Raising to Devour
In the clearing where the wrecked helicopter lay, a girl in a school uniform was collapsed on the ground.
The female student lay completely motionless, dressed in a neat blouse and a gray skirt.
"I-Is that... a student?"
At Lee Jihye's question, I adjusted my grip on my expandable baton and narrowed my eyes.
"Maybe."
We'll have to wait and see if she's actually a student.
The timing of her appearance was highly suspicious.
A high school girl who looked completely unharmed, passed out in a blood-soaked clearing? And after screaming so loudly just moments ago?
She could be a survivor in need of help, but there was a high probability it was a trap.
Rushing in blindly to help in a situation like this was suicide.
Using a comrade in distress as bait to lure in targets was a classic sniper tactic.
This could easily be bait too.
Instead of rashly going to check, I activated Cognitive Interference.
Bzzzt—
My body melted into the air, turning completely invisible.
Vanished from sight, I shoved Lee Jihye's back.
"Hey. You go check it out."
"M-Me? You want me to go? What if it's dangerous?!"
"Is your barrier just for show? Don't be an idiot and forget to turn it on like last time. Do it now. And quiet down those high heels."
"...Damn it."
Lee Jihye grumbled, but she faithfully obeyed my command.
Hummm—
Deploying her translucent blue barrier, she cautiously took a step toward the collapsed girl.
While Lee Jihye approached the girl, I kept my invisibility active and scanned the surroundings.
If anyone moved or attacked upon seeing Lee Jihye, I planned to trace their position instantly.
The high school girl was almost certainly a trap. Lee Jihye finally reached the collapsed girl and asked cautiously,
"Um, are you okay?"
The exact moment Lee Jihye's hand touched the collapsed girl's shoulder—
Shhh—
The figure of the schoolgirl dissolved like smoke, vanishing without a trace.
"Wh-What?!"
As the girl evaporated before her eyes, Lee Jihye stumbled backward in panic.
At that exact moment—
Swish!
With a sharp whistle, something tore through the air.
Clang!
A fast-flying arrow struck Lee Jihye's blue barrier and deflected away.
"Kyaaa!"
Startled by the sudden attack, Lee Jihye screamed and collapsed onto her butt.
But since I had already anticipated a trap, I didn't panic.
I calmly traced the enemy's location using the trajectory of the arrow.
Prey Search
A single red dot was blinking on the map, located near an empty corridor-style apartment building.
They must have been watching the clearing from there before taking a shot at Lee Jihye.
Without a moment's delay, I kicked off the ground and lunged forward.
Dash—
It didn't take long for me to reach the floor where the enemy was taking cover.
As I cleared the landing, I saw someone aiming an arrow toward the entrance of the corridor.
Even if I was invisible, getting hit by a stray arrow from an alert enemy would be dangerous.
So, instead of charging in like a fool, I whipped off my outer coat and threw it.
Flutter—
The moment the coat left my body, its invisibility deactivated.
At that exact moment—
Thwack!
An arrow shot from her fingertips, cleanly piercing my airborne coat.
"Tch."
Realizing she had wasted an arrow on my decoy, she gritted her teeth.
While she was reloading, I closed the distance in a flash and grabbed her by the collar.
"Ugh!"
I slammed her onto the ground, sending her recurve bow clattering away.
I kicked the bow far out of reach, pressed my expandable baton against her throat, and deactivated my invisibility.
My figure materialized out of thin air.
"Make one wrong move and I'll crack your skull open."
"..."
Only after subduing her did I get a proper look at her face.
She was wearing a blood-stained gym uniform. Though trembling with fear, her eyes still burned with fierce defiance.
She was a young woman with a remarkably youthful face.
Before cracking her head open with my baton, I scanned her status window.
Killed next of kin after Status Window opened. Eliminated hostile players.
My eyebrows twitched as I read the description floating in the air.
Her young age was one thing, but her skills were particularly unusual.
An unawakened skill?
One of her skills was the one she just used to lure Lee Jihye into the clearing by creating an illusion.
But the other was an unknown skill whose details and activation conditions couldn't be read even by my Prey Search.
Furthermore, the brief history recorded in her detailed log caught my eye.
The fact that she had killed her own family and other humans, despite not being a criminal, piqued my interest.
I pressed my baton firmly against Seo Jisu's chin and interrogated her.
"What's your deal? You killed your own family?"
Feeling the threat to her life, Seo Jisu's body stiffened.
But she bit her trembling lip hard and spat back bluntly,
"...It was my grandmother."
"Why did you kill her?"
"Because she turned into a zombie."
Seo Jisu glared straight at me, her gaze still full of venom.
I didn't look away either as I continued the interrogation.
"A zombie? How?"
"I don't know. Right after that Status Window thing appeared, she changed instantly. My little sibling too."
They didn't get bitten and infected; they just suddenly turned into zombies?
This was news to me.
When I showed a hint of surprise, she let out a scoff.
"You didn't know? The moment the world went to hell, the elderly and children outside a certain age range instantly turned into zombies."
"..."
I had been holed up in a convenience store and cracking the skull of everyone I met, so I had no way of knowing.
Anyone below or above a certain age instantly turned into a zombie?
Only then did it make sense how the world had collapsed so utterly in a single day.
If the elderly, the sick, and children—who made up twenty to thirty percent of the population—suddenly mutated into zombies without warning...
And in countless random locations: homes, kindergartens, hospitals, public transit...
A living hell unfolding in an instant was the only logical outcome.
Unless you lived alone or were in a group composed entirely of a specific age bracket, you would have been infected in the blink of an eye.
It seemed Seo Jisu had been caught up in that nightmare.
She must have had to kill her own family just to survive.
"...I see. That's rough."
As I nodded in understanding, tears finally spilled from her eyes, which she had been biting her lip to hold back.
"...I had no choice. If I wanted to live."
She quickly and roughly wiped her eyes with her dirty sleeve.
It was a desperate attempt to hide any sign of weakness.
Her answers were short and defensive, but the will to survive behind them was genuine.
I let out a sigh, retracted the baton I had pointed at her, and fell into thought.
What should I do with her?
She possessed an Illusion Generation skill capable of deceiving others, along with an unawakened skill whose identity even I couldn't decipher.
On top of that, she had exceptional archery skills and combat instincts.
If Lee Jihye and I hadn't possessed invisibility and a barrier, both of our heads would have been pierced by her arrows.
In many ways, she was an asset I highly wanted to recruit.
But there was a critical issue. Looking at Seo Jisu's status window, I asked,
"Are you an adult?"
She averted her gaze and replied,
"...I graduated. And my birthday already passed."
Unlike the school uniform she used for the illusion trap that snared Lee Jihye, she wasn't an active high schooler. Since she had graduated and passed her birthday, she was legally an adult.
Since she was an adult, there was no moral issue there, but... unlike Lee Jihye, using my skill to control her at will felt a bit...
Fucking every woman I see and turning them into slaves is a bit much, even for me.
Lee Jihye was a total bitch from the start, so I fucked her right away as a form of "re-education." But this case was different.
She wasn't someone who needed to be put in her place like Lee Jihye, nor was she a vicious criminal like the other players I had killed.
Yet, if I just left her here, she'd probably die, or worse, get captured and abused by other scumbags.
Besides, her abilities were quite good, and I was highly curious about that mysterious, unawakened skill of hers.
For now... maybe I'll just add her to the party and bring her along.
There was no rule saying my party had to consist solely of slaves. It would be best to recruit her first and observe her over time.
I extended a hand to her as she sat on the ground and asked,
"Do you want to come with me?"
Seo Jisu asked in a wary voice,
"...Why should I? I don't even know who you are."
"Who else? A nice player who's giving you a chance to join his team, even after you shot at him first."
"Nice? I highly doubt that."
Seo Jisu shifted her body backward slightly, taking a defensive stance.
It was a perfectly normal reaction.
In a ruined world, it would be foolish to blindly follow a strange man who told you to tag along.
I shrugged, bringing up the players who had died earlier after taking the bait of a hot woman like Lee Jihye.
"Don't you remember those guys from earlier? The ones who went into heat the moment they saw a woman and charged in? Do you think they, or any other men out there, would show you any mercy?"
"..."
Of course they wouldn't. In this ruined world, law and morality no longer existed.
To those bastards, a pretty girl like Seo Jisu would be nothing but a delicious piece of meat.
"Compared to them, I'm practically a saint."
Finding it hard to refute my words, Seo Jisu grumbled in response,
"...Being better than human trash isn't exactly something to brag about. Forget it. I'll survive on my own, so just leave me be."
Seo Jisu spat back bluntly. For someone so young, she had an incredible amount of pride.
Or perhaps this fucked-up world had forced her to become stubborn.
I shrugged and slid my baton back into my belt.
Well, if asking nicely doesn't work, I'll just have to use a different approach.
I turned around without any lingering attachment.
"Fine. Suit yourself. It's better than having you cling to me and beg to be saved. But in exchange..."
I picked up the recurve bow and quiver scattered on the ground.
"I'm taking these."
I brushed off the dirt and slung them securely over my shoulder. It was a pretty useful weapon. Unlike a gun, as long as I recovered the arrows, I'd have infinite ammo.
I'd need some practice, though.
Seo Jisu's eyes widened at the sight.
"Wait, what are you doing?! Why are you taking my bow?!"
"It's the victor's spoils."
"How am I supposed to survive if you take that?!"
She bit her lip and demanded, her eyes filled with resentment. I merely scoffed.
"That's none of my business. Claiming spoils is the rightful privilege of the victor. Besides, if I leave you with a weapon, how do I know you won't shoot me in the back? I'm not in the habit of gambling with my life."
Seo Jisu clenched her fists. She trembled with rage, but she clearly had no counterargument.
As we were talking, Lee Jihye, who had been down in the clearing, caught up to us.
"Pant... pant..."
Lee Jihye was wheezing, clearly out of breath from climbing the stairs.
She immediately glared up and down at Seo Jisu, the girl who had shot the arrow at her.
"Is this the little bitch who shot at me earlier? What a nasty piece of work. She's barely even wet behind the ears."
Seo Jisu didn't back down, glaring right back at Lee Jihye.
"...Says the crazy woman wearing high heels in the middle of an apocalypse."
"What? You little...!"
The two looked ready to grab each other by the hair and tear each other apart.
Ignoring the pointless catfight between the two women, I jerked my chin toward the exit.
"Enough. We're heading back to the temporary camp I spotted earlier. I'm tired, so I need to get some shut-eye."
With the bow slung over my shoulder, I started walking down the stairs.
"Ugh, what a waste of a trip up here," Lee Jihye grumbled, following closely behind me.
As the two of us walked away, Seo Jisu was left standing all alone in the pitch-black apartment corridor.
Grrr— Screeech!
Ominous groans echoed from the shadows. It was the sound of zombies roaming nearby.
"Damn it..."
Seo Jisu cursed under her breath and hurriedly ran after us.
I glanced back with a smirk.
"Why are you following us? I thought you said you'd survive on your own."
"Y-You stole my bow! How am I supposed to survive without a weapon?!"
Seo Jisu swallowed her petty pride and followed me. I chuckled inwardly.
Should've done that from the start.
We returned to the abandoned building where we had previously set up a dense network of tripwire traps.
Lee Jihye brushed off the dust, settled into a corner, and began massaging her legs.
"Ugh, my legs are killing me. I wonder whose fault it is we had to go through all this trouble."
Lee Jihye was taking a blatant jab at Seo Jisu.
Instead of replying, Seo Jisu curled up against a cold wall, keeping a deliberate distance from us.
Her posture showed she hadn't let her guard down yet.
Just then—
Growl~
A loud rumble echoed through the quiet space. The source of the sound was Seo Jisu, who was clutching her stomach. It was loud enough to make her face flush red.
I smirked and asked,
"Hungry? Looks like you've been starving."
Seo Jisu whipped her head away. Her cheeks burned red as she shook her head vigorously.
"I'm not hungry."
What pointless pride. She was on the verge of dehydration and starvation from fleeing after losing her family, yet she still acted tough.
I unzipped my backpack. I pulled out a can of tuna, an unopened bottle of water, and a chocolate bar—all of which I had looted in abundance from the convenience store.
*Click.*
The crisp sound of the tuna can opening echoed through the abandoned building.
The rich, savory aroma of oily tuna instantly drifted through the air.
Seo Jisu's eyes locked onto the can in my hand. I could clearly hear her gulping down her saliva.
"Join my party first."
I lightly shook the can of tuna, offering her a deal.
"If you join, I'll give you food and water, and protect you for now. If you follow my orders and behave, I'll even give you your bow back. What do you think? It's not a bad deal."
*Gulp.*
Seo Jisu's throat bobbed once more. It was a fierce battle between her pride and her survival instincts.
But when you're so hungry you're about to collapse, the outcome is already decided.