The First Hunter Chapter 4: The Relics(2)

2.

Nobody tried to stop Kim Taehoon and the others from leaving the superstore. 

But there were people who tried to stick with them. 

“How could you guys leave? What about us!”

“Please save me…”

“Take me with you! I will do something if you don’t!”

“You f*cking bastard don’t try to survive alone! Be a human being!”

Some of them were desperate, others were pitiful, while other people even threatened to be the parasite on Kim Taehoon’s back. 

It was quite natural for them since their lives depended on it. 

But Kim Taehoon did not show any sympathy. 

“I warn you. You better not follow me. Nothing is going to change if we add some more corpses while the monsters are here.”

He made the threat clear, and nobody was brave enough to oppose him. 

Kim Taehoon didn’t stop with only that threat. 

“If there’s anyone who’s following us, get rid of them.”

“Get rid of them?”

“Even if you don’t kill them, attack them so they feel their lives are threatened.”

He delivered his message clearly to Bhang Hyunwook and Ahn Sunmi.

“Is there a reason for that?”

“We cannot be mixed-up with a mess made by a crazy survivor.”

The reason was clear. 

Kim Taehoon had created a large mess to trap the Black Orc. If an insurance company employee had seen it, he or she would have scowled. 

It was like stirring the grass. If there were a snake in the grass, the snake would not be sleeping amidst the fuss. 

Also, the snakes in this city weren’t regular snakes, they were terrifying monsters. 

‘If there were more like the Black Orc, we would have no choice but to run away.’

That was why Kim Taehoon was trying to visit the police precinct. 

Right now he needed more powerful weapons that were more useful than a hatchet or a butcher knife. 

It took a while to get to the precinct. 

They moved quietly and tried not to disturb the area. 

They had to be slower than a turtle to move quietly through the empty streets. 

It was a cold corpse that greeted them in the precinct. 

“Horrible.”

Bhang Hyunwook spat out the word that everyone was feeling.

Kim Taehoon clicked his tongue as Bhang Hyunwook spoke. 

‘The worst part is that everything so far is just as I expected.’

There was no difference in the scene from what Kim Taehoon expected. 

“… no police officers.”

The part that Ahn Sunmi pointed out was also within Kim Taehoon’s expectations. 

“It would have been weirder for them to stay inside while people were outside screaming.”

“It is going to be messier without the police force.”

“Exactly.”

It was never a good thing. 

Kim Taehoon’s usually imagined the worst case scenario.

‘If there was just one survivor… We could use the network somehow.’

Kim Taehoon never expected the precinct to function as it was. 

Instead, he was hoping one of the police officers would be alive, and that he could contact that officer. 

‘I have connections in the military but not in the police force…’

In this situation without any communication methods, there’s only one way to communicate—person to person—and it needed a police officer more than ever to have some connection to the police network. 

But that was clear.

There was nothing great about armed Korean police officers. 

It wasn’t even a police station, just a precinct, how powerful could their weapons be?

It was definite that the firearms the police officers had in this city would not be stronger than the firearms that people in America shoot with for recreational purposes. 

Even with those, the possibility of utilizing the weapons effectively was very low. 

How many police officers had been trained to shoot firearms for this kind of situation?

‘If they knew this would happen, they would have legalized carrying firearms like the U.S.’

A not so funny thought went through Kim Taehoon’s mind. 

“… the military would be different?”

Ahn Sunmi queried Kim Taehoon. 

The next destination was the military base. 

“Don’t know.”

But the chance of a military base being in a better situation wasn’t high. 

Of course, their armories were different from the police force. 

They had automatic rifles, not just handguns, a larger supply of ammo, and if you look at heavy weapons the power was impossible to compare. 

But the Korean military would not have performed any drills to prepare for monster appearances. 

In fact most Korean soldiers didn’t have enough field experience. Most of them were conscripted and thought of the military as a slave camp. 

It’s not even the front line here, and since the base was located inside a city, it might be faster for them to knock off a monster with a shovel than a firearm. 

“It could be different depending on who the superior was.”

The key factor was who directed the troops.

The advantage of the military was the weapon strength and the strict command hierarchy.

Therefore if their leader was great they could draw the most effective outcome over anybody else.

“The ability of the superior? Oh god.”

“They should be doomed then.”

With what Kim Taehoon said, both Bhang Hyunwook and Ahn Sunmi made hopeless faces and sighed. 

Kim Taehoon made a wry face. 

“I know both of you have never served?”

Bhang Hyunwook was too young to even receive a draft notice and Ahn Sunmi would never get one since she’s a woman.

It was not normal for them to reach a conclusion that fast with such a confident opinion about the military. 

“Sir, you don’t need to be there to know.”

“They have been making their living out of corruption, It’s obvious.”

Kim Taehoon could not find other excuses to refute them. 

The deformed corruption, unfairness, irrationality that the Korean military had, Kim Taehoon himself was the symbol that represented all the problems of the military.

Those two were correct. 

If the Korean military were rational and functioned normally then Kim Taehoon wouldn’t have been here right now. 

“Anyways how did you learn all of this? At the military?”

“I’m a soldier, but not in the military.”

After that vague answer, Kim Taehoon was able to locate the armory and signaled to Bhang Hyunwook and Ahn Sunmi.

Close your mouth and do what I previously told you to do. 

Bhang Hyunwook nodded and gripped his baseball bat tightly while standing in front of the precinct's glass door. He focused all his senses looking for outside movements. 

Ahn Sunmi started to search the bodies lying inside the precinct. She went through the pockets, took out smartphones to see if they were unlocked and still had enough battery life. She took usable phones and removed batteries out of phones that weren’t of use. 

Kim Taehoon made his move to get the weapons.

‘What?’

Ahn Sunmi suddenly stopped. 

‘There was something…’

She had a feeling like something had slid by the tips of her fingers. 

Like when a spider web touched your hand while walking down a street. 

It wasn’t a big deal. 

An average person would be confused for a moment and then moved on. 

But Ahn Sunmi was different. 

‘There’s definitely something.’

She was a doctor her hands were the most important tool for her job, and she used those hands to work between people’s life and death. 

So when doctors feel something or felt something weird, they don’t let it go easily. 

Sometimes that feeling decided the patient’s life. 

Ahn Sunmi was very devoted to her feelings. 

She stopped what she was doing and started to look around trying to figure out what made her feel that way. 

An old bag caught her eyes. 

Ahn Sunmi opened the bag without hesitation.

‘This…’

Inside the bag, there was a black plastic bag, and when she ripped the bag open she found a few things wrapped in newspaper. She unwrapped the items and revealed the things inside.

They were dishes. 

‘Antique?’

It wasn’t just dishes, it looked like antique dishes. 

Some were chipped and others were cracked in half. 

Ahn Sunmi gave them an absurd look. 

‘I may really be crazy.’

She felt something weird and followed her instinct but all she found were dishes, not gold or money? 

She made a small sigh but again her fingertips had that odd feeling. 

‘Ah!’

It was bit stronger this time. 

Like something was connected to her finger by a transparent line. 

Ahn Sunmi’s face changed again.

“I will briefly tell you how to use a gun before we leave.”

Kim Taehoon appeared at that moment after gathering the weapons from the armory.  Since they had never used guns before he was about to instruct Bhang Hyunwook and Ahn Sunmi on how to use the revolvers he had acquired. 

“Just a second.”

Ahn Sunmi stopped Kim Taehoon. 

“This is strange.”

Ahn Sunmi showed the newspaper wrapped items to them. 

Kim Taehoon frowned at Ahn Sunmi. 

Bhang Hyunwook made a similar face when he turned his head and checked out what she was holding. 

“Ah, I mean…”

She quickly unwrapped the items and took out a white ceramic shot glass. 

It didn’t look any special, though.

Literally, it was nothing more than an antique. 

It also didn’t look that worthy. To be really honest, it was not something anybody would buy even if it were sold on Insa-dong folk street.

Ahn Sunmi knew it as well. 

“This is strange. No, I know it sounds weird right now for me to say this…”

Kim Taehoon did not respond to her but took out his new smartphone from his pocket and aimed the camera at Ahn Sunmi.

Click!

He took a picture before Ahn Sunmi could realize what he was doing.. 

“Wait, wait a second.”

Kim Taehoon’s face stiffened after checking the picture, handed the phone to Ahn Sunmi and said. 

“I guess humans are not the only ones who have changed.”

There was translucent writing on the shot glass in the picture.

[Shot Glass of Healing]

Relic rank: 7

Relic value: Normal 

Relic effect: Use Magic to create water to heal a wound.

The world had changed. 

Not only humanity but everything else as well.  

The end.  

Chapter end