The Virus Spreading Through Ulsan (4)
"Hey, kid. Why are you here all by yourself?"
"...o away."
"What?"
"I said go away. The men told me I'm not allowed to talk to anyone but them."
The child was extremely reluctant to let me come any closer. I stowed my knife in my inventory to show I had no intention of hurting her, then carefully stepped forward.
"Did those men outside lock you in here?"
"......"
She gave me no answer at all. She just clutched her stuffed rabbit tighter to her chest.
Why would they lock just this one child in here? Something about it felt off. If they were going to lock people up, there was no reason she couldn't have been kept with the others.
"It's dangerous here. Let's go outside together."
"I don't wanna. I like it here."
"You like it here?"
"There are ghouls outside."
Of course a child would be terrified of ghouls.
"Don't worry. I already took care of all those ghouls."
"...Really?"
She didn't quite believe me. Then she tentatively stretched a small hand toward the door.
What's she doing?
I tilted my head at the odd behavior. But then she pulled her hand back, a look of relief crossing her face, and turned to me.
"Did you really kill all the ghouls?"
"Yeah. And I took down the bad man who was out there too, so you can relax."
I held out my hand. She took it carefully.
"Come on. Let's go."
I took her hand and led her out of there.
Anyone else around?
As we headed toward where the people were, I used the Poison Fairies to thoroughly search the surroundings. I found a few places with traces of people, but whether they'd already fled or not, there was no one else in sight.
And then—
"Ji-ah!"
Someone came running toward us. A man who looked to be in his mid-thirties. I raised my knife and kept him at bay. Where the hell had he popped out from?
"Who are you?"
"Ah! I'm that child's father."
"Her father?"
"Yes. I was locked up here too, and the moment I got free I started looking for Ji-ah. I was so worried."
I looked at the child. She couldn't meet his eyes. And I could feel her hand trembling in mine.
This is suspicious.
If he really were her father, she should have been running into his arms. There was no way she'd react like this.
"Stay back. The child seems frightened of you."
"What? That can't be. Ji-ah, look at Daddy. Come to Daddy."
He gestured for her to come to him. Instead, she hid behind me.
"That's enough. I told you to stay back."
"Haha. She just hasn't seen me in so long. That's all it is."
He backed off because of my knife, then rummaged through his clothes and pulled out a photograph, holding it up for me to see.
"Look at this. It's a picture of the two of us from before."
I glanced at the photo. It was definitely a picture of him with the child — a warm, affectionate shot, more than enough to make you believe he was her father.
Still keeping him at a distance, I asked the girl carefully.
"Is your name Ji-ah?"
A slow nod. The name, at least, seemed right.
"Then is that man your dad?"
"......"
Ji-ah didn't answer.
This is definitely off.
He might actually be her father. But this uneasy feeling in my gut wouldn't go away. I absolutely could not hand her over.
"I'm sorry, but the child is too distressed. Even if you say you're her father, I'll be keeping her with me for now."
"What?"
The man looked at me like I'd lost my mind.
"Why would you be taking my child?"
"Look at her! Look at the state she's in! No normal parent would cause a reaction like this!"
"Get out of my way. I'm taking that child."
He started toward Ji-ah.
Lizardman ×5
"I'm warning you. Don't come any closer."
Lizardmen ringed me and Ji-ah on all sides. Seeing them, the man suddenly burst into loud, booming laughter.
"Kahahahaha. This isn't going to be easy."
Had he lost his mind? I was still wondering why he'd react like that when his appearance began to change. The face of Ji-ah's father melted away, replaced by a completely different person — a red-haired man I'd never seen before.
"Who the hell are you?!"
"Ahh. You should've just handed her over."
"What?!"
"Well, honestly, I don't really need the kid anymore. Still, that ability of hers... I had my eye on it."
Ignoring me completely, he walked over to a dead ghoul nearby. Then he tore the ghoul's head clean off.
"Hey, Ji-ah. Look over here."
The instant Ji-ah looked at him, the ghoul's head transformed into the face of the man he'd been impersonating.
"H...hic."
Ji-ah looked like she was about to burst into tears. Right in front of her, he hurled the man's head to the ground and crushed it under his heel.
"Aaaaaah!"
Ji-ah screamed.
"You crazy bastard! What the hell are you doing?!"
I sent the Lizardmen charging straight at him. He backed away, already turning to run.
"Kahahaha. Have fun with that kid. Calming her down's gonna be a real pain, though."
With those words he vanished from the spot in an instant. I was about to give chase, but something was wrong with Ji-ah.
"Aaaaaah!"
She clutched her head and screamed. The scene just now must have been too much of a shock.
"Ji-ah, are you okay?"
I tried to approach and calm her down, but she shoved my hand away.
"That man is gone! Calm down, Ji-ah."
And then her eyes flashed.
Ji-ah's eyes began to turn blood-red, as if they were filling with blood. Then she suddenly looked at me and opened her mouth.
"Ji-ah! Snap out of it!"
But despite my shout, Ji-ah had already lost her reason. She bared her teeth at me.
And then she bit down.
Not on me — on the arm of the Lizardman standing beside me. She bit so hard I couldn't pull her off no matter how I tried.
"Ji-ah! Why are you—?"
But in that moment, something was wrong with the Lizardman. A guttural snarl tore out of its throat. It was behaving exactly like the Lizardmen that had been bitten by ghouls and transformed.
Wait. Don't tell me—
The Lizardman slipped out of my control. At the same time it lunged at me with its teeth bared, and I had no choice but to leap back.
Infected with the virus?
The Lizardman that had been bitten in my place had been infected.
Wait. Then is Ji-ah the source of this virus? I couldn't say for certain. But looking at her now... it was probably because of her class trait.
The infected Lizardman lunged at the others, jaws snapping. In a matter of seconds, every last one of them had been infected.
Damn it!
I'd been so focused on Ji-ah that I was slow to deal with the infected Lizardman. Before I knew it, all five of them had been taken by the virus.
"I have to kill them."
I couldn't leave the infected Lizardmen alive. If I let them go, they'd run outside and infect people or monsters — that much was obvious.
But I couldn't use bombs. Ji-ah was right next to me. One wrong move and she'd get caught in the blast.
So I drew my knife and closed in on the Lizardmen fast. A single, economical stroke. The infected Lizardman dropped dead on the spot. I killed one and immediately closed on the rest, dropping their heads one after another as I slowly worked my way toward Ji-ah.
But then—
"Look out!"
An infected Lizardman swung the sword in its hand straight at Ji-ah. Couldn't it tell friend from foe?
Shit! Am I too late?
It was a fair distance. I couldn't see any way to make it in time.
Then—
Heal
A brilliant light wrapped around the infected Lizardman's body. It went berserk under that radiance, howling — then collapsed and died on the spot.
"Ssaem! Are you okay?!"
"Jin-hwan!"
The Heal had come from Jin-hwan. After evacuating everyone, the students had come back looking for me.
"Who's that kid?"
Jin-hwan started toward Ji-ah as he asked. I stopped him and checked her condition.
She's still like that.
Ji-ah's eyes were still bloodshot. If anyone approached her now, there was no telling what might happen.
"What happened?"
"Well..."
I told the students about everything that had just occurred.
"Is that true?"
"Holy shit! How could anyone do that to a kid?!"
"Th-then she saw her dad's head get crushed?"
The kids looked devastated by what I'd told them. Even as high schoolers, that scene would have been traumatic — and little Ji-ah had seen it with her own eyes.
"Yeah. The shock seems to have let her trait take over."
Ji-ah kept looking around with those bloodshot eyes. Watching her, Jin-hwan slowly approached.
"I told you not to go near her right now!"
I tried to stop him, but Jin-hwan waved me off. Then, Bible in hand, he walked up to Ji-ah and reached out.
Purifies all status ailments of the target.
As Jin-hwan's blessing took hold, Ji-ah's bloodshot eyes slowly returned to normal. She seemed to have fully come back to herself, looking around in a daze.
"Ji-ah, are you okay?"
When I approached, she suddenly started to cry.
"Sniff... sniff... Did I do something bad again? Sniff."
"No, no. Nothing happened."
"R-really?"
This clearly wasn't the first time Ji-ah had gone through something like this.
I pulled the panicking girl into a tight hug. She burst into full-on sobs.
"Waaaaaah!"
"It's okay. It's okay."
This reality was far too cruel for a child so young to bear.
What on earth had happened here? And who the hell was that man just now?
Something suspicious is going on. A vast conspiracy we knew nothing about was about to reveal itself here in Ulsan.