The Dead Tell No Tales
Licker.
Like the Mutants, that monster possessed intelligence of its own.
No—every horrific creature that would appear from here on out had intelligence.
But the intelligence of Lickers and monsters like them differed from that of Mutants.
It was the intelligence of the wild. Of pure instinct.
Intelligence specialized solely for hunting down prey and devouring it.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!!!
Inside the cramped elevator, bullets screamed loud enough to rupture eardrums, and every last one of them slammed into a body.
Not the Licker’s—into the corpse of a dead soldier the thing had hurled at us.
I twisted aside, dodging the flying corpse while keeping my muzzle trained on the still-closing doors.
I fired.
The instant the creature that had vanished from sight reappeared, I squeezed the trigger again.
Come on out, you monster bastard.
“Aaaaaaah!!!!!!”
Min-gu’s scream filled the elevator as the corpse he couldn’t dodge crashed down on top of him.
But I had no luxury of looking back.
I couldn’t tear my eyes from the doors that still hadn’t fully shut.
“Ah…”
A short gasp slipped from my lips.
Right. Intelligence wasn’t the real problem.
When you thought of a Licker, that was the first thing you should have remembered.
Like a handful of other special monsters, it could control the dead.
More precisely, the tiny larvae a Licker vomited up took a human corpse as a host and puppeteered it—until they had drained enough nutrients.
“Gi-hun!!”
“Aaaaaaaaah!!!!”
Min-gu’s screams kept coming from behind me, but I didn’t turn.
I left him to Gi-hun.
Jae-yeol, Su-ho, and I had to get back on our feet and stop the soldiers charging us.
“Save your bullets!!”
I thrust the bayoneted rifle straight forward.
Su-ho and Jae-yeol on either side of me did the same.
If shooting could have bought us time until the elevator doors closed, we would have done it.
But the dead soldier’s corpse had already slid across the floor and forced the closing doors open again, so every round had to be conserved.
You didn’t waste bullets on something already dead.
Those bullets were meant for the Licker that had just vanished right in front of us.
Shunk!!!
The military bayonet punched clean through the forehead of a charging soldier.
If it had been an ordinary zombie, that would have been the end of it.
But the host soldier only pushed forward harder, as if inviting the blade deeper, and reached for me with both hands.
“Juhan!!”
“Hyung!!”
Su-ho and Jae-yeol on either side were just as rattled by the same situation, but I couldn’t afford to panic.
I had to think, not panic.
I had to remember.
How the hell did you kill a host controlled by a Licker’s larva?
Licker…! Licker…!!
“Out of the way!!”
Gi-hun, gauntleted hand shoved deep into the mouth of the host that had piled onto Min-gu, hurled the soldier’s corpse out between Su-ho and me.
“Min-gu?!”
“I-I’m fine..!!”
“Hey! Why won’t these things die?! And the fact that they don’t scream makes it even more fucking creepy!!”
“Juhan-hyung!!”
“Hey! Move your foot!!”
The soldier’s corpse sprawled on the floor—the one that had forced the elevator doors open again—lunged its gaping mouth at my left foot.
Hosts made no sound, just like Gi-hun said, which made them even harder to deal with.
Thankfully Min-gu’s frantic shout and Gi-hun’s quick reaction let me yank my foot back just in time.
“See?! Even if you smash their heads they keep going!!”
Gi-hun bellowed as he crushed the skull of the prone soldier with a gauntleted fist like he was breaking roof tiles.
Thanks for the help, but for fuck’s sake shut up..!! Let me think..!!!
“Ah!!”
I remembered.
The way to stop a host corpse.
Thud!!!
I kicked the chest of the soldier still locked with me—bayonet buried in its forehead—then slammed the rifle downward so the blade pointed at the floor.
Shunk!! Shunk!!!!
The feeling was different.
The military bayonet had pierced not one thing, but two.
“Huh?? This bastard’s not moving anymore!!”
“The neck!! Aim for the neck!!!”
The neck.
When a Licker performed its ritual on a human corpse, it vomited up a larva about the size of a palm.
The larva slid straight down the host’s throat and settled there.
It then sucked the nutrients from the body; whatever it still lacked, it made the host corpse go out and fetch.
Once the larva had stored enough inside its tiny body, it ate the host from the inside out for its final meal and crawled free.
Then, in some safe place, it slept peacefully and poured every accumulated nutrient into growing from palm-sized larva into a full adult Licker.
That was how you got the thing standing before us now—an alien-like adult Licker a full two heads taller than my own 183 cm.
“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!”
Whether it sensed its larvae dying or not, the Licker that had vanished reappeared.
Tatatatatatatang!!!!!!!
I poured every bullet I had saved into the creature without mercy.
Thud!! Thud-thud!!!
This time several rounds definitely hit home.
As the Licker twisted aside and vanished again, a disgusting purple fluid sprayed from its body in thick spatters.
“Hah… hah… hah…”
“W-what the hell was that just now..?”
“Hyung… that monster….”
Min-gu and Jae-yeol stared at me half-dazed, but this was no time for questions and answers. We needed to reorganize.
“Magazines first.”
“Ah..! H-here! I didn’t shoot so I don’t need to change!”
“Min-gu, give me one too.”
“Yes!”
“Gi-hun-hyung, need a mag?”
“I didn’t shoot either, I’m good. More importantly, you better explain later. Safe my ass..!!”
The instant Gi-hun jabbed a finger at me demanding answers—
Kuuung!!!
A deafening crash shook the entire elevator.
“Uwaaah!!!!”
Min-gu, mid-handing magazines to Su-ho and me, screamed. Gi-hun, still pointing, instantly grabbed the rifle hanging from his shoulder strap and aimed it at the elevator ceiling.
“Die!!!!”
My eardrums nearly burst for real.
The crazy bastard was emptying his gun inside a closed elevator.
“Is it dead..?”
No. It wasn’t dead.
Red blood dripped steadily through the riddled ceiling, but the Licker I had shot had sprayed that disgusting purple fluid, not red blood.
Which meant whatever had landed on the ceiling was a soldier’s corpse.
“Not the monster—a soldier. That thing’s blood is purple.”
“Am I supposed to be relieved or disappointed..!”
But something felt off. Why?
Why still no quest?
A red quest popping up right in front of my face wouldn’t have been strange at all right now.
The Licker that had just appeared was probably more dangerous than any weak Mutant.
No—it was more dangerous.
Yet not even a regular blue quest appeared, let alone a red one.
Don’t tell me I’ve gotten so strong without dying that it won’t even give me quests anymore?
“This perverted god bastard..!!”
“Huh?”
“Nothing. Get ready. We’re almost there. We bail the second the doors open.”
“Yes.”
“Got it.”
Everyone swapped magazines and trained their muzzles on the closed elevator doors.
That was a mistake.
Kwaaak!!!!!!
Another violent crash rocked the elevator hard.
When Gi-hun and I turned to look at each other, something thick and black like a massive spike—no, the Licker’s tail—was thrashing between us.
“You said it was a soldier!!!!”
“Shoot!!!!”
Gi-hun and I, Su-ho and Jae-yeol, even Min-gu this time all aimed at the ceiling and pulled our triggers.
While the deafening gunfire still rang, the elevator reached B1 and the doors opened. We bolted straight out and into the underground parking garage.
Everything was chaos.
The thunderous gunfire in that tiny space left my ears ringing and my head foggy.
But even so, I could still recognize what was waiting for us.
Everyone could.
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
There were more soldiers.
Host soldiers.
Tadadadadak!!
Tadadadak!!
Tadadak!!
Tadadadadak!!
Had the soldier corpses been clinging to the ceiling like before and only dropped late?
There were at least ten host soldiers.
If they had been ordinary zombies or the half-controlled corpses we fought upstairs, it wouldn’t have been a problem. But the larvae seemed fully settled this time.
Which meant they could move like that.
Kuuung! Whoosh—
One host stomped on a car roof and launched itself at me.
This much was still manageable.
Shunk!!!
I drove the bayoneted military knife into the descending host’s neck and swung the rifle sideways in the same motion.
Thud!!
I smashed aside another host that had closed the distance without a sound—unlike zombies—then yanked the lightened rifle back and thrust it forward with everything I had.
Shunk!!!!
Their movements were nothing like the zombies we knew, and completely different even from the corpses upstairs.
The reason dead soldiers could suddenly move like this was that the Licker’s larvae had taken full control of their hosts.
The webtoon never explained it clearly, but once a larva settled in the neck and enough time passed, the dead host became a monster that retained every physical stat it had possessed in life.
Stamina, mental, durability stats and skills didn’t carry over, of course.
Their movement was basically just a zombie with boosted strength and agility.
But that alone was more than dangerous enough.
Especially when the Licker that had punched its tail through the elevator ceiling could smash through that door and charge into the parking garage at any second.
Still, there was one silver lining.
The host corpses were completely silent.
“No guns. No loud noises either. The sound will draw every zombie around.”
I gave the order as quietly as possible and yanked the military bayonet free of the rifle, gripping it in my hand.
Shhhk!!!
I shortened the shoulder strap so the rifle sat tight against my back, grabbed a charging soldier’s face, and drove the bayonet into its neck.
“These things aren’t zombies. Getting bitten won’t infect you. That doesn’t mean you should go looking to get bitten, but you don’t have to fight while worrying about a hundred different things either.”
Whether they were listening while fighting or not, everyone shortened their straps and locked their rifles tight to their bodies.
Then they used their own weapons to take on the host soldiers.
Shunk!!
Thwack!!
Slash!
Thud-thud!!!
Su-ho speared necks with his spear, Min-gu chopped them with his hand axe, Jae-yeol severed them with his machete, and Gi-hun simply pounded the necks of downed hosts with his fists like he was crushing garlic.
The number of host soldiers dropped fast.
One left.
Shunk!!!
I drove the bayonet already buried in its neck even deeper from the side, then ripped it free.
Ssssshhhhh—
A sticky mixture of red blood and purple fluid sprayed out.
And through those spurting droplets, our eyes met.
“……”
“……”
No—why the hell are they here?!
The protagonist of this webtoon and his party—Baek Sihyeon and the others!!!
Witnesses exist who saw the soldiers being killed. Escape the military’s dragnet.
🎁 Success: Military Suspicion
💀 Failure: Marked for Elimination by the Military
(※Dead men tell no tales.)
Dead men… tell no tales…?
You crazy perverted god bastard!!!
Are you telling me to kill the protagonist… no, the entire party?!!
This is the webtoon you made, and he’s the protagonist of that webtoon!!
Don’t tell me you’re trying to stop me from sticking to the protagonist like a mosquito and sucking him dry?
Even so, you don’t kill the protagonist because of me!!
And you call yourself the author who created this work?!
You should have at least the bare minimum of affection for your own characters!!
“This fucking…!!”
A curse slipped out on its own at the black quest the perverted god had just handed me.
No matter how I looked at it, this was wrong.
Kill the protagonist?
Without the protagonist buff, could I even survive all the dangers still coming?
Of course I knew the protagonist’s route, so I could just avoid those dangers and live.
But the perverted god would keep throwing completely absurd quests at me no matter where I went, just like always.
Just like it had forced me to meet Mutants and Lickers before their proper debut, just like it had manufactured forced conflict with the soldiers, just like it was now telling me to kill the protagonist’s party.
The only thing that could protect me from that perverted god was sticking right next to the protagonist who absolutely never died no matter what trials and hardships came.
Yeah. This was the perverted god’s scheme.
The protagonist wouldn’t die anyway.
Even if I got struck by lightning down here in the basement, the god would never let the protagonist die by my hand.
So I just had to clear the quest another way.
For example, like this.
Click!!
I raised the muzzle.
Not at Baek Sihyeon—at his companions.
More precisely, at the other protagonist of this webtoon, the heroine: Yu Eunseol.
Damn, she’s really cold.
Seeing those icy eyes in real life is actually a little scary..?
“……”
How does she not even flinch with a gun pointed at her.
Tough bitch.
“E-Eunseol..! What are you doing?! Put that gun down right n—!!”
“Shut up. Shut up and listen carefully to everything I say from now on.”
“……”
I looked at Baek Sihyeon—who was even more panicked than Yu Eunseol staring down the barrel—and dropped my voice low, laying on the atmosphere thick.
The ringing from the gunfire had finally faded; my ears were working again.
I could hear them.
Those sounds.
Wooooooooom..!!!
Wooooooooom..!!!
Tadadadadadat!!
Tadadadadat!!
Rough, heavy engine noise and footsteps closing in fast.
Soldiers.
The military had brought reinforcements and come back for this place.
So there was no time.
“You people saw nothing. No—you saw other people, not us. Figure out who you saw yourselves. Otherwise you’ll never see this woman again. Alive, that is.”
“Then take me as the hostage instead…!”
“You’re coming with us. Watching your comrades die right in front of you—”
“Let’s go.”
“Huh..?”
“Aren’t we going? You can’t run into the soldiers, right?”
“….This way.”
Why is she so confident?
Anyone watching would think we came to escort her.
Anyway, this had been the right answer after all.
Even the hidden conditions had been met.
Quest Complete!
Success rewards have been issued.
Military Suspicion acquired.
Hidden conditions have been fulfilled.
▶ Resolve the witnesses without physical conflict — Complete
▶ Take Yu Eunseol hostage — Complete
Additional rewards have been issued.
But if we go this way instead of that way…
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!”
We’re fucked.
This again.
Survive the approaching threat.
🎁 Success: ???
🎁 Success: ???
💀 Failure: Death