heh. That’s romantic.”

Or maybe they were just the Tang army? Maybe I should have guessed it when I saw them wearing sunglasses and their ears were blowing instead of their hair. In any case, there was no need to hunt them down. Jincheol’s goal was to get out of here, not to take revenge on Jasoyeonbang.

But soon, a thought appeared in Jincheol’s head.

“That’s the direction away from the crashed airship, so we’ll be back soon. Let’s leave before then.”

Ramien said that and stood up. But instead of standing up, Jincheol looked at her and smiled.

“···?”

Ramien’s nose twitched again as he sensed ominousness in those eyes.

*

“Hiyaho!”

“Hee-hee!”

Hog racers showed off their hog driving skills as they weaved through the trees.

The original mission was to scout the area, track down any survivors of the Jaso Federation that might be there, capture them, and kill them if they resisted, but to the two who were already engrossed in the hog’s gallop, this was a story of no consequence.

“I’ll get to eat today!”

“Don’t let your guard down! I’ll catch up with you before you leave this forest!”

“Haha! Why are you yelling so loud when you’re just following my butt!”

The two continued to run, shouting loudly so as not to be drowned out by the roar of the hog engine. Dirt, dust, and old leaves flew roughly as they ran. They became one with the flying hog and passed through the trees as gracefully as a river.

“uh?”

At that moment, the soldier who was walking ahead caught sight of something. Among the trees in the forest, there was Rabito, dressed in the leather outfit worn by Battlewing pilots.

The racer immediately raised his hand and signaled to his companion following behind. The two slowed down and pulled out their short-barreled submachine guns, checking the approach of Rabito.

He held both hands up over his head in surrender, his expression stiff with fatigue and his clothes disheveled from the run so far.

“···”

The two hog racers stopped their hogs at a sufficient distance from her. As the engine noise died down, Rabito, who had been raising his hand, shouted.

“I am Ensign Ramien, a Battlewing pilot of the Jaso Federation! I wish to be treated appropriately for my position!”

“Treatment befitting one’s status? Are you saying you surrender?”

“···Okay! I surrender!”

Ramien shouted with a stern face. Then the two Urata soldiers exchanged glances and got off the hog. The two approached slowly, keeping their guns aimed at Ramien and keeping a close eye on the surroundings.

Then he looked closely at Ramien’s face and said.

“What? She’s a woman? Do the pigs of Jasso also ride Battlewings?”

“···”

Ramien did not respond, but only raised his hands in surrender, and the two soldiers looked at each other again, shrugged, and put their guns away. They approached Ramien and said,

“If you surrender, I’ll go with you. I don’t know how well a pilot from a ruined country will be treated.”

“But wouldn’t it be possible to convert if you’re a Battlewing pilot? Usually, they’re people who graduated from flight school, right?”

“Huh. A pilot is a pilot. No one will accept someone who lacks skill-”

At that moment, two huge figures rose from under their feet, pushing aside the fallen leaves. The two soldiers who had been chattering among themselves fell backwards in panic, only to have their machine guns snatched away by a sudden hand that grabbed them by the collar.

“Kekeke!”

“Ugh!”

The bodies of the two Rabitos were lifted into the air. The attackers who had emerged from the ground were much larger than them. Naturally, the two attackers were Jincheol and Doljumeok.

Jincheol said while grabbing the trembling Rabito soldier by the collar.

“I fell off the airship I was riding comfortably thanks to you guys, so I guess I’ll have to borrow your bike, or rather your Hog.”

“···Squeak.”

Tears welled up in the eyes of the soldier Rabito who had been grabbed by the collar.

*

In this way, Jincheol acquired a new means of transportation. The driving method that he learned by shaking the collar was not that complicated, and soon Jincheol was riding in one hog and Doljumeok was riding in the other. Then, Ramien, who had been looking back and forth between Jincheol and Doljumeok, silently got into the backseat of the hog that Jincheol was driving.

Jincheol shouted to the Rabito soldier tied to the tree from above the slowly rising hog.

“Thank you! I’ll ride well!”

“···Sob sob.”

The Rabito soldier swallowed his tears and lowered his head, as if he could not bear to see his beloved horse leave.

Regardless, Jincheol slightly pulled the throttle he was holding as soon as the hog rose enough.

“oh!”

“Hic!”

With just a slight pull, Hog ran forward as if he was gliding on the ice, and Ramien, who was riding behind him, quickly grabbed Jincheol. The two Hogs left the place, leaving the two soldiers tied up.

“This is cool···”

Jincheol was amazed as he moved the handle of the hog that slid forward. The wind hitting his face roughly, the forest scenery passing by, and the feeling of literally flying through the air.

“This is seriously fucking cool-!”

Jincheol shouted on top of the hog that was getting faster and faster. Ramien was now buried in Jincheol’s back without even being able to raise his head, and Doljumeok was following behind with a very tense expression on his face.

The speed was getting faster and faster, and now the surrounding trees were whizzing by and were almost crushed into a lump. Jincheol felt his five senses becoming more sensitive and fully lowered the throttle. At the same time, the hog’s engine made a loud whirring noise and the surrounding air was sucked in by the propulsion devices attached to the front and back.

The hog he was riding shot forward as if it were a missile.

Jincheol’s eyes widened. The view in front of the hog that had flown away like that suddenly became clear. The forest was over. His hog ran toward the low hill that looked like a rock mountain in front.

The hog, running down the slope, flew high without losing its running power when it reached the top of the slope. In the wide open view, there was a coastline made of steep cliffs, a blue sea, and a sky filled with flowing clouds.

Immediately afterwards his hog fell back to the ground. Not crashing into the floor, but rather lowering himself to a height where he could glide again as he normally would.

But perhaps because of that sudden appearance, the birds that had been filling the shoreline began to fly up.

“···”

Jincheol couldn’t help but stop hogging at the sight of the birds suddenly flying up. Then he blankly stared at the shore.

Birds began to fly up from the shore in numbers so great that they could not be expressed in thousands or tens of thousands, but rather in hundreds of thousands, so great that they appeared like a black fog.

Their smooth wingtips sparkled silver in the early noon sunlight. The yellow beaks and the patterns along their spines also shone brightly under the bright sunlight. Their flapping wings, filled with intense vitality, guided them into the clear sky. Whether they were flying high or low, they filled the coastal sky and soon began to fly toward the blue sea.

Was it for hunting? Or mating or some other reason? Jincheol blankly watched them fly towards the sea.

When the nuclear bomb exploded ten thousand years ago, people said that it would take a really long time for nature to recover from what humans had destroyed. They said that the disappearance of species and the collapse of the balance of nature would not be easily restored, and that it would take a very long time, or perhaps even forever, to return to the way things were before.

But standing here, it didn’t seem to take as long as I thought.

“···The smell. It’s hard to breathe. Why did you stop?”

Ramien, who was sitting behind him, lifted her head slightly and asked. Only then did Jincheol laugh out loud as he smelled the overwhelming smell of blood and bird droppings.

“Look at those birds. Aren’t they amazing?”

“Birds? If you’re going to talk about novelty, those snails are more novel than the many birds.”

“···snail?”

Jincheol’s eyes, which had been looking up at the sky, returned to the ground. And in the place where the birds that had been swarming flew away, he could find snails larger than an average puppy.

They were licking the crevices of the rocks on the cliffs along the shore with slow movements, sucking up bird droppings and secretions, as well as corpses that had died in an unknown manner.

“What is that···”

It was the sight of a giant snail licking a rock, contrasting with the flight of birds that filled the sky.

Ramien continued speaking calmly.

“They’re called corpse snails. I heard they’re poisonous.”

“Snails are poisonous?”

Then, with a whirring sound, Stone Fist and his hog appeared. His tense face relaxed a little.

“Did you wait for me? You didn’t have to.”

“···I see. Then let’s go right away.”

“good night.”

Although he hadn’t been waiting for him, Jincheol didn’t necessarily deny it. It was because the appearance of the giant snail that stung poison made this place a little scary. In fact, the snails that appeared in the place where the birds disappeared were slowly approaching this place.

Jincheol immediately pulled the throttle. With a whirring engine sound, the hog rose from the ground again. It seemed that the words were not entirely wrong, saying that the scenery would never be the same again.

After leaving the forest, the three continued to run north along the coast. Thanks to Ramien’s suggestion, they would be able to find a village or city not far away.

There was no sign of any special pursuit, perhaps because the soldiers who had been robbed of their hogs had not yet returned. Thanks to the clear sky, the sea drawing a distant horizon, and the land blowing with the wind, Jincheol felt a strange sense of liberation.

“I should have taken the sunglasses too.”

However, my eyes were heavy because I kept running the hog with my bare eyes. There was a reason why the Rabito soldiers wore those dark glasses. They were made to fit the Rabito head, but I wonder if they would have worn them well…

As Jincheol ran, he saw something huddled together in the distance. Doljumeok also saw the same thing and shouted as he ran next to Jincheol.

“It’s a village!”

Yes. It’s a village. It’s the first village you see when you come to the East.