Chapter 27 – Scavenger (1)

Standing in front of the sewer, not only Michael but the other party members also had unpleasant expressions. No one would like entering a sewer.

But Hayden’s expression looked more complicated.

“Don’t tell me we have to catch rats or something living in the sewer?”

The image of a swarm of rats covering the sewer filled everyone’s minds. Everyone shuddered, but Hayden shook his head at his words.

“If it pointed to inside the sewer, the contamination source is probably human.”

At his words, everyone looked inside the sewer. Though it was tremendously large, it was definitely a sewer with a foul smell and sewage flowing.

“There are people living in the sewer?”

“Probably one of the scavengers became contaminated.”

When Hayden spoke, it was a different name, but the automatically translated voice sounded like ‘scavenger’ to Sun-woo and Michael.

“Scavenger? Isn’t that what they call animals that eat corpses?”

“Similar. In the Empire, they call people living in the city sewers that way.”

It seemed there weren’t just one or two vagrants living in the sewers.

“Are they hiding for political or religious reasons?”

Sun-woo asked, thinking of the Roman Empire’s catacombs, but Hayden shook his head.

“There are many such people, but the problem is mutants or ability users who couldn’t adapt to society. If discovered, they’re sent to reform schools, but some hide in the sewers below. At least it’s easier to avoid the Empire’s surveillance than on the surface.”

Even with superpowers, abilities that were always helpful couldn’t always appear.

There were many superpower users who couldn’t be controlled through training alone, such as people who constantly heard others’ thoughts, or superpower users who caused damage to their surroundings just from emotional fluctuations.

Besides such unhelpful superpowers, there seemed to be other problems too.

“There are people who develop mental or physical abnormalities when they acquire superpowers. They’re a kind of mutant. To gain stronger superpowers, inbreeding or strange experiments have increased, so there seem to be more of them these days.”

Human greed seemed endless everywhere.

“Most mutants are sent to reform schools. And after a series of measures, they’re deployed as soldiers.”

Looking at Hayden’s expression, going to a reform school didn’t seem like it would end well.

“As more people fled underground like this, the deep parts of the sewers became forbidden zones. Now even sewer maintenance workers travel with combat personnel.”

Even while speaking, Hayden’s expression wasn’t good. It seemed uncomfortable to bring up the Empire’s dark side.

“I thought it felt like slums, but is it a kind of lawless zone?”

But Michael, learning they would face people, was actually energetic.

Unlike him, Daniel looked down at his armor that gleamed from recent maintenance and shook his head. It was the moment when his laborious armor maintenance would go to waste.

“Sigh, there’s no choice. Since there’s no way back, let’s go inside.”

With his words, the group broke the lock on the barred sewer entrance and entered inside.

Not only Daniel but also Hayden in his academy uniform and Sun-woo in his new stylish coat and suit grimaced as they entered the dirty sewer, but Nan-seol didn’t seem to mind at all.

“Oh, but how do we find our target in this huge sewer when we don’t even know the way?”

“We could inquire with those living in the sewers.”

Daniel answered Michael’s question, but Michael’s questions weren’t finished yet.

“No, to make inquiries, we need to meet those scavengers. But how do we find them?”

Michael’s reasonable question made Hayden and Daniel’s expressions turn troubled, but Nan-seol just looked at Sun-woo.

She had clearly seen Sun-woo’s abilities in the previous mission.

“I’ll try to find them.”

Sun-woo stepped forward. Different internal energy from before surged from his body, and the spirits of the earth began racing through the sewer.

***

A group of people carrying torches was moving quickly along the black flowing sewage.

These were middle-aged men and uniformed soldiers. The soldiers held swords in their hands, but they didn’t look very skilled in swordsmanship.

“Aren’t you moving too hastily?”

When the middle-aged man panted while walking quickly, someone who appeared to be an officer asked worriedly.

“We must hurry. The situation gets worse the longer we wait. This year, more than three sewer maintenance workers have gone missing. I need to retire quickly too…”

“That’s why we’re going together. Those scavenger bastards won’t even be able to approach.”

“Most of the missing maintenance workers were with soldiers.”

“Is it really that serious?”

The soldiers became serious hearing the maintenance worker’s words. Since they were deployed here for the first time, it was a story they hadn’t heard.

“Well, accidents don’t happen every time. Let’s quickly handle the problematic areas and leave.”

At the hurried maintenance worker’s words, the soldiers increased their pace without saying anything.

After the people quickly disappeared, the sewer was engulfed in darkness again.

Shortly after, a small light came from another passage of the intersection where the people had passed.

It was light flowing from a small lantern Michael was carrying.

Deep in another passage of the intersection where the maintenance crew had passed, Sun-woo’s group was hiding.

“Phew, fortunately we weren’t caught. You’re really skilled. Not only is finding the way amazing, but how do you notice people’s presence faster than me?”

Michael looked at Sun-woo with a curious expression.

Michael’s gun and bulletproof vest were different from the previous mission.

They seemed to be new guns and equipment Michael had obtained after going to the association. Seeing that even the lantern he was carrying was summoned together, it appeared to be recognized as the same equipment.

It wasn’t by chance that they hadn’t been discovered by the group. Sun-woo had used illusion arts to make the group as unnoticeable as possible.

Though it was still difficult to deceive many people, thanks to his strengthened internal energy, in such darkness it was now sufficiently possible to divert people’s attention.

“But at this rate, it seems like it’ll take quite a while.”

The group had seen people for the first time after an hour of entering the sewer.

During this time, the group, especially Michael, had looked at Sun-woo’s abilities with suspicious eyes, but thanks to the people who had just passed, their doubts were resolved.

Sun-woo couldn’t help not meeting people either. The sewer was too large. Thanks to his sorcery, he could see the internal structure of the sewer as if with his eyes, but that distance wasn’t infinite.

For Sun-woo, there was no choice but to steadily draw a sewer map in his head.

And that exploration had just borne fruit. Sun-woo had found the target he wanted.

“Besides us, there are others fleeing from those soldiers. Let’s pursue them.”

Sun-woo began moving following the gradually distancing human presence, and the group followed Sun-woo with happy expressions.

***

Sun-woo led the group through the maze-like entangled sewers quickly. He even overtook the soldier group through different passages.

After running like this for quite a while, he stopped at an intersection and looked at a side passage.

“Huff, huff, running so brutishly. But we still haven’t caught up. Why are you suddenly stopping?”

Michael asked Sun-woo while breathing roughly.

Sun-woo answered while looking at the passage.

“We’ve overtaken them. They’ll arrive soon.”

At Sun-woo’s words, the group looked at the passage Sun-woo was watching, and Michael turned off the lantern he was carrying.

The sewer became dark again.

Shortly after, faint lights from far in the passage and muffled footsteps began to be heard through the low water sounds.

They were a group of people in rags.

Their appearance was revealed by small lights held in a few people’s hands.

Everyone looked tired and yellowed from not seeing light for a long time, but except for one person wrapped in cloth in the center, they looked like ordinary people.

“This should be far enough to avoid them.”

When the man leading the group at the front stopped, people sat down breathing tiredly.

“Fortunately. It’s good we discovered them first and avoided them, otherwise we might have faced the Empire guys.”

When he spoke with a relieved voice, someone nearby quietly objected.

“Didn’t we not need to run away? We also have ability users.”

It was a man who looked neat and seemed to have not been here long.

But no one responded to his words.

“Sigh, as I said before, when we see surface people, we must avoid them as much as possible. Now they’re also escorted by ability user units, and our side’s ability users have weaknesses.”

At his words, a woman next to the hooded person became dejected.

She was the only woman in the group, but unexpectedly, other people except the hooded person were staying away from her side.

“And the situation seems to have changed lately – they don’t chase us much unless there’s something special. We just need to avoid confronting them directly.”

The man leading the group calmly explained to him, having lived here for a long time. The young man listening looked somewhat dissatisfied but seemed to accept it.

“But thanks to that, we might have to starve today. The gathering area has been unsettled lately, which is worrying, but since the Empire guys also went that way, we can’t follow them…”

Another person complained quietly. The man leading the group also sighed at those words.

“We can’t skip another day like this… I don’t know why they’re going there.”

An unexpected response to his question came from an unexpected place.

“What is this gathering area?”

And with the question, bright light was lit.

It was Sun-woo’s group.

The surprised vagrant group hurriedly fled backward. They retreated quite far, leaving the cloth-wrapped person behind.

Only the lone woman stayed in place, glaring at Sun-woo’s group.

“Who are you? You’re definitely not from the underground tribes.”

The woman seemed a bit confused by Sun-woo’s group’s diverse appearance. Then, a voice like grinding metal was heard from beside her.

“Shh. They’re from above. There’s someone wearing an academy uniform.”

It was the sound made by someone whose appearance couldn’t be seen due to a cloak. He seemed to have recognized the uniform Hayden was wearing.

At his words, the woman’s expression sharpened, and her hand was raised forward.

At the same time, flames shot up around her.

“Flame ability user! The woman was the ability user!”

Surprised Hayden’s voice echoed through the sewer, and flames spread in all directions.

Hayden tried to raise sewer water with telekinesis to block the flames, but it was completely useless.

That’s when Sun-woo stepped forward.

Thud!

When he stomped the ground hard, the floor shot upward completely blocking between them, and when the flames subsided, the wall that had blocked between them lowered again.

When the wall lowered, the woman was looking at the group with surprised eyes, and beside her was a man whose cloth had all burned in the fire, revealing his bare body.

His entire body looked as hard as stone, and he was completely blackened, as if he had just been engulfed in flames.

“An uncontrolled flame ability user and a petrification mutant.”

Hayden muttered looking at the two.

“Since they attacked first, we should pay them back.”

Michael said while raising his gun.

“We need to hear their story, so don’t kill them.”

Nan-seol warned while launching herself toward the opponents.

“Tsk, then the one who looks tough, I guess.”

Michael turned his gun toward the stone-like person, and the group began attacking the two scavengers.