The Amazon Resort
The Equator. An island bathed in scorching sunlight. Crashing waves. We usually called places like this a resort.
“The weather’s damn good here.”
“Hard to believe this is Stage 5…”
Chaaah— The sight of waves gently lapping against the crimson beach felt unsettlingly peaceful. But we couldn’t let ourselves be fooled by it. This was an Event, one twisted and far more dangerous than the original.
“First, let’s split into parties and scout.”
“Isn’t that risky?”
“Even if it’s mutated, this is still the first event. It should be scaled for top-tier Stage 5 users. We won’t get wiped out before we can react.”
At the mention of “top-tier Stage 5 users,” Park Seona gave an awkward laugh. Having received the massive rewards from Success Myth, she had already grown far beyond what Stage 5 could contain. She looked guilty, as if I’d just pointed out how she’d become strong.
“Don’t react to every little thing.”
“Yes…”
I laid out the plan. “We’ll divide into three parties. Party One guards the ship. Party Two searches the island’s perimeter along the beach. I’ll explore inland and return. That’s three. Done.”
“Then I’ll take Party Two.”
“Right. You and Baengnae sweep the outer edge.”
Just then, Baengnae—who had been splashing around in the water—came running over with an opinion of her own. She had important thoughts too.
“Baengnae wants to swim-swim!”
She meant she’d pretend to guard the ship in Party One while actually just playing in the water. Ridiculous. Still, I could understand why the beautiful beach and island tempted her. I already had some experiments lined up with Boots anyway. If we were going to rest, doing it here wouldn’t be so bad.
I offered a compromise. “Finish the event first, then play. We don’t know what threats are here. We can’t just mess around.”
“Alrigh’.”
I turned toward the inland area thick with red palm trees. Dormant volcanoes were visible in the distance.
“Just in case—if the volcano erupts, set sail immediately. I can fly.”
“Don’t worry.”
That covered the obvious variables for now. If anything else came up, Baengnae would blow her whistle. Park Seona could also send a message.
“Then let’s move.”
I kicked off the ground and spread Swallow’s Wing. Then I flew toward the volcano. If anything existed on this island, the odds were high it would be there.
Whooosh— The red island’s environment was peculiar. Aside from the ground, trees, and rocks all being red, the nature here was incredibly vibrant. Sacred fruits grew everywhere, and small native creatures could be spotted frequently.
‘Safer than I thought…?’
The fact that plants and small animals could thrive here meant there weren’t many predators to eat them. And since the volcano hadn’t erupted in quite some time, nature had been able to flourish this much.
While flying around aimlessly, I spotted something strange. A white stone path.
‘Hmm…’
Perfectly arranged white pebbles embedded in the red earth. It looked luxurious. Like a resort walkway. I revised my earlier thoughts. This wasn’t a place where flora and fauna simply thrived because there were no strong predators. This was land where highly intelligent beings had built a civilization. Beings capable of establishing the concept of roads and crafting white stones into uniform decorative sizes. This island clearly had a ruler.
Tap— I folded my wings and landed on the path.
‘Still, found it easier than expected.’
I began walking along the path. No matter how great the threat, I could decide what to do after meeting it.
***
Park Seona walked along the beach with Baengnae. Just in case, she had summoned two leopard beastmen at the vice-captain level to move with them. But the moment they were summoned, they spotted the small zombie in front of them and recoiled in shock.
Park Seona calmed her summons. “Easy, you two. Why are you so scared of Baengnae?”
Vice-Captain Renold answered, sweating. “C-Can’t you feel it, Captain? That thing thinks we’re food. If we show any weakness, it’ll definitely devour us in an instant!”
Park Seona tilted her head. She didn’t understand. Baengnae was staring blankly at the sea with an innocent face. She looked like nothing more than a girl who wanted to play.
They soon reached a beautiful stretch of sand. Baengnae grabbed Seona’s arm and whined.
“Baengnae wants to swim-swim.”
“Darling said to work first, then play.”
Baengnae pouted. Her face said stop nagging.
“Alrigh’.”
Park Seona burst out laughing and pinched Baengnae’s cheeks. “By the way, you look completely human now.”
“Madda.”
“Aigoo, so pretty.”
After escaping the Stormy Strait, Mingming had gifted Baek Suhan two bottles of Fantasy Elixir. But he refused them. “Relying on medicine for external beauty? True beauty is proportional only to the number of sweat drops shed.” He rejected them with exactly those words. So the elixirs had all gone to Baengnae.
After drinking them, Baengnae had gained more vitality. Her hair had grown longer, and her skin had become incredibly firm. Now no one would mistake Baengnae for a zombie at a glance.
“Baengnae wants to swim-swim.”
Park Seona couldn’t understand why the leopards were afraid of a girl who whined like this all the time. Party Two continued searching the empty island along a coastline where no creatures existed.
***
Before long, I arrived at the hotel. The stone path led to a two-story building that looked like a front desk, with four five-story buildings behind it. The sign had three dolphins drawn on it.
Amazon Resort
It was clearly a rest facility found in a resort area.
‘What the hell…?’
The sight was so beautiful and peaceful that it felt wrong. The Equator was supposed to be an event where ships ran aground on strange phenomena and were attacked by sea creatures. But in this mutated version, not only was there a beautiful resort—there was even a perfectly intact hotel.
While I was pondering the situation, I heard rustling from behind. I turned my head, and our eyes met. There stood a bipedal creature with a crocodile head, holding a massive pair of shears. Its outfit gave off a gardener vibe.
The crocodile stared at me with its mouth hanging open, then spoke first.
“Huh…? A guest?”
The crocodile-headed being rolled its eyes as if thinking, then finally decided on its next words.
“It’s off-season right now…”
I hesitated too. Since the Equator was supposed to involve attacks by sea creatures, I’d naturally assumed it was an enemy. But the way it spoke felt far too much like an ordinary person. Even though it held large shears, it seemed less threatening and more like it had just come out to do its job.
‘This is… ambiguous…’
I decided to talk first. I could always turn it into a zombie later to extract information, but that would degrade its intelligence. If conversation was possible, there was no reason not to try. Since it seemed like a resort employee, I chose my words naturally to match.
“I’d like to check in.”
At my words, the gardener scratched its head. After telling me to wait a moment, it walked off somewhere.
‘Should I follow?’
When I tailed the crocodile, I found a rest area where several gardeners had gathered. Besides the crocodile, there were hippo-headed, duck-headed, and other beings holding gardening tools. Quite a few of them.
‘This is… good.’
I licked my lips inwardly. Just because they weren’t combatants didn’t mean I couldn’t turn them into zombies. After all, they weren’t human to begin with. I needed some intelligent zombies capable of underwater combat anyway.
‘I’ll watch the situation, then sweep them all up.’
The gardeners talked among themselves and eventually seemed to reach a conclusion, nodding at each other. Then the crocodile-headed one began walking back. I returned to the front gate, pretending I knew nothing, and waited.
The gardener spotted me and delivered the message.
“Actually, the manager isn’t here right now… You might have to wait a bit. They should be back within three hours. I’m really sorry.”
“Um…?”
Unlike my rather impure thoughts, the creature’s words were kind. So kind it almost made me feel guilty. I scratched my head—I hadn’t expected to be put in this kind of awkward position.
‘No, this makes me look like the bad guy…’
It would’ve been easier if it had just started swinging the shears. This felt strange. I was used to enemies that always tried to kill me. I wasn’t accustomed to ones without hostility.
‘Ah…? Maybe the setup is that I’m supposed to team up with these guys to take down the real enemy of the Equator?’
I considered various possibilities and answered first.
“By the way, what kind of currency do you accept here?”
“Excuse me…?”
The crocodile tilted its head and pulled a coin from its pocket. A copper-colored coin. It was a type I’d never seen before. I reached into my pocket, summoned a gold coin, and showed it to it.
“Would this work?”
The crocodile’s eyes lit up at the sight of the gold coin. A deep, intense greed flashed across its face for an instant. Then it spoke as if nothing had happened.
“Of course! It works! So you’re a VIP!”
I put the gold coin away and replied, “I have companions, so I’ll bring them over. I’d like to meet the manager then.”
“Yes! I’ll definitely let them know a VIP has arrived!”
The crocodile seemed eager to pass on my story and quickly left, heading toward the gardeners’ area from earlier. I turned and walked out of the hotel grounds along the path. Once I was far enough away, I spread my wings. I would return to the ship. And as planned, I would bring the others with me.
Spend the night at a luxury resort under the hot sun? Of course we would. But it wouldn’t be the dolphin hotel operated by those sea creatures. The greed the crocodile had shown—that wasn’t simple greed for shiny gold.
‘It was pure appetite…’
The moment I showed the gold coin, it immediately realized I was a user. Then it suddenly started calling me a VIP. In other words, it indirectly knew of users’ existence. According to community information, when a ship sank on the red reefs of the Equator, it would be attacked by strange sea creatures. And the crocodile had called this the “off-season.”
So the conclusion was clear. That hotel was a place where sea creatures gathered to hunt and eat users during the “peak season.” And this island was their host—acting as a kind of hunting ground keeper that ran ships aground on the red reefs.
‘Which means… there are a lot of sea creatures.’
I would bring my companions, clean them out, and turn the place into a glamorous zombie hotel. When news spread that prey had come looking for them, the “guests” would flock in. All we had to do was prepare to welcome them.
Time to prepare for opening. I would open a zombie resort here that supplied unlimited high-intelligence sea creatures as zombies.