Chapter 140
Scavengers were, quite literally, raiders.
They survived by ambushing others, killing them, and stealing what they had.
Even a hundred years ago, when the side effects of terraforming turned the entire Earth into a desert and humanity stood on the brink of extinction, scavengers still existed.
Instead of fighting the monsters, they chose to survive by killing their fellow humans.
Because of that, humanity had to fight not only monsters, but scavengers as well.
After Neo Seoul established a proper system, scavengers lost their foothold and fled into the desert. People assumed that scavengers no longer existed in Neo Seoul.
Even if some remained, they thought it would only be a handful.
But as if to prove those assumptions wrong, the number of scavengers attacking the White Bear Caravan’s fortress was enormous.
At a glance, there were clearly more than three hundred of them.
“Heh heh…!”
“Die!”
The scavengers—who had been disguising themselves as normal people and ordinary awakened within Neo Seoul—now unleashed their pent-up desires as if venting their frustrations.
“You bastards dare…!”
“Hold that side!”
“Send support here!”
The awakened of the White Bear Caravan fought without any sign of panic or fear.
The distance between the Akutsk Colony and Neo Seoul Colony was thousands of kilometers.
No matter how much Damian guided them safely, it was impossible to avoid every monster.
Among the enemies they had faced were scavengers.
Even in environments where survival seemed impossible, scavengers had endured.
Through fighting them, the caravan’s awakened had gained experience.
Naturally, they knew how to deal with scavengers.
One such method was fighting while relying on the fortress.
They deliberately left only a narrow entrance open, luring the scavengers in.
No matter how many scavengers there were, only a limited number could pass through such a tight opening.
“Aaaagh!”
Scavengers screamed as they died.
“Damn it! This won’t work.”
“Hey!”
“Let’s go over the walls.”
Eventually, some scavengers chose to scale the fortress walls.
But preparations for that had already been made.
Crackle!
Suddenly, sparks burst along the outer wall.
A high-voltage current surged through it.
The scavengers who had been climbing the wall like cockroaches were electrocuted and fell in droves.
“Heh heh! Scavengers who feed on rotten meat think they can climb up here?”
A bald man appeared atop the wall.
His name was Nathan.
He was an awakened who used lightning-based magic.
His rank wasn’t high—
only D-rank.
Yet he could display such power because the fortress walls were made of a special material.
They conducted electricity extremely well and amplified it several times over. That was why even a D-rank awakened could cause numerous enemies to fall like flies.
“Ha ha! Come at us all you want—the White Bear Caravan will never fall!”
“That bastard…!”
“Someone shut him up!”
Enraged by Nathan’s mockery, the scavengers reacted.
A few of them began climbing the walls again.
“Idiots!”
Nathan prepared to unleash lightning magic at them.
If he sent the current through the walls, the scavengers clinging to them would drop instantly.
But he never got the chance.
Thud!
An arrow flew in from somewhere and pierced through his head.
“Urgh!”
Nathan, disbelief in his eyes, looked toward the direction the arrow came from.
There had been a barrier over the top of the fortress—yet the arrow had penetrated it.
He wanted to understand how, but he wasn’t given the chance.
After staggering for a moment, Nathan fell to his death.
His breath had stopped.
“Acting all high and mighty for nothing…”
Someone sneered as they watched his body fall.
It was the awakened who had fired the arrow from afar.
He was positioned far from the fortress.
Around him stood a group of individuals.
They were heavily disguised with robes and masks to conceal their identities.
They resembled scavengers—but something about them was different.
Among them, the largest man spoke to the archer.
“You brat—don’t act proud just because you broke the barrier with a buff.”
“Come on, boss, do you have to put it like that?”
“Stop fooling around and get ready for battle.”
“Yes, sir!”
The archer returned to his position.
At that moment, a slender woman stepped forward from the group.
She spoke to the man called boss.
“It’s about time we prepare to join the fight, Brixton.”
“I’m not Brixton right now. I’m just one of many scavengers. Don’t forget that, Sister.”
“Hmph! Then don’t call me Sister.”
“If you had done your brainwashing properly from the start, we wouldn’t need to go through all this trouble.”
The woman called “Sister” was none other than Kim Jaekyung.
Kim Jaekyung and Brixton had entered the battle for the Crown of the Spirit King with their subordinates.
But there was one strict condition—
their identities must never be revealed.
That was why they had disguised themselves as scavengers.
After glaring at Brixton for a moment, Kim Jaekyung turned her gaze back to the fortress.
The battle between the White Bear Caravan and the scavengers was reaching its peak.
Countless corpses were scattered near the entrance, and the defensive line looked as though it might collapse at any moment.
Many scavengers had already died, yet their momentum had not faltered.
“Just a little more… that’s all it’ll take.”
“Damn it! We’ve almost broken through!”
The scavengers shouted desperately as they struggled forward.
Watching closely, Brixton spoke,
“Good! Looks like they’re about to break through. That means it’s time for us to join. We’ll charge in and wipe out both the scavengers and the caravan’s awakened in one go.”
“Yes, sir!”
His subordinates responded in unison.
But something about their eyes—visible above their masks—was strange.
They were all bloodshot.
Kim Jaekyung shook her head as she looked at them.
‘Those insane berserker bastards…’
They were, quite literally, berserkers.
Men who believed a god was with them and could throw away their lives without hesitation.
Kim Jaekyung herself was fanatically devoted to Johan, but even she felt overwhelmed by the madness of these berserkers.
“Move! Before anyone else interferes, we clean everything up and leave.”
“Yes!”
Brixton and the berserkers rushed toward the fortress.
“Crazy bastards…”
Shaking her head, Kim Jaekyung followed after them.
With Brixton and the berserkers joining, the battlefield descended into even greater chaos.
“Aaaagh!”
“Who the hell are these guys?!”
“Damn it! Kill them all!”
Curses and screams filled the air, and blood sprayed in every direction.
The White Bear Caravan was turning into a land of death.
News of the attack on the White Bear Caravan fortress spread throughout the slums.
People climbed onto rooftops of tall buildings near the outskirts to watch the battle unfolding in the desert.
“What’s going on? Another group just joined the fight!”
“It’s too far away to tell!”
“Damn it, I wish we had binoculars!”
Ordinary people could only tell that a battle was happening—they couldn’t grasp the details.
And they didn’t dare approach the fortress.
Anyone like them would be killed instantly before even getting close.
Frustrating as it was, this distance was the safest they could manage.
Just then—
“Move aside, you vermin!”
“Clear them out!”
A group appeared on the rooftop of the tallest building.
They drove out all the slum dwellers.
The civilians didn’t dare resist and hurried down.
The leader of the group looked at the battlefield and muttered,
“They’re fighting well.”
Dressed in a suit, he had a coiled rope hanging from his waist—an item known as the Warden’s Binding Rope.
The leader was Cha Jincheol.
A close aide of Kim Kyungsoo, the ruler of the western district, and the one who had participated in the auction on his behalf.
Kim Kyungsoo had granted him the Warden’s Binding Rope as a reward.
To purchase it, they had spent a staggering ten tons of mana stones.
Such an incredibly valuable item had been handed to Cha Jincheol without any compensation.
Naturally, his loyalty to Kim Kyungsoo only deepened.
Cha Jincheol gave the order:
“There’s no time. Prepare to fire the railgun.”
“Yes!”
His subordinates moved in perfect coordination.
They began assembling long metal tubes they had brought.
A massive barrel, nearly ten meters long, was constructed—
the main body of the railgun.
A railgun was originally a weapon that fired projectiles using a powerful electromagnetic field.
The problem was that generating such immense electricity in the current era was nearly impossible.
The western district solved this by combining magic and awakened abilities.
They enhanced the railgun’s barrel with enchantments and used mechanized awakened to generate massive electrical power.
Because it required enormous energy for a single shot, it was ineffective against moving targets or monsters.
After all, nothing would wait around for it to finish charging.
But an immobile fortress was a different story.
No matter how reinforced with magic and layered with barriers, a railgun could punch through even those thick walls in a single strike.
As the railgun was set up, dozens of awakened gathered around it.
“Begin charging.”
“Charging!”
At the command, the mechanized awakened pressed their arms against the railgun barrel.
Whirr—
Their arms transformed with mechanical sounds.
Like charging devices, their altered limbs connected to the railgun.
They began supplying power.
Vooooom—
As energy built up, a resonant hum echoed from the barrel.
Because of its massive size, it took a long time to fully charge.
Finally, when the railgun reached full power, the mechanized awakened detached.
“Ugh!”
“Gah!”
Having completely drained their mana, their faces turned pale.
More than thirty awakened collapsed from exhaustion.
But Cha Jincheol didn’t even glance at them.
“Fire.”
“Fire!”
At the command, the one remaining awakened pulled the trigger.
BOOM!
The projectile shot forward at incredible speed, instantly blowing apart one side of the fortress.
The sudden explosion stunned both the scavengers and the eastern district’s awakened, causing them to pause briefly.
Even they hadn’t expected the fortress wall to be destroyed so easily.
But only for a moment.
Those who grasped the situation quickly raised their momentum.
“The wall’s down!”
“You bastards are dead now!”
“Wipe them all out!”
With the massive barrier gone, scavengers and eastern district awakened flooded into the fortress like a tidal wave.
A look of shock crossed Alexandro’s face.
“What did they attack us with? To destroy the wall in a single strike…”
“It’s fine. This was already expected.”
In contrast, Damian remained calm.
No matter how reinforced with materials, magic, and barriers, he had never believed the wall would hold forever.
It had fallen sooner than expected, but that posed no real problem.
Damian looked toward Neo Seoul and muttered,
“Come… elves. The thing you desire is right here.”