Chapter 204
Chapter 204
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 204
Chapter Title: The Hero's Infection
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Hero! Danger!”
The incident happened in an instant.
By the time Colin shouted urgently, Darian’s leg had already been bitten once by the zombie.
“Hmm.”
No one had anticipated it.
A zombie that should have died long ago rising again.
Darian swiftly cleaved the zombie’s grinning, grotesque head with his holy sword.
But the virus had already begun coursing through Darian’s veins via his leg.
“Hero, you must cut it off quickly!”
Amid the general freeze-up, Colin was the quickest to judge the situation.
He drew his sword and approached, but Darian expressionlessly extended a hand to block him.
“No.”
“But!”
“It’s already spread throughout my body.”
He felt the pain of his entire body burning away.
It was unmistakably the agony that came when infection was nearly complete.
These ominous demonic beasts were nothing like ordinary zombies.
No, these giant zombies that couldn’t even properly be called demonic beasts had infection speeds on a whole other level.
‘There are no other demonic beasts inside Sion Forest.’
Thinking about it, he couldn’t find any demonic beasts besides the giant zombies.
This giant zombie must have devoured the others.
The suspicion flashed through his mind for an instant, but Darian soon moved his feet.
Now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.
“Then, wh-what should we do?”
The new focal point of Adrian.
If he collapsed, Adrian might lose all order again and fall into ruin.
Imagining that future, Colin asked in a trembling voice.
It wasn’t just Colin.
- F**k, hero got bitten?
- What do we do now???
- Breaking) Adrian 43923 destruction incoming lol
The gallery’s mood had shattered too.
But Darian himself was serene.
“Rather, it’s good.”
“Pardon?”
A phrase Judak often used in the gallery.
Rather, it’s good.
Darian re-engraved that maxim in his mind before heading to the camp.
Turn crisis into opportunity.
“The time to prove my will has come.”
“Ah...!”
So what if a zombie bit him.
So what if his leg turned a bit blue.
The Judak who had personally handed him a tuna can back when he was starving to death wouldn’t disappear.
Then.
[Current Galju – Darian]
[Abilities in Possession]
1. Will
If you have the will, nothing is impossible.
“My faith hasn’t disappeared either.”
Judak had forbidden worship.
He hadn’t yet earned recognition for his faith.
It was all because of the cathedral—because he himself was lacking.
“The expedition proceeds as planned.”
“Y-Yes... Yes!”
Darian had only one goal.
Complete destruction of the outside world.
For that, bringing victory to Judak was Darian’s sole purpose.
And to achieve it, he first had to overcome this paltry infection.
“All according to Judak’s will.”
Someday, awaiting the day he could proudly worship Judak, Darian departed for the camp.
*
Adrian’s real power figure got bitten by a zombie.
“It’s done for.”
Darian was a fanatic.
But a diligent one.
A fanatic who despised corruption, had ability, and was sincere about normalizing Adrian.
No matter what anyone said, he was Adrian’s current focal point.
“Can’t let the focal point vanish.”
Even if there was no method right now, he’d thought of confining him with construction until one could be found.
[Title: About getting infected if bitten by a zombie]
(Darian crossing flames meme)
(Crab split in half meme)
Those kinds of things deserve to die.
.
.
.
(Darian turning back meme)
What’re you looking at, f**k?
(Darian crossing flames meme)
(Gallery splitting in half image)
You die too.
[Likes 7953] [Dislikes 102]
- F**k why kill me
- Kraaaak!
- But damn, hero’s kinda cool;
- Wait what, hero got bitten?
ㄴ What’s this guy on about
ㄴ Stop going outside and just stay in your room healthily gallerying lol;
That was the vibe until Darian held out with willpower.
“Why isn’t this guy turning zombie?”
Previously, they’d held a galju vote, picked Darian, and awakened his ability.
The ability was will.
Just plain will, nothing else.
“The system disliked it back then too, right?”
He hadn’t realized it then, but looking back now, he got it.
Will itself was uncertain.
For example, if you got a cut on your finger, you had to have ironclad will that it’d heal.
The moment you thought of applying medicine first, the ability was already f**ked.
“But he pulled it off.”
Yet Darian endured it casually.
Days had already passed, and he hadn’t so much as blinked.
I can do it! If it’s me!
“Why the hell is he actually doing it.”
[Title: But hero really got bitten, right?]
(Hero exercising alone meme)
(Hero kneeling in prayer meme)
They say your whole body burns like fire when infected.
Why isn’t he twitching so much as an eyebrow?
- F**k is this the same guy?
- Something... something’s off;
- Or maybe he didn’t actually get bitten at first?
It got so normal that suspicions even arose that he hadn’t been bitten.
But my eyes had seen it clearly.
[Galju – Darian (Infected)]
[Status Message]
One day ago – Zombification progressing! If no action, infected in 10 minutes!
One day ago – Endured with will.
22 hours ago – Zombification progressing! If no action, infected in 10 minutes!
21 hours ago – Endured with will.
18 hours ago – Zombification progressing! ...
“Driving me crazy.”
He wasn’t recovering.
Just chewing through it with will alone.
That’s why it was all the more puzzling.
“Even with that level of will, it doesn’t fully cure?”
It wasn’t a proper demonic beast or anything, yet it had power stronger than most variants?
“Hmm...”
Darian couldn’t be left like this.
But there was no method right now.
Morone: This... I’ve never seen anything like it either.
Judak*: Huh?
Morone: This isn’t ordinary zombie infection. It’s fundamentally different somehow.
Morone: Honestly, not even sure if it can be cured.
He’d extracted giant zombie blood and sent it to Morone, but even she didn’t know.
“Different from ordinary infection, huh.”
It felt vaguely familiar somehow.
Right around then, while skimming gallery posts.
- I’m done for... no hope... [0]
One post caught his eye absentmindedly.
*
[Title: Big trouble]
Author: Cute Fluffy Saintess
(Stone-faced V-sign saintess meme)
(Rural village with carriage road meme)
Road’s all good now.
Know the way to Adrian.
But food’s all gone.
So hungry...
No money...
Gonna cry for real.
Someone help me.
Will pray blessings hard.
.
.
[Post registered?]
On a quiet rural village road.
Lea, the silver-haired woman in saintess robes that didn’t quite fit, wore a faint smile.
“Done... I wrote it all.”
Saintess robes, but revealing her graceful curves.
Silver hair down to her waist, hazy eyes.
A mysterious beauty who made passersby turn back for a second look.
And she was the sole saintess of the now-destroyed Holy Kingdom Nel...
“Hey, worthless Nella God. What’re you doing while your saintess is on the verge of freezing to death?”
Also a blasphemous heretic.
Nella, the sole true god worshipped in Holy Kingdom Nel.
But Lea had never once sincerely believed in Nella since birth.
Not content with that, lately she’d started serving an entirely different foreign god.
“Hmph, whatever. I’ve got a new heavenly lord now.”
That foreign god’s name was Judak.
The gallery admin.
Holy and great and whatever else.
Compared to the hassle of invoking Nella, Judak felt like a real god.
Even without her faith, hadn’t he already sent money and food multiple times?
[Post registered!]
“Posted it too.”
The unique thing was solving it by posting to the gallery, not prayer.
Titles like ‘Big trouble’ or ‘Hungry’ to evoke pity.
And with a selfie...
- Whoa look at her
- Sis-in-law... name...?^^*?
- Want to gaze at the moonlight with you...@_@lol
“Ugh.”
Gross comments piled up.
Disgust crossed Lea’s face.
But she wasn’t waiting for crap like this.
Lea clasped her hands piously and closed her eyes.
“Now, this should make heaven send food, right?”
Every time, Judak appeared.
Every time, tuna cans fell from the sky.
A compassion leagues above that worthless Nella bitch!
“Compassionate heaven... please, spicy tuna this time...”
Lea muttered her blasphemous prayer.
Without Judak, she’d have starved to death.
Lea prayed for spicy tuna for a full minute.
Then, after time passed and she opened her eyes...!
“Huh?”
Nothing.
Lea looked around and checked the ground again.
“Nothing, huh?”
Lea tilted her head.
This couldn’t be.
Lea was truly starving.
Days of no food, half a day without water.
And Judak never ignored her suffering like this.
“Heaven is kind, after all.”
So why no reply?
“Hmph, whatever, it’s fine.”
Lea luckily filled a meal with a cold hunk of bread.
Then next dawn, shivering from cold as she woke, she wrote a new post.
- I’m really in big trouble (must read!) [0]
[Post registered!]
“Ugh... cold...”
Sleeping on bare ground without shelter wrecked her body.
Lea was now truly cold and miserable.
She prayed to Judak sincerely.
“I won’t be picky... tuna cans are fine too...”
Yeah, she’d been arrogant.
Even in Nel, bishops came to educate her whenever she slacked.
The god was turning away.
Lea figured it was the same this time.
But even with sincerity, still no reply.
.
.
“Haah... hngh...”
Next dawn.
Lea’s vision spun.
Where was this? How far had she come?
Had she been dumb to leave the village for Adrian?
Just days of starving, yet now she really felt like she’d die.
“Lord Judak... Lord Judak...”
Lea crawled on the ground, half-crying.
She’d once wanted to die, but now she didn’t.
She’d met a real god now.
Judak was a true god who shared food and love even with half-assed believers like her.
“Pleeease...”
-Squelch
At that moment, as her trembling hand grabbed something blindly.
“Kyuing?”
Something cute squeaked.
The instant Lea looked up.
“W-Wyvern.”
There, a blue wyvern with sparkling eyes stared right down at her.
Lea’s heart nearly stopped.
Judak*: Huh?
Judak*: Fluffy Saintess?
Beside it, the heaven she’d desperately sought was calling Lea’s name.
>