Chapter 7
The efficiency went up a little?
I tilted my head after checking the numbers on the cockpit panel, then opened the status window and nodded.
After clearing the dungeon, it said it would strengthen one of my skills as a first-clear reward.
And it applied to the train skill, increasing fuel efficiency.
It hadn't gone up by much.
[Current Fuel Efficiency
- Operating time per low-grade mana stone: 7 days -> 8 days]
"No, I guess this counts as a pretty big increase..."
A whole day? Low-grade mana stones were easier to get than I'd expected.
If every one of them increased by a day—
With my fuel worries gone, the mana stones I'd been saving all this time suddenly looked like surplus money.
Without hesitation, I opened the exterior modification tab.
"Let's spend it. What is life, anyway?"
The faster I strengthen things, the more my gains from auto-hunting will multiply.
First, I pressed the Spike upgrade button.
Kugu-gugung— kiki-kik!
A huge metallic sound rang out from the front of the train.
Through the exterior camera, I checked and saw the existing crude spikes writhing as they expanded.
[Modification Complete: Spike 2
]
[Width increased by 1.5x, allowing it to hit monsters near the tracks.]
"...They even made it look vicious."
I poured the remaining resources into
the Drone Hangar
and unlocked it.
Vwoong— click.
Something made a sound near the roof of Car 2.
Soon, a new tab appeared on the panel.
[Drone Hangar]
- Current drones owned: Basic Recon Drone (1)
- Function: Detect terrain and living creatures within a 500m radius, automatically create maps, collect small items.
"A recon drone...?"
Vwoong—!
Hearing the sound, I looked out the window, and a sleek gray drone shot up from the roof of Car 2 with a propeller whir.
Soon, the drone’s real-time video feed and a mini-map appeared on one side of the cockpit screen.
[Scanning...]
- 1 o'clock direction: Monster pack detected.
"Nice."
I couldn’t help but marvel.
Until now, I had to see things with my own eyes or run into them myself to know what was there,
but now it was like I was walking around with a map turned on.
I returned to the sofa and sank deep into it.
At the front of the train, the reinforced spikes glinted, and a drone hovered in the sky.
If I just relaxed now, the results of auto-hunting would come in.
***
"Ugh... I slept well."
The first thing I felt when I opened my eyes was a bit of muscle soreness.
I awkwardly loosened the soreness in my especially painful arms and back with some calisthenics and stood up.
Then, as usual, I checked the ejection chute beside the cockpit.
"It only widened a little..."
Mana stones were piled beneath the chute.
[Obtained: 14 low-grade mana stones]
[Obtained: Worn leather armor]
[Obtained: Silver coins x2]
Satisfied, I converted all the mana stones into fuel.
This was more than enough to cover the upgrade cost.
Next was the drone.
I looked at the drone's screen in the cockpit.
Vwoong— click.
Just then, the drone hangar hatch hanging from the ceiling of Car 2 opened, and the drone that had gone out scouting returned.
On the cockpit monitor, along with a scouting complete message, there was footage of the drone placing something down with a thud.
"Huh? What's that?"
Curious, I went over to Car 2.
What the drone brought back was a dirt-covered old wooden box.
Compared to the treasure chest I'd seen in the dungeon, it looked a little shabby, but its shape was definitely that of a treasure chest.
Near the treasure chest, there were also mana stones and items the drone must have gathered over time.
For now, I decided to focus on the treasure chest.
"So these can show up even outside a dungeon."
It looked like the drone had picked it up while searching rooftop ruins or some corner humans couldn't reach.
The wooden box was strangely damp.
With half excitement and half worry, I opened the old lid.
Creak—
Inside were a set of canned goods and, for some reason, a bottle of potion containing a red liquid that looked like something from a game.
The canned goods were ordinary tuna cans. They still had plenty of shelf life left.
What I was curious about was the potion.
I picked up the potion and looked at it slowly.
"Could this be... a health potion?"
Since it came from a treasure chest, it didn't seem like an ordinary item.
I checked it in the armory, and sure enough, it was listed as a health potion.
It would be best if I never had to use it, but it was the kind of thing that was good to have one of, just in case.
So treasure chests can appear outside dungeons too.
"That's pretty valuable information."
I returned to Car 1, sat on the sofa, and turned on my smartphone.
Survivor Gallery.
It was the place I had been logging into whenever I had spare time lately.
The only communication window that eased the sense of isolation and loneliness of being alone.
I learned how to open the status window and that monsters drop items here.
It wouldn't be polite to only take.
I pressed the write button for the first time.
---
[Title: (Tip) Treasure chests show up even without going to dungeons. jpg]
Author: Choo-Choo
(Proof photo of the old wooden box and its contents)
I just found this while searching the rooftop of a ruined building, but it seems like boxes like this sometimes show up in corners?
The contents were just a potion and some food, but if you're lucky, equipment might come out too. Don't just stare at the ground; check rooftops and corners too.
[Comments]
ㅇㅇ : Looks AI-generated.
ㄴ 부산남 : How would you even run AI right now?
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Ah, right.
ExtremeChoice : Oh, nice tip, thanks thanks. I'm heading to the roof right now.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Hey, don't go up there.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ : Please don't live up to your nickname.
Survivor King : Wow, is that really a potion? Does it heal you?
---
A smile spread across my lips as I read through the comments one by one.
Since it was an important info post, the views and comments were climbing fast.
No, the Survivor Gallery itself was also gradually getting more and more people.
"Yeah, everyone has to survive."
I left a short reply telling everyone to be careful, then turned off the screen.
Maybe because I felt proud of having helped someone, the rattling of the train somehow felt a little less lonely.
Just then, an alert rang from the cockpit panel.
Ding!
The map that had been created after modifying the Drone Hangar was sparkling.
[Recon Map: Around the Incheon tracks]
Thanks to the drone diligently roaming around all night, Incheon's map had been revealed in considerable detail.
Areas with lots of monsters were red, tracks were green. There was more information too, but—
Skull mark:
Dungeon entrance
Treasure chest mark:
Chests that are too heavy or fixed in place for the drone to bring back.
Here, just by the marks alone, I could roughly guess what they were so far.
But in one corner of the map, a single unexpected icon was sparkling in the middle of a ruined factory complex.
[$]
"A dollar sign? Money?"
I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but it was definitely a gold-glowing
[$]
mark.
A bank?
But in a world like this, what value could money have to be marked so specially?
I couldn't stand the curiosity.
I grabbed the drone that had just landed and was cooling off and shook it.
"What's this? What's over here?"
Vwoong-
The drone just spun its propeller once as if annoyed, and remained silent.
Come to think of it, what was I expecting from a machine that couldn't talk?
"...Yeah, good work. Rest up."
If I was curious, I'd just have to go see for myself.
Fortunately, according to the map the drone had made, the area around there was very safe and also very close to the tracks.
If I didn't have to engage in combat, then I wasn't all that scared of going outside either.
"It probably isn't an ordinary place."
I pulled the train's control lever and set off.
The destination was the place marked with a
[$]
mark on the map.
A corner of a collapsed building about 500 meters from the tracks.
Clatter, clatter.
The train glided along the tracks and stopped near the target site.
I slung the tooth mace over my shoulder and, just in case,
Leap
skill ready, cautiously stepped out of the train.
***
"Damn it! Hold them back! If they break through, we're all dead!!"
A playground in an old apartment complex in Dong-gu, Incheon.
A place that had been full of children's laughter just a few days ago was now noisy with shouts and monster howls.
A huge iron shield held by a man was shoved backward with a booming clang.
Bang—!
"Grr... My arm's at its limit!"
"Shut up and hold the line! There are people behind us!"
The two men, each with a shield, spat out the blood pooled in their mouths and fought desperately.
In front of them, five bipedal monsters that looked like wolves were tightening the encirclement, licking their lips.
Even though several Awakeners had gathered, they were powerless before the monsters' speed and coordinated attacks.
The people behind them were already injured or had collapsed from exhaustion, and the iron pipes and other makeshift weapons they had used were bent half out of shape.
'This is the end, isn't it.'
The shield-bearing man's vision swam.
One werewolf leaped into the air, looking for an opening.
Its sharp claws aimed for the neck of the slumped person.
"No!!"
Just as everyone was about to squeeze their eyes shut.
Whiiiir—
A sound utterly out of place for the situation, like the flutter of a hornet's wings, rang out.
Fwoosh—!
With a sharp bursting sound, the werewolf's head in midair exploded like a watermelon.
"Kyaagh?!"
A small gray object leisurely descended onto the corpse sprawled on the ground.
A very ordinary-looking
drone
it was.
"A drone?"
"What just happened—"
The people muttered blankly.
The drone didn't even spare a glance for the survivors.
Click.
From the bottom of the drone, a tiny mechanical arm sprang out,
It flipped over the corpse of the just-killed werewolf and, with deft skill, neatly extracted a purple mana stone.
The remaining four werewolves barked in fury at the death of their comrade and charged the drone.
"Grrr! Bark!"
But the drone remained calm.
It spun around once in the air as if swatting away an annoying fly, and the small lens attached underneath glowed red.
Flash.
Four blinding red laser beams, too fast to see, flashed four times.
Thud.
They couldn't even let out a final scream.
The four werewolves were pierced in their vital points and collapsed at once.
They were monsters we'd been unable to take down even after fighting for 30 minutes with our lives on the line.
But that toy-like machine had ended the situation in just 3 seconds.
A playground filled only with silence.
The drone once again
Whiiir—
making its rounds over the corpses.
Clank. Snip.
Clank. Snip.
Like it was shopping, the drone carefully gathered only the monsters' mana stones and items before flying back up into the sky.
Then it circled once above Cheol-ho and the others, who were standing there with their mouths hanging open, and scanned them.
It left behind a dry mechanical sound before flying off without the slightest hesitation.
What remained were the corpses of the werewolves with their heads blown open, and the four people who had lost their wits.
"Uh, uh."
"What was that just now...?"
"...I don't know either."