Chapter 87. Hatching.
Chapter 87. Hatching.
After the meal with everyone, we each went back to our homes and lived out the rest of the day. Morning came, and after eating breakfast and showering, I stuffed every piece of clothing and food I had set aside into my subspace.
I wrapped the most important item—the egg of 'Ziz'—in cloth and strapped it to my back for easier carrying.
"Sihu, you didn't forget anything, did you?"
"I'm not going far, and I won't be gone that long. This much is plenty."
"Oppa, a week is totally a long time!"
I offered a faint smile to the two of them as they kept fretting, then stepped out of the house and started walking toward the village outskirts. As I went, one by one, the people I passed called out, telling me to take care and come back safely.
'I can't even remember the last time people worried about me.'
When I reached the village entrance, several people, including the officers, were waiting for me.
"You take care of yourself, son. And if you find anything good out there, bring it back with you!"
I snorted a laugh at the old man's joking words.
"We'll keep the village safe, sir. Please be careful on your journey."
Each of them spoke with their own concern woven in. Then Chaeyeon and Jia stepped up and threw themselves into my arms. I was a little surprised—I never expected them to be openly affectionate right in front of everyone.
"Sihu, you have to come back safe."
"Oppa, be careful..."
I patted their backs and exchanged brief pecks with them. Then, finally, I called out to Terion.
"Don't worry. I'll guard the village well."
"Terion, do you know the founding principle of our Yong Mercenary Band?"
"Hahaha! The Disaster's principle is famous."
I grinned back at Terion, who spoke as if he knew it well.
"Then I'll leave it to you."
My companions all looked on with curious expressions at the mention of the Yong Mercenary Band's principle from my days as its leader on Titan, but I didn't explain further and just smiled.
"Well then, I'll see you all in about a week. You'd better be training even harder when I get back, got it?"
Leaving those final words behind, I waved and departed from the village.
* * * * * * * *
For several hours, I simply walked wherever my feet took me. Without any set destination, I just walked.
'It's only been a few hours, and already being alone feels so real.'
Normally I would have been chatting quietly with my companions as we walked, but now that I was on my own, an emotion called 'loneliness'—something I'd never really felt—slowly began to creep in.
Unfortunately, communication was only possible within the Gyeonggi area, so I had installed offline maps on my phone beforehand. Gangwon Province seemed unlikely to have many people, I figured, so I set my course that way.
In truth, if I put my mind to it, I could reach Gangwon Province at a speed rivaling a jet, but since I had allotted a week, I decided to enjoy a leisurely journey.
'I'd like to take care of business quietly somewhere like a cave... but will there be one?'
Unfortunately, the offline map only showed simple geographic features and roads, so cave locations were hard to pinpoint.
'Now that I think about it... wasn't the place in Gangwon Province with the casino originally a coal mine...?'
I didn't even consider the risk of collapse or poor air quality. There was never any chance I'd feel threatened by something like that in the first place.
'So, first destination's set.'
I'd stop by Jeongseon in Gangwon Province, and once Ziz finished hatching, if I had some time left, I thought it might be nice to swing by the sea.
Anyway, there were scattered car accidents and stopped vehicles on the highway, but walking the highway alone felt a little novel.
'By the calendar, today's a weekend...'
If the apocalypse hadn't fallen upon the world, this road would have been packed with vacation traffic. I let myself imagine it for a moment, then shook my head and cleared the idle thoughts away.
I'd started early in the morning, but lunchtime had already arrived. I planted myself right in the middle of a four-lane road, pulled out the burner, and started boiling water. Then I set out ramyeon, eggs, kimchi, and the rest.
- Sir, when you're camping, isn't ramyeon the absolute best? - This is more like rough sleeping than camping. - Hoho, anyway, pitching a tent and sleeping outside—that's camping.
I recalled that conversation as I cracked the eggs they'd told me to add to the ramyeon and tossed them in. The sudden thought of eggs drew my gaze to Ziz's egg, set carefully beside me.
"Can this thing be eaten too...?"
I muttered to myself unconsciously, and an illusion flashed before me—the egg trembling faintly, as if it had actually heard me.
After a short mealtime, I moved my feet again, briskly. Occasionally, out of boredom, when I passed a relatively intact or high-end vehicle, I'd open the door and loot it to pass the time.
Spending my time with little more than eating, sleeping, and occasionally killing time on the tablet I'd brought along, about two days passed, and I arrived at Jeongseon, Gangwon Province.
'Was the casino originally attached to a ski resort?'
I had no idea—I'd never been there. All I knew was that there was a casino in Gangwon Province and a large ski resort.
I went into the tallest, most expensive-looking room and began organizing my observations from the journey here. Sure enough, likely due to the low population, zombies were scarce. And zombies that were motionless reacted when they saw a person. Also, for some reason, even though their bodily functions had ceased, their bodies weren't rotting.
Since I lacked any precise medical knowledge, I just satisfied myself with the reasoning that mana must have exerted some kind of effect.
I walked up to the window and surveyed the surrounding area.
'So it's that direction.'
Traces of the coal mine were visible in a place surrounded by nothing but wildly overgrown trees and grass. Perhaps because people might visit, a thick iron gate had been erected, bound shut with a heavy iron chain.
— Clang!
I channeled mana into my hand and struck the chain, which crumbled apart as easily as a cracker.
— Screeeeech...!
When I grabbed the thick iron door and applied force, it emitted a grotesque noise—the hinges must have rusted—and slowly began to open. Then, a gust of wind rushed in, carrying a huge cloud of dust.
I pulled out a flashlight and headed inside. As I went, I saw the railroad tracks built to transport coal, alongside various mechanical equipment.
I settled in a reasonably wide space, drew my sword, and plunged it deep into the ground until the blade was no longer visible. Then I injected mana into it, forming a formation centered on the sword.
A formation to isolate this place from the outside, just in case of the unexpected. Even if someone entered from outside, they would never see me here, let alone sense me. Someone on Terion's level might have felt the spatial dissonance, though.
All preparations complete, I carefully unwrapped the cloth covering Ziz's egg and stood it upright in front of me.
'Hmm... They said Ziz would absorb mana on its own and hatch once it reached saturation, but...'
First, I let my mana emanate naturally. The mana seeping from my body began gathering at a single point on the egg's surface, getting absorbed.
'The efficiency seems pretty poor...'
I stopped what I was doing, and this time, I pressed my palm against the egg's shell and began channeling my body's mana directly into my hand. The moment I did, an immense suction force formed between my palm and the egg, and it began gulping down mana ravenously. I didn't restrain it at all and just let it keep going.
The mana that had been trickling like a small stream soon began pouring like a river, and eventually, it was absorbing a staggering torrent of mana, as if a dam had burst. With not a single wisp of mana wasted into the surroundings, the process of every bit being absorbed solely into the egg caused cracks to form in the coal mine walls and produced a tremendous amount of dust.
A sudden anticipation stirred in me. What kind of being would this thing, devouring my mana, be reborn as?
'Eat as much as you want.'
An anomaly occurred in the egg that had been so ravenously coveting my mana. It was swallowing uncontrollably, to the point where it seemed like its stomach might burst.
'At this rate, it's going to die before it even hatches...?'
I hastily blocked the outpouring mana and began letting it flow out with the utmost delicacy—something that would have been impossible without an extraordinary level of concentration.
It felt like adding water drop by drop to an already overfilled cup, so not a single drop would spill.
Focused entirely on the egg, which seemed like it would shatter instantly if I made even the slightest misregulation.
That's how three days passed.
* * * * * * * *
"Wow... three days already, huh? You greedy little bastard..."
Without a single percent of mana wasted, one hundred percent of its capacity had been poured into the egg. And then, the egg fell silent. It would probably wake soon, but in its current state, it felt like even a light poke would cause it to collapse. So the judgment I made was to wait it out right here.
I watched movies, dramas, ate, and rested here, but all the while, my eyes kept darting over to glance at the egg. If I hadn't had a timepiece, I probably wouldn't have known whether the sun was up or down.
My body wasn't one to feel fatigue in the first place, but having exerted such immense concentration for the first time in ages, I was hit with mental exhaustion and fell asleep so deeply, a person could've carried me off without me noticing. The formation I'd set up let me sleep easy, too.
— Peck... peck peck peck...!
"...?"
The sensation of something tapping my face pulled me from sleep. Still lying down, I lifted my head slightly and looked down toward my chest, meeting the gaze of a 'being' huddled around my solar plexus.
I suddenly remembered the egg and turned only my head to look at it, but the egg was already shattered, with only traces of a few shell fragments and some liquid remaining.
Perhaps annoyed that I wasn't giving it attention, it kept pecking at me with its beak. I tried my best to ignore it and gather my thoughts. It looked very different from the birds I knew.
'Aren't freshly hatched chicks supposed to be featherless, all pink and raw-looking...?'
I looked at it again. It was blanketed in jet-black, pitch-dark wings. Perhaps some time had passed since it had broken out of the egg, because its feathers were soft and fluffy, and its eyes were the only part of it that gleamed gold.
'A crow...?'
Realizing I was finally acknowledging it, the little creature began crying out toward me.
— Peep! Peep! Peeep!
Without much thought, I stroked its head softly with my index and middle fingers. It made a sound of pleasure and buried its face against my chest.
"Anyway... I'm supposed to give it a name too, aren't I...?"