Chapter 80
Chapter 80
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Cheongju
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They didn't say much even after watching me extract the mana stone from the zombie's head.
From that, it seemed they didn't even know mana stones existed.
A normal human wouldn't dissect a dead zombie for research, so it was a natural reaction.
"Um, excuse me... mister..."
I turned my head at the voice calling me.
It was a young woman who looked like the daughter of the middle-aged couple who'd been electrocuting the corrupted zombies while fleeing.
The people behind her, who seemed to be her family, were staring at me blankly as I mined mana stones with a hand axe.
And among them, I sensed a subtle tension.
They'd seen me easily smash a huge zombie.
My build was impressive too.
It would be weirder if they weren't on guard.
Or maybe I looked strange smashing the heads of dead zombies.
In the original world or this one,
no one saw me as a normal person anymore.
As long as they didn't directly harm me,
I just had to let it be.
In that sense, this young woman who approached me first was bolder than I expected.
College student age, maybe.
She was pretty, looked to be in her twenties.
Her curiosity seemed greater than her fear of me.
Probably curiosity about the strong guy who easily took down the zombies.
"W-where are you headed, by any chance?"
She was still tense but asked cautiously.
"Cheongju."
I had questions for her too, so I answered honestly.
"Ch-Cheongju!? Th-that place..."
She jumped in surprise when I named my destination.
"Something there?"
"It's a den of monsters now. We barely escaped from there."
Hearing that actually made me glad.
A den of monsters.
Meant lots of monsters. Sounded good to me.
My judgment seemed right.
"Any survivor groups gathered together?"
"Not sure. If there are, they're probably not there anymore."
Cheongju's situation seemed worse than I thought.
"Any building-sized monsters?"
I asked out of curiosity, remembering the colossal boar from Daejeon, just in case.
That thing was still beyond my abilities.
If something similar was in Cheongju, I'd have to rethink my plans, so I asked her.
"Nothing like that. But there are monster spiders..."
My face scrunched up at the word "spiders."
My excitement sank in an instant, unease creeping up.
"Spiders? You mean those small insects I know?"
'What? Not insects?'
Huh... spiders aren't insects...
I'd thought they were all this time.
'Shocking.'
She didn't seem to know spiders weren't insects either.
Good.
I wasn't the only ignorant one.
"I don't know if it's a real spider, but monsters that look like spiders."
I couldn't know exactly how they came to look like that unless I'd seen the process from the start.
Just shaped like spiders?
Or giant versions?
Hearing her, I hesitated.
I hated insects... bugs.
.......Not scared.
I hated them.
No, loathed them.
I disliked even the small ones.
If those got giant, the revulsion was unimaginable.
When I was a kid, I used to grab mantises with my bare hands.
No special trigger,
I couldn't figure out why I'd come to loathe bugs so much.
Might be my biggest hurdle since awakening.
'If that... teacher got giant... fuck... horrifying.'
This world was in far greater crisis than I'd imagined.
Her words about giant monster spiders made me endlessly debate going or not.
But after bragging to the kids and leaving,
turning back would be too embarrassing.
'Yeah. Go see first, then decide.'
I steeled myself.
"No way, you're heading to Cheongju? I see you're strong, mister, but it's really dangerous. Why not come with us instead?"
She'd seen me dispatch the huge variant zombie in seconds.
Knowing I was strong, she wanted to travel together for safety.
She had to look after her mom and dad too, so it was natural.
Sorry, but no.
Her face was cute and pretty.
But not pretty enough to burden her family for.
After dealing with beauties, my standards were high.
If it were just her, maybe...
Still pretty, so worth a small favor.
"Keep going and you'll hit Sejong City."
"Huh?"
She blinked wide at my sudden words.
"There's a river. South of it, check the apartment complexes for a survivor group called Cheonbu Gate."
I continued, ignoring her reaction.
"Huh?"
She looked baffled at what I was saying.
"Decent survivor group. If you got nowhere else, check it out."
With that, I turned and walked off coolly.
We hadn't built enough rapport for my base, and babysitting them was a hassle, so I dumped them on Cheonbu Gate.
"W-wait..."
"S-sis. He seems annoyed, let's just go."
"Y-yeah, Yujin... don't bother him, let's go."
"Huh? Oh..."
At her family's urging, Yujin looked reluctant but didn't stop me.
Cheonbu Gate seemed good at taking in passing survivors. They had rules and treated non-awakened fairly.
Not my style,
but objectively, a rare decent survivor group in this world.
With two valuable awakeners in the family, it'd boost Cheonbu Gate's forces too.
With those irresponsible thoughts, I started walking.
I heard murmurs of family discussion behind me.
"Should we go to the place that guy mentioned?"
"Hmm... he seems decent, might as well drop by."
I'd just given them options.
If they liked it, they'd settle. If they doubted me, they wouldn't go.
Didn't matter to me either way.
The buildings weren't too tall, but they were increasing, and apartment complexes appeared in the distance. I'd entered Cheongju.
As I neared the city center...
"Aw... fuck..."
A curse slipped out involuntarily.
'Wrong place.'
The girl's words weren't wrong.
The deeper into the city, buildings covered in white spiderwebs came into view.
Couldn't even tell where it started.
I slowly moved along the outskirts, at the boundary before the webs.
No zombies in sight reminded me of the monster cats.
The white webs stretched endlessly.
Visually, no sign of the spider monsters she mentioned, and mana detection picked up nothing.
'None?'
That didn't make sense.
No monsters, no reason for these eerie webs covering buildings.
'Undetectable?'
I pondered.
If detection failed, the sure way was to poke.
Better to poke the outskirts.
Decided to touch the webs at the edge of the territory.
An apartment complex entrance appeared roadside.
I passed it and entered.
Webs clung thickly to the outer walls of the buildings.
No monsters inside the complex.
I examined the nearby webs closely.
They weren't thin; thick like ropes, sturdy-looking.
Poked them with the spear tip.
Sticky.
Very viscous.
Even with my strength, this much.
A normal person would struggle to peel it off.
As I poked, a sound reached my ears.
-Rustle rustle.
An irritating, ominous sound.
From a second-floor terrace, a spider monster the size of a small car crawled out on eight legs.
Must've been inside the house.
'This... fucking...'
Its hideous, loathsome form—like a giant spider—made me want to drop everything and retreat.
Problem: visible but no mana detection.
'What?'
Special ability? Or... fuck... not even a corrupted being?
-Scritch scritch.
The monster spider rushed me, spewing white something from its vile split mouth.
"Hup!"
I flinched and dodged quickly.
-Splat!
White stuff stuck to the ground: spiderweb.
Fuck, gotta kill it.
Had to.
To figure anything out.
Only one visible.
No way every webbed house in the complex had a spider monster.
That thought gave me chills.
'Want a nuke...'
A nuke could handle up to B-rank monsters, I thought.
-Kieeeek!
The spider monster closed in fast, spitting webs.
Dodging was easy for me.
Eyeball terror aside, it didn't seem high-rank; I could handle it easily.
'No matter how I look, it's fucking ugly. Go elsewhere?'
Serious dilemma.
For now, smash this spider monster first, then think.