Gacha (2)

Putting the excitement of the gacha behind me, I operated the cab panel and turned the train north again.

The train left Daejeon and headed for Siheung.

There were two reasons I decided to make Siheung the destination again this time.

"We're low on resources..."

The first was to properly try out the special-grade skill I'd just pulled, Artisan's Touch.

I was thinking of using this skill to make weapons or items.

Of course, the materials to serve as the backbone, as well as mana stones, were essential, and since I'd been burning through a lot of supplies lately, it was time to restock once more.

As I was wondering where to get usable resources or mana stones right away, one place suddenly flashed through my mind.

The outskirts of Siheung, where the whole area had been covered in poison fog.

A place where not only human survivors, but even most monsters couldn't hold out.

Because so little attention had reached the area, there had been all kinds of things worth salvaging there.

And the second reason.

"Are they both asleep?"

I leaned back against the cushioned seat and quietly stared at the small Car 2 feed displayed on one side of the main monitor.

Su-a and Ji-woo, dressed in brand-new clothes, still hadn't left the giant water tank.

When I first rescued the siblings, I'd left a short note at the spot where they'd been hiding in case anything happened.

'If you come back, please leave an SOS on the rooftop.'

In this dangerous world, it was hard to be certain whether someone who'd been out of contact for a long time was alive or dead.

Just looking at the Gallery, safe zones were destroyed overnight and many people were severely injured.

I'd seen it with my own two eyes, too.

I wanted to see whether the children's parents had somehow survived and returned to that villa, and whether they'd read the short note I'd left behind.

For the sake of those smiling children, I wanted to believe in even the slightest chance.

If their mother came back—

I should escort the kids to the safest refuge.

...Maybe I'd have to go to Yeouido, or perhaps Seoul.

It was a place that could not only maintain safe zones, but expand them as well.

"...Alright, let's go."

The train was now crossing the familiar scenery of ruins and entering Siheung.

Screeeech—

Even a quietly running train couldn't erase the distinctive sound it made when coming to a stop.

The poison fog that had once covered this place had already been neatly cleared away by me long ago.

But the desolate atmosphere still remained.

Perhaps because of that, no one else had set foot in the area.

As proof, precious items and mana stones were still scattered along some streets.

"You check the villa area where I left the note first. Make sure to look carefully for any traces on the rooftop or inside the house, just in case."

The scouting drone nodded reassuringly and quickly vanished from sight.

I left the combat drone and sniper drone beside me as escorts and began farming in earnest.

This time I intended to go quite far from the train, so I even brought along the cart and a large hiking backpack as big as my torso.

Hiss.

When the train door opened, the street outside was quiet.

Mana stones and small drop items were still strewn across the ground.

"Let's take everything this time."

I picked up the mana stones and items rolling around on the ground and shoved them into my backpack.

After walking a little farther, I spotted a fairly large neighborhood supermarket.

The moment I opened the door and pulled the cart inside, I grimaced at the foul stench stabbing my nose.

"Ugh...!"

Whether it was the lingering effects of the poison fog that had once been thick here, or simply because the place had been left abandoned for too long, the vegetables and fruit on the shelves had rotted away.

I hurriedly covered my nose with my sleeve and headed toward the daily necessities section.

I didn't want to even look at the slimy fresh produce, but sealed goods were a different story.

"Will these be okay?"

I carefully opened a snack bag to check the contents inside.

From the outside and even by smell, it looked perfectly fine.

Of course, I hesitated a little before tasting it.

"...I wonder."

As I tilted my head and casually asked the drone floating beside me, it nodded, so I decided to take a few for now.

What I really needed to stock up on was something else.

The various liquors and cigarettes neatly stored behind the register.

These luxury goods were steadily increasing in value at the Exchange over time.

In fact, some of the bolder trade posts were even offering huge rewards to obtain liquor and cigarettes for a few eccentric Constellations who had taken an interest in them.

"If you look carefully, you can even trade them for mana stones or items..."

Liquor and cigarettes, as major trade goods, were necessary if I wanted to make useful items.

I ransacked the display cases until they were empty, loading all the liquor and cigarette cartons onto the cart.

By the time the cart and backpack had become suitably heavy, I heard a rattling sound from the supermarket's back door.

And when I looked over there, the one who met my eyes shouted.

"Kieeek-!"

What appeared at the back door was a goblin with a gaunt build and green skin.

The fact that it was drooling while clutching a worn dagger didn't make it look very strong.

Whiiing—clack!

A combat drone immediately lowered its altitude to protect me and aimed the muzzle of its submachine gun at the goblin.

One pull of the trigger and the goblin would be as good as dead.

But I quickly ordered the combat drone.

"Wait, don't shoot. I'll handle that one myself."

The Counterattack and Weapon Mastery skills I'd previously pulled thanks to the Luck skill.

This was a chance to safely test exactly how much power those skills had.

These days, opportunities to encounter even a single goblin weren't common.

"Hoo... Don't let your guard down..."

I pushed the cart and bag into a corner, readjusted the mace slung over my shoulder, and gripped it with both hands.

The feel of holding the weapon was no different from usual.

Could I feel the effects of Weapon Mastery after combat?

"Kieeeek-!"

With a bizarre shriek, the goblin kicked off the ground and leaped at me.

The worn dagger in its hand flew toward the nape of my neck in a slow arc.

If this had been before, I would have dodged wide with a leap and then attacked, but this time was different.

I had to learn to fight while conserving Leap as much as possible.

Because it was a skill with a cooldown.

Instead of dodging with Leap, I let the dagger slide by, lightly knocking it aside with the shaft of my mace.

Clang!

'Got it! Then I can counterattack—'

The moment I moved to counterattack, my body felt different from usual.

It felt as though the world around me had slowed to a crawl, while my arm cut through the air at an unbelievably fast speed.

"Uh—"

Crack!

With a single clean swing, no more than a flick of the wrist, the goblin's upper body burst apart like a watermelon hit by a bomb.

A single clean counterattack.

After just one exchange, I felt like I understood what kind of skill Counterattack was.

"...So that's what this skill is. Ugh..."

It seemed I'd learned another brutal skill.

Seeing the goblin explode and feeling that impact in my hands sent chills down my spine.

I shook off the bloodstains and picked up the mana stone.

After finishing my supermarket run, I immediately pulled the cart to a nearby large hardware store.

To make proper use of the newly obtained skill, I needed the resources to craft weapons or items.

I thoroughly searched the hardware store shelves, now ownerless, and stuffed all kinds of metal into the cart.

But contrary to my expectations, I couldn't gather as much metal as I'd hoped.

As expected, nothing beat a construction site.

"...Maybe instead of just selling them, I should try buying from the Exchange."

They didn't seem that expensive anyway, and I could probably put them straight into storage.

With that thought in mind, I looked at the vehicles parked along the road.

Honestly, if I could do something about those, gathering metal would be easy.

I considered breaking them apart and taking some, but I couldn't bring myself to.

Maybe I'd try it when I was truly desperate later.

It was just as I pulled the now-heavy cart back to the tracks where the train was parked.

"Hm?"

In front of the door of the train's first car.

The scouting drone I had sent to the villa first was quietly floating in the air, waiting for me.

The moment it spotted me, it waved its large camera lens up and down, signaling something affirmative.

At the sight of it stretching out a mechanical arm as if it had found something tremendous, I stopped the cart and hurried over.

"No way... Did you find something over by the villa?"

What the drone carefully handed over was a small piece of paper that still bore the marks of having been folded many times.

The moment I took it, memories came flooding back.

It was the very note I'd left behind in case of an emergency when I rescued Su-a and Ji-woo and brought them to the train.

'I will keep the children safe.'

That note, which I'd definitely left folded when I abandoned it there, was now unfolded in the drone's hand as if someone had urgently opened it.

"No way..."

The drone nodded.

Apocalypse.

In this world, where many people are injured and die every day, the children's mother had somehow survived and returned to that villa.

And she had read the note I'd left with her own eyes.

'Is she really alive?'

It felt like a flash of light exploding in my mind.

The faces of the siblings smiling and playing with Dongle in front of the water tank in Car 2 flashed through my mind.

"Take it and get on! Hurry, let's move!"

At those words, the drones roughly shoved the cart into the train, and I also tossed my bag down before running toward the cab.

"Huh? Noona?"

"What's wrong?"

"Uh... We've got somewhere urgent to go!"

At my urgent tone, the two siblings asked in confusion, but I decided to keep it a secret for now.

Just in case.

It would be a relief if their parent had returned and read the note, but maybe someone else had read the message.

Still, if their mother had really returned—

Since it was dangerous outside, I decided to hurry so we could meet quickly.

"Let's get moving, fast."

The train began moving toward the station near the siblings' home.