Encounter (2)

Small writing was etched across the body of the portable battery.

The text was fairly long, but to summarize it in my own words—it explained that the thing could charge not just smartphones but coffee kettles, TVs, whatever you wanted.

So spending 100 Faith at the shop wasn't a waste after all.

Compared to the Zombie Cure, an all-purpose battery was… well, it didn't even come close to qualifying as super-technology.

I moved the battery from my smartphone to the coffee kettle. The charging terminal connected smoothly to the kettle, and the power flicked on.

While the water boiled, I opened the Naver Maps app.

Incheon Central Library.

Directly above it sat the Office of Education and City Hall.

The foot traffic there would have been massive. Which meant—

"If a zombie wave had swept through, these would've been the very first people to get swept away…."

So how had they survived? And how well must they be doing, if I was the one telling them to come over?

Pouring the hot water and soup packet into a cup ramen, I re-posted my open chat.

The government-designated shelter was the Incheon Soccer Stadium—the exact opposite end of the city from the library.

There had to be a reason the military picked that spot. No, unless they were complete idiots, nobody would build a shelter in a zombie-infested city center. And there were few places better suited for defense and housing civilians than a stadium, anyway.

"Hmm……."

One thing mattered.

The Central Library.

Was it worth going to check?

The open chat, which had been bustling, had cut off abruptly at some point. In a world where nothing that happened could surprise me anymore, it would hardly have been shocking if the bastards' cozy little 'camp' had collapsed while I made my way to the library.

For one thing, the library was much closer to Hanmaum Apartment than the stadium. Since I planned to move diligently from tomorrow onward until I found where people had gathered, my mind tilted toward checking the library first.

"Alright. Let's go."

After half-heartedly tossing out the empty ramen cup, I settled into my familiar position on the bed with my smartphone. Only occasional notices announcing hiatuses remained.

"Fuck. Authors, you should plant an apple tree even if the world ends tomorrow."

If it had to come to this, the least they could do was tell us how the story ended before going dark. The odds of ever seeing the next chapter of my favorite series were probably slim to none.

After closing the webtoon platform, I connected to YouTube.

And what I realized was this: that bastard Bbakcheol had been no pioneer.

YouTube in the zombie apocalypse was, as always, a red ocean. Videos about zombies packed the trending rankings.

It started with clips of people writing their addresses on sketchbooks, begging to be rescued.

Oh, wait—this looks like a scene from a movie I watched recently.

That mutant video Bbakcheol had left behind at the cost of his life was still sitting near the top of the rankings. I didn't see any edited videos. What the algorithm served up was mostly the same: quiet or loud.

The quiet ones were mostly whispering voices recounting near-death experiences. Steeped in end-of-the-world sentiment, videos of confession poured out in floods.

You're going to apologize for cheating through YouTube? Tell it to your wife, you dumbass.

And the extremely loud ones could be summarized in a single phrase: cyber death footage.

Deaths that censorship never caught had been taxidermied into the videos. Some cursed God. Some denounced the government. Begging for rescue and rage at having nowhere left to go seethed so thickly you could almost see it.

'Kieeeeeeek!'

'Aaaaaagh!'

'Please save us! Please save us!'

The screams I'd long since grown used to repeated on loop like ASMR. My eyes grew heavy. My hand, drained of strength, dropped beside the pillow.

The black screen played the next video automatically.

Someone's words came back to me.

Now, the unfortunate family—

"Ahh— what time is it?"

Rubbing my eyes against the bright sunlight, I checked the time on my smartphone.

11:50 a.m.

It was my second day since waking, and a week and a day since the world had ended.

Watching myself get up the instant I opened my eyes and immediately start preparing to leave, I finally felt it—I really had become an Awakened. Every morning, a body that had once weighed a thousand pounds now felt light as a feather.

I double-checked the kitchen knives and food I'd stored in my inventory, then changed into a comfortable set of workout clothes.

Ah, how much has my Faith grown, I wonder?

"Ooh, shit!"

My Faith had climbed steadily all through the night, and my stomach filled up without me having eaten a thing. Now then—how do I spend this so word spreads that I spent it well?

First, everything into my exclusive skills.

Light burst from my body, and I could tell at once that my telekinesis and physical abilities had risen.

Well, as for Lack Identification, I could just try it out on the people I met from now on. Everything I needed was packed into the inventory.

It was time to leave home.

On my way out, I deliberately left the door open. I probably would never come back.

The deeper I went into the stairwell, the louder the buzzing grew. Up close, there were even more flies swarming around the corpses than yesterday.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Wait, if I look closely, are those maggots I'm seeing? Ugh, bugs are the worst.

"Fuck! Should've grabbed some insect spray too!"

Grumbling, I shoved the black clouds of flies—clumped together like dust balls—aside with telekinesis. Terrified a single one of the little bastards might touch my skin, I buried both hands in my pockets and headed for the rooftop.

Creeeeak—

The rooftop door groaned open, and a warm breeze greeted me. This should have been the season when the cold finally relented and warmth began to creep in. March—the month when all things shake off winter and rise—no longer existed.

I moved to the edge of the roof and took in a sight I hadn't seen yesterday: Incheon, as viewed from the fifteenth floor—not exactly what you'd call a high rise.

As if yesterday's stillness had been a lie, a chain of gunshots tore through the air. Cannon-fire boomed loud enough to leave my ears ringing, and faintly beneath it came the screams of people.

Front and center, off to the left.

The Incheon Soccer Stadium.

Something had happened at the shelter. Not that it mattered to me.

If anything, with the zombies' aggro concentrated over there, it was a very welcome situation indeed. I turned my attention away from the shelter and surveyed my actual destination on the right.

Even the farthest fringes of Seoul should have been dimly visible—but a vast black barrier cut Seoul off from Incheon.

"Fuck. Zombies weren't enough—now what the hell is that? Aliens? …Seriously, did the zombie apocalypse show up and open a gate at the National Assembly building?"

What even was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that barrier? It was nothing short of a mystery, plain and simple.

Either way, Seoul wasn't what mattered. Getting to Incheon Central Library was what mattered.

Maybe because Mimic Holy Body had reached Lv.5, my mana and telekinesis felt richer than ever.

Telekinesis. A power that was nearly omnipotent in the physical sense—it suited a cult leader perfectly.

"As the saying goes, a true cult leader has to master Shukuchi movement and levitation before hanging out his shingle."

Could I really go around shouting 'I, the cult leader of so-and-so' if I couldn't at least float a little?

And slowly, I lifted my body off the ground.

My whole body floated into the air with surprising ease.

"Ack—shit—"

Maybe because I wasn't used to it yet, I nearly lost my balance a few ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠times, but even that I was adapting to at a rapid pace. I drifted this way and that through the air, gauging how much mana the movement consumed.

"Hmm… an hour?"

I figured I could move freely for about an hour. An hour was plenty of time to fly to Japan and back.

Good. Now, for real—let's go.

As I climbed higher bit by bit, Hanmaum Apartment shrank to a dot below me. My pathetic old home, crammed with not a single good memory.

"Never again. Trash apartment."

Cleaving the wind, I flew for the Central Library.