Etranger Chapter 5

5. Derailment-5

San is preparing for survival. This place is not the Republic of Korea. Taking a wide look at things, trying to explain these things here by the standards of Earth according to human knowledge is impossible. So whether there’s a threatening existence, there’s no way to tell for sure without looking into the future.

Regardless, it will be an ongoing work. Even in this completely unexplainable world, one thing remains the same, and that is to survive.

He is a cold serviceman. Now, he instinctively felt the need to further know and proceed on with the operation. It’s not for a country, it’s not for family, but a mission for the sake of himself and his safety. Therefore he was very urgent. Furthermore, he also needed to include within his scope a particular friend who also needed to survive with him as well… Right now, the foolish girl next to him would probably be grateful enough to kiss him.

“All the more… it seems we’ll need luck.”

San busily moved around. The first step for survival would be to collect water and food. He would first have to find water. That’s the basic first step. He wouldn’t rush when it came to collecting water. For these giant plants to grow like this, it seemed like they were rich in water.

The problem would be where a water source would be…

Going by standard procedure, he looked for a craggy place. Where a cliff had collapsed, he meticulously searched for an area with natural causeways. At a place with a lot of bedrock, he looked for a possible vein of water that would flow a lot towards the lowlands. He put his ear to the ground and discovered a sound.

‘Jjoreureuk-jol-jol-jol-‘

Bingo! Fortunately it seemed like he discovered a sound very quick. The problem is all the rock and rubble strewn across the floor. There were boulders larger than a torso irregularly buried beneath the smaller fistsized clumps of gravel. After looking around here and there, there were no waterways visible on the surface. This would be… troublesome. It would be nice if he could extract drinking water from the water in the ground. [TN: The author here uses ‘식수와 용수’, where 식수 means drinking water and 용수 means just water. So I wasn’t entirely sure on how to translate this.]

“Whew- from the first day, like how an apprentice construction worker would work… it’s an act to eat and live.” [TN: Lost in translation, I was so lost here]

Putting his rifle aside, San hoisted up a chunk of rock the size of an adult’s head. Surprisingly, he lifted it straight up. He nearly fell over backwards. It felt like lifting a sponge. San’s face slowly flowed into a sour smile. This is a really fun place. Why is it that even a chunk of rock is this light.

‘Shwit-shyut-suik–syuk-‘

‘Koong-kwohng-kwohng-keureuereu’

[TN: Various sound effects]

After seeing to her business and awkwardly walking out of the makeshift toilet, Biyeon’s was once again wide mouthed. A strange sight entered her vision: from a distant place, rocks flew out from thin air, falling through the air here and there. At the point of origin was that guy.

‘Oh my God… what Herculean Strength.’

Biyeon shook her neck and went into the pit. After searching through her belongings, she found some writing utensils and her diary journal. She too, was feeling it. There was nothing in this world that fell under one’s common sense. If one were to create a path to survival with one’s strength, one must use their head to carry out the task.

‘Well… ‘

After writing something with her pen, she put it back in her pencil case. She took out a mechanical pencil and held it. She opened up the rear cap and inspected the interior. There was quite a bit of pencil lid already inside. Her purpose is not to leave behind a document of records, for her purpose, she was thinking that using a mechanical pencil would be more useful for drawing a sketch. Even if she needs to erase… she must conserve everything she has until she is absolutely certain.

She carefully completed her task, and meticulously wrote down the various subjects she needed to confirm. First and foremost, she must prepare for her task at hand, and urgently create a list of things to do. She must prepare a basis for intelligence operations because it would help determine the causes of the phenomenon, and she wrote down the standards for information. She then prepared some hypotheses. Starting from today, she must first see to that phenomenon.

Biyeon walked outside with her notepad in hand. Her steps were facing towards where San was.

“Wow! You found water.” Biyeon shouted with genuine admiration.

In that short amount of time, San had already found a source of water hidden away within a heap of rocks, and had already dug a ditch with rocks off to the left and right. Fortunately, the water was flowing quite a bit. The floor of the flowing water was a large slab of bedrock, and loose sand and gravel swept the bottom of the flow of water. The appearance of the water looked extremely refreshing.

“Is it possible to drink?” Biyeon asked. She swallowed some saliva…

“Well… it’ll probably be alright. For now, let’s look at the condition of the water.”

“Pardon?”

“Well I had already drank some…”

“Oh…”

Acting like nothing had happened, San blocked off some of the the water upstream, and blocked off some of the water downstream as well. In the middle, he stacked up some boulders and made a wall.

“Upstream is drinking water, downstream is water for general use. This is so that neither of us wash our faces or take baths in the upper portion! As a service, I even built a wall, take advantage of it like a primitive and enjoy it.”

San bluntly said while washing his hands in the flowing water.

Because of the geothermal energy, the water was warm. He washed his hands, washed his face, and washed his hair.

However it still felt fairly uncomfortable.

San moved around tirelessly. In the morning, San took out a piece of dried jerky from his rations, and chewed on it while planning out his next objective. Now, he must secure the food. The amount of time they’ll spend here will depend on the amount of food they have. San meticulously scanned the ground. He examined the plants one by one. As expected, none of these plants were within his survival knowledge. Edible versus non-edible, it is difficult to tell what is toxic.

He first went through plants that had fruits. After over two hours of meticulous searching, San found several kinds of fruit trees. If all these fruits are edible, then they could endure for five days. Next, by using a shovel, he dug deeply in the ground until he came across some developed roots. After a half day of searching, he was able to find some tubers similar to a Jerusalem Potato and some plants similar to radishes.

“Let’s stop here for today.”

San took the samples he collected and returned back to the water source.

“Mmm… a savory smell. How amazing! Isn’t that guy a super bland guy?”

By the water’s edge was Biyeon, whose appearance showed that she was ready to eat.

Around the MREs were other items that were spread around. Hot pepper paste, perilla leaves, and instant rice…

“Hmmm-“

If it’s this much, this should be a good enough team. Team members who seek out and do work without having to be micromanaged are very rare. Quite frankly, the way of life of a soldier in the rigid command system is to move like a machine, and there are rarely any people who can make a positive situation out of it. That had always been of point of complaint for San.

On the other hand, he was different. Now was not the time to conserve his strength. Greatly stressed, and having been unable to relieve tension at the time, a provision of great nutrition would give courage.

“Seems for sure like I haven’t died?”

“Well I don’t know if Captain Kang will believe me, but can you believe this?”

“Yes? What is it?”

“There was a creature in the water. Would you like to see it?”

“Hmm-“

San closely examined the creature that Biyeon handed over. It’s not a fish, considering how it has four legs, it seems to be the cousin of a salamander of sorts… what’s known for certain is that there are similar creatures on Earth.

The two people enjoyed a very valuable meal. It was a truly delicious meal. Who knows, perhaps they thought this would be their last meal, so they ate with great reverence.

“I have something to tell you, sir.”

Biyeon said while cleaning up after having finished her meal. Darkness was already beginning to fall.

“Yeah… I suppose we have to work and clean up now.”

Chapter end