Apocalypse Hunter

< Territoriality (Part 1) >

Ramphil nodded as he understood the pain that Leona was going through.

“I know. When I first came to the fortress, I was in the nurse’s room because of dehydration.”

As Ramphil spoke, both Leona and Zin looked at Ramphil. “You weren’t born in the fortress?” Leona asked.

“No, I was born outside the fortress. I don’t remember… but it might have been a Point.”

“Hmm… Wargrave rarely accepts outsiders. That’s news to me,” Zin murmured.

Wargrave consisted of soldiers, but everyone had different roles. Similar to other military organizations, Wargrave had many combat soldiers, but there were also non-combat personnel as well.

Children were born from parents in Wargrave, and they became soldiers.

It was very common for someone to be born into a Wargrave fortress, and live their entire life in the fortress. As Zin questioned him, Ramphil replied as if it was trivial.

“The place that I was born and raised was raided by the Reavers, and I became a prisoner. About two years later, the Reavers were wiped out by the Wargrave, and I was taken into the fortress to be raised as a soldier.”

Ramphil explained his life story in a monotone. He was preparing breakfast by cooking the C-rations, Leona asked more questions while eating her portion of the breakfast.

“Prisoners? What do the Reavers do with prisoners?”

“Reavers have as many nasty hobbies as the number of Reavers. They usually put their prisoners into death matches, and such.”

“You are correct.”

Zin was surprised when Ramphil confirmed about what the Reavers did to the prisoners. “Wait a sec, so you are saying that you survived the death matches?”

When Zin thought about Ramphil’s age, it meant that he went through the death matches at Leona’s age, and survived for two years. Ramphil wondered why that was a big deal and looked at Zin, who was so astonished.

Leona was also astonished. She had no confidence that she’d be able to fight against adults without any weapons.

There’s a reason the Wargrave took him as a soldier.

Ramphil was now able to understand why Wargrave, a reclusive group, took Ramphil, a refugee, and trained him as a soldier.

A fighter was born to be a fighter. Leona kept on looking at Ramphil, as she was curious how he won through the death matches. Ramphil started to talk slowly.

“People die when they are struck on the vital spots.” Ramphil spoke as if he was revealing a big secret, but that was all he said.

“I know that too.”

“… I don’t have much else to say. I struck people on the vital spots, and they died.”

“Ah… I see…”

It was a very simple answer, yet a very scary one. A kid who was in his teenage years was able to survive the death matches by striking an adult’s vital points and killing them instantly. And he did it for two years. Leona was disappointed with his explanation and sighed.

“I think Ramphil is less interesting than you, mister.”

“… sounds like you are talking smack?”

As Zin replied bluntly, Leona laughed out loud and said, “What, mister, are you thinking that you are an interesting person… ow…”

Leona tried laughing at Zin, and then she touched her stomach as she felt some pain. “H, Hold… on…”

Leona stood up, and started walking slowly towards the bushes. Zin smiled and started to mock Leona who was walking away, “I don’t know if I am interesting or not, but you are really not interesting at all.”

“Shut up! Owwww!”

Leona ran into the bushes. It appeared that Leona would need a couple of days to get used to fatty food.

Zin was getting even more curious about Ramphil. He was amused that he was originally a prisoner of the Reavers. It seemed like Ramphil had a complex life story, similar to Leona.

“Excuse me for asking this question, but did you get hurt by the Reavers?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Most of the people who survive the nasty hobbies of the Reavers go crazy.”

Most of the people who survived as prisoners of Reavers went insane. They was because of sorcery, drugs, or pain from traumatic accidents. There could be reasons why Ramphil thought and acted in a weird manner. It was possible that Ramphil was hurt by the Reavers.

“Hmm… I don’t know…” Ramphil answered as he was not sure. “I can’t remember.”

Ramphil’s answer sounded unnatural. After thinking for a while, Ramphil started to talk again slowly. “I mean… to be exact… I know something happened, but I have no memory of it.”

“… is that so.”

Something had happened to Ramphil, but he forgot what. It was possible that the Reavers did something to Ramphil, or Ramphil had suffered a traumatic event.

Ramphil tried to think about the forgotten memories on his own. Ramphil struggled to remember his past, but he was not able to do so.

He had some memory where he was taken to the arena and then released. He remembered the fighting scene, but he couldn’t remember what the Reavers had done to him.

Shouldn’t have asked him in the first place. Zin regretted asking Ramphil the question, as he was worried that he might get mad, but it was too late.

“If you can’t remember, there’s no point of trying to remember it then.” With that, Ramphil didn’t think about it anymore.

—–

Ramphil was the last person to join the threesome, but he was the one who did the most work. He drove the armored vehicle, prepared the meals, set up camp, and scouted the surroundings.

He had to do all these by himself because Zin and Leona had to hold on tight to the seats, as they did not want to fall off the vehicle.

Without asking for any help, Ramphil volunteered to set up the camp and prepare the meals. He didn’t complain at all, nor ask for any help.

He didn’t mind all the work, and he was the type of person who would rather do the work himself.

The team had to make pit stops frequently as Leona got motion sickness, but they were travelling at a much faster pace then before.

Leona was nauseated from her motion sickness and stomach aches, and Zin had to feed her water. She started to feel better after the second day of the trip on the armored vehicle.

They were able to arrive near the city of Harbin four days later than scheduled. However, they were able to shorten the trip duration as they did not have to stop by villages to replenish food and supplies.

After approaching the city, they slowed down. That day, they drove into the city late in the night. The team agreed to rest the night, drive through the ruins and head to the Harbin fortress the next morning.

They figured that it would not be wise to attract any monsters with the armored vehicle. They parked the vehicle near the boundary of the city, got out and checked the area.

“It looks different around here.”

Not all ruins were the same, and Leona was amused to see buildings that were in good condition.

Zin went inside the old building next to where the vehicle was parked. He went up the building, and checked the surroundings. Ramphil checked the safety of the buildings, and then set up a camp. Leona looked and asked Ramphil who was taking out the food for the day.

“Can I have the C-rations menu?”

“Sure.”

“Yesss!” Leona especially liked the C-rations that contained meatballs. There was no point in saving the C-rations, as there was tons of food.

After looking around, Zin became serious. “I see white bones around here.”

“Isn’t it okay?”

“Hmm, looking at the flies flying around the bones, it suggests that a person wasn’t killed too long ago. That’s a problem.”

Ramphil was taking out the food, opening the C-ration packages, and separating the chip dust. Zin was sitting down, and getting ready to go to sleep. He acted normal while talking about the corpses. Leona became uncomfortable.

“It may be the ruin of a village that was destroyed recently?” she asked him.

“Well… it looks like it, but I can’t tell. It’s hard to figure out the cause of the death because there are only bones left. It’s possible that the corpse hunters and the rats ate the flesh after dying.

“If the monsters attacked the village, they were not interested in meat. And if the Reavers attacked, they were probably not interested in cannibalizing.”

“Well, they could have cut out all the meat.”

“… why would they do such crazy things?” Leona wondered.

“Don’t try to understand how crazies act. Anyways, I saw five skeletons total. I didn’t see any gunshot wounds on the skeleton.”

“I need to think about this for a bit.” Leona thought how weird Zin and Ramphil were. In any case, the meals were prepared as usual, and Zin laid couple of blankets down to get ready to sleep.

Zin made decisions as a hunter would, and Ramphil acted similarly to Zin. There were five corpses, and there was a possibility that either human or monsters killed them.

—

After eating dinner, Zin left the camp to check out the corpses. Ramphil and Leona waited in the camp and chatted.

“Ramphil, you are a Wargrave soldier, so it should be no problem to enter the fortress, but can I and Zin enter the fortress?” Leona was excited to visit a Wargrave fortress, but she was worried at the same time.

“It’s temporary, but I am an executor. I have the power to do so.”

“What does an executor do? Is that a high rank position?”

“Executors travel to different fortresses, and they resolve issues in the fortresses. Executors can only be appointed by the generals, and in my case, I’ve been appointed to the role by a Warlord…”

“Sorry, I don’t understand anything that you are saying.”

Ramphil did not know how to use the layman’s term, and Leona did not understand the vocabulary that Ramphil was using.

“So, the executors are very powerful?”

“Executors are normally people who were treated with the Gigaframe procedure. But I am not.”

Ramphil was appointed as the executor temporarily in a rush, and had only been treated with the megaframe procedure.

Leona nodded and realized that she would have to guess what Ramphil was saying.

Executor. It was a one of roles of Wargrave soldiers, but it a very popular one. Kids who grew up in Wargrave dreamt of becoming an executor. An executor was regarded as a problem solver, and a role that the kids admired and aspired to become.

Books that were used to educate the Wargrave kids contained many stories about the executors.

If kids were asked to pick their favorite role between a Warlord and an executor, kids would always choose the executor.

Many soldiers who aspired to become executors had to give up their dreams as they got older and became ordinary soldiers. The elites of the elites became executors. They were smart and knowledgeable in many areas, such as strategy, military planning, and combat skills. Only such talented people were given the chance to become executors. The talented people were then put in competition to become an executor.

The role of the executor was something that everybody dreamt of, but only a few were able to gain the job.

Ramphil did not care much about anything, and he was not interested in the role at all. He did not show much excitement when he was given the chance to participate in the executor curriculum by Ramzier. And when he was denied the chance to become an executor because of his status as an alien, he wasn’t disappointed at all.

However, since then, his comrades had started to despise him.

His comrades who given up on the hope of becoming an executor hated Ramphil, who was given such an opportunity. Ramphil did not have the personality to be liked by his comrades, and it didn’t take long for his comrades to start hating him.

And, Ramphil didn’t care about it at all.

Ramphil had been living without much goal or meaning. As a temporary executor, he was simply following the orders that were given to him. A temporary executor was different from a regular executor, but he had to accomplish many missions and was given the power to do so.

Ramphil did not like nor hate his position.

After listening to Ramphil for a while, Leona summarized her thoughts. “So you are a Wargrave version of hunter.”

“Yes, sort of.”

Wargrave people had many fantasies about the executor role, but there was no better way to describe the role to someone in the wilderness.

The two continued to talk, and Ramphil talked with Leona for a long time without knowing why he was talking to her.

When Zin finally came back to the camp, Leona was askin Ramphil why he would space out when he was resting.

“Well, I don’t think about anything.”

“How can you not think about anything?”

“I don’t remember anything because I’m not thinking anything.”

“That’s so weird… I always think about something. But nothing important though.”

“… You two are just talking about nothing meaningful,” Zin sighed as he came back to the camp, and Leona and Ramphil looked at him. Zin sat down, and summarized what he had learned.

“The killers were Reavers. I found junkwagon tire marks near the site. All the corpses were missing a specific area of the body. I’m pretty sure that Reavers who are interested in collecting body parts did this.”

“When you say missing body parts, what you referring to?”

“Left elbow and beyond. All corpses were missing that body part.”

Human bones usually got crushed when attacked by monsters, but the five corpses were missing the exact same body parts. And there were junkwagon tire marks nearby.

“Reavers who collect left hands…” Ramphil tried to recall something, but couldn’t.

“Bastards, I can see them eating people but why are they so crazy about specific body parts?”

Leona was disgusted at the senseless actions of the Reavers.

< Territoriality (Part 2) >

After all, people needed to eat to survive. But for the Reavers to be collecting body parts, it meant that they had creepy inclinations. Leona could not understand why the Reavers would act so disgustingly by collecting certain body parts.

“In the past, one of the Wargrave general put some effort in to analyze the crazy actions of the Reavers.”

“What was it about?”

“He wanted to know what type of humans became Reavers, and why the Reavers were crazy. But the research failed in the end.”

“Why?”

Ramphil was telling them that the research effort to understand the Reavers failed. Leona was interested and continued to press him for answers.

“Proceeding with the research was disapproved.”

“What kind of answer is that?!”

“Wargrave does not use its chips and forces on unnecessary matters.”

Leona was left speechless and laughed as she was given a stupid answer.

“Wargrave’s policy is to not get bothered by the unknown. It is especially true if there’s no threat, or if there’s no benefit to it.

“To Wargrave, Reavers are… like flies.”

Wargrave would be able to massacre the Reavers even if they attacked in large numbers. There was no point in analyzing such a crazy group of humans. The Reavers might be terrifying to the people in the wilderness, but they were no threat for Wargrave.

Ramphil and Leona thought the Reavers’ inclination to collect body parts was some unexplainable madness, but Zin thought differently.

“I think you are mistaken here. Collecting body parts is a meaningful act for the Reavers.”

“Meaningful, you say?”

“It is especially meaningful for Reavers who have a Slaughterhouse as their base.”

“Why is that?”

Leona and Ramphil didn’t understand what Zin was explaining as Ramphil has not been in the wilderness for long, and Leona was too young.

“It is similar how dogs urinate to mark territory.”

“They are marking their territory?”

“Yes.”

Leona and Ramphil started nodding as they believed what Zin said.

“After killing people, Reavers leave the dead bodies partially damaged in order to display territoriality to other groups of Reavers. Reavers fight against each other, but they also do not like fighting against crazy people.”

It meant that the Reavers marked their territory by performing such actions.

They could be cutting off the left hand, head, or foot. It was unique among different groups.

“Well… they display their uniqueness in such ways. ‘The left hand group’, ‘head collecting group’, ‘shin collecting group’, and such. You get what I am saying, right?”

“Yes… that’s damn gross.”

“Gross indeed.”

When a certain group of Reavers became powerful, they would naturally be careful in dealing with the ‘left hand collecting group’, and would avoid them.

Reavers who had established a Slaughterhouse would display their power and gain infamy through such actions. For hunters, they had to identify the different Slaughter groups in order to be prepared to fight against them.

As Zin and the group were in the main continent, it was clear that they would encounter more Slaughterhouses.

“I didn’t know about that. So it was an act of territoriality, not an act of collecting body parts…”

“Wargrave wouldn’t have known about it because it really didn’t matter to them.”

Zin was able to figure out such facts by observing the corpses. Looking at Zin, Leona realized that living as a hunter was not to be taken lightly.

“But you know, that is not the most important thing right now,” Leona started to speak to Zin and Ramphil. “Mister, if you what you said is true, then aren’t we inside the territory of the Reavers?”

“Yeah. You are right,” Ramphil nodded.

“Is it okay for us to stand idle here?” Leona spoke as she looked at the empty C-ration packages and the camp site. They set up a campsite in the middle of Reaver territory. This was an invitation for trouble. But Zin talked as if he was not afraid at all.

“We have a brave and fearless Wargrave executor with us. We have no reason to be afraid of the Reavers.”

Ramphil felt strange to be hearing what was both a compliment and mockery. Zin was not too afraid because Ramphil was with him as a companion. He would not be fighting off the Reavers by himself.

To be exact, with the help of Ramphil, Zin would be able to engage in an efficient battle, and he would not have to avoid their enemies.

“Well, I hope they attack us. It seems like they are very active around here, and that would mean that they have ammunition.”

Zin smiled, and Leona became a bit spooked at his evil smile. The weapon that Ramphil used did not require any ammunition. It meant that Zin going to gain all the ammunition after asking Ramphil to fight against the Reavers. Ramphil did not say anything, but Leona murmured in disbelief, “Mister, at times, you can be a real jerk.”

“That’s the best compliment that I’ve ever heard. Thanks.” Being opportunistic was the best trait that a hunter could have. And therefore, Leona’s words were compliments to Zin.

“Phew…”

——

Zin was not the type of person who would listen to others.

That night, Zin stayed up the night on vigil while Ramphil and Leona slept. If the Reavers were to appear, Zin was planning to wake up Ramphil, and provide sniper support while Ramphil fought against them.

Zin held his M700 next to him, and watched the night above Harbin.

The Reavers did not appear at all that night. Zin was not too tired, as he was used to staying up through the night. But he wasn’t too happy.

“These Reavers are disappointing…”

The Reavers did not hunt every day, and it was possible that they hid when they heard the sound of the armored vehicles.

On the flip side, it was very dangerous for Reavers to have their base near a Wargrave fortress.

Leona was satisfied to have delicious food at every meal, but she was getting worried.

“I won’t be able to eat other food when we’re out of C-rations.”

Leona realized that she was getting used to the taste of processed foods, and she became nervous after thinking about the time when she would be out of C-rations.

She had gotten used to the taste of C-rations, and was getting nervous about eating ghoul meat some day in the future.

“You are one lucky kid.”

“Pfft. Can’t I even worry about it?” Leona grumbled after Zin spoke to her. The team quickly ate breakfast, cleaned up the camp site, and got into the armored vehicle. The vehicle was so heavy that it risked falling into a sinkhole. Fortunately, there were roads were well maintained, as the Wargrave fortress was nearby.

“Why did the Reavers create a Slaughterhouse near the fortress?” Leona asked. Wargrave was capable of wiping out the Reavers easily, and moving in close to the fortress was risky.

“They trust the Wargrave.”

“Trust them?”

“Usually Wargrave do not care about outsiders as long as they don’t approach the fortress.”

Wargrave was neither an enemy nor ally. It was a neighbor that wasn’t a threat. The area near the fortress was relatively safe. This fact didn’t matter much for the Reavers, but it mattered for civilians.

Civilians thought that it would be safer near the fortress, and they gathered around the area. And the Reavers hunted those civilians near the fortress.

Wargrave did not care about things happening outside the fortress, but the existence of a fortress had a large influence on its surroundings. The Reavers picked off civilians utilizing the presence of the Wargrave.

Leona was somewhat bitter thinking that Wargrave was partially responsible for this phenomenon.

In the meantime, the armored vehicle continued to travel down the road. The road was in good condition, and the vehicle moved quickly through the city.

“Hmm…”

—Vrrrrrr…—

About an hour later, Ramphil slowed down the vehicle as he spotted something ahead.

“Do we have a problem?”

“I see iron wire ahead.”

Zin quickly moved to the front seat, and looked outside. Although rusted, there were iron wires on the road. Ramphil spoke with a hardened face.

“If we move forward, the track will be entangled by wires and will break.”

It appeared to be regular wire, but if the iron wire got tangled up in the tracks of the AV, it would cause damage to them. Someone had set up the wires on a well maintained road. It was clear that someone set them up to interfere with Zin’s company.

And shortly after, someone yelled from behind.

—Set them up! —

—Clack clack clack! —

A group of people appeared from the streets behind them, and laid multiple layers of iron wire down on the street. After setting the wires up, they ran into the streets. They were obviously planning to trap the vehicle.

“Well, we fell into a perfect trap.”

Zin took out his Saiga from the void storage, and loaded it with shells. There were ruins around the area, and there was no weapon more effective than a shotgun in an urban warfare.

Leona also realized that something was going on, and she loaded ammunition in her crude rifle. Although Zin didn’t fully trust her shooting skills, he didn’t stop her.

“Can we go through the buildings or go around them?”

“To get to the HCMP fortress, we need to cross the bridge ahead. There is no other way around. This vehicle is an amphibious vehicle, but with the door ripped apart, if won’t be able to cross the waters.”

The wires were set up right in front of the bridge, and there was no way around them. It was possible to walk up to the wires and remove them, but it was clear that the attackers were ready to ambush them.

The enemy decided to attack the team at this trap location instead of attacking during the night. As a result, Zin and his company were stuck in the middle of a street in the ruins.

The enemy started to move in. Ramphil spotted a Reaver running out into the street and throwing a Molotov cocktail towards the armored vehicle. Ramphil quickly closed the hatch, and hid himself inside the vehicle.

—Smash! Crack, Crackle! —

“I think they are determined to kill us first.”

The enemies had no intentions of talking to the team.

—Yo! Cowards! What are you doing hiding inside! —

—Smash! Crackle, Pop! —

A couple of Molotov cocktails hit the vehicle, and heating up the armor of the vehicle.

Zin quickly asked, “How strong is the armor?”

“It can withstand cheap chipbusters,” Ramphil replied.

“Good. Then you wait here,” Zin told Leona.

“Okay,” Leona nodded as Zin gave out orders.

“Ramphil, you go out and distract the enemy. What’s your armor defense against bullets?”

“I can withstand 7.62mm bullets as long as they don’t hit my vital spots.” His body was fortified by Megaframe to withstand gunfire.

“Good, you head out first. As soon as our enemies are distracted, I will head out, too. While you attack the enemies approaching the vehicle, I will secure a high ground and snipe. Are you ready?”

“Any time.”

“Go!”

—Whoosh! —

As soon as Zin shouted, Ramphil jumped out of the vehicle. When he got out of the vehicle, he encountered ten Reavers who were pointing their guns at the vehicle, and four Reavers who were holding custom made grenades filled with chip dust.

Some were on top of the building, some on the street corner, and some on the open street.

The shooters from the roof started firing at Ramphil as if they were expecting him.

“Shoot!”

—Ratatatatat! —

However, Ramphil was not a weakling who was going to get shot so easily. He ran at great speed, and didn’t get shot at all.

He moved quickly and erratically.

“It’s a cyborg!”

“Aim correctly! Shoot his eyes!”

The Reavers were armed with crappy home-made rifles, and were reloading their guns. In the heat of the moment, Ramphil pulled out his laser pistol. There were many system messages popping in front of Ramphil’s eyes.

[L-20, Rifle Mode]

—Clank, Click—

The laser pistol expanded, and it transformed into a rifle. L-20 was the only weapon that Ramphil brought with him when he left the Seoul fortress.

It was a very expensive weapon, not produced in large quantities. But it was always given out to soldiers who were carrying out special missions. The Seoul fortress Warlord gave out their only L-20 to Ramphil.

An L-20 was not exclusively given only to executors, but all executors used an L-20. The rifle that Ramphil was holding onto was the symbol of an executor.

An L-20 was an ultimate weapon that could be changed into a pistol, saber, rifle, and even a sniper rifle.

—Flash! —

As soon as Ramphil aimed and fired the L-20, a blue laser beam pierced through the head of a Reaver.