Chapter 50 (1/2)

Chapter 50: Investigation (1)

TL: emptycube

Editor: Obelisk

The great colonizing age had begun.

Colonization was profitable, and you had no choice but to take part even if you wished to avoid it.

Both the resources only produced in these lands and the alien products, which could only be bought from the sovereigns’ shops, were undoubtedly valuable and worth a lot of money.

However, that wasn’t all. The ground on Earth kept becoming drier. All experts claimed that if they didn’t start farming in these new lands, humanity would no longer have a future.

On top of that, the number of missing people increased. In 2 years, 5% of the total population had disappeared. And, like Bae Jinman had predicted, they were found in the colonizing lands, ‘Dragonic’. Earthlings called these people ‘immigrants’.

Choi Hyuk had colonized half of Barhaloleun Hill and was now looking to expand to the wide plains beyond it. 3,000 soldiers partic.i.p.ated in this expedition. There wasn’t much. Even though Choi Hyuk was the first colonizer, his growth was slower than other sovereigns. Still, his berserkers were all known to be elites.

The nickname he received during [Survive and Escape], ‘Berserker’, had been spread through word of mouth and now each of his followers was known as a ‘Berserker’ while he himself was known as the ‘Berserk Sovereign’. His troops were collectively called the ‘Berserkers’.

It had come to the point where Choi Hyuk would react to ‘Berserkers’ and ‘Berserk Sovereign’ naturally.

It was a smooth march. The plains continued endlessly and because they had already annihilated the ‘Plains Shark’ monster tribe that had a tight hold on the nearby land, they weren’t met with many monsters either. The weather was refres.h.i.+ng. The sky still looked like whirlpools of milk and the Berserkers were marching in the direction of the largest whirlpool.

Baek Seoin, who was walking next to him and looking at a transparent tablet, suddenly became surprised and said.

“Leader, there’s a reaction from a native!”

“Native? Not an immigrant?”

“Yes. It’s the first time it’s rung since I downloaded this app.”

They called earthlings who had been forcefully moved to Dragonic ‘immigrants’. Unlike regular people who could freely move back and forth between Earth and Dragonic as long as they had enough Mission Points, immigrants, who had been forced here, couldn’t use the portals that led to Earth. Because they were ‘people who could not leave Dragonic’, they were called ‘immigrants’.

On the other hand, you had the descendants of the fallen dragonics. They called the indigenous people, who survived by avoiding the monsters’ attacks, ‘natives’. They were rare. Only three colonized lands, Israel, Thailand, and Germany, had sighted the natives. As they were a bunch who survived on a planet occupied by monsters, they possessed many mysterious and useful techniques. The benefits they could gain through interactions with them were endless. Many colonizers dreamed of encountering the natives. As a result of this, Baek Seoin had bought a transparent tablet made with alien technology and had downloaded a native tracking application on it.

Choi Hyuk looked around. Endless plains. He occasionally saw foaming mouthed monsters rus.h.i.+ng towards them, and the search party, having been dispatched ahead, dealing with them. There were no other living beings besides them.

“I don’t see any?”

“Since they have lived until now by avoiding monsters’ eyes, of course they are hiding in a hidden place.”

“… For example?”

“Underground.”

Baek Seoin coolly pointed to the ground.

Choi Hyuk looked down towards the ground. It seemed possible. However, if they were hiding underground, it would be hard to find them. He began to think.

‘Would finding natives really be helpful?’

There was a clear goal for this expedition. Of course, finding the natives would undoubtedly be beneficial in the long run, but he couldn’t help but wonder if he needed to find them right this moment.

“Don’t we have to wait for Chu Youngjin and Ryu Hyunsung to come back before we decide which direction we go? If we find the natives, we will also be able to obtain information about our surroundings… I think we should search.”

Baek Seoin advised on searching. His judgment was usually correct. Choi Hyuk nodded.

“Fine. We stay here.”

3,000 soldiers quickly dropped their bags and set up tents.

It had been 2 years since Choi Hyuk successfully colonized his land. The world had changed greatly. Many sovereigns had succeeded in colonizing and new sovereigns had emerged as well. There were currently 40 activated portals. The number of people who received the sovereign t.i.tle was about the same.

Chu Youngjin and Ryu Hyunsung were entrusted with a separate mission and had headed out to another sovereign’s land. The colonized land of Lao Ban, a sovereign from Macau.

There they saw people locked in cages. They were ‘slaves’. This place was a hot springs town called ‘Pyungryu’ situated deep in the colonized land near the portal between Macau and ‘Dragonic’. This was a common sight here.

Unattractive men and women were in a dirty state, while beautiful men and women had all been dolled up. They were sorted into different cages. Both sides had no hope in their eyes, seemingly dead inside.

Ryu Hyunsung sounded sick.

“Ha, f.u.c.k…”

They had heard stories, but the shock they felt from looking at this personally was completely different.

The people within the cages were those commonly called ‘immigrants’. The people who were the cause of accelerated colonization, the ‘immigrants’. They were the earthlings who had disappeared and were forcefully transported to Dragonic. They were unable to go through the portal and return to Earth. It was also a place where the corresponding sovereign could exercise their extraterritoriality and control over those who pa.s.sed through the portal. In a place where crime was rampant, these immigrants, who had nowhere to go, became easy targets.

“We need fellow colonizers and they are overflowing with them here.”

Chu Youngjin clicked his tongue. Of course they had found immigrants in Choi Hyuk’s colonized land. Choi Hyuk took them in as equals and allowed them to live in his colonized cities. And, in the case their goals and skills were appropriate, he would even accept them as Berserkers.

This fit well with Choi Hyuk’s aim, which put everything on the line for combat. As many immigrants were ready warriors. They had suddenly been dropped onto a planet filled with monsters, Dragonic. All they possessed were weapons and karma. For them to have succeeded in surviving in these conditions meant they were already proven warriors. Only, they were usually weaker than Earth awakenees because Earth awakenees had generally awakened earlier than them. The awakenees also had access to a greater variety of items and had formed into different powers.

“But… Aren’t those people too weak? It’s either because it hasn’t been long since they became immigrants or because they were weak even compared to other immigrants…. Where are all the strong ones?”

Chu Youngjin questioned.

“I don’t know… It doesn’t seem like they’ve accepted them into their colonized land either.”

When he heard Chu Youngjin’s words, Ryu Hyunsung felt something was weird. Even in Lao Ban’s other colonized cities they had pa.s.sed until now, ‘Zhiyu’, Yes.h.i.+’, and ‘Wanwu’, they had not heard about any immigrant warriors being accepted into their land. And only weak immigrants were being sold in ‘Pyungryu’, which had a slave market.

“Then is that really true? That Sovereign Lao Ban has the fate, ‘Plunderer’?”