Chapter 87: Siblings
Chapter 87: Siblings
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The Mutated Zombie bolted away, ignoring me even when I shouted.
It pumped both arms powerfully as it ran...
'Huh? Its arm is fine?'
"Boss!"
"I'll deal with that bastard and be right back."
Its sprinting speed was extraordinary.
On top of that, the arm it had used to block my kick was perfectly fine.
It was the toughest and fastest zombie I'd encountered so far.
Even so, I steadily closed the distance until I had nearly caught it.
Kwaaaaak!
Suddenly, zombies burst from the alleyways on both sides and charged at me.
They were small zombies with the builds of young children.
They startled me, but I'd been running so fast that their snapping jaws caught only empty air.
The fleeing Mutated Zombie suddenly stopped.
Behind it stood a seemingly endless number of small zombies arranged in formation.
At the very front stood Eun-ji from the family group and the couple's son, both now zombies.
"Fuck..."
Kwaaaaak!
We hadn't been apart long, yet they had already all been taken down.
I'd only crossed paths with them briefly, but the sight still left a bitter taste.
Before I had time to dwell on it, the Mutated Zombie let out a confident roar.
In an instant, the remaining zombies surged toward me like a crashing wave.
At the sight of that massive tide of zombies, I spun around and fled.
More zombies emerged from the side alleys, while the small ones that had just missed me moved to block my path.
The bastards stretched out their arms and lunged at me with their jaws open.
Tap, Tap, Tap—
I stepped onto the roof of a parked car and leapt.
After kicking off the building wall several times, I sprang onto the rooftop.
I had once watched a parkour video, and I figured footage of me now would go viral.
"Bet you didn't see this coming, you fucks."
Thwack Thwack Thwack Thwack!
The wave of zombies slammed into the building wall.
But the solid concrete building did not budge.
"If you're pissed off, go ahead and climb up here."
I gestured with the baseball bat in my hand and shouted down at the creature.
The Mutated Zombie seemed intelligent, so I tried provoking it.
Keureureureuk, ku-aak!
As though my taunting had worked, the bastard made an irritated sound.
Of course, I might have been imagining the whole thing...
When the bastard screamed again, every zombie hurling itself against the wall stopped at once.
Before long, the horde turned and began filing out of the street behind its leader.
The building wall was left surrounded by mangled, blood-soaked corpses.
"Where do you think you're going? Pay your taxes before you leave!"
I quickly descended from the building and struck the rear of the horde as it moved deeper into Zone C.
I picked up a car from the street and hurled it, then charged into the rear of the horde and began smashing skulls.
Kurrraraarak!
The Mutated Zombie roared even louder than before.
The zombies turned around and rushed at me again.
"Hup."
Tap, Tap, Tap—
With several more leaps, I reached the roof of a nearby building.
The zombie horde hurled itself against the wall just as it had before.
"Heh heh heh. This is one hell of a farming spot. Know what this is?"
I raised my middle finger at the Mutated Zombie.
I suddenly wondered what the hell I was doing, taunting a zombie that couldn't even speak, but the moment of self-awareness didn't stop me.
This rooftop held plenty of things I could throw, including flowerpots and tables.
I grabbed whatever I could find and hurled it down indiscriminately, steadily increasing my Available Points.
Its intelligence apparently wasn't that high, because it seemed completely at a loss.
"Where do you think you're going without me? I'm coming too."
Whenever they retreated, I attacked from behind; whenever they charged, I escaped to a rooftop.
As I continued harassing them without pause, the Mutated Zombie seemed to short-circuit.
There was no way I could abandon an Experience Points event like this.
"I'll keep tormenting you until every last one of you is dead."
Ku-aaaak!
Suddenly, the bastard clutched its head.
It wasn't even human, so why was it acting as though it had a headache?
A moment later, it raised its head again and released a long cry.
At the sound, only part of the horde remained near my building. The rest turned in unison and ran after the Mutated Zombie.
'They can do that?'
The Mutated Zombie and the horde had abruptly changed their behavior, as though the entire atmosphere had shifted.
It seemed that the woman controlling the horde had intervened.
Thinking she might be nearby, I shouted.
"Where the fuck are you! Come out!"
But there wasn't a single human figure in sight.
Then again, it would have been stranger if she had come out simply because I told her to.
It looked as though she intended to sacrifice part of the horde to extract the rest.
But she had seriously underestimated my abilities.
I jumped with all my strength and crossed to the next building.
The zombies left behind chased me, but they were far slower.
I shook them off, caught up with the retreating main force, and attacked it indiscriminately.
Whenever it looked as though they might surround me, I fled back to the rooftops.
I paused on a rooftop, listened carefully, and diligently scanned the surroundings.
She had to be somewhere nearby.
But either she had hidden herself well or she was simply difficult to find.
With no other choice, I continued chipping away at the horde's numbers.
"Ah, shit..."
Unfortunately, my hit-and-run operation appeared to have reached its limit.
I'd been channeling the Vulture, hero of Planet War, and mowing down lings, but the zombie horde retreated into a school athletic field.
The bastards dug in and refused to move any farther.
The person controlling them showed no intention of revealing herself either.
What should I do...?
I kept debating whether to enter a battle of patience with the bastards or simply return to base.
#
"Thank you for the food!"
"Thanks for the meal."
In the end, I returned to base with Deok-hun.
I didn't know how many people were in the enemy group, and a battle of patience against zombies would only put me at a disadvantage.
More zombies could also swarm in from elsewhere.
"Then did that older man die?"
"Yep. I tried to stop the bleeding, but it was no use."
As we ate lunch, Deok-hun explained what he'd experienced to the other raid-party members.
The news that a five-person party that had survived until then had been wiped out shocked everyone.
"But, Boss, how did you get away?"
"The railing around that rooftop was a little high, you know? I pretended to hide, then crawled over to the stairs and went down. I slipped out the back door, climbed through a window into the next building, and escaped by staying hidden as much as possible. They probably never noticed, right?"
"Wow, they'll be shadowboxing with you for a while. Heh heh. Baka."
Deok-hun was right—that was what I had intended—but I didn't know how long the deception would last.
"Tae-sik, those people know where our base is."
"Right. If they try to storm us again, I'll hold off the zombies and take out the people first. This time, I'll intercept them before they reach the barricade."
"Will you be okay?"
"I'll be fine. From what I saw, they can control zombies, but not perfectly. I'm much faster too, so I can always run if things go wrong."
The greatest problem was that the enemy knew the location of our base.
While we ate lunch, we worked together to devise several possible strategies.
If they attacked again, we wouldn't let them leave so easily this time.
That afternoon, I went around the apartment complex installing can alarms.
I concealed them in every place an intruder might hide—the commercial buildings, flower beds around the other apartment blocks, the security office, and more.
If I was lucky, I'd hear one go off. Even if I did not, startling an intruder would still make the traps worthwhile.
I also positioned trucks and other high-clearance vehicles throughout the complex to serve as stepping-stones.
I was creating a path that I could cross by jumping from vehicle to vehicle even if zombies swarmed the complex.
Afterward, I helped repair the barricade and carried down several large boulders from the hill behind the complex.
In that manner, I steadily prepared for a possible intrusion.
"I don't think they'll attack immediately—not today or tomorrow."
"Why?"
"If I were in their position, I'd probably gather more zombies and make a plan before launching another raid."
"If they spend time preparing, that gives us just as much time to prepare, doesn't it?"
After the sun set, I went up to stand night watch.
My first partner that night was Eun-mi.
"Raid Leader, Didn't you reduce their numbers considerably?"
"Yeah. I killed more than fifty."
"And if the person controlling the zombies was nearby, they probably saw you move, Raid Leader. Ever since your ability advanced, you have been flying around like movie CGI. After seeing that, it would make no sense for them to attack the same way they did last time."
"You think so...? But doesn't the number of zombies they can control seem far too high? How many Available Points could they possibly have? That's what I don't understand."
"There's probably something we don't know."
After Eun-mi and I spent some time considering the situation from the enemy's perspective, I climbed down to a corner of the rooftop for a cigarette.
When I finished smoking and climbed back onto the structure we used as a watchtower, Eun-mi was diligently surveying the surroundings.
"Eun-mi, I told you not to be so by-the-book. There's no way we could miss a horde that large moving around."
"Even so, there could be other intruders..."
"It's fine. We've the barricade, and we installed traps on top of it. You can relax a little."
That was what I said, but it was really just an excuse.
Eun-mi stood there in skintight leggings, and her shapely backside held my gaze captive.
The sight of her firm curves made desire well up in me again.
I'd decided to stop worrying about what anyone else thought and give in to my desires.
Seon-yeong had given her tacit permission, and I'd already been intimate with Ga-yeong and So-ra, so there was nothing left holding me back.
"Eun-mi."
"Yes?"
"Come here."
Eun-mi looked at me with uncertainty in her eyes.
I held out my hand and waited in silence.
Gulp.
The sound of Eun-mi swallowing seemed unusually loud.
After taking a deep breath, she stepped between my open arms.
"We are on duty right now..."
Despite her token objection, I enclosed her in my arms and pulled her into an embrace.
Because Eun-mi was standing while I sat, my face pressed against her chest.
I raised my head and silently urged her with my gaze.
Peck.
As though she understood, she lowered her head and kissed me.
She cupped my face in both hands and began entwining her tongue with mine, the kiss gradually growing messier.
"For now, perhaps we should stop here..."
"Lift your arms."
Her words and actions kept contradicting each other.
Ignoring her words, I grasped the hem of her top.
When I indicated that I intended to remove it, Eun-mi looked down at me with a conflicted expression.
We silently held each other's gaze for a moment.