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

This time, all four of them turned their heads in the direction Jeong-woo and Sun-woong were walking, wearing expressions unique to the weak.

Naturally, they couldn’t see the appearance of the monsters here.

Jeong-woo couldn’t predict if the Cleaners would push all the way to Sandang Station.

He didn’t know the Cleaners’ operational radius.

Moreover, he knew nothing about when the entryway would form, how much progress had been made so far.

According to Jeong-woo’s estimation, it couldn’t be that only Cleaners were coming out of the gates, but that had yet to be confirmed.

What was somewhat certain was the fact that having a lot of essences was good.

With a substantial number of essence and the ability to handle them well, most problems could be solved.

“Are there really no monsters here? Well, if that’s the case, we’re lucky.”

When Jung-woo spoke casually, he looked at the direction of the fat man’s movement again and spoke in an argumentative manner.

“This, this person is… … Are you kidding me? You’re saying that there are hundreds of monsters over there, so they’ll come here soon…”

From what he said, it seemed that the gate hadn’t formed yet at Sandang Station.

‘Well then, we should pull back here. We need to make sure we can take everything when we can. We don’t know what the situation will be in the next area.’

Now, only the last question remained.

Jeong-woo’s gaze turned back to the leader.

“Since we’re almost at Sandang Station anyway… Can’t we just take the subway to get out?”

A leading question to gauge how many escape routes there were in this area.

However, the leader’s response was not ordinary.

His brow furrowed, and his expression changed oddly.

He had sensed some intention in Jeong-woo’s question.

But the fat guy was kind of stupid.

“Oh, you really don’t know anything. The subway was cut off about two hours ago. The roads are blocked too… If monsters had come from the neighboring area, it wouldn’t be now…”

The fat man looked at his colleagues with a gaze that seemed to say, “Shouldn’t we hurry back?”

In response, the leader made a perplexed expression.

It was impossible to return to the base with an outsider present and act as if nothing had happened.

So, Jeong-woo showed extreme consideration.

“Well, it seems there wouldn’t be buses or anything either. I guess this wasn’t the time to be looking for a place to stay.”

Jeong-woo looked at Sun-woong and suggested they leave here. The four of them hesitated and stepped back.

And Jeong-woo actually left with Sun-woong.

It wasn’t the way they came.

He slipped to the side to avoid overlapping routes with the group of four.

After walking about five minutes.

Jeong-woo suddenly stopped in his tracks, then leaned into a nearby vehicle.

“……?”

Sun-woong stood still, and Jeong-woo gestured.

“Come in. Let’s rest for about thirty minutes and then head to Starbucks.”

“Starbucks?”

“Yes. It seems like that’s their base. If I’m wrong, we’ll just go there and have some coffee.”

“……”

Leaving Sun-woong with a vacant expression, Jeong-woo took out a bottle of water from his bag.

It was a brand-new bottle with a securely sealed cap.

This morning, his father had brought it from the mart himself, so it was natural.

Gulp, gulp.

The feeling of water flowing down his throat was vivid.

Was his father living well?

The thought occurred to him belatedly.

In Haengun-dong, he had been too focused, and the sense of reality hadn’t returned.

Perhaps that was why.

Even when his father had said they should go together, there hadn’t been much of an impact on him.

Still, he should have held on a bit tighter. Like any other son.

It felt somewhat ambiguous to express it as “regret.”

“Those people, by now, they’ve probably gone back to Starbucks. Whether they took it seriously or not, they’ll talk about it anyway. They said monsters were coming from Haengun-dong.”

“You deliberately let them go.”

There was a faint disappointment in Sun-woong’s voice.

He had only thought that Jeong-woo had changed his mind at the end.

“I sent them back to gather some people. If an important matter arises, we’ll need to gather and discuss it. Also, if the people who went out suddenly disappear, they might come out to search from the main base. It could complicate matters.”

“Ah…”

Sun-woong’s mouth fell open.

He was shocked by Jeong-woo’s serious demeanor.

This person was truly intending to use all his abilities to eliminate people.

The things he said to the group of four just now… People were changing rapidly to the point that it felt uncomfortable.

10,000 essences… At this rate, could he really gather them?

And in a short amount of time.

Sun-woong muttered.

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3:42 PM,

As planned, Jeong-woo and Sun-woong arrived near Sandang Station Starbucks.

And they were a little surprised.

All the store lights were off, so they couldn’t see the interior from outside.

In fact, the sunlight made the outside too bright, turning the glass into a mirror.

An effective and simple hiding technique.

However, the opponent wasn’t unusually clever.

They were just underestimating them.

They were all somewhat similar people.

Jeong-woo reminded himself of this. He didn’t want to underestimate the opponent and fall into a trap.

On the other hand, Sun-woong, who had become essentially a porter after leaving the front line, had a different perspective.

‘They’re all smart people… Yet they’re dying like this.’

Perhaps it was the difference between the strong and the weak.

Sun-woong looked at the glass window reflecting the outside scenery and expressed his condolences.