By Zephyria The Beast’s hide was tough and durable, but only a limited number of types were used for clothing.
First, they filtered out the toxic ones, then separately selected the types that could be processed.
After processing, some were used for tools, and others were sent for tailoring. Human flesh and joints were soft and weak, making it difficult to wear anything too heavy or stiff for long.
Things that smelled bad, didn’t breathe at all, had rough surfaces even after processing, or had extremely poor heat resistance…
After meticulously removing defective items, only a small number of Beasts that were difficult to catch remained.
Among them, Mu-hae chose the Taesan tiger. A rare Beast also known as Gwiho.
“Are you going to stop by Seogyeong City?”
“We’ll see.”
Gwiho were native to a fairly wide area, but their numbers weren’t very large. The closest one was on a mountain ridge about a hundred kilometers from Seogyeong City.
It was an area where Aberrants often appeared, despite its distance from the Crystal Zone.
Because the environment was harsh, there were hardly any traces of humans, so usually, no one came near except for groups hunting for hides.
“Get ready.”
Only an hour after settling into his seat, Jin Mu-hae checked the GPS and prepared.
The Small aircraft he had rented with great effort slowly lowered its altitude toward the designated coordinates.
Joo-oh nodded and slung his bag over his shoulder. A long stick peeked out from the slightly open bag.
It was a cylindrical alloy club. A defective item he had brought from Director Gil’s house.
It weighed almost 3 kilograms, making it difficult to use as a one-handed weapon, but Director Gil, having seen Joo-oh’s strength, said it would be fine and sold it cheaply.
His judgment was correct. Joo-oh swung it around like a tree branch.
He kept the versatile Taser gun inside his hood and would pull out the stick as soon as a fight seemed likely.
All he did was smash the heads of already captured Beasts to feel good, but with the equipment, Mu-hae found it easier to work.
Having a buzzing, flying weapon covering the blind spots was a huge help in battle.
“Wow. I can really smell the water.”
Joo-oh, standing on the ground, twitched his nose and looked back at Mu-hae. He seemed to have figured out there was a lake nearby just by the smell.
Indeed, he was a monster who could detect Aberrants from a greater distance than a radar with his sense of smell. A capability that surpassed modern devices was more than just talent; it was closer to a superpower.
Mu-hae made good use of this ability that seemed straight out of a fantasy comic.
“We’re just going to explore until we find the target.”
“Okay!”
“We need to find a tiger, not wolves or lynx.”
Joo-oh seemed capable of finding hunting targets that an individual would have difficulty locating with just a radar.
By listening to sounds, smelling scents, and visually confirming traces that ordinary people couldn’t see.
It was perhaps natural that he could perfectly complete most requests after being armed and taken along.
“But Jin Mu-hae. The sky is getting dark.”
“The forecast said the weather outside would be clear… Well, let’s hurry for now.”
Jin Mu-hae shrugged one shoulder and familiarly surveyed the terrain. It wasn’t uncommon for the weather outside to change erratically, so he was used to it.
The weather inside the Comfort zone never deviated from the forecast. The climate was completely controlled inside the Dome, so rain and fog weren’t just natural phenomena but precisely tuned environmental devices.
In contrast, the outside was an unpredictable chaos. The sun could be shining brightly, then raindrops would fall, and dry land could burn for over two months.
Besides, weather forecasts weren’t very accurate to begin with. Climate changes within a few kilometers had a significant impact on the environment around the Comfort zone, but weather information from hundreds of kilometers away was only used to estimate the habitat of Beasts or Aberrants.
The further away from human habitation, the less reliable the information became. Fortunately, the water pollution level in this area was low, so if it rained, they could just get wet.
Beep- Beep- Beep-!
The radar detected a life signature. But it didn’t feel like a Gwiho.
Jin Mu-hae glanced at Joo-oh, preparing for a possible attack. He was standing blankly, tilting his chin up and staring at the sky.
His pupils moved back and forth as if he were seeing a hallucination, then slowly returned to Mu-hae.
“Um. It seems like a wolf.”
“A wolf.”
“I’m not sure. There are too many smells.”
“Anything like a tiger?”
“I don’t know. But what’s close isn’t a tiger. Should we fight?”
Mu-hae shook his head and gestured in another direction.
Highly aggressive Beasts were unlikely to share territory, so there was no way a Gwiho would be in this vicinity.
“We’re going to move by bike. Follow me.”
As soon as he heard those words, Joo-oh’s face lit up. He especially liked Mu-hae’s bike.
He called the bizarre shape made by assembling parts from all sorts of vehicles cool, and he praised its sturdiness, as if he knew anything about it.
But what he liked most was probably the way they traveled. It was the only time he could hug Mu-hae tightly without getting scolded.
It would be uncomfortable to hug so tightly with all the things Mu-hae had attached to his back.
Regardless, Joo-oh clung on as tightly as possible, feeling his breath on the back of his neck.
“Jin Mu-hae.”
Along with his name, a ticklish sensation brushed against his neck, making Mu-hae’s hair stand on end.
“What? Do you feel something?”
“No. But there’s no road ahead.”
Mu-hae’s bike was basically a two-wheeled vehicle for rough roads. Unlike the vehicles provided by the Company in areas with roads, it handled most mountain paths and rough terrain well.
If Joo-oh, who knew that, said there was no road, then there must be a physically impassable obstacle.
There was no special marking on the map he had paid for. Still, since it was a lakeside, the water might have flooded, or it could be blocked by a huge rock or hill.
“Um. But something’s strange.”
“What is it?”
“The smell doesn’t seem good.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than Mu-hae slowed down the bike. The radar hadn’t detected any reaction yet. Even if there were small animals or low-risk Beasts, there didn’t seem to be anything that would suddenly attack.
“Ugh. Not good.”
Joo-oh, still on the stopped bike, shook his head and swung his legs. When Mu-hae turned to check, his eyes looked unusually dark red.
“Rotten.”
“…What is?”
“The meat is rotten. It’s been a while.”
Mu-hae felt a chill down his spine at the easy-to-understand answer.
He didn’t know why the expression “there’s a decaying corpse” sounded so creepy. Was it because he always talked about meat when he was hungry?
“Should we turn back?”
“No. But I think Jin Mu-hae should take a look.”
Just the presence of a corpse wasn’t something to avoid unless there were Aberrants or Beasts lurking nearby.
A dead rabbit was a corpse, and a dead squirrel was a corpse. He wasn’t the type to be unable to look at something dead, so he decided to trust Joo-oh’s detection.
He stepped on the accelerator again, and after a few minutes, the identity of the obstacle blocking the road gradually revealed itself.
The road, located between a cliff-like high ground and the lake, was blocked by rocks scattered here and there.
Rocks that were half-buried in the soft ground or broken by colliding with each other. There were so many that it was difficult to pass with a two-wheeled vehicle.
Attached to some of the rock fragments seemed to be chunks of flesh rotting black.
Only after stopping the bike and approaching a little did Mu-hae smell the putrid odor of decaying entrails and flesh.
“Damn it.”
Now that he looked, it wasn’t just rock fragments scattered around.
Long, black chunks of flesh left carelessly. At the end of them were shoes that had turned dark.
“The smell is bad.”
Jin Mu-hae frowned at the stench and slowly surveyed the area. In a short time, he seemed to have found body parts from at least three or four people.
“It’s a person.”
“Yeah. It’s a person.”
Judging by the exposed bones on the severed limbs, they hadn’t died in the last day or two.
Considering the humid but low climate of the lakeside, it probably hadn’t been more than a week.
Thud. Mu-hae flipped over a rotting leg with his toe. There were no noticeable markings on the exposed sole of the shoe.
Handmade shoes that tied around the ankle. Clothes that were easy to move in.
Broken plastic was also visible on the trampled grass. Judging by the color, it was likely used for protective gear.
It seemed the victims of this gruesome scene were mercenaries. In the first place, the only ones who would crawl this far and die as a group were mercenaries.
“What did they die from, this?”
He wanted to observe more closely, but most of the corpses were crushed under rocks.
The severed limbs were also quite decayed, so he couldn’t get an estimate by just glancing over them.
He had unfortunately witnessed a terrible sight. Jin Mu-hae was about to click his tongue but snapped his mouth shut at the sudden rush of odor.
Still, thanks to looking without turning away, he had discovered abandoned bags and equipment.
It would be better to hand over anything that could identify them to the brokerage and take anything valuable before leaving.
It was unfortunate, but there was no need or way for him to help those who were already dead.
“Hmm. Someone played a prank.”
At that moment, Joo-oh muttered beside him. He tilted his head back and stared at the top of the cliff.
Mu-hae, who had been picking up the torn bag, moved his gaze as if possessed, following him.
Something was swaying at the edge of the high ground. Something like a torn piece of cloth, caught on a protruding tree root, fluttering like a short flag…
“They must have thrown them from there. Right.”
As the interested voice, as if amused, pierced his ear, Mu-hae’s head slowly returned to the ground.
A rock that seemed to have fallen from a high place, deeply embedded in the ground. A shattered corpse likely buried beneath it.
Ooh. His head grew cold, and his fingertips stiffened. The ownerless bag fell to the ground with a thud.