The Red-Haired Madwoman
Seongyong University. There was a rumor that the chairman was a fan of Seongryong, which was why the school had been named that way. It was just an ordinary vocational college on the outskirts of the Seoul metropolitan area.
The campus itself wasn’t particularly large, and since the entrance road was shared with the neighboring middle and high schools, the place would normally be bustling and noisy with all kinds of students. I stood before the main gate of Seongyong University, staring down the path that led inside.
Not a single living person could be seen moving. Only scattered fragments of torn and mutilated corpses lay everywhere, filling the air with a foul stench.
Ugh, the smell.
I pinched my nose shut. Ji-yun frowned and covered her nose as well. Only Ji-su stood there indifferently, staring blankly ahead.
Ji-yun, still pinching her nose, spoke. “The smell is really awful. When I came out yesterday morning, it wasn’t this bad… It feels like there are even more remains now.”
“Isn’t it just that the smell got worse over time? It’s not like there would be more body pieces…”
“Y-yeah, that must be it, right?”
The monster outbreak had happened that morning. There would have been plenty of students on campus and many college students heading to class. Naturally, the accumulated corpse fragments here were far more numerous than elsewhere. That was why the stench was so much worse.
Aside from the smell, I felt no particular revulsion toward the corpse pieces. It must have been because I was a necromancer.
I looked at Ji-yun and asked, “Where are the people you said were gathered inside the school?”
“If you pass through the main gate and keep going straight in, there’s a small building called Chungui Hall. They should be gathered there.”
“Then I’ll walk you to the front of that building.”
“Is that really okay?”
“Well, we’ve already come this far. I can manage a little further.”
There was also the guy who had burned with us. How could I act so heartless? Since we had come all this way, I would at least take them somewhere safe.
The three of us—me, Ji-yun, and Ji-su—slowly approached the campus main gate. The closer we got, the stronger the rotting stench of corpses became. Ji-yun looked like her stomach was turning; she was clearly in a lot of distress.
“This is…”
“Just as I expected. Until yesterday, there were almost no monster corpses here. But now…”
As Ji-yun said, what was piled near the main gate wasn’t only fragments of human bodies. Countless torn-apart monster corpses also littered the ground.
What happened here? Did they fight a large horde of goblins…? Who the hell could have done this…?
I slowly stepped inside. The deeper we went, the stronger the unpleasant odor grew. Ji-yun’s complexion worsened with every step.
“Th-this is strange. It wasn’t this bad further inside before… Why is it getting worse? And…”
Frowning as she scanned the surroundings, Ji-yun said, “Why are there so many monster corpses?”
How would I know? But I could tell that something had definitely happened here.
Goblin corpses were understandable. Even people who hadn’t activated a class could take down a single goblin if they stayed alert. But…
Fuck. Those are the hulking monsters. They even killed the hulking ones?
Among the monster corpses were the bodies of hulking monsters. Three of them.
Suddenly, I remembered the massive swarm of monsters we had encountered yesterday while heading to the downtown area with Ji-su. The countless monsters whose destination we couldn’t determine. Could these be the same ones?
Looking at the number of corpses, it roughly matches… But who could have done this? No matter how strong someone at Ji-su’s level is, fighting three hulking monsters would be too much. No, from the start, the very idea of massacring this many monsters to this degree doesn’t make sense…
While I was lost in thought, we arrived at Chungui Hall, where the survivors were supposedly gathered.
Ji-yun looked at the building with an uneasy face. “S-something’s wrong.”
“What is?”
“I’m not certain, but… the atmosphere is completely different from yesterday. It shouldn’t be this quiet… We’ve come all the way to the entrance. We should at least sense some presence, but it feels like there’s no one inside…”
I felt the same. If this was a building where survivors had gathered, at least one person should have been watching from a window. At the very least, someone should have been standing guard. What would they do if monsters came rushing in?
Yet the building before us showed no such signs at all. No, there wasn’t even the faintest trace of human presence.
This feels bad…
With this many monster corpses around, I had held onto the faint hope that at least some humans might still be alive. I had assumed that anyone capable of killing monsters would be on humanity’s side.
But looking at the building now, it seemed my assumption had been wrong.
What should I do? Should I go inside and check?
While I was debating, a whirring sound came from somewhere. And then—
“Oppa!”
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Ji-yun screamed as she leaped in front of me, thrusting out the spear I had lent her to block whatever was flying toward me.
But the object sliced clean through the spear shaft and buried itself directly into the left side of Ji-yun’s chest.
“O-oppa…”
Calling out to me, Ji-yun slowly crumpled into my arms. A small hand axe was lodged in her chest.
Stunned by how suddenly it had happened, I could only stare blankly at Ji-yun as she collapsed against me.
“Uh… uhh…”
Her body trembled violently in my embrace. Bloody foam bubbled up from her mouth. Tears streamed from her eyes as she turned her gaze toward me.
“M-mom… Dad… I have to… find them…”
Those were Ji-yun’s last words. Her head slumped lifelessly.
What the hell had just happened? The Ji-yun who had been talking and walking beside me only moments ago was now a cold corpse in my arms.
How many deaths had I already witnessed? I had watched Ji-su and Seong-man die to monsters right before my eyes. I had seen Si-eun, who was fleeing from monsters, die in front of me too. I had also seen Chang-su and Jeong-hyeon killed by those thugs, and there was the bald bastard I had killed with my own hands.
But none of those deaths had struck me the way this one did.
The woman I had been tangled with in bed until dawn was now dead in my arms.
For the first time since the monster outbreak began, I truly understood what real death felt like.
I dismissed the message and looked in the direction the hand axe had come from.
“Oh dear, I wasn’t aiming for that unnie… The pretty unnie ended up dying instead~~?? She was totally my type too~”
A woman had appeared out of nowhere and was now standing there. What the hell was she? At first glance, she was clearly not human. Bright red hair, crimson eyes, and skin so pale it almost looked blue-tinged. She wore a lavish black dress with a plunging neckline more suited for a party, covered in layers of fluttering lace.
She had an exotic, alien beauty that was obvious at a glance. Up to this point, one might hesitate to call her non-human. But the two horns sprouting from either side of her head made her true nature unmistakable.
No, beyond her appearance, the aura radiating from her felt extremely ominous.
What is she? The presence she’s giving off is practically final-boss level. But we’re still in the stage where only goblins appear. Why the hell would a final boss show up already?
While I watched her with tense eyes, the hand axe embedded in Ji-yun’s chest floated up and flew back to the red-haired woman. Blood gushed from the wound and poured down.
I glared at the red-haired woman with pure rage and shouted, “You—”
“Shut up.”
The red-haired woman pointed the hand axe at me. “In honor of that pretty unnie’s spirit of sacrifice, I’ve let a smelly, repulsive, disgusting man like you live this long. So keep your mouth shut and stay quiet.”
She was insane. A complete lunatic. By the way, was that even Korean? It didn’t sound like it, yet I could understand every word.
At that moment, a faint light rose from the hand axe pointed at me. Seeing it, the red-haired woman smiled and said, “Oh my. That unnie was quite a strong human. Thanks to unnie’s blood, our cute little baby grew a bit more?”
“What the hell are you even saying, you crazy—”
“I told you to shut up!!”
The red-haired psycho bitch screamed hysterically and hurled the hand axe. But I had been expecting it. I threw myself sideways, rolling across the ground, and called out the name of my dark knight.
“Seo Ji-su!!”
At my command, Ji-su charged at the red-haired madwoman like a wild beast. Since the woman had just thrown her axe, her hands were empty. If Ji-su used her only skill, Heavy Swing, to attack…
I watched with my mouth hanging open as the red-haired woman caught Ji-su’s swung club with her bare hand.
No, this was too much. With Ji-su’s current stats, an attack loaded with Heavy Swing should have been powerful enough to seriously wound even a hulking monster or one a level higher. And she caught it bare-handed?
Wasn’t this a total balance break?
The red-haired woman, still gripping Ji-su’s club, even had the leisure to smile and speak to her. “Oh my, unnie, you’re quite pretty too? You were so quiet I didn’t get a proper look at you. Hmm? Unnie? But your condition seems a little strange—”
“Seo Ji-su! Return!”
At my command, Ji-su quickly broke away from the red-haired woman and returned to my side. The red-haired woman frowned at me and said, “Hey. I told you to shut up, didn’t I? This won’t do. I was planning to kill you slowly out of consideration for the pretty unnies, but it looks like you should just die now.”
When she stretched out her hand, the hand axe embedded in the ground flew back to her.
Looks like I can’t win against her right now. If even Ji-su’s strength doesn’t work at all…
The red-haired woman, holding the hand axe, pointed it at me once more. “I’ll at least listen to your last words. Be grateful to the pretty unnie who died in your place. It’s all thanks to her that someone like you gets this kind of chance.”
Ha, she would listen to my pathetic last words? In that case, I had no reason to refuse. From behind Ji-su (it probably looked rather pathetic), I glared at the red-haired woman and said,
“You seem to hate men, huh?”
“Huh? I told you to give your last words, but you’re asking a question? Well, men having bad brains must be a racial trait, so I’ll let it slide. Of course I hate them. How could anyone like something so dirty, smelly, and disgusting?”
Yeah, I figured. I nodded, then growled at the red-haired psycho bitch,
“I’ll make you one promise. You’ll end up pinned beneath me—the man you despise—crying and wailing. And when that time comes, begging me to forgive you even once won’t work. So just wait for it. Got it?”
The red-haired woman stared at me, utterly dumbfounded. “…Is that all? Are you finished with your last words? Talking nonsense until the moment you die. As expected—”
Her words could no longer continue. It was only natural. Because the me and Ji-su who had been standing in front of her had vanished in an instant.
It was only after entering the Cradle of Rest that I could finally let out a sigh of relief.