Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Survivor II
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Shin Noah
4
"Vice Guild Leader. Come see me for a sec?"
The first time I became aware of Baekhwa Girls' High School's existence was in my 5th regression.
It was back when I was still serving as Dang Seo-rin's right-hand woman in Three Thousand Worlds.
"Yes. What is it, Guild Leader?"
"It's nothing major, just some new intel. Have you ever heard of a place called Baekhwa Girls' High School?"
Nyaong. At that moment, the black cat we were raising in the guild (Dang Seo-rin's words: essential item for a witch) rubbed against my lap.
"No. I've never heard of it."
"Hmm. Well, there's this school called Baekhwa Girls' High School. The whole thing got swallowed up by a gate. About a year ago? But it opened up last week."
"A year. Then there wouldn't be any survivors."
Then as now, I made my judgments based on sound common sense and healthy intellect.
Dang Seo-rin lowered her voice.
"That's... surprisingly not the case."
"Pardon?"
"From what I hear, close to 20 people survived."
I widened my eyes.
Nyaong. The blackie meowed.
"Twenty people? Really?"
"Yeah... though I'd love to say that for sure. Truth is, I don't know exactly. It's still just rumors. The info I have is that 'the gate was closed for a year,' 'there are about 20 survivors,' and 'everyone trapped in the gate was high school students.'"
"High school students, no less."
I couldn't hide my astonishment.
As I said, even I, a regressor, needed three regressions to clear Busan Station. And even then, the only survivor was me.
Dang Seo-rin and I could both appreciate just how staggering Baekhwa Girls' High School's survival rate was.
"Guild Leader. If that's true..."
"Yeah. It means among the survivors, there's probably some tremendous talent—an all-time great Awakener."
Dang Seo-rin reached out and stroked the blackie's back. The cat shuddered.
"So, here's the thing. It might be a hassle, but I'd like you to go investigate personally. Check if the rumors are true, and if they are, if there's an all-time great Awakener, and if there is—"
"We'll recruit them into our guild."
"Yeah."
"Understood. I'll make sure to scout them before any other guilds can get their hands on them."
"Reliable as always. Oh, by the way."
Dang Seo-rin added casually.
"If their personality is seriously flawed, no need to recruit them."
Looking back now, our witch might have had prophetic powers.
Truth be told, it was something anyone could have predicted if they thought about it coldly.
Even healthy adults in body and mind go insane after being trapped in the Void once. How much worse would it be for impressionable high schoolers playing a long-term real horror game?
The moment I arrived at Baekhwa Girls' High School's 'guild headquarters,' I started to feel the answer.
"...This is the guild building?"
Caw caw—
Crows cried out.
Just as the Saintess lived in an aquarium temple and Dang Seo-rin stayed in a train car, Awakeners with particularly unique mental worlds had distinctly unusual home designs. Baekhwa Girls' High School was no different.
Baekhwa Girls' High School was, quite literally, using an actual school building as their guild hideout.
(Preliminary) Seo■ Univ 2 Admits! (Congrats)
The banner at the school gate was already in tatters.
The 'ul' in 'Seoul Univ' had holes punched clean through it. Of course, it could have been Sogang or Seokyeong Univ, so nothing was certain until observation.
The athletic field was pockmarked like it had been hit by a meteor shower. The soccer goal nets were so tangled even Alexander the Great would shake his head.
The dorms and school building were the worst—the walls had collapsed, exposing the skeletal steel frame.
'Not a school, just an abandoned one?'
I wasn't some horror game protagonist. So I figured I'd hesitate on whether to actually go inside.
"Excuse me. What brings you here?"
"Oh, that is..."
As I stood awkwardly in front of the gate, guards approached.
And, well... the guards' appearances were quite unique.
To put it bluntly, their heads were smashed in.
"......"
In other words, zombies.
The guard was exposing his skull to the world. Yet his demeanor toward me was extremely polite. If he'd been wearing a motorcycle helmet, I might not have realized he was a zombie.
"Sorry, but if you have no business, please leave. This is a private school. Outsiders can't enter freely."
"Uh, um."
Even I, a seasoned regressor feeling quite worldly, couldn't decide what to say in this situation.
Zombies aren't monsters? Should I take it down on sight?
"...I'm from Three Thousand Worlds guild."
"Three Thousand Worlds? Guild?"
The zombie guard tilted his cracked skull.
"Where's that?"
"Uh... it's one of the top guilds in Busan."
Wait a minute. Why am I explaining myself to a monster?
Suddenly enlightened, I composed my expression.
"I'm here to see the person in charge. Are they available?"
"Ah, you're a guest for the Chairman lady."
Chairman lady?
"She's in class right now, so she can't come out immediately."
"Class?"
"Yes? Of course. This is a school. At this hour, students are in class."
"......"
At this point, I already had a gut feeling.
A very, very familiar sense of dread.
It was like the ominous feeling that washed over me when I accepted Dang Seo-rin's recruitment offer to join Three Thousand Worlds, only to suddenly hear, 'Oh, by the way, everyone in our guild has to wear a conical hat no matter where they are.'
Through long regressor life, I'd honed my sixth sense.
The so-called 'crazy tentacle.' A sensory organ that only manifested in regressors.
When a certain level of craziness was detected, a prickling sensation shot from my tailbone up to my neck vertebrae. Especially now, the warning blared from my C4 vertebra—compared to just T6 prickles when meeting Dang Seo-rin, this was no ordinary level.
'Should I run?'
If I'd had even a bit more experience, I'd have heeded my body's siren and retreated immediately.
But back in the 5th regression, I was annoyingly upright. 'No matter what, I can't abandon the mission Dang Seo-rin entrusted to me with full authority,' clinging to a utterly pointless sense of duty.
"...I see. Understood. How long until class ends?"
"Hmm."
The guard turned to look at the clock.
It was the massive clock on the school exterior wall, designed to blend perfectly with the surroundings—which meant the hands were broken and it wasn't working at all.
Yet the zombie guard, like me, had a sixth sense and easily read the time from the broken clock.
"About 15 minutes until break. We can't keep a guest standing... Would you like to come inside and wait?"
"I'll just stay here."
I answered instantly. I had no desire to step beyond this gate. Though I didn't outright flee, I was at least heeding my spine's reaction to some degree.
The guard shrugged.
"Sure? Whatever makes you comfortable."
Not long after, my judgment proved spot on.
"Ding—dong—dang—dong."
"......?"
I looked at the guard.
Note that I just described the sound effect in quotes (""). In other words, this 'ding dong dang dong' wasn't a bell toll. Not a broadcast over speakers, nor a chime from a bell tower.
The guard—the cracked-skull zombie—was making the sound by moving his mouth and throat.
"Ding—dong—dang—dong."
"......"
The moment I saw that, my C3 vertebra buzzed.
Like rats freaking out before an earthquake, my cervical premonition didn't fail this time either. Zombies poured out from the school building—more precisely, the abandoned school.
"Ding—dong—dang—dong."
"Ding—dong—dang—dong."
All the zombies were wearing school uniforms—Baekhwa Girls' High School uniforms. And hundreds of zombies moved their lips in unison, chanting 'ding dong dang dong.'
"......"
I shuddered.
'Time to run.'
But it was already too late.
"You're the one who wanted to see me?"
A perfectly alive human walked out from among the hundreds of zombies. Wearing the same white uniform as them.
Her hairstyle was a ponytail. Orange-dyed hair.
In a prestigious private school with long traditions, that hair color would stand out, probably earning her some support among the students. She approached me like a student called out from class by a visitor.
"Who are you?"
That was Cheon Yo-hwa.
"...Hello. I'm Undertaker, Vice Guild Leader of Three Thousand Worlds guild in Busan."
"Hm? Guild? Vice Guild Leader?"
Cheon Yo-hwa tilted her head. The line alone sounded pretty cute.
The problem was her eyes.
Cheon Yo-hwa's eyes lacked focus. Like her iris and pupil weren't distinct. Her pupils were pitch-black shadows, like wells.
"What's that? First time hearing it."
"Uh... I see. Well, a guild is a group of Awakeners."
"Awakener?"
"...An Awakener is, uh, a term for people with special abilities."
Cheon Yo-hwa blinked.
My C3 vertebra blinked furiously in tandem.
"Special abilities? What's that? Mister, are you an otaku?"
"No, I... Excuse me, but may I have your name?"
"Oh, I'm Cheon Yo-hwa."
At that point, she politely bowed.
And I let my guard down a bit at this 'normal-like reaction.' Unavoidably so—I've always had a soft spot for polite people. Same with Go Yo-ri.
That's when the parade of slip-ups started pouring from my mouth. I didn't even realize they were slip-ups at the time.
"I'm the student council president here."
"Hm. Lady Cheon Yo-hwa must have awakened an ability too. I don't know what it is exactly, but these guards, or the [zombies] swarming the athletic field, or the abilities of the Awakeners belonging to this place—"
"Yes? Zombies?"
Critical slip-up 1.
"Yes. Lady Cheon Yo-hwa's ability is extremely powerful. Whether you turn dead [corpses] into zombies, or even turn living people into zombies, I don't know."
"...Corpses?"
Critical slip-up 2.
"With Lady Cheon Yo-hwa and this guild's members, you could secure a much better environment than now. Three Thousand Worlds doesn't make empty promises. There's no need to live hard in this [abandoned school] with its roof caving in and outer walls crumbling."
"......"
Critical slip-up 3.
"Of course, I'm not proposing anything immediate. If you could just spare a moment to schedule a meeting, we'll adjust our side and visit formally..."
"Please leave."
"Pardon?"
"Get out of our school right now."
Only then did I realize the surroundings had gone quiet.
The guard who'd reacted like a living person moments ago, the zombies gathered on the field, the occasional real students mixed in, and Cheon Yo-hwa right in front of me.
All staring silently at me.
"......"
"No. Don't leave."
Snap.
Cheon Yo-hwa grabbed my wrist.
"We've been short on guards anyway. Yeah. Perfect timing. Mister, want to [get hired] at our school? Guard mister. Yeah, that sounds good."
"......"
"Or [transfer] here. Our basketball team underclassmen have been complaining about too few new students lately."
My C2 vertebra sparked with disc pain.
Even I in the 5th regression, with zero tact, knew this was fucked. I slapped her wrist away and bolted without hesitation.
I fully expected 'enemies' to chase me. A reasonable judgment—and thus wrong.
The beings belonging to Baekhwa Girls' High School didn't pursue me.
Looking back, they hadn't stepped one foot beyond the gate.
"......"
The fence separating the school from the outside was crumbling in places. But the zombies never crossed the school boundary, as if an 'invisible wall' blocked them.
From right behind the gate, just beyond the fence, hundreds of gazes stuck like cicadas on a wall, staring silently this way.
"Ding—dong—dang—dong."
"Ding—dong—dang—dong."
"Ding—dong—dang—dong."
The bell rang across the abandoned schoolyard. The zombies turned back.
"Ah, break's over."
Cheon Yo-hwa muttered expressionlessly. She shuffled back toward the school gate, blending with the zombies. There were occasional 'real humans' mixed in with the corpses, but honestly, what difference did it make?
They seemed less like independent individuals and more like a single connected swarm.
The athletic field fell silent in an instant.
Listening closely, voices leaked from the distant school building. English. From another classroom, math lessons.
Incredibly, Baekhwa Girls' High School guild members—including the zombies—were 'attending classes' inside the school building.
"...What the fuck."
That was my first encounter with Cheon Yo-hwa.
First contact with aliens: failed.
"They're fucking crazy."
Dang Seo-rin reached the same conclusion upon hearing my report.
"Sometimes there are those kinds of lunatics. What do you think, Vice Guild Leader? Any risk of them harming civilians? Might need to exterminate them."
"I can't be certain yet, but civilians should be safe. They holed up in the abandoned school and didn't come out."
"Hmm, really?"
At my advice, Dang Seo-rin made an utterly rational call.
"Then let's leave them be as much as possible. No need to stir up a hornet's nest."
"Wise decision."
"Yeah. I'm always wise."
"Conical hat."
"The ornament that crowns my utmost wisdom."
Three Thousand Worlds washed their hands of it cleanly.
But the world doesn't consist only of rational people like us.
5
Ever since ancient times, human craziness has been like the king of fruits, durian.
No matter how tightly sealed in a box, it asserts its overwhelming presence around it.
Not long after I got thoroughly schooled and returned, Awakeners across the peninsula all turned their eyes to Baekhwa Girls' High School.
"Necromancer? A mage-type Awakener?"
"Controlling hundreds of corpses freely?"
"Total jackpot rookie."
"Recruit them! Whatever conditions, accept them all and bring them in!"
In this human-punk era where all resources were replaced by manpower.
With other resources scarce but corpses abundant, the Necromancer class oozed appeal.
Of course, I knew that overflowing appeal was just like Pandora's box. Meaning, the moment you unwrap it, Santa Claus delivers calamity worldwide.
"Everyone, that place is a demon cave no different from the Void. I strongly recommend not entering."
"Is Three Thousand Worlds afraid of our guild's growth?"
"Ignore them. They failed to recruit, so they're sprinkling chili powder. Ignore, ignore."
Foolishly, the guild leaders ignored my kind advice.
Their eyes rolled at the super rookie on the market.
"Whoa! Not some knockoff like the Shinbul virus— a real Necromancer's zombie legion!"
"Out of the way... all of you! With a dark mage, we might topple Dang Seo-rin's monopoly!"
When the biggest club, Three Thousand Worlds, declared they'd sit out this FA transfer window, other guild leaders rushed in madly.
They handpicked their guild's highest Charm messengers of death and hammered the 'recruit' button.
The only difference between them and me? Spinal nerves.
"Uh... why aren't our guys coming back from Baekhwa?"
"You too? No word from our guild member."
No matter how long the guild leaders waited, the messengers didn't return.
Finally, visiting Baekhwa themselves out of exhaustion, the guild leaders witnessed a shocking sight.
"No way—you—why are you working here?"
"Yes? I'm just a regular guard."
"What?"
The talents dispatched by the guilds had all gotten reverse-recruited into Baekhwa Girls' High School.
During job interviews, their skulls got hole-punched, and new guard recruits spewed out brains and lifetime memories. They couldn't even recognize their former guild leaders' faces.
When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back. Trying to recruit new talent only to lose existing ones—could happen anytime. But the guild leaders lacked the maturity to accept that truth.
"What the fuck... Hey, can't take this. Crush them!"
And anyone trying to crush others must be prepared to be crushed themselves.
Guilds declaring revenge on Baekhwa all 'got hired' without exception. In this job-scarce era, Baekhwa single-handedly slashed the peninsula's unemployment rate.
"What the fuck... what is that?"
"Undertaker was right?"
The guild leaders were horrified.
"We absolutely can't touch them."
"Fuck, saw what they eat at the school cafeteria? Human flesh! Eating human flesh! Crazy bastards."
"Fuck, not sour grapes—inedible zombies."
But it was already too late.
Pandora's box was open.
Baekhwa Girls' High School reached temporary saturation. With a flood of new guard hires, it was inevitable. Even a prestigious school with history couldn't handle 136 guards without it feeling excessive.
Unexpected manpower influx strained Baekhwa's finances immensely.
If Cheon Yo-hwa were a normal CEO, she'd wield the three great swords: 'manpower reduction,' 'mass layoffs,' 'restructuring.'
But Cheon Yo-hwa was anything but normal. She judged this the perfect time for aggressive mergers.
"Wh-what?"
"Why are they... growing?"
The 'school' literally expanded.
More precisely, the school's territory kept spreading.
Buildings in front of Baekhwa became 'tteokbokki joints' and 'convenience stores' before long. Not actually selling tteokbokki, of course.
"Hello, boss. Tteokbokki for two, plus three more fried dumplings please!"
"Our student's so pretty, added an extra dumpling."
Nothing exchanged hands. The zombie student handed over invisible bills, the zombie boss gave invisible tteokbokki. Both smiled happily.
This was still relatively normal.
Sometimes they'd pay with invisible bills and receive 'human flesh tteokbokki.'
Laughter never stopped at the street food stalls in front of the school. Shops boomed at lunch and dismissal. True creative economy.
"Hello! I'm Cheon Yo-hwa, Baekhwa Girls' High School student council president!"
"Eek...! Sp-spare me!"
"Ah, wait. Our students are really into off-campus experiential learning lately! Interested in working with our school?"
"No interest! Scram!"
"Thank you!"
"......"
Guilds around Baekhwa fell one by one to its educational zeal.
In under a year, the peninsula birthed an all-time great academy city.