Chapter 159: Chapter 159- Clearing Out Seoul (Part 2)

Talon's group then continued their mission. They moved around, killing all the monsters in their way. Talon took one side of the street on his own while the rest of the group took another side and they swapped whenever needed.

This was the plan that all the other groups also followed as they expanded into the other areas of Seoul. Even though their main target was the south since they wanted to reach Gwangju, they still made sure to empty out particular key points of Seoul that would be useful for the future when they would start really working on taking over the city.

By the end of the day, the group had already finished their work and decided to take a break before going back to the warehouse as they planned beforehand.

"When are we going to reach the Han River I wonder?" One of the students asked curiously.

"A few more kilometers," Talon replied. "It's a few streets from here. We should be able to reach it tomorrow."

"Oh, then, how are we going to cross it?"

Normally, crossing the river was an easy task since there were many bridges that connected both sides of the city through it. However, after the continuous earthquakes that assaulted the world, those bridges were either completely destroyed or simply too fragile to use reliably multiple times to transport students.

No matter how they looked at it, there weren't many things they could do. The river was too wide to cross swimming and even if they could somehow swim to the other side, the water was simply too cold and could pretty much kill most of the students.

Talon and Hyun-Jae were already aware of that problem and they had one single solution to it.

"We're gonna have to use a boat to cross the river. It's the only way. We can probably find a few docked near the river." Talon replied.

'However, we would only be able to move so much of the number of survivors. That would probably slow down the process a little. But, once we reach the exit of Seoul, everything else should be smooth.' He thought to himself.

Since the outside of Seoul was just empty vast lands, they could use cars to cross that distance without problems.

With that in mind, the group reached the warehouse. There, they found the rest of the groups led by the others were already back.

Walking inside, Talon was welcomed by Hyun-Jae.

"Good work. Here, have some water." She said as she gave him a bottle.

Talon took it as he thanked her before he rested his back against the wall and took a sip. "Fuuh, that's refreshing."

Hyun-Jae stood next to him and asked. "How was your progress?"

"Good. We're still going according to plan."

"I'm glad to hear that. My side is also going well. We're going to reach the Han River from the west tomorrow."

"Same here."

Then, the two went silent for a while as they stood next to each other, watching the rest of the students settle down for the day and cook food. The atmosphere was calm and warm which made them instinctively relax a little bit.

The cold warehouse has been turned into a warm shelter for the survivors and the duo felt slightly proud of that. The bond between the group grew stronger and stronger and they now felt more like a family rather than a bunch of survivors.

"Oh, by the way." Then, Talon spoke out of nowhere.

"Hm?"

"Yeah, yeah, to be honest, I think I already have the answer to it."

"Ohoh? What is it?" Acrypha smiled. "Is it something along the lines of 'I have the love of my life, a beauty like no other and we're destined to be together for eternity. I'm sorry, but I can't be with you.'?" She jokingly deepened her voice as she started impersonating Talon. Her moves were so comically exaggerated that it made the young man laugh.

"I don't speak like that! You make me sound like some kind of creep."

"Hmm, I must say, I was spot on with that. I can speak like you."

"Haha, I really don't speak like that."

"'I really don't speak like that.'" Acrypha replied jokingly as she repeated his words.

"Tsk, so childish, stop it."

"'Tsk, so childish, stop it'."

"Ok, ok, fine, I kinda speak like that. Can you stop now?" He raised his hand in defeat.

They continued joking and bantering for a while as they enjoyed their time together. After a week since their talk, Acrypha had returned to normal for the most part. He could see her losing focus every now and then but he was glad that she didn't remain down.

However, one thing he noticed that changed about Acrypha was how close the two of them became after that. It was as if their relationship which seemed to have reached some kind of bottleneck had broken through.

He couldn't describe it in words but he felt it and he was certain Acrypha did too.

***

The rest of the night passed quietly, and the morning sun quickly rose. After eating breakfast they immediately left to continue their work.

The rest of the morning hours were spent killing monsters and clearing the route to the river. By the time it was noon, their progress reached a halt.

When Talon and his group reached the river, they were met with a sight they never expected at all.

"What in the..." Looking at the river with wide eyes from across the street, Talon didn't feel when his breath halted for a second.

The Han River, a beautiful river that split Seoul in half and had a nice view to the other side of the city... had turned into a gigantic lake that expanded far into the distance. Looking into the far distance, Talon couldn't see the other side at all as it was completely flooded with water.

"L-Leader... What happened?" One of the students asked in a terrified tone.

"The expansion... It expanded the river." Talon replied with a weird tone as he started walking closer and closer to the edge of the street. Since the water level had increased a lot, he could easily touch the water if he simply extended his hand over the bridge.

"Cold..." The sensation of the water on his hand was deadly cold, akin to touching ice.

Then, he slowly lifted his hand and licked his finger, only for his eyes to squint.

"Salty... It's not fresh water." He murmured.

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