The President is Going to America! - Chapter 138



Only Noblemtl

138. Mutant

Hunter, Oh Hyun-seong,

Although he belongs to a special unit whose very existence is secret and his name is unknown, anyone who has been deeply involved in the first generation of Hunters cannot help but know his name.

But although he is a legendary hunter in the industry, here in Changyeong-ri, he is just an ordinary young man.

Like the couple Kwon Kyung-min and his wife and the Yu siblings, Changyeong-ri was different from other villages where it was difficult to find young people, thanks to its own influx and virtuous cycle.

Thanks to that, Oh Hyeon-seong was living like any other young man, without anything particularly special to do.

But today, Heo Deok-su felt a sense of alienation from the person he had thought of as just a cheerful younger brother.

After witnessing the scene, the look in his eyes changed completely.

As if I were a different person.

“… There’s nothing at all.”

Oh Hyun-seong muttered while bending one knee.

A house that has become a mess.

He searched every room in case he had missed anything, but there was no noticeable trace.

It was surprisingly nothing compared to the noisy destruction of the houses.

‘There is no body, no blood, not even a trace of resistance.’

Or maybe I was dragged out without even being able to resist.

Or I could have walked out on my own two feet.

Anyway, the landlord hadn’t been found dead yet, so we had to move quickly.

But before that, there was something I had to check.

There were also strange footprints scattered throughout the place, which seemed too strange to be those of cows simply running out of the barn.

“Did anyone who lived here ever raise anything other than cows?”

“Uh… That’s right. You said Bori. I had a dog. It looked like a common mongrel, but it was incredibly big. When it just stood on all fours, it almost came up to my pubic hair.”

“…was it that big?”

“Yeah, I thought it was weird, so I told him to report it or just throw it away, but he kept arguing that his dog was gentle and would never bite. That idiot… he did everything the country told him not to do and got laid.”

Heo Deok-su frowned as if he was frustrated.

But at his words, Oh Hyeon-seong’s expression became quite serious.

It was already a widely known research result that animals exposed to the atmosphere for a long time tend to grow larger.

But even that only grows to a certain extent within the limits of the species.

It rarely grows that dramatically.

‘… if.’

Oh Hyeon-seong suddenly got up from his seat.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“I have to go find my friend.”

Oh Hyun-seong started to move, following the traces that Melts had found.

Heo Deok-su followed right behind him, but he had to stop before long.

“Coolook! Coolook!”

Heo Deok-su staggered as he coughed.

The body instinctively reacts negatively to the increasingly thick turbid air.

“Ugh… I’m going to die…”

“Stop it and go back to the car first.”

“What are you going to do?”

“The management agency only hires people who are resistant to takki. Even non-awakened people can resist takki to some extent.”

It’s not just about telling a few lies to convince someone.

In fact, if we limit it to field work, it was true.

Even if there were no cases where non-awakened staff would enter the gate directly, there were bound to be cases where they would be exposed to the environment, such as the corpses or nests of monsters that were the main culprits emitting the toxic air.

At least among the unawakened, there was no group with higher resistance to turbidity than the field staff of the Administration Bureau.

In the ensuing conversation, Heo Deok-su was eventually persuaded and handed over the gun to him.

“Take this. Have you ever shot it?”

“… How many times?”

“I hope there aren’t any dangerous situations… but if something goes wrong with Yeongdo… show that beast that did this to him a bitter taste. Please.”

Oh Hyeon-seong nodded as he received the pistol handed to him with slightly trembling arms.

The back of Heo Deok-su, coughing and turning around.

You may be sick for a few days if you overdo it, but it is unlikely to have any serious aftereffects.

But it was still only an indirect sphere of influence.

‘I hope I never have to use something like this.’

Oh Hyun-seong, who had been staring at the pistol, put it on his back and continued walking.

If what he thinks is right, I have no intention of saving the animals that ran away from here even if I didn’t listen to his request.

Once a beast has tasted human blood, it will continue to seek it out.

He fiddled with the dagger in his bosom once and followed the trail.

How many minutes passed like that?

Rustle.

Oh Hyun-seong stopped walking at the sound he felt right in front of him.

“Grrrrr.”

A wild dog appeared between the bushes.

But it’s not an ordinary dog.

It had a large size that surpassed the limits of its species, and an appearance that was reminiscent of a wolf, yet different from others.

‘…is a mutant.’

My prediction turned out to be exactly as I had hoped.

Mutant.

Unlike other-worldly beings that jumped through the gate, this refers to cases where creatures on Earth mutate and become hostile.

Although this is an uncommon case in Korea, it is one we have seen countless times in China, an environment overflowing with toxic substances.

“Even though it’s buried in the beast’s stuff, it smells like human blood. It looks like that thing ate it.”

When did she appear? Blea sniffed as she climbed onto Oh Hyun-seong’s shoulder.

If it’s a mutant, it’s already no different from a monster.

There was no point in keeping him alive.

But as the standoff continued, Oh Hyun-seong felt something was strange.

‘Why don’t you jump in?’

A guy who doesn’t attack even though he’s already completely mutated.

Pfft!

At that moment, the guy turned his back and started running away.

Oh Hyun-seong reflexively kicked his feet and chased after the mutant.

But, contrary to what I thought I would be able to easily catch up to, the guy’s movements were more nimble and faster than I expected.

Even Blea was surprised.

“What is that?”

“…He’s an extraordinary guy.”

In general, mutants are much weaker than monsters.

However, despite being a mutant, the guy was showing movements that easily surpassed even boss-level monsters.

Even Oh Hyun-seong, who has seen many mutants in China, has never seen one of this size before.

Because he couldn’t miss it anymore, Oh Hyun-seong started to really increase his speed.

But the moment I got close to the guy, he turned around and went into the cave.

After checking through Multz, I found out that it was a cave that was not very deep and was almost like a dead end.

Sling.

Oh Hyeon-seong, drawing his dagger, entered the cave.

There’s nowhere to run and I’m determined to end it here.

But the pungent smell of blood assaulted his nose from the entrance, and as he went a little further inside, he could see what it was.

Dog corpses are strewn everywhere.

‘They’re mutants, aren’t they?’

Like the one that had just appeared, they were mutated dogs, but this one was a corpse that had been brutally mutilated to death.

Judging by the blood splattered all over, including on the walls, it looks like there was a fierce fight.

As he went a little further in with his sword raised, this time he was able to face the yellow mutant that had run away.

But next to the guy who was sitting down looking tired.

Oh Hyun-seong discovered the body of a man lying down.

‘… That seems right.’

Oh Hyun-seong approached and confirmed the man’s identity.

A face identical to the ID photo found inside the house.

Kim Young-do was right.

It’s a corpse that hasn’t been dead for long.

There was some corruption, but it wasn’t too severe, and there weren’t any wounds to suggest that he had been eaten or killed by something.

There is only a trace of severe hemoptysis.

“Did you guide me here?”

Oh Hyun-seong said to the guy.

The mutant, breathing heavily, blinked silently.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the guy had many deep wounds all over his body.

A figure standing quietly by the body, seemingly listless.

“…”

Oh Hyun-seong looked down at the mutant.

A cornered monster tends to go berserk.

But instead of throwing a tantrum, the guy just looked up at her with eyes filled with superiority.

“Blea, can you go to the car for a second? There’s an envelope I left on the passenger seat.”

“… annoying.”

“Please.”

“I must do what the master tells me to do.”

Blea, who had been bouncing around for no reason, jumped down from my shoulder and quickly escaped the cave.

And then, shortly after, he came back with something big in his mouth.

“thank you.”

Something circular, wrapped in foil.

This is the rice ball I wanted to give to Yun Seol-ha while I was in the village.

After opening a large rice ball, Oh Hyun-seong reached out his hand towards the mutant.

Blea looked at it with suspicious eyes, wondering if it might bite her hand, but the thing came closer weakly, sniffed around, and ate the rice ball.

The guy was eating hard, perhaps because he was hungry, but I could feel that he was also being careful not to let his sharp teeth scratch my hand.

The guy who had finished a whole rice ball went back to his seat, curled up into a ball, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

‘It seems like the effect is working.’

The rice grown in his fields was in itself a perfect remedy for wounds.

If you add in the monster’s strong vitality that the mutant possesses, it should be able to recover from that level of injury quickly.

“Are you really not going to kill me?”

“… In principle, killing would be right.”

Mutants, once creatures of Earth, share the same identity as monsters from the moment they mutate.

Especially if it was a mutant of this level, it was no different from an S-rank monster, and since it was an out-of-control monster, you never know what kind of trouble it might cause.

But rather, this is the first time a mutant that does not attack humans has been discovered.

The first instinct engraved in a monster’s mind is to exterminate humans.

Even if it was a special species with high intelligence, it was impossible to go against its instincts in the grand scheme of things.

But the fact is that a being that goes against that law has appeared here.

It would be a simple matter to suffocate that defenseless creature, but it seemed a waste to let this special case end here simply by following the rules.

“… let’s go.”

Oh Hyeon-seong carefully lifted Kim Yeong-do’s body.

*

Oh Hyeon-seong, who returned, helped collect the body.

As per Heo Deok-su’s wishes, a simple graveyard was built in the village and he was buried there.

His argument was that his stubborn friend would not want to leave this place even after he died.

After finishing collecting the body, when we returned to the cave, the mutants had completely disappeared.

“In the past, it would have been a sense of punishment.”

Choi Jeong-il, who was listening to his story, said.

Two men fishing in a reservoir.

“I didn’t know you’d wake up so quickly. I guess… treating you like that might have been a bit excessive.”

“But it certainly seems like a surprising case. The fact that there are mutants that don’t attack humans is tantamount to claiming that monsters can coexist with humans.”

To be honest, I wouldn’t have believed it at all if it weren’t for what his senior, Oh Hyeon-seong, said.

Because it was a case that completely denied and overturned all previous research results.

“Still, I guess I’ll have to look for it separately. Just in case a major accident happens somewhere else.”

“I guess so.”

They nodded and got up from their seats after finishing fishing.

There are still some questions that remain.

Where did the cows that escaped from the barn go?

Where was the mutant trying to take the dying Kim Young-do?

If you continue in the direction the guy was heading, you will only enter the restricted area where the takgi is strongest.

Of course, it would only have had a negative impact on the patient’s body, so it would be difficult to see it as an action for his benefit.

Maybe I just hadn’t thought about it that far.

Because it was just an animal, too small to expect anything great.

Squeak.

Oh Hyeon-seong and Choi Jeong-il, who had come down the mountain behind the house, opened the gate.

But when they entered the yard, they just stood there in a daze.

“hmm…?”

To his dismay, a dead rabbit was lying in the middle of his yard.

As if an animal were dividing up its prey.