Chapter 132
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 132
Chapter Title: The Blade Zombie Culprit
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Having left the nursery behind with no survivors, I took all the food and supplies.
The dead are dead, and the living have to keep living. These were probably things the people here had diligently gathered, so I'll put them to good use.
I stored everything I'd grabbed from the nursery in my Subspace and headed outside to hunt down the mutant zombie as requested.
I can't imagine how much resentment must have built up for her to beg me to kill it in her final moments. Normally, people prioritize their own lives and plead to be spared.
Yet she asked for revenge instead, which means she couldn't forgive the sight of that monster slaughtering innocent children.
I'll think of it as praying for the souls of the dead and avenge them in her place.
The problem is, I still don't know for sure which bastard did this, or even where it went.
The only clues are that the dying woman mentioned a mutant zombie as the culprit, and it used something sharp to kill people.
It probably had something like a blade attached to its body and used it to massacre the kids, then finished off the man and woman who ran the nursery.
I figure I'll recognize it easily once I spot it... but finding where it's gone is the real issue.
With no obvious leads, I decided to scour the area for anything that might serve as a clue.
As I wandered around checking things out, I noticed something off.
"But why aren't there any zombies around here?"
Strangely, zombies were nowhere to be seen in the vicinity, despite being everywhere else.
Zombies spawn fresh every morning, so every area should have them without exception.
That leaves two possibilities.
Either someone wiped out all the newly spawned zombies, or they lured the ones here away somewhere else.
But the first option seems unlikely unless it was someone on my level.
If a real fight went down and they took out every zombie, there'd be traces of battle left behind—but there aren't any.
When fighting zombies with weapons, you're bound to leave marks on the ground or building walls.
Swinging close-range weapons leaves deep footprints, or missed shots from guns punch holes in walls. But nothing like that here.
Unless you're like me, using Mana Drain to instantly turn zombies into lifeless husks devoid of demonic energy, it's realistically tough.
So, probably the second scenario?
For some reason, someone here lured the zombies away, and they all followed, leaving the area clear.
Whether intentional or accidental, people making noise to draw aggro happens all the time.
But after a moment's thought, I realized that didn't fit either.
If zombies were lured away by a person, there should be traces of their movement on the ground—but there aren't any.
That's weird.
Zombies definitely spawned here too, yet there's not a single sign of them.
And no signs of living people nearby either.
It's like a city where only death remains.
Just as I was wondering what the hell happened, a lone zombie slowly emerged from a distant building.
So it wasn't completely zombie-free after all—or so I thought, until something sharp burst rapidly through the zombie's gut.
Thick as a human torso, it pierced right through. As the impaled zombie was hoisted upward, the attacker slowly came into view, passing by the building.
A hulking brute over 3 meters tall—clearly a mutant zombie, but unlike any I'd seen before.
Its unnaturally proportioned body made its elongated arms and legs look grotesque.
The standout feature? Razor-sharp blades at the ends of both arms.
That's what it used to skewer the zombie ahead of it.
But why would a mutant zombie stab a regular one?
No reason at all—yet as I watched intently, it gave me the answer.
It lifted the zombie impaled on its blade-arm, then gaped its mouth wide—jaw unhinging all the way past its throat.
Krunch!
It devoured the zombie in one bite like a tasty snack, chewing it to bits before swallowing it down.
The reason for the mutant zombie's attack was simple.
It was hungry.
That's it. Just pure, primal hunger.
"Holy shit."
The absurd sight had me swearing before I knew it.
- Grrr...
I hadn't even spoken loudly, but it whipped its head toward me anyway.
Raising the blades on both arms, it charged straight at me.
"Reacting to that? Damn good ears on you. Fine by me, though."
A normal person might turn tail at the sight of a blade zombie barreling down, but I rushed forward to meet it.
Its little display explained why there were no zombies around.
For whatever reason, this thing ate every last one in the area, wiping them out completely.
That cleared up the lack of battle traces or movement signs too.
Dumb zombies wouldn't fight back against a fellow mutant they saw as one of their own, and they wouldn't flee either.
Even the one I just saw went into its maw without a struggle right up to the end.
In other words, every zombie here became this blade zombie's meal.
And combining the blade arms with "mutant zombie"? Yeah, this has to be the nursery killer.
Anyone who couldn't see that would have to be an idiot.
Not just the nursery—probably everyone else around here too, killed or eaten by this freak.
The moment I laid eyes on it, rage boiled up from my head to my toes.
- Raaargh!
As the distance closed completely, it swung its arms at me with all its might.
I ducked under the attack leisurely, closed in, and smashed my fist into its head with everything I had.
Bam!
It toppled backward from the single blow. I leaped atop it and clenched my fist again, slamming down hard.
Bam!
"You fucking bastard! Die!"
Bam!
Bam!
Bam!
I kept pounding its skull with fury-fueled punches until it was a mangled pulp.
But contrary to expectations that it'd die from a shattered head, it swung its blades at me even then. I backed off before they could connect.
"Still alive with your head smashed? You're a real freak, huh. Oh?"
Looking closer, its head was slowly regenerating back to normal.
"You've got all kinds of tricks."
Unlike regular zombies, it wouldn't die from head trauma—so killing it was straightforward.
With its head still reforming, it lunged at me, swinging wildly. Faster than before, but still no threat.
I quickly summoned my Dark Flame Sword, forming a blade of black fire in my hand, and slashed at speeds it couldn't react to.
As it raised its other arm for the next attack, that one couldn't defy gravity and plummeted.
It froze seeing its arm fall, then tried something—only for its head to detach. The rest followed, collapsing into chunks.
"Try regenerating from that. Bet a dismembered body is harder to fix."
I looked down at it writhing, trying to move its severed parts.
Whether it understood or not, with arms and legs gone, it gaped wide to bite my throat anyway.
I shredded its body into oblivion.
"That was your mistake. Daring to devour all my coins."
One reason alone for my rage:
This thing ate all the zombies, erasing every coin I could've claimed.
Stealing my coins? Unforgivable, even a hundred deaths over.
"Ugh, because of this asshole... Pay up my coins, you fucker!"
The more I thought about it, the madder I got.