Prophecy (2)
Prophecy (2) — Lotte Department Store rooftop, Incheon.
The closer I descended to the ground, the more the black dots swarming the roads multiplied. Unlike the zombies up north, all huddled together and rubbing themselves against the Heavenly Barrier, these ones were scattered freely across the streets.
And with that many out here, there are even more inside the building, aren't there?
No letting my guard down. This wasn't my Sanctuary. For the first time in a while, I took an accurate measure of the mana still left inside me. It was still brimming over, so I accelerated my flight with telekinesis.
BOOM—
"Keeeaaaaagh!"
The sonic boom of me tearing through the air snapped every zombie's head on the road upward at once.
"This side's got way more zombies than it needs, too."
The density of them fit an area packed with conveniences — terminals, movie theaters, department stores, all clustered together. Thud— thump— The zombies chasing me with their eyes glued to the sky above crashed into parked cars and utility poles, and the racket threw the whole district into chaos.
WEEE-woooh— WEEE-woooh— WEEE-woooh—
The car alarms wailed like a finale tearing through the silence. Watching the scene of utter pandemonium, I slowly began raising my altitude again.
I'll search from the rooftop down.
There was no reason to enter through the first floor in the middle of this madhouse. The moment I landed softly on the Lotte Department Store's roof, I crushed its iron door flat with telekinesis.
THUD—
The mangled door collapsed to the ground, revealing an interior so dark not an inch of it was visible. I pulled five flashlights out of my inventory and floated them above my head. The lights hovered for a moment, then began spinning round and round, beams blazing.
What am I, a karaoke mirror ball?
After confirming that their slow rotation reliably lit up my surroundings, I advanced into the darkness one step at a time.
Crunch—
The sound of glass shards crunching underfoot came with a thick, coppery reek of blood. Everywhere the flashlight beams swept, shattered windows and floors caked in blood filled the view. A disgusted drone of flies rose from a corpse still slumped at a dining table, crying and circling.
The sixth floor was the dining level, wasn't it?
The food court was always the busiest part of any department store even in normal times. Add to that the fact that this was the top floor — nowhere left to run — and you had the perfect conditions for humans to be hunted by zombies.
Crunch— crunch—
Every step crushed another shard of glass, and I found my nerves fraying without cause. Dead end here. There obviously wouldn't be any survivors, and as for salvage, there was nothing left but already-rotted food. I had to move down a floor. I scanned around for the escalator that had to be nearby.
"...Found it."
I spotted an escalator — and a space where the corpses were clustered with unusual concentration. I fixed my flashlights on the mountain of bodies, as if someone had gathered them all in one place on purpose. Not a single one of the zombie corpses had a head. As if they'd been severed with something sharp, the cuts were beyond clean — they were smooth.
"...A sword?"
What was he, some kind of samurai? He killed this many zombies with a blade? No — I didn't really have enough evidence to pin it on a sword yet. What mattered was that someone had cleared out the zombies here in advance.
Come to think of it, it would be pretty funny if a department store stood empty in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
There was a skilled camp or an awakened one inside this building. My eyes fell on the floor guide posted right beside the escalator — and lit up at the fifth floor: home appliances, an event hall, and a cultural center. If a camp existed here, they'd more likely be holed up in a large, distinctive facility than in the cramped franchise shops. I'll search the cultural center first.
Target set, I descended the escalator, carefully sweeping my surroundings. When I found the electronics buried under dust, I clicked my tongue.
"Shit... wrong side."
I'd come down on the escalator at the exact opposite end of the floor from the cultural center I was headed for.
"...You want to die, is that it?"
The moment I touched down, my superhuman hearing caught someone's bellowed threat. I hurriedly cut across the corridor, moving toward the source of the sound.
"...you hear me, you bitch!"
Lotte Cultural Hall. In front of the huge black doors, theater-style, I slipped the flashlights back into my inventory. Then, with telekinesis, I began easing the doors open as quietly as I could.
Creeeeak—
"Hhic, hic — c-couldn't you at least give me something to eat? My, my stomach hurts so much..."
"Listen, you bitch — eat when I tell you you've earned it. Do what I say and maybe you'll get something!"
Maybe it was thanks to the loud argument, but nobody paid the creaking doors any attention. ...Light. A faint orange glow, just bright enough to make out shapes, was washing over the hall. I lowered myself slowly and hid among the seats of the last row. First, I needed to understand exactly what was going on.
"P-please, can't you just let me live? I d-don't want to die!"
"Look, I've gotten pretty good at this by now. Just lie back and be a good little cum dump, or do you want to die right here instead?"
"N-no! No, sir! Hhic, hic."
A woman's desperate pleading, a man's bored, irritable voice. I could see a woman slowly undressing, and behind her, a man she half obscured. On the central stage, food wrappers and water bottles lay scattered every which way. And there were several people huddled in on themselves, curled up small.
"Go on and get started, ajumma. You've all seen what happens to the other girls who resisted, haven't you?"
"Hyiiiik! Y-yes, sir!"
At the man's threat, a white mannequin walked over and pressed a knife to the woman's throat. Its stark white body was so conspicuous I wondered how I'd only just noticed it. Long straight legs and two arms as pointed and sharp as blades. A mannequin whose eyes, nose, and mouth were nothing but carelessly drawn shapes — and it was moving like a living human being.
Is that... the White Calamity?
Was that bizarre creature what Yoon Ayoung had prophesied?
"I-I'm a cum receptacle. Please use me as much as you like. I-I am..."
"Ugh, try doing it a little softer, a little sexier. You're not turning me on at all!"
Over the woman's awkward, twisting squirming, an all-too-familiar rhythmic slap slap slap echoed through the hall. No way. Was that bastard seriously jacking off right now? He could take her whenever he wanted as far as I could tell — why bother?
"I-I can't. I really can't do it, hic hic."
"Oh! Th-that's it, nngh — keep crying harder. I'm about to come!"
I frowned at the woman's sobbing wails and the man's revolting moans.
"Nngh — hnngh! I'm coming! Get out of the way!"
"Kyaaaaaaah! I-I'm covered! I'm covered in it, aaaaah!"
With a snip—, the woman shrieked and started hopping around, stamping her feet. In time with her grotesquely wiggling hips, a white color began spreading across her body, little by little.
"TA-DAAA! And she was one of the last decent-looking women left! Now there's nothing but grandmas! God DAMMIT!"
Leaving the man's inexplicable despair behind, I hurriedly pulled a flashlight from my inventory. With my field of view fully secured, I pinned the crouched man down flat with telekinesis.
"K-KHAAAAGH!"
"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, you jerk-off junkie!"
The rabbit bastard of this era — skipping the main course to finish on the appetizer. At my shout, the mannequin that had been standing still immediately lunged for me. I saw it sprinting with agile movements, bounding across the hall's seats to close the distance — and floated up out of its reach with leisurely levitation.
CRUNCH—
In an instant I ground the pinned rabbit bastard's head under my heel, chewing it down bit by bit, and shouted.
"If you can't stop that damn mannequin, YOU die!"
"KRAGHAAAH! S-stop! Seongminhee, stop!"
At the rabbit bastard's words, the mannequin chasing me braked to a dead halt.
"GYAAAAAAAH! S-somebody help meeeee!"
The white substance was spreading up over the face of the woman who'd been performing for the bastard, too. Only when the white had stained her all the way to the crown of her head did I understand how that white mannequin was born.
Fuck, what IS that? That's grotesque as hell.
There was no reason for me to rack my brain working out the mannequin's exact nature. I could just ask the man himself.
"Rabbit bastard! I'll give you exactly five seconds. In five seconds, you report your stats and skills to me precisely. Understood?"
"Grrrrrgh! Who, who the hell even are you!"
KRRRNCH!
"KHAAAAAAAAGH!"
"Open your status window and start spitting out those stats."
The rabbit bastard's mangled heel wobbled and flopped uselessly. He wanted to thrash and writhe, I was sure, but his entire body was already locked under my control.
"Five, four, three, two, one."
"GYAAAH! I-I'll talk! My, my Strength is 5, Agility 5, Intelligence 20, Magic 20!"
With one ankle turned to mincemeat, his slurred, struggling speech was hard to make out.
"Did you sleep through Korean class, you bastard? Skills and job — say it properly, one after the other."
"M-my job is Semen Sorcerer, and my skill is, uh, Semen Doll! I'm level 3!"
"...What?"
I was pretty sure I'd just heard something very wrong.
A what sorcerer?