Bang! Bang!
I pounded hard against the invisible barrier stretching over the red boundary. As though an enormously thick glass wall stood there, it bounced my hands away with ease.
After hammering at it for quite some time, I looked down at my stinging hands. All I had accomplished was turning them red.
I was furious.
I had been thrown out onto the street without warning, and now I was imprisoned here, unable even to leave the District. Who could possibly remain calm after that?
But perhaps because of that damned Mental Stability, the anger that had risen to my throat quickly subsided.
There has to be some way out.
I had escaped the Special Supply Station and all its restrictions, and unlike Players, I had no need to let Quests drag me around. I had plenty of time. I would have to search for a way out of the District one step at a time.
For now, maybe I should follow the boundary.
There might be some little gap even I could squeeze through.
There was no gap. Not even close.
How did they seal off every last inch of it?
I walked along the boundary until evening, but I never found an opening.
I had originally intended to inspect the entire boundary, but by then I was too exhausted to even consider it.
“Haa…”
I sank to the ground with my back to the boundary. My legs were trembling, and I could not walk another step.
I pulled out yet another bottle of water, gulped it down, and looked up at the sky.
The red sunset beyond the overcast sky had almost completely faded. In a few minutes, it would be pitch-black.
I scanned my surroundings. Most of the buildings had been destroyed, but surprisingly, some of the lower shopping centers and other structures appeared relatively intact.
The sun’s already down. It would be better to get a proper night’s rest than push myself any harder.
Once I had quenched my thirst, I stood and headed toward the commercial complex ahead.
I looked over the large and small shops lining both sides of the road until I found a building that seemed promising.
So there was a furniture outlet here.
The old sign had received no maintenance whatsoever, but the words “Furniture Department Store Discount Outlet” were still legible.
A quick glance showed that every window near the entrance had been shattered. Aside from those, however, the building had no windows, probably because it had been constructed like a warehouse. As long as I chose my spot carefully, it should keep out the chill of the night easily enough.
More importantly, there should be beds.
Maybe it was because I had spent the last two years practically forced to live on a bed, but habit alone made me want to sleep somewhere soft. In that regard, the furniture store was extremely appealing.
Pant, pant—
The moment I stopped in front of the building, I heard an animal breathing heavily.
I turned toward the sound and found three enormous wolves staring straight at me with their tongues hanging out. I had no idea where they had come from. The awkward way they wagged their tails made them look like dogs delighted to see their owner.
When I gave them a casual wave, the wolves bounded over and began hopping around me excitedly. One of them took the lead into the building I had been about to enter, repeatedly looking back as though telling me to follow.
Is this their den?
I had suspected as much, and sure enough, several more wolves were scattered throughout the spacious furniture store. The sight of the wolves prowling inside suddenly pricking up their ears and charging toward me was fairly threatening.
They rose onto their hind legs almost as if standing on tiptoe, grabbing at me from every direction with their forepaws. Then they panted happily and tried to lick my face.
“Wait, wait. Don’t lick me!”
I desperately shielded my face and pushed them away.
“That’s enough. All of you, sit!”
I raised my voice slightly and glared.
The wolves flinched and tilted their heads in unison.
When I told them to sit again, one awkwardly lowered its rump. I had no idea whether it had understood me or merely done it by chance, but since it had sat properly, I vigorously rubbed its head.
Only then did the other wolves sit around me, practically forming a circle, their eyes shining.
I petted every last one of them while slowly surveying the interior of the store.
There’s still some furniture in decent condition.
I had been worried because the wolves had settled here, but I could see several beds and pieces of furniture that appeared to be in good shape.
Staying here for a while might not be so bad.
As long as I could endure the clouds of wolf fur and dust, it seemed comfortable enough to rest in.
While I chose a bed with my eyes, the last faint traces of sunset spilling through the broken windows disappeared completely.
Thinking it was too dark, I reached for the flashlight I had prepared in advance.
Grrrrr!
Awooo!
Awooooo—!
One by one, they began howling.
We’re inside a building. They can’t even see the moon, so what’s gotten into them?
The noise was loud enough to hurt my ears. I hunched my shoulders and switched on the flashlight.
“What the…?”
In that brief span of time, every wolf around me had transformed.
They had never been wolves at all. They were wolf-men—werewolves.
The instant the sun completely set, they turned into muscular werewolves standing nearly two and a half meters tall. They gazed down at me in silence. Their golden eyes gleamed even without the flashlight shining on them, and had I encountered them without knowing what they were, even I might have screamed.
Fortunately, although they had fully transformed into werewolves, their intentions had not changed in the slightest. Their awkward, doglike helicopter tails were the same, as were the idiotic muzzles hanging open as they panted.
One stood behind me and kneaded my shoulders with its forepaws as though giving me a massage. Because of the pet egg wrapped in a sling on my back, its posture was extremely awkward.
Wait. Forepaws?
I took hold of the werewolf’s hand as it massaged my shoulder and shone the flashlight on it. It retained the general shape of a wolf’s forepaw, but it also resembled a thick human hand. It looked perfectly capable of gripping and swinging a club or weapon.
In that case, could they not also lift and move broken furniture and other debris with both hands?
I grinned at the werewolves as they tilted their heads.
“You’re going to help me.”
I had an entire workforce right here.
***
“What?! Iseul’s team still hasn’t returned?!”
A small group had established its hideout in a building near the District 2 boundary. Their leader, Kim Seokju, grimaced when he heard that Jeong Iseul’s team had yet to arrive.
The four-person team, including Jeong Iseul, consisted of skilled fighters. They had also been responsible for securing that day’s food.
“What do we do? The roads must already be crawling with werewolves.”
The shabbily dressed man who had delivered the report anxiously stamped his feet and looked out the window. A pitch-black night sky was visible through the filthy glass, which clearly had not been cleaned in a very long time.
Werewolves above Level 30 were densely spread throughout the surrounding area.
Even so, Kim Seokju’s group had chosen this place as their hideout because of the werewolves’ particular nature.
While the sun was up, werewolves’ Levels were cut in half, and they took the form of ordinary wolves that were merely somewhat ferocious. Even the members of Kim Seokju’s group could handle them in that state. They had decided that settling here was preferable to moving somewhere else infested with more dangerous monsters.
Under the leader’s direction, they formed teams every three days and went out to gather food. Unfortunately, Jeong Iseul’s team had been assigned that duty today, and now there had been no word from them.
Only a single day’s worth of food remained in the hideout.
The people gathered here were not particularly capable fighters, so they had few coins. They had scraped together every coin they possessed and handed them to Jeong Iseul’s team. What if monsters had attacked them on the way back?
No. Maybe they took the coins and ran…
His creeping anxiety quickly produced one grim possibility after another.
But Kim Seokju soon shook his head.
No. Knowing Iseul, she’d beat a traitor half to death before she ever betrayed us herself.
He could not speak for the others, but Jeong Iseul, the strongest person in their group, was trustworthy.
Having reached that conclusion, Kim Seokju fastened his favored pair of hand axes to his belt and spoke to the man.
“I’m going to look for them. Keep everyone calm while I’m gone.”
“What? Alone? Are you out of your mind?!”
The man shook his head in horror, but Kim Seokju’s grim expression remained unchanged.
“Visibility is poor. Taking several people would only make them harder to control. I’m the only one with a stealth skill, so it’s better if I go alone.”
“But…!”
The man tried to object again, then closed his mouth.
Kim Seokju was right. Among the people currently remaining in the hideout, no one would be of much help. Whoever went with him would inevitably slow him down.
In the end, the man could only watch in silence as Kim Seokju left the hideout alone.
Before long, Kim Seokju activated his stealth skill and ran toward a nearby commercial complex. It lay along the route Jeong Iseul’s team would use to return and was also an unavoidable passage between the hideout and the supply station that sold food.
Something’s strange.
As he entered the commercial complex, Kim Seokju looked back along the road he had taken.
He had not seen a single werewolf prowling nearby on his way here. He had no idea what was happening.
There was something else strange as well.
Why are there so many of them over here?
The farther Kim Seokju ventured into the complex, the more roaming werewolves he spotted.
Werewolves normally spent the daytime inside buildings and prowled broad outdoor areas at night. That was why they always used the streets of this commercial complex when traveling to and from the hideout in search of food.
Yet tonight, everything was the exact opposite of usual.
The number of werewolves increased dramatically as he passed a large commercial building.
Holding his breath and remaining concealed so the werewolves would not notice him, Kim Seokju suddenly opened his eyes wide.
That smell…?!
Without realizing it, Kim Seokju began sniffing the air.
From somewhere nearby came the incredibly delicious aroma of slow-aged kimchi stew.