Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Survivor III
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Shin Noah
The academy city was dead, yet at the same time, it was alive.
They had grown enormously, like one giant zombie altogether.
In the past, I used to criticize the lack of realism every time an academy city setting appeared in some creative work. Now I could see that I was wrong. I had no choice but to bitterly reflect on how narrow-minded my past self had been.
Yes. Surprisingly, academy cities really existed. The academy city's economic power surpassed any other city, it possessed transcendent scientific technology capable of creating something from nothing, and at the pinnacle ruling this academy city was none other than the student council president.
And yes. All these propositions were true stories.
"This is real...?"
Even Dang Seo-rin was flustered by the academy city's untimely debut.
"Vice Guild Leader. Is the Korean Peninsula cursed or something? Did King Dan-gun get scammed on real estate when he staked out the land? Fighting the Ten Tribes is headache enough, and now where did this insane group pop out from?"
"They popped out from the Gate. Do you know about it? They say Baekhwa Girls' High School's swimming pool has no water, with only zombies in swimsuits floundering on the rail floor."
"...... Let's pretend we didn't see it."
Anyone with even a shred of brain matter took the exact same attitude toward the academy city.
Complete ignore.
Even in the turns where I began operating independently under Dang Seo-rin, the basic strategy never changed.
Don't look at it. Don't pay it any attention. Don't talk to it.
The so-called Three No's Policy was the proper way to handle Baekhwa Girls' High School. To guard Pandora's box sealed with durian, this really was the best option.
Even when other guilds got distracted by the slogan "legendary necromancer" and wanted to poke around, I desperately held them back. No way, don't. Don't! Eating that will give you a stomachache.
"Hah? Who the hell are you to block our guild?"
"If we snag that necromancer, we can take down Dang Seo-rin!"
Of course, the guilds didn't obey me right from the start. In the end, some guild leaders ignored my warnings and ended up contributing to the academy city's founding.
But I didn't get mad. From a regressor's long lifespan perspective, they were like immature newborns. Keep nurturing them with love and care, and eventually they'd realize their parents' noble intentions on their own.
"Well, if it's what Undertaker-nim says..."
"Yeah. Thinking about it, necromancer just feels gross. Parading around corpses—what's that about?"
Ah.
Want the secret to subduing prideful Awakeners? Dead simple. Become a regressor and subjugate the Ten Tribes. Even steel tsunderes turn dere in front of me.
And so, starting from the 10th turn when Ten Tribes subjugation kicked off in earnest, the guild leaders meekly followed my control measures.
The Baekhwa Girls' High School gate was always festooned with tapes like spiderwebs.
[No Entry] [Safety First] [Danger] [Cannibal Alert] [Controlled Area]
A truly simple solution, but astonishingly, those yellow tapes wielded power rivaling an absolute barrier.
As long as no outsiders stirred things up from outside, Baekhwa Girls' High School stayed safe. Cheon Yo-hwa and her student council shut themselves away completely—you had to wonder what they even ate to survive in there.
Really, truly only very occasionally, when Cheon Yo-hwa herself ventured out for supplies, the Saintess would whisper in my ear that "the Student Council President has appeared." Even then, major incidents were rare.
Even past the 30th turn.
Even past the 40th turn.
Even past the 50th turn.
Yellow tapes still cordoned off the "Gate" at Baekhwa Girls' High School. I guarantee it—barring the turns when I went on vacation, the seal here was never broken.
In other words, in turns where I ditched regressor duties for a vacation, the "academy city" had a very high chance of appearing.
Same deal in the 108th turn, when I returned after filming Volcanic Return with the Sword Marquis.
The Korean Peninsula blazed up once more, proving why it was once called Hell Joseon and terrorized everyone.
-Groooar!
"Immortal Blaze! Eternal Prosperity! Tyrannical Citadel!"
"Boss, two portions of tteokbokki!"
Lonely Gourmet Ten Tribes. Cult freakazoids Shinbul. And topping it off, history's largest academy city: Baekhwa Girls' High School!
My old hometown pals gave me a heartfelt welcome.
So heartwarming now that tears welled up. If a Meteor Shower crashed down here too, the Korean Peninsula's Four Heavenly Kings would be complete.
Better to just quietly regress than face that mess head-on—and that's exactly what I did.
"Hmm."
After wrapping up vacation season and returning to Busan Station, sage mode hit.
Vacations really delivered. All those infamous occupational diseases of infinite regressors—the [Why me alone?] syndrome, [I'm so tired now] syndrome, [No one remembers me] syndrome—were wiped clean.
Only for the regressor staples to flare up from the opposite direction: [Still, I have to fix it] syndrome, [I'm totally fine] syndrome, [Even if everyone forgets, I'll remember them forever] syndrome. Whatever.
Life's just a chronicle of battling so-called illnesses named misfortune or happiness, right?
A regressor was merely a long-term patient who endured the same diseases deeper and more deftly than others.
I checked back into the hospital I'd long indebted myself to—this world. And for the first time, I quietly surveyed the Korean Peninsula's state from a fresh angle.
'Compared to the Sword Marquis... maybe Cheon Yo-hwa counts as a pretty rational conversation partner?'
A total paradigm shift!
An insight only possible after babysitting history's top lunatic, the Sword Marquis, for six whole years.
Yep. Compared to a shit-smeared mutt, a mustard-dabbed pup might as well be an adorable shih tzu.
'High school student council president? Next to some island-nation noble, she's a total normie.'
No more 5th-turn regressor shivering at zombie students. Just the 109th-turn Awakener fresh off Marquis of Yuldo Country and Volcanic Sect Leader duty.
Humans grow, after all.
I, Undertaker, marveled lightly at my own growth and dove into prep work.
Grabbed SG Guy Seo-gyu's nape and cured his anger issues, sealed an alliance with the perennial hikikomori Saintess, wiped out the Ten Tribes and Udumbara, dragged the inner-power-training Sword Marquis out of Ulleungdo, and shored up every base.
Then, a few months later.
I headed to Baekhwa Girls' High School alone.
"What brings you here?"
An NPC stood at the gate.
A familiar-faced guard.
Like Dante's inscription over Hell's gate—"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"—this NPC manned the entrance to a nightmarish dungeon.
"Sorry, but if you have no business, please leave. This is a private school. Outsiders can't just barge in."
"Ah. Hard work. I'm not an outsider."
But after clearing the Sword Marquis, this guard was a laughably puny monster to me.
A Sword Marquis that couldn't kill me only made me stronger.
"I'm this kind of person."
"Hm? What's this...?"
I politely handed over the printout.
It bore the education office seal, nice and friendly.
[Baekhwa Girls' High School 99th Alumni Association Notice]
"...Uh."
The guard's pupils quivered.
I beamed.
"Hello. I'm an alumna here, visiting for the Baekhwa Girls' High School alumni event. Nice to meet you."
"......"
The zombie guard faltered. Just like an NPC freezing up at a player's unscripted curveball.
Naturally, it was a forgery. I'd never even set foot in education studies, much less heard of real staff carrying docs with that title.
But who cares?
Think they'd call the education office or a uni to verify? Those folks shipped off to Mars when half of Seoul vaporized ages ago.
"Um... s-sorry... but this is a girls' high?"
"Ah. My gender flipped. Y'know, TS disease—I awakened that kinda ability."
"Eh...?"
If the zombie guard snapped that no such batshit power existed anymore, it'd short-circuit wondering if that was sexism. Tough break for a pattern-locked NPC.
"Uh. No, um... Mind stepping inside to wait? I'll fetch the person in charge."
"Ah, I called ahead saying I'd drop by for the alumni thing today, but looks like it didn't reach you, guard-nim. I'll head in and wait, then."
"Th-thank you..."
I slipped into Baekhwa Girls' High School's interior with absurd ease.
See that?
That's 109th-turn regressor savvy.
[Is this really the best way...?]
I ignored the Saintess's sigh in my ear.
6
"...You're from our school? A senior?"
Blink.
Cheon Yo-hwa, greeting me in the student council room, blinked nonstop, scrutinizing my every move.
Even the almighty necromancer couldn't fully mask her fluster before this self-proclaimed TS-afflicted alumna.
"Yeah. Hair color gives it away—you're Cheon Yo-hwa, right? Heard tons about you from the kids."
"Uh..."
I treated Cheon Yo-hwa like it was nothing.
"Word of a super sharp, quick-on-the-uptake junior snagging student council prez spread like wildfire through our alumni network."
"Th-thanks...?"
"Oh, and I was student council back in the day. Now I'm alumni association president."
"Ah..."
Cheon Yo-hwa shrank smaller by the second.
That's the Achilles' heel of nutjob Awakeners who've built their private worldview-settings inside their skulls.
They fiercely resist outsiders trampling their lore, but go helplessly soft against visitors who play along perfectly.
"We're holding an alumni meetup soon, and the gang wants to swing by the old school for old times' sake."
"Ah, got it..."
And that was precisely my aim.
Lunatics' natural predator? A lunatic one level crazier. Lunatic eats lunatic—truth holds up again.
Why? You're the student, remember? Student council prez at a school dripping history and tradition, no less.
Ah, necromancer this, that—gonna mouth off to your sky-high senior, the almighty alumni prez?
"Yeah. We'll skip class hours, so mind if seniors borrow a classroom or two after school?"
"...W-wait. Hold on, please!"
Cheon Yo-hwa shot up and retreated to the student council room's corner. Note: the room held a good dozen other students besides her.
Zombies? Nah. All live, breathing humans. Probably the real core of the "Baekhwa Girls' High School Guild."
"Wh-what now? Says she's a senior..."
The Baekhwa guildmates whispered.
"No way. Gender swaps are real?"
"But prez Yo-hwa's power's nuts, so theoretically..."
"Nah, total lie."
"But she clocked prez's name without intros."
"Test her."
"How?"
"Real alums know school trivia cold. Hit her with stuff no outsider could know."
Murmur murmur.
They figured they were whispering, but my ears caught it all.
"Um..."
"Yeah?"
"You know what they call our dorm?"
Knew the test was coming.
I'd prepped hardcore for months, exactly for this.
That prep whispered in my ear now.
[...Baekhwa Hall. Kids just call it the dorm, though.]
Ah, says the Saintess Awakener here――.
Her Clairvoyance lets her spy on any Awakener she fancies.
You wouldn't know, but we've been thick as thieves by your side for over half a year. 'Cause I specially asked the Saintess to.
"Baekhwa Hall. Though everyone just says dorm."
"Uh. Where's the cafeteria...?"
"Out the door, down to first floor, left hall a ways."
"Our guidance dept head's name..."
"Ah, Gorilla? Still hanging in there. Back in my day, dorm warden rocked the perm—still does?"
"......"
Cheon Yo-hwa's pupils jittered.
Last resort: out came the yearbook. I'd claimed 96th class, so she flipped right to it.
Obviously, as she eyed it, so did the Saintess.
"Um, mind sharing your name, senior...?"
"Han Ye-sol. Lee Mi-ri. Park Ha-yoon. Kim Ji-yu. Kim Ye-rin."
"......"
"Those were my close pals. But."
I rose.
"No clue why you're asking all these weird questions."
"Huh?"
"You're not, like, suspicious or anything, right, juniors? Wow, Baekhwa's gone downhill. Our year shipped at least two to Seoul U. You all cramming okay for CSAT? Prez like you must be gunning for Seoul U, yeah?"
"......"
"Yo-hwa."
"Y-yes..."
"Let's get along."
"Yes, Senior..."
That day, the regressor scored a compliant necromancer underling.
- Survivor. End.