Black Piercer
Yujin's Solar Blade [D] moved without a shred of sentiment.
Like a farmer reaping rice with a sickle, his blade simply harvested the zombies' lives. No emotion clung to the strokes at all.
Well. They were undead to begin with.
Shhk— shhrrk—!
One swing, one kill. Not a single one managed to block or dodge. There was no chance a mere zombie could weather the natural disaster that was Seong Yujin.
And yet…
There's a filthy lot of them.
Even as he cut them down with almost insulting ease, Yujin was being pushed back step by step. There were simply too many. Kill one, and it wasn't two that rushed him—it was ten. Behind those ten stood a hundred more, a thousand more.
However fast his sword was, he was still only around level thirty. He'd need to be level a hundred at least before he could slaughter the whole swarm with a smile on his face. Right now, it was too much.
"Hoo—."
He steadied his breath for a moment—and a murderous prickle crawled up his spine from behind. Yujin twisted without a second thought.
Thwack—!
A massive zombie snapped its jaws shut on the empty air where he'd been standing a heartbeat earlier.
"You little shit."
He swung his left hand.
KRAANG—!
The thing took the back of his hand square and burst apart. Blood and chunks of meat rained down in a wet cascade.
"Tsk."
With nowhere left to dodge, he wore every last disgusting scrap of it.
"Yeah. This is a zombie fight."
He'd been hunting too cleanly so far.
"Gotta make a necklace out of guts, play marbles with eyeballs—then you can say you've really gone a few rounds with zombies."
Since when had he ever been that tidy?
He bared his teeth. Imagination, maybe? Even so—despite every reason it shouldn't be—the horde seemed to flinch.
"Too late, you bastards."
From here on out, it was a street brawl. No more refined sword work just to put them down. Tear them with his hands. Burst them with his feet. Crush them with his skull.
"Let's see who wins."
The man who had been giving ground slowly twisted into something like a demon, and drove forward instead.
"Hm?"
Lee Sia shivered without warning. A chill she couldn't place had run through her.
Getting scared now, of all times?
She eyed the zombies charging her way and considered it.
Crack—!
Nah. Not that.
Looking at them didn't bother her anymore. At first the endless numbers had seized her with terror—but Seong Yujin had taken most of them on himself. One or two still managed to startle her now and then, but they weren't frightening. What she'd lived through on the sixth floor had helped a great deal with getting used to this.
…Those things were worse than zombies.
The "guests" who had charged like lunatics, drooling, every kind of weapon in hand. The self-proclaimed friend girl with her mouth split open. Next to that memory, zombies were manageable enough.
What is this, some kind of vaccine?
Sia shook her head, shook off the unease, and glanced back. The three survivors they'd just pulled free were trailing after her with faces full of pure shock. She understood the look. She and Park Ji-hoo were cutting through the undead far too easily. To ordinary eyes, the two of them probably looked like monsters themselves—maybe even some kind of mutant zombie. Still, they were following without complaint. That was something.
"What should we do now?"
Park Ji-hoo asked. Drop these people at the safe zone first and move again, or grab a few more before heading back? Their strength was roughly even, but deciding things like this belonged to Sia—she had a few more years of life under her belt.
"Any more survivors nearby?"
"Yes. About five up ahead."
Ji-hoo's senses reached roughly two hundred meters, so that was about the distance. The problem was that it lay in the exact opposite direction from the safe zone—and the road there looked far uglier than the one they'd just crossed.
"About a thousand of them, roughly?"
Maybe more. They were packed in solid, completely clogging a road that wasn't even that wide.
"This one's going to be rough."
If it had been only the two of them, they might have managed somehow. A thousand zombies didn't mean they had to kill every last one to get through. But they couldn't do that now. Three burdens labeled "survivor" were hanging off them—ordinary people armed with nothing better than a baseball bat and a golf club. Dragging them through a zombie swarm was impossible.
"We pull back for now and come again."
It was the best option. But Ji-hoo didn't accept her words right away.
"Nuna."
"Hm? What? You got another idea?"
"It's not that…"
He hesitated, then pushed on.
"The people over there. They're in danger right now."
"What?"
"The zombies noticed them. They're all rushing that way. They're holding for the moment, but the line's going to break any second."
Break. That word meant the survivors would die.
"Mmm."
Sia made a low sound. There was no rule that said the total number of survivors was locked at exactly one hundred. Losing those five didn't mean they couldn't find others elsewhere. Charging in to save them risked losing the people they'd already pulled out.
What would that monster do?
He'd write that side off, probably. It was the more efficient, safer way to clear the quest.
But…
I'm not him.
Lee Sia wasn't that kind of person. She couldn't turn her back on people in danger right in front of her and walk away. Even if it was a little more dangerous. Even if failure was on the table.
"You save people first. Then you figure the rest out."
Because that was the right thing to do.
"Ji-hoo. Exactly where are the survivors?"
"That seven-story building right next to the red brick one."
He pointed. It wasn't far; Sia found it at once. She thought for a beat, then spoke with resolve in her voice.
"You take these people and hide. I'll go over there myself."
"Nuna!"
Even the two of them moving together would be a close call. And she wanted to go alone? Ji-hoo whipped his head back and forth hard enough to rattle it.
"It's too dangerous. How are you supposed to get in there by yourself?"
"So what? We give up? Leave people who need help right in front of us?"
"…That's not what I mean."
He chewed his lip.
"Don't worry. I'm stronger than you think."
Their levels were the same—of course they were; they'd hunted side by side the whole way. But if someone asked who was stronger, Sia was certain of the answer. It wasn't empty confidence.
Black Piercer [D]
Cloaks the body in mana, granting slight breakthrough power, and pierces all enemies along a straight line.
A skill earned clearing the sixth floor. She'd never used it even once—but…
With this, I think I can do it.
The trait Seong Yujin had gifted her—Sword Heart [D]—seemed to say as much. You can do this. Take up Black Wing [C] and go without fear, and she would punch straight through those filthy things. No question.
"But Nuna—"
"Listen to me."
Sia patted the shoulder of the boy who still couldn't bring himself to turn away. There was no more time to waste. A scream carried from far off—whatever had been holding the zombies back had clearly just collapsed. Instead of waiting for Ji-hoo's answer, she turned. And she whispered, low.
"Black Piercer [D]."
Black Piercer [D]
Wooooom—.
Black mana gathered over her body as if charging. Even at a glance, it was nothing ordinary. Sia poured her entire focus into the tip of Black Wing [C].
Going.
——————————!!!
There was no sound. She simply went. The black-winged blade stretched straight ahead and pierced everything in its path. No—destroyed was the better word. It looked exactly like firing a cannon into a row of dried stalks.
Nngh…
In a fraction of a second sliced thinner than a blink, Sia had already nearly reached her destination. The speed and power were monstrous.
Just a little more!
The zombies that had burst apart under her just now numbered well over a hundred. One move. That was all. Ahead, she could see the undead forcing themselves into the building Ji-hoo had pointed out.
Thirty-two left.
She counted the remaining ones even as her body kept tearing forward.
KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG—!
Only then did the sound catch up. Her movement had broken the sound barrier. The shockwave flung the zombies still behind her into the air like scraps of paper.
"Hahk!"
The breath she'd been holding exploded out of her.
H-hot!
Her whole body felt burned. Forcing her way through compressed air had generated searing friction heat—more than even a player over level thirty could casually endure. White steam hissed up from her skin. But there was no time to recover. Plenty of them had already gotten inside. Sia hit them from behind without slowing. Zombies that had eyes only for the survivors upstairs fell in droves as her blade cut them down.
"No! Hold them!"
"I—I can't anymore!"
Seventh floor. At the top, the survivors were fighting for their lives.
Faster—just a little faster!
Had Sword Heart [D] read the urgency in her chest?
Pishishishishish—!
Her sword speed climbed. Bit by bit. Bit by bit. Bit by bit. And then the blade was moving at a pace that made everything before it look like a joke.
Ah—!
Sia understood it by instinct.
Sword Heart [D] isn't some ordinary trait.
It was something exceptional enough that Seong Yujin had gone out of his way to find it for her. It didn't just make her a little better with a sword, didn't just nudge accuracy and power up a notch.
This is…
It poured the user's will into the blade. Speed. Power. Anything else. Whatever Sia wanted, the trait projected it into the sword complete and whole.
And then—
Conditions met.
Trait Sword Heart [D] has evolved into Sword Heart [C].
It could grow.
The sword lightened. The once-heavy Black Wing [C] became as light as a feather from a wing. Countless black afterimages carved themselves into the empty air. Sia smiled.
The first time she had picked up a sword after entering the Tower, it had felt strangely familiar. But this went far beyond that old sensation. Not familiarity—oneness. As if nerves ran into the blade itself. Her heart and the sword's heart were linked.
Thudududududud—.
Before her smiling eyes, a rain of zombie corpses fell—dozens, hundreds of pieces, shredded to ribbons.
"Is everyone all right? We're here to rescue you. Hello? Huh? Why are you running? I said we're here to rescue you!"
For some reason she couldn't fathom, the survivors were running away.