The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 101

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#101. Survivalism

The sight of an abandoned dog carrying a can in the collapsed ruins wasn’t particularly noteworthy in itself.

However, what caught Sung-jun and Seoa’s attention was that the dog’s coat was too well-maintained to be considered truly abandoned.

In a situation where the entire city had been in ruins for a long time, maintaining such a clean appearance clearly hinted at the existence of an ‘owner’ who would wash and groom the dog carrying the can.

Sung-jun immediately cast perception-inhibiting magic on himself and Seoa and followed the running dog.

“Huh? It’s suddenly running away?”

The dog that had been running straight toward somewhere changed direction and started running elsewhere the moment the wind shifted and it caught the scent of Sung-jun’s group.

So Sung-jun additionally cast scent-blocking magic and began pursuing the puppy.

“It seems like it was trained to take a different route instead of going to its original destination when someone follows it.”

“Do they really train dogs like that? Normally?”

“Well, looking at the current situation, it’s not unreasonable. Without such training, carelessly sending a dog to collect food would risk easily exposing the hideout’s location. That dog’s owner is probably a survivalist.”

“A survivalist means…”

“People who gather food and prepare hideouts in preparation for disaster situations.”

When the dog that had been running for a while crawled into a sewer too small for people to pass through easily, Sung-jun gave up the chase.

Instead, Sung-jun summoned a winged eyeball-shaped familiar and sent it into the sewer.

“I’m using vision sharing, so watch the surroundings for a moment.”

Seoa, who heard her teacher’s command as he concentrated with his eyes closed, began guarding the area with a tense expression, and Sung-jun, kneeling on one knee, followed the puppy that had entered the sewer through his familiar with shared vision.

And shortly after, Sung-jun stood up after confirming that the puppy that had emerged from the sewer was heading to its destination.

“Let’s go.”

Although long-distance teleportation was blocked, short-distance teleportation spells weren’t blocked, so Sung-jun placed his hand on Seoa’s shoulder and cast a teleportation spell to where his familiar was.

Then he began silently tracking the puppy, which thought it had successfully evaded its pursuer by passing through the sewer as trained.

When the puppy finally stopped running, Sung-jun and Seoa unconsciously opened their mouths at the sight of a proper hideout arranged like a fortress.

“Is that a bus… a school bus?”

The fortress that used a giant yellow bus as its main gate was surrounded by various devices to block approaching Corrosion Entities, from an iron tower for monitoring approaching enemies to sharp wooden stakes protruding outward from the fortress.

And on some of those stakes, several corpses of low-grade Corrosion Entities that had actually charged and died with their bodies pierced hung pitifully like dried, withered mummies.

-Click!-

“Who goes there! If you’re not here to trade, get lost right now! Otherwise, I’ll put bullet holes all over your body!”

Instantly, a man who had been looking around from atop the iron watchtower spotted Sung-jun and Seoa and loudly warned them while loading his gun.

So Sung-jun immediately raised both hands to show the man he had no intention of fighting.

“I have absolutely no intention of attacking. If it’s alright, could I speak with the person in charge of this camp?”

Despite Sung-jun’s extremely polite tone, what came back wasn’t an answer but a warning shot.

Sung-jun’s eyes turned cold as he saw the dirt kicking up right in front of his feet along with the gunshot.

“Damn! I can see you have no luggage, so you’re probably not here to trade, but seeing how you fooled Daisy who was trained to avoid trackers, you’re probably not here with good intentions! This is my final warning! Get out of my sight right now! Next time I’ll put a bullet hole in the top of your head!”

If Sung-jun hadn’t seen the state of the collapsed city, if he hadn’t seen a city where over 100,000 people had lived become ruins without a single survivor, he probably would have tried to persuade his opponent with a much more patient heart.

But Sung-jun, who thought that the damage to civilians had grown worse because of the time he spent in Japan, decided that subduing the man in front of him with force would be faster than persuading him with a kind attitude.

“Then go ahead.”

“What!?”

“I said shoot if you want to. Even though I clearly explained my business politely, there’s no need to force myself to be kind to someone who starts with warning shots. Besides…”

Sung-jun smiled as he looked into the bearded man’s eyes.

“You don’t seem like someone who’s only killed one or two people either.”

The man, feeling a threat to his life, hastily pulled the trigger.

However, the bullet fired toward Sung-jun’s forehead stopped in mid-air right in front of Sung-jun, spinning violently as if caught by an invisible hand.

“What the hell…!?”

Bang! Bang bang! Bang bang!!

The panicked man fired several more bullets, but Sung-jun stopped the additionally fired projectiles in front of himself as well.

And shortly after, when Sung-jun, who had been looking at the bullets floating in front of his eyes, pointed his finger downward, the bullets floating in the air fell to the ground like marbles.

“A Mutant!”

When the panicked man put down his gun and picked up a bow that was placed beside him, the Void Spear summoned by Sung-jun grazed right next to the iron tower where the man was standing.

-Kwaaaaang!-

Watching the ground melt red, unable to withstand the heat of the metal pillar fired at hypersonic speed, the bearded man unconsciously swallowed.

“Now I’m giving you a warning. Please call the person in charge of the camp. If you refuse, I’ll vaporize the entire camp.”

***

“George Gershwin. I’m the leader of this survival community.”

The man who rushed out of the residence upon hearing the explosion listened to the bearded man on guard duty and invited Sung-jun and Seoa into the camp.

And inside, Sung-jun came to have a conversation with the man who identified himself as George Gershwin.

“I’m Ma Sungjun. I’m an Awakened from South Korea, and this is my disciple, Yeonse-a.”

“I’m Yeonse-a. Nice to meet you.”

“When you say you came from South Korea, do you mean before D-day?”

Even while asking the question, the man thought it was ridiculous.

After all, it was an obvious question with a predictable answer.

However, Sung-jun’s answer to the question thrown out with a grasping-at-straws mentality shocked the man.

“No. After D-day. We arrived here yesterday afternoon.”

“Yesterday afternoon!?”

To Gershwin, who asked back in shock, Sung-jun briefly explained the process of how he came to arrive here.

Then the face of the man listening to Sung-jun’s explanation contorted bizarrely several times.

“So.”

The man said.

“You’re saying you’re a Korean Mutant with mage abilities, which was unique in the world with only one person, and the girl next to you is your disciple? And that you’ve single-handedly defeated apocalypse-level monsters that appeared in Japan and China? Not only that, but you crossed the Pacific by plane with the cooperation of the Japanese Government and landed in the United States?”

“That’s roughly how it would be summarized.”

“Are you calling that a story! Hah… Fine. Whether that’s true or not, it’s probably not important content for us who are barely surviving day by day here. So, what’s the reason such a great person came to find our camp?”

“I need information. My purpose in coming to the United States is to defeat the apocalypse-level Corrosion Entity that appeared in America.”

“Specifically, what kind of information do you need?”

“First, the process from D-day to the current situation. The Santa Maria Airport we visited was completely destroyed. The nearby village was the same. We couldn’t find a single living human in a city with a population of 100,000. Why did it become like this? Until this situation came about, what the hell was the National Guard doing?”

The man lowered his head at Sung-jun’s question.

Then, with a sigh, he began talking about the information he knew.

***

George Gershwin was a famous survivalist even in his town.

When others were having barbecue parties in their house gardens, he was making preserved food by dipping cheese in melted wax, and when others were showing off their newly bought cars, he was buying guns and ammunition to stack up at home.

A solar cooker that could cook food with solar heat without electricity or gas.

Dried pasta that could be stored for a long time without worrying about expiration dates and rice stored in plastic bottles.

The townspeople mocked Gershwin for preparing for the future by preparing for disasters, but he silently prepared for the worst-case scenario he could think of.

And as he made preserved food and stockpiled survival supplies every day, he realized there were limits to the disasters he could prepare for alone.

‘Let’s gather companions.’

Gershwin created an internet community to gather those who thought like him.

After the Pioneers came to Earth and warned of the coming disaster, the number of survivalists like Gershwin had greatly increased, so finding companions in Santa Maria where he lived wasn’t very difficult.

The community that gathered this way eventually became a group of 6 households joining forces to prepare for future disasters, and they began creating a survivor camp for the ‘apocalypse,’ each competing to contribute what they had.

-I have my private land at an appropriate distance from town. It’s deep in the forest, so there’s little risk of external exposure, and it’s private land that can comfortably accommodate about 6 households. How about setting up a disaster preparedness camp there?

-That sounds good. I happen to have heavy equipment operation qualifications. I have a small excavator too, so I’ll handle the foundation work.

Gershwin’s companions, who well understood that the core of a survivor camp was ‘self-sufficiency,’ began building a fortress-level camp on the provided site.

They built iron towers and outer walls to monitor intrusion by outsiders, created rainwater tanks that could store over 100,000 liters of water from a single rain, and made compost production facilities that could turn waste generated inside the camp into fertilizer.

Gershwin was happy.

Making preserved food, which had been boring when done alone, felt like an enjoyable hobby when done with companions.

Gershwin also adopted an abandoned dog named Daisy.

He hid cans in garbage throughout the town and trained her to search through ruins for food.

He also trained her to return to camp on her own when she found food, but to evade trackers through pre-prepared drainage systems if someone followed her.

They dug a huge pond inside the camp and created a circulating ecosystem where crops could grow from fish waste through hydroponic cultivation.

‘The ocean is close, but we don’t know if we’ll always be able to go to the sea.’

An armory where weapons collected by each person could be safely stored in one place.

A food storage for systematically organizing and storing the preserved foods that were made.

A workshop built so that smoked preserved foods and dairy products could be made even on rainy days.

Livestock pens where they could raise pigs, chickens, and cattle to obtain meat, eggs, and milk.

As each facility of the survivor camp was completed one by one, anticipation began to sprout in the hearts of Geoseuwin and his companions instead of fear about the coming disaster.

‘We’re going to survive. Those idiots won’t be able to do anything when the disaster comes and will just die.’

Since the community members lived in different locations, they all prepared transportation means needed to reach the camp in advance and created survival backpacks necessary for the journey, placing them in easily accessible locations.

To ensure that not only themselves but also their wives and children could quickly join and move to the camp immediately when disaster struck, Geoseuwin and his companions regularly gathered to conduct rendezvous training, preparing for the coming disaster.

And finally, when they became confident that the survival community Geoseuwin and his companions had created had grown to a level that could guarantee survival for over 10 years, ‘that day’ they had so longed for came to them without warning.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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