Chapter 24
Chapter 24
4. The Savior Who Ended the Cold Wave -0
When Sergios and I were making our way out of the contaminated forest, we'd had a brief exchange along the way.
"I get that relying on a skill can leave your weakness exposed, but if there were something like an 『Invincible Skill』, wouldn't there be no weakness to exploit?"
"⋯⋯How childish."
"But I'm right, aren't I?"
At that, Sergios launched into a whole speech to refute my logical point, and if you stripped away all the useless talk before and after, the essence of it was this:
"Do you think 『absolutes』 exist in this world?"
From everything he'd seen so far, for every 『Skill』 there inevitably existed another 『Skill』 that served as its weakness. As if Skills themselves formed an ecosystem.
Which meant, then.
[-> Download Slot 2 : 『Corpse-Plague Curse』 (Downloading⋯⋯ 72%)]
Somewhere in this universe, there existed a 『Skill』 that could counter this pseudo-zombie virus. Whether in another world or in another hunter's hands⋯⋯ someone out there had the key.
But for that, I first needed to be able to move.
My body was still crippled. At best, I could move my hands and feet. My recovery from the zombie virus, which had seemed fast at first, began slowing more and more as time went on.
I'd thought it was the resilient body of a hunter resisting zombification.
But I had a hunch that the reason I wasn't turning into a zombie might actually be because of 『Download -2』. My ability was replicating the 『Corpse-Plague Curse』—and at the same time, maybe antibodies were being produced.
If so, that would also explain why I was healing more and more slowly.
My ability's progress rose quickly when the opponent's 『Skill』 acted on me with force⋯⋯ in other words, when I got hit hard.
And poisons or curses of this kind are at their strongest at the start. Thanks to that, the download speed was fast in the beginning, and antibodies were produced just as quickly, so the symptoms eased right away.
And once a certain amount of antibodies had been produced, the power of the zombification would naturally weaken as well⋯⋯ so both the download speed and the healing speed would slow together.
My recovery graph was essentially drawing a logarithmic curve.
Wait a second.
If the properties of 『Download -2』 applied the same effect to all curse types, then theoretically, wasn't I immune to all poisons⋯⋯?
An imperfect immunity where I could put out the immediate fire quickly but the aftereffects lingered. Still, this meant I could tank poison and curse types. Anyway.
As soon as I could move around, I'd get to work. There was a lot to do. First of all——
"Hnk, hnnk⋯⋯"
"Noah⋯⋯ damn it, damn it!"
⋯⋯I had to do something about this funeral atmosphere first.
Being able to move my hands and feet meant I could do more than one might think.
People can speak with their hands. Sign language, to be precise. At this point it was practically basic education in the apocalypse era, so surely these people, who'd survived a long time in a zombie apocalypse, would know at least simple sign language.
Hadn't we run into similar situations before, like Morse code, on stages we'd traveled to in the past?
As it happened, the shelter trio was all gathered around me, looking down at me with their own emotions in their eyes. Sohye seemed intent on managing me like I was her older sister, and Mingyu was wavering back and forth.
Taemin was standing guard, glancing at the weapon hanging on the wall as if he meant to chop my neck with an axe the moment I fully turned into a zombie.
Yeah, that was the right call. A special zombie with superpowers could be born in this situation, couldn't it?
Giving your comrades time to mourn, but cutting things off before they acted any more foolishly than that. It was sound judgment. Though that was only if I'd actually been dying.
Shuffle, shuffle.
I diligently performed sign language to communicate my condition. At that, Mingyu saw my hand gestures, got a huge shock, and shouted to Sohye.
"S-Sohye! Noah's hand—!"
"Noah⋯⋯"
"He must be about to fully turn into a zombie soon. We need to tie him up tighter."
No.
Was the angle bad? Let me try again. Sohye was right next to me now, so she'd definitely recognize it. I sent a clearer hand signal. I am, fully conscious, and recovering!
At that, Sohye and Mingyu's expressions grew twice as grim.
"⋯⋯He must not have much time left. Noah, if you can hear me⋯⋯ thank you so much. I want to say this, over and over, a hundred times, a thousand times⋯⋯!"
"Noah, I'll take care of you somehow. Somehow."
"Sohye, is that really⋯⋯ what Noah would want? He's the one who threw himself into danger like that for us, complete strangers. Then, rather than being a burden, he might actually prefer to die!"
"Stop it. Stop telling me to abandon something else!"
I said no.
Had these kids never learned sign language? Wait, then let me use simple, easy-to-recognize gestures. I wrote letters on the floor with my finger.
Everyone's played that game in school, writing letters on a friend's back, right? They'd catch on to this much, surely?
"⋯⋯N-Noah is doing something. He's writing letters with his finger! Noah, are you still fighting the virus⋯⋯?!"
Yeah. I'm fighting it, Mingyu.
Mingyu carefully watched the movement of my finger. The message I wrote on the floor with my fingertip was simple and clear. 'I'm winning.'
If I wrote a long message about how the Zombie Virus was actually a Skill, or how I seemed to have resistance to Skills, they might not understand it. So I'd written just the facts, plainly.
"Win, ning⋯⋯"
That's right.
"⋯⋯Sniff, Noah! Look, Sohye, Noah is telling us to forget about him and win!"
No!
Read the whole thing! Don't you know you're supposed to listen to Korean all the way to the end? What's the point of cutting off the last part, Mingyu!
"N-Noah⋯⋯ you're telling me to cut you off? To me⋯⋯"
No⋯⋯!!
A chill ran down my spine. Anxiety welled up. What if we really couldn't communicate at all like this? Surely not, right? Surely not.
But at this rate, really⋯⋯!!
That was when Taemin, who'd been sitting in front with his legs crossed watching, spoke up.
"You two, stop it. That man seems to have resistance to zombification."
"Taemin, what do you mean?"
"He just explained the situation in sign language. He said he's recovering now and should be able to get up and move around soon. He said he'd explain in detail then, but he might be able to solve the Zombie Virus."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
Then say that sooner, you bastard!
Maybe she understood how I felt—wanting to punch him if only I could move my body—because Sohye shot to her feet, her face flushed red and pale by turns.
"You should have said that sooner, Taemin⋯⋯!!"
"Wait, Sohye. It's just that it's been so long since I learned sign language that I was fumbling through my memory and it took me a while to decode—ack!"
Whooosh— smack!
Sohye demonstrated a beautiful flying kick with perfect form, tracing a lovely arc.
And Taemin, in exchange for blocking that magnificent technique with both arms, received the honorable injury of a cracked arm bone.
After about half a day more of rest, I could move around well enough.
Walking freely was still too much, so I had to use crutches, but my mouth and tongue were fine. I sat up on the sofa and gave a simple explanation about the 『System』.
"So, Sohye and Noah received this thing called the 『System』 like in webtoons⋯⋯ and you can travel back and forth between different worlds. Is that right?"
"Yes."
Mingyu seemed to have understood about half of it, and Taemin listened silently but appeared to have gotten all of it. He'd probably read his share of web novels.
"But calling you the same kind of hunter seems a bit⋯⋯ no, I mean, Sohye and Sojin were always strangely strong, but still."
"Our starting points were different. The world I came from had many people with magic power, and while it wasn't systematic, it was a place where ranks and knowledge had accumulated. Sohye, without that kind of foundation, would have had a hard time growing."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
Sohye's eyes wavered.
Actually, the reason for Sohye's slow growth was that she'd poured all her starting credits into her older sister's treatment. I didn't bother mentioning that part, but she seemed to feel a bit guilty about it herself.
"So if it hadn't been for this incident, I'd planned to train Sohye in the near future. I was able to obtain a good foundational manual from an eccentric teacher of mine. With this, she'll be able to handle magic power even without a base."
"Th-Then Sohye can later do that⋯⋯ whoosh, shoo-whoosh, that kind of thing?!"
"Yes. She'll probably be able to do even more than that."
If that 『Telescope』 respawned in next quarter's Tutorial, Sohye would be granted at least one 『Skill』 too.
That was enough preamble. The important part started now.
"Sohye doesn't know much about the System either, so I'll explain it in plain terms. The cause of the zombie outbreak spreading through this world is someone's Skill. It's not something chemical, like a virus that came out of some laboratory."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
"The official name of the culprit is 『Corpse-Plague Curse』. And Skills are⋯⋯ easy to find counters for and trade. You've seen it often in the Community, right? 'I got cursed, what do I do,' 'Looking for a priest'⋯⋯"
"Noah, th-that means. So⋯⋯?"
I nodded.
"The zombie outbreak. We can solve it."
"Y-You can get a vaccine too——?!"
"⋯⋯Hngh."
Mingyu shot up from his seat and let out a shriek that was hard to tell whether it was a scream or a cheer. Sohye started hyperventilating, hiccuping for air.
I rubbed Sohye's back and continued.
"At the very least, bringing back a single person should be a simple matter. So I'd like to ask for your help—looking through the Community with me to find a hunter worth contacting⋯⋯"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
"Sohye?"
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
No answer came back. She stared into empty space like someone possessed and began moving her fingers. She'd apparently already opened her System window.
She seemed to have lost her mind at the hope of getting back her only family.
Family, huh⋯⋯
She's working hard. What would I have done? Could I have held on for years, with a precious person turned zombie right in front of me, clinging to a single hope with no guarantee they'd ever come back?
I don't know.
I'm not a strong person like Sohye. If I'd tried this and that and still couldn't see an answer, I probably would have given up partway. I would have abandoned the precious person and lived for myself.
So I hope Sohye's older sister comes back from death. I hope those sisters reunite with smiles.
Don't you naturally want to root for someone who works harder than you?
"Alright, let's take a look⋯⋯"
I quietly asked the sniffling Mingyu to go outside and cry, then followed Sohye and connected to the Community. Taemin had already made himself scarce.
In the quiet room, I began my search. I tried search terms like priest, holy power, healing.
[General | (Hunter1) | If you use healing magic on your chest, does it get bigger?]
Skip.
[General | (Hunter1) | Of all things, the monster seems to have a curse attribute, what do I do about this]
Skip this too.
[General | (Hunter1) | You crazy priest bitches, is healing some kind of government post? Why the hell are you charging 500 credits]
The rates seemed pretty steep. Well, even on Earth, hunters who awakened healing abilities were rare.
How long did I surf the web like that? It was already dawn. Just as I was rubbing my eyelids, feeling like my eyes were about to fall out, Sohye came to me with one nostril stuffed with tissue and a mouthful of information.
"⋯⋯I gathered posts centered on the keyword 『Saintess』. Several people seem to be using similar titles, but there's one person who's especially active."
"⋯⋯Oh."
Why didn't something like this show up when I was searching? Am I just unlucky?
"⋯⋯It’s the difference in search terms. Noah, you’re not very good at this kind of thing."
"⋯⋯⋯⋯"
I'd heard something similar from my friend Minsik before. Somehow, the people around me all seemed to use the Community far better than I did.
We had our lead, so now it was time to make contact.
[Andersen : Helol]
[Noah Won : Yes, hello. I'd like to resolve a curse on a large scale. I want to treat about 100,000 people first, and depending on the situation, it may expand further.]
[Andersen : By any chance]
[Andersen : Did a demon king get revived or something]
[Andersen : If you want to pay in credits it'll be in the ten thousands]
[Noah Won : I heard you also accept goods. It seems you collect weapons. How many do you need? I can accommodate you as much as possible.]
[Andersen : From 100 hundred to 1000 thousand]
[Noah Won : Just to be sure, does that mean a million?]
[Andersen : Hundred]
[Noah Won : ?]
[Andersen : We should confirm with each other. Come to the address I'll send you]
⋯⋯I had a feeling I was about to meet someone a little cute.