The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 46

#46. Anyang Station (2)

“Monster Factory.”

Now that the base’s stability was secured, it was time to enhance our capabilities.

These were times when it was difficult to survive on human strength alone.

That’s why I planned to domesticate monsters.

Hints of domestication were found here and there.

During reconnaissance, hoof-like footprints were found intertwined with human shoe prints, and there were also unnamed monsters with bizarre appearances that weren’t hostile to humans.

If we could domesticate those monsters, our power would greatly expand.

There were limitations for now.

The labor required to operate the boiler was considerable, and the reconnaissance personnel needed to gather fuel were also significant.

Moreover, considering the control personnel, including the existing food supply routes, we would need twice the labor force.

I checked the quest window.

[Quest: Government’s Dog]

[Achievement Progress:

● Achieve a comfort level of 30% or higher for citizens (current level 35%) / Achieved!

● Resolve a continuous food supply route (0/1)

● Achieve a 100% availability of labor within the police force (current level 65%)

★ Reward: Achievement Points – 150]

We had only just solved the first task.

As long as the boiler was running, no one would freeze to death, and the number of people groaning in the corners of the base would decrease.

At this rate, increasing the labor force would be a matter of time.

All that remained was the food supply route.

“A… a monster factory… are you talking about that vine-like thing?”

Kim Su-kyung asked me, his voice laced with disbelief.

I nodded and sat on a police box overflowing with documents – materials we’d be using as kindling.

I rubbed my hands together, warming them by the blazing flames.

“I don’t know if we can domesticate that vine, but there are many other monsters besides that.”

“Th… th… that is… How are you going to ca… capture them? As far as I know, monsters are hard enough to kill, let alone capture, right? Ah! I’m not doubting your abilities, Manager.”

Kim Su-kyung stuttered badly as he spoke, clearly flustered.

I agreed with him to some extent.

Because the idea of domesticating monsters was an absurd hypothesis in itself.

But either way, the cold was resolved, and the only remaining problem was food.

In the long term, it would be better to farm than to collect food, but that was impossible in the current situation.

Therefore, what I expected from the monsters was twofold.

First, the domestication of monsters.

Second, the consumption of monsters.

I had already eaten goblin jerky from the shopping mall, but food was food.

At the very least, if I found an edible monster better than goblin jerky, the food problem would be much easier.

It was time to put the plan into action.

It was the right time to use Choi Myung-joon and the regressor [someone with the ability to go back in time] Jin Jae-hee, whom I had released from the detention center, in a useful way.

“Keep the fire burning in the furnace in 5 shifts; never let it go out. You can write that list well now, right?”

“Ah, yes!”

Kim Su-kyung took out a small notebook from his pocket, as if he was used to it, and began to write.

“Put the elderly or those who can’t do strenuous exercise in charge of guarding the fire. And the children can help too.”

“…Yes. I understand.”

Kim Su-kyung said, looking dejected.

He seemed disheartened that even the elderly and children were being mobilized for labor.

He was truly a type vulnerable to emotions.

I looked at the person in charge of the boiler and said,

“You are responsible for the management of the boiler. I will give you that much authority.”

“Of course. I understand, Manager.”

“I’ll be going now. Now that the boiler is running, we need to move on to the next stage.”

They all bowed slightly to me, and I nodded in return.

I walked towards the rooftop door.

Jin Jae-hee would have gathered the attack team during the morning.

* * *

Choi Myung-joon, who had been freed from the detention center, spent the whole day wandering around the police station.

With a cigarette in his mouth, he strolled around.

He didn’t care even when people glanced at him.

He had to wait until Zion’s orders, so he was performing the role of guarding the flue.

And on the day the flue was filled with warmth, Choi Myung-joon was given a weapon.

“An iron pipe, huh? Brings back memories.”

Swoosh, swoosh!

Choi Myung-joon smiled as he swung the pipe a couple of times.

It was a little past noon.

A group of men were gathering their weapons.

It was the newly formed attack team.

The attack team was a different group from the reconnaissance team, and it was a unit solely under Zion’s command.

Zion was watching them arm themselves, giving instructions.

“Don’t wear padded jackets because it’ll restrict your movement. Wear multiple layers of thin clothing. Your armpits and groin should be comfortable. And take off all shiny accessories. You too. And you, put it back on.”

“Ah, yes! Manager.”

“Yes!”

“Yes…!”

Zion checked their equipment one by one.

Manpower was important.

If they died off like the reconnaissance team after a few attacks, we wouldn’t be able to prepare for the big battles ahead.

Zion thought about the distant future.

This place was different from the shopping mall.

If the Blue Team led by Kim Dong-gil had around 90 people, the city’s population would be at least over a thousand.

No, it might be close to ten thousand.

Even in the police station alone, only a month had passed since the round started, but there were over a thousand people living there.

Since Zion wasn’t the lord of the force yet, he couldn’t find out the exact numbers.

So he had to roughly estimate the numbers.

But Zion would soon take over the force.

Of course, to do that, he had to succeed in this attack.

Zion checked the attack team’s equipment and looked back at them.

40 people, including Jin Jae-hee and Choi Myung-joon, were all looking at Zion.

“The place we’re going to attack is Anyang Station.”

Anyang Station.

The largest train station in Anyang City.

It was an intermediate point for going to Suwon, where the Mugunghwa train platform and Line 1 passed, and it had the best commercial district in Anyang.

Since Anyang Ilbeonga [the most bustling area in Anyang] was attached to Anyang Station, the scale of Anyang Station was beyond imagination.

Of course, it was an area worth attacking even if it meant taking risks, but Zion didn’t form the attack team to occupy that place.

Recently, survivors rescued near Ilbeonga had something in common.

“Monsters with one eye live in Anyang Station.”

“They have huge bodies that can eat people whole, and they live in groups, digging out eyes and hiding there.”

“Never go to Anyang Station.”

When Zion first heard this rumor, he was indifferent.

But when he told Jin Jae-hee about the monster factory, she said that the monsters in Anyang Station were the most suitable species to capture if they could be captured.

When Zion cautiously asked about the monster, Jin Jae-hee answered casually.

“Ogre, dumber than goblins, but stronger than 100 goblins. I’ve only seen one lord who domesticated him, but even he was eaten by him after using him.”

It was a name he had heard before.

It was a creature that even Zion, who was unfamiliar with fantasy movies, novels, and genre culture, knew.

“Hoo.”

Zion looked at the assembled attack team and exhaled.

Now he was really going into their lair.

A battle not to escape like the alligator turtle incident, but to capture.

A battle with non-human creatures.

But he had to do it.

He had devised a plan to some extent.

Today was primarily for exploration.

“Let’s go. We’ll be back before nightfall.”

When Zion spoke, everyone moved.

* * *

The attack team walked along the snowy path dug by the reconnaissance team leading to Ilbeonga.

It took less than an hour to get from the Manan Police Station to Ilbeonga.

And Zion encountered Reconnaissance Officer Lee Cheong-chun, who was searching there.

“You can go this way to Anyang Station. Haa-. But there’s so much snow that I don’t know if you’ll be able to arrive on time.”

Lee Cheong-chun pointed in the opposite direction with a cigarette between his fingers.

There was a huge pile of snow like a fortress between the two buildings.

And about three blocks away, there was a sign that said ‘Anyang Station.’

Zion looked at it and said nothing.

It was already afternoon, and there wasn’t enough time to dig out the snow.

It was time to use the trick he had in mind.

If the snowfield was dangerous, they would go between the buildings.

“We’re going to go up to the rooftop.”

“…The rooftop?”

Lee Cheong-chun saw two men behind Zion carrying industrial ladders on their backs.

Leaving the puzzled Lee Cheong-chun behind, the attack team went back into the building.

First, he checked if the building was a habitat for alligator turtles [Snow Nepenthes, carnivorous plants].

The method he devised was simple.

It was to throw a can full of shiny objects far away from the building.

This was a kind of flare that he had told Jin Jae-hee in advance to make.

The can was full of zippers, beads, iron, and other materials that reflected light well, taken from clothes.

Snow Nepenthes react to shiny things.

He was using it to check if there were alligator turtles in the building.

Whoosh- Clang, clang… clang.

The can, thrown like a grenade, crashed to the floor of the building with a loud noise.

Soon, tentacles rushed in from the opposite window, causing a commotion.

Crash-!! Clatter!!!

The tentacles quickly approached and stirred around the room.

The attack team members, who were seeing the tentacles for the first time, were frightened and stepped back.

But Zion had already removed all the shiny objects from their clothes, so the Nepenthes did not react to the attack team.

Swish, swish…….

The Nepenthes, confirming that there were no creatures, returned in the direction it had come from.

The team members were impressed by Zion’s ingenious method.

“Ooh……!”

“Wow… Manager.”

But Zion was calm.

Jin Jae-hee took the lead and entered the building first.

Jin Jae-hee was always first on the path Zion took.

Thanks to her, the attack team was able to reach the rooftop of the building without difficulty.

“The buildings in Ilbeonga are built close together, so you can use ladders to cross between the buildings. You can use this to secure supply routes or secure movement routes.”

The man carrying the ladder placed the ladder between the buildings.

Zion instructed the man to secure the ladder firmly.

And he covered the ladder with cloth to protect it from the Nepenthes.

The ladder was also made of aluminum and metal, so it was shiny.

He used ropes to firmly secure the ladder between the rooftops.

Again, Jin Jae-hee crossed the ladder first.

Dud. Dududud.

With each step she took, the precarious ladder legs shook wildly.

If it wasn’t for someone with Jin Jae-hee’s excellent sense of balance, they would have fallen down long ago.

“Good. It’s done.”

When Jin Jae-hee tied it securely to the other side, people crossed the ladder one by one.

“Ugh…… Ugh…….”

“Haa…… It’s high.”

Even if there was soft snow on the ground, this was a rooftop 7 stories above the ground.

For them, a ladder about 50cm wide would feel like a tightrope.

But they were able to cross it without difficulty.

And they approached Anyang Station by making four stepping stones like that.

Finally, Anyang Station came into their sight.

“Woah-. Fucking awesome.”

Choi Myung-joon looked at Anyang Station with a lewd smile.

But Zion, who was looking at the same place, frowned.

There were cracks all over the buildings, and all the windows were broken.

A helicopter was stuck on the outer wall of the large shopping mall attached to the station.

On the platform below, numerous corpses were lying on the tracks, and several unidentified monsters were wandering between the corpses.

And finally, he was able to find the monster he was targeting.

“……Ha.”

“Th…!”

“Ugh… Ugh…!”

The people who found the ogre couldn’t help but be shocked.

Humans who seemed to have been hunted were scattered on the floor around them.

No, it was closer to gathering.

The humans were all dead.

Four ogres holding utility poles like clubs.

Aang-.

One ogre picked up a human corpse with its fingers and ate it in one bite.

The monster’s ferocious and bizarrely large mouth opened wide, and saliva dripped between its lips.

With that saliva, the human disappeared into the monster’s throat.

Gulp.

The monster’s uvula moved up and down.

No one was not terrified by the sight.

(To be continued in the next episode)