I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

Chapter 433

“Oh, what a mess.”

“…Ugh, what time is it?”

“It’s 10 AM, you lazy bums.”

With the sky as our roof and the ground as our blanket.

Until just a few years ago, this had been as natural as eating a meal, but now it felt strangely unfamiliar. However, unlike my surprisingly sensitive mind, my body was incredibly numb when it came to sleep, and with nothing more than a simple mat spread out on the floor, I easily made it through the early morning.

I could have easily woken up due to the sharp sunlight or even found a more comfortable spot, but I slept uninterrupted for more than eight hours without any disturbance.

By the time my mind was half in dreamland, my body was slowly being lifted.

“Ugh.”

“Our youngest, still can’t sleep, huh?”

“I’m awake... Ugh, wait! Logan! Don’t grab my feet!”

A sudden and unexpected turn of events.

While I was dozing in the warm morning sun, Lorentina grabbed me from behind, and Logan, who had been stretching nearby, suddenly joined in and grabbed my feet—creating a pose that was clearly about to toss me into the water.

I tried to escape, wrapping my tail around someone's ankle, but with a single swing, both Logan and Lorentina tossed me far into the sea. Whoosh. At that moment, the ground disappeared beneath me. I was at least eight meters above the beach, and the distance—well, that wasn’t the important part.

Unfortunately, my body’s enhanced vision allowed me to read everyone’s expressions as I flew through the air. Of course, everyone was smiling.

How many seconds passed?

Splash!

The cool seawater engulfed me.

Since I had been tossed so far from the beach, I didn’t hit the ground. I ended up sinking several meters deep into the water. Fortunately, being a Green Anaconda, I didn’t mind the water and could move easily through it without any trouble.

After swimming several dozen meters in an instant, I walked back out of the sea, soaking wet, to the beach.

This was the first time Jin and Rain seemed to understand what it meant to laugh.

“Those damn bastards…”

“Wow, now I see some anger in those eyes. Is your sleep finally gone... Ugh...!”

Of course, I immediately tackled Lorentina to the ground and responded with a chokehold.

As expected, Logan couldn’t escape the snake tail’s grasp either, and after a while of playful wrestling, everyone who had been napping on the beach stood up. It was the same scene as yesterday. It was just us on the vast sandy beach again.

Watching this, Lorentina suddenly seemed to have a thought and pulled out what looked like a drill instructor's navy-blue cap and put it on, adding:

“6.4 km run. Perfect for morning exercise, don’t you think?”

“If you keep this up, I might actually use a sticky bomb.”

“Ah, it reminds me of Navy SEAL training, haha…”

Of course, as I’ve mentioned before, she had practically strolled through the SEAL training.

Her basic fitness was already impressive, and more importantly, she could breathe underwater. I heard that the instructors at the time were pretty frustrated, wondering how they could make her suffer using the usual curriculum for trainees. They spent nights pondering that.

Well, I heard they eventually gave up. After all, the purpose of the training was to build the mental fortitude needed to endure hardships that were nearly impossible for humans to overcome, and if she could already do that, there was no point in pushing her harder than necessary.

Indeed, a fit body means less suffering for the mind.

Meanwhile, Lorentina walked over to the water faucet.

Turning the tap, she washed her sand-covered hands and spoke up.

“It looks like the water supply has mostly been restored. But since we can’t really shower in a place like this, let’s try building a temporary shower booth.”

“…Are you asking for help?”

“Of course.”

And so, the construction of a shower room began unexpectedly.

It wasn’t really difficult. If we sent a request to the base, it didn’t take long before a large drone delivered various materials to us. We used the same method to get different foods and tools. Who knows how long we’ll stay here, though.

Wooden planks, nails, rubber hoses, and shower equipment didn’t take long to arrive. Lorentina grabbed a few planks, and I picked up the nails.

You might be wondering why I picked up nails instead of a hammer, but... aren’t nails supposed to be hammered in with your hands?

Thud...!

After placing a nail between my index and middle fingers and pressing it into the wood with my thumb, it went in deeply.

Of course, no one was impressed by this. This DIY stuff was nothing new for me. It didn’t take long before a wooden shower booth, with a door large enough for one person to fit comfortably, was completed.

The only downside was that there was no sunlight or airflow, but that could be fixed using the Icarus Gear’s torch feature—an application of sticky bombs—by creating small holes for ventilation.

The memories came flooding back.

“I think we did something like this when building temporary shelters back in the day.”

“It was fun back then.”

“…Yeah, it was.”

There were many horrible moments that couldn’t be explained, but the small moments of happiness that existed during those times became cherished memories, rising to the surface like bubbles from the depths of the abyss.

It took about 15 minutes to finish building the private space. After that, we automatically returned to the table, where steam was rising from the food.

It was time for breakfast.

Today’s breakfast was quite heavy, but it had been cooking since last night—a massive brisket. And, of course, there were three large chunks of it. The reason was simple: Lorentina, Logan, and I would eat two, and the other eight would share the third one.

While bread and sauce were being placed on the table, someone spoke up.

“Owens, do you have a speaker? It’d be nice to listen to some music in the morning.”

“Forget it, Kissinger. Do you think that person will set up $100,000 worth of sound equipment on this sandy field? They’d rather choose death.”

“I do have a turntable and some LPs at home, should I bring those?”

Without much thought, I casually tossed it out.

A sudden silence followed. As I was quietly stuffing a sandwich filled with meat into my mouth, the atmosphere shifted. I wondered if I had said something wrong, and just as I was rolling my eyes, someone laughed in disbelief and spoke.

"Come to think of it, the global icon is right here."

"Can you buy a few bottles of alcohol that you can’t get with money, kid?"

"By the way, I’m pretty sure I heard you bought a new house last time. Haven’t had a housewarming party yet, right?"

"Uh, well, that’s…"

And just like that, the topic shifted to me.

Once my house was mentioned, the curiosity of the 11 others weighed heavily on me. Their requests started to pile up. Thinking back, I hadn’t had any alcohol the day before, so the first errand was settled on that. And then more and more requests piled up…

As I listened to all these demands, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

"...Well, how about coming to my house?"

"...What?"

"Well, I mean... it’s not just for me to come and go, but, how should I put it... if you all want to come, you can."

I stumbled over my words, unsure of how to finish my sentence. But in my mind, the possibility or impossibility of it was spinning around—summarized, there was no reason it couldn’t happen. Once the door was designated, the Pizzler would automatically activate, breaking down any unknown physical contaminants.

In short, no need to worry about any Omega viruses possibly lingering.

After a brief silence, I carefully spoke again.

"...Anyone want to come over for a housewarming party now?"

Of course, no one refused.

The next day, the schedule for lunch was decided as a visit to my house.

• [Alert: Video inserted into the database connected to the CCTV.]
• [Alert: ID card issuance and distribution completed.]

"…Done. You can move freely now."

"Good job, kid."

"This place is completely different from New York. It's similar in that there are buildings everywhere, but with a river running through, it’s pretty unique."

My house was bustling for the first time in a while.

At first, I looked around with a rather bitter expression, but that didn’t last long. After confirming that the Pizzler had broken down even the sand stuck to my body, they sat on the sofas in the living room and began admiring the view of Seoul through the huge glass windows.

It occurred to me that maybe one of them had been to Seoul before… but since there was no guarantee they had entered through regular channels, I decided to stay quiet.

Soon, several bottles of wine were set up on the table. I wasn’t sure if I should call it fortunate, but on the edge of the penthouse where I lived, there was a sort of luxury bar. I’d been there a few times before, though not very often.

In other words, I had bought the wine from there.

"So, how much did this house cost?"

"About 9 million dollars. Good grief. With that money, you could buy two Malibu mansions with pools. Not that I’m saying this place is bad, though..."

"If you’re building a house in the heart of a capital city, it better cost that much. Do you think New York’s housing prices are expensive for no reason?"

"I can't believe there's still someone who thinks New York is the capital. The end of the world is truly near."

"I was just giving an example, damn it."

Why, why is everyone debating about my house?

As everyone had a drink, their voices grew louder. Maybe this was the backlash from the day before, when we didn’t have a single drop of alcohol.

Of course, I didn’t plan to just leave them peacefully in my house, and soon, I planned to give them a tour of the area. Since I brought them here, I wanted to show them more than just my house. There was no real reason for it. They were people I had gone through thick and thin with.

So, the next destination was the outdoor swimming pool connected to my house’s veranda.

“I’m lucky to have space big enough to accommodate all these drunks. It’s also nice that no one else is around.”

"People who live here aren't around at this time. They're all busy with their own things."

"Interesting. Then, in a place like this, do they often have exchanges in the evening? Kind of like a high-class social gathering. I’m sure those are quite common here."

"Well, as for me, I've never been invited."

Though once, a middle school kid from the house a bit further away brought some side dishes he made himself, and I accepted them.

The kid already has a thing for people who aren't typical women but rather those with snake tails. There’s a huge problem there.

I’m not planning on taking any responsibility for that.

Anyway, today, Rain and Jin also enjoyed the swimming pool. Of course, entering the water didn’t affect their abilities at all. Even the seawater didn’t seem to matter. I heard their internal restoration function activated automatically, taking care of such things.

So, some lay on the sunbeds, while others enjoyed swimming in the harsh sunlight.

Hundreds of cars were moving along the road, just like the blood vessels of a body.

"How long until the U.S. is back to this state?"

"Shortly, maybe 60 years. Long, maybe 100 years. The people who are still alive need to flourish and reproduce."

"Yeah."

A glance.

Suddenly, multiple gazes crossed. Mine, Logan’s, Lorentina’s, and the other members of the Dagger team all met. Meanwhile, Jin and Rain, with their confused faces, added to the mess.

Without anyone saying anything, the conversation continued.

"...Well, I’m not going to contribute. Are you crazy?"

"That’s... not it."

"Not a guy with bear ears on his head, and of course, a woman. I never imagined that not preserving gender would cause this much trouble."

"Geez, really."

Why does the conversation always end up like this?

Of course, it wasn’t necessarily a wrong thing to say—after all, who would have expected the people here to not only change their bodies but their genders as well?

Anyway, whether it takes 60 or 100 years, it’s still a long time. But none of us could see beyond that. The first reason, of course, was the devices attached to the left or right wrists, and the second was the altered bodies due to the Icarus Gear’s control.

The specific mechanics weren’t clear, but what was certain was that the millions of nanomachines still circulating in my body would keep it in peak condition as long as I was wearing the gear—that is, it would permanently prevent aging.

Even if I got a hole in my body, within seconds, the bleeding would stop, and within just a few dozen seconds, the hole would begin to close up. With such amazing performance, surely aging couldn’t be stopped, right?

"Well, maybe it’ll happen faster than we think."

"That could be."

A brief silence.

But that didn’t mean the atmosphere got heavy. Someone spoke up.

"Since we’re at the youngest’s place, let’s buy some snacks. I’ll bring the turntable too."

"Well, that’s how it is, Eugene. Can I be a bit of a nuisance?"

"Of course. That’s why we’re here."

Of course, it was never a nuisance.

The Dagger Team’s visit to Korea was far from over.

"…Where did everyone go?"

Meanwhile, the driver who had taken the Dagger team to Miami Beach was suddenly facing an empty beach, with no one in sight.