Evolution
Evolution
Channel 3.
As the pitch-black 1:00 AM arrived, the leader of the Busan group, Sea Guardian, Jang Seong-ho, made his move.
"This is the right place, right?"
It was to wipe out the 4th-stage variant entity, Deadeye, and the raiders.
While no one could match Kang Mu-hyeon of the Incheon Alliance in single-target attack power, area-of-effect destruction was a different story.
"Yes. You've already confirmed it, haven't you?"
"That's right."
Jang Seong-ho recalled the drone photo a group member had shown him earlier that day.
It was a photo where Deadeye had been captured precariously in the corner of a window in a residential area.
"Also, the location of that residential area has already been confirmed."
"What's the possibility that those bastards moved?"
"The possibility is low. If they move, they have to set up camp again, don't they?"
Setting up camp didn't just mean moving.
They had to clear out the zombies there and lay traps to prepare for intruders.
"True. It's unlikely they'd move their spot now."
Jang Seong-ho nodded as if he understood and slowly moved toward the destination.
Arriving about 1km away from the target house, he immediately pointed with his finger.
"Is that the house?"
"Yes. That's the house."
Having confirmed it once more, Jang Seong-ho decided to end it in one go.
"I'll attack. It'll end with a 99% probability, but just in case, be prepared."
"Understood."
Including Jang Seong-ho, there were about 20 people from the Busan group.
Since everyone was an Awakened and armed with rifles, they could easily wipe them out if they launched a surprise attack like this.
"Good."
As soon as Jang Seong-ho heard the group's response, he raised one hand high.
At the same time, a sphere of water formed above his outstretched hand and began to grow larger.
It was Jang Seong-ho's S-rank ability, [Water Sphere Explosion].
The name was simple, but considering that each water sphere was equivalent to a high-explosive bomb, it was no ordinary ability.
"Ohh. Jang Seong-ho-nim's ability."
"It's been a while since I've seen it."
Currently, Jang Seong-ho's Water Sphere Explosion was level 49.
He could accumulate a total of 98 water spheres and combine them into one to create a massive explosion.
"This should be enough."
With that, Jang Seong-ho launched the massive water, a combination of 90 water spheres, at the target house.
The launched water bomb shot out at a decent speed and caused a truly tremendous explosion the moment it hit the mansion.
Kwaaaaaang!!!—
The explosion blew away a radius of 400~500 meters, including the mansion, as if a giant bomb had been dropped.
Following that, the water that splashed in all directions due to the ability's specialty caused another explosion, showing a secondary explosion.
Kwakwang!!— Kwang!— Kwaang!!—
Jang Seong-ho nodded quietly after watching even the secondary explosion.
No matter how much of a 4th-stage variant entity it was, it couldn't survive an explosion of this magnitude.
'If I land it properly, I can even send a Giant to the afterlife.'
The downside was that one water sphere accumulated every 30 minutes.
Having used 90 of them, it would take 2,700 minutes to fully replenish, which meant it took about two days.
"Well, they're probably all dead, but just in case..."
Jang Seong-ho was about to give orders to his group members for a final confirmation kill.
Then, he noticed that one of the group members who had guided them here had disappeared.
"What? Where did this guy go?"
Jang Seong-ho felt an unknown sense of unease as he checked for the missing group member.
At that moment.
Pueok!—
"......!?"
Something flew from the opposite side of the explosion he had caused, piercing Jang Seong-ho's abdomen.
As soon as Jang Seong-ho was attacked, raiders armed with firearms appeared from all around and fired in unison.
Dududududu!!—
Jang Seong-ho and everyone in the group realized it was a trap, but it was already too late.
Everyone had brought bulletproof helmets and vests, but that wasn't enough to block dozens of bullets.
"Dam, damn it...!"
Jang Seong-ho pulled out the remaining 8 water spheres and launched them in all directions.
But the raiders seemed to have prepared for this attack as well, hiding their bodies immediately.
Kwaaang!!— Kwakwang!!—
"To think... it was a trap..."
Jang Seong-ho said those words and gripped his rifle to aim for a final struggle, but.
Seogeok!—
"Argh!"
Before he could, his wrist was severed.
And standing next to Jang Seong-ho, a raider who had used a stealth ability slowly revealed himself.
"Fuck, you prepared... thoroughly."
Then, the remaining raiders also revealed themselves one by one, thinking it was all over.
And among those raiders, a man appeared, leading a total of four variant entities.
"The S-rank ability is certainly impressive."
The man, in his early to mid-30s with a somewhat despicable-looking, thin physique, approached Jang Seong-ho with a sly smile.
Jang Seong-ho looked at the variant zombies the man was leading with disbelief, then immediately realized that he was the leader of the raiders.
"It's you... How, exactly...?"
"What are you talking about? The trap? I just bribed one of your group members."
"And the zombies...?"
Jang Seong-ho asked about the zombies while his consciousness was fading due to the blood loss.
The leader of the raiders, Bae Jong-su, grinned when asked about the zombies and tapped the head of the Deadeye next to him.
"Ah, this? Isn't it fascinating? It's my ability. I discovered a loophole in my ability."
[You have killed the second Zombie Queen of Korea.] [As a reward, 10% of the currently remaining general population will awaken.]
He had even awakened with an A-rank ability, though it wasn't an ability that helped in combat.
"[Contract Drafting]. At first, I wondered what I could do with a shitty ability like this."
Contract Drafting was literally the ability to draft a contract.
Moreover, he thought it was the worst ability because the other party also had to clearly understand the contents of the contract and sign it.
"But it turned out it wasn't, right?"
Bae Jong-su had used his ability on a woman he kidnapped before he awakened.
Since Bae Jong-su wasn't particularly smart, he simply wrote that she would 'become a slave forever'.
"That's where I realized the true value of my ability."
Not long after forcing her to sign the contract, the woman was infected by a zombie.
Bae Jong-su, who had no combat ability, tried to run away after finding out too late, but he felt something strange.
"Who knew my ability would still work even after turning into a zombie?"
The contract content was 'become a slave forever'.
Because this was applied, the woman still followed Bae Jong-su's orders even after becoming a zombie.
"After that, I controlled the zombies and fed them human corpses. It's a well-known fact that zombies evolve the more they eat corpses."
"......."
"Ah, and feeding them Awakened is much faster for evolution than feeding them regular people. Are you listening? Tsk. You're already dead."
Bae Jong-su smacked his lips with regret as he looked at Jang Seong-ho, who was no longer moving.
Then, he ordered the variant zombies he was leading to eat Jang Seong-ho and the rest of the people.
"Eat them one by one. Assassin, you eat Jang Seong-ho and the rest here. Since he's an S-rank Awakened, I wonder if you'll become a 4th-stage entity if you eat him."
Bae Jong-su was thinking of making the 3rd-stage variant entity, Assassin, into a 4th-stage one.
Then, the group member who had betrayed Jang Seong-ho approached Bae Jong-su with a sly smile and spoke.
"I've kept my promise, so now it's your turn to keep yours."
"Promise? Ah. You said you wanted to take a position in Busan, right?"
Jang Seong-ho, an S-rank Awakened, was dead, but Busan's military power was still significant.
Thinking that internal help was still needed because a head-on fight would be difficult, Bae Jong-su readily nodded.
"Sure, do that. But at this rate, it's going to take too long, what do you think we should do?"
Using Deadeye to kill them one by one with sniping was a method, but it took time.
Since Jang Seong-ho was dead, the group members would hide like turtles and not come out.
"Since they run a separate cafeteria for Awakened, should we put some zombie blood in the ingredients there?"
In other words, he was suggesting infecting all the Awakened.
Bae Jong-su nodded without even thinking the moment he heard that.
"That sounds fun. If we attack immediately after they get infected with the zombie virus, they'll collapse in an instant."
Bae Jong-su decided to put it into action for the sole reason that it would be fun.
"Min-ho. Did you have a good night last night?"
I heard that from Yoo Hyun-min hyung as soon as I woke up in the morning and met him in the living room.
"If you mean last night... I just slept."
I had fallen asleep with Elisicia and Rubyel, but I slept without doing anything.
Yoo Hyun-min hyung seemed to know that fact, nodded, and started asking with a slightly worried expression.
"You don't have any problems with your sexual function, do you?"
"......."
I wondered why I had to hear this in the morning.
"It's not like that."
"Really? Come to think of it, you even ate the heart of a Laistal, so it wouldn't be strange if your body was so energetic you could fly."
In fact, as Yoo Hyun-min hyung said, I was always full of energy.
It seemed like my physical abilities were slowly leaving the category of a normal person.
"But that makes it even stranger. You can just sleep quietly?"
"I found it difficult at first, too, but I got used to it."
"That's not what I asked."
Yoo Hyun-min hyung looked at me with an expression that said he was frustrated in many ways.
Conversely, knowing what Yoo Hyun-min hyung was talking about, I eventually told him honestly.
"Actually, I haven't decided yet whether I'll return to my original world or stay in this world."
"Ah. Right. You said you came over from another world."
"Yes. So I don't want to do anything irresponsible."
"I understand what you mean. That's definitely something worth worrying about."
Yoo Hyun-min hyung nodded with a face that finally understood and sat on a chair at the nearby kitchen table.
"Do you have a way to return to your original world?"
"Not yet... but I'm expecting something might appear if I save Channel 2."
Or I was thinking about saving all channels from 1 to 7.
The problem was that if there were no people in Channel 5 and Channel 7, new channels would be incorporated.
'Practically, it means I have to save two more worlds.'
Moreover, not a single channel had been properly saved yet.
'Channel 1 still has many people not doing the gallery.'
Channel 2, where I am, is in the middle of a dungeon.
Channel 3 still has four Zombie Queens left.
Channel 4 has bug extermination magic, but that wasn't enough.
'Because there are so many bugs.'
On top of that, the fact that bug extermination magic was surprisingly expensive also played a part.
'Channel 5 and Channel 7 only have dimension movement.'
If anything, Channel 6 seemed to be in progress if it was in progress.
Looking through Channel 6 briefly yesterday, people were expressing dissatisfaction with the Inquisition's tyranny.
'They said that after the God of Light banned the gallery, they unleashed the Inquisition to monitor people.'
I heard they mainly catch those who move their fingers while staring into the void.
In addition to this, it seemed like there were rare cases where people were reported and caught by people of the same rank.
"How long do you think it will take to save Channel 2?"
While I was thinking, Yoo Hyun-min hyung asked about Channel 2.
"Well. Still, considering the current speed..."
[Friend, 'Dr. Know-It-All☆' has requested a 1:1 chat.]
"Ah, hold on a second."
I was about to answer, but I saw the 1:1 chat request from Dr. Know-It-All and accepted it.
<Dr. Know-It-All☆(4ch): Got time?>
<Survivor★(2ch): Yes. What's up?>
<Dr. Know-It-All☆(4ch): It might be obvious, but many people are moving right now.>
Many people?
<Survivor★(2ch): What do you mean?>
<Dr. Know-It-All☆(4ch): People are stripping items from cities occupied by bugs and selling them to buy Awakening Stones and Bloodstones.>
When I asked what he meant, Dr. Know-It-All explained it clearly so I could understand.
'So that's how Channel 4 earns points.'
As expected, it seemed they were putting Channel 4 items into [Point Supply] to earn points.
The reason for earning points was, of course, because of the Awakening Stones and Bloodstones I had put on the exchange.
<Dr. Know-It-All☆(4ch): People are calling them Scavengers. Anyway, that's not the important thing.>
<Survivor★(2ch): Did some problem arise?>
I thought it might be a resource problem while answering, but it was something more serious than that.
<Dr. Know-It-All☆(4ch): The bugs have evolved. Bug extermination magic doesn't work.>