Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: A Tangle of Mountains
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Kishiria's rampage had annihilated nearly all the zombies that had been swarming toward the supermarket.
The few that hadn't been killed had been so intimidated by the aura emanating from the Demonic King that they fled, so peace came to the area around the supermarket in an instant.
However, Jo-jun, having collapsed while spewing blood, had lost consciousness...
"Oppa!!! Damn it...! Oppa!!!"
Gang Hwa-yeong and Lee Eun-ji quickly lifted the collapsed Jo-jun.
Seong Ha-rin and Han A-ram wanted to approach where Jo-jun was, but both were so drained of strength that they simply sank to the spot, unable to move.
Mere was busy killing the zombies still crawling up from the collapsed rooftop entrance, so she had no time to worry about Jo-jun.
The other women were either exhausted or had fainted. At the very least, with the zombies wiped out in a heap, the situation was somewhat manageable.
"H-huff... I need to... do mouth-to-mouth..."
"He's breathing, so calm down. Why are you the one freaking out more..."
"Mmm... Sorry."
Gang Hwa-yeong forcibly calmed the flustered Eun-ji and slowly removed the gas mask covering Jo-jun's face.
"Why was he wearing something like this in the first place?"
"I-I don't know. That woman was wearing one too..."
The tall foreigner who had appeared with Jo-jun was also wearing something similar.
Eun-ji went downstairs and recalled the woman who had started a one-woman zombie slaughter.
'She seems like someone he brought from the black market... Who is she...?'
The appearance of a new woman made her want to laugh.
The man named Jang Jo-jun would bring a new woman with him if you so much as blinked.
At this rate, she had a thought that she might be abandoned at some point.
"Fortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything seriously wrong with his body... Right?"
"It seems so. Maybe it's the aftereffect of summoning that monster just now."
"Probably, right?"
The giant monster they were talking about was Kishiria.
A being with the body of an unnaturally beautiful woman attached to its upper half and the grotesquely twisted body of a spider for its lower half.
'The heartbeat I felt at the moment of its summoning...'
Gang Hwa-yeong couldn't forget that monster. In the moment they faced it, she realized it was a being they could never defeat. The overwhelming fear rising from her soul and the moment when she couldn't even move made her shudder again.
'What on earth did Master pull out...?'
That was a common question for everyone who had witnessed the Demonic King, Kishiria.
Jo-jun had cut out a part of some deep, dark abyss and unleashed it into this world, and the monster from that abyss had torn apart the enemies targeting the supermarket in a single blow.
"B-brother."
Then, Ha Jin-seong and Ha Jin-woo approached, limping.
They had gathered Kim Yae-won, Kang Hee-seon, and Han A-rum, who had been sprawled on the rooftop, in one place before coming to check on Jo-jun's condition.
"Are you alright, Brother?"
"Yeah. He's alive. You know he's not the kind of person to die so easily."
"W-well, that's true..."
Ha Jin-seong realized it clearly today.
Without Jang Jo-jun, they were just weak survivors who could die at any moment.
If Jang Jo-jun hadn't shown up at the right time, they would all be dead. He realized that Jo-jun's survival was directly linked to their own survival from now on, and he couldn't help but worry about Jo-jun's well-being.
In Ha Jin-seong's position, Jang Jo-jun was a terrifying master, and at the same time, the only lifeline that would allow him to survive in this godforsaken world.
"Please... I hope he wakes up safely. Brother..."
Everyone had different goals, but they all prayed for him to wake up safely.
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The hellish night passed, and finally, dawn broke.
"Ugh... Ooh..."
Jo-jun, waking from sleep, let out a pained groan. It felt like all his muscles were knotted. His joints crackled, and the taste of blood still lingered in his mouth.
'The price for summoning Kishiria was too steep.'
Kishiria herself had warned Jo-jun that he couldn't summon her again for two weeks.
She told him to level up more first and only call her when an enemy worth dealing with appeared.
'Damn it... for a summoned beast...'
Even as he thought that internally, Jo-jun couldn't say anything to the being's face.
Kishiria was just that overwhelming. Even though he had the blessing of a demonic god, he felt that if he acted out of line, he might be killed.
'More than that...'
He slightly turned his head at the soft touch he felt on his back. There, with her eyes closed, was Mere.
He was being held in Mere's embrace. And in Jo-jun's arms, Hwa-yeong and Eun-ji were buried, sleeping, with Ha-rin hugging his right arm and A-ram his left.
They were clinging tightly to Jo-jun as if to make sure he couldn't escape anywhere.
"Haa..."
Jo-jun enjoyed the sensation he felt in his hands. As he wiggled his fingers, touching Ha-rin's and A-ram's thighs, Mere spoke to him.
"You're awake?"
"Yeah. Just now. More importantly, aren't I heavy?"
"How could you be? But this is the first time I've held someone like this."
"Really? Isn't it stuffy?"
"It's fine. Humans are just too light."
"Haha..."
Jo-jun smiled at Mere's warmth. Then, he lifted his head and looked around for the women who weren't here.
'Hee-seon is sitting in a lotus position, meditating...'
Kang Hee-seon was sitting a little distance away, meditating in the morning sunlight.
Jo-jun decided not to disturb her with his immense concentration.
'She's probably raising her affinity with nature right now. To form a contract with an elemental quickly.'
Kang Hee-seon hadn't been able to play a major role in this battle, and she had become impatient. She had to get stronger to be of more help to the group. The sight of the non-Awakened, whom she had grown quite close to, being wiped out had especially changed her mindset.
Then, Han A-rum approached Jo-jun.
"A-rum."
"You're awake. Everyone waited for a long time before finally falling asleep. That tall lady over there wiped out all the remaining zombies inside the supermarket by herself."
"Wow... really? Mere is amazing."
"It's nothing. It was easy."
Mere answered nonchalantly to Jo-jun's praise.
Truthfully, she hadn't felt any difficulty even while dealing with the evolved zombies.
Every time she swung her scythe, the zombies were helplessly cut down. As an angel whose basic stats were over 50 at Level 1, she was strong. Even though her level was low, she was strong enough to fill that gap.
"What about you? You don't need to sleep?"
"I was exhausted a while ago and slept my fill, so I'm fine."
Han A-rum, who relatively had low stamina stats, had collapsed from exhaustion even before the battle was completely over. Reflecting on that, she had volunteered to stand guard.
"I see... Oh. Yae-won was there too?"
"Yeah! I'm so glad Master is safe!"
Kim Yae-won, who was looking around with A-rum, also approached Jo-jun, holding a blood-stained mace.
When Jo-jun showed interest in her, she was delighted. She had a severe case of love deprivation and was always craving someone's love or attention.
"Then shall I get up now?"
"Hnngh..."
Jo-jun gently laid the sleeping women to the side and got up.
"You're getting up already? You could sleep a bit more."
"It's fine. They're sleeping while hugging each other."
"Understood, Master."
Jo-jun told Mere she could sleep more and slipped out from between the women. He couldn't just rest forever now that he was awake.
Immediately, Mere hugged the other women and closed her eyes again. Han A-rum and Kim Yae-won went back to patrol the area around the supermarket.
"Now, let's see..."
Jo-jun walked around the supermarket to check its internal state.
'It's completely wrecked...'
The supermarket, which had become a battlefield, was heavily damaged. It wasn't to the point where it was uninhabitable, but with so many dead zombies inside, a rotten stench filled the building. From the traces of battle, he could tell just how wildly Mere had run amok with a single scythe.
"But... when will I ever be able to clean all this up..."
Jo-jun couldn't even bring himself to think about cleaning up this hopeless mess.
Even after the fight, the cleanup would take an eternity. By then, the next update would start, and the same thing would repeat.
Just imagining it exhausted Jo-jun, and he let out a sigh mixed with lamentation before heading back down to the lower floors. There, he ran into the Ha brothers, who were checking the 3rd floor for any remaining zombies.
"Brother!"
"Hey. Jin-seong. Who are the survivors left? Please tell me the people on the rooftop aren't the only ones left."
"Ah, about that..."
Ha Jin-seong reluctantly told him about the casualties from the previous night.
Half of them were slaves whose names Jo-jun didn't even know.
"So the only ones left are you, Hwang Soo-min, and Kang Eun-jeong? Damn it... We're really screwed."
"Yes... Everyone else is dead."
Most of the non-Awakened he had captured to use as labor had died, and even the regular class Awakened, including Kim Il-woo, had been wiped out.
The Ha brothers had managed to survive but had suffered fractures, while Kang Eun-jeong was still unconscious, and Hwang Soo-min was also injured.
"What about Il-woo? And Min-jun too?"
"Yes... They're all dead, Brother."
"Damn it."
Thinking about how many had died, Jo-jun felt both empty and angry. It was chilling how the zombies had specifically targeted this supermarket.
'Eun-ji, Ha-rin, and the other harem members survived, but most of the others were killed by the zombies. My labor force... my workers...'
The deaths of Kim Il-woo and Kim Min-jun were especially painful. Both had been leveled up to 15 and were powerful enough to easily kill Special Zombies, but they had met their end at the hands of the evolved zombies.
"They both died so pointlessly."
Now, Awakening had truly become the basic condition for survival. Even if you weren't a Hidden Class Awakened, the difficulty had skyrocketed to the point where it was incredibly tough to survive. Thinking that it would only get higher from now on, Jo-jun felt a sense of despair.
'I have no idea what this lightning bolt from the blue is about. For the zombies' main purpose to be destroying dwellings... the difficulty is just ridiculous.'
He thought it was a bit much for zombies, which should be dumbly chasing people around, to make destroying bases their main objective.
"Brother, what should we do now?"
At Ha Jin-seong's worried question, Jo-jun had no alternative to offer. He could only hold his throbbing head and crouch down.
"I don't know. I don't know either. If there's another survivor camp besides ours... we could gather some slaves there. Clean up the supermarket... No, should we keep living in the supermarket? Haa..."
"There's still plenty of goods left. Plenty of food. It's a shame to abandon the supermarket, isn't it?"
"Exactly. It's a shame to throw it away. Ah... when will I ever get all this cleaned up."
The Ha brothers said they'd go check the 1st floor and left again.
"Oppa!"
"Oh. Eun-ji. You're awake."
"Yes! Everyone's awake! Should we bring you down?"
"Ah, no. I'll go up."
Jo-jun went up to the rooftop and was welcomed by everyone, then he talked with them about what to do from now on.
"After checking the supermarket, I'm at a loss. Zombie corpses are everywhere. It's impossible for just us to clean it all up."
"So... we'll need more slaves, then?"
At Eun-ji's words, Jo-jun nodded.
Then, he immediately proposed a conspiracy he had been thinking about, in a meaningful tone.
"Right. But the problem is, it's unsettling... don't you think the zombies are swarming here abnormally?"
At his question, Kang Hee-seon answered.
"Really? I haven't been here long..."
Kang Hee-seon, having not experienced the ruined world for long, couldn't really feel it. However, Ha-rin's perspective, who had been fighting the zombies that had been invading the supermarket all this time, was a bit different.
"Hmm... Definitely... they do tend to gather here more than anywhere else."
"Exactly. From what I've seen... it's like this place has some kind of coordinate marked on it."
Han A-rum, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, asked.
"What do you mean...?"
At her question, Jo-jun told her a thought that was still just an assumption.
"In my opinion, it seems like a divine being, whether it's a Seon-shin or whatever, has designated this place as a point of attack. It's just a simple assumption, but the fact that these crazy zombies are swarming and crawling into the place I've settled in is just too hard to swallow."
This time, Kang Hee-seon asked what these 'gods' were like.
"Seon-shin... that word came up before. What's a Seon-shin? Do gods really exist?"
She had heard Jo-jun talk about gods occasionally, but she just couldn't understand what it meant.
Why would you be looking for gods in a ruined world like this?
As Jo-jun was about to answer Kang Hee-seon's question, Kim Yae-won, who was sitting right next to him, touching his shoulder, answered.
"Gods exist... they definitely exist. But whether Seon-shin are truly good, and whether Mal-shin are just evil beings... I don't know. Anyway, gods exist. They talk to a few unique players. And they give out quests."
Kim Yae-won's voice momentarily sank.
She, who once had the gods' full attention, had been ruthlessly abandoned at the moment of her defeat, so sorrow welled up.
At Yae-won's somber answer, Kang Hee-seon nodded with a dubious expression and asked Jo-jun again.
"Uh... first, these 'gods' exist. And you're saying those bastards are pulling some strings?"
"Exactly. But this is just my own theory. It's not certain. It's just that attacks seem to happen here more than anywhere else. I felt it last week when I went to Daiso too. Other places weren't attacked to this extent. They only crawl here like crazy."
As Jo-jun was telling his conspiracy theory, Eun-ji, who had been harboring a question, asked.
"But... Oppa... who is this person?"
"Ah, sorry. Come to think of it, I haven't properly introduced her. Let me introduce her. This is Mere, a former angel. I brought her from the black market."
Jo-jun introduced Mere, who was silently wiping the blood off her scythe, to everyone.
Then, Gang Hwa-yeong, who was wiping the blood from her own head, asked.
"An angel? What about her wings?"
"Hey. Hwa-yeong. That's a sensitive question."
"Ah, I'm sorry..."
"It's fine. I lost them when I fell. The halo on my head too."
"Aha..."
No one asked why she had fallen.
Mere had given off the nuance that she didn't want to say more, and everyone tactfully realized that she had some kind of circumstance.
"For now, let's look for another supermarket or a livable place nearby. If the location is good, we'll move there. If it's not so good, we'll just capture some more survivors."
"Sounds good. Then let's go out for a..."
"Hold on, Master. There. Someone's coming. One person."
"What?"
Just as Eun-ji was cheerfully suggesting they go out, Seong Ha-rin detected something.
Then, Gang Hwa-yeong, who had been sniffing the air, frowned and said.
"Hmm... a strange smell... is that a person?"
"Before that, the fact that they're walking this distance alone is suspicious."
Everyone realized that the human approaching was no ordinary person.
If someone was walking alone through this crazy distance where Special Zombies roamed and Named monsters crawled out, they were likely an unimaginably powerful being.
As Jo-jun and his group waited at the supermarket entrance, tense, two men soon approached the supermarket.
'Two...? Why are there two? Ha-rin said it was just one...?'
As the question arose, Jo-jun shouted.
"Stop right there!"
"Oh, my! Understood! Please calm down!"
One of the two approaching men raised his hands, showing he had no intention of fighting.
'Suspicious bastards. I'll kill them or make them my slaves.'
One of the approaching men was a large man holding a greatsword, his face covered by a helmet. The other was an old gentleman dressed in a pristine suit, not a drop of blood on it.
"There are still many of you alive! We've come from the Central Association!"
"Central Association? And what the hell are those bastards?"
As he was about to awaken his magic power, thinking they might be pawns of the Seon-shin...
The old gentleman in the suit answered Jo-jun.
"We are an all-weather, largest-scale survivor camp, formed by the union of the Hyeonghoe, Jeontonghoe, and Gyoyuhoe! The government has already lost its function, and the only path left is for us to unite! Now, everyone, join the Central Association! We don't ask for much! Just pay 500 coins in tithes every week, and we can all live happily together!!! Ah, if there are any non-Awakened, their family or acquaintances can pay their share as well!"
The Central Association was a gathering of survivors.
It was a highly suspicious group.
Jo-jun extended his hand before the man in the suit had even finished speaking.
There was no point in further conversation. He had to capture them to have a genuine conversation and turn them into his slaves.
"Lulué."
Immediately, tentacles flew toward them.
"Oh my. What a cheap trick. You're desecrating our goodwill! Stop them quickly!"
"GUOOOOO!!!!"
At the man in the suit's command, the helmeted man with the greatsword let out a grotesque cry, sliced through the incoming tentacles, and charged at Jo-jun and his group.
"Haa!"
"Where do you think you're going!"
At the same time, Han A-rum and Seong Ha-rin rushed forward.
KWAA-JAAK!!
The axe and hammer cut through the air, blocking the greatsword swung by the charging man and shattering his helmet.
"Uh... that bastard... what is he..."
Inside the helmet was a zombie's head.
It even looked like a War Boy, a Special Zombie.
'No wonder he was big... but how is he controlling a War Boy?'
As various questions crossed his mind, Mere, who had followed them, swung her scythe, killed the War Boy, and swung her scythe at the man in the suit.
"Graaaaah!!!"
The man in the suit's arm flew into the air, and he let out a rough scream.
"GwahahahahaHAHAHAHA!!!!"
The scream of the man in the suit, who had been spurting blood, turned into a wild laugh, and he shattered the glasses he was wearing.
"We invited you so politely. And you cut off my arm?"
In an instant, a thick killing intent and a dark red energy burst from the man's body, pushing Mere back.
Mere, pushed back, frowned and said.
"That son of a bitch... he's giving off a familiar smell."
"What is it?"
At Jo-jun's question, Mere bit her lip.
"A demon... the smell of a demon..."
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