Rough and Ready (2)
An announcement will be delivered shortly. Survivors, please keep your attention on the notification window.
Out of nowhere — a mere three days after the last one — an alert announcing a new bulletin arrived at precisely that moment.
"Mina, you saw that, right?"
"Saw what? Are you talking about your twitching desires, Orabeoni?"
"..."
"I'm kidding, Orabeoni. If you keep staring at me like that... I might actually get turned on? Hnn...!"
Oh, come on! I tried to give her a straight face and she blushed and squirmed like that? Since when did her masochistic streak kick into overdrive? Where did the usual sharp-tongued snarker go?
I wrapped up the banter with Yun Mina in a hurry and focused on the new Administrator's inorganic voice beginning to filter into my ears.
Greetings, survivors. We will now deliver an announcement regarding the June update.
...Come again?
June... update?
"Mina, what's today's date?"
"I know exactly what you mean, Orabeoni. Today is May 9th, and June is still more than three weeks away... You're wondering what kind of nonsense that is, right? Completely absurd."
Our Mina. When it came to reading the room, she really was the sharpest among us.
Due to unavoidable circumstances, we are delivering the June update in advance. We will issue a reminder to all survivors once more before May 31st concludes, so please receive this announcement with a light heart.
Something about the Administrator's voice was... deeply fishy. Even so — dropping a June update this far out from June? For what possible reason? Trying to show off a different side from the previous Administrator? This still felt way too far outside the bounds of common sense.
And more than anything else... a light heart, my ass. I already knew what was coming, so the moment I heard that, I clicked my tongue in pure disbelief. I'd heard it inside that dungeon from the merchant named Storas, after accepting a minor penalty.
Even if it had been censored, a zombie-related update befitting a "zombie apocalypse" was about to drop. Assuming that merchant hadn't been lying.
As of June, you will once again be forced to painfully realize that this moment is a zombie apocalypse. Going forward, zombies will no longer be the slow, defenseless, fragile monsters that die so easily. They will be reborn as beings as powerful as — no, more powerful than — those you encountered in the earliest days of the apocalypse, and they will threaten your survival.
I knew it! A zombie update!
But calling this a "light" update or whatever — the old Administrator and the new one were both out of their minds. More precisely, they were creatures that had long since transcended any human sense of empathy.
The one silver lining was that the new Administrator's voice was a little easier on the ears than the old one's. That was truly the only consolation.
These zombies are truly special. Because these zombies... will originate from you.
The next words out of the new Administrator's mouth packed more than enough firepower to obliterate my mild appreciation for the voice.
Survivors who perish on or after June 1st will no longer become ordinary corpses or ordinary zombies. You will turn into zombies. And not just any zombies — undying elite zombies that inherit a portion of your pre-death stats, and they will attack your former comrades.
Survivors turning into zombies wasn't strange in itself. The woman with the glasses I'd handed the Massive Bag to was the most representative case of that.
But... the news that followed was impossible to take positively. The moment we heard it, Mina's expression and mine both went ice-cold.
Inheriting pre-death stats? So, for example, if someone who was a Mage-Elementalist died, they'd become some kind of mage zombie and go around flinging magic everywhere?
A horrifying thought — but according to that inorganic voice, in one month it would become an ice-cold reality.
Furthermore, living monsters such as goblins and orcs that you have poured your heart and soul into defeating will also regain undying bodies and threaten you once more. All living monsters excluding skeletons and zombies will undergo zombification as of June 1st. Of course, they too will fully inherit their pre-death stats.
The even more hardcore news left my head ringing.
Fuck... so even a dead fire can burn again, is that it? After a massacre, we'd have to double-check whether the bastards were actually dead! Or burn the corpses until nothing remained!
Of course, should you decapitate a monster, or sever all of its limbs, it will not reassemble and turn into a zombie. Likewise, monsters that have been burned or dismembered will not regenerate their bodies upon zombification. This rule also applies when survivors themselves turn into zombies.
"...How filthy generous of them."
Mina's sarcastic tone earned my full agreement. I nodded so hard my neck almost snapped.
Lastly, we deliver glad tidings to all survivors. As of May 9th, in the former region of Japan—
What followed was news that someone outside the Republic of Korea had defeated a Field Boss — nothing particularly important.
I ignored the voice (while simultaneously thanking it for being quieter than the old Administrator's) and spoke to Mina.
"Call an officers' meeting. Looks like we'll have to move up the Gangbuk dungeon raid."
"I figured as much. When, Orabeoni?"
"Tomorrow."
I answered Mina's question without a moment's hesitation.
"That's impossible!"
"I don't think that's feasible."
And the two women summoned to the officers' meeting immediately voiced their opposition.
Was it Han Sora, still sulking at me over yesterday's little incident? No. Was it Park Seeun, who'd looked at me with the same disappointed eyes as Sora after yesterday? Also no.
It was the two women who had each become my vassals as guild leaders — Jung Yun and Jung Miju. Thanks to the expanded territory, each of them had received a building in Yeouido (more precisely, one "bestowed" by me).
The two leaders of Armorum and Hope's Wings, despite barely knowing each other, voiced their objections in front of me at almost the exact same time.
"Ah, we still... haven't even properly announced the dungeon participation notice to people yet, Lord Jeong Hoon! Asking us to pick people for a dungeon expedition in a single day... I think this is tyranny!"
"...It's not simply a matter of selecting people. There isn't enough time to train them, either. No — there's essentially none at all. You said so yourself, so you must agree. Jeong Hoon-ssi?"
Jung Yun answered with a thoroughly flustered look, while Jung Miju's face was considerably subdued. Though Jung Yun had more spirit than before, she still showed clear hesitation in front of me.
And Jung Miju, who had once repaired the van for me and my women... still seemed deeply wounded by Seo Hyejin's death, carrying a rather melancholy air about her.
Or perhaps... it was self-loathing over having been thrust into a position she didn't feel she belonged in.
"I understand both of your concerns. But there is no other choice. The original plan — forming a kind of 'raid party' of twenty to thirty prepared talents, including officers, to clear the dungeon — now requires unavoidable revision."
Under the original schedule, the departure date for the dungeon would have been May 20th at the earliest. We'd planned to select people who wanted to go, train them through various quests and live combat, and only then bring them into the dungeon raid.
But after hearing that deranged announcement... accelerating the plan wasn't enough. A sweeping overhaul had become an absolute necessity.
"Therefore, I am no longer considering any forced recruitment. What I am requesting of you both is simply this: select one person from each of your guilds to participate in this expedition. We will execute the contingency plan. Rather than the slow approach of training a large force and then entering the dungeon, we will choose the rapid approach — clear it quickly, then adjust the dungeon's difficulty to train survivors afterward."
Both of them flinched slightly at my tone, but neither made a bigger show of it. They were both guild leaders who attended every officers' meeting, so I'd already explained the change in my speech patterns beforehand. When the two of them first heard my altered way of speaking, their eyes had gone wide, and each had reacted differently.
My Lord, you weren't originally someone who talked in that weird way, were you!? It was just a penalty!?
I thought something felt off... so that was it after all?
I'll just let Jung Yun's slightly rude reaction slide — I got a little pissed, sure. But she was pretty, so I endured it. Pretty is pretty!
"I ask that both of you select and send, by tomorrow, individuals with a strong will to participate in the dungeon raid. Preferably those capable of rear support. We want to help people grow and survive — not use them as meat shields."
"...I'll look around. Though I wonder if anyone will actually step up."
"...Hmm. If it's that girl, then... all right, Jeong Hoon-ssi."
Thanks to the two of them accepting the request relatively smoothly, the dungeon-related agenda wrapped up there.
After that came several hours of reports on various difficulties arising within the territory, and discussion of solutions. An ordinary moment — the kind that was only natural for officers like us.
"...Hmph!"
"Haa..."
"Jeong Hoon-ssi, it's not the right time yet. Not yet."
And Sora, as expected, was still thoroughly sulking at me. I'd held out hope when she casually reported the surrounding situation to me after her surveillance rounds, but...
The moment I said, "Well done, Sora. You worked hard," she whipped her head away from me.
She was definitely still hurt over yesterday's little mishap. At my sigh, Kim Seyeon gave a slight wink and whispered that it wasn't time yet.
All I could do was hope this friction wouldn't cause any major problems during tomorrow's dungeon raid.
May 10th.
7:30 a.m.
A headache emerged from a completely unexpected direction.
"Ah, hello, everyone! I'm Han Yeji! Level 13! Mage-Illusionist! I, uh... I've been with Mi— ah, no! With Miju in the guild ever since we were staying at Daengdaeng Elementary School! Nice to meet you!"
"Wow, Yeji unnie!"
"Yeji, thank you so much for joining us!"
The person Jung Miju had sent was someone I already knew. Though her class kept her out of direct combat, she was a woman who always showed a bright, motivated attitude.
A cute woman with slightly light brown hair and a notably petite frame. Han Yeji was a rare unwrinkled soul in a world like this.
Park Seeun and Kim Seyeon both lit up with welcome. Of course they did. As Han Yeji had introduced herself, she'd stubbornly survived alongside them since Daengdaeng Elementary School — a familiar comrade to both.
Ah, was this the headache? Not at all. This side was fine — perfectly ordinary, even.
"Hello. I, uh... once believed in that parasitic pretty-boy Han Daegeon as our hope, then kicked him to the curb and got out. Class is Mage-Alchemist. Name's Kim Seonhye. Twenty-four years old. Three sizes, starting from the top, bust is seven—"
"That's enough!"
The real headache was this one.
Yun Mina recoiled in horror and clamped both hands over the mouth of the woman who'd been trying to introduce herself — Kim Seonhye.
"Then and now, leading with sex jokes! If you're going to be that shameless, do it somewhere else, Seonhye!"
Of course, she pulled her hands away a moment later... which was a mistake.
"My, Mina unnie. Aren't you being a little harsh on someone just trying to sell herself a bit?"
"Self-promotion, my ass! That's just sexual harassment!"
"What's the big deal all of a sudden? Everyone gathered here is an adult, right? And it's not like there's only one or two people here with sexual experience. Unnie, you just got your hymen pierced as of yesterday, so why are you putting on the prude a—"
"You little bitch!"
Yun Mina stretched out her arm and sealed the mouth of the woman who stood a full head taller than her.
Long raw black hair, a rather statuesque height. A woman with a more slender figure than Kim Seyeon — that was Kim Seonhye.
"My, my... Lord Jeong Hoon, alpha male among alpha males, it's an honor to meet you. Ah, that's not sarcasm. I genuinely think of you as an alpha male. Especially since, if the opportunity ever arises, you might just prove it to me in bed — which is why I'd love to share my three sizes with you. Slender might not be your type, but at the very least, my willpower is..."
Despite her innocent-looking exterior, she was an extraordinary woman who fired off sex jokes without a moment's pause.