Chapter 25
Just in case, I drove further inside without getting out of the car.
The glass door in the middle of the mart shattered with a crash, but it didn’t matter.
There were no police to arrest me, no one to question what I was doing anymore.
With no windows, the powerless mart was incredibly dark inside.
Sunlight is such a great resource, yet humanity blocked even windows without realizing it.
They say it was to make people lose track of time while shopping, but in hindsight, nothing seems more foolish and thoughtless.
“To think no one considered the possibility of losing electricity…”
Muttering to myself, I turned on the camper van’s headlights.
The artificial white light illuminated the dark mart.
The musty, rotten smell that had been wafting in was coming from the fresh food section of the mart.
Fruits, eggs, tofu, and items from the unpowered refrigerators were emitting a rotten odor.
But I wasn’t expecting fresh food anyway.
“Let’s focus on easy-to-store items like canned goods, ramen, and retort pouches.”
I called out as I jumped out of the driver’s seat.
“Okay!”
“We need to grab what we can and get to a safe place quickly.”
We scattered and started frantically stuffing needed items into old sacks.
“Oh. Canned fruit. Good. Good. Take it all.”
I crammed the camper van with canned goods, chocolate bars, snacks, ramen, butane gas, and all bottled drinks, whether water or not.
As I was hauling six-packs of bottled water to the camper van, I hesitated at the ‘Tea, Tea Bags, Coffee’ section.
I was trying to exclude items unrelated to survival, but…
“I can’t give up after-meal instant coffee.”
I tossed a pack of instant coffee and some barley tea bags into the camper van.
“Wow, our food storage is packed now!”
Sehun, who had already sneakily grabbed a lollipop and put it in his mouth, shouted happily.
When I got back in the driver’s seat and reversed, I could feel through the steering wheel that the car was heavier than before.
“This should last us for a while.”
I said with a satisfied look as we left the mart and drove confidently down the national road.
“We can keep going like this.”
Baek Yi-heon, gripping the handle on the passenger side, replied with a stiff face.
“The speed limit on this road is 80 kilometers per hour.”
“What? Ah…”
I glanced at the camper van’s dashboard.
The current speed was 110 kilometers per hour.
This was only because 110 km/h was the maximum speed of this camper van.
“It’s okay. It’s fine. We’re the only ones on the road.”
“But rules are rules…”
“And if we drive slowly, monsters might catch up to us.”
I said in a relaxed voice.
It wasn’t entirely made up.
Monsters can sense human life energy, so it was advantageous to travel in small groups or move at high speeds to avoid them.
At my words, Baek Yi-heon finally closed his mouth tightly.
Then, after glancing at me humming while driving, he spoke again.
“But didn’t you say we were going to Busan?”
He seemed to have noticed from the fallen road signs that we were heading east, not south.
“Ah, about that…”
The reason I was going to Mangsang Beach first instead of Busan was this:
Busan is the setting for a mid-story episode, so it would be too much for Baek Yi-heon, who is still in the early stages of awakening, to handle the monsters there.
‘If we go now, we’ll get thrashed by the high-level marine monsters.’
But when one lacks ability, the solution is to level up equipment.
There’s a weapon specialized for battling marine monsters in the ‘Mangsang Dungeon’ that appeared at Mangsang Beach.
So we were going there to train against marine monsters and obtain items.
‘Though there’s something we need to get before that…’
“Well, I thought it would be better to move along the coastal road.”
Omitting all that explanation, I gave the answer I had prepared.
“It seems the monsters mainly target cities with lots of people.”
“Is that also information from your guardian deity?”
I had explained to Baek Yi-heon and Sehun that the god I contracted with was an ‘information-type’ deity.
Although a minor god with very poor combat abilities, it provides useful information depending on the situation.
“Yes. Intrachata told me so.”
As I nodded shamelessly and spoke, the message window inevitably popped up.
[(Messenger) Indra is genuinely curious about the thickness of the steel plate on your face.]
“Hm? Didn’t you say ‘Intrachankunta’ before?”
“Ah, yes, yes. That’s it. Haha. My pronunciation isn’t very good…”
‘His memory is good too.’
I grumbled inwardly while laughing awkwardly on the outside.
“Since those monsters only eat humans, your guardian deity’s words make sense.”
At my words, Baek Yi-heon stroked his chin, lost in thought for a moment.
I quickly added,
“Yes, yes. The inland road through Yeongju, Andong, and Daegu is close to cities. I’m trying to choose roads as far from cities as possible.”
Then, with a nonchalant expression, I turned the steering wheel sharply to exit a corner.
From the back, Sehun exclaimed excitedly.
“Whee! It’s like riding an amusement park ride!”
Baek Yi-heon, with a slightly stiff expression, quietly grabbed the passenger seat handle he had let go of earlier.
💎
We were driving excitedly along the partially collapsed national road when,
“…Noah. Just a moment.”
“Yes?”
“Over there.”
At Baek Yi-heon’s curt tone, I turned my head following his gaze.
Black smoke was rising from halfway up a mountain not far away.
Screeeeech—
I urgently stopped the camper van that had been traveling at over 100 kilometers per hour.
Baek Yi-heon, who had been wearing a serious expression, quickly grabbed the passenger seat handle again.
“Oh my. There must have been a small village there.”
‘This is perfect timing.’
[(Messenger) Indra sighs deeply, saying you still have a long way to go in terms of inhumanity.]
I added, exaggeratedly imitating a genuinely concerned tone,
“Oh dear, oh dear. We should hurry and check if there are any people there.”
Then, before Baek Yi-heon could answer, I floored the accelerator. I could feel him looking at me with a surprised expression.
Pretending not to notice, I drove like mad towards the source of the smoke.
At that moment, Baek Yi-heon, still gripping the handle tightly, muttered softly,
“…As I thought, Noah is a good person.”
Ouch.
His quiet murmur made my conscience twinge with pain.
They say conscience is triangular at birth and becomes circular as we grow and its edges wear off.
‘I guess I still had some edges left.’
This is all because I’m traveling with this moral textbook of a protagonist whose conscience must be an octadecagon or something.
[(Messenger) Indra, regarding your conscience…]
Ignoring the deity’s nagging echoing in my head, I put more strength into my right foot on the accelerator.
Vrooooom—
💎
As we suspected, there was a small village of old country houses clustered on the mountainside next to the national road.
One of them had collapsed, burned completely black.
The smoke rising to the sky seemed to be coming from there.
Quickly surveying the surroundings with his sharp senses, Baek Yi-heon determined there were no people around.
“Looks like a fire broke out during the chaos.”
I sharply pointed out to him as he spoke in a somber tone,
“Isn’t it too clean for only one house to have burned?”
When such a big fire occurs, the sparks typically spread to neighboring buildings by the wind.
But here, even the house right next door was intact without a single scorch mark.
At my words, Baek Yi-heon’s eyes, which had been filled with complicated emotions, instantly took on a chilling light.
“…Then.”
I answered firmly,
“It must be a monster.”
💎
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