Chapter 26
With Sung Gun-woo’s help—who was wearing a gas mask—Yong Yeo-hong moved busily for 15 minutes and finally succeeded in skinning the mutated snake.
The neatly folded skin was tied down firmly on top of the jeep’s roof with ropes and the clamps from a solar charger.
“Good, it’s secure.”
Jang Mok-hwa dusted off her hands and looked at Yong Yeo-hong and Sung Gun-woo loading the exoskeleton device into the passenger seat.
“What about those?”
She pointed at the three corpses lying not far away.
“Should we strip them?”
Clothing was worth a little less compared to food and weapons, but in Ashland it could still be used as currency.
Before Baek Sae-byeok or Yong Yeo-hong could give their opinions, Sung Gun-woo spoke up first, his face serious.
“Let’s throw them into the swamp.”
Jang Mok-hwa nodded.
“Alright.”
One of the corpses was hurled far and high into the air, landing in the swamp ahead with a heavy splash of mud.
The body, stuck in the black, slimy surface of the swamp, slowly began to sink.
Another corpse lay in a similar fate nearby, only buried a little deeper into the mire.
After staring briefly at that sight, Sung Gun-woo and Yong Yeo-hong turned back toward the jeep.
Without asking who would ride it first, Jang Mok-hwa donned a helmet and immediately mounted the motorcycle.
With a submachine gun slung across her back, she turned to her teammates with a faint smile.
“I’ve always wanted one of these, but never had the chance.”
As soon as she twisted the throttle, the heavy bike let out a loud, ferocious roar.
She leaned forward over it. Even though it was her first time riding, she looked surprisingly adept.
The engine roared louder and louder, and the motorcycle shot forward like an arrow, skimming along the swamp’s edge toward the distance.
“Steel and fuel, the romance of it all…”
Yong Yeo-hong muttered enviously.
“And freedom and wind.”
Just then—vrooom—the motorcycle swung back around and stopped not far from the jeep.
Planting her foot on the ground, Jang Mok-hwa raised her visor and smiled awkwardly.
“Uh, hey Sae-byeok… where are we supposed to go now?”
Baek Sae-byeok lowered her head and looked at her scarf before answering loudly.
“Follow the jeep.”
“Huh? What?”
Jang Mok-hwa tried to cup a hand behind her ear to hear better, but the helmet covered it completely.
Still smiling, she lowered the visor again and maneuvered her bike beside the jeep—apparently deciding things on her own.
As Sung Gun-woo and Yong Yeo-hong climbed aboard, Baek Sae-byeok slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine.
Together, they drove at a relatively slow pace across the black swamp wasteland.
Meanwhile, riding ahead on her motorcycle, Jang Mok-hwa broke formation several times under the pretense of scouting the surroundings.
About two hours later, Baek Sae-byeok stopped the jeep, which had been struggling along.
Opening the door, she spoke to Jang Mok-hwa, who had just returned from another scouting trip in the distance.
“Team leader, that stronghold is just ahead.”
Jang Mok-hwa raised her visor, one foot on the ground.
“Got a plan?”
Baek Sae-byeok rubbed at the rough skin on her face.
“I’m worried if we go like this, we’ll draw too much attention from the wasteland wanderers inside the stronghold. People in this region are very wary.
How about this? You and the others wait here, and I’ll go alone on the motorcycle to negotiate. If it works, I’ll come back and guide you in. If they refuse to let us in, I’ll try to trade outside the stronghold instead.”
Jang Mok-hwa gave a slight nod.
“Yeah, from their perspective, our firepower would look intimidating.”
The armored snake skin strapped to the jeep roof alone was enough to make others uneasy.
Jang Mok-hwa dismounted the motorcycle, carefully set it aside, and handed her helmet to Baek Sae-byeok.
Watching Sae-byeok’s back vanish into the sparse forest ahead, she climbed into the jeep’s driver’s seat.
“Want a smoke?”
Smiling, Jang Mok-hwa pulled out some crude cigarettes from the console box—spoils they had taken from the bandits earlier.
The yellowed tobacco leaves gave off a pungent, indescribable smell.
“I’m fine.”
Both Yong Yeo-hong and Sung Gun-woo shook their heads.
“You two, really. This is a luxury item!”
She set the cigarette down and continued.
“People who’ve fought countless battles go crazy for smokes. They calm your nerves, ease the pressure. Same way alcohol helps you forget the memories you’d rather not relive. Some folks only feel happy once they’re drunk.”
Suddenly, Sung Gun-woo hummed a line of a song.
“That’s not true happiness.”
Jang Mok-hwa smirked.
“Oh? You sing too?”
He nodded earnestly.
“I like music.”
“But the lyrics don’t sound too good.”
She fiddled with the metal device in her ear.
Sung Gun-woo replied academically, as if giving a lecture.
“Lyrics can be changed anytime to fit the situation. That makes them more meaningful.”
“….”
Jang Mok-hwa waved her hand.
“That’s not the point! You interrupted me and now I forgot what I was saying!”
Sighing irritably, she went on.
“I brought up smoking because I wanted to talk about trauma from war.
The fight earlier wasn’t enough to scar you mentally, but you still need to be cautious. Cigarettes, alcohol, drugs—they’re poor ways to deal with trauma. Too addictive, too harmful.
If you ever feel tense, stressed, anxious, or find it hard to focus—come talk to me. I’ve studied psychology.”
“Yes, team leader!”
Yong Yeo-hong answered loudly.
“Actually, on the way here, Sae-byeok said something similar. That’s why I’m feeling much better now.”
“Well done.”
She praised.
“Since command approved the formation of our rescue team, the best decision I made was accepting Sae-byeok’s application. My judgment’s great, isn’t it?”
Before Sung Gun-woo and Yong Yeo-hong could reply, she leaned back in the driver’s seat and rolled her eyes.
“Wonder when she’ll be back. Nothing better to do, maybe I’ll tell you two more stories. Stuff I didn’t before.”
The two straightened their backs as if in a classroom.
Jang Mok-hwa chuckled softly.
“Don’t focus that hard! Keep your eyes out, too. You never know when a rocket might fly in and blow us up.
Anyway—back to the point. Remember what I told you? In Ashland, aside from a handful of creatures, humanity’s worst enemy is other humans.
So, what kind of humans are dangerous?
Yong Yeo-hong, your thoughts?”
He hesitated, then answered.
“People wearing exoskeletons.”
The earlier battle with the military exoskeleton had left a deep impression on him—so much that he worried it might haunt him in nightmares.
“Right. People in AI-powered armor are like one-man armies. They can even wipe out small wanderer strongholds.”
She turned to Sung Gun-woo.
“And you?”
“Units with heavy weapons, teams with overwhelming firepower, and individuals with bioengineered limbs or extensive cybernetic modifications.”
He rattled off three answers at once.
Jang Mok-hwa nodded.
“Correct.”
She rubbed her left arm with her right hand.
“This one made me stronger. But nothing beats the original, so take care of yours.”
Then she went on.
“Monks of the cult orders and genetic modifiers are dangerous too. You might not realize it, but people like you are called ‘Chosen’ among the factions.”
“Why?”
Yong Yeo-hong asked, surprised.
She smiled.
“Because you’re used to seeing modified people, and you’re one yourselves. You don’t realize how rare this technology is.
Only our company and the White Knights can carry out genetic modification stably and produce the necessary serum.
Think about it: someone taller, stronger, faster, sharper reflexes, better coordination, stronger immunity, rapid healing, heightened stamina, perfect vision, natural talent with guns… To normal people, they look like heaven’s favorites.
But don’t get arrogant. Some factions absolutely reject genetic modification. They see it as blasphemy against nature, the heavens, the spirits—and even the root cause of the Old World’s destruction.”
She paused for breath before continuing.
“And even stronger than genetic modifiers are genetic reconstructions. They have abilities no normal human could ever have. In that sense, they’re like mutated sub-humans.
I once met one who could photosynthesize and live without eating for three months.
But the failure and death rates are still high. Don’t ever try it lightly.”
“Sub-humans” originally were normal people who mutated due to contamination during the Old World’s fall. Most died soon after, but some survived and passed their mutations down to descendants.
Normal humans scorned them, drove them out of settlements, and eventually branded them with the derogatory term “sub-humans.”
Resentment grew, and over time, sub-humans came to hate normal humans deeply, turning them into enemies.
The name spread into Ashland and eventually became a formal scientific term.
Even after the Old World collapsed and the Age of Divine Power began, pockets of contamination remained, creating new sub-humans. But most alive today were born naturally.
“There are sub-humans like that…”
Yong Yeo-hong muttered, surprised—he knew of them, but not of the kind Mok-hwa described.
She looked between him and Gun-woo, then said calmly, as if it were nothing.
“There’s one more type of dangerous human. Perhaps the most dangerous of all.”
“What kind?”
Yong Yeo-hong’s curiosity spiked. Sung Gun-woo’s too.
What she had explained so far was all in textbooks and training, though never grouped under the title of ‘dangerous humans.’
Mok-hwa lowered her head, smiling.
“Awakeners.”
“Awakeners…”
Yong Yeo-hong and Sung Gun-woo echoed her words under their breath.
