The Opening of the Ghost Gate

We wandered around for a while as we waited for the Ghost Gate to open, eventually stumbling upon an abandoned supermarket with its shutters pulled down. The entrance was locked tight, but we just smashed it open and walked in.

"I guess nobody’s looted this place yet?"

"Oh..."

"Master, there’s a ton of chocolate in here."

"So there is. Let’s grab some snacks and food before we head out."

We could just sit back and eat popcorn while the Ten Kings and the slaves fought it out. This was going to be great.

"Anna, you’ve never seen Korean snacks before, right?"

"Yes... well... I know about Buldak..."

"You know that one?"

"Yes, I’ve tried it... for a challenge. It’s obscenely spicy."

Anna used to be a popular internet streamer back in the day. Perhaps that’s why she’d taken on various challenges, and it seemed Korean spicy ramen had been one of them.

"The ice cream is all melted..."

Since the electricity had been cut, most of the food in the freezers had spoiled at room temperature. I ended up grabbing a few candies and stuffing them into my pocket.

-Clatter...

"Hm? Master... there’s a sound coming from inside..."

-Clatter.

"There’s something in there."

I drew my Ghost-Cry Sword. It was a small neighborhood market, so there was a room in the back where the owner would have rested... and I heard a strange noise coming from there.

"If you're a person, answer me. If not... well, I'll just have to kill you."

-Clatter. Clatter...

There was no answer. Just the sound of something bumping against something else. It was as if someone with their limbs bound was trying to make noise against their will.

"What the hell."

I stepped into the back of the shop. As I got closer, I heard something like a whimpering sob.

"It is a person..."

Was someone really trapped in there? I didn't know. I opened the door.

-Creak...

"Damn it... what the..."

Inside the room, a woman was left half-abandoned with her limbs tied up. Who on earth...

"Master!!"

At that moment, I heard Mer’s shout from behind me. Something was at my back. It was probably the bastard who’d locked this woman up.

Before I could even turn around, I fired tentacles from my back and ensnared the thing behind me. After practicing so many times, I could now shoot tentacles to exactly where I wanted them with ease.

-Squelch!!!

"Gah!!!"

The human I’d caught was, as expected, a man. A man in his late 40s with a thick, overgrown beard. He was caught in the tentacles just as he was about to bring a Chinese cleaver down on me.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Gaaah!!! Die!!!!"

"Huh..."

The guy seemed unable to process the situation, foaming at the mouth and struggling to break free from the tentacles. I drove my Ghost-Cry Sword into his gut.

-Thrust...!!!

"Aaaargh!!!!!"

"Shut up."

"Gurgle..!!"

I wrapped a tentacle around his mouth to gag him and continued to drive the Ghost-Cry Sword into his gut, piercing him through. The man convulsed with his limbs bound by the tentacles and was on the verge of death. I opened one hand and used the surging flesh to heal his wounds in real-time. Soon, he began to convulse in unimaginable agony as his internal organs were gnawed away by the tooth-lined Ghost-Cry Sword, which was corrupted by chaos, while his wounds were simultaneously being healed.

Submitted, huh. I immediately pressed my thumbprint onto his forehead. The entire process up to this point had taken only 40 seconds. He had surrendered to me in less than a minute.

"Hmm... Hey, answer my questions properly. Don't lie. That's an order."

"Gaaah..! P-please..."

"What's the deal with that woman?"

"Th-that... she begged me to save her, so..."

"So you caught her, raped her, and left her there?"

"Gah... Yes..."

"Is this shop yours?"

"N-no... on the first day of the disaster... I killed the owner and..."

"Wow. You're quite the piece of work, aren't you?"

"Gaaah!! P-please... spare m..."

"Huh. A non-awakened human catching a woman and surviving until now... you're lucky."

The guy wasn't even an awakened. He had hidden here without any powers and survived like a parasite. He must have reigned like a king in this tiny supermarket, living quite happily. Eating the food in the shop, washing with bottled water... though looking at him, he hadn't washed in a while since the drinking water was running low. Anyway, he seemed to have had a pretty good time here. It didn't sit well with me.

"Alright, now it's time to pay the survival tax."

"Excuse me...?"

"Survival tax. My subordinates and I wiped out all the zombies in this area. The fact that you could peacefully rape that woman here was all thanks to me. I'm not in a very good mood. You shouldn't be happy without paying. That's wrong."

"W-wait... w-what are you doing... Gaaah!!!!"

I didn't pull out the Ghost-Cry Sword I'd driven into his gut; I just swung it sideways. The man's body was sliced in half, top to bottom, and he died.

"I offer this."

I offered his soul to Kashnakas. Soon after, with the sound of flesh being chewed and swallowed, Kashnakas savored the man's soul.

"Haha..."

As expected, since the man's condition wasn't great, it didn't receive a very good review. I approached the woman who had been tied up in the room.

"Hic... sob..."

The woman looked up at me with eyes filled with terror. It looked like she had been stuck here since the first day of the disaster, living as that guy's sex slave... she was probably seeing an awakened like me for the first time.

"Hey, don't be so scared. You're making me look like the bad guy."

"Gah..."

"Well, I am a bad guy... but anyway. If you don't want to get hurt, let's make this easy."

I lightly drove the Ghost-Cry Sword into the tied-up woman's thigh.

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

"Ggggrrrk!!!!!"

The Ghost-Cry Sword's performance had become too good; it was a nuisance. It wasn't just a blade, but a serrated one covered in teeth, so when it pierced, it chewed the wound, causing many times more pain. Incredible performance.

"Good."

I pressed my thumbprint on the woman's forehead. Then I called Anna and told her to heal the woman. Her wrists and ankles, which had been tied, were a mess. She was also ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠covered in bruises, likely from being beaten.

"Sob... hic..."

Once freed from the chains, the woman seemed to feel a surge of sorrow and tried to hug Anna while crying, but Anna quickly dodged her. Seeing her grimace, it seemed she didn't want to touch her because the woman's hygiene was a disaster. Well, she hadn't been able to wash for at least two weeks, so it was a mess...

"Stand up... well, I guess you can't."

I went outside the shop ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and called over one of the mushroom men.

"Psssss..."

The guy puffed out spores rebelliously, as if asking why I was calling him while he was having a perfectly good rest.

"Cough..! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Hey! You bastard..! You're really gonna die!!"

"Psssss!!!"

"No!! Don't just say you hate it!! I'm letting you off the hook!!"

"Psss... Poot?"

"This guy... he gets so quiet as soon as I say I'll let him off the hook..."

These guys were total rascals. They looked like peaceful mushroom friends from Teletubbies, but they acted like crazy, entitled part-timers. Whenever I tried to get them to work, they'd band together and act up. They even formed a union in the Narak... they were way too undisciplined because their creator was sealed. I was going to revive Spenta Mainyu and tattle on all of them. Damn bastards.

"Take her to the school."

"Poot..!"

"Cough... Ugh... hurry up!"

Soon, the mushroom guy puffed out spores of joy, picked up the sick woman with one hand, and headed back to the school. Ha Jin-sung would take care of her now.

'She looked pregnant... Ha...'

I could set whether a slave was fertile or infertile, but... if she was already pregnant, there was no way around it. She would probably give birth at the school.

'Mer says she has experience as a midwife...'

I'd think about it when the time came. I had almost no knowledge of pregnancy and childbirth, so I couldn't come up with a proper solution even if I worried about it now.

'But... if I offer a pregnant woman... two souls... hmm. No. That's a thought that crosses the line.'

Maybe I'd been spending too much time in the Narak lately, because I seemed to be tainted by parasitic thoughts. I shook my head and looked for a building from which to watch the Ghost Gate raid.

"Master, how about that one?"

"Hm? Oh. Looks good. Let's go up."

We climbed up to the rooftop of a building next to the park.

We spent time sitting on the rooftop of the building next to the park until the sun went down. We munched on the snacks we'd looted from the supermarket and chatted about trivial things. Mostly Anna and I talked, while Mer nodded and kept pulling out chocolates to eat. Wait, how many had that been?

'Mer... you really like chocolate...'

I hadn't known that. Come to think of it, I hadn't been grasping the tastes of my women in detail. Actually, there were just so many women to look after... and I had been too busy to spend time with them.

'Maybe... we're more affectionate because we're often apart...'

Wasn't it the same for us as it was for couples who lived apart during the week? Since I was always out and about, we couldn't meet often, so we were more affectionate and missed each other more.

'I want to rest...'

Thinking that, as I chatted with them, the time soon arrived. The sun set and the moon rose. Now, the Ghost Gate would appear.

When the time came, a warning I'd never heard before popped up. Along with the sound of a mysterious siren coming from somewhere, the earth began to shake. Until now, the notification hadn't been heard because Hyosun Girls' High School was far from the point where the Ghost Gate opened.

'That is...'

-Rumble, rumble...!!

A localized barrier began to form. A translucent veil flowed down from the night sky, encircling the area. The moment that barrier touched the ground, escape would be impossible. It was clear that those who didn't get out of the zone within the time limit would be trapped.

'Cutting off the outside... if I can't get out of range within 10 minutes...'

I would be forcibly joined in the Ghost Gate raid. Or, I would have to survive until the sun rose the next day against the army of corpses, ghosts, and the Ten Kings pouring out of the Ghost Gate.

-Rumble, rumble....!!!

Soon, the barrier was completely set, and a gateway resembling a Japanese shrine torii began to rise from the ground.

-Hiaaaa!!!

Fog spread in an instant. The screams of ghosts that sounded like wind escaping, and the clattering footsteps of the dead filled the silent city, and a cold chill flowed from the Ghost Gate. Also, corpses began to pour out of the Ghost Gate.