Shackled by Conscience
I had ended up inside the zombie apocalypse novel. This time, the restraints were even harsher than before.
They had dug up the ground again, driven iron pillars deep into the earth, and attached shackles to them. My hands were pinned behind my back with two sets of handcuffs, and they finished it off by chaining an iron ball to me. At this rate, everyday life would be impossible without someone else’s help.
The loser sneered. I glared at her. But there was nothing I could do. Twenty hunters stood watch, every last one of them with a pistol tucked into their waistband. People die when they’re shot. I probably wasn’t any different.
Only then did the loser speak, as if she could finally relax. “So you aren’t tough enough to shrug off a pistol bullet either. That’s reassuring.”
“…”
“Which means you can’t beat a monster, and therefore no one except Kang Siwoo can beat me.”
“...?”
I stared at her, dumbfounded. Monsters were weaker than me. If I activated my super strength, I could win. So what the hell did she mean by saying I couldn’t beat a monster?
“I was honestly worried. Your combat parameters were too strange to read.”
“My… parameters? Why?”
“You weren’t strong, but you weren’t weak either… I couldn’t measure you properly, but now it’s clear.”
“...?”
“In Nam-gu, you didn’t break straight through. You got chased by the zombies, right?”
“That’s… right?”
“Since you weren’t strong enough to force your way through, they must have sent you to the spider breeding pen.”
“Breeding pen?”
Anger flared up in an instant, but the pistols were more than enough to cool it back down.
“Yet you didn’t just wipe out the spiders—you even killed the king and queen I’d raised so carefully.”
“…So what’s your point?”
“You’re a physical-type ability user who amplifies muscle strength through adrenaline secretion, delivering explosive power in short bursts.”
“...?”
“You’d be vulnerable in prolonged fights but strong in quick ones. That means your body’s durability must be extremely low.”
Me? Low durability? It was so absurd I almost laughed. But it felt like the moment to stay quiet, so I kept my mouth shut. The loser kept talking all on her own.
“Powerful regeneration, tough defense—those are only available for a short window. Everything else is basically civilian level. How fragile.”
“Ah, yeah. Sure.”
“I currently possess one monster and one baron.”
“…Baron?”
“Yes. The elder who originally founded that cult had the ability to brainwash zombies, remember?”
“…”
“He figured out how to keep their intelligence while mutating them, then researched ways to change their skin color too.”
This was seriously dangerous. It meant this bitch had been grinding up people to conduct her experiments. That was how she ended up with a baron that could pass for an ordinary middle-aged man, plus the monster that had probably been created while disposing of the byproducts. She likely had all sorts of other variants as well. And she had driven every last one of them into Nam-gu.
Putting the pieces together—
The loser let out a small laugh and looked at me. At some point her pupils had turned completely black. Then a voice began to echo inside my head. It felt like a restriction, something warning me that this must not be done. Like a promise made with my parents. Like something that went against social morality. The constraint placed on me was simple: do not attack the loser in front of me. I could not harm her, and if I tried, I would harm myself instead. The intensity wasn’t overwhelming, but it felt like breaking an incredibly precious promise—something hard to violate on the spot.
And then I realized it. This bitch was a mental-type ability user. She had probably forced her awakening the same way the elder had.
The loser wore a triumphant smile. “Would you like to try breaking it once?”
“You bitch…!”
She thrust her arm right in front of my mouth, as if inviting me to bite as much as I wanted. I fully intended to sink my teeth in. But I couldn’t.
It felt like lusting after family. Like lusting after a child. Like trying to murder an elder. It felt like violating the cardinal moral principles and doing something society must never allow. She had bound me by appealing to conscience and morality. Now I understood why the others didn’t resist.
Just thinking about attacking the woman in front of me brought a powerful wave of revulsion. Most people would find it nearly impossible. Everyone has a line drawn in their heart, after all.
But I was different. This bitch seemed to have overlooked one thing—I was the worst of the worst.
“…”
“Looks like even you can’t resist after all.”
“Y-yeah.”
Normally, being told not to do something only makes you want to do it more. Thinking about the delicious sense of immorality I would feel when I broke the rule sent a thrilling shiver through me.
Of course the loser in front of me hadn’t noticed at all. That made sense. The people she had met before couldn’t have been like me. They had probably lived ordinary lives and only ever read the pirated text version.
This was a pleasant miscalculation.
But it didn’t last long.
“To be honest, if you could tank a pistol bullet I was planning to bring out the shotgun. A rifle would be too much. We only have a few of those.”
“Oh, really?”
“Everyone starts sobbing when they take a buckshot round to the leg. Whether it’s the top or bottom that gets hit.”
“…”
“Of course I don’t plan to use it on a large scale. It would accelerate the zombies’ evolution, and we can’t have that.”
“Do you even know how to shoot?”
“You think I wouldn’t?”
I averted my eyes. Even if she wasn’t a marksman, the odds were high that she knew how to fire a gun. Otherwise she wouldn’t have armed the hunters with pistols. I didn’t feel like gambling, so I quietly shook my head.
“How cute. Anyway, you’ll be staying here for a while. If you need anything, tell the saintesses over there.”
“You’re not worried about escape attempts?”
“There are only two entrances to this place. There are no boats. This island is used to isolate criminals who broke community rules, so escape won’t be easy.”
“The guards are obviously hunters.”
The loser didn’t answer. She simply smiled, as if leaving it to my imagination. Looking at it now, she had planned things quite meticulously.
Apparently displeased with my expression, she slowly grabbed a fistful of my hair and said, “Don’t even think about stealing a gun. You wouldn’t be able to shoot it anyway. Besides, monsters can block bullets too, you know?”
“To what extent?”
“They’re fine even after taking pistol rounds. As long as it’s not a vital spot.”
“...?”
“Didn’t you read the novel properly? Why are you so stupid?”
“I mean…”
“At this point in the story they basically boast tremendous defensive power. So stop acting up and stay quiet.”
It all became clear. So I had been struggling for nothing. I hadn’t needed to be scared in the city at all. If I had just pushed straight through, I would have won everything.
But still… people feel pain when they get hit by arrows, right? Or maybe I don’t? More importantly, I could fight monsters head-on. And my physical abilities were stronger than a monster’s. Which meant I could probably withstand pistol shots too.
I stared blankly at the pistol for a moment.
…As expected, I didn’t want to gamble. Besides, I couldn’t do it right now anyway.
So I sat there obediently and got slapped.
“Why did you hit me!”
“You seem pretty close with the author.”
“Ah.”
“Keep that up and I might turn you into a holy mother instead of a saintess?”
“You crazy bitch…”
“Count yourself lucky I’m only treating you like a punching bag.”
The loser gave a chilly smile. This bitch was genuinely insane. She was dead serious. Noh Changhun would definitely shake his head at her. He might even grumble that he had lived a life with nothing to show for it.
Yet for some reason I felt good. Like, yeah, that guy deserves to get hit once too. A catfight between her and Lee Yeji would be fun to watch. The thought of Noh Changhun getting stalked sounded hilarious too, so I struggled to hold back my laughter. Apparently she noticed, because I received several extra minutes of beating as a bonus. It didn’t hurt much, but it still put me in a bad mood.
“You two over there. Are you even doing your jobs right?”
The loser immediately started scolding the chamdokchung and the girl. She warned them that if they kept looking for chances to escape, she really would use them as the mother body.
Now that I thought about it, the whole saintess title seemed closer to a set of shackles. Well, that made sense. Even to me it sounded like a gathering of crazy bitches. There was no way other people wouldn’t see them the same way. Even if they escaped, no one would properly accept cult members.
Fortunately the loser left without further comment after handing pistols to the chamdokchung and the girl.
I laughed. Now I could see a path forward.
That bitch was stupid enough not to assign proper surveillance. It looked like she was ready to abandon the entire island if things went south.
I closed my eyes for now. After a few hours I would slowly coax one of them. The others might not know it, but coaxing people was practically my calling.
Right now it was Park Jung-heum’s turn to step forward, not Lee Yeji’s.
And a few hours passed in the blink of an eye.
The chamdokchung and the girl seemed to look after each other. I pretended to sleep with my eyes closed and listened to their conversation. They appeared to have survived together since the very beginning of the outbreak. They had drifted into Nam-gu, gotten captured by the loser, and become saintesses together. Their bond was clearly deep. Their will to survive must have been just as strong.
I slowly opened my eyes. The two who had been watching me jumped and hugged each other in fright. That was understandable. The super strength I had displayed was several levels beyond human.
I took a moment to steady my breathing, then put on the cutest smile I could manage.
“Hey, friends over there. Any chance you’ve thought about escaping somewhere other than this place?”
“…Where to?”
“We can’t escape.”
Contradictory yet similar answers. The girl seemed to have given up hope long ago, while the chamdokchung still clung to it.
I ignored the pistols they were aiming at me and kept talking.
“Luckily I have connections with both the military base and the campus. If we can just get out of here, you can go anywhere you want.”
“C-campus…!”
“If it’s the campus…”
“That’s right. You two can live relatively safely behind Kang Siwoo’s strong back, you know?”
Kang Siwoo welcomed talented people. And if I didn’t show up alone but delivered two well-behaved saintesses, it was obvious I would be pushed to the sidelines.
The chamdokchung and the girl already looked shaken.
Yeah, from what I had overheard, this place really was awful.
I thought for a moment before asking, “Is there anyone here worth saving?”
“No. They’re all sons of bitches. I’d rather kill them all before leaving.”
“None? Then we just need to get the three of us out.”
“That’s… right?”
I grinned. “Are there a few more of those nun outfits?”
They say a cornered head works faster. Right now I felt smarter than Noh Changhun.