Clearing the Game at the End of the World Chapter 243

Chapter. 13. The Hunter, the Scavenger, and the Swordsman (9)

****

“Yes… That’s right…”

Ian thought it was a look in his eyes that made it hard to tell what he was thinking. At least it was clear that Woojin had become a different person from the old man he knew in the past.

Woojin, who was stroking his chin for a moment and choosing his words, placed the empty plastic bottle containing Moonglow on the table.

“That plastic bottle. Four bottles of oil that Kesselring gave me. “What do you think I would have done with that item that seemed like the death of people who had been with me for a long time?”

“…Did you bring it?”

“no. “I spent it.”

.

.

.

.

“what?”

“People who have been with the hospital for years. In an instant, they went from talking and thinking people to resources, and then turned into fuel for the vehicle my children and I used to escape. “Do you know what I was thinking at that time?”

The four people listening to the old man’s story couldn’t even make a sound.

The old man, who had been searching through his memories in the cool air of a small restaurant, eventually let the overflowing memories flow from his eyes, which were as hard as a dry old tree. She just shed tears quietly, without any foreshadowing or emotional ups and downs.

“I want help. Please, help us survive the waves of deranged mutants. I muttered their names like a spell and crawled on the frame of the buggy like a bug, begging them to give me strength as they died and turned into yellow grease. “I poured them down the gas tank.”

There was no moral concept or choice in that act. There was only a car, fuel, and three people who needed to escape.

“If you ask me if mutant byproducts are the starting point of moral collapse, I would say yes. That’s because I was begging them for help with trembling hands, like a trembling aspen tree, as if I was immediately asking a ghost for forgiveness. But I don’t think that’s a reason not to use mutant by-products.”

The old man’s wrinkled and bulging knuckles traced the irregularities of the empty plastic bottle.

“In fact, even if it is not a by-product of mutation, there are many things in the world that turn ordinary people evil. Have you seen someone who starved for three days? What if you are the head of a household who is not just starving, but has to watch his entire family starve to death? He will become a devil who can do anything. Your loved one is dying of sepsis and the antibiotics are in someone else’s hands? Whether that person is a woman or a man, at that moment, they will willingly become a robber for the person they love. We are living in an age of destruction. We live in an optimal environment where we can become corrupted and become evil enough to become evil. But look at that city. Are we all that evil? Have they become so terrible and terrible that they are indistinguishable from those raptor beasts?”

no. Ian could emphatically say that was not the case. Because I knew a friend who, despite losing his father to war, burying his mother through his own mistakes, and living alone in a harsh wasteland, brightened the world with his personal goodness more confidently than anyone else.

Woojin read his expression and smiled softly.

“okay. That’s it. Things are just things. In the end, it is people who make people. Trust people. Even in this hell, where even Sodom and Gomorrah would run away in fear, I believe in those who did not give up their last humanity. The people who have not collapsed so far are those who have built strong pillars in their hearts. I believe in the standards they set in their hearts and their consciences. Of course it will shake. Some people will fall and become evil. Because reality is not that easy. But… we will overcome it in the end. Like everyone in history, we will eventually move in a better direction. “I believe it.”

Although Ian had no legs, he still felt the brightly shining eyes of the old man, and his mind, which had been wandering in a fog, felt distinctly brighter.

To summarize, it’s an insignificant story. There are still good people left, so in the end, they are telling us to just believe without any evidence.

However, it was also the clearest answer to an unanswerable problem.

“…Well, you would have achieved much greater success if you had become a politician instead of a doctor. “The tongue licks all the way between the folds of the brain?”

“I can’t keep my mouth shut, you guy. You may have forgotten, but wasn’t it I who turned Ian Desmont, who became a fool after losing his wife, into the Metal Joe he is today? You were really cute back then too. “As long as you say, ‘It’s okay.’ [I’m indebted to you], and [Old man, you don’t have to worry about me that much], you’re like an idiot made out of wax.”

“Urajil.”

It’s a shameful memory. In fact, it is true that Woojin had a lot of help in bringing him back from his original state of mind to this point. In the process, Ian’s straight, measured personality became stained with that of an eccentric old doctor.

“Kuuuuuu! “Who would want to live with a guy like me for a year?”

“Hehehe! “It was the second best decision of my life.”

“Do I really have to pick it as second there? “What’s the first one, you bastard?”

“Of course, you didn’t go and confess to shooting your wife, right?”

Ian raised his fist with a relieved expression. The old man looked at it with an expression of bewilderment, then put his dry, wrinkled fist against the end of it.

At that old greeting method, even the gloomy old man couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“So… did you have fun looking around the market?”

“It was awesome. Did you see that slot machine? “If there was a treasure island for people like me, it would be something to put on top.”

“Kuhuhuhuh. Corvette That friend of hers is pretty good. She also gets all the prosthetic parts made there. “If she was caught at the Moon Glow stand, she wouldn’t have been able to see the by-product market yet, right?”

“what. Anyway, the reason for watching it has been resolved. “I don’t really regret it.”

“Let’s see if you can say that after seeing it. Let’s go for a walk to help digestion. “I have something I want to show you.”

Woojin, who had already returned to his usual sullen expression, grinned and pulled his wheelchair back.

Ian followed him, got up from his seat, and naturally took a seat behind his wheelchair.

“Let go, you guy. “I still have arms.”

“I feel like I’m going to explode if I go with a disabled person, so don’t worry about it.”

“Hey. “He’s so nice to me that he solved one of my problems.”

“Hehehe. I have a small head, so if something like that crawls into me, I would die. “You can’t hit it and destroy it because it has no substance.”

“It was a problem that was over a long time ago with no need to worry about it in the first place. Skin mask. Don’t you remember? It was also made from a Mugler respirator. When you wrote that, did you ever feel ashamed of yourself and think, “I’m a man-eater.” Is it even half-alive? “No?”

“….Nimi Sheepal. “It really was like that.”

“Stupid guy. As the attending physician, it is my opinion that Desmont, the shitty commander of the past, disappeared due to brain damage. “Metal Joe doesn’t have the talent to be a leader, so beat him up quickly.”

“I wish so. If that professor comes out, I will quickly hand him over and take charge of the action. So, where should we go? A by-product market?”

“no. I’ll take a look there later. “Go to the corner, two rows over from the canning rack.”

“corner? which?”

“excuse me. E-14 shelf. “In the direction where there are a lot of tarpaulins.”

Ian was momentarily puzzled by Woojin’s order to go inside instead of outside, but he calmly pushed the wheelchair, thinking there must be something there.

“There are a lot of tarpaulins in BDSM, too.”

“Stop talking nonsense and just look.”

Woojin dropped Ian with a wave of his hand, then pulled one of the tarpaulins piled up on the shelf. There was the sound of a chain scraping at the end of the tarp that had been pulled out, and a complicated rattling sound echoed from behind the shelf.

It was a secret door hidden in a warehouse full of miscellaneous things.

****

“Huh. “What is this again…”

“It’s still the largest black market in the Dome Autonomous Region. “There should be at least a panic room.”

“so. Where does the passage lead? Outside the electric field? Or inside the dome?”

“It’s not a passage, it’s my lab.”

The rattling sound ended, and a ray of light flowed through the dark warehouse. The heavy shelf was pushed to the side, and the person who opened the door came out with his back to the light.

The battle hammer holder next to Liza at the entrance during the day was wearing glasses and a white researcher uniform. His ferocious appearance during the day seemed to have been in line with his skills as a gatekeeper, but now he was smiling with a kind and gentle expression.

“Mahmer. “Have you been researching this late?”

“When I saw you during the day, it didn’t seem like we were normal, so I prepared for it. Honestly, I think I would want to brag about it to my friends. “I cleaned the things I took out for research and hung them up.”

“Doing something useless….”

“well. “I don’t think it’s very useful to the customers.”

When Woojin, frowning in the suddenly bright room, looked back, there were three people with their mouths wide open, just as Mahmer had said.

“Why are you so surprised? I guess I told you that I learned by stealing the Raptors’ research? “In the first place, is this the only field they are most interested in?”

Ian couldn’t respond and slowly took off his sunglasses and placed them on his forehead.

“So, is that all…?”

“okay. “It is combat equipment made by improving their technology in my own way, using mutant by-products.”

A large-caliber rifle wrapped in rough, sand-colored leather.

A bulletproof vest with white panels that appear to be made of bone.

There’s even a strange pocket that blinks red inside a refrigerator-like box.

Ian couldn’t help but pinch his cheek as he looked at the lab, which seemed like a world away from home. He also twisted the cheek of Boodle Ram next to him just in case, but seeing the scream, it was definitely real.

“You know what? Among the elements that make up an elderly person, the proportion of memory is much higher than that of the body. Unlike the body, which will soon disappear, memories are accumulated over a lifetime. Those guys implanted terrible memories in me. “A memory so terrible that I can’t forget it until the moment I die.”

Woojin said, sweeping away those strange weapons with his hands with eyes full of determination.

“If you want to accuse the doctor of making weapons out of revenge, I won’t stop you. Because it’s true. But, I don’t see them as humans. I see it as a disease deeply rooted in this world. “If it can’t be treated, we have no choice but to cut it off entirely.”

Swish!

Woojin threw one of the strange weapons that came into his hand at Ian. The pistol, with its rough exterior, had a strangely lukewarm warmth. Knowing the meaning of that action, Ian decided to ask one more time.

“I’m asking why you’re so obsessed with living as a doctor. “If I kill those guys with this… are you confident that you won’t blame yourself for being a murderer again?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What I just gave you is a prescription and medicine. A somewhat unusual treatment that only works well for one disease. And since they were the ones who made me give up as a doctor, they should take some responsibility.”

“…..”

Slam!

A firm, unwavering answer. To that last question, Ian answered by pulling the slide of that strange firearm.

“How much does it cost for all of this?”

“entire? Since everything is handmade, it must be very expensive, right? What we’re friends with is friendship, but business is another matter? “Aren’t you going to shave it off?”

“I wasn’t just hanging out while you were having a hard time. Our rich president gave us enough money to rot. Now that I think about it, what do you think about making a deal with Dom instead of the black market? I would earn a lot more than I do now. There will also be ample support for medical supplies.”

“Arthur. Young, that person is a person whose true nature is unknown. And unlike me, President Young doesn’t seem to trust people. They said they thought it would cause chaos in the by-product market and were preparing sanctions. Then it’s late. “The Raptors are pulling out acid grenades or something like that at this very moment.”

Surprisingly, Woojin was well aware of the policy that Dom had not yet implemented. It seemed that Moby Dick’s string reached deeper into the dome than I thought.

“There hasn’t been a single moment since the destruction that wasn’t a transitional period, but it’s especially so now. Sometimes only drastic treatment can prevent the disease from spreading. I thought I’d make this and give it to someone… It’s really good timing. .”

Ian was able to easily read what Woojin’s bright eyes were saying as he handed him the gun.

‘I guess that means I need to see his body before I grow old and die.’

That look was truly like old man Woojin.

For an old man who remembers even a small argument for months, it gave him a terrible memory that he would never forget. I was able to guess what went into his mind when he created this laboratory inside the hospital.

“Then… shall we take a look and see how good of a guy they made?”

“It’s not as flashy as it looks, so don’t expect much. To be honest, gun smishing is not my specialty, but most of it was made by this guy, Mahmer. If you just make it ordinary, you have to put such unnecessary decorations and shells on it… .”

“What are you talking about? It’s useless! A special weapon like this is perfect! Isn’t it cool that you can tell what you’re doing when you look at it from the outside?”

Mahmer retorted with his eyes shining unbefitting his size, pulled out a large gun hanging on the wall, and approached Ian.

“You usually enjoy using shotguns, would you like to try this one? You know the specialized variant, the one they used to call the 2.5 type in the old days, the one that screamed at you to explode your eardrums?”

“Ah, that. I’ve seen something similar a few times.”

“It’s a weapon used as a secondary weapon after destroying the entire gunpowder. The impact of the gunpowder exploded at the back is transferred to the barrel and fired at once. It’s a bit troublesome to supply ammunition because you have to use dedicated gunpowder, but it can be suppressed regardless of the enemy’s cover. There is an advantage in that it is possible. Of course, even if it has similar abilities, no variant is completely the same, so it can be considered that the weapon you are currently holding is a unique firearm that cannot be mass-produced. There is a reason why variant firearms are expensive.”

“Ohh.”

“Would you like to take a look at the armor as well? To put it into words, it is an anti-bullet suit made of a separately classified dermis layer that is exceptionally strong against shocks, and has greatly improved on the existing weakness in penetrative power….”

“Ohhhh!”

Mahmer, who was intelligent despite his appearance, passionately promoted the variant firearms he was passionate about, and Ian gradually began to fall in love with the charm of these strange weapons.

That day, Toothnip Delivery, an organization specializing in illegal trade and errands, had to work all night to deliver large boxes from the Moby Dick black market.

The destinations of the double and triple-wrapped boxes, no matter what they contained, were all BDSM vehicle stations.

Of course, in the middle of the night, the crew members who thoughtlessly unpacked the bulletproof vests screamed loudly as they wriggled as if they were alive.

****

fantasy,