Surviving in the 121st Century - Chapter 86



Only Noblemtl

“Leaving? Why? Where to?”

Ramien quickly approached Jincheol with a surprised expression on her face and asked him that question. Jincheol answered indifferently while leaning back.

“If you’re asking if it’s right to leave, then yes, and if you’re asking why I’m leaving, then I’d say it’s because I’ve done everything I had to do. Where to? That’s not certain yet.”

“What do you mean? You’ve done everything you had to do? Jincheol, you came here to make money, right? As a mercenary. So you’ll continue to be with us in the future…”

Jincheol shook his head slowly.

“I met the people I needed to meet, and I said what I needed to say. I didn’t get all the answers I was looking for, but at least I got some. If I stay here, there’s nothing I can do but lie around like a sergeant in his last days, like I have for the past few weeks. So I have to leave.”

“···”

Ramien could not continue speaking and looked at Jincheol with trembling eyes. On the other hand, Jincheol was calm without any particular disturbance. He turned his gaze to the carrot dish Ramien had brought – it seemed to be long and flat carrots that had been grilled with sauce on them – and said.

“What is this that everyone is making such a fuss about?”

Jincheol reached out to the plate she was holding and picked up a small piece of carrot and ate it. It had a rich buttery aroma, a subtle peppery taste, and the sweetness of the carrots, making it incredibly delicious. Jincheol opened his eyes wide and reached out to the plate again.

“What is this? Why is this so delicious?”

“···”

That carrot dish was the most delicious thing Jincheol had ever eaten since he woke up in this era. It was sweet, perhaps because of the carrots, but it was a dizzying pleasure for Jincheol’s tongue, which was tired of the rough food of the past 121st century.

Jincheol swallowed the second piece and looked at Ramien. After all, she must have brought it to eat too. Ramien, who was looking at Jincheol with trembling eyes, held out the plate she was holding.

“oh.”

Jincheol quickly took the plate and took another bite of the grilled food. It was incredibly delicious. Compared to the cuisine of the Atukai tribe, which was close to nature, or the back-alley cuisine of Siol, which developed based on the walls where food was served, it was the most labor-intensive, so even a layman could taste it and feel that the sauces and recipes were complicated.

As I was eating two more without thinking because of the great taste, I saw Ramien with tears in her eyes for some reason. Jincheol, who was munching on carrots with his mouth full, handed over his plate because of the stinging sensation.

“No, I’m not saying I’ll eat it all···”

Ramien chuckled. Her eyes were crying, but her mouth was smiling, so it couldn’t be more funny. She raised her hand and wiped away the tears that were about to fall, and said.

“Idiot. You and Dolfist are both really idiots.”

“I agree that Stone Fist has a stone head, but I’m on the same level as him.”

I absolutely cannot agree with that. When Jincheol answered like that, Ramien shook her head and continued speaking.

“No, you’re both fools. I’ve prepared a position for you two in the new government. A place where you’ll get paid a lot without doing anything. If you stay here, you’ll be able to live comfortably without worrying about money, but you’re a fool to kick that away and leave…”

Jincheol laughed. Isn’t that a hiring scandal? Miguel, who had been quietly watching the conversation between the two, opened his mouth.

“So that’s why you said you would definitely choose your aide with your own hands. Did you plan on keeping Jincheol and Doljumeok by your side?”

“···From the time we were in Siapó to here, we both suffered a lot. Those who overcome adversity deserve peace.”

Miguel looked at Jincheol with a grin.

“I heard it’s not bad. The salary will be higher than that of a high-ranking official, and you’ll also get a generous pension later on. Do you think so?”

“What have you heard so far? I said I won’t do it.”

Miguel laughed out loud, and Ramien kept wiping away her tears. She was clearly laughing, but tears kept flowing from her eyes.

“Idiot… You’re really an idiot. If you stay here, you won’t have to suffer anymore…”

“Then you can live comfortably as much as Nana Doljumeok.”

“Is that how it is?”

Jincheol shrugged his shoulders at Ramien’s question, which seemed a bit absurd.

“What can we do if the other two don’t like it? The remaining person will have to handle it.”

“···Okay. Then I’ll take care of both of your pensions. You can come and get them whenever you want.”

“Oh. Then I guess I’ll have to come here when I get old and sick. I’ll come and suck your blood.”

At Jincheol’s joke, Ramien laughed with reddened eyes.

“Anyway! I’ll always be waiting!”

Why are you so cheerful when you say you’ll become a parasite when you grow old? Jincheol was so shocked that he laughed out loud.

At that moment, Ipani approached Ramien from behind. She looked at Ramien with tear stains and worried eyes, but Ramien smiled brightly and shook her head as if nothing had happened. And the two hugged each other without caring at all about what other people were thinking.

They held each other tightly as if they were the only ones there at this moment, as if they would never let go this time.

“No one is pickling.”

Jincheol chuckled as he said that. After that, he put down the plates and glasses he had eaten from and nodded slightly at Miguel who was looking at him.

Miguel, seeing the greeting, spoke quietly.

“Snow? Can you take me with you?”

“Ask him first. He might not want to go with me. He has a mother in Sioux.”

“Hmm… I don’t think I need to ask….”

Jincheol quietly left the banquet hall, leaving Miguel behind as he made strange noises.

There seemed to be a strange atmosphere inside the garrison. It was the last night before the garrison was demolished, so it was a natural atmosphere.

The chip hanging on Jincheol’s chest started to quietly ding as Jincheol was walking around with his hands in his pockets.

[···You’re having a full meal and taking a walk under the moonlight. I’m so jealous. Please give me some time off, sir.]

“What do you mean you’ve been playing around for the past ten thousand years and now you want a vacation?”

[How can being locked in a coffin be considered a vacation? I mean a ‘real vacation’.]

“I don’t know what that real vacation is, but I don’t want to give it to you. If that’s all you have to say, then just quietly look at the moonlit night you mentioned.”

[Oh, I didn’t come from underground. How did I end up in this caveman’s way···]

“Is that all you have to say?”

[Of course there is more. Some of the data obtained from the remains of that bastard, William Lambert, has been decoded.]

Jincheol’s steps stopped. He stood there and looked up at the moon in the sky.

“What is it about?”

[I couldn’t get more than a few words. Most of the information was just words, not even phrases like ‘reward’, ‘competition’, or ‘proof of blood’. But, hehehe! Who am I? A semi-high-end AI worth two hundred thousand dollars. I was able to figure out where William Lambert was before he came here by figuring out some location data.]

“If it’s here, before these rabbits came to the land?”

The white moon somehow looked a little bigger than it did ten thousand years ago. I couldn’t tell if it was just an illusion or if the ancient humans had done something stupid.

[Yes. If we compare the navigation information left on his arm with the previous Earth coordinate system settings, we can see that he was wandering around from northern Mongolia to Siberia, Russia until a few months ago.]

“···So you were wandering around the region that used to be called that?”

At Jincheol’s question, Bonchip pretended to be surprised and trembled.

[Oh no! Those countries are gone now. Since there are no countries, it would be weird to refer to them as a region of a country. Hahaha. Then let’s just say that I used to travel around the central and northern regions of the Asian continent.]

North-Central Asia. Jincheol began to walk slowly again, drawing a rough picture in his head.

Shiol is Seoul. It has been through many ups and downs for ten thousand years, but the remaining temple, the Haetsalnuri Hall, where the AI ​​azaleas remain, tells us that it was Seoul.

When I was talking to Master Parm the other day, he told me about the wandering Olog armored nomads from the northwest. At that time, they were riding the Sidalia River, so the northwest wilderness that the Master spoke of, the wilderness that Stone Fist spoke of, was ultimately the inland of northern Asia.

Jincheol also saw a map made during this era in Shiol’s library. At that time, he couldn’t give up the theory of the other world, so he didn’t notice it, but now that he thinks about it, the land shape drawn on that map was like the Yellow Sea cutting into the interior of China, and several streams seeping deep into the interior through the torn wounds. Aiman’s entire Sandesiya was located on one of those streams.

Jincheol, who had been drawing various maps and city locations, opened his mouth.

“Why did you wander around there?”

[I don’t know about that, hehehe.]

“···You said you translated everything? Is that all you can do for two hundred thousand dollars?”

Jincheol’s provocation made Bonchip tremble. It was hanging on the necklace and bouncing up and down on Jincheol’s chest.

[What are you talking about! I figured this much out because I was the one! If you were the customer alone, you wouldn’t have been able to decrypt the data, let alone steal it! How dare you provoke me! You really want to get in trouble, customer! You won’t be able to sleep at night?! Should I recreate the noise between floors in this 121st century!]

“Okay, Inma.”

Jincheol, who didn’t want to be disturbed while he was sleeping, passed out. However, Bonchip just kept whining and shaking silently as if his anger hadn’t subsided. While the guy was talking nonsense like [···Whew. Who am I? The best AI in the underground. This level of anger can be easily controlled. So I, who am expensive, will endure it for real···], Jincheol also collected his thoughts.

If Aiman ​​and Haita had caught the gathering of meditation on this eastern continent, it would be good to dig them up, but it didn’t seem like they had much success either, in Jincheol’s eyes. In order to find out what the dead cyborg was doing there, Jincheol would eventually have to follow its footsteps.

If that wasn’t what Jincheol wanted, then what he could do now was to go to the city of the Bykas, where Mr. Parum and Udim were, but honestly, there were no traces left there either, so it didn’t seem like there would be anything there.

“Anyway, why did that kid suddenly start attacking me···”

Special Envoy William Lambert. If he had been a little kinder to Jincheol and his friends, Jincheol would have been kinder to him too. Maybe he could have had a conversation like that and met with the people of this era.

But at least Jincheol felt that the guy was a monster who killed and treated the intellectuals of this era without any hesitation, and in the end, Jincheol also saw him as a being outside the fence of the ‘Ophesis people’.

Are other Ophisians any different? I don’t know since I haven’t met them.

“Anyway, I guess I’ll go with that bushy-haired guy.”

The wilderness that Jincheol was going to was Doljumeok’s hometown. It would be better to go with someone he knew than to run there bare-handed without any guide.

Jincheol walked under the moonlight like that, collected his thoughts, and returned to his tent. Before going to bed, he spoke firmly to Bonchip, who had been whining until then.

“If you disturb my sleep, I will bury you in the dirt and put a rock on top of you. You will have to rot there for about thirty thousand years.”

[···]

The vibrations subsided, and Jincheol had a comfortable night.

* * *

A few days later, Jincheol entered the Rostang airfield, which was nearing completion, with a somewhat gloomy-looking expression on his face.

Jincheol, carrying a light bag, said while hitting Doljumeok on the back.

“Emma. Are you still like that because of Maro? I see that guy is a bit more cheerful now. Why are you so gloomy?”

“···It’s not because of Maro that I’m depressed.”

“What? Then why?”

“I just have to go home with you···”

Jincheol clenched his fist. Doljumeok’s gloomy expression softened when he saw the fist.

“···I was so happy that I did that. Haha. The Gars of the Wilderness will also welcome you. You are the best warrior!”

Jincheol also laughed at that sudden change in expression. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like he would get bored while crossing the sea.

But when he saw the people gathered at the airport and the airship, he too was a little confused.

“···Could that be the airship you saved?”

“Yes. That was the only airship that could carry tanks across the ocean.”

Jincheol turned his gaze to the people who had gathered to see him and Doljumeok off. There, only Ai was smiling.

“Now I guess we’ll finally have some proper class time.”

The airship that Stone Fist had acquired to cross the sea and return to the west was Aiman’s, or Harmen’s to be exact. It was the same airship that had attacked the merchant ship that Jincheol was on in the past, and had helped them from the sky not long ago.

Bonchip muttered at the sight of the old airship.

[···I’m going to fall over. It’ll melt in salt water, so it’ll take a hundred years, right? Hehehe! Yay!]