Chapter 232
Chapter 232
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Exposed
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The monster, transformed into a four-legged mass of flesh, rapidly closed the distance.
Thinking they'd be caught at this rate, Philip and his group veered off the road and into an alley between buildings.
But they had no choice except to hesitate there.
A grotesque wall of flesh blocked the end of the alley.
It was a dead end.
The flesh monster was closing in fast.
No time to waste.
Philip quickly scanned his surroundings.
He spotted an external metal staircase attached to the side of a building up ahead.
Philip kicked off the opposite wall and leaped up, grabbing the railing and pulling himself onto the stairs.
It was a feat only possible for a superpowered Awakener.
The four-legged flesh monster appeared in the alley and charged straight at Richard.
"Hurry!"
Philip's urgent shout.
Richard quickly tossed Edward upward.
Philip easily grabbed Edward's arm and hauled him up.
Richard dodged the charging flesh monster by a hair's breadth, then kicked off the wall just like Philip and jumped onto the stairs.
Just as they thought they could catch their breath...
The flesh monster, having missed Richard, began wriggling again.
It melted and flattened like sludge, then stuck to the wall like gum and started crawling upward.
Seeing this, Philip and his group jolted in shock and hurriedly climbed the stairs.
Once on the rooftop, Philip quickly looked around.
He spotted a clean building next door not covered in flesh.
There was a slight gap to that building's rooftop, but it was no big deal for Awakeners like Philip and Richard.
Philip jumped first, landing lightly on the opposite rooftop.
Seeing this, Richard tossed Edward to Philip.
"Eek!"
Edward gasped in surprise, swallowing hard.
After Philip caught Edward effortlessly, Richard jumped across too.
As they looked back at the building they'd come from, they saw the flesh monster slithering up onto the rooftop.
They quickly opened the rooftop door, rushed inside, closed and locked it, then headed downstairs.
As Philip and his group descended while checking their surroundings, they found what looked like an office and slipped inside, shutting the door.
They moved between the desks, crouching low to hide their bodies.
"Huff! Huff!"
The men's ragged breathing echoed through the quiet office.
-Thump thump thump.
The sound of his racing heartbeat pounded in his ears.
Philip crouched like that for a while, listening intently for any sounds from outside, but detected nothing unusual.
'Did we shake it off?'
He cautiously lifted his head and looked around.
The dark office was silent.
The curtains were drawn, making it dim, but since it was daytime, faint sunlight filtered in, not hindering visibility much.
Philip and his group quietly stood up.
Moving carefully, Philip peeked through the curtains at the outside.
The barren street and the bizarre flesh-covered building across from it came into view.
"Seems okay. Still, just to be safe, let's rest here a bit before moving."
Finally relaxing, Philip and his group sat on the floor, pulling protein bars and water from their bags to eat and drink, taking a light break.
After recovering some stamina, with a bit more mental leeway, they began looking around the area.
Checking buildings for anything useful had become a habit for survivors.
Edward also looked around and opened the pantry door.
"Graaah!"
A zombie burst out from the pantry and pounced on Edward.
"Ugh!!"
"Edward!"
Philip, seeing this, started to rush over in shock, but he was too far to arrive in time.
Edward seemed doomed to be bitten and die pointlessly.
At that moment...
-Whoosh!
Flames suddenly erupted on the zombie's body, engulfing it in fire in an instant.
"Keeeek!!"
The zombie flailed, wrapped in flames, then charred black and collapsed limply to the floor.
Edward had survived by the skin of his teeth... but no one was happy about it. An awkward silence fell over them.
There was only one reason for this absurd phenomenon.
"Edward... you... you're an Awakener?"
A hint of anger laced Philip's voice.
"P-Philip, sir..."
Edward's awkward expression.
Philip realized Edward had been deceiving him. And instinctively knew he was the one who set the food warehouse on fire.
"Fucking!! Asshole!!"
Unable to hold back his rage, Philip smashed his fist into Edward's face.
"Guhk!"
"Edward! You bastard! I trusted you! And you lied to me?!"
"P-Philip, sir. P-please..."
"Shut up!!"
Park Un-ho, that bastard... how much he'd laugh at him over this...
On top of that, when Edward had been fingered as the culprit by Park Un-ho, Philip had defended him and ended up being labeled gay.
Thinking of that made Philip's blood boil to the top of his head.
Philip mounted Edward's chest and relentlessly pummeled his face with fists.
-Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
All the humiliation and pent-up rage from Park Un-ho exploded in the wrong place.
"Gack! Hack!"
Even though Edward could use his powers, he didn't fight back for some reason, just taking the hits.
Finally, Richard, seeing Philip's one-sided beating, stopped him.
"Enough, Philip."
"Huff! Huff!"
Edward's face was swollen, his nose and mouth bloody.
"S-sorry... b-but the shelter story isn't a lie."
Philip and Richard stared at him silently.
"I'll tell you everything truthfully. I escaped from Future Industry. To call for rescue."
"Hah... this bastard lied from start to finish."
Before, Edward had said he'd never been to Seattle after the incident started.
"F-falling into the lake while fleeing monsters was real."
"Just that one thing?"
Philip sneered.
"Why the hell did you do it?"
Richard asked.
He meant setting the food warehouse on fire.
"No time."
"Time?"
"My sister's at Future Industry. I escaped Seattle and realized no rescue was coming."
"What does that have to do with arson?"
"If I'd said my sister was here and begged you to save her, Philip sir, would you have come straight here?"
"That's..."
Honestly, probably not.
The shelter story was tempting, but...
Before the food warehouse burned, the camp had plenty of food... They might have taken it slow, planned leisurely, and come much more relaxed than now.
"Unlike you all, my sister doesn't have time. Food's probably gone now anyway. Or already run out."
"Fuck! So you burned the food warehouse?!"
Edward had doomed the camp for his sister.
No excuse could pardon that.
"That... I regret. But if we get the shelter's master key, everything's solved. My sister's got the master key. And she's a doctor too!"
"Hah... you little shit..."
Edward was desperately touting his sister's merits to save her somehow.
"Sigh... Richard... sorry. My mistake. What now? I'll follow your lead. If you wanna head back, we go."
"N-no, please."
Edward made a desperate face at the mention of returning.
"Fuck! Shut it! Edward, you don't get a say."
The half-assed explanation didn't restore Philip's trust or erase his sense of betrayal.
"Philip, let's get the shelter's master key."
Edward's face lit up at Richard's decision.
"Th-thank you! Richard sir! Philip sir!"
"Fuck! Edward! Shut your mouth!"
"Yes sir."
Richard seemed to decide to trust the guy one more time. Or maybe just check things out since they were already here.
'The sister story seems real... but does she really have the master key?'
Philip, now distrustful of Edward, had doubts, but he'd follow Richard's call and had no intention of going back on it.
"Got it. Richard, we'll do as you say."
Richard nodded.
At that moment, the office suddenly darkened.
Sensing something off, Philip and Richard held their breath and sharply scanned the surroundings.
But nothing had changed except for the darkness.
Even if the day was darkening, it wouldn't happen this abruptly.
'Clouds?'
Philip checked his watch.
It was 3 p.m. now.
Too early to get dark.
Philip peeked through the curtains at the outside.
"!!!"
Startled, Philip quickly closed the curtains.
"What's wrong?"
Richard asked.
"It's outside."
Richard tilted his head at Philip's cryptic words, peeked out, and quickly shut the curtains too.
"Mm..."
Richard groaned softly.
Philip felt a bad premonition.
He checked other windows by peeking through their curtains.
His face twisted.
Wondering if other spots were okay, he cautiously left the office to check the building.
Sure enough, flesh masses clung to the outside, wriggling as they enveloped the building.
".........We're trapped..."