Surviving in the 121st Century - Chapter 77



Only Noblemtl

The area was momentarily plunged into silence by the sudden bombardment and the magical waves of fire that followed.

Black armored soldiers and unidentified people wearing helmets standing in formation at the hotel entrance. Jincheol and his group stopping the tank and truck. And the mutants surrounding them all.

Was it because they had preemptively attacked the armored soldiers? The mutants and Jincheol and his party were forming a figure as if they were surrounding the armored soldiers together. The mutants sniffed around, but did not attack Jincheol and his party. It seemed like their only targets were the armored soldiers standing there and the unidentified person.

The gunfire stopped and there was a brief moment of silence. The unidentified person standing with the armored soldiers took a few steps forward.

He spoke clearly, looking at Jincheol.

[Who are you?]

“···”

A voice that pierced Jincheol’s ears even though it was far away. It wasn’t because Jincheol had good ears, but because the bastard’s words were only heard by his ears. Jincheol just stared at him while sitting in the truck bed. It was for no other reason, but because the language he spoke seemed familiar yet unfamiliar. The bastard was speaking in English.

[You don’t understand? Then···]

The guy then started saying greetings that sounded like they were in Spanish, and when there was no response, he started talking briefly in each country’s language. Jincheol couldn’t help but laugh out loud because he was dumbfounded. The guy’s response was more friendly than he had expected.

Perhaps misunderstanding Jincheol’s laughter, the bastard began to speak in the language he had been speaking at the time. Jincheol shook his head and said.

“Let’s stop talking nonsense and instead speak in words that everyone can understand.”

[···]

The guy tilted his head at Jincheol’s expression as he spoke. Then he took another step forward.

[Don’t you know how to speak Shinto?]

“Shinsae? That’s ridiculous. If the old saying is shinsae, then all the people of that time were shins?”

[···Hmm.]

This time, the bastard’s feet took a step back. At the same time, the gun barrels of the armored soldiers who had been aiming at the mutants turned towards Jincheol and his group. While the group watching the situation flinched, one of the rabbits jumped out of the truck.

“Wait a minute, it’s me! It’s Rahiman! Don’t shoot!”

Rahiman jumped out of the truck and ran towards the armored men and helmeted men without anyone being able to catch him. As he got closer to the armored men, his expression brightened. He even spread his arms out towards the armored men and shouted loudly.

“My soldiers! I have come this deep underground to rescue you!”

[···]

“First Special Forces Brigade! I am Rahiman! Your general! Why don’t you salute me?”

Rahiman’s face, which had been bright with joy, hardened. His excitedly running steps slowed down and eventually stopped. His eyes took in the armored soldiers standing motionless, as if they were inanimate objects, like the armor they were wearing.

“···Special Forces?”

Then his eyes turned to the helmet. Rahiman shouted as if in a fit of convulsion.

“Special Envoy! What have you done to my soldiers!”

[You’re the one who did this. It wasn’t me who injected silver blood into the body of an ordinary Rabito and covered him with armor. They’re no different than before.]

“···what?”

In response to the unidentified, or rather ‘special envoy’, Rahiman approached the armored men hesitantly. Even as he approached, the armored men did not move at all, as if they were stone statues. Even when Rahiman lifted up his helmet visor to check their faces, they did not move.

“Huh, huh?”

Rahiman raised his visor to check the face and let out a dumbfounded sound. The face inside the visor was indeed Rabito. However, the face was distorted as if it had been tortured.

His eyes were wide open and bloodshot, his mouth was clenched tightly, showing his teeth. His entire face was covered in bulging blood vessels, and he was crawling like some kind of bug.

“···Okay, General···”

The face whispered softly. Rahiman said in surprise.

“What’s going on? Are you okay? Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“···That guy, he, tricked the general···”

At that moment, the special envoy raised his left hand and waved it around like a conductor of some kind of orchestra. Then, the formation of the armored soldiers that had been targeting Jincheol and his group and the mutants suddenly changed. From the defensive formation they had been in until now, to a slightly more aggressive formation. They moved like puppets tied to strings.

“Special Agent! What on earth, what on earth have you done to my special forces!”

The same thing happened to the armored soldier who was facing Rahiman. Rahiman shouted at the special envoy as he saw the armored soldier moving away with his distorted face.

[Are you trying to make me say this twice? I told you, you were the one who injected them with silver blood and gave them armor.]

“Why can’t my special forces listen to me!”

[It seems like loyalty has fallen.]

“Eet!”

That idiot. Before anyone could stop him – Jincheol and his party were all far away anyway, so they couldn’t do anything – Rahiman rushed towards the special envoy.

But even when Rahiman rushed in and grabbed his neck, the envoy did not budge. Rahiman struggled, but he was like an iron tower that did not waver at all.

Rahiman hissed as he strangled him.

“Give me back my soldiers! They are the best patriots in Urata and the strongest soldiers on the continent! To the likes of you···”

[You’re bothering me, Rahiman.]

The envoy waved his left hand again. A blue light leaked out from his forearm, and Rahiman’s body floated up as if caught by an invisible hand.

“Ouch!”

Rahiman was in that state, making a strangled sound and scratching his neck with his hand. It looked as if he was being strangled by an invisible hand.

The special envoy said, looking at Rahiman like that.

[Are you pretending to be concerned about your subordinates now? How many Rabitos were indifferently dragged into the war you started? How can you be so selfish and stupid?]

His grip tightened around the air. Rahiman’s breathless eyes caught sight of the envoy’s mirrored helmet and his own reflection therein.

[It seems that the race born with slave blood cannot help it. Those guys also threw a tantrum, saying they would leave this underground right after their commander died. So I gave some courage to those cowardly bloodlines. With the power of the silver blood.]

“Ugh···ugh···”

The special envoy, who seemed to be glaring at Rahiman with the smooth surface of his helmet for a moment, soon shook his left hand as if he were throwing away trash. Then, Rahiman’s body flew and rolled to the side.

The special envoy, who had just thrown Rahiman away as if he was dusting him off, turned his gaze back to Jincheol. It seemed as if his business with Rahiman was over and that he had nothing more to talk about. No, to be exact, Rahiman was no longer in his sight. He had become a part of the scenery, worse than a stone on the roadside.

The special envoy looked at Jincheol and said:

[You are clearly of divine blood. You are a face I have never seen before, not only among the envoys, but also in the colony. I will ask you again. Who are you?]

Jincheol got out of the truck bed and walked forward step by step. He glanced at Rahiman and saw him lying on the ground, writhing. It seemed like he hadn’t killed him. Then his gaze turned to the special envoy’s helmet. Even looking at it again, it was a fake Daft Punk.

“You don’t even know the basics of greetings. You should introduce yourself first so I can answer you back.”

[···]

Perhaps because of Jincheol’s confident attitude, the special envoy tilted his head again. But soon he opened his mouth again.

[···William. William Lambert. Special Ground Exploration Team member.]

“Kang Jin-cheol. Retired soldier.”

[Kang Jin-cheol?]

Soon his mood changed. The air that had been strangely friendly became cold.

[Kang Jin-cheol… Yes. I’ve received a report. The report said it was a variant of Esai… You idiots. How is that a variant of Esai? Esai is a variant and a subspecies.]

He raised his right hand and touched his chin. Looking at the special envoy, Jincheol also crossed his arms and spoke.

“I have a lot of questions. And it seems like you know a lot of the answers.”

[I’m curious. When I see you, many questions well up in my mind.]

“Is that so? Then let’s ask each other questions and answer them?”

The envoy shook his head slowly.

[No. I don’t see why you would go to such trouble.]

“Why? You said you had a lot of questions?”

[There is an easier way.]

“Aha. I think I know what that is.”

[You think you know?]

The corners of Jincheol’s mouth curved into a smile.

“Aren’t you going to beat me up until I vomit out everything I know?”

[···It seems like you had similar thoughts.]

“that’s right.”

The special envoy’s left hand twitched.

[Is your brain underdeveloped? How can you say something like that while standing in front of a gun barrel with your bare body…]

Jincheol also held a sword in his right hand. A white blade rose out with a swoosh. The special envoy tilted his head again as if he was puzzled by what he saw.

[···How about the sword of the guard?]

“Why do you keep talking like you know everything? Are you trying to act cute?”

[Where did you get that sword, you punk-]

At that moment, Rahiman, who had been thrown to one side by the special envoy’s hand, stood up from his seat while shouting. He then gathered the attention of all the people on the scene and shouted.

“Urata’s soldiers! We! Rabito! And I! We are not a slave race! We are a great race! We are lions who ate our masters and ascended to the surface!”

His hand quickly reached into his waistband and pulled something out. It was a gun. He had stolen it at some point while he was coming down the street in the truck.

He aimed the gun at the envoy and pulled the trigger. There was a crackling sound and sparks flew across the envoy’s visor.

[···A lowly slave.]

Everyone there, including Jincheol, was surprised by Rahiman’s shouts and gunshots, but the special envoy raised his left hand as he looked at Rahiman through his flawless helmet visor.

In an instant, a strong electric current flowed from his left forearm, and a strange crackling sound was heard along with a surge of brain electricity that struck Rahiman.

Rahiman couldn’t even scream and just fell apart in a puddle of blood.

The sight seemed so prankish, or like a simple magic trick, that everyone there was momentarily speechless.

At the same time, the envoy’s gaze turned to the back of Jincheol. There was the Doljumeori tank that had been firing field guns just a moment ago.

[This is all I need.]

Before anyone could do anything, another lightning bolt shot out and hit the tank. With a loud bang, the tank spun around like a piece of paper and flew backwards. It then flipped over and fell down, making a loud crash.

The envoy’s gaze turned to the truck and the group inside it. Only the child who came to his senses first shouted.

“Everyone get out!”

In that split second, everyone’s movements occurred simultaneously.

A lightning bolt sprouts from the envoy’s left arm, Aiman ​​and Haita jump out from the truck, Snow flies while carrying Ramien and another Rabito, and Jincheol runs towards the envoy and kicks him in the chest.

Then, a stray brain wave struck the driver’s seat of the truck, and the envoy’s body was blown backwards like a shell and crashed into the hotel lobby.

The sound of the truck exploding and the lobby collapsing rang out simultaneously. Jincheol, who had kicked the envoy without any strength control like before, quickly ran towards the truck that had exploded.

“Are you okay?”

“Oh, I’m fine···”

Only Aiman, Haita, Snow, Ramien, and the revolutionary soldier Snow had brought with him survived. The truck driver and the other Rabitos on board were unable to escape the exploding truck.

Jincheol ran straight to the overturned tram on the other side. He put his hand into the carefully covered iron plate, ripped it off, and looked inside.

“Oh. You’re here.”

“···young.”

Inside the narrow tram, he saw Dol-Fist, upside down and crumpled. Maro was also in his arms. Jin-Cheol thought it was fortunate, but he couldn’t laugh out loud. Another revolutionary soldier, Rabito, who was riding inside, was lying limp, as if his neck had been broken.

“Kueeeeek-!”

At that moment, the mutant’s roar rang out. When Jincheol turned his head, he saw a swarm of mutant rabbits slowly approaching the armored soldiers’ formation. They seemed to have no interest in Jincheol and his party.

Then, from inside the collapsed hotel lobby, which was raising dust, a blob of blue light flew in and landed in the middle of the mutants.

In a flash of light, dozens of mutants were instantly reduced to ashes.

What the hell. What the hell. The future is so damn strong. Jincheol looked at the hotel lobby, feeling bewildered as he watched the explosion. He saw the special envoy walking out. The bastard was glaring at Jincheol again.

But even as he felt those eyes, Jincheol smirked. There was a clear, sunken footprint left in the middle of the bastard’s chest on his reinforced suit.

“It’s not like I can’t kill you.”

As if he had heard the muttering, the envoy raised his left arm. A blue light leaked out through the gap in the reinforced suit on his arm.

But his posture soon slumped slightly.

[···what?]

“What the heck? It’s a crazy bitch gift.”

Yellow flames were also rising from Jincheol’s left arm. The flames traveled through his fist and formed a single blade.