Chapter 81

Adam (2)

When the ministry spirit first showed Adam Abrams’ location to me, the coordinates were slightly different from where I was now. However, it was still in the middle of nowhere in old North Korea, just outside the Trusteeship region. The land of death where the U.N. controlled the increase of monster population by regularly bombarding it.

Even if I regularly identified his location afterward, his movement range was within the old North Korean territory.

‘What was he doing in a place like this?’

I stared at his back from afar. His body was unnaturally, and under the roughly tied long brown hair, I could see his explosive muscles wriggle. He was only moving his steps leisurely, but his aura was phenomenal.

‘On the official records, Abrams Awakened in 2018.’

It was a year before Seo Jin-Wook Awakened. The look that I saw now was hard to tell if they were of the same person, in the picture before his Awakening, that I saw in Senator’s file. It was a rare case that someone grew suddenly over a meter just because one had Awakened. Also, an Awakened body finds its most efficient form, but it was not common for the whole body to bulk up to a massive chunk of muscles.

‘To think about it, his past behavior didn’t seem natural.’

He was a typical public-school teacher who suddenly went to a related government facility to report that he had Awakened one day.

‘His Awakening was suspicious as indicated in his testimony.’

He was the only one who reported that one had Awakened after suffering a heart attack and then went into a coma, in the present life or even in the past life. However, there were one or two other suspicious things when they dug into his background. According to the witnesses around him, he was shy and introverted until he had Awakened.

‘But everything had changed after that day.’

After Abrams Awakened, not only was he indifferent to everything in his life but he also continuously showed rude and incomprehensive behaviors. His wife received a one-sided declaration of divorce, and he cut ties with people, including his family, friends, and colleagues. There were indeed those Awakened that displayed such behavior, but his change was too extreme.

The media revealed his private life after Abrams had achieved SS-Rank the sources tried to rush in to get his comments about it, but there were no replies. Following that, he received the SSS-Rank from the global hunter organization and focused on dungeon exploration for a while. Then from a specific point in time, he stopped his official activities.

‘It was said that he left this message to the secretary in charge of the agency, which he at least talked most often to. That now… He had almost identified the pattern.’

There was a lot of interpretation of those words’ meaning, but there was no way to seek answers from him. Not even his secretary could meet Abrams again after that. Occasionally, tales of witnesses were heard everywhere, but the location of it changed every time.

‘He’s been roaming around in places like this?’

Because so many gates opened and collapsed, all kinds of monsters roamed around this area. It was impossible to tell how many different species existed precisely, and it was impossible to produce statistics. This was because once bombarded, the population decreased significantly and then increased again over time. In other words, it was a most dangerous area.

‘What are my intentions?’

The goal of following him was to discreetly observe and identify his behavior, which I was sure was of alien origin. I had no intention of revealing myself to him.

Abrams trudged around, surrounded by the cold night air. He stopped and stared somewhere. I also turned my head after his gaze. I expanded my cognitive range to faraway places, but I saw nothing.

Dash!

There was a sudden movement as Abrams threw himself away, kicking the ground. I also chased him, being careful not to break the Stealth. How long must he run through the steep mountains? As he climbed to the highlands, I wondered what I had not seen until now revealed itself below. I couldn’t help but panic when I saw it with my eyes.

‘It’s a monster that I don’t know!’

“Grooowl!”

The giant monster seemed to have felt a rapid movement toward it, and it became wary of him. It pushed its head up and showed its teeth. It was comparable in size to an elephant, and its shape resembled a hedgehog. The hard crust that protected the back was covered with sharp thorns.

‘I understood that there are all kinds of monsters roaming around because it’s a land where the breaks kept happening.’

But I was baffled because it was a monster that I for the first time.

‘Was it that he chased it after seeing the monster from far away?’

It was more than 10 kilometers from where he started running. No matter what powerful [Penetration] skill I may use, I couldn’t keep my sights this far unless I had a special ability like Nicole’s [All-Seeing Light].

‘But I’m sure he didn’t use any skills.’

His Mana only moved normally. Rather than creating a unique pattern, he only prepared to run fast, and no traces of clairvoyance or detection skills appeared.

While I was thinking so, swish! Abrams flew forward.

‘Without a weapon?!’

The only equipment he had was a worn-out battle suit. There was not a single standard armor artifact.

‘Him running around in that state, in a land dominated by monsters, even if he was an SSS-Rank meant that there was something that he trusted!’

It was time for the secret to being revealed.

Riiip!

The next moment, I thought that I saw Abrams’ whole left body falling apart. However, I immediately re-analyzed the phenomenon accurately. It didn’t disappear by collapsing. It swelled and expanded so fast that I missed it!

‘What the hell was that?’

His arms and shoulders were, dark red flesh expanded and poured forward as if it were exploding.

Rumbleee!

A waterfall of flesh that was several times larger than the original body shape, bones, muscles, and nerves continuously sprang up and tangled. Before I realized it, it had made a giant reptile’s mouth. The thing that was connected to the man’s body opened wide its mouth. The hedgehog beast instinctively rolled up its body and raised its thorns. But the defense was meaningless.

Crush!

Crunch!

The mouth, which seemed to exist only to bite and crush, chewed the whole beast. The sharp thorn failed to hurt Abrams’ mutated body.

Crack.

Crush! The eerie resonance of thorns breaking and failing to withstand the pressure was clearly audible, as I could hear the whole body of the beast snapping. Blood and crushed guts burst out between the sharp teeth. The beast could not even scream and died instantly.

“Hmm.”

He was still maintaining half of his body in the form of a giant reptile. Adam scratched his chin with his right hand.

Chak!

At that moment, the bizarrely formed left side of his body once again changed shape. The corpse of the hedgehog beast, which it had bit tightly, fell on the floor. The massive chunk of flesh that let it go floated and changed its appearance.

‘It’s fast!’

The movement was quick. The lumps that were split into the upper and lower jaws divided the body more finely and thinner. This time, it formed something like hundreds of spider legs. At the end of each leg, there were sharp spines and horns that seemed like surgical instruments. Nothing overlapped with each other in this form.

Adam Abrams in that state…

Cha-cha-chak! Like dissecting a sample on the operating table, hundreds of legs, separated by joints, moved in unison. The sharp structure on the ends separated the back shell from the back muscles of the beast. Riiip! As a long sharp thorn slit sideways, the skin fell off clean like leather. After that, the corpse was chopped up, and the organs were sorted out and taken out one by one. It was a scene that looked more like dismantling a building than dissecting because of the beast’s giant size. The amount of blood, and a terrible smell, that continuously flowed down to wet the mountain’s foothills, made me not forget the act’s reason.

The devil’s sword, who watched the scene with me, talked to me first in an unusual manner.

‘He hasn’t done this only once or twice?’

That’s what I thought.

‘It’s the same among demons, too. He could have dissected it alive, but he chose to dismantle it after it’s dead. He’s not the type who enjoys the pain of the other person, but rather he purely enjoys the act of dissection.’

It was indeed an analysis of a demon. I was lost in thought instead of answering back.

‘It’s not a polymorph. It’s not even a physical alteration skill. Mana didn’t make any pattern when transforming the body.’

Although the Mana moved, it was only in the level when Awakened would concentrate on moving quickly or making a powerful attack. In other words, Abrams’ alteration of the body was equivalent to an average person flexing his fist.

‘The ability of the species itself?’

I wanted to see through his internal structure, but I held back because there was a high risk of being caught.

Then, for the first time since observation, he showed something similar to a skill. He began to wrap the organs from the corpse of the beast with strange patterns.

‘No way?!’

I was impressed by it. A sophisticated pattern that I’d never seen before, whether this present life or the past life. It was a skill that I didn’t know, but when I analyzed it, the effect was…

‘What, even after making such a sophisticated Mana pattern… all it does is to store it in an original condition for a long time.’

It was just a skill of keeping the organs well not to be damaged or decay. After wrapping it with Mana, the surrounding space shook and cracked. He swept all the organs into it. It was clear that he had activated an inventory item that was not yet known to humankind. Another clear proof that he is an alien.

The devil’s sword murmured, ‘Is he an organ collector? Well, that’s a common hobby as well.’

As I kept hearing these stories, I was also suspicious. No way, was he a demon? I shook my head. The conclusion had yet to be made.

‘He’s moving again!’

In a way that I didn’t know, he detected monsters from afar, beat them, dissected them, and put the body samples into the subspace. During the process, I also noticed something strange.

‘Was the old North Korean land a place where there were so many rare monsters?’

There had never been a detailed census conducted as it had repeatedly been bombarded with artillery into vast areas and burned to ashes.

‘But I saw a lot of ordinary monsters on the way back and forth. How did Abrams precisely find a place where such rare monsters were?’

When I had that question, Abrams, who had finished the dissection and gutted the monster, returned his body to human form.

‘How many rounds a day was he trying to run? He’s an addict.’ When the devil’s sword commented on Abrams’ taste, Abrams showed a different behavior than before. Instead of moving to the next place, he stared coldly around.

The gaze changed directions several times. When he stared at my hidden place, I was honestly nervous, but I stayed still, careful not to let my Stealth be disabled.

‘Is it? I’ve even amplified the SS-Rank [Stealth] with an item!’

However, suspicions happened to turn into reality.

Abrams spoke into the air, “I’m offended. Will you stop peeking at other people working?”

I kept my mouth shut in my nervousness. Abrams’ eyes kept changing orbit. At the same time, he was scattering Mana everywhere to look for a reaction. There was a flow around me, but the skill was perfectly applied, so it didn’t work.

‘He’d noticed that someone was hiding and watching, but he couldn’t find exactly where I was!’

But how the hell did he know? The actual skill that he used so far was only for long-term storage.

‘No way, instinctive sense? Is that possible?’

While I was baffled, he spoke again, “Let me guess, you’re from the union, right? I’d like for you to leave because this is unpleasant. I came here after paying a fair admission fee to the system. And I’ve never done anything against your treaty!”

A strange word came out. As there was still no response…

“Tsk!” Kicking his tongue as he was dissatisfied, Abrams transformed his back muscles to form enormous wings. Then he flew high into the sky. Until now, it was fast enough to travel by land but to unfold such a thing…

Swoosh!

In an instant, the appearance turned tiny. How fast must he have flown? He was about to disappear beyond the horizon. It was clear that he intended to shake off my tail.

But!

Weing!

I also flew up after unfolding [Stardust Wing].

‘I’m going to waste some Mana.’

I struggled to catch up with Abrams, flying away, but I could follow him to the destination without losing him. After a long flight, where he arrived was…

‘Trusteeship border!’

Crossing the wall of Fortress City, located in the center of the Trusteeship region, lead to a residential area where survivors of the former North Korean regime gathered. The furthest from the residential area, closest to the boundary, was a refugee camp that held on with their tents, having no suitable houses. At first, most people gathered to be protected by the U.N. forces, but some other populations began to mix in no time.

Pat!

Landing on the ground, Abrams entered the refugee camp without hesitation. Refugees with thin bones and strengthless bodies sat struggling everywhere. Their lethargic gaze sticks and falls along Abrams’ path. While doing so, a man, who seemed to have the strength to move, but was still skinny, took courage and approached him.

“H-help us! My whole family hasn’t eaten for three…”

Even before he was done talking…

Swish!

The refugee drops his jaw, seeing the ball of cash that Abrams threw. As if his reflex had been slowed down, he couldn’t catch it but picked it up without hesitation when it fell on the floor. It was a visibly thick stash of cash. The refugee trembled.

“What are you doing? Take it. You were about to say your whole family has been starving for three days, right?”

The refugee stared at him dumbfounded, and he thanked him again and again, attaching himself to the ground, bowing. If one proceeded to the fortress city from the refugee camp, there was an area where the economy somewhat functions, so he would be able to find food there. It was enough money for him to do so. Of course, the reason why he was giving away money wasn’t for the refugee to buy food, though.

‘Does he do that on purpose?’

Afterward, Abrams roamed around here and there in the refugee camp, and the rumor must have spread, and those who were begging came before him countlessly. Abrams equally tossed the stash of cash to all of them. And those who received such money ran away as fast as they could, as if they were in fear of something. The one they feared soon appeared in front of Abrams.

“You, brother.”

Ten Awakened showed up, who seemed like E-Ranks. I watched that scene, hidden.

“Looking at your behavior, you are an Awakened. Why do you scatter your money when you’ve run away until here? Why don’t you share some with us while being generous? Should we see you outside the refugee camp for a while?”

Abrams, instead of replying, moved his chin with a gaze full of annoyance. He meant for them to lead the way. The crowd of Awakened surrounded Abrams and led him outside the refugee camp. They feared that the military would come after them if they made a scene inside.

‘They are the Awakened that committed a crime in South Korea and fled here, piece of trash.’

The problem that they hid inside the Trusteeship was an issue for both the South Korean government and the U.N. military.

When they took Abrams outside the refugee camp, he suddenly shouted to the void, “Hey! You’re watching this, right? My life was threatened here.”

“What is that bastard saying?”

While the clueless men looked at him, Abrams shouted in the space around him, not even bothering to give them a look.

“It’s self-defense if I practice self-preservation and end up killing them! Okay? The treaty that you people made up and forcibly made to abide, it doesn’t go against that!” He grinned, then continued, “But then… I might lose some while fighting them, huh? Then, I will go to that populated area to find those bastards again. Ah, Well! I’m still clumsy telling the natives here apart from each other. In my eyes, they all seem the same to me. In the end, I might kill some innocent beings in the search process. What do I do?”

Abrams pulled his lips and showed his teeth.

“If you don’t reveal yourself, I will put everything I had just said into action. Why don’t you come out already?”

I didn’t understand what he meant by treaty or union. But I understood his intentions. He did so to make me reveal myself.

‘The act of scattering money, in the first place, was to lure those bastards here.’

I inwardly clicked my tongue.

[There are only these today, the word count is equivalent to 6 normal chapters. I will be adding an additional editor so we can catch up with the stockpiled translated chapters faster. If we finish 1-2 more files tonight, I will upload them and then ping you guys on Discord. We will be indexing and doing free promos for this series this Sunday-Monday. The increase in popularity should increase our budget and in turn the upload speed up. The translated but nonedited chapters are super ahead ???? The translators are currently on Chapter 118 which means that tentatively, we will finish this series on the back-end in about 1.5 months. (2/12/21)]