Chapter 45
...Then what about this student here, and this drone?
Ah... you really came to save us...
Is this bastard really seeing hallucinations? Why am I the only—
Cough! Hack, ugh...!
Once the fog completely cleared, the dozens of survivors lying on the floor began coughing violently and expelling the murky fog trapped inside their bodies.
I waited until they calmed down and caught their breath.
After a while, once color began returning to the survivors' pale faces, we finally exchanged names.
"Thank you so much for saving us. Um...?"
"I... uh, I'm Choo-Choo, the one who came after hearing your message..."
It wasn't the first time, but introducing myself by nickname was embarrassing.
People's eyes widened.
Maybe because they'd seen me by my nickname once or twice in the gallery, they reacted with curiosity.
But that didn't seem to be the only thing they found surprising.
"He's really a student..."
"It's really a drone with a gun on it?"
"Then there really is a train with a turret?"
I could hear them whispering.
They seemed to doubt whether the accounts I'd posted were really true.
I could understand that.
It probably wasn't easy to imagine.
Fortunately, most of the ordinary survivors were unharmed.
But worry still hung thickly on people's faces.
It was because of the two Awakened who had gone out earlier to rescue people—the ones the man had said had gotten separated in the fog.
"Will they be okay too?"
"They have combat skills... so they should've beaten those guys! Probably..."
'...The monsters themselves don't seem all that strong, but the fog seems to be more effective than I expected...'
That was when it happened.
A familiar message window, one I hadn't seen in a long time, popped up repeatedly before my eyes.
[Multiple constellations are paying attention to you!]
[The Guardian of the Forest hopes you'll purify the ecosystem again this time.]
[The Hammer Warrior admires your weapon.]
[The Goat-Horned Demon is disappointed by your performance.]
[The good-aligned constellations hope you'll clear away all the fog.]
"...All of a sudden?"
I wondered why the constellations were suddenly swarming around me all at once at a time like this.
For the first time in a while, the constellations focused on me again and even sent something like a quest.
'Just like with the poison fog... are they watching situations like this?'
This was actually a good thing.
In any case, I still had to rescue the Awakened wandering outside, and if I left this fog-covered city alone, I couldn't guarantee the safety of the area around here either, so it was a good opportunity to take on both at once.
"Don't worry. I'll make sure to bring the Awakened back too."
As I straightened my spear and declared that to the survivors, they all seemed a little moved.
Among them, the young man called Dong-hoon stepped to the front of the group with an emotional expression.
"As expected...!"
He began to speak passionately.
"Everyone! We can't just sit still like this! Let's prepare a reward!"
"Right! Credits would be good, wouldn't they? Let's gather up mana stones too!"
Dong-hoon's passionate outburst changed the look in people's eyes completely.
"...What?"
The man frowned at the situation.
It seemed they weren't usually the kind of people who'd act like that.
"He still seems to be coughing out the fog, but... well, that's fine. We did need to reward you anyway..."
Before I could even say no, the survivors started gathering something among themselves, saying they'd prepare my reward.
Even though it seemed like it was the fog's fault, I felt a little guilty—
I didn't bother stopping them.
Might as well take what you can get.
"Then make sure you lock the door tightly, everyone. I'll be back after I clear things out."
With their cheers behind me, I headed back out of the auditorium with the combat drone and sniper drone at my sides.
The man decided to stay behind and guard the safe zone.
Whiiing-!
Like they say, the first time is hard and the second time is easy. I guess that goes for my machine drones too.
By now, it was good enough to call it the work of an experienced handler.
Bang-!
Whatever pattern the drones had found, the moment they slipped into the thick fog, a single gunshot would always ring out a few seconds later and the fog would clear away.
At this rate, it didn't seem like it would take long to clear away all the fog.
"They're fighting well."
The combat drone was especially impressive.
After the upgrade, its flight speed had become no joke, and it seemed to be using that mobility to slip into the fog and quickly deal with the will-o'-the-wisps.
Once the drones cleared away the fog, it was my turn.
Snake-headed monsters emerged, panicking as they lost their hiding place when the fog lifted.
Slash-!
"Kieeeek!"
Every time the spear in my hand sliced through the air, green-brown scales were torn away and blood sprayed.
The more accustomed I became to the spear, the easier it was to deal with them.
Compared to the lizardmen I'd met before, these guys were far too easy.
They were only fast; their movements were simple.
...Of course, if I'd run into them in the fog, it would've been pretty dangerous.
"Good, this route is clear too."
After making my way through Paju Jungang-ro in what had basically become routine work, I finally got near the place where my train was parked, and right at that moment—
"Now if I just clear away the fog around this area—"
Whoosh-!
"Hm?"
'A red fireball-like mass flew straight at my head from beyond the thick fog ahead.'
'A ranged attack?'
I instinctively tightened my grip on the spear and ducked my head.
It didn't fly as fast as I expected.
The fireball-shaped thing barely skimmed past my hair and slammed into the asphalt behind me.
And a beat later, I sensed something was off.
'Fireball-shaped?'
Tsssh-!
A disgusting hissing sound, as if insecticide were being sprayed.
From the red sphere that had fallen to the ground, fog burst outward in all directions as though exploding.
"Damn it, the fog...!"
I reflexively held my breath and tried to leap away.
But the fog that had exploded in a surprise attack was half a beat faster than my leap.
The cloyingly sweet fog pushed through the wet towel covering my nose and mouth and forced its way deep into my nose.
"Cough! Hack, ugh...!"
The moment I inhaled the fog, I felt a strange sensation, like my mind was going blank.
'Ah.'
With that brief sigh, my vision began to warp rapidly.
I looked at the drones one last time.
There seemed to be several drones.
"Th-then... get me out of the fog—"
Before I could even finish speaking, they seemed to come toward me and nod.
Was that a hallucination too?
Then I saw their claw-like pincers rise, and my memory cut off.
***
The moment my vision began to warp little by little as I inhaled the fog.
I had lost consciousness, and now I was finally waking up.
"Huh?"
But when I came to again, what lay before my eyes was—black asphalt.
Literally, my entire field of vision was nothing but black asphalt.
Am I lying down?
If I were lying down, the shadows would make it even harder to see anything.
A moment later, wind brushed past my cheek.
...I strangely felt like I was flying.
Did I inhale something dangerous?
"...What? I'm really flying."
I was really flying through the sky.
To be more precise, I was being carried while dangling.
I turned my head slightly to take in the situation, and a laugh burst out.
My shoulders were clamped from both sides by the sniper and reconnaissance drones' mechanical arms, while the combat drone, the biggest of them all, supported both my legs as it moved along.
I looked like a rabbit being kidnapped by an eagle.
"...I'm fine, I'm awake. Put me down."
I said it because being carried while lying down was scarier than I'd expected, but the three drones silently ignored my command and only flew at full speed toward the train.
Maybe in an emergency directly tied to my safety, they were set to prioritize safety over orders.
But even while flying toward the train, familiar heavy booms were intermittently ringing out from far away.
Kwa-gwa-gwang-!
"Huh? That's the turret sound... Wait, the reconnaissance drone is on my shoulder right now?"
That question was answered the moment the train doors opened and the drones gently set me down on the floor of the first car's cockpit.
"Mr. Sowon! Are you okay?!"
The moment I was escorted into the train, Ha-seon, who had been sitting in the cockpit seat, hurried over and checked my condition.
Her snow-white hair fluttered, and her clear eyes full of worry peered closely into my face.
"...She's really unbelievably pretty."
I took a moment to catch my breath and said.
"I'm fine. Thanks to the drones carrying me here..."
I hurriedly coughed and got back to my feet.
And then I looked at the cockpit seat Ha-seon had been sitting in just moments earlier.
"By the way, that turret shot just now... was that you, Ha-seon?"
At my question, Ha-seon gave an awkward smile.
"Ah, yes. I could see on the monitor that the drones were flying back in a panic with Mr. Sowon in tow... and it looked like the monsters and fog were chasing you from behind, so... I just picked off the ones following you a little?"
"Uh... was that okay?"
I was genuinely impressed.
For me, the turret's aim wasn't easy to handle.
On top of that, the monsters around here were especially fast, and she herself probably had more than a few phobias.
"Ah, well."
She answered, her white cheeks turning red in embarrassment.
"When I look at it through the monitor... it feels just like playing a game. It isn't scary at all..."
"A game?"
"Yes. Actually, before the apocalypse, I loved games almost as much as the gallery. I got into the gallery in the first place while looking for game guides and coupon codes."
Hearing that, I once again turned my gaze to the laptop she'd set up.
Looking more closely, the laptop she used wasn't the thin, lightweight kind like a MacBook that most women preferred.
It was a thick gaming laptop with a faint fan hum.
And the mouse next to it was a lightweight model that had been heavily optimized for gamers.
"That... isn't that the kind of mouse pro gamers use a lot?"
At my specific observation, Ha-seon's eyes widened like a rabbit's.
"Huh? How do you know that, Mr. Sowon?!"
She suddenly brightened and stepped right up close to me.
"That's right, a lot of women really don't know this stuff. You're interested in games, aren't you?"
Ha-seon seemed pleased, and she continued talking with a bright smile.
"Ah..."
For a moment, I was at a loss for words.
Her words were exactly right.
A normal woman wouldn't be able to tell that much just from looking at a mouse.
A normal woman, that is.
I hid my flustered expression as best I could and forced an awkward smile.
"Hahaha, right. My brother—no, a relative of mine who's into that sort of thing likes it, so I kind of picked it up from over his shoulder. Yeah, haha."
Whether I was sweating bullets inside and making excuses or not, Ha-seon seemed thrilled to have met a woman she could actually talk to after a long time.
First I calmed her down and told her, just in case, not to have the turret attack the distant fog, then continued the search.
And soon enough, I cleared away all the fog and rescued the two Awakened.
The two Awakened had been unconscious inside the fog.
Because the two Awakened had been fighting each other so fiercely, the monsters had hesitated to attack and only waited around for an opening, before finally being taken care of by me and the drones that arrived.
"...Should I count this as a blessing...?"
I returned to the safe zone with the two Awakened, both with punch-swollen faces.