Chapter 301
“Damn it!”
Hashim’s wide-open eyes shook violently.
A man who rarely showed emotion at all could not hide the shock on his face.
“Boss, what’s wrong?”
Alton asked with a puzzled expression.
The explosives he had made had detonated properly.
They were improvised explosives, but their destructive power was unquestionable.
No matter how powerful an awakened one was, there was no way anyone could come out of an explosion like that unharmed.
Hashim handed the binoculars to Alton and spoke.
“Goddamn it! I think we’re seriously fucked.”
“What?”
Alton stared through the binoculars toward the explosion site, then his eyes widened.
“How is that even possible?”
Beyond the lens stood a man and a young girl completely unharmed, along with a floating streamlined object.
Though they looked blurry from the distance, it was obvious enough that they were perfectly fine.
“I poured every last bit of mana into that blast, and they’re still unharmed? What kind of monster is that…?”
Alton’s voice trembled involuntarily.
Hashim snatched the binoculars from his hand and stuffed them into his coat.
“Looks like we’ve earned the grudge of some monster.”
He had always known something like this might happen someday.
He had killed countless people and stolen everything they had.
It wouldn’t be strange if one of the people he killed had connections to that monster.
Even Hashim himself had no confidence he could survive the trap Alton had overloaded with mana. Yet the existence beyond the binoculars hadn’t suffered even a scratch from the enormous explosion.
Which meant only one thing.
The man was stronger than him.
Even from afar, the man’s gaze and aura felt overwhelming. More than anything, the chills crawling across Hashim’s skin proved just how powerful he was.
This was the first time he had ever felt something like this while working as a scavenger.
Only one thought filled his head.
Run.
If they clashed head-on with someone like that, the Helbrin Mercenary Corps would be wiped out without question.
Hashim spoke to his subordinates.
“From now on, we switch to Plan S.”
Survival Plan.
A survival strategy activated during emergencies—hence, Plan S.
Hashim had already prepared plans to ensure the survival of the Helbrin Mercenary Corps.
The subordinates, already familiar with the plan, looked at Hashim with shining eyes.
“The rendezvous point is the Neo Seoul slums.”
“Huh?”
“What?”
The men blinked, thinking they had misheard.
The most dangerous place for scavengers was Neo Seoul.
The slums were relatively freer than the rest of the city, but the risks were still enormous.
But Hashim was firm.
“If a monster like that sets its mind on tracking us down, there’s no way we can shake him off completely. Better to hide somewhere crowded instead.”
The subordinates listened in silence.
“And if we complete our deal with the Spider Queen, we’ll be able to establish a base in the slums—or even in Neo Seoul itself.”
“But we still haven’t gathered the slaves they wanted.”
So far, they had only secured around forty slaves.
It was nowhere near the number the Spider Queen Eli demanded.
But Hashim answered without hesitation.
“We’ll make up the difference in the slums.”
“Ah!”
“I see!”
Only then did the subordinates understand.
Hashim clapped his hands.
Clap!
“There’s no time. If that monster is who I think he is, he’ll track us down soon enough. Move!”
“Yes!”
“Then let’s all survive and meet again.”
The moment Hashim finished speaking, the mercenary corps split into three separate groups and scattered.
It was a choice made to increase their chances of survival, even if only slightly, in this extreme situation.
The group containing Hashim, Akashi, and Alton moved with the slaves, while the other two groups headed in different directions.
Thus, the Helbrin Mercenary Corps split into three and raced across the desert.
Long after they left, Zeon, Brielle, and Gaia appeared.
“They’re quick-thinking bastards.”
A hollow laugh escaped Zeon’s lips.
The explosion had occurred the instant they discovered the survivors’ village massacred by the Helbrin Mercenary Corps, as though it had been waiting for them.
The only reason they survived that massive explosion was thanks to Zeon and Gaia’s abilities.
Gaia’s force field protected Brielle, while Zeon burrowed beneath the sand to avoid the blast.
Thanks to that, they survived unharmed—but the survivors’ village had been completely destroyed.
Afterward, they followed the traces of Hashim’s mercenary corps to this place, only to find the bastards had already fled.
Their judgment and speed of action were frightening.
At this point, he had to admit it.
“Looks like I underestimated them too much.”
These were men who knew the desert extremely well.
When faced with an opponent they couldn’t handle, they instinctively understood how to maximize their chances of survival.
People like these were far more troublesome than simple-minded A-rank magical beasts.
Creatures who clearly understood their own limits and knew when to retreat.
People like that knew how to walk the razor-thin line of survival while still profiting from it.
Zeon examined the traces left on the ground.
“They split into three groups here.”
And each had gone in a different direction.
He couldn’t catch them all.
He had to choose.
Zeon carefully examined the ground, but the traces had already been covered by sand, leaving almost nothing behind.
In the end, he had to rely on instinct.
“We should pursue the ones who fled east.”
“Is there a special reason?”
“The footprints are deeper over there.”
“So?”
“It means they loaded heavy cargo onto the Bactrian camels.”
“Heavy cargo… don’t tell me?”
“There’s a high chance they’re the people kidnapped from the survivors’ village.”
“Ah! That makes sense.”
“There’s no time. The longer we wait, the lower the chance we catch them.”
“Okay!”
Brielle answered and climbed back onto Gaia.
Zeon and Gaia began the pursuit at terrifying speed.
After running for half a day, they finally found the bastards’ trail again.
“Well, look at this.”
Another hollow laugh escaped him.
The tracks left on the ground made him feel utterly drained.
The group he had been chasing had split into two again.
Rather than noticing Zeon’s pursuit, it seemed this had been part of the plan from the beginning.
The three groups had become six.
Which meant Zeon now had even more choices to make.
Zeon’s expression turned cold.
“A crazy bastard who’s smart too. The absolute worst.”
Now he had one more reason to catch them.
But first, he had to choose again.
Zeon chose the right path.
Because the tracks there were deeper.
It might have been a trick to lure him in, but he had no other choice.
As Zeon sprinted across the desert at terrifying speed, he saw dust rising in the distance.
At last, he had caught up to Hashim’s mercenary corps.
Zeon spoke to Brielle.
“I’ll go ahead first. Follow after me.”
“Okay!”
At that moment, Zeon kicked off the sand.
In that instant, a pillar of sand shot upward at terrifying speed and launched Zeon’s body like a cannonball.
Boom!
With an explosive roar, Zeon’s body soared through the sky like a bird.
After reaching the highest point, his body slowly began to descend in an arc. But Zeon never touched the ground.
A sandstorm rose and supported his body instead.
Swoooosh!
Gliding like a bird, Zeon instantly closed in on the rear of the fleeing group.
“Aaagh! It’s him!”
“He caught up to us!”
Chaos erupted among the mercenaries as they finally noticed Zeon’s approach.
Riding the sandstorm as he descended upon them, Zeon looked like a demon.
At that moment, they realized the truth.
Now that he had caught up to them, escaping Zeon’s grasp was impossible.
“Damn it!”
“Attack!”
In the end, they abandoned the idea of fleeing and attacked Zeon instead.
Martial-type awakened ones stepped forward to tank on the front lines, while magic-type awakened ones unleashed offensive skills.
Boom boom boom!
All kinds of skills came flying at terrifying speed.
Most awakened ones would have panicked under such an assault.
But Zeon was not one of them.
“Sand Blaster.”
Bababababoom!
Every skill the mercenaries unleashed was intercepted by Sand Blaster.
“Goddamn it!”
“What kind of bizarre skill is that?”
“Focus on holding the line!”
The martial-type awakened ones at the front tried to block Zeon with their shields.
But at that moment, the sand beneath their feet exploded.
BOOM!
“Kraaaagh!”
“Uwaaaagh!”
The martial-type awakened ones were blasted away in every direction like bowling pins.
Zeon had activated Claymore.
Without even sparing the flung martial-type awakened ones a glance, Zeon unleashed Viper toward the magic-type awakened ones.
Shushushush!
More than a dozen sand serpents flew forth and slammed into the magic-type awakened ones.
“Aaagh!”
“Urgh!”
The magic-type awakened ones were struck down by Viper without being able to mount any proper resistance.
It wasn’t because they were weak.
It was because Zeon’s skill power was overwhelming, and the way he used them far exceeded their expectations.
Even so, the awakened ones who had been blown away were no ordinary weaklings.
“Damn it!”
“You bastard…!”
Enduring the pain, they charged at Zeon like vengeful spirits.
But Zeon was even more ruthless—and stronger.
“Fire Rain.”
Fwoooosh!
The moment he swung the Superheated Gauntlet, a rain of fire poured down.
The scorching rain of flames delivered death to the awakened ones rushing at Zeon.
“Save me!”
“H-hot!”
Among all forms of pain a human could experience, the burning agony of being set on fire was among the worst.
The awakened ones rolled desperately across the sand trying to extinguish the flames consuming their bodies.
But the fire Zeon created was not something that could be put out so easily.
Like white phosphorus, once it attached itself to a target, it would never extinguish until it burned away everything.
For awakened ones incapable of deploying Aura Shields, it was truly a hellish attack.
Horrific screams echoed everywhere.
Only then did Zeon let out a sigh and stop moving.
More than twenty people were burning in the rain of fire he had unleashed.
The sight of living humans burning was horrifying enough to haunt nightmares.
Even Zeon did not want to kill people this way unless absolutely necessary.
But he knew very well how intelligent and quick to react the people he was chasing were.
If he gave them even the slightest opening, they would slip away like rats.
More than anything, he wanted to inflict the worst possible pain upon those who had slaughtered innocent people so cruelly.
“S-save me!”
“Kraaaagh!”
Zeon approached the man who appeared to be the leader among those screaming in agony.
Perhaps because he was stronger than the others, he endured the pain of having an entire arm engulfed in flames while gritting his teeth.
Zeon spoke to him.
“Tell me everything about your group. If you do, I’ll kill you painlessly.”
“Fuck you! You son of a bitch! You think something like this is enough to—KRAAAAGH!”
Fwoosh!
At that moment, the flames surged even more violently.
Pain incomparable to before overwhelmed the leader, and he screamed at the top of his lungs.
Zeon looked down at him and spoke.
“I’ll ask one last time. Tell me everything about your group.”