57. Strange Group (1)
57. Strange Group (1)
I arrived at Eunha University.
The university campus landscape was quiet, perhaps because Kim Su-hyeok's group had all disappeared.
The buildings, bearing only the traces of destruction left by the Abomination, exuded a cold air.
ㅡTak
ㅡTak
I entered the building presumed to be the cafeteria and examined the interior.
'That's right, this is where they ate school meals, and there's a snack bar and a GP Convenience Store next to it.'
The interior was completely empty, as if people had been looting it for months.
The inside of the convenience store had also been picked clean of anything decent.
There were no Infected either, but judging by the traces of blood and flesh, it seemed Kim Su-hyeok's gang had cleared this area out.
'I guess Paralysis really is a good ability.'
No, it was a good ability.
Because a human without a superpower would just die without being able to do anything.
Didn't my own body stop moving just a moment ago?
'Come to think of it, I should have asked about the conditions or something.'
If it's paralysis, well, is it 'paralyze' in English? Something like that. Or wait, is 'paralyze' petrification? Whatever.
It would be annoying if I ran into another paralysis ability user later.
'I should practice moving my body by manipulating metal or something.'
Since I'll be meeting various Ability Users in the future.
Infected, IN Company, and even unknown superpowers.
Come to think of it, seeing how the Nexus Core gauge rises when I kill Infected with a gun, and how eating the blood of an Infected grants a Nexus Core superpower, it's clear that they are connected.
'Though it's unlikely that humans created that.'
I wonder if I could find the truth if I found the real headquarters of IN Company or their leaders.
Well, that's a story for the distant future.
I searched other buildings too.
There were no survivors.
Just traces of survivors everywhere. Well, they couldn't lie because of Seo-yoon's ability.
If I got testimonies from the three women Seo-yoon used her ability on and the three she didn't, it would be certain. It seems the twenty-six people in Kim Su-hyeok's group were all the survivors on this campus.
I came outside and climbed to the top floor of the tallest building on campus that was still somewhat intact.
I missed it because of the people at Eunha University, but I came here to find the Abomination.
However, perhaps because the campus buildings were reasonably low, I couldn't see anything even after climbing up.
I could see the neighborhood with the apartments right in front, but nothing beyond that.
Which means I have to go somewhere else.
And the best place to look around would be a high place.
So, I drove the car toward the apartment complex.
#
Sarang Apartment complex.
I climbed the stairs of a 15-story apartment building.
"Ugh..."
ㅡTak
ㅡTak
Climbing apartment stairs was always a pain in the ass.
'Wait, no.'
I should use this time to practice.
After ripping off a front door next to me with a ㅡkkudeudeudeuk sound, I fiddled with it and turned it into a disc.
I carefully went up and floated my body.
ㅡTak
I had tried it once before, but it didn't go well. I got stubborn.
'I'll do it until it works.'
And an hour passed.
ㅡTeok
I became a successful idiot.
Of course, I could only move at a slow walking pace, but hey, it's something.
It means I can now float around in the sky.
Floating up the stairs.
After moving like that for a while, I had arrived at the 15th floor before I knew it.
'......'
Nice.
Well, that's enough of that. I ripped off the locked rooftop door and headed onto the roof of Sarang Apartment.
ㅡHwi-ing
It's April, but perhaps because of the lingering cold snap, the weather was quite chilly.
I pulled my clothes tight and looked around outside.
'......'
The panoramic view of the ruined Cheongju.
It was definitely different from when I looked from above the campus.
I could see everything from here, which was in the direction above Eunha University—how the Abomination had moved and where the military had been wrecked.
For starters, the Abomination had headed upward.
I could see buildings completely smashed in the direction above Eunha University.
However, since that giant body wasn't visible even from the 15th-floor view of the apartment, it seemed to have moved quite far away. It felt like I'd have to wander around for a few more days to find that bastard.
Or maybe it went toward Jeungpyeong.
'Since the 37th Division and 17th Fighter Wing are there, there must be a lot of survivors.'
Or maybe not.
And on the other side, in front of Eunha University, I saw traces of the 37th Division's troops being wrecked.
'That place is... some kind of hotel.'
In front of a hotel whose name I couldn't remember, I could see the 37th Division's armored vehicles and military trucks sliced clean in half.
Following that, there were marks as if something had exploded.
And around it, I could see buildings torn apart. It meant that the words of Kim Min-jun and Han Min-woo, who said they had engaged the Abomination, were not wrong.
'......'
I'll have to go over there too.
However, it wasn't these two places that caught my eye. Over there, behind Sarang Apartment, on top of a low 3-story villa complex, I saw several people standing up.
They were monitoring various places from atop the villa complex, and when I zoomed in with my smartphone, they had blank faces.
The humans looked lifeless.
'...Are they human?'
No, they look like Infected.
Their clothes were covered in blood. Or maybe filth.
I know one such Infected.
'It's a Sentient.'
But if it's a Sentient, there should be a ton of Infected around, but I didn't see any Infected other than the occasional Walker or Runner passing by.
But to say they were human, they weren't even moving, just blankly staring in different directions. As if they were dead.
Sentient is the most likely answer, but there are too many of them.
And there's some kind of shitty scent.
'...It could be a place where only Sentients appear.'
A cluster of Sentients.
It's plausible. They're spreading out here and there to form groups.
So, do I go find the Abomination, or do I check that place out?
'I have to take care of it.'
I must eliminate the Sentient cluster.
I'll go there, check the area where the 37th Division was wrecked, and then look for traces of the Abomination.
#
I drove the car toward the villa complex.
There was nothing around the villa complex, which exuded a gloomy aura.
Absolutely nothing.
'......'
ㅡDeol-keong
I couldn't drive the vehicle deep into the villa complex.
The space was too small for it to go any further.
And...
Because there was a makeshift barricade.
It didn't look like a space set up properly by soldiers like the barricade and checkpoint at the logistics center base.
The barricade was also completely breached.
'Looks like it was breached by Sentients. From the start.'
Because a Sentient cluster actively hunts down survivors.
ㅡKkudeudeuk
I opened the broken part of the barricade and went inside.
#
The interior is tidy.
A space where neither the corpses of Infected nor humans are visible.
The atmosphere isn't very good.
ㅡTak
ㅡTak
I walked carefully.
That's how I arrived at the villa side I had seen from above the Sarang Apartment complex.
The ones on top were middle-aged and young men and women. People with four on each villa rooftop.
Seeing them from here, I know for sure.
'They're Infected.'
Clothes covered in blood and filth.
ㅡPing!
Bullets flew and killed the Sentients.
That was the moment.
Sentients crawled out of each villa alley.
However, they each held weapons in their hands.
Baseball bats with nails, fire axes, kitchen knives, etc.
Tools that can be found in Korea.
I aimed my gun.
Sentients with malice.
Are they even holding tools?
'It's nasty. Truly nasty.'
Even so, there's no reaction.
They just came running at me with hostile eyes.
ㅡTa-da-da-da-dak
I pulled the trigger.
ㅡTa-ta-ta-tang!
With the sound of gunfire, the bastards started falling down in droves.
#
Of course, that has its limits too. The gun only holds 30 rounds.
So I sent bullets flying separately.
ㅡPuck
ㅡPusyut Pusyut!
The bastards falling with holes in their heads.
The ones slammed into the wall are dying while spewing blood.
Even so, they keep coming out.
It seems like there might be about one shelter's worth, dozens, maybe hundreds.
'......'
ㅡTa-da-da-da-dak
ㅡKudangtang
Things falling with holes in their heads.
I killed the bastards and moved forward.
I entered one of the villas in the villa complex.
Bastards appearing without a sound to ambush me.
There were always a few of them in each villa.
I ripped off every single door and killed them.
All I see are bastards rushing at me with blank faces.
Infected that unconditionally hate humans.
'Does a Sentient cluster have a leader?'
Looking at that intelligence, it seems possible.
But no leader is visible.
'......'
Sentient.
Bastards with intelligence.
That's why
I moved more carefully than ever.
More carefully than when I fought the Hunter, and more carefully than when I went to the Cheongju Branch.
I floated metal scraps all around me, and if anything came out, I attacked immediately.
ㅡPusyut
ㅡPusyut
Bastards falling with holes in their heads.
Identical villas lined up in a row.
I cleared one building first.
'......'
After clearing a few buildings like that, I wonder how many of them I killed.
I narrowed my eyes at the male Sentient in front of me.
ㅡTing
Because this was something strange.
'...This man.'
He's not an Infected.
A man holding a sledgehammer, or a 'sledge', in one hand.
This is something you can't hold with one hand.
And his arm.
ㅡTing
The hammer can't pierce it.
It's the same as Yun-ji's ability.
Also, if I look closely, I don't see the wounds all over the body that are characteristic of Sentients.
'......'
I was confused because the blank eyes were the same as the Sentients, but now I know.
ㅡTak
ㅡTak
ㅡTak
If this were a place attacked by Infected, there should at least be the scent of Infected.
'Come to think of it, that's right.'
Infected were mostly friendly to other Infected.
It felt like they didn't bother each other. Walkers, Runners, and Mirrors were like that, and Sirens even brought Walkers and Runners with them, and Sentients were the same. They used Infected.
The remaining Hunters and Flowers also don't touch Infected.
'But here, it's clean.'
Infected are not visible anywhere inside the villa complex.
All I see are things I presumed to be Sentients. Of course, I could just think of the people who were attacked there as Infected.
'...But there's a breached barricade.'
Even so, I see artificial things.
Like the humans set up there like guards, the fact that they each came out with weapons and attacked me, and the fact that the streets were cleaned up completely without a single corpse.
And...
That red light too.
That, I've seen it somewhere before. The logistics center, Lieutenant Kim In-seop's ability, Area Surveillance.
I've never seen Infected or Sentients use superpowers.
I've never heard of it from the Lieutenant either.
If so. This... is not an Infected.
'It's a human.'
Then why is an Ability User wearing clothes covered in blood and filth like that, camouflaging themselves?
And holding malice toward humans at that?
What could it be?
They're luring people.
'...Mental ability?'
Then it's dangerous.
Because from my perspective, I don't have an ability to deal with a mental manipulation user.
But it seemed it was already too late.
ㅡTak
When I turned my head, I saw a cunning-looking man.
I made eye contact with him.
"Stop, and don't use your ability."
It was like... a tone that demanded I unconditionally answer what he said.
The man said.
"Put down your gun, and tell me what your ability is."
Coming out from next to him were two burly men wearing rags.
Looking at the man who was just standing there blankly, as if asking to be killed, I raised my gun.
The muzzle pointed at the man.