First Expedition (1)
The skeleton bowed its head at the sight of me. When I gave no reaction, it dropped to its knees with theatrical flourish.
"Is that meant to be a show of loyalty?"
Clack!
The skeleton stared at me as if it couldn't believe what it was hearing, then tried to drive its skull straight into the floor.
Clack! Clack-clack!
"Ah—um. You don't have to go that far."
It stopped trying to bury its head, but the only answer I still got was that dry clacking.
Right. No vocal cords, so of course it couldn't speak.
Before anything else, though, I wanted to know why it had been in this house.
"You. What did you do with all the food that was here?"
Clack? Clack!
At my words the skeleton sprang up at once and set off with crisp, disciplined strides. I followed, and we arrived at… the front entrance of the house.
Calling it an entrance was generous. It felt more like the mouth of a bunker. And the door was wrecked. I'd paid a fortune to have that thing installed, and someone had clearly spent a long time hammering it into a mangled, pitiful wreck.
"…Did you do this?"
Nod, nod. The skeleton bobbed its skull.
"Why? Because you were hungry?"
Nod, nod.
…Well. Couldn't really blame it, then.
Honestly, a part of me was still annoyed, but what was I going to do about it? It was my undead now. Holding a grudge over something from its living days felt ridiculous.
And besides, I didn't seem to need food anymore. That earlier hunger had probably been a phantom leftover from my previous body. Maybe that was why it had vanished without a trace the moment it was satisfied.
"No hard feelings?"
Nod, nod.
"Good. Let's get along."
I followed the skeleton again. Not far off sat a blue van, and in its cargo bed were wooden crates packed full of my calorie bars and bottled water!
"Were you going to eat all of this by yourself?"
A firm shake of the head.
"Does anyone else know about this place?"
It tilted its skull, as if the question were a little ambiguous. So there were others—comrades, at least at some point.
"Your people know you came here, but they don't know the exact location?"
Clatter-clatter! The skeleton nodded so vigorously it nearly rattled itself apart and drew a circle in the air with one bony finger.
Got it.
So after finding the house, it had spent several days hauling the food out, and today was meant to be the final sweep. This skeleton had been the one assigned to the job. Which meant only the skeleton knew where the house actually was.
So I'm not in immediate danger, then.
A little calmer, I lay back on the house's bed and thought.
"Mythic-rank, huh…"
I probably wasn't the only one who'd awakened like this. If there was a Mythic-rank class, then everything beneath it existed too, right? Legendary, Rare, Advanced, Common… something along those lines.
Whether the System had forced a new awakening on everyone, or whether that achievement message was the important part, I still didn't know.
But more important than any of that…
What is it like out there right now?
Nothing had happened on the walk to the truck. The house was secluded, and the path from the door to the vehicle was screened by a mountain on the left and another house on the right. Nothing much to see. The road where the truck was parked, though—that had felt grim. I couldn't put my finger on why.
"The government… is probably gone."
Thinking back to that text message I'd seen, it had to be. Even if something still existed, it would be a provisional government at best.
It was bleak.
Not bleak in terms of survival—whatever Mythic-rank actually meant, it was almost certainly absurdly powerful. I didn't need to worry about staying alive on my own.
What worried me was the social system I'd lost. I wasn't going to have to live like some primitive, was I? Gathering firewood at night, drying meat to keep it from spoiling…
"No! I can handle this."
Surely I could figure something out if I tried.
Clack-clack!
"Great, all loaded? Then let's get ready to leave."
I couldn't stay in the house any longer. The fact that someone had come all the way out to this remote place and stripped even my heavily fortified home meant resources were desperate. For now, no one else knew the location—but if more time passed? More raiders would come. There was no time to waste.
I packed my things and stepped outside with Ttacttac-i.
For the record, Ttacttac-i was the name I'd given him. More skeletons might show up later, so better to start naming them early.
Of course, I'd prepared thoroughly before we left.
"Got everything?"
Clack!
I'd stitched up the uncomfortable clothes with needle and thread, and I'd brought the knife from my hunter days. A bit big for my frame, but I could still swing it, so that was fine. And even though neither of us needed them, I'd packed a few calorie bars and bottles of water—just in case we ran into people and needed something to trade.
"It shouldn't be too dangerous. We've got skills."
Clack-clack!
Before heading out, I'd carefully read through my skills as well.
[Mythic Skill: Conductor of Death]
Transforms a corpse into a top-tier undead. The undead obeys its master unconditionally and slowly regenerates.
[Mythic Skill: Reaper's Blessing]
When attacked, a Grim Reaper is summoned to defend or counterattack.
[Mythic Skill: Possession]
Descend into one under your control.
Conductor of Death looked like a necromancer's ultimate skill. Reaper's Blessing was clearly defensive. And Possession… the description was short, but it probably meant I could possess an undead, pilot it myself, that sort of thing.
With a Mythic-rank protection skill, I shouldn't die in a ditch somewhere.
I had no idea how strong a Grim Reaper actually was, but it could probably handle middling monsters at least.
And if things get really bad, I can always throw Ttacttac-i under the bus.
Clatter?
Ttacttac-i tilted his head at the sly little grin on my face, clearly suspicious—but without a voice, he couldn't ask a thing.
"All right, let's go!"
Not that "going" meant walking. I glanced at Ttacttac-i, and he opened the truck door and helped me up. Then he dug a key out of the yellow jumper he'd been wearing since he was alive and started the blue van.
"You can drive okay, right?"
Clack-clack!
He released the parking brake and eased the truck into motion. I didn't have a license myself, so I couldn't really judge, but he looked pretty cool doing it.
Clatter. Clack.
Thud!
"What are you doing?"
……
Apparently conscious of my gaze, Ttacttac-i had struck a cool pose while reversing—and promptly backed the truck into a tree.
"Drive properly. Got it?"
Clatter…
Ttacttac-i carefully guided the truck down the slope. Part of me wanted to grill him on everything that had happened during the two years and seven months I'd been dead, but…
"How many people died while I was gone?"
Clack-clack.
"A lot? Like a million?"
Clack?
Proper conversation was basically impossible. Honestly, Ttacttac-i didn't seem to know much either. Looking at how he'd gone down to a single blow from me, he probably hadn't even been an Awakened, so it made sense he didn't have much information.
So today's goal: find people and talk to them.
The truck rumbled along the road at a careful crawl, trying not to make too much noise. After about thirty minutes, we reached a place that looked like it could tell us just how thoroughly the world had ended.
Seongyeong Tower Diapark.
A mixed-use residential complex built on the outskirts of Seoul that had single-handedly created its own surrounding commercial district. Twin apartment towers standing side by side like siblings—except…
"Yeah. The world really did end."
One of them had completely collapsed. The ground-floor shops were more or less intact, but the debris scattered all around made even approaching them look daunting.
My short legs didn't reach the ground, so I hopped down from the truck and was hit by a thick, foul stench. Corpses? Being a necromancer, I didn't find it unpleasant—but it wasn't pleasant either.
"…Let's go in."
I headed toward the left tower, the one that was still standing. Honestly, I was nervous. A mixed-use complex. Good for housing, and early in the collapse you could scavenge food from the shops. If the people who'd seized this place early on had banded together, they wouldn't exactly welcome an outsider like me. High risk, but…
"You walk a little farther back. Act like you don't know me."
Clack…
"Looking all hurt about it isn't going to change my mind!"
Trusting in my Mythic-rank skills, I stepped forward. Sticking too close to Ttacttac-i might invite the wrong kind of misunderstanding, and if my only driver got killed, we wouldn't even make it home. This was the right call.
I'd killed someone by accident this morning, but right now I needed information. So if possible, no more killing. I made that promise to myself.
Not that I was ever the type to charge in like this…
None of that mattered anymore. I was already writing the old me and the current me off as completely different people.
I decided to start with the brand café—Star Café. Floor-to-ceiling glass made the interior fully visible, and it looked relatively clean.
"…Is anyone here?"
The inside was quiet, with only the faintest trace of blood in the air. The wood interior, long neglected, had soaked up moisture and given off a musty smell. I carefully checked the room and walked toward the kitchen, and—
"Die!"
The moment I stepped into the blind spot, a thug burst out from under the counter and swung a knife at me!
"Wh—whoa!"
I yelped and landed hard on my backside—and in that same instant, something impossible happened.
Kuoohhh……
Black smoke erupted from my body. The smoke shaped itself into a Grim Reaper and, in a single stroke, cut down the person charging at me.
"Ah? Ah…"
Shhk! The thug's upper half simply toppled off, leaving behind only a bewildered death rattle.
"They're dead? Ahh! They're actually dead!"
I'd been trying not to kill any more people!
The Grim Reaper dissolved back into smoke and vanished. Was this thing insane? It was supposed to counterattack, and instead it just bisected someone!
"…They did try to stab me, so I guess it's fine?"
I forced myself to calm down. Looking again, the thug was a woman. Matted, tangled hair, a blood-crusted knife still clenched in her grip. Well. Whatever. Attacking me was her mistake. Judging by the already-bloody blade, she might well have been a killer with a few bodies already under her belt.
By the time I'd finished rationalizing the fact that I'd broken my own resolution within five minutes, a System window bloomed in front of my eyes again.
· Zombie
· Skeleton
· Mummy
So she really was dead. Apparently I could make undead even out of a body that had been cut in two.
"Mummy, then?"
I hesitated only a moment before choosing mummy. I already had one skeleton, so I wanted to try something different—and mummy hadn't even been an option last time.
Just like before, blue smoke rose into the air. The severed body slowly began to move, then rejoined, and immediately withered down to skin and bone. Riiip. Tear. The clothes she'd been wearing shredded themselves of their own accord, and bandages wound tightly from the crown of her head all the way to her toes.
And so the mummy took shape.
The moment she was complete, she shot upright and slammed her head into the floor in front of me.
"What is wrong with you?"
Grruuuhh…
Ttacttac-i had tried the head-to-the-ground thing too, but not the second he came back to unlife!
Grruu, uuuhhh…
The mummy scrambled up, pointed at the knife, then drove her head into the floor again.
"Ahh. Because you tried to kill me?"
Ttacttac-i had only shouted to intimidate me; he hadn't actually tried to end my life. So absolute obedience even covered this sort of thing. She was trying to take punishment for attempting to murder me in her previous life.
I gave the mummy's shoulder a couple of pats and ordered her to stand. She rose and bowed her head—and that was when I saw her sheer scale.
"Uh, uh…"
"Guuuhh."
Enormous height. Enormous frame. And… enormous chest.
What a dynamite body…!
On impulse, I groped at my own chest. It was so small I could barely even find anything to grab.
"Come here."
"Guaah?"
I reached out and squeezed the mummy's chest. Even through the roughly torn fabric, soft flesh gave under my hand. That devilish, springy feel—like a slime ball bought from a stationery shop as a kid…!
"I-I could have sworn she was completely dried out."
"Guu."
And yet they were this big and this soft!
"I'm jealous."
"Guu?"
"Hmph!"
For reasons I couldn't quite explain, my mood soured, and I took it out on her.
"Gyaahh…"
Mari had no idea what to do with herself, but I made no effort to soften my surly attitude.
I didn't like this one bit!