I Became an Apocalyptic "Physical" Therapist (2) — The Curse
It was raining. Heavily, at that.
And it was the clean rain that survivors always found themselves waiting for.
"Boss. It's raining."
"Yeah. So it is."
"Yes, sir……."
"Coming down hard, too."
"Kkakdugi, the Weather should've arrived by now, right?"
"Yes, Boss. He should be there by now."
"Poor bastard. Some luck he's got, huh?"
"Yes, sir. That's right, Boss."
"How does rain start falling the very next day? Haah……."
A regressed member of the Resistance.
Gong Won-goo had returned to the past and was living through the hellish apocalypse all over again.
What set this second run apart from the first was that he was growing faster — and that this time, he had comrades at his side.
"B-but what ex-exactly is Sapiens? Wh-what kind of place? If we h-hand him over there, is he g-going to die?"
The one throwing out the question with sharp, bright eyes was Suwon. The team called him the youngest of the crew.
Suwon's stutter was bad enough to make a listener itch, but nobody ever made a fuss about it.
"Youngest, it's rude to butt in while the Boss is talk—"
"That's enough. What is this, a gang hierarchy? I told you to go easy on that. You can do it to me all you want, but not to the crew. That's abuse of power. Abuse."
"I'm…… I'm sorry, Boss."
Lee Hyun-sung quickly bowed his head and clasped his hands behind his back.
"Everyone in my crew is equal. Didn't I say that the day you joined? Well? Didn't I?"
"You did, Boss!"
"And you. Youngest."
"Yes?"
"How old are you?"
"M-my age? I, I don't quite remem—"
Suwon was the youngest member of the team.
"That's right."
He hadn't forgotten his age out of stupidity — his memory had been damaged. That was why Suwon knew almost nothing about himself.
Not his name, not his age.
Most of his memories were simply gone. Even the name Suwon had been given to him only because of the place where he'd been found, near the city of Suwon.
But a foggy past didn't mean the kid had a bad memory. Suwon's recall was extraordinary.
He was just a little clumsy with words, that was all.
"Then we're done here."
"Being young or not, one should still know the things worth knowing, no? That's the part I'm getting at."
A peculiar voice chimed in, stiff and gravelly. It belonged to the oldest member of the team — the only man who dared drop honorifics with Won-goo, the Director himself.
A gaunt, wiry frame with a face like a scrawny rat's.
He always carried a thick book with him. A book so dense and solid it could double as a weapon, and Won-goo never missed a chance to mock that too.
His nickname was Mu Beob-sa — the No-Mage.
A name coined because the man was a mage who couldn't actually cast magic properly.
"Why don't you go finish your meditation, old-timer?"
"I'm not an old man, the part where you keep insisting on it. This is wear, worn down from a hard life, is what it is."
"Worn down or rotted through, how would I know? Just focus on your meditation, will you? Look around you. A team with a mage on it, running around bashing monkeys — does that sound like proper trade craft to you? Where's the dignity in that?"
The so-called red monkeys.
He said it as he kicked a Bloodfan corpse — a monster that cropped up all over the apocalypse.
Stat-wise it was no different from an ordinary monkey, except for its razor claws and the fact that they traveled in sizable packs.
And on top of that, their staple diet was human.
As in, monkeys that ate people alive.
Nothing special about them individually, but their numbers made them genuinely dangerous.
Even so, they were low-tier monsters — classified Tier 1 — the kind that a handful of well-coordinated combat specialists could wipe out entirely.
"You promised me all the time I needed to untangle my mana circuits, and now you're changing your tune? Is that the part where we've arrived?"
"That's exactly why you should be meditating harder. Enlightenment is what you need. Otherwise, the Weather—"
Won-goo didn't finish the sentence. Mu Beob-sa had closed his eyes. A mage closing his eyes meant meditation, and the unwritten rule of the crew was that you didn't touch a mage while he was meditating.
Whether he was truly meditating or had simply closed his eyes to shut out the conversation, though, no one could say.
"Suwon. You finished school, right?"
"I-I attended, yes."
"You remember it?"
Suwon nodded.
"What's the most famous of the Sapiens?"
"Sapiens?"
"You don't know Sapiens? Did you never study?"
"Homo……"
"Right. That one."
"Ho, homo? Homona……"
Having caught the meaning, Suwon let his mouth hang slightly open and asked nothing more.
"Right. Homo sapiens. But this Sapiens runs his business on the beastmen."
"B-beastmen?"
"Yeah. The shelters are managed by beastmen, after all."
"Then beast…men and human m-men……"
Suwon's mouth fell open even wider.
The Shelter was what survivors called the gathering zones. Known by many names, but they all fell under the heading of so-called safe zones — the only places where you were completely protected from the threat of monsters. Markets had formed there where all kinds of supplies could be restocked, and if you needed people, you could find those too.
But since there was an entrance fee, survivors had to pick their timing down to the moment.
The Shelter's admission price was murderous.
"Tastes do run the whole spectrum, you know."
The one who said this was a pretty-faced man with long, flowing hair — Jo Mu-sa.
He was the one teammate who used honorifics even with the youngest. Everyone called him Jo Mu-sa, and he handled the team's medical care.
"Then wh-what about the Fishing Ground?"
"Hmm, what do you suppose you need in order to fish?"
"A fishing rod?"
Jo Mu-sa smiled gently at that. Suwon was closer to a curious, cheerful young man; Jo Mu-sa carried a faintly sickly air about him instead.
His skin was so pale that at certain angles he looked outright bloodless.
"You need bait. When you're hunting large monsters, you need bait."
"S-so the bait is……"
"Yes. There are plenty of monsters whose staple diet is human. The Fishing Ground is a place that raises that bait for them."
Suwon's mouth opened again.
"No need to be that shocked. That's just what the world's become."
"Enough with the state-of-the-world speech. Jo Mu-sa, how's your condition?"
"Good."
"Good? Then let's raise the pace a little today."
"Boss. Where are you planning to go?"
"Where do you think? We need to chart a course for the Shelter."
"The Shelter? Why there? We already restocked water. It's not time to go yet, is it?"
The Shelter referred to settlements that had formed where survivors gathered. They went by various names, but they counted as what you'd call safe zones. Not only had markets sprung up where all manner of goods could be replenished — if you needed people, you could acquire those as well.
The catch was the entrance fee, which meant survivors had to choose the timing of their visits with great care.
The Shelter's admission price was nothing short of extortionate.
"We have to go."
"The fee's gone up again, and we're going anyway? That's the part I don't follow."
"We have to. To bring back the Weather."
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
the mage grumbled.
"It did rain, didn't it? A day late, sure, but the man's not without ability. So you bring him back."
"You're unbelievable. He's the one who sold himself off, the part where you expect me to fetch him back. And then hand him right back to Sapiens again?"
"The Weather's got a C-class face, so hand him back."
"You think those vicious bastards would just give him up? All that'd happen is we torch another entrance fee, the part where I suspect it anyway."
"Mu Beob-sa, sir. Your words……"
Lee Hyun-sung stepped in as the mage kept picking at the argument — and Won-goo immediately held out a hand to stop him.
Hyun-sung froze mid-motion, as if on command.
"You forgot the promise made when you joined? Everyone follows my word. If you don't like it, step down. Old man."
"There it is, there it is, there it IS! I was wondering when that line would come out! The moment I open my mouth, it's 'step down'! It's filthy, honestly!"
"What's filthy is an old-timer's heart, lounging around doing nothing for a month straight. Why did we gather here? Wasn't it to band together and survive this barren world? Kkakdugi and the youngest, Suwon — combat. Jo Mu-sa, that punk — combat and support. Sim-ya — food. Everyone has their role, don't they?"
"Then why am I left out? I'm a combat specialist too, the part where—"
"Because you're about to step down."
"Goddammit. I can't even voice an opinion? What is this place, a commune?"
"Communes died out ages ago. If you want to voice opinions, earn your keep first. What kind of mage can't cast magic? That's exactly why they call you the No-Mage — a mage without magic. Want to make a fuss? Do it when you can cast. I'll take it all, whatever you've got. Concentration still not coming back? Then keep it to words. There's always a treatment I can administer."
At the word treatment, Mu Beob-sa's fire died on the spot.
"It's because the entrance fee bends your spine in half, that's the part where I'm saying this. Good sir. You stock up to the brim before leaving the Shelter, or there's nothing left over. Duck in and out empty-handed like this and it's bankruptcy. Bankruptcy!"
"You think I don't know that? Then why did I take him in? He's crew, isn't he? So you go get him back."
"Go get him back, he says, the part where he's the one who—"
"Still, we should at least look. You know finding someone with a climate Gift isn't easy. And he's exactly the kind of talent our team needed — that's why I took him in. Am I wrong? Rain dates, rainfall regions. Knowing just that cuts down how often we have to visit the Shelter. Of course you go get him."
Even setting that aside, the ability to read the weather was useful in a dozen different ways.
"Then why did you sell him in the first place!"
"Oh, was I born a Director? I make mistakes too, you know. Honestly. Fine, it was my mistake. A mistake."
"Ugh, fine, handle it your way, the part where you will anyway! And I am NOT an old man. This is a face tempered by genuine hardship. I'm not even fifty yet!"
As Mu Beob-sa worked himself up, Won-goo answered with a scowl.
"Fine, fine. I believe you. Eat something, Mu Beob-sa. If meditation's not doing it, pick up that book you always carry. The one in English. Track-something-or-other."
"So I'm on meal duty, then."
"Do as you like."
"What? The Director isn't eating, the part where—"
"You're not eating, Boss?"
"If we're stopping at a hunting ground, we need to move now. I'll drive. You all eat ahead of me."
"Boss, which hunting ground are we……"
"What's the best cost-per-effort spot nearby? Goblins. We can hope for a golden goblin while we're at it."
"Do golden goblins actually exist?"
"They do. Not ones dipped in actual gold, mind you. But there are some that give up good stuff now and then. Sometimes they cough up silver or gold coins."
"Gold-colored coins?"
"That's the one."
SKREEE!
Won-goo batted a goblin out of the air mid-leap with his warhammer.
The weapon he wielded was about a meter long, its head only slightly larger than a demolition pick's.
In a world overrun with ability users, plenty of fighters carried warhammers as their main weapon, but one with such a compact head was exceedingly rare.
Most who swung warhammers were hulking bruisers who specialized in medium-to-large monsters, after all.
"Boss, above you!"
"I'm fine."
Kkakdugi Lee Hyun-sung shouted as a goblin dropped down toward Won-goo's head, but Won-goo only replied with an annoyed look.
Then he raised the hammer. The blade protruding from the tip of the head suddenly stretched long and skewered the goblin clean through.
The goblin, leaping down to aim for the crown of his skull, found itself turned into a shish kebab.
Goblins.
In raw combat power they were beneath even Bloodfans, yet it was precisely this kind of unpredictability that put them in a higher classification.
Bloodfans were Tier 1.
Goblins were Tier 2.
Bloodfans had animal-level intelligence; goblins were far smarter than that.
Call it borderline human intelligence, roughly. Even so, they were officially classified as dangerous monsters.
Goblins were born barely capable of feeling fear. And they were cruel on top of it.
A Bloodfan tore a person apart alive and ate them as they were. A goblin took its captives and cooked them.
They savored human terror.
Even so, with even a modest understanding of how they operated, they weren't all that hard to deal with.
That held true now as well. In fact, only four had joined the fight: Kkakdugi, Jo Mu-sa, Suwon, and Won-goo.
The four of them needed less than an hour to sweep out an entire goblin tribe.
"Ttugi. You think it's all wrapped up?"
"Yes, Boss. Aside from a few goblins still hiding, it's done. Shall we hunt them down?"
"Leave it. Kill them all and we've got nothing to hunt in a pinch. Let them breed and they'll come back."
"Um……"
"What?"
"There's a human head in their cooking pot."
"Hm? They ate someone?"
"It appears so."
"So people are still getting eaten by goblins these days, huh."
"What should we do?"
"Leave it be, all the same. We'll cross paths with them again regardless. Wipe them out and that's one money route gone for good. Who knows what might get planted in their place, either."
"Yes, sir……"
"Ttugi."
"Yes……"
"Don't dwell on it. This is a world where even saving yourself is hard."
"I'm sorry, Boss."
"Nothing to be sorry for. Suwon!"
"Yessir!"
"Crack open the boxes!"
The gear worn by goblins living in small tribes was worthless. Selling it cost more in transport than it fetched, so most survivors wouldn't touch the stuff.
And slaughtering goblins in bulk didn't awaken any new abilities either.
Even so, survivors did occasionally seek out goblin villages. The reason lay in goblin nature.
When goblins gathered, they invariably built boxes — and into those boxes they stashed their valuables.
And every so often, those boxes produced what you'd call a jackpot.
"It's, it's opening."
Suwon crouched in front of the old box. At that moment, Won-goo caught a strange ringing in his ears coming from the warhammer.
It wasn't a loud ringing, but he was far too attuned to these signals to let one slide.
"Stop! STO-O-OP!"
"S-stop?"
"Yeah. Back away from it, just like that. That box is cursed."
At the word cursed, the mage in the camping trailer came hurrying outside. The trailer they all lived out of was closer to a freight container truck than a camping rig, but its purpose was no different from one.
"Cursed?"
"That's right."
Won-goo held the warhammer out toward the box, and it rang out again, vibrating in his grip.
"See that?"
"Ho…… so it really was an ego item, the part where it's genuine?"
"It's an ego item, I keep telling you. You still didn't believe me?"
"I thought you were just blowing smoke again, the part where you show your teeth."
"Enough. Everyone listen up. A curse sitting on a box like this means a goblin shaman has been born."
"A goblin shaman would be Tier 3, right?"
"No. Tier 4, minimum."
"Tier 4?"
"Could reach Tier 5, possibly."
"A goblin shaman rates that high?"
"It's not an ordinary shaman — it's a curse-caster. Given room to grow, it could climb past even that."
"……"
"Even well-established teams avoid curse-wielders. When you're unlucky, you just walk away."
The team's expressions hardened at the sight of Won-goo's face turning serious. They exchanged views with visible gravity.
Even so, the last member of the team — Midnight — never showed herself.
Nobody expected her to, either. She only emerged while the others were gone, or while they slept.
Few among the crew truly knew her. The rest simply waited quietly until she chose to tell them.
"Th-then what do we do?"
"But we're in luck. It's been exactly half a year since we last visited here. However fast goblins mature, six months isn't enough for it to reach adulthood. An unripe shaman is something we can handle."
"Then……"
"Right. The 'leave some alive' order is cancelled. We hunt them now. Leave not a single one standing."
The moment the words left his mouth, the young goblins in hiding revealed themselves.
Like insects scattering at the light, they bolted in every direction.
Mu Beob-sa spat a curse at the sight.
"Son of a b—? They understood every word we said, the part where they were listening the whole time?"
"Not a single one gets away. They're smart enough to follow speech, that one especially. And you saw the head in the pot, didn't you? It's already tasted human. If it escapes, we're in real trouble."
Everyone split off to hunt the goblins. It was a desperate situation, yet Won-goo was smiling.
Because even before he'd given the order, Lee Hyun-sung was already sprinting for the entrance. It meant the man knew his role down to the bone — and that meant Hyun-sung had grown.
That was why the smile had come to Won-goo's lips on its own.
Hunting down the young goblins wasn't difficult. Easier than killing the adults, in fact — and easier still because the goblin village had no other way in or out.
With the exits sealed, they were nothing more than rats in a barrel.
"Boss. I think that's the last of them."
"You're sure?"
"I checked several times."
"Nothing strange out there?"
"No. There wasn't one, was there?"
"No — there definitely was. It's probably lying dead among the rest. One more sweep before we go."
"Understood, Boss!"
Beneath a mound of its own kind's corpses, in a hidden hollow, the goblin shaman revealed itself.
A full-grown goblin stood barely a meter tall.
A goblin child was smaller still.
But the goblin shaman was different.
Though it bore the form of a child, it stood a full head taller than the other young goblins.
And it was clutching a deeply unsettling necklace strung from bones.
The goblin shaman looked around at its surroundings — and began to scream. It shrieked out a bestial cry and swore its vengeance.
"Dela ku! Seq! kakum! (Humans! I will have my revenge!)"
The young shaman's choked howl, spat out before the bodies of its kin.
But the scream did not last long.
"See? Told you I'd make you crawl out."
"Boss, you're truly remarkable."
At the sight of the humans who had slaughtered its kind, the young goblin shaman froze solid on the spot.
"Hey!"
"……"
"Hey! You!"
"……?"
"Yeah, you. Why are you playing dumb? I know you understand every word. Good to see you."
The humans were grinning, bright and wide. To the goblin's eyes, they looked more terrifying than any demon.