Chapter 15
"It's dangerous to wander around alone. Where did you come from? Want me to take you there?"
"...Huh? No, I'm fine..."
Despite the vicious tattoos and bloodstained weapon, her attitude was exactly that of a kind neighbor looking after a lost child.
She had gone out of her way to approach me because she was worried I might be in danger.
The taut thread of tension snapped with a pop, and relief washed over me.
"Ah... no, I'm not lost. I have... companions too."
I awkwardly pointed at the drones hovering beside me.
The hand gripping the mace tightly slowly relaxed.
Who would've thought the old saying about not judging people by their appearance would still hold true in this ruined world?
"Really? That's a relief. These are... drones? They're your companions. Can you make it back safely?"
"Yes... It's, uh, right up ahead."
"Really? Anyway, be careful."
The woman casually waved once, slung her weapon over her shoulder again, and turned to go on her way.
'Right, I shouldn't judge people by their appearance.'
Relieved, I turned around and hurried back onto the train.
Even if this had been a heartwarming encounter, I had no idea what kind of meeting might await me next.
I decided to open the box after returning to the train.
Only after entering the train did I finally let out the breath I'd been holding and collapse onto the sofa.
"All right, then. Time for the long-awaited gacha...."
I swallowed once and opened the lid of the glimmering purple box.
Fwaaaash-!
In an instant, dazzling golden light burst from inside the box.
The inside of the train lit up like broad daylight.
"This is—!"
This was obviously a sign of an enormous jackpot.
As the light gradually faded, a single thick book lay inside the box.
[Skill Book : Vitality]
- Greatly increases base stamina and dramatically increases recovery speed when healing.
"Not bad."
I let out a cheer.
It almost felt a little disappointing that it wasn't an attack skill or magic, but the moment I read the description, that disappointment melted away like snow.
One of my greatest weaknesses was my physical ability and stamina.
I had been making up for my physical limitations with skills and equipment, but after clearing a single dungeon, my entire body ached so badly that I had to collapse on the sofa for about a day.
If dungeons became longer than they had been so far, or if I encountered one with a higher difficulty, I might run out of stamina in the middle of clearing it.
And this was a skill that increased that stamina.
[Would you like to learn the skill Vitality?]
Without hesitation, I pressed Confirm.
The skill book turned into particles of light and seeped into my body.
In an instant, hot energy surged up from within my body, and I could feel it coursing through all my blood vessels.
It might have been just my imagination, but at least that's how it felt to me.
"...Should I write a brag post?"
I couldn't keep this overwhelming joy to myself.
I immediately took out my smartphone and logged into the Survivor Gallery.
I was planning to give it a title like 'Is this any good?' and enjoy the envy and jealousy in people's comments in real time.
Time for some perfectly legal humblebragging.
Just as I was about to press the write button, a newly uploaded post at the top of the Free Board caught my eye.
"That title is making me a little uneasy..."
---
[Title : Just saw a newbie survivor in front of a vending machine]
Author : Magical Girl
I was tired from hunting since morning, so I was just going to grab the mana stones and head home when I saw a girl standing in front of a vending machine in an apartment complex.
She was hugging a purple box as if it were precious, and two toy-like drones were floating beside her.
When she saw me, she flinched like a startled rabbit lol. So freaking cute.
I told her to hurry back somewhere safe because it was dangerous!
If you're on the Gallery, newbie, be careful on your way home! You got this!
[Comments]
ㅇㅇ : WTF is with that way of talking
ㄴ Magical Girl : ㅠㅠ
---
"...No way, right?"
I stared at the smartphone screen so intently that my thoughts ground to a halt.
A purple box.
Two toy-like drones.
This wasn't just a sense of déjà vu. It was exactly what I had experienced ten minutes ago.
If so, then the user named Magical Girl, who had written that post in this cute, cutesy tone...
Was that the woman who had just walked out of the darkness, her entire body wrapped in vicious tattoos, looking like a character from Mad Max?
"No way..."
I let out a hollow laugh.
Had the apocalypse changed even people's tastes, or was she simply the sort of person who normally dressed that intimidatingly?
The gap between the internet world and reality was so huge it made me dizzy.
Still chuckling hollowly, I closed my smartphone.
Whether I got my humblebrag in or not, I felt like staying on the Gallery any longer would only make me more confused.
"Right, I've accumulated enough mana stones too."
I rose from the sofa and headed for the cockpit.
In one corner of the storage room, the mana stones I'd collected were piled up literally like a mountain.
The mana stones I'd swept up by selling items through the Gallery exchange, along with the ones the drones and Spike had brought in.
It was about time to put them to use.
"First, the modifications."
I brought up the train modification window in the cockpit.
The first thing that caught my eye was the external equipment I hadn't been able to buy last time.
[Modification : Install External Automatic Turrets]
"Purchase."
Rumble-rumble-rumble-!
The train's roof and side armor opened, and four twin-barreled machine-gun turrets with sleek black barrels rose up.
From now on, any monster approaching within 50 meters of the train would be automatically targeted and turned into a sieve.
"Next, improving our drones' quality of life."
[Modification : Drone Hangar Lv.2 Upgrade]
Whiiiir- clack!
The drone launch bays in the wall of Car 2 doubled in width, and the charging stations inside became more sophisticated.
As the hangar was upgraded, blueprints for new drones were unlocked in the hangar list.
A sniper drone fitted with a sniper rifle, a heavily armored carrier drone, and even a bomber drone that dropped small bombs.
The materials looked a little complicated, but the drones listed seemed promising enough to look forward to their performance.
"All right, and then..."
I scrolled down and looked at the modification that had piqued my curiosity.
[External Modification : Monster Lure]
- Emits special sound waves and mana wavelengths to lure monsters within a 500-meter radius with a low chance.
To be perfectly honest, in a monster-apocalypse world like this, anyone who paid money for something like this deserved to be called crazy.
When I should have been holding my breath and avoiding monsters, this was a machine that lured them in. It was practically a suicide button.
But my situation was a little different.
The armor durability of the train, which I had obtained by sacrificing my masculinity, was described as being nearly indestructible.
On top of that, there were the automatic turrets I'd just installed, the spikes at the front, and the drones flying through the sky.
It was the ideal setup for defending against the monsters that came swarming in.
"It's crazy, but..."
Lure in the mobs -> The turrets and drones shoot them -> Run them over with the train and grind them up with the spikes -> Pick up the mana stones and items they drop.
If everything went well, it looked like it could be incredibly efficient.
"...Let's do it!"
I squeezed my eyes shut, emptied out the rest of my mana stones, and pressed the Purchase button.
The mana stones piled up there turned into particles of light and vanished in an instant.
A hollow feeling washed over me as my wallet became completely empty, but right afterward, the grand mechanical rumble coming from outside the train brought a grin to my face.
[Monster Lure installation complete.]
[An antenna will deploy on top of the train.]
"Phew... Let's earn back what we spent."
I ran to the cockpit and checked the external cameras.
A geometric, antenna-like device stood tall at the exact center of the train's roof.
An additional button had appeared on the panel.
With one press of this button, every monster in the vicinity would swarm toward the train like moths to a flame.
"Now... before testing its performance, should I get ready first?"
I took a deep breath and decided to start by making preparations.
"Drones. Close escort around the train. And external turrets, all ON."
Whiiiir- clack!
In response to my command, the four twin-barreled automatic turrets installed on Car 2's roof rotated smoothly and began keeping watch in all directions.
"Let's move somewhere too."
Worried that I might inconvenience or harm other survivors, I drove the train far out to a station outside Seoul.
I reached a remote place where collapsed building rubble and rusted junk cars blocked off the surroundings.
"Good. There shouldn't be anyone here."
I checked and locked every door on the cockpit panel.
No matter how sturdy the train was, locking the doors was basic common sense.
After taking one deep breath, I flipped the switch on the newly installed special device with trembling hands.
"Wide-Area Monster Lure, activate."
Vwoooom— Paaang!
A heavy rumble like a low-frequency vibration rang out from the antenna rising from the train roof, and the antenna itself seemed to tremble slightly.
"..."
I held my breath and stared through the glass window.
One minute, two minutes.
"Any moment now... huh?"
A strange change began to unfold in this silent place.
Ssslllide, rustle.
From beneath collapsed concrete rubble, inside the trunks of rusted junk cars, and even from underground.
Black, grotesque shadows began to crawl out little by little.
Completely entranced by whatever the lure emitted, they turned toward the train and made it their sole target.
"It's working even better than I expected...?"
At first, monsters the size of neighborhood stray dogs approached, but soon animal-type monsters as large as cars and insectoid beasts began charging in, kicking up clouds of dust.
Their numbers swelled from a dozen or so to dozens in an instant.
A scene from a movie where a horde of zombies comes swarming was unfolding in real time before my eyes.
"Grrrrowl!"
Then it happened. A particularly nimble wolf-type monster among the horde, its red eyes flashing, kicked off the ground and sprang into the air.
Its target was precisely the cockpit window where I was standing.
"Uh, what?!"
Kwoooom-!
Its forepaw and vicious teeth slammed head-on into the window.
"Ugh...!"
With an enormous crash, its bloodshot eyes came right up to the tip of my nose.
My fearful instincts took over, and I involuntarily cried out and staggered backward.
"...I guess monsters can see through the tinting too... Is the window okay?"
I slowly looked at the window the monster had collided with.
But.
There wasn't a single crack or scratch.
The only thing that happened was that the monster which had hit the glass slid to the ground with its snout crushed.
"It's sturdy..."
And then the full-fledged counterattack of my train began.
The train's turrets opened fire on the monster lying on the ground.
Drrrrrrrrt-!!
All four automatic turrets mounted on the roof opened fire at once.
Bright-blue bullets punched into the swarm of monsters converging around us.
"Whoa..."
The performance was undeniable.
The corpses, riddled with holes, fell to the ground.