Chapter 12
Chapter 12
“Stupid bastard.”
Charging straight at me like that.
Did it even stop to think about what kind of ability I might have?
“Corpse Manipulation.”
The moment I activated the skill—
Thud… thud… thud…
The centaur zombie charging toward us suddenly stopped in place.
Then it stood blankly in front of me.
Cost: 15/16
It had become one of my subordinates.
“As expected.”
In the apocalypse, Corpse Manipulation was practically a cheat skill.
“Tch… You know, a thought just crossed my mind.”
“What is it?”
Lee Sua looked at me like I’d lost my mind.
“A man reaches moments in life where he has to gamble.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
“And I think this is one of those moments.”
I’d been thinking about it constantly.
What was the best way for me to grow stronger?
Honestly, controlling hundreds of ordinary zombies wasn’t bad.
But the further things progressed, the more mutants, awakened individuals, and unknown zombie types we’d encounter.
Against enemies like those, sheer numbers alone wouldn’t cut it.
“I need my own general.”
“Don’t tell me…”
“Yeah. I’m fusing them all together.”
Every mutant I acquired would immediately become fusion material.
And eventually, that would create my own ultimate commander.
“You’re serious?”
“Yep.”
“Then do it. I’m cheering for you.”
Hearing encouragement from her felt surprisingly nice.
Anyway.
I immediately fused the centaur mutant with the muscular mutant.
Then—
Crack… crunch…
The muscular zombie became the base body.
Its arms and legs swelled even larger, and most of all, its body size increased dramatically.
Unlike the centaur mutant—
The muscular zombie sprouted two additional arms.
“Oho…”
It already felt completely different.
But it still wasn’t enough.
The goal was evolution.
I wanted to evolve that monster all the way to the end.
For that, I still needed more mutants.
“Skeletal Variant. Go bring me another one.”
At my command, it nodded.
Clack! Clack!
The giant reindeer-like skeletal variant sprinted forward.
Its bone spikes sliced through the wind as it ran.
While it was gone—
“Try fighting those things for now.”
I decided to test the mutant.
Following my order, the muscular zombie walked toward the radioactive zombies.
Then it casually grabbed one by the head with a single hand.
Crunch!
And crushed its skull instantly.
“Show me your hand.”
I checked its hand.
“It’s fine?”
This was different from before.
Previously, even getting splashed by the blood of radioactive zombies caused its skin to peel apart.
But now it was perfectly fine.
This was the result of fusing it with the radioactive centaur mutant.
And right then—
Clack! Clack!
The skeletal variant came charging back from the distance with another mutant.
This one looked different.
Its arms numbered eight in total.
Rows of arms lined its body like the legs of a centipede.
“Corpse Manipulation.”
The ten-minute cooldown had already passed, so bringing it under my control was easy.
And then—
“Corpse Fusion.”
The moment I fused it into the muscular mutant—
Crack! Crunch!
This time, additional arms began growing from its body.
But that wasn’t all.
Its heads also began changing.
At the sight, Lee Sua looked horrified.
“Hey… that thing looks like an Asura.”
“…Asura?”
“A mythological being with three heads and six arms.”
“…Really? Isn’t that awesome?”
“You seriously don’t know what an Asura is?”
“What is it?”
“It’s a manifestation of rage, envy, and jealousy.”
I stared blankly for a moment.
“Doesn’t that still sound cool? It’s a manifestation, after all.”
“…I don’t know anymore. Do whatever you want.”
She worried too much.
It was my servant anyway.
“It needs more.”
Based on my calculations, about two more mutants should do it.
I continued ordering the skeletal variant to lure more mutants over.
Finally.
After feeding it the last two—
[The mutant has fulfilled the conditions for evolution.]
“Ohoooo!”
“It worked?”
“Yeah.”
Lee Sua hurried closer, curiosity written all over her face.
What would it become?
I was dying to know.
“Ready?”
“Wait. Shouldn’t we do this somewhere safer?”
“Isn’t this place safe enough?”
“…I have a bad feeling about this.”
“It’ll be fine. Evolution doesn’t even take that long.”
Ignoring her concerns, I activated Zombie Evolution.
Crack… crack…
The cocoon that formed this time was enormous.
It was like staring at the front half of a large truck.
Vein-like structures wriggled across its surface.
Something inside was rapidly changing.
But then—
“KIIIAAAAH!”
A scream echoed from the other side.
I turned my head.
“What the hell is that?”
“Shit! It’s a mutant pack!”
Around six mutants were charging toward us.
“Fuck!”
Even I panicked the moment I saw them.
Why the hell were six appearing at once?!
“Get ready!”
Lee Sua and I immediately prepared for battle.
The mutants were still around a hundred meters away.
But at that moment—
Crack!
The cocoon began splitting open.
The cracks spread rapidly—
CRASH!
Something burst through the cocoon.
“……”
“……”
The moment Lee Sua and I saw it, we fell silent.
Three heads.
Six arms.
The muscles covering its body were on an entirely different level from ordinary mutants.
— Asura — Cost 15
“Fi… fifteen?”
Its cost was fifteen.
Compared to the Abomination’s twenty, that was absurdly high.
At the same time—
[Corpse Manipulation has leveled up.] [8 → 10]
And on top of that—
“Grrrr…”
Like a tamed beast, it stared at me while waiting for orders.
All three pairs of eyes were fixed on me.
Reliable.
I immediately gave it a command.
“Kill them all.”
The six approaching mutants.
The Asura glanced at them and gave a single nod.
Tsupat!
Its speed didn’t match its massive body at all.
The Asura spun its six arms in motion, grabbing each mutant one by one by the head.
And then—
CRUSH!
It squeezed until their skulls exploded.
Six mutants.
It didn’t even take a full minute.
“Whoa…”
I really had obtained a completely broken monster.
Back at the research complex, I proudly admired the Asura.
“Now that’s cool.”
It felt like looking at some giant collectible figure.
An overwhelmingly muscular body, three heads, six arms.
All it needed now was a weapon.
“Ah. Maybe Soul Binding would work?”
Three heads and six arms.
Didn’t that mean it could potentially house three souls?
Well, that was something to experiment with later.
“But there’s a problem.”
At my words, Lee Sua turned toward me.
“What problem?”
“I can’t control any more zombies.”
“…”
The Asura’s cost was so high that it consumed most of my Corpse Manipulation capacity.
Corpse Manipulation had reached Level 10, raising my total capacity to twenty.
Asura — 15
Wolf — 4
Lee Hyunjae — 1
Remaining cost: 0
“Still, it should be fine.”
“What part of this is fine?”
“There’s something I’m thinking about.”
I still had the Valkar Gallery.
A place where I could continue growing stronger.
Anyway—
“Guess all we can do now is wait?”
Lee Sua sounded like she was referring to the special forces team the government was sending.
“Probably. We can’t exactly leave yet.”
“What if we do this instead?”
“What?”
“This place is kind of… bad for living, isn’t it?”
Lee Sua glanced around the research complex as she spoke.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“We’re running low on water and electricity already, aren’t we?”
I recalled the remaining fuel reserves and water tank levels before sighing.
“…That’s true.”
“So what if we relocate?”
Her argument made sense.
Honestly, there weren’t many places inside the research complex suitable for living.
The lounge area was the closest thing to a living space, but it wasn’t an actual residence.
There were no proper beds.
And more importantly, we lacked enough fuel and electricity to survive the approaching winter.
On top of that, when the place was abandoned, most of the important machinery and equipment had already been removed.
The only things left were research records.
“…You’re right.”
Now that I thought about it, this really wasn’t a great place to stay long-term.
“So where do you want to go?”
“A shopping mall?”
“…Absolutely not.”
Zombies would pour out from every direction.
The best option was somewhere we could live without worrying about everyday noise.
A place with water, electricity, fuel, gas—
All the necessities.
“Tch. Still a shame.”
Because honestly, there was no place safer than this research complex.
It was excellent at keeping other zombies out.
But now that the research headquarters knew this place existed—
They could attack at any moment.
And besides—
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this. I don’t think they’re coming for the data.”
“…”
“Didn’t they already say they took everything important?”
Which meant they’d already taken the research records too.
So there should’ve been no reason to return here.
That only left one possibility.
“They’re coming to erase all evidence.”
“……”
“And since they know Lee Hyunjae is still alive, they’re definitely coming to kill him too.”
Now the need to relocate felt even more obvious.
At that moment, Lee Sua suddenly said—
“What if we just kill the special forces team?”
“Then they’d probably bomb the place.”
“Ah…”
Whatever they were trying so desperately to erase was here.
If the special forces failed, they’d probably flatten the entire area with missiles.
People capable of mobilizing helicopters and special forces certainly wouldn’t hesitate to launch a bombardment.
“This place was abandoned from the start anyway.”
“……”
“It sucks to lose the shelter we worked so hard to get…”
But there was no choice.
So what was the best option?
This was beyond anything the Gallery could help with.
We needed real-world knowledge.
“Haah…”
My head started hurting.
But there weren’t many options left.
“Fine. We’ll move.”
“Good decision.”
I still wasn’t strong enough to fully embody the power of a one-man army.
Which meant I needed to stay cautious.
Still—
“But we can’t just leave like this. What exactly were those bastards trying to hide?”
It pissed me off.
Do they know how much suffering we went through to secure this place?
“That would be…”
An unbelievable answer came out of Lee Hyunjae’s mouth.