Chapter 31

26. Gold (1)

As expected, the Christmas season has arrived.

A former game developer who recently changed their nickname from Anonymous118 to Foxgames has reopened the site for decorating Christmas trees, following last year's initiative.

Board users with plenty of free time swarmed to the site, starting to decorate each other's trees.

Unlike last year, this year even my Christmas tree has some decorations.

"Hmm, hmm... Is this good enough?, Nah, boring, hmm..., Try to be more aware next year, hmm, Defender1, Defender2"

Haha, our board friends can be quite mischievous.

I decorated Defender's tree.

True to his status as a named user, Defender had already filled three trees and was receiving a fourth, and I managed to add my nickname to a candy cane decoration in the last available spot.

"KILL, Squawk!, Simongkipapa: why?, Simongkipapa, Memento Mori, Skeleton friend, DragonC, Born to Kill, Simongkipapa, SKELTON"

A heavy snowfall has been raging for the past three days.

My territory and its surroundings have turned into a snowy landscape.

With the snow piling up, the golf course next door feels like it has regained its former beauty.

Given the weather, there's not a soul in sight.

Only the roe deer and wild boars, which have become more numerous since the war, occasionally roam the abandoned wilderness in search of food.

It was going to be a rare peaceful and serene day.

Until a fierce howl of the wild came from the southwest.

*

The monster invasion is compared to mold.

A definite source of contamination, the crack, causes mold to grow around it, which in turn produces various evil pathogens, and these pathogens create more mold.

Mutation is one of these pathogens, one of the worst enemies a civilian can encounter.

There are many types.

In Africa, there were lion mutations; in India, elephant mutations; in China, panda mutations, each displaying their own ferocity. However, the real problem is mutations from domesticated animals.

Chickens, cows, horses, pigs, sheep, goats, and so on. I haven't heard of hamsters.

Among these, the most threatening are the mutation dogs, whose ancestors hunted humans.

To avoid being mistaken for wolves, they have high basic combat abilities, form packs, and possess extremely high intelligence.

A pack of mutation dogs lives to the southwest of my territory.

The leader of this pack is a dog called Gold, whose fur glows golden, and is known for being extremely cruel and cunning.

Even when the South Korean government was still relatively intact, a bounty was placed on it, but the bounty hunters always returned empty-handed.

Once, it even ventured into my territory, but recently it has settled in the southwest, where prey is abundant, proving the saying "a dog's luck is a dog's luck."

A fierce, competitive howling echoed from the territory of the Gold pack.

Perhaps the mutation dogs were fighting among themselves.

The growls, filled with primal violence, continued until late afternoon.

"Can you hear it, Skeleton? It's a strange sound."

It seems the sound was also heard by the sniper mother and daughter.

Soo was the one who communicated directly.

"It sounds like a mutation. Anyway, be careful and Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas. Mom says Merry Christmas too. And they're asking if you can use a computer around New Year's?"

"Why?"

"The board people want to do a countdown in Eastern Standard Time."

"......The computer is a bit broken right now. I'll pick a day and get you satellite equipment and a laptop, so please wait a bit. Is Mom's wound okay?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

After ending the communication, I maintained my weapons.

I received several weapons from Rebecca as payment for internet usage.

A Claymore anti-personnel mine, a recoilless rifle, a 7.62mm machine gun, and about 200 rounds of ammunition.

For someone like me who had plenty of small arms but lacked heavy firepower, it was like a timely rain.

I also received a homework assignment, which was to restore a Javelin battery.

If I could get the battery working, Rebecca promised to give me one.

Its power is self-evident.

It can destroy almost all of South Korea's tanks with a single strike.

While it's best that such a situation never arises, isn't human fate unpredictable?

Seoul is said to be maintaining a ceasefire, but who knows when the fighting will resume.

While pondering how to charge the dusty battery tester and charger, the sun had already set.

After washing up, I entered the heating tent, turned on the hot water mat, and was about to go to sleep when the motion sensors installed inside the bunker began to flash.

"......"

Something had entered my territory.

Inside the main bunker.

I turned on the listening device and pressed my ear to the speaker.

The sound of heavy breathing and dragging feet came through the speaker clearly.

Soon, the closed-circuit screen showed me the intruder in black and white.

The intruder was not human.

A wounded and dying mutation dog had dragged itself into my territory.

No other pack members were in sight.

Perhaps it had been attacked.

In any case, having such a creature in my territory was problematic.

The best course of action would be to quickly dispose of it.

I grabbed a gun, an axe, and a lantern, left the bunker, and cautiously approached the intruder.

In the dim light, a large, staggering, convulsing figure was visible.

It turned its head towards me, but it seemed even that was a struggle, and it fell to the side.

I aimed my gun and shone the lantern.

"?"

I was quite surprised when I saw the dog.

The identity of the mutation dog that had come to my territory was Gold, the leader of the southwest pack.

This creature, who had survived numerous hunts and ruled the region, had come to my territory alone and in such a state.

Gold lay on its side, panting, and its eyes, which could only move, stared at me intently, almost like a human.

Shining the lantern on its body, I saw its exposed ribs, torn skin and flesh, and the lush golden fur that had earned it the name Gold, appearing and disappearing in the darkness.

This was not the work of humans.

While Awakened are said to be armed with powers that surpass humans, they do not have the ability to tear and rip mutations like this.

This savage wound was the work of a fellow mutation dog.

I recalled the competitive growling I had heard earlier.

Animals that form packs inevitably try to establish a leader.

Power in the animal world is different from that of humans.

While humans can cement their power with various tricks, animals must either die or leave the pack when they grow old and weak or a stronger one appears.

Is this the case with this creature?

Has it been defeated by a powerful challenger and ended up here?

"......"

It's a shame.

Although it once caused me trouble, it had blocked humans, zombies, and other nuisances coming from the southwest.

Click

But that's about to end.

It's also true that this creature has killed dozens of humans.

It's true that it played with and killed the bounty hunters like a cat with its prey and fed on human flesh.

The dying dog tried to get up.

It turned away from me and headed down the slope, passing through my territory, which was filled with tomb-like mounds and industrial waste.

Its movements piqued my curiosity.

However, this could also be a trap set by the mutation, so I followed Gold while keeping a watchful eye on the surroundings.

Gold, limping and bleeding, headed towards an abandoned village, a small rural community where Kim lived.

A few elderly people had returned to this place to try to do something, but there was no electricity, no oil, and no neighbors who had been with them all their lives.

When scavengers regularly came to ransack the empty houses, they moved on sadly, and the village became a complete ruin.

Gold walked straight towards the abandoned village.

Following its blood trail, I entered the village, which I had almost forgotten.

Rustle

Shards scattered underfoot from the very beginning.

With a sense of discomfort, I followed the creature.

At first, everything was unfamiliar.

The darkness of night obscured my vision, and the tension of a monster that could kill me with a single leap heightened my senses.

But when the creature suddenly stopped, turned its head, and looked at something, and when I saw its eyes, which seemed to be filled with nostalgia, the black and white scene magically transformed into the quiet, bustling, and living village before the war.

That's right.

This road cuts through the center of the village.

There's a cooperative over there, and a mart across the street.

The place the creature was looking at was where the butcher's shop used to be.

It sold good meat at a reasonable price, and the stews were delicious. It was the shop that sold a significant portion of the meat I used to sell before it turned into pemmican.

The creature licked its lips and moved forward again.

Its steps became lighter.

The dragging gait turned into a light, brisk movement, like the free-roaming dogs I often saw in town.

The next place the creature stopped was where the soup restaurant used to be.

It wasn't a place I liked.

The food was ordinary, and it wasn't cheap. Most importantly, the owner's auntie, who I saw drinking soju with her soup in the middle of the day, once scolded me for not working and drinking all day, which made me stop going there for a while.

But due to the nature of the countryside, there was nowhere else to go, so I quietly started going back.

But it seemed to be a place of good memories for the creature.

The drooling tongue and the saliva dripping from the sharp teeth, even in the dark, suggested as much.

I recalled that the owner's auntie, who was nosy, often put out a bowl of leftover bones outside the shop.

Gold moved on.

This time, it growled and glared at a house.

It was the village chief's house.

A well-known enemy of Kim, he loved dog meat and was even featured in the news for secretly slaughtering purebred dogs from nearby rural houses.

Judging by how fiercely the creature was growling, had it known a dog that was caught and eaten? Or had it almost been caught and eaten itself?

Gold moved on again.

Its steps noticeably slowed.

Its hind legs seemed to lack strength, and it dragged its lower body forward with only the strength of its front legs.

It squeezed through the collapsed stone wall.

As it pushed with its lion-sized body, the precarious wall collapsed, spilling bricks.

The dust cloud temporarily obscured the creature.

Click

Intelligent mutation dogs can use deception.

I watched the surroundings, waiting for the dust to settle.

The harsh breathing remained in one place.

When the dust cleared, the creature reappeared in front of me.

It was curled up in front of a ruined house, licking its wounds.

Beyond its weakly wagging tail, a tilted doghouse stood precariously.

I slowly walked through the stone wall and looked at the house.

This house. It seems familiar.

I don't remember it clearly, but it occupied a corner of the living village I remember.

Why, when I passed by and heard the noisy barking, didn't I look to see which house it was?

This was the house.

Where Gold lived.

The overturned doghouse had the name it was called written in permanent marker.

<Mix>

"Mix."

When I called the name, the creature looked at me.

"......Gold is better."

They say a person is a boat made of memories.

In that sense, this dog is not much different from a human.

A proposition and a woman were simultaneously and unintentionally linked in my mind.

The common belief that mutations cannot be tamed.

A woman who lived alone, relying on a cat, with no family or neighbors.

These two thoughts, which seemed to have no connection, concluded with the pitiful woman shattering the firm belief with a miracle.

Here, another miracle is about to happen.

The creature began to make a strange rhythm with its breathing.

At first, I thought it was taking its last breath, but it wasn't.

Unlike humans, it had no vocal cords to modulate and was ignorant of pitch, but the rough breathing was mimicking a human song.

"Happy Birthday to you."

"Hey."

I called the creature.

It turned its head towards me at the "loving~" part.

"Do you want to live?"

My chronic curiosity, a disease, kicked in.