I Picked Up the Fallen Earth

Chapter 22 Confrontation (1)

Jeron felt as if he were passing through a layer of sleep as he returned to Earth. Atop the summit of a mountain, on a broad rock, it wasn’t until he took a deep breath that he became aware of the world being saturated with mana.

Waves of blue mana shimmered around him. These were wavered by the wind, seemingly at least ten times more abundant than in the Karen Continent.

As Jeron inhaled, mana was quickly absorbed through his secondary circulatory system. He checked the remaining time on his golden key.

It felt like the duration of his stay had increased to four hours, and the quantity of items he could take back seemed to have slightly increased too. This was a significant discovery for Jeron.

“Phew.”

Taking another deep breath, clean phytoncides mixed with mana entered his lungs, rejuvenating his body. Even this was enough to bring a change in Jeron’s life, let alone the numerous changes that would follow once he completed the mana hole.

The mere thought was exhilarating. Lost in the sensation of elevation, Jeron suddenly remembered the danger of this being Earth, where safety couldn’t be guaranteed.

Although the threats seemed greater in the Karen Continent, being alone here was the issue. He immediately lowered his body and picked up his scope. Jeron had a chilling experience during his previous visit to Earth.

The scream of a mutant that had shaken his whole body. While it led him to awakening to mana, he had to be aware that those beings could rip his body apart at any moment.

Jeron moved his scope, searching for the rooftop of the apartment where he had encountered the mutant previously. He scanned along the disastrously ruined roadside. A familiar building, smeared in blood, came into view. Broken, torn, wrecked.

The walls of the apartment were traced with long bloodstains, and finally, his gaze climbed to the rooftop of the apartment.

“…….”

Only the desolate wind was blowing there. The usually seen ventilators on the apartment rooftop were spinning helplessly, with pieces of cloth stuck among debris fluttering, no sign of the mutant was visible.

Jeron knew he had to pinpoint the mutant’s location before taking any action. The apartment was considerably close to the middle school, and whether he farmed at the boutique or the mobile force bus, a minimum level of safety measure was necessary. He would prefer to snipe from here. It seemed it would allow him to move around more comfortably.

“Where are you?”

Jeron moved his scope here and there, tracking any sign of the mutant. Gloomy scenes flashed by. Scenes shifted chaotically as if scenes in a zoetrope. Jeron concentrated, trying to detect any signs of life.

‘Hm?’

Suddenly. Jeron almost exclaimed out loud. On the road leading to a nearby supermarket, he saw a man moving cautiously. The man was wearing a backpack much too large for his size, emaciated to a pitiable extent, and in ragged clothes.

Miraculously, a handgun was clenched in his right hand. The man moved boldly. As expected, survivors remained on Earth, and he was engaged in a deadly game of hide-and-seek with the mutants.

Skilled in moving stealthily from one wall to another, it seemed he had perfectly adapted to this world. Jeron, internally rooting for the man, suddenly felt his heart sink.

Above the man moving on the ground, a mutant was carefully jumping from one building to another, trailing him. The man was completely unaware of it.

The mutant’s movement was cautious, like a predator stalking its prey. Jeron hurriedly loaded his sniper rifle and followed the man and the mutant again. The gun barrel wavered quickly.

Although the wind had died down, the distance was quite significant. Unless one was a sniper, hitting a moving target with a sniper rifle was difficult.

Moreover, the mutant wasn’t an ordinary being but a monster capable of moving several times faster. Even in the midst of winter, his back was drenched with sweat.When the man reached the store, a mutated creature that had been leaping between buildings pounced on him.

“Damn it!”

Jeron exclaimed audibly. It was already too late by the time he thought of taking action. The man didn’t even get the chance to use the pistol he was holding, as his throat was instantly torn out.

Blood spurted like a fountain and the creature tore the man’s body apart with a monstrous howl. What followed was a gruesome feast. Seemingly starved for a long time, the creature chewed on the man’s bones.

The sound of crunching seemed to echo all the way to where Jeron was. It was a tragic accident. The man had tried his best to survive in this cursed world but fell short.

It seemed he had been holed up somewhere in a building in the block and had decided to move when his supplies ran out. He played a deadly game of hide and seek with the mutant, but ultimately, the man lost.

Jeron lay prone and mounted his sniper rifle, securing it tightly on his shoulder and adjusting the scope’s magnification until he had a clear headshot of the creature.

“This needs to be dealt with sooner or later.”

The apartment was closer to the middle school than previously thought. Based on observations so far, this area was in the creature’s territory, and eliminating it here was not just an option but a necessary action to enable farming.

Jeron aimed precisely at the center of the creature’s head. The mutant was too focused on its feast, making it unlikely for such an opportunity to arise again.

Jeron held his breath and focused intensely. Though it had been a while since he last fired a gun, he didn’t entertain the thought of failure. The existence of mana cleared his mind and sharply increased his focus.

There was no wind, making ballistic calculations unnecessary. This was a rare opportunity.

Bang!

Thud!

The creature staggered, black blood spraying from its head.

“Was that a success?”

The bullet had lodged itself squarely in the mutant’s head. Just when Jeron was sure the creature was dead, it suddenly stood up, letting out a ghastly scream.

“What the hell!”

Jeron was truly startled. Was there such a creature that could move even after its head was blasted by a sniper rifle? He broke out in a cold sweat, his hands and feet trembling, but he managed to make out the state of the mutant.

Its head had been blown off, but its brain was not destroyed. More precisely, the top of its head had been blown off. The sight of its brain, turned a sickly black, was horrifying.

Enraged, the mutant screamed wildly. Its eyes reddened further, and its body emitted a blue aura. From the remnants of survivors Jeron had found earlier, he knew what the blue light signified.

[“The damned things get faster as if they’re on drugs the moment they’re enveloped in blue light.”]

It was a sort of buff, and the mutant’s body started to swell instantly. It screamed and looked precisely where Jeron had fired from.

[“Kill! Kill! Kill!”]

Although they couldn’t communicate, it was clear what it was saying.

Whoosh!

The creature began to rush towards his location. Jeron immediately picked up his sniper rifle and ran in the opposite direction he had come from.

Opening a portal to another dimension was a last resort. Given the tenacious nature of the mutants, it was assumed that this one would stay in the area for revenge. The scene witnessed suggested the creature had some level of intelligence.

If it waited somewhere, hiding until Jeron emerged to ambush him? Then Jeron would have no answer.Crunching leaves and withered branches broke noisily underfoot.

Truly swift maneuvers. Jeron’s physical prowess had improved to levels incomparable to before. He was out of breath, yet he didn’t stop.

In an instant, he descended the mountain and ran towards the vicinity of the apartment, where houses were densely packed.

Jeron quickly surveyed his surroundings.

“Whoo! Whoo!”

Only now did he start to catch his breath. Instinctively, he looked for a tall building.

‘Shops!’

He saw a few commercial buildings in the center, the neighborhood even boasted small apartments. Jeron dashed into an entrance, its glass door shattered and wide open.

He had no time to take in the terrible scene around him. He jumped up the stairs three at a time in one breath. Upon reaching the rooftop of the building swiftly, Jeron quickly raised his scope to scan the vicinity.

‘Where did it go?’

There was no sign of it anywhere. There was a definite distance between the mutant and Jeron. It was hard to believe that the creature, burning with a thirst for revenge with its brain exposed, would give up so easily.

“Screeech!”

And then, a tearing scream was heard nearby. The mutant, with its face twisted like a gruesome assassin and its skull cracked open, was charging towards him like a madman. Their eyes met.

The monster, leaking black bloody tears and opening its mouth wider than 30 cm, was more threatening than any other creature Jeron had encountered. The mutant leaped more than 5 meters in a single bound.

It stepped on a building’s signboard and jumped again. This wouldn’t do. In a critical moment, Jeron opened a dimensional door and stepped through. The mutant charged a few seconds after Jeron had crossed over.

Thud!

The mutant approached Jeron but was blocked by an invisible barrier, struggling fruitlessly.

“Haah! Haah!”

Only now did Jeron release his held breath. His hands and feet trembled, and he struggled to calm down. However, remembering the function of the dimensional door, he gradually eased his tension.

From his observations and research, he knew life forms couldn’t cross through the dimensional doors on their own. This was an absolute principle. The mutant flailed as if it were drowning, screaming wildly.

Though its screams did not reach him, its wildly thrashing limbs conveyed its intense rage.

Swoosh.

Jeron drew his long sword. The mutant, still enveloped in a bluish light, seemed to have more mana than what had been recorded in the survivors’ diaries and videos. It proved that mutants were evolving over time.

Its exposed brain was absorbing the mana around it. Blue energy stored inside the black brain matter. Jeron realized this was its weakness.

He thrust his sword precisely into the brainstem of the mutant, which was flailing its face towards him.

[Screeeech!]

A final scream. The scream didn’t echo here, but Jeron felt it. The mutant’s eyes lost focus, and it slumped. The moment Jeron’s sword touched its brain, destroying the brainstem, the golden key absorbed the blue mana.

“Ah.”

Jeron collapsed on the spot. Not only was he terribly startled today, but the function of the golden key was beyond his imagination.

“Absorbing the mana of a mutant… This is an incredible discovery.”