Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Trigger
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1.
Today's Lesson.
Zombie apocalypses are dangerous, so don't try this at home—watch them only in theaters.
“Haa, haa… Fuck… I'm dying….”
My coat and jacket were soaked in blood, discarded long ago.
The originally white shirt was a deep crimson, like it'd been dunked in an inkwell.
My left ring finger and pinky were bent at weird angles, comically swollen.
Stamina: drained like I'd sprinted 40km flat out.
My throat felt like it was burning away.
I'd tangled with zombies, punched, kicked, thrown them….
Anyway, everything but kissing, so who knows if I got bit.
“Fuck if I know. If I did, I'm dead anyway.”
I spat out saliva tinged with the taste of blood.
How many did I kill? How many shots did I fire?
Dozens, maybe triple digits?
I killed the swarming bastards, killed and killed some more.
But to cut to the chase….
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:::Challenge (New!):::
- Survive the infected citizen swarm. +5pt
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Back near my studio apartment, the only one standing on two legs was me, Sedric.
Mission accomplished: survived.
“I survived!!!!!”
I survived so thoroughly, even an extra who dies from letting their guard down couldn't complain.
All thanks to Laplace's Eye and Augmentation's superhuman strength.
But now I got why Isis warned that 'Augmentation eats away at your lifespan and life force.'
I really thought I was gonna die.
Still, an enhancer that chews through lifespan and life force….
Kinda badass, right?
“Ow, my poor bones….”
I barely made it back to the limo and collapsed inside.
Started the engine and lit a cigarette.
“Fuu….”
Inhaling deep, I tasted burning corpses.
“Ha, that's the stuff….”
Short break over, I turned the key.
-Rattle rattle rattle rattle
“What the hell? What's wrong with this thing?”
After our hellish journey together, the limo's condition matched its owner's.
It lurched into motion somehow, but the ride felt like a tractor.
“Ugh, my stomach's churning….”
Seeing the car like this, would Ceres be furious?
Or amazed at how I made it back?
Either way, didn't matter much.
My final mission this round was meeting the shadowy Ceres, whatever it took.
Ask what the fuck Project Z was.
Ask why she fed me that intangible poison.
Ask why she tried to keep me from getting her, despite all that.
Even if she lied, no problem.
I've got the Joker.
One use of 'Grave-Digging Monocle' to unearth the past she wants hidden.
Two uses of 'Truth Coin Toss.'
Use them right to expose Ceres's contradictions.
Time was short.
My body's focus blurred if I slipped even a moment….
Biggest risk: the 'choice' prompt popping up at Arbel's death time, shifting the save point.
Had to avoid that at all costs.
“But… can I even get outta here?”
Post-battle adrenaline got me through.
But three minutes gripping the wheel, and I realized.
No strength left to film a car chase scene like before—not even to hold a spoon.
Luckily, worries of zombies overwhelming me in this state were unfounded.
“Oh, right.”
I'd pulled off a zombie massacre that'd make John Wick tremble.
Yet no follow-up wave.
“If you get bit, you get infected. Hold the big ones!”
“Kill 'em!”
“Kyaaak! Kyaaaak!”
“Minimize damage! Gotta sell the corpses!”
Fixers had been deployed, butchering zombies.
“……!”
Among them, Sunming in his blue changpao, swinging a hammer—looking heroic.
“Damn, he's cool.”
I burned the image of the man I'd eventually break into my eyes, heading for the barricade.
“Halt! Halt! Unauthorized personnel restricted!”
Unlike entry, the barricade was littered with zombie and human corpses.
Both sides who'd tried leaving E Sector, taken out by fixers.
Of course, didn't apply to me.
-Rattle rattle rattle
As the near-wrecked limo puttered by at about 20kph.
“Incognito inspector incoming!!!”
The fixers panicked but cleared the barricade.
2.
I chewed my tongue to stay conscious, nearly blacking out several times.
Ran over a few people midway 'cause I was so drowsy, but it's fine.
This is Necropolis.
Kidding.
Just lightened the mood so I wouldn't collapse and die.
After twists and turns, I reached Ceres's rowhouse.
Barely parked in the garage, took the private elevator that looked ten times better than my studio.
“Ugh….”
Leaning on the wall brought a groan.
Should I wash up before regressing?
Didn't know dried blood felt this sticky.
“Not the time for that.”
What to ask?
Why'd you try to save me?
Why feed me poison?
Play the emotion card first?
Living with her, she didn't seem that heartless.
-Ding!
Elevator doors opened to the entrance hall.
“……?”
My eyebrow twitched.
Something was off.
Stepping out, the entrance was as always.
Long gallery packed with art, impeccably decorated.
But beyond, the living room looked tornado-torn.
“…….”
Not just that.
Shouting from inside.
“What the hell is this?! This ain't what we agreed on!”
One man.
“Shut your filthy trap. I didn't wanna indulge your dirty tastes anyway.”
One woman.
Not Ceres's voice.
Good—they were yelling too loud to hear the elevator.
Fighting in the living room around the corner, unaware of me.
This felt ominous.
Wrecked interior.
A man and woman screaming in someone else's living room.
Ceres wouldn't tolerate that.
Two possibilities.
Deep night at 5 AM, Ceres suddenly left the house, or….
“I kept my promise. I killed Ceres, didn't I?”
What?
I doubted my ears.
Common sense said no way?
Widow Ceres, over 180cm tall.
At least 4th Rank Mage, that terrifying charisma—Ceres dead?
As unimaginable as Jensen Huang, Lee Jae-yong, and Jeong Ui-seon chowing chicken and beer at Gannbuchi.
Snap out of it.
Intel. Gather intel.
Holding my breath, I crept forward.
‘Jackpot!’
Jackpot on a decorative shelf: some kind of plaque.
Like a sniper using a mirror for sightlines, I peered through the plaque.
“You bitch. That's half-kept. We agreed intact body handover, but you shredded it—that's fucking me over! Can't even use it as a toy now!”
The screaming man was a stranger.
But on his fancy black changpao, embroidered turtle shell pattern.
One of Overnus Pharmaceuticals' three families: Hyun Gwi Clan.
“What if shit goes sideways? Eiming, you taking responsibility? Fuck up 'cause of your dirty tastes?”
The woman sounded familiar, and yep—known face.
Gisella Rosenbach, one of Twilight Resource Development's 11 directors.
Remembered her from driving her to HQ.
“What sideways?! Nothing's gonna go wrong!”
“She's dangerous—might pull something right up to the end, y'know?”
Eiming bellowed back at Gisella's retort.
“Fuck! That's why I helped! I tipped your board she was sabotaging the project! I poisoned her to make it easy! Just plucking horns should've sufficed—why butcher her?! Bitch changes tune after taking a piss?”
“Whiny little boy. And now what? Gonna do something about it?”
“What?”
“I handled the traitor. But you? Didn't report properly to HQ 'cause of your nasty hobby?”
“You fucking bitch…! So you have your fun and bail? Think I came unprepared?”
Though reunion with Widow Ceres postponed to next life….
Their convo yielded tons of info.
Felt like Nietzsche descended on my brain.
Understood every thread.
Let's break it down.
First, per monocle: Ceres outed herself as whistleblower.
Leaked Project Z—bioweapon dispersal and mass slaughter—to rival Overnus Pharmaceuticals.
Why? Unknown.
Probably didn't want it happening.
Yet Project Z proceeded.
Why?
'Cause Hyun Gwi Clan's Eiming betrayed her.
He got her intel but didn't pass to Overnus.
Instead, snitched her betrayal to Twilight Resource board.
Why?
Plus, his corpse whining….
Wanted to play with Ceres's body, apparently.
Real civic duty average, fuck….
So Eiming allied with Gisella, poisoned Ceres.
'Traitor' Ceres purged by Twilight director Gisella.
Everything clicks.
Even explains the 'intangible poison' mystery.
Ceres didn't poison me.
We were poisoned together.
I toughed it out with my iron stomach.
Her blocking my exit, lending car over 'family at home'—minimal kindness.
Classic late Widow Ceres.
Strict director gouging eyes at interview, but a busty beauty like that can't be bad, right?
Worlds apart from Gisella's stingy asphalt chest in mercy specs.
…Anyway.
Fuck, dizzy.
What a shithole city.
Even a mage like Ceres dies to office politics?
Got all needed info from the talk.
Next round's plan clear.
‘Good.’
Abandon Ceres route from next round.
Project Z keeps brain-breaking from season 1 through 8.
Even if audiences and critics rage, Necropolis slums left with just zombies—none of my business.
How's a small fry like me supposed to stop it?
Plus, her whistleblowing's already exposed.
Pitch 'let's change the world together' on flimsy justice?
Straight to rainbow bridge together.
Got all intel, no point risking detection and starvation—head out easy.
Not getting caught so far was pure luck.
-Click
That's when I was stuffing the barrel in my mouth.
Bitter gunpowder flooding my taste buds.
I saw something eerie.
Flicker flicker.
Crimson gallery lights slowly flickering.
Rowhouse lights dying quietly like spent candles.
Darkness followed instantly.
-Clack
Footsteps.
-Clack
Clogs that chilled the spine just hearing.
-Clack
Uninvited footsteps from down the hall.
Stopped at the living room where Gisella and Eiming stood.
But the telltale 'light vanishing' phenomenon.
Unique footstep alone told who entered.
“Hello. Looks like you two are having a fun chat without me.”
Sliced my neck twice, delisted all that Universal Currency.
Not enough—slashed defenseless Arbel.
Necropolis Day 16, 5 AM.
“Mind if I join?”
Samurai Beach descended on Necropolis.