Chapter 112
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 112
Chapter Title: Variant
-----------------------------------------------------------------
After that day, everything proceeded smoothly.
The underground was being cleared at a rapid pace, with me at the center.
Once the underground was sorted out, I immediately returned to the second floor and announced the merger.
Naturally, Junsang and the others cheered.
As I'd mentioned before, humans are social animals who feel a sense of relief when their numbers grow.
That day, we held a feast with the various frozen foods and provisions I'd gathered.
Naturally, I spent a passionate night with Yuri Noona and my attachment slaves.
It had been almost five days, so everyone was pretty backed up.
Of course, nothing changed about the situation where they all passed out from pleasure, leaving me as the only one standing—so the incident of me turning into a mummy didn't occur.
In that way, the next day, by wiping out the few remaining zombies on the second floor, the entire level became a safe zone.
"With plenty of food secured and a solid safe zone established... things are going smoothly."
"It's going smoothly, but we can't drop our guard. Our ultimate goal is food self-sufficiency and turning Martco into a fortress, after all."
In front of the escalator—the only path leading downward, aside from the elevator and the fully sealed emergency stairs.
I was there with Sua and Junsang.
And with those who could be called the heads of the second-floor survivor group, we were holding a meeting.
The agenda was naturally about the first floor and the underground.
The merger was confirmed, but the question was how to handle the noise that would arise in the process.
"Just do it in order. You came under me first, so you're naturally above them."
The meeting had started with that agenda, but the moment I declared I'd unilaterally bring them under us and establish a status hierarchy with the second floor above, the agenda evaporated in an instant.
So instead, we discussed various considerations, like what to do with the first floor connected to the outside.
"We'll need to rework the rationing and reward systems. The underground group has a higher proportion of women, so if we distribute one per man, the gaps between ranks will vanish—we'll have to fine-tune that carefully..."
"Raising the standards or creating classes that can't have any at all might be a good idea."
The conversation flowed in that direction, and the meeting was gradually winding down.
I sat next to Sua, slipping my hand into a blind spot outside the others' view to knead her ass.
Naturally, Sua thrust her hips back, eagerly accepting my perverted groping.
Well, everyone seemed to have noticed already, but we were enjoying the thrill of doing it on the sly.
I gently slipped my finger into her ass crack and asked her,
"More people are coming—think you can handle it?"
"Nh...! This is my major, so two hundred people is easy... Of course, at a thousand, I'd need some help."
"I don't expect that much, so just do what you can. If it's too tough, call me."
"Yes, thank you, Master. Haht..."
While passing the time with some affectionate play, the meeting wrapped up, and everyone dispersed to their assigned tasks.
Even though the second floor was fully cleared, zombie corpses and shattered fixtures were scattered everywhere.
Around where we'd been meeting, people were already bustling about busily.
'Then I should get moving too.'
They were working so hard; I couldn't just sit around zoning out.
No matter how selfish and willful I was, I had no intention of shirking my duties as the group's leader.
Letting go of Sua, I stood and drew my longsword from my inventory.
Then I immediately leaned back and bungee-jumped straight to the first floor.
Having seen it several times already, Sua didn't react with surprise and waved me off like a farewell.
Mid-fall, I waved back to her, then twisted my body in the air and landed lightly on the ground.
I dropped into the zombie-packed first floor, but my feet hitting the ground...
...meant I'd swept the zombies aside.
―Whoosh!
A Fire Lance fired downward just before landing.
With firepower incomparable to a Fireball, the zombies turned to ash in an instant.
Kicking through the black powder, I unleashed my sword aura.
Hummm—
"Groooarrr!!"
The zombies, recognizing prey, charged at me all at once.
Hundreds of zombies filled my vision.
But I didn't panic.
Before, I might have broken a cold sweat at that number, but to me now, they were just mere pests.
I pointed my blue-glowing blade forward and charged straight ahead.
Kagagagak—!!
I swung my arm widely, cleaving everything in my path over a broad area like shaving it clean.
I ran forward, grinding as many zombies as possible that split in half the instant they touched the sword aura.
Second floor: clear.
The underground's zombies were reduced enough now that I could leave them to those guys—so only the first floor remained.
And the first floor, being connected to the outside, was naturally swarming with zombies to the point of nausea.
Just the zombies we'd seen when entering Martco already matched the combined numbers from the underground and second floor.
And that same number was packed into the first floor as well.
A quantity incomparable to anything before, so naturally, from the very start, I went all out with Fire Lances and sword aura, killing them without restraint.
The first floor was stocked full of appliances and daily necessities.
But they were just 'appliances'—no powered-on electronics—so swinging my sword was actually freer here than underground.
However, since it also housed farming tools, I had to be somewhat cautious.
About an hour after jumping into the first floor, irritation began to build, and I frowned.
'These damn things are disgustingly numerous...!'
The reason was obvious: the zombies charging endlessly.
After killing ten zombies with a single swing, I recovered my sword and reset my stance.
Still, it was faster and took less effort than without sword aura—how fortunate.
Especially to have time to even stance up like this.
I lowered my upper body as far as possible, dropping my center of gravity, and spun my body rapidly.
It didn't have a specific name; it was just pulling out and executing an intermediate motion from some technique.
I considered naming it Hucheon—Return to Heaven—but I'm not some chuunibyou brat who wants to name techniques and chant them out.
'Plus, it feels like something I've seen somewhere.'
Having secured a circular space again, I gathered mana to construct a spell.
Eight spell formulas spread out in all directions, forming a magic circle.
Flaming spears soon manifested there.
"Fire Lance."
The spell, crammed into the gap I'd bought with a bit of time, detonated on the zombies.
Kwaaaang—!!
The flaming spears pierced a massive swath of zombies, annihilating them utterly.
With eight fired at once, even if only momentary, not a single zombie remained nearby.
In that gap, I caught my breath and gauged my remaining mana.
'About 20% left now.'
Just enough for one sword aura burst or five Fire Lances.
Having already trampled at least four thousand zombies, I figured after this, I'd head up and rest a bit.
As I expanded my senses again and turned my gaze to the zombies swarming from all sides,
I spotted something out of place amid the charging horde.
'The skin color...'
"Grrrrk..."
A hue starkly different from the pale or faintly bluish tones.
Unlike the regular zombies swept away like falling leaves by my blade, a zombie with vividly blue skin came into view.
Even just the visible zombies easily surpassed a thousand.
With each missing different body parts and most splattered in blood, spotting that blue zombie was pure coincidence.
'A variant?'
And upon seeing it, that's exactly what I thought.
I already knew this world was half-overlaid with Ajeol at most, so I wasn't greatly surprised.
Rather, it felt like, 'It's finally here.'
'I've seen mountains of corpses—what's new?'
However, entertaining such thoughts didn't mean I could dismiss that zombie's existence lightly.
Being a variant naturally implied something special compared to regular zombies.
It might not be the case, but just from the visible external traits, it was clear that variant zombie wasn't ordinary.
"Why is it so clean?"
Of course, I didn't mean hygienically clean.
Zombies are living corpses.
And they multiply by transferring bodily fluids to living humans.
Whether by biting to inject saliva, kissing to inject it, or infecting via mucous membranes during sex.
Fundamentally, every zombie bore at least one large wound somewhere.
But that blue zombie's skin was impeccably clean.
Not even the slightest scratch.
'As if it can regenerate...'
And once that idea surfaced in my mind, I realized this could be dangerous.