In the House (Part 8)

I woke up.

Clack. Clack-clack.

The sound of rapid typing echoed through the room. It was the perfect white noise, but fortunately, laziness was far from my nature.

Even during my days as a shut-in, I had strictly separated my gaming hours from my sleep schedule...

Clack. Clack-clack-clack.

I sat up.

Truck was parked in front of the server computer. Having completed his upgrade at some point, he was typing away with a mechanical arm attached to his back.

"When did you get back?"

Truck's camera lens whirred as it spun to face me.

"About two hours ago."

"How did the upgrade go?"

"A resounding success. I installed this multi-purpose arm, expanded the cargo bay, and swapped out my wheels and frame for spacecraft-grade materials. I can even drive on the ceiling now."

Truck boasted, his wheels clicking and shifting as he demonstrated.

"Oho..."

"Now that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you're awake, come take a look."

I got up ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from the sofa and slid into the chair next to him.

"This is the shortest route."

A map displaying the shortest path to the Cosmos appeared on the screen.

"We only need to pass through five more ships."

"That's a long way."

Annoyingly long, in fact.

"I found something else, too."

Julione pulled up a CCTV feed.

"I think it's one of your comrades."

"Yes. That's him."

Even from just the back of his head, I could recognize Kang Hyun. The weapon gripped in his hand was a sword.

...A broadsword.

"What the..."

My brow furrowed. I was certain all the custom-made swords had been returned.

"Is there a problem?"

"No. Can we adjust the angle of this camera?"

"Use the arrow keys."

"Ah."

I manipulated the camera to follow Kang Hyun. At that exact moment, Kang Hyun froze. As if detecting the microscopic vibration of the lens, he looked directly at the camera.

Our eyes met.

"...Sharp bastard."

Then again, he was probably keeping his senses dialed to the absolute maximum because of the zombies.

"That gave even me goosebumps."

I nudged the camera up, down, left, and right to spell out a message.

HI.

Kang Hyun seemed to understand, his lips moving to say something in response. But between the poor resolution and the distance, I couldn't make out his words.

"We can't get audio, can we?"

"Obviously not."

Just then, a woman appeared beside Kang Hyun. She had dark hair and an air of mystery about her.

Kang Hyun was traveling with a female Labyrinthin. It made me uneasy. He wasn't the type to keep a Labyrinthin close without a very good reason.

"...She's a Supervisor."

Truck suddenly chimed in, identifying her.

"A Supervisor?"

"Yeah. Not from our Egomos, but the Supervisor of Sector B on the Cosmos. Her name is Recil. She's quite famous. I'm surprised she's still alive."

On screen, Kang Hyun lifted a large wooden board. He had carved letters into it using his sword.

Kang Hyun had no idea that the person watching him through the CCTV was me.

I was about to figure out a way to reply, but the woman suddenly yanked Kang Hyun back. A horde of zombies was rushing them from nearby. In an instant, they flooded the CCTV screen like a tidal wave. There were hundreds of them.

"That's a massive crowd."

"No kidding. Looks like they all gathered over there."

"Which ship is that?"

"Denmexico. The casino ship. It's a very high-ranking vessel. It even has a Hot Line that connects directly to the Cosmos. It looks like they're trying to get in there."

"Then we should head there as well."

"The Hot Line might not be operational."

"Well, I am a professional hacker, aren't I?"

I switched the CCTV feed, tracking Kang Hyun's escape route. They retreated into the casino's vault, and the entrance was immediately swarmed by zombies.

"Let's get moving."

"Before that."

Truck handed me a laptop with his mechanical arm.

"Take this. Thanks to your hacking, the security on the surveillance room has been bypassed. I've set it up so you can control the server surveillance room remotely."

"Perfect. Thanks."

I tucked the laptop under my arm.

"...We are completely trapped."

Inside the vault of the casino ship, Seo Ji-woo sighed as she sat atop a mountain of gold.

"But seriously, why do they even need gold in space?"

she muttered, running her hand over the stacked gold bars.

"Think of it as a city rather than just space,"

Supervisor Recil replied with a wry smile.

"Ever since we left Earth, gold was the only currency that everyone could agree on."

"Ah... I see."

Seo Ji-woo studied Recil. She had short, bobbed blonde hair and striking green eyes that looked like polished emeralds. She was an incredibly sharp, delicate beauty.

To Seo Ji-woo, she seemed like a genuinely good person. Honestly, she looked like a goddess. She possessed an aristocratic air comparable to Kate's, but without the rigid, cold boundaries that Kate always maintained. Beneath her elegance lay a palpable strength.

"Is the Hot Line really the only way to get into the Cosmos?"

Kang Hyun asked. Recil nodded.

"Yes. We have to activate the Hot Line."

As a Supervisor of the Cosmos, Recil had actually managed to escape this place once, but she had returned. She was driven by a single-minded determination to rescue any remaining survivors.

"Do you think there are still hundreds of survivors?"

"...Probably around that many. This mothership is incredibly vast, after all."

"By the way, where did these zombies even come from?"

Seo Ji-woo asked, casually slipping a few gold bars into her pocket.

Recil explained,

"The cause is an unidentified alien compound we call the Eerie Substance. It's a resource capable of inducing immortality. The outbreak occurred when a meteor containing it collided with our hull, leaking the particles inside."

"Immortality?"

"Yes. Human aging is governed by telomeres. In those telomeres..."

Recil paused to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠choose her words, then decided the technical details were unnecessary and simplified it.

"To put it simply, the process that halts aging is so hyperactive that it ends up turning the host into a zombie."

It was an explanation perfectly tailored to Seo Ji-woo's level.

"Ah. So it's a side effect of immortality?"

"You could say that."

"Then we'll have to destroy that substance,"

Kang Hyun said. Recil nodded in agreement, a resolute smile gracing her lips.

"Of course."

Krr-chhh—

Her communicator crackled to life. A voice filtered through the static.

"Yes, I hear you, Days. We're currently at the Denmexico casino."

"..."We"?"

"I've found some comrades to work with. They're trustworthy people."

"Understood. We're continuing to orbit the perimeter of the Hot Line from the outside. Is it possible to open it?"

The Hot Line possessed a hangar. Therefore, if they could just open the Hot Line, Recil's allies could fly in and assist with the operation.

"We'll have to make it possible."

Seo Ji-woo conjured a megaphone with her magic and shouted into it.

"We'll do our best!"

"...Acknowledged."

The reply carried a hint of amusement.

...Whenever we encountered an uncharted corridor, we sent Robot in first. If Robot stopped, it meant zombies were ahead; if it kept going, the coast was clear.

That was how we navigated our way forward.

"He's incredibly useful, that one."

"Indeed."

Just as the back of Robot's head was starting to look exceptionally reassuring, we finally discovered the next gate.

"Den Water. This is it."

"Yes."

I hacked the door open.

"Robot?"

[CONFIRMED.]

Robot marched forward with heavy, metallic thuds. It swept the interior with a quick scan and kept moving. This meant there were no zombies in the immediate vicinity.

Truck and I followed close behind.

"What... is this place?"

The scenery of the ship named Den Water was incredibly bizarre.

It was pitch-black and deeply eerie due to the lack of lighting, but true to its name, it was entirely filled with water. It was too vast to be called a river—it was practically an ocean inside a ship.

"Was this built for water supply or something?"

"No. Drinking water can easily be synthesized through basic chemical compounds. Den Water was built purely for human recreation."

Truck continued,

"Humans fear water, yet they are drawn to it. Studies showed that looking at an ocean while in deep space is highly beneficial for mental health."

"...Is that so?"

At any rate, it was indeed an ocean. Five or six yachts floated on the surface, and there was even a sandy beach designed to mimic a seaside resort.

"Then the gate to the next ship must be..."

"Right over there."

It lay on the opposite side of the water. The distance looked to be about four kilometers.

"Even without a yacht, we should be able to cross if we lower the artificial bridge. We can probably operate it from the control room."

Truck looked around, searching for the control room.

"But even if we lower it... we won't be able to cross."

There were too many zombies. Hundreds of them were wandering along the far shore.

Strangely, while our side was almost entirely clear, the opposite bank was absolutely swarming with them.

Just then, Robot let out a series of electronic beeps.

[PATIENT DETECTED.]

I grabbed the clunky machine just as it was about to march over.

"That's not a patient, you idiot."

There was a corpse slumped on one of the yachts. It was almost certainly a zombie.

I explained to Robot,

"Listen carefully. If its vital signs are near zero but it's still moving? That's a zombie. A monster that wants to eat humans."

[ZOMBIE CONFIRMED. PATIENT IS A ZOMBIE.]

"...No. Not a patient. A zombie that wants to eat me. A zombie that attacks Seol Ha-woon."

At that, Robot's display panel flashed a hostile red.

[ZOMBIE CONFIRMED. TARGET MUST BE ELIMINATED.]

"Good."

[INITIATING ELIMINATION.]

I grabbed the robot again as it tried to charge forward, looking visibly angry in its clunky way.

"No, no. Just stay put. The number one rule of protecting an agent is staying by their side."

[CONFIRMED.]

I drew my pistol. Aiming for the zombie's head, I fired an explosive round.

Bang!

Even with its head blown apart, the creature flailed its limbs wildly before tumbling off the yacht and splashing into the water.

"There must be quite a few zombies down there, too."

Falling into the water wouldn't kill them. After all, we didn't even know if they required oxygen to survive.

"Yeah. We might need to find another gate."

"..."

I silently gazed down at the water. It was a deep, bottomless blue. The occasional gentle ripples and the shimmering azure patterns made it look exactly like a natural ocean.

Suddenly, a thought struck me.

"Mr. Truck. If all this water drains out, where does it go?"

"...Drains?"

"Yes."

"It would go to the filtration tanks."

"And where do those filtration tanks lead?"

"To a waste disposal ship called Gestalt. It's located directly beneath the Cosmos... I know what you're thinking, but it's impossible."

"We won't know until we try. Robot, bring one of those yachts over here."

[EXECUTING.]

Thud, thud, thud. Robot effortlessly lifted the yachts and hauled them onto the shore.

"What are you planning to do?"

"We're going to dismantle these yachts and build a submarine."

Thanks to a good night's sleep, my mana had recovered to some extent. I should have enough to power a basic submarine.

"A submarine out of yachts? You?"

"Why would I do it when we have an engineer right here? I'm just the idea guy, Mr. Truck."

"It's impossible."

"Making the impossible possible is exactly what spellcasters and mana are for."

"But you just told me to do it. I'm not a spellcaster."

"...Just start building it."

"Hey, Robot. Do you honestly think what he's saying makes any sense?"

[BEEP. AGENT SEOL HA-WOON'S WORDS ARE ENTIRELY ACCURATE.]

"You've been brainwashed. Wake up."

[AGENT SEOL HA-WOON'S WORDS ARE ENTIRELY ACCURATE.]

"...You useless bucket of bolts."

Truck nudged Robot's shin with his front bumper in annoyance. *Clink.*

"I'll leave the submarine design to you. In the meantime, I'm going to do some farming."

I looked toward a building standing at the far edge of Den Water.

It was likely the control room.

"You don't need Robot to guard you?"

"No, help him build. That's more important right now."

Leaning on ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my cane, I walked toward the building, keeping a watchful eye on my surroundings.

I cast a wide radar sweep using Sequence, but no zombies were detected.

I hacked the locked door of the control room and pushed it open.

Creeeeak...

Inside, the first thing that caught my eye was a glowing desktop monitor.

[Desktop]

In the chair in front of it sat a skeleton, its bony hand still gripping a revolver.

A suicide.

I connected the desktop's data cable to my wrist interface.

■ Supervisor Kaylo's Log

I leveled up Duct Tape.

Immediately after, Supervisor Kaylo's log appeared before my eyes.

Below that, logs remained showing that he had fully opened the gates and lowered the artificial bridge.

The Supervisor himself had opened the path for the zombies.

I looked out the window of the control room.

The Supervisor had likely stood right here, watching the zombies cross the bridge, before picking up the revolver. He had aimed the barrel at himself.

And then...

Rattle, rattle, rattle.

Truck rolled up to me.

"It's done."

"Already?"

"I'm fast with my hands."

Truck said, spinning his mechanical arm in a blur.

I let out a soft chuckle.

"Alright. Go on ahead. I'll do a bit of work here and catch up with you."