Chapter 13: Exploring A Ruin For The First Time

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After checking his armor and weapons again, Su Mo beckoned Oreo over and opened the shelter’s wooden door as he walked out.

Currently, his remaining survival points were sufficient for him to upgrade his weapons and defensive items.

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However, the purpose of Su Mo’s trip was not to fight.

From his information gathering yesterday, no one had talked about what the monsters were like in the ruins.

The unknown was always the scariest.

“If there was no danger in the ruins, someone would have explored deeper long ago…

“However, no one talked about what it was like inside. The most likely reason is probably because people who have ventured deeper are all dead… Even if I upgraded my weapons, I wouldn’t be able to do much with my current combat abilities!”

It was important to know one’s limitations.

Although Su Mo frequently exercised, he did not think that his current combat abilities could compare to the combat abilities of special soldiers.

Essentially, he was just an ordinary person with a little bit of strength.

“We must be extremely careful not to get hurt, Oreo. Come on.”

The fog outside the ruin was like a mosaic. Even though he was only a hundred meters away now, its effect still obscured the outsider’s vision.

Su Mo crouched low and smiled as he beckoned Oreo who was poking around.

“Woof woof! Woof woof!”

When Oreo saw Su Mo’s gesture, it ran over intimately and burrowed into Su Mo’s arms, rubbing its head forcefully on him.

It initially tried its best to pretend to look serious but that look on its face instantly collapsed. With a hint of mischief, it licked Su Mo’s chin.

“Okay, okay. After we enter the ruin, I’m going to give you a task.”

In all honesty, Su Mo definitely did not think that Oreo’s clinginess was because of the influence of his personality.

‘Mmhmm…

‘It’s definitely not!’

After Oreo heard what Su Mo said, its ears pricked up and it looked as if it was listening seriously.

“When we go inside later, don’t stray too far from me. Make sure you’re at most five meters away from me and if you sense any danger, immediately warn me so that we’ll retreat along the way we came in. Understand?”

Oreo tilted its head and after two seconds, it nodded, indicating that it understood.

“That’s a good dog! When we go in later, we may encounter other creatures, so remember that they are the enemy. Don’t be so stupid to run over to them or you’ll be as good as dead.”

After Su Mo said that, he stood up, took his Japanese Oak Spear out of his inventory and gripped it in his hand. Then, he walked firmly toward the ruin.

He was around ten or so meters away from it now.

Su Mo finally got a good look at the structure inside the ruin.

The outside consisted of low mud walls about two or three meters high with gray and black scorch marks that made it look as if the structure had experienced the flames of war.

The bizarre situation not only did nothing to dispel Su Mo’s doubts, but it also made him even more curious.

Judging from the information available so far…

It seemed that the ruin was not from a very modern civilization, at least there should not be anything beyond his understanding.

After tightening his grip on the spear and waving Oreo to his side, Su Mo gathered his courage and dove into the fog.

“The smell… is a bit strange.”

As soon as he passed through the fog, Su Mo was on high alert and began to observe the surroundings with full concentration.

[Record]: You have entered a ruin.

[Record]: The game panel identification function is turned off. Please use it after exiting the ruin.

The sudden system sound startled Su Mo. At the same time, the fog seemed to have received some sort of signal or stimulus and began to dissipate within a five-meter radius.

Su Mo did not dare to venture any deeper and started to circle along the periphery of the ruins. He probably walked for about twenty minutes but still had yet to circle back to the spot he entered from.

“Is this ruin that big?”

Su Mo wondered silently to himself and he began to track back along the path he came from.

Doomsday survival was not a novel. Recklessly entering without thinking was what a novel protagonist would do. If he asked himself honestly, he would remind himself that he did not have that type of courage to be so bold as to charge straight ahead into the unknown.

After he got back to his starting point, Su Mo began to walk forward.

The yellow earth beneath his feet was like country roads with uneven paths.

As he walked along the mud walls, his field of vision suddenly widened when he reached the end of the corner.

A paifang-like structure stood upright on the ground not far away.

As Su Mo’s gaze started from the bottom and slowly moved up, his good eyesight allowed him to make out the words in the middle of the paifang hidden in the mist immediately. It read—

“Liangfang… Town?”

“A town?”

When he saw the familiar name, Su Mo did not feel a warm sense of familiarity like he was seeing his hometown, but instead a cold chill ran down his spine.

Oreo, who was beside him, also looked as if they had met a big enemy. Initially, it was energetically jumping and sniffing around, but the moment it saw the paifang, it suddenly crouched on the ground and stared angrily ahead!

Goosebumps appeared all over Su Mo’s body as he took in the stimulating scene in front of him!

Looking deep into the fog behind the paifang of Liangfang Town, instinctively, Su Mo sensed there was something wrong and decisively retreated quickly along the path.

He was in a Doomsday world, and was looking at something that resembled a ghost town surrounded by fog.

Only a few people would be brave enough to go in and continue exploring!

He did not know whether the ruins that other people encountered also looked like the entrance to hell, but he was sure that if he went inside to search with his current equipment and combat abilities, he would definitely be in great danger.

As Su Mo exited around the corner, the fog behind him slowly began to close in again, gradually burying the paifang.

As he walked along the mud walls, Su Mo had a foolish idea.

Since the town looked too dangerous to enter, he thought that he might as well just find a way to cut through the mud walls to see what was inside the farmhouses by the roadside.

“Oreo, keep a lookout for me.”

After Su Mo called out, he cautiously walked to the spot where he started from and began to survey the construction of the mud wall.

They looked like the normal walls made of mud in the countryside. Su Mo poked at it with his Japanese Oak Spear and immediately, a small piece came off.

‘It worked!’

When Su Mo saw that the walls were not as strong as he initially thought, he became excited and began to pull out his iron axe as he slashed at the walls, one slash at a time.

With every slash against the wall, Su Mo was full of energy as he listened to the sound of the powerful contact, watching mud pieces falling off.

The wall was about half a meter thick and collapsed in less than five minutes with a loud rumble.

From the middle of the wall, he created an opening big enough for about three people to pass through at the same time.

When he peeked inside from the opening, he could vaguely see old rural-style brick houses.

There were three brick houses; all three looked the same.

“Oreo, sniff and tell me if there’s any danger nearby.”

As Su Mo crouched against the mud wall, he looked curiously inside the house.

Each room was padlocked and it looked like the owner had gone out. There were barely any signs of life inside the place.

Su Mo finished surveying the outside of the house and looked at Oreo.

Oreo’s ears perked up to listen for a bit, then it crouched on the ground for a bit as it sniffed. Finally, the dog shook its head, indicating that there was no scent of creatures inside.

After Su Mo stowed his Japanese Oak Spear away, he held the iron axe in his hand as he stepped one foot inside the compound, on full alert.

Even though it seemed like he was just messing around, he was actually already trying to figure out an escape route.

From the courtyard to the outside of the ruin, the distance should be around thirty meters based on the number of steps he took.

The running speed of an adult in a terrain like this was around five meters per second, so even if he entered the house to explore, leaving the ruin would only take less than ten seconds for him if he sensed anything amiss.

One step at a time, Su Mo stepped extremely cautiously toward the center of the compound as his eyes randomly swept past the next three houses.

Poof!

A black shadow flashed by and crashed into Su Mo’s ceramic plate armor, knocking Su Mo onto the ground.

With a low growl, Su Mo lifted his head and was shocked to see a terrifyingly shaped… wolfdog!