Chapter 145: The First District (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 145: The First District (2)
The name of the place I’d been dragged to, as if kidnapped in my sleep, was ominous.
“World Swept by Ruin…”
No trace of human life, crumbling buildings, and a wind that whipped up cement dust.
Everything my five senses perceived evoked a single word.
Ruin.
This place was, just as its name suggested, a piece of a ruined world.
“…This is seriously creepy.”
Post-Apocalypse.
It was a term for one of the special terrains that appeared in high-rank dungeons of A-rank or higher.
I had explored ruined worlds like this three or four times before.
Touring worlds destroyed by natural disasters, war, or viral outbreaks had always served as a reminder that our own world could end up like this at any moment. But I had never felt a sense of devastation as profound as this.
…It almost felt like I was looking at my own world after its destruction, left all alone.
“What an unpleasant place.”
Every sight that entered my view was a picture of devastation.
It felt as if I’d find the mangled corpses of my loved ones if I lifted the rubble of the collapsed buildings.
As if I was the only one who had survived, having failed to protect a single thing.
“…This place has all sorts of ways to ruin a person’s mood.”
I decided to just start walking.
Whether I had a key or not, it was better to find this so-called sanctuary and figure out a way to leave.
I walked on, my feet crunching on the dry earth and the stone dust scattered by the wind.
Then, I stopped in front of a certain building.
My reflection was faintly visible on a glass window that was covered in dirt but had somehow remained intact.
The clothes I was originally wearing were gone, replaced by the tuxedo I had seen during the face-to-face meeting.
There was even a pure white mask covering my face.
“…Is this that information protection crap again?”
The fact that they bothered to hide my face… meant I wasn’t the only one dropped into this desolate city.
“Not bad.”
It wasn’t a bad thing for me.
I’d been working hard to grow, but I was still lacking in many ways.
If they were giving me more time to hide my identity, then that was a ‘thank you’ from me.
“Hm…?”
Just as I was about to move on after gleaning what I could from my attire, I noticed the left pocket of my tuxedo jacket was unusually bulky.
Squirm, squirm.
It was even moving.
“…No way?”
On the off chance, I reached into the pocket and felt a squishy texture inside.
I grabbed it firmly and pulled it out. A black slime hopped on my palm as if happy to see me.
“Kkamseul-i, you got dragged here too.”
It seemed Kkamseul-i, who I’d been hugging before I fell asleep, had been brought here with me.
Hop, hop!
Kkamseul-i jumped up and down, its eyes curved into a ‘^^’ shape.
It was probably the only being in the world that could look so happy even in this desolate city.
I gently placed it on my shoulder and gave it a stern warning.
“Kkamseul-i, you stick right to my shoulder.”
Hop!
“Hey, I said don’t jump, just stick.”
Ho…
“Ssk.”
Only then did Kkamseul-i quiet down.
At this point, it wouldn’t fall off easily no matter how much I moved.
I’d checked once before, and its adhesive strength was quite impressive.
My tension rising, I began to walk again.
Now that I knew someone else was here with me, I needed to be more careful.
The tuxedo and mask might hide my identity, but they wouldn’t protect my life.
Instead of the wide-open main street, I moved slowly through the gaps between collapsed buildings.
As I moved without any clues, searching for a place where something might be, a surge of irritation washed over me.
“…This is like finding a needle in a haystack.”
I thought the area would be limited since it was called Sector 1, but there was no end in sight no matter how far I walked.
Just as I was thinking it might actually be easier to find a needle in a desert…
Grrk.
Grrrr.
A sound like an animal’s cry came from somewhere.
“There.”
The sound was coming from inside a building that was still in relatively good shape.
I gathered my mana so I could cast a spell at any moment and headed toward it.
Grrrk!
The cry grew clearer through the broken window.
Suppressing my presence as much as possible, I leaned against the building wall and peered through the glass.
Something was shuffling around inside the dark building, where not a single ray of light penetrated.
“…Zombies?”
They were zombies.
I had a feeling, and I was right.
“Right, it would be a shame if a post-apocalypse was missing zombies.”
Seeing the zombies wandering in the darkness, clad in what were little more than rags, I finally felt like I was in a true apocalypse.
You might ask why I’m so happy to see monsters, even if zombies and apocalypses go together like a needle and thread.
There’s a reason for this.
In post-apocalyptic terrains, zombies are not only the cannon fodder that fills the desolate city but also serve as clues.
Of course, this wasn’t a dungeon, so my assumption could be wrong.
“Heh heh, you cute little things.”
The situation was hopeless anyway.
It was worth a little experiment.
I immediately prepared a spell.
The most efficient way to kill zombies is with fire.
This is a fact recorded even in the Goguryeo Watermelon paintings.
Fwoosh!
A small flame bloomed in the air, greedily devouring oxygen and mana as it swelled in size.
Just as ice-attribute magic has different attack methods depending on its characteristics—whether to strike the opponent directly with its unique hardness or to freeze them—fire-attribute magic is the same.
You could either burn the opponent to ash with high-temperature flames or create a massive explosion to sweep through the surroundings.
And for dealing with multiple enemies like this, nothing beats an explosion.
「Fire Bomb.」
An erratically flickering sphere of fire formed above my outstretched hand.
Grrk!?
Sensing the heat flaring out in all directions, the zombies finally turned to look this way.
Graaaaaah!
Having spotted a human, they charged, but they were far too late.
“Farewell.”
The sphere of fire shot from my fingertips and landed in the middle of the haphazardly charging zombies.
And then.
Pop, pop, pop!
BOOOOOM—!
Flames scattered in all directions, instantly engulfing the zombies.
With each small explosion, a zombie’s limb was torn off, a head rolled across the ground.
It was a gruesome sight, hard to watch.
The only silver lining was that these were long-dead zombies, so blood didn’t gush everywhere.
After neatly finishing off the zombies that had barely survived at the edge of the blast radius, I climbed through the window and entered the building.
“Let’s see…”
As I was pushing aside the scattered zombie corpses and thoroughly checking the floor, I found an old notebook lying under a relatively intact body.
“Oh.”
The reason I said zombies in apocalyptic terrains serve as clues was this very notebook.
I flipped through the notebook, which was caked with blackened, dried blood, and checked its contents.
【Year 2XXX, Month X, Day XX.】
【I saw something strange in the OO Shopping Mall, which you can find by going through the alley next to the convenience store at the intersection.】
【Unlike normal zombies, it had long, whip-like tentacles. It was snatching up fleeing people and devouring them ravenously.】
【Terrified, I ran without looking back and managed to survive.】
【Everyone else who was there is probably dead…】
【I can’t forget the desperate look in the eyes of the little girl I saw before I turned away.】
【It feels like a piece of my humanity breaks every time I turn my back on others to survive.】
“……”
As you can tell from the contents, the notebook was a signpost.
A damned signpost that tells you where to go to find something special, but leaves you feeling utterly disturbed and uneasy after reading it.
“Tsk, this never fails to put me in a bad mood.”
Figuring it would only sour my mood to keep it, I summoned a flame and burned the notebook to ashes in an instant.
While my face was twisted in a deep frown…
Hop!
Kkamseul-i, which had been as still as death, suddenly hopped on my shoulder.
Was it trying to comfort me, seeing that I was clearly in a bad mood?
Right.
This is why people keep pets.
“It’s okay, Kkamseul-i.”
Hop!
“Alright, stop jumping now.”
As soon as I finished speaking, the little guy stuck itself to my shoulder. I patted its head a few times, then went out to the main street and looked around.
“Intersection convenience store, was it…”
It wasn’t too difficult to find the intersection and the convenience store I needed to locate first.
Both were fairly distinct landmarks, and it helped that all the tall buildings that would have obstructed my view had collapsed.
“The alley is…”
I kicked away the rubble of a crumbled building and crossed through the narrowest gap between two buildings.
At the end of the path, a high-rise building came into view.
Amidst the debris scattered on the ground was a sign that read ‘○○ Shopping Mall,’ covered in dirt.
“This is it.”
Using Light Magic, I created a small light source to float above my head and entered the building.
“A monster with tentacles…”
It was quite different from the ultimate goal I was looking for, but I figured I could find another clue after taking it down.
I scanned the building, my senses sharpened to their absolute peak.
The most important thing when dealing with a tentacled monster was, of course, not getting caught.
Therefore, I had to be mentally prepared to react no matter what came out, or from where.
Step. Step.
As I was calmly taking one step at a time…
Crumble…
A faint vibration came from the ceiling, and stone dust rained down.
It seemed the creature I was looking for was on an upper floor.
Along with a guest who had arrived here before me.
“Ah, come on…”
I quickly headed up the emergency stairs.
With each floor I climbed, the vibrations from above grew stronger.
Just as I got close…
KRAAANG!
The building shook violently.
It was a bit of a dirty tactic, but I was fully prepared to become a kill-stealer as I rushed toward the source of the roar.
When I finally rounded the corner, the scene I came upon was… utterly surreal.
Swish!
A woman in a black mini dress was facing off against a giant monster from which dozens of tentacles dangled.
Swoosh-swoosh-swoosh!
Her steps, evading the rain of tentacles, were like a butterfly flitting through the air. The sword she wielded was like the sharp fang of a predator fiercely lunging for its prey.
If you looked only at her fluid movements, she looked like a dancer at the center of a ballroom, capturing the gazes of everyone as she performed.
Even though I was witnessing a scene from a desperate, life-or-death battle, it felt breathtakingly beautiful.