The Parasitic Mutant
The timer hit [00:00:00]. A message materialized in the air.
The first slave candidate has been located. You must capture them before the time limit expires for the enslavement process to begin.
‘Time limit?’ A map appeared before my eyes. My current location and the candidate’s position were marked with icons. Next to the slave candidate icon was the number 30.
“That’s the time limit?”
Correct. In thirty hours, the candidate will attempt a reckless escape, unable to endure the hunger and fear. Leaving your current location will jeopardize the candidate’s safety.
So I had to capture them before that. The location was Dongshin Middle School, roughly two hundred meters away. I had plenty of time, but if these restrictions kept popping up, it would become a nuisance.
“Does every slave candidate come with a time limit?”
No. Candidates in safe locations or those capable of protecting themselves do not receive time limits.
At least not all of them did. This candidate was in a dangerous spot, so I needed to secure them before they did something stupid.
Time Remaining: 29:59:59
The counter appeared again. I was seeing it so often I was starting to get used to it. I pulled a golf club from the bag slung over my shoulder. I had found it while looting the fourth floor. It was definitely lighter than the aluminum bat, and the swing felt different. I kept the aluminum bat inside the bag as well, ready to pull out at any moment.
‘Let’s move.’
*
The moment I left the one-room alley, a wandering zombie spotted me.
“Grrraaah…”
One zombie noticed me and bared its teeth. The others nearby all turned their heads in unison. I adjusted my grip on the golf club and charged toward the group. It was time to hunt.
One hour later—
Experience has increased by 1.
Experience has increased by 1.
Experience has increased by 1.
“Haa… haa…”
After swinging the golf club like a madman, I found myself in front of the school. Following the system’s advice, I opened my status window to check my level.
I had reached my target level. I had killed nearly fifty zombies within a two-hundred-meter radius. I distributed the points evenly across my stats and put an extra point into Strength to prepare for unexpected variables.
My hearing remained the same, but my eyesight had improved. Earlier, I couldn’t see anything inside the school building. Now I could make out shadows moving between the windows—silhouettes of zombies wandering the hallways.
‘They must be hiding somewhere in there. Since I’m already here, I might as well loot the place.’
It was a school, so there would be a cafeteria. The storage room there would be a good spot to scavenge. With one more mouth to feed, I needed to stock up as much as possible.
The school’s iron gate was twisted like taffy. It was a mess from the entrance onward. A half-eaten corpse was wedged between the iron barricades. It looked like the security guard who had tried to protect the students.
The schoolyard beyond the barricade felt off.
‘Why is it so quiet?’
Torn bodies and zombie corpses were scattered everywhere. It made sense—students, teachers, and people who had fled here would have turned the yard into this slaughterhouse. But there wasn’t a single standing zombie. There were zombies inside the building, yet none on the schoolyard. It was as if something had wiped out both the zombies and the humans.
“Grrraaah…”
Something emerged from behind the building. An enormous wild dog.
‘Ah, fuck…’
It was a mutant. Humans turned into zombies, but animals, plants, and insects became monsters no one had ever seen before. I had first encountered a low-grade mutant several months after the apocalypse began. I had let my guard down, and now, just two days later, I was facing this damned thing.
I took a swing stance and created distance. Zombies could be finished by destroying the head, but mutants required destroying the core. Boss-grade mutants had cores in varying locations, but most low-grade ones had them in the heart. I observed its movements while gauging the core’s position. This one was acting strangely, just like the schoolyard.
‘Something’s off.’
It walked out of rhythm, its legs trembling as if its suddenly enlarged body was too much to handle. The mutants I knew were powerful enough to give even Awakened a hard time, but this one looked nothing like them.
‘An incompletely assimilated host. In that case…’
I had fought hundreds of mutants over the past three years. I knew which ones appeared frequently, what their weaknesses were, and how to deal with each. This thing had probably swept through the schoolyard, devouring every human and zombie it came across. The building was untouched because, like low-grade zombies, it lacked the intelligence to open doors. If it still had any instincts from when it was a dog, it might have thought to break through the windows, but all that remained was an insatiable appetite.
A half-baked mutant like this was something even a newbie Awakened like me could handle. I widened the distance and sprinted toward the barricade at the school entrance. The dog let out a roar and gave chase, but there was no way it could match my speed with that awkward gait. I vaulted over the barricade and changed direction. My target was the mutant charging with its jaws wide open. The barricade was heavy enough that three people would struggle to move it, but to an Awakened like me, it was lighter than a shopping cart.
“Raaagh—!!”
I pushed the barricade at full speed. Startled by something rushing toward it instead of me, the dog slowed down, but I was faster. Its head slipped through the gap in the barricade. I didn’t miss the timing and flipped the barricade over.
“Kraaaang—!!”
It struggled, but the weight of the barricade pinned it down. I drove the sashimi knife I had taken from the thugs into its exposed belly and dragged it downward, spilling its guts.
With a piercing scream, something burst out from between the intestines. I had expected it, so I snatched it midair. It looked like a cross between a snake and a squid—a mutant. Before my regression, I had caught them with nets and hacked them apart with axes. Now that I was Awakened, that wasn’t necessary. I squeezed the arm I had grabbed, and it popped like a balloon.
It was a parasitic mutant that had tormented my looting party before the regression. A parasite that had been inside a zombie had mutated into a monster. Unable to shake its parasitic instincts, it constantly sought a new host. It usually parasitized four-legged animals, and it took time to fully dominate the host. In other words, I had gotten lucky and faced an incompletely assimilated mutant. If it had been perfectly fused with its host, even level five might have been a struggle.
You have achieved the first kill on a mutant. Congratulations!
First Kill Reward: +10pt
‘Whoa, a reward.’
My first mutant kill had given me a first-kill reward. And it was the highly coveted stat points! Even after raising each stat by two, I would still have two points left. This time, I should definitely…
Producing a production-type slave requires additional points beyond stat increases. It is not recommended to spend all available points. Please maintain a reserve of approximately five points at all times.
The system blocked me from using the points. There were other uses for them besides raising stats. For now, the system was my only lifeline, so I had no choice but to listen. I invested one point into each stat and kept six in reserve.
‘That’s enough for now.’
I looked up at the school building. A shadow appeared at a third-floor classroom window and then vanished. Even focusing my perception, I felt no killing intent. That meant the person wasn’t hostile.
‘The slave candidate.’
I cleared the zombies near the stairs and rushed up to the third floor in one go. There were still zombies wandering the third-floor hallway—about ten of them. They caught my scent and let out howls as they approached. I casually smashed their heads with the golf club and opened the classroom door.
‘Hmm…’
Desks and chairs were scattered everywhere. A teacher’s podium stood in the corner. A dark shadow was visible beneath it. I didn’t have time to negotiate, so I shouted.
“I know you’re there. Come out!”
The podium scraped across the floor, and something rose from underneath.
“Ugh, hic… P-please, help me…”
It was a woman covered head to toe in filth. I couldn’t even tell what she looked like.
*
“Um, I…”
“Forget it. Go wash up in the bathroom.”
“What?”
“You stink. Go wash.”
She was disgusting.
“But, um… there are monsters in the hallway…”
“I already killed them. Go wash.”
“What if… you leave while I’m gone?”
“For fuck’s sake, have you only ever been betrayed? Just go wash already.”
“Eek!”
She ran into the bathroom. I had gone through all this trouble for her. No way I was leaving her behind.
“Kyaaaaah!!”
She came running back out immediately.
““Grrraaah…””
Two zombies were chasing her. She had been in such a hurry she hadn’t checked the bathroom. I pushed her behind me and smashed their heads with the golf club. She was trembling behind me, so I stepped closer.
‘Huh?’
I hadn’t gotten a good look earlier because we were apart, but I recognized her face.
‘Why is she here…?’