Terrestrial Savior Archetype - T.S.A Chapter 21 (Part 1): Murder Mech ( 2)

People who met near the Sadang Station for the first time.

Three men and one woman.

Seeing them move, carefully hiding themselves between the cars, they seemed to possess some basic common sense.

As Jeong-woo quietly approached them, the woman who had been glancing around like a herbivore suddenly widened her eyes.

“Um…!”

The woman pointed at Jeong-woo with a quick gesture, her expression reminiscent of someone reporting back to a teacher.

“Ah, we’re on our way from Nakseongdae Station. We don’t intend to fight.”

Jeong-woo raised both his empty hands, displaying a calm voice.

In contrast, the group of four each held iron rods or pieces of wood in their hands.

Whose gaze should he meet?

Without a doubt, he had to make eye contact with the one in this group who held the strongest authority to speak.

Jeong-woo gazed directly at the man with 31 essences, the leader of the Shoes, Jang Shin.

He had no intention of fighting, but he also had no intention of avoiding it if they insisted on fighting.

“…”

A moment of silence.

As expected, the other three individuals turned their attention to their leader when an outsider appeared. And that leader was currently exchanging looks with Jeong-woo.

“Hey, look over there.”

The somewhat portly man standing next to the ‘leader’ pointed somewhere with a stiff expression.

In response, Jeong-woo slightly turned his head in the indicated direction.

There stood Sun-woong, with the name tag “Predator” attached.

Even though Sun-woong had managed to hide his weapons following Jeong-woo’s lead, the role name above his head alone emanated discomfort and fear.

‘Ah.’

Jeong-woo inwardly sighed but quickly pulled himself together.

“At first, I was a bit scared too, but he’s just an ordinary person. We’ve only met for a few hours…”

There was no need to force a smile.

All they needed to do was show that they were in an unfamiliar and fearful position just like them.

They had to engage in a somewhat rational conversation with this group of four, at least for a while.

To figure out the situation near Sadang Station, whether there was a separate gathering place with many people, and so on.

For that, they needed to strike a balance between underestimating and overwhelming them, without letting fear paralyze them.

A suitable balance was required.

Fortunately, the current number of heads on both sides was relatively balanced.

On their side, there was the Predator, but only two humans. On the other side, they all appeared ordinary, but there were four of them.

“Yes, well… for now, we didn’t even bring weapons.”

The leader of the group of four, who had concluded their reconnaissance, spoke while looking around his companions.

Jeong-woo reached his own conclusion.

‘It doesn’t seem like a situation where people are randomly killing each other here. Then what about the convenience store behind me?’

There was only one way to find out.

“But isn’t it dangerous to be wandering around like this? We saw a corpse along the way…”

“Ah.”

It was clear that the man who had been portly was finally understanding what was being said.

The guy with the second-highest essence after the leader, holding 16 essences, In-ja.

“Some of those who know how to use essence occasionally do crazy things. They probably got a good beating from the lord. We’ve encountered them a few times too.”

In-ja shrugged his shoulders.

In other words, he was cautioning them not to underestimate them and end up dead, just like those who taunted them before dying.

Then, the leader of the group gave his comrades a nod to speak up.

“As you know, we can’t know how many essence each other is carrying. There could be someone stronger than you.”

A leader-like response.

Still, the bottom line was, ‘We’re capable individuals, so don’t get cocky with us.’

“That’s right. It’s a dangerous world.”

Jeong-woo spoke these words while checking the essence of the group of four once again.

4.8.16,31.

A total of 59.

It had been a few hours since things started. If they could barely roam the streets like this, it meant they were in a relatively safe zone.

Didn’t people with ten or so essences each group together and wander around in the Central District earlier?

‘The convenience store incident seems unrelated. The guy there is probably a possessor with at least a hundred essences.’

There was no need to dwell on a problem that couldn’t be solved right away.

So, he moved on to the next question.

“Um… then is there a place to take shelter nearby? It’s a bit burdensome for just the two of us to keep wandering around like this.”

As Jeong-woo intentionally glanced around, the group of four looked at each other’s faces.

And that’s when Jeong-woo saw it.

The woman was putting the item she had been holding in her hand into her back pocket.

There was no need to point out that she was trying to hide it.

He already saw what it was.

It was a coaster with the Starbucks logo, a paper cup holder.

‘Lucky. I think I know where that came from.’

Sadang Station Starbucks.

Although the store wasn’t very spacious, it had two floors, which should have been sufficient to use as a base.

The coaster’s purpose was likely… for blood identification.

Having encountered various scenarios of destruction for work, it had been helpful.

Carrying such an item meant they had a considerable number of members.

Despite being in the same building, they were unfamiliar to each other to the point of not recognizing their faces.

As Jeong-woo continued to deduce, the leader gave a somewhat awkward smile and replied.

“There are many vacant buildings nearby… If you look carefully, you might find a place to stay. By the way, you mentioned you came from Haengun-dong earlier. It seems like things aren’t going well there?”

A sharp question in the midst of this.

Jeong-woo responded directly.

“We ran away from there. Monsters were pouring out in the hundreds.”

“What? Really?”

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