Chapter 95
Chapter 95
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 95
Chapter Title: Invitation to the Group
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“Eidoss, check the number of operational robot units currently inside Mechania.”
[Beginning CCTV check across all of Mechania.]
[Checking the number of available robot units.]
[Immediately usable units: 19]
[Units usable after repairs: 20]
[Total of thirty-nine units.]
Thirty-nine units.
Still far too few to prepare for a major battle. Especially considering there were over a hundred giants.
Jeongwoo asked me.
“What about the statue?”
“……Should we activate it?”
“Because it looks just like Uncle Yoo Oh-seong?”
“Yeah! That guy had a really bad relationship with us.”
“The uncle isn’t inside the statue, though.”
“Even if he’s not, I don’t like it…. I just don’t like it….”
Yoo Oh-seong was the guy who tormented Jeongwoo and me right up to the end back in the Land of Ruin: Last Game PC days. The group that made it to the fifteenth round was just us, but two more teams reached the fourteenth.
One of them was Uncle Yoo Oh-seong’s group, and the members of that group were…
Just one person.
He was the guy who made it to the fourteenth round all by himself.
A monster, literally.
“Jeongwoo, that guy didn’t participate in the final game, right?”
“……If he had, I would’ve been in real danger.”
“Yeah, in a one-on-one fight, even you wouldn’t know how it’d turn out against him.”
“That guy’s a crazy shut-in, right? The type who keeps the game running 24/7.”
“We’re the same way, though?”
“Yeah…. You’re right.”
I gave an awkward laugh.
Krurrrr—.
That low rumbling like a giant’s breathing was actually Michael’s snoring. Everyone else said they were tired and went to rest.
Everyone except Ma Jeongwoo, me, and Jo Young-gi.
I took the two of them up to the tower’s rooftop. There was something we needed to discuss just among us.
Jo Young-gi straightened the collar of his floral-patterned shirt and asked me.
“What’s this about?”
I silently pulled out a cigarette and handed it over.
The three of us puffed out white smoke as we gazed at Mechania’s landscape.
The ruins of a fallen machine civilization under a burning sky.
A city that had collapsed despite possessing technology far superior to the world I lived in.
After finishing my cigarette, I looked up at the sky and said.
“Jo Young-gi, do you know why Jeongwoo and I called you up here?”
It wasn’t an easy conversation, so I had hesitated.
But I’d made up my mind.
To tell him before it was too late.
“……Why?”
“I have a proposal for you.”
“What is it?”
Jo Young-gi looked down at me with a fierce expression. Well, it was his usual face, but it looked even more menacing.
“What do you plan to do from now on?”
“……What’s that out of nowhere?”
“What you’re going to do after this round ends.”
Jo Young-gi shrugged.
“I’ll head to the seventh round.”
“And then? What’ll you do there?”
“……If I stick with you guys, things will work out somehow, right?”
As expected.
Of course, clever Jo Young-gi wouldn’t be thinking that simplistically.
Still, the easiest way was to follow us.
“You know the next round is on the world server, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then there’s a chance we might not meet up.”
“……”
“What’ll you do then?”
He couldn’t answer my question right away. He had no choice. The seventh round selected only ten players each from randomly chosen countries, for a total of thirty players.
Korea and Japan, with their large player bases, were guaranteed to meet.
The remaining ten would be from Russia, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and so on.
Meaning there was a chance Jo Young-gi’s group and ours would split up in the next round.
Jo Young-gi let out a long sigh and said to me.
“Then there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“You know that failing the seventh round means the entire group dies, right?”
“……Yeah.”
I tossed my cigarette butt off the tower. It spun away on the wind and vanished.
Just like we might vanish in the next round.
“This is my first and last offer to you. Join our group, Jo Young-gi.”
Jo Young-gi’s eyes widened in surprise.
“……For real?”
“Yeah. We’ll have Kim Yeon-hee wait in the ruined village for now. After the seventh round ends, we can pick her up again.”
“……”
“The seventh round can be replayed multiple times, so if we explain the situation, Kim Yeon-hee will agree.”
Jeongwoo wore a bitter expression. I was the one who had convinced him, even though he didn’t want to team up.
Of course, I didn’t want to team up with Jo Young-gi either. But I hated death even more.
If we were going to do this, we had to do it thoroughly.
Go to the seventh round together and shatter the wall of malice.
And then…
Rewrite the history I had recorded once more.
The way out of this game was probably there.
Jo Young-gi hesitated with his answer.
I looked at him and asked once more.
“Will you join our group?”
“……Can you give me a little time? Of course I want to, but I need to explain it to Kim Yeon-hee.”
“Explain…. Got it. I’ll give you until tomorrow morning, so give me a definite answer. You know this round ends with a gate opening straight to the seventh round, right?”
Jo Young-gi nodded.
“Yeah, I’ll let you know as soon as we’re done talking.”
* * * * *
I had everyone wait in the tower and moved alone to the factory where No Hyoman was.
It was easier to negotiate one-on-one.
“……What the hell.”
The long smokestack next to the factory had collapsed sideways.
No Hyoman’s soldiers guarding the front and back gates, along with the Mech X, were gone.
A familiar smell pierced my nose amid the wind.
‘……No way.’
It couldn’t be.
He wouldn’t have done something that insane.
It wasn’t in the story we all knew.
No, it shouldn’t have been….
I slowly stepped into the factory. The closer I got, the more my ominous premonition turned into certainty. The thickening stench of blood and rotting flesh.
-Kieeeek!
“……No, no. No! You bastard No Hyoman!”
[Current surviving residents: 198]
The factory was filled with zombies staring at me. Green liquid dripping from them meant it was the Z Virus, not the X Virus created through joint research with Japanese scientists.
Which meant No Hyoman had planned all this from the start and come here beyond the gate.
“Damn…. Damn…. Damn!”
What the hell are you scheming, No Hyoman?
No, it was probably the work of Dr. Oh behind him.
I bowed my head looking at the residents.
I needed to take the mechanics here to repair the broken robot units, but that path was now blocked.
With the difficulty ramped up, the giants were too powerful—I thought we absolutely needed them. What now?
-Kieeeek!
One zombie lunged at me. I casually swung my scythe and severed its neck.
Slash—.
Its head hit the ground.
At the sound, every zombie in the factory turned its gaze toward me.
-Kiek, kieeeek.
I quickly scanned their faces. To find any mechanics who might still be alive.
-Kuwek, kuweeek.
Among the virus-infected residents, I spotted the little kid who had guided us here.
He walked toward me with a pained expression.
I held back from attacking and waited. His body hadn’t turned completely discolored yet, so he might still be able to talk.
“……Kid.”
“Haa…. Haa…. Uncle….”
“……! Can you still talk?”
“Haa…. Yeah….”
He seemed to struggle just to breathe.
I pulled out a vaccine and injected him.
Of course, it wasn’t a cure, so he wouldn’t heal. It would just slow the virus’s spread.
After the injection, his ragged breathing slowly stabilized.
“Uncle….”
“What happened?”
“…… ”
“What happened, I said.”
“I’m not a kid…. It’s Seung-hyun…. Kim Seung-hyun….”
“Got it, you brat. Even on your last legs, your mouth’s still alive.”
The dying kid grinned.
“The soldier…. That soldier uncle….”
“The soldier did this to you guys?”
“Probably…. Everyone who drank…. The water the soldiers gave us….”
-Kieeeek!
Suddenly, the virus-infected residents charged at me. I positioned the kid behind me and started fending off the zombies.
“Wait just a moment.”
“Uncle….”
“……You can’t die. I’ll be right back, uncle promises.”
* * * * *
Nearly a hundred of them, but it didn’t take long to take them all down.
Even as zombies, their inherent stats didn’t change much.
In fact, in their infected state with boosted attack but lowered defense, they couldn’t even get close to me.
A mere graze from my scythe sent their torsos flying.
“Phew…. It’s over.”
I lifted the upper body of Kim Seung-hyun, who was losing consciousness. He looked at me with half-closed eyes.
“Thanks for holding on.”
“I didn’t do anything….”
“You endured.”
Kim Seung-hyun rambled like someone who’d taken sleeping pills. Still, I got the story about No Hyoman and his men.
They’d supplied food and then left for a search, he said.
“You don’t know where they went?”
“Yeah…. Just…. Said they were going to find the giants….”
“Find the giants….”
Kim Seung-hyun looked sorrowful.
“Uncle, am I going to die now?”
It was hard to answer right away. Even as an NPC, his lines were too human.
And those bright, innocent eyes looking at me.
“……Yeah.”
I couldn’t lie.
Even if my answer plunged him into despair, lying to a friendly system could lead to unknown consequences.
“I see…. Will I turn into a monster like the others?”
“Probably.”
“……”
“I was going to go outside the gate…. And eat all the bread I wanted with Dad….”
“Dad?”
“……My dad.”
I shook Kim Seung-hyun’s shoulder.
“S-Seung-hyun. Is your dad still alive?”
“Dad…. Went with the soldiers….”
“Your dad went with the soldiers?”
“He….”
Thud.
Kim Seung-hyun’s head dropped.
He’d been fine just moments ago, but suddenly his pupil color rapidly changed as zombie transformation began.
Had the vaccine’s effect worn off?
His body trembled violently.
His slowly changing skin showed it was already over.
“……Good job, Seung-hyun.”
I brushed his face and closed his eyes.
Then, with a light swing of the scythe, I severed his neck. I figured sending him off painlessly now was the kindest thing.
[Sixth round main NPC ‘Kim Seung-hyun’ has died.]
[His death will impact the story’s progression.]
I looked around the devastated factory interior.
‘No Hyoman.’
I had to find Kim Seung-hyun’s father, the one he took with him.