I Picked Up the Fallen Earth

Chapter 5. The Fallen Earth

Crossing dimensions to Earth, Jeron never let down his guard.

Sword at the ready, he hadn’t even closed the portal to allow a retreat back to the Karen continent at any moment.

Unlike the Farrow estate where knights and soldiers would stake their lives in the worst-case scenario, here, no one could protect Jeron.

He planned to flee at the first sign of mutants, ready to lead the people away.

His senses honed sharp, he scanned the surroundings.

For now, the yard seemed free of ominous signs.

Slowly patrolling the perimeter, he checked the fence.

Only the main gate was battered and creaky; the fence hadn’t collapsed.

After confirming there was no one in the yard, he rough-hammered the door back into place.

Creeeak!

“……”

His heart sank.

Slowly, he felt his old instincts returning.

In his previous life, he had constantly prowled from house to house, always hyper-focused on scavenging for any leftover canned foods.

He was sensitive to even the slightest sound, and at any strange scream, he’d find somewhere to duck and hide as best he could.

He had thought those instincts had faded over time, but they seemed to have sharpened instead, helped perhaps by the fact that Jeron’s body was now that of an 18-year-old boy, not a man in his forties.

Fortunately, nothing appeared.

If any sensitive mutants were still around, it wouldn’t have been strange for them to swarm towards the sound.

Gazing across the yard, his heart clenched at the sight of three graves overgrown with weeds.

On one side, old firewood lay piled high, and the warehouse door was still broken.

Only the small, roughly 20-pyeong house was covered in unsightly green moss, its windows shattered, resembling a haunted house.

“Huff.”

Jeron took a moment to catch his breath.

Suddenly feeling too sentimental, he reminded himself there was no need for that.

The past was in the past, after all.

He also took a look inside the house.

The living room bore stains of blood, unidentifiable in age, glued to the floor.

His brows involuntarily furrowed.

It seemed neglected for years; finding antibiotics and expecting them to still be effective was questionable.

Especially in Korea, with its distinct seasons, could there be any hope?

Stomp, stomp.

The house felt devoid of any human warmth.

Dust covered all the furniture, and various household items were strewn about chaotically.

Jeron naturally recalled the day he was torn apart by mutants.

He clenched his eyes shut.

It felt almost like PTSD was kicking in.

“I thought he had gotten over it.”

His hard-fought calm reached a crescendo upon seeing a faded family photo.

A shock coursed through his entire body.

In the photo, a couple in their mid-thirties smiled alongside their children.

A single picture taken before the world came to this state.

Jeron crumpled the photo and stepped outside.

There was no time to drown in sentiment.

Fortunately, it was daytime on Earth.

Since mutants tended to be more active at night, he needed to move as much as possible while the sun was up.

Leaving his previous home, he walked the streets.

Asphalt cracked underfoot, with weeds sprouting through.

The entire neighborhood looked like an unattended ruin.

Could there still be people left?

Not a single footprint marred the dust-laden earth.

Corpses, dried up like mummies, littered the streets everywhere. This could mean the mutants had disappeared, but it was hard to be certain.

Walking a familiar street awakened more memories.

The first destination was a pharmacy.

After several years into the apocalypse, it was unlikely any medication remained.

Especially antibiotics, which were rare even during Jeron’s time on Earth.

[Yuhan Pharmacy]

The pharmacy’s windows were utterly shattered.

Peering inside, the product shelves lay toppled, utterly empty.Even if one could monopolize a destroyed Earth, it seemed inevitable to face a dead end when it came to pharmaceuticals.

Crunch!

Stepping on a broken window, the noise resonated unusually loudly, probably due to the complete silence of the surroundings.

Entering the dispensary with a sword in hand, it was evident that the place wouldn’t be intact.

The drawers that presumably held medications were either open or missing, and furnishings were chaotically smashed and strewn about.

At best, a few bandages were shoved into a corner, so those were gathered—considered better than using boiled towels since they were sterilized.

Surprisingly, the pharmacy offered little to salvage.

Next, the decision was made to inspect the attached two-story residential home.

The staircase was covered in dark red stains, suggesting it might have been bloodstained at the time of the incident.

A typical rural two-story house with its front door half-shattered and leaning. Sneaking through the gap, several desiccated mummies were visible.

One body, hanging by the neck, suggested a rough idea of the events that transpired here.

Some canned goods were found in a cupboard, seemingly undisturbed.

Jeron decided to open a can to smell it, considering if more than ten years had passed since his death on Earth, any antibiotics found would likely be unusable.

Wouldn’t the contents of a can also deteriorate after ten years?

A sweet smell wafted out; the condition of the canned peaches was reasonably fine, leading to the conclusion that not so much time had passed.

The master bedroom was then checked.

A bed, a vanity, and a single wardrobe. Opening the wardrobe brought a musty smell wafting out.

Starting to meticulously search the room, “Ah, really nothing at all.”

At this point, even painkillers would be a welcome find, considering they could ease the pain of Baron Farrow, who had lost an arm.

Green tablets sealed in a bottle were found in a drawer.

“Acetaminophen, a painkiller. Not bad at all.”

These, too, were shoved into the backpack.

What else might be there? Further searching ensued.

A trove of valuables was uncovered, ranging from gold rings to jewels.

In an apocalyptic world, such items were no more valuable than pebbles on the ground.

But what about on the Karen Continent?

“Not a bad haul.”

All the valuables were hastily packed into the backpack.

Even a gold bar was found among the rummaged blankets—apparently, the pharmacy business had been quite profitable.

Though it wasn’t 1 kg but rather a 300g gold bar, in the Karen continent, gold remained precious.

Then, a pill case was discovered.

[penicillin]

“…!”

Penicillin.

The oldest but highly effective antibiotic.

If Baron Farrow was suffering from sepsis, it surely would make a difference.

With about half a container left, a complete cure might even be possible.

“Phew.”

Jeron took a deep breath.

This meant the goal had been achieved.

However, there was one more place to visit before leaving.

He planned to stop by the village blacksmith and check the storage.

[Cheolhee’s Blacksmith]

The display at the blacksmith had little left to offer. Scythes and hammers were weapons in their own right. So he decided to start with the workshop. An anvil among other workbenches came into view, with various tools for handling metal hanging in place.

Hammers specialized for metalwork were extremely heavy, making them difficult to use as weapons, and it was the same with other metal tools. he thought that simply by bringing all the equipment here to the estate, he could upgrade our ironworking technology by several levels.

No, it was certain to happen. By also referring to the forge here, building one could prove useful in times of war.

I decided to take a look at the storage connected to the workshop. The door opened stiffly, as if it hadn’t been opened in a while, revealing a feast of iron.

On one side, piles of pig iron were stacked up. Besides that, various types of iron including aluminum were scattered around, and just clearing out the iron in the forge might arm hundreds of soldiers in the estate.

The armor wasn’t plate armor, but was made of iron only in crucial parts, like helmets. Of course, it was questionable whether we could properly process the flood of iron products from the modern era as they were now.

“This is a treasure trove.” he wished to stay longer, but time did not allow. The sun would soon set, and mutants might swarm the place.

So far, the absence of human traces meant no mutants, but if Jeron lingered here, he could be surrounded and attacked in no time. It was best to return for now.

***

In the lord’s chamber of Farrow estate. The lord’s quarters were still strictly guarded by knights.

If barbarians were to breach this far, the estate would be considered fallen, but the knights were dutifully loyal to their lord. The elderly knight Jenald saluted.

“Young lord, you must rest. If your grace is harmed, the estate will fall to ruin.” “It’s strange that I’m even sleepy. Move aside.”

The knights parted to either side. The condition of his father was terrible. His face had discoloured blue, and the part where his arm was severed wasn’t looking well either.

Jeron first ground painkillers and penicillin into a fine powder, dissolved it in water, and poured it into the baron’s mouth.

Then he disinfected the wound with alcohol brought from Earth after unwrapping the bandage. His father’s body shivered. Even in unconsciousness, such trembling indicated immense pain.

“Sigh.”

Jeron collapsed on the spot. He intended to personally nurse his father back to health.

Given the locals’ lack of hygiene, he planned to do it himself rather than risking infection by just replacing with clean bandages. Moreover, Jeron had sterile bandages.

He nursed the baron throughout the night and eventually dozed off at some point. Sunlight seeped through his eyelids. How much time had passed was unclear.

“Uhmm…”

Upon hearing a groan, Jeron sprang up. After a night of nursing and administering antibiotics and painkillers, Baron Farrow’s condition had significantly improved.

‘Thank goodness. It seems the antibiotics worked.’

Moreover, the baron had received treatment from a priest. Combined with the antibiotics, his recovery had been remarkably fast. Jeron was genuinely happy.

“Father! Are you conscious?”

“Am I… still alive?”

“Yes, Father!” Jeron hugged his father. He couldn’t even imagine leading the estate in this uncivilized world without him.

“You saved me.”

His face still bore the traces of illness, but Baron Farrow was surely on the path to recovery. Knowing the baron would not die was enough. From today, Jeron planned to start moving all sorts of iron from the forge to the estate.