Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: 17. Hidden Motives. (2)
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[Su-hyun-ah. Looks like I'll be late again today.]
[...ㅡㅡ... You sleeping out every night?]
[Probably won't get back till around dawn.]
[I'll sleep in my room,]
Eh?
Was she planning to wait up for me in the rooftop room?
I chuckled and sent a reply.
[Message me if anything happens.]
[Oppa]
[Yeah?]
[Don't get hurt.]
[I won't. Don't worry.]
I pocketed my phone and flopped down.
After hurling the chair downstairs to the first floor, the calligraphy academy's office felt pretty spacious.
There was a charger on the desk.
I plugged it in and scrolled through YouTube.
The apocalypse's second week was drawing to a close.
The news had stopped updating entirely.
No broadcast station was airing anything new.
The regular programs that had been flooded with apocalypse coverage right after it hit were now just static.
Even the cables endlessly looping reruns had gone dark.
The only things still alive were a few communities.
And YouTube, barely.
Even that wouldn't last until the end of the third week without surprise.
It was a miracle communications were holding out at all.
YouTube's new popular videos were completely dominated by Human Beast clips.
Nationality and language didn't matter anymore. Videos from every country were popping up in recommendations and trending.
No reason for someone in Korea to see stuff uploaded from Yemen or Honduras.
Normally, you'd have to scroll forever to find them.
But there they were, front and center.
...Only one explanation came to mind.
Fewer and fewer YouTubers uploading.
In Korea, around the world—everywhere.
There were still survivors, sure.
But they were too busy just trying to stay alive.
Living on the brink of death.
Not many had the leisure to film and upload videos.
So YouTube was being taken over by a handful of obsessives cranking out content nonstop.
These folks were posting every ten minutes or hour, doing live streams to prove they were still kicking.
...It just looked like terror to me.
Like they had to do this or fear would kill them.
Because it was the only thing they could do.
Most videos were like that.
A face in a messy room littered with snack wrappers and filthy disposables.
Not what I was looking for.
Scrolling down, drone footage started appearing.
Oh... Manhattan?
The date...
Yesterday.
I tapped it.
Five seconds later, I bolted upright.
"...Fucking hell."
The Human Beast horde in the Madison Square video.
The horde in the Incheon video.
The ones in Incheon and Madison Square were walking.
Like drug addicts, aimless and purposeless, staggering along just because others were going that way.
The uploader spoke frantically.
"Look! Look what happen. Did you guys see that?! Thoes, how do i call that... Thing? I don't know, but that... Animals. Grab each other, Step on them selves, And, And..."
What the hell's he saying?
Couldn't understand a word.
But I got the gist of his message.
The drone he'd sent out.
What it captured was a mountain of Human Beasts.
A mountain was the only way to describe it.
They were leaping in from all directions with insane momentum, grabbing each other, trampling one another, climbing buildings.
The ones crushed at the bottom were surely pulverized.
Like a massive swarm of bees.
Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of Human Beasts clinging to the building, to each other, ripping heads off as they crawled upward.
They were chasing one target.
A helicopter landed on the rooftop.
Its rotors were spinning with a deafening roar.
It had drawn them in.
The huge noise and downdraft from the chopper—that's what lured them.
No other explanation.
People were boarding the helicopter.
Survivors.
The living.
Desperate to escape.
The Human Beasts were scaling the building.
Couldn't fathom how.
Trampling, crushing, flattening each other—the squashed ones became footing for the next wave.
Like a colossal mound draped along the building's side, they crawled up.
The survivors boarded.
All of them.
And at that moment, the first Human Beasts crested the rooftop.
Pouring in from every side.
Someone inside the chopper fired a gun.
A few Human Beasts dropped.
The ones not headshot got right back up and charged.
The helicopter began to lift off slowly.
Human Beasts grabbed the landing gear.
Others grabbed those ones.
A Human Beast ladder started forming.
They kept climbing the ladder endlessly.
The chopper lurched.
It hadn't gained enough altitude.
It pitched left, then right on the rooftop.
Struggling to clear the roof.
Gunfire erupted chaotically from inside.
The Human Beasts clung to the gear like liquid monsters, swarming up like maniacs.
Then the helicopter lost balance and tilted sideways.
It did pull away from the roof.
But it couldn't recover.
The chopper plummeted.
Right into the heart of the Human Beasts.
A massive explosion erupted.
The YouTuber rambled desperately.
And the video ended.
"............"
I slowly lowered the phone.
What the hell had I just seen?
Those things... could do that?
Climb buildings?
By trampling and crushing each other?
...Feeling safe because they couldn't open doors was fucking stupid.
If they could do that, whether they knew doors or not was irrelevant.
I replayed the video.
From the start.
The sound...
Sound draws them, right?
Watching again, I spotted what I'd missed before.
Too shocked by the tens of thousands swarming like bees to notice.
Nearby buildings, big and small.
Distant ones too.
Windows shattering.
And from the broken windows, shattered doors, Human Beasts were bursting out.
As they gathered, the already massive horde swelled even larger.
If sound stimulates them, it didn't just pull street-wandering packs—it dragged out every last one hiding in buildings everywhere.
"......Haa......"
...No time to get cocky about killing a few dozen.
If that hit our street, if they swarmed the mart like that, no one would hold.
No matter how sturdy the glass walls, how do you withstand that?
Once pressure hit critical, the walls would shatter, and they'd flood in like a tidal wave.
...If we're using the building, turn the whole thing into a fortress.
Rip out cars, use everything available to build a safe zone.
...That'll take time.
How many able bodies do we have?
Grandmother and the baby are useless.
Actual workers.
The inline six, Su-hyun, Ye-eun, So-eun, Huni Ajussi, Stinky, Nurse.
...Twelve?
Fortifying an entire building with just twelve...
Possible?
...We'll need weapons too.
Damn it...
Too much to do.
Need to find family, but can't leave like this.
Head out hunting family and run into that horde? I'm dead.
Lucky to hide, then starve.
...Gotta get stronger.
Need more weapons.
Prepare.
...But how?
"...Sigh..."
No clue.
I rubbed my forehead and lay back.
By now, everyone was clearing corpses and stripping cars.
...Do the cockroaches know about this?
Looked like thirty or forty of them—probably do.
Talk to Su-hyun later.
For now, do what I can.
I closed my eyes.
Midnight.
The remaining eight in the eighth-floor comic cafe were done.
Took them out with two bursts of Acceleration, then headed down to the second floor.
No level-up.
Damn.
I knelt on one knee at the creaking second-floor stairs and peered below.
The principal's chair I'd tossed lay sprawled at the entrance.
The entrance...
...Handle the entrance first?
I glanced up.
Second floor was the mart.
Third was storage and probably offices.
...Clear the office first.
Up to the third, sword drawn.
Shing-
Cracked the door.
Grrrrr- Grrrrr-
Pretty far off?
Peering in, boxes stacked right by the door.
Huge metal shelves everywhere—this side led straight to the warehouse.
That side's the elevator, huh?
So straight ahead's the office.
Ear to the ground, I slipped inside.
Carefully shut the door and drew my second sword.
Shing-
Towering shelves stacked with boxes.
...Hmm.
"Suuuuck."
I shouted.
"Aglio olio!"
Hmm.
Guess my subconscious suddenly craved spaghetti.
"Raaargh!"
Crash!
Glass shattering, growls from all directions.
I grinned.
Come on in, you fucking bastards.