Chapter 43

Chapter 43, Raiders (1)

Gunshots rang out several times whenever I blinked.

Surprisingly, one of the raiders had a firearm.

I had seen it briefly before.

Judging from its revolver shape, it seemed to be a police-issued gun.

The battle was currently taking place inside an apartment building.

There were countless obstacles everywhere.

Just as I had learned in the military, I stayed behind cover and waited for the raider to run out of bullets.

How many rounds did a police revolver hold again?

Probably five.

I wasn't completely sure.

If I were someone who valued his own life, I probably would have remained cautious here.

But I wasn't someone who valued my life very much.

After hearing five gunshots in a row, I immediately left cover and ran toward the source of the shots.

I saw a man hiding around the corner of the hallway and reloading his gun.

The dagger in my hand flew forward.

Clang!

The dagger struck the handgun.

There was no winner.

Both the dagger and the handgun were knocked away by the impact and flew across the hall.

There had been no winner in the clash between the dagger and handgun.

But the duel between the raider and me was different.

I was the clear winner.

I aimed my handgun at the unarmed raider's head while squeezing blood from my clothes.

The metallic smell filled my nose.

I looked down.

The raider stared up at me in terror.

He had been one member of the raider group that infiltrated the apartment complex.

Now...

He was the last survivor.

“So that's everyone.”

I thought back on the surprisingly exciting battle.

Two hundred raiders had invaded the apartment complex.

I had fought fifty of them in each apartment building.

Honestly, when Mysteries weren't involved, numbers were extremely powerful.

The raiders must have been certain of their victory when I entered their base alone.

The result had been different.

I had won in the end.

But it had been a narrow victory.

If we had fought on open ground instead of inside apartment buildings, I definitely would have lost.

Of course, the story would have been completely different if I had used Mysteries.

But that was a meaningless assumption.

“P, please spare me...”

I pressed the muzzle of my gun against the head of the pitiful raider kneeling before me.

Then I asked.

“Why did you invade this apartment complex?”

“We heard there were lots of supplies here...”

Something about his answer felt wrong.

The apartment complex where I lived was undeniably a luxury apartment complex.

It wasn't difficult to guess that there would be plenty of resources here.

Even so, the strange feeling didn't disappear.

I thought about why his words bothered me.

Then I realized the answer.

There had been certainty in his voice.

The kind of strong certainty that someone couldn't have without seeing actual evidence.

That was what felt strange.

When I questioned him about it, the raider sobbed and handed me his phone.

I turned it on.

A lock screen appeared.

The raider immediately unlocked it in front of me.

CocoaTalk was open.

An open chat room sat at the top of the screen.

“Aha.”

My question was answered.

The name of the chat room visible in the upper-left corner told me everything.

[Raiders' Information Exchange]

It sounded like the source of all evil.

When I searched Gugol earlier, I had seen reports that the number of raiders had recently increased and that they were becoming more dangerous.

Was this the reason?

I checked the number of people in the chat room.

There were over 1,700.

At this size, it was practically an organization.

Judging by its structure, calling it a decentralized network would probably be more accurate.

With this many members, there should already be information about them online.

I quickly searched the internet.

Several results appeared.

The posts seemed soaked in hatred and the smell of blood.

They were extremely detailed.

Apparently, victims of the raiders had written them.

As I read those posts and watched new messages appear in the group chat in real time, my body started feeling restless.

[(Gugol Maps Link)]

[Apparently this apartment has a lot of food. Anyone want to raid it together?]

[1111]

[222 here]

[Three including me.]

[But that looks like a pretty wealthy apartment complex. How are we supposed to attack it?]

[We can threaten to release zombies we've captured, haha.]

[Or how about threatening to set a fire? There's a mountain right next to the apartment complex, lol.]

[Lol, that's a good idea!]

It almost felt like bright red malice was dripping from the letters themselves.

My head was already excited from the dangerous battle I had just fought with my life on the line.

A faint excitement began blooming inside my chest.

It slowly climbed toward my head.

The desire to fight even more.

A strange violent urge pushed me to kill them.

I quickly shook my head.

They weren't like the Company, which had a fixed headquarters.

They were simply a decentralized network communicating through a chat room.

Even if I had the strength and will, there was no clear way to destroy them.

I killed the final raider.

Then I headed home.

Breathing the clean air of the walking path calmed my excited mind a little.

That was when a question appeared.

Was I always this violent?

The old me would have immediately used a Mystery during the battle earlier.

At the very least, I wouldn't have intentionally risked my life just to enjoy the thrill of walking a tightrope.

“...What is this?”

Now that I was aware of it, the answer became even clearer.

I had changed.

More precisely...

Something was wrong with me.

This was separate from the boredom.

I opened Lucy, which I always carried with me.

No new Mystery had been added.

The change was so sudden and extreme that I could have easily believed a Mystery was responsible.

But apparently, no Mystery was involved.

Then what was happening to me?

Unable to understand it, I kept thinking all the way home.

The next day, I attacked a raider base that I found after asking around the nearby area.

I surrendered myself to the mysterious violent impulse.

I swung my sword.

I fired my gun.

This violence felt similar to anger.

I knew anger was unhealthy.

And when people became angry, they immediately understood that they were angry.

But simply knowing that didn't make the emotion disappear.

If someone wanted to get rid of anger, they had to slowly calm it through methods like controlled breathing.

I was the same.

I knew this violence wasn't something positive.

But I couldn't do anything about it.

I could either release it against raiders...

Or spend a very long time forcing it down inside my heart.

Anger became more harmful the more it accumulated.

So I chose to find targets against whom I could safely release my violence.

On the second day, I killed more than a hundred raiders.

On the third day, another hundred.

On the fifth day, I killed two hundred.

The violence didn't disappear even after I released it.

Instead, it kept growing.

Before I knew it, my range of activity covered all of Seoul.

I encountered countless dangerous situations.

I even died several times.

Whenever that happened, I regressed, prepared a more thorough plan, and killed them again.

The [Raiders' Information Exchange] group chat had a rule that anyone who failed to send a message for more than a day would be removed.

Its membership had once been 1,700.

By the time that number fell into the three digits...

I finally discovered the source of my violence.

I held my phone with trembling hands.

I had been browsing the internet as usual when I found an information post.

This one explained the early symptoms of the zombie virus.

[Zombie Virus, Try This Self-Diagnosis!]

[1. A normally timid person may suddenly become much bolder.

1.

Entertainment and hobbies that the person normally enjoyed gradually become boring, while violent activities become increasingly enjoyable.

2.

3.

Violent tendencies increase.

4.

5.

Smelling blood causes the heart to beat faster and produces positive emotions.

6.

7.

Physical condition worsens, the stomach may feel unsettled like motion sickness, and occasional nausea may occur.

8.

...

*The virus has an incubation period of one week. Symptoms begin afterward.

*The beginning of full zombification differs from person to person, but usually begins within one month after symptoms first appear.]

“You've got to be kidding me.”

I dropped the phone in shock.

When humans read a health test, they were the kind of creatures who saw one matching symptom out of dozens and immediately thought, What if I have it?

But I didn't match only one symptom.

I matched every single one.

My thoughts froze.

My face turned pale.

No matter how I looked at it, I was undeniably infected with the zombie virus.

The hair on my body stood on end.

“No, the vaccine. I took the vaccine... ah.”

My excuse that I had definitely taken the vaccine lasted only a moment.

The post said the incubation period was one week.

One week ago...

That was before we even entered the Company.

It was when we were still heading toward Busan.

I had taken the vaccine after that.

In other words...

I had already been infected before receiving the vaccine.

No matter how much I thought about it, there was no answer.

A vaccine wasn't the same as a cure.

It was a form of prevention.

Taking a vaccine didn't remove a disease that had already infected you.

There were probably vaccines that worked differently.

But at the very least, the zombie virus vaccine didn't seem to be one of them.

I stood there blankly and thought for a long time.

Eventually, I told my companions that I was infected.

Arlin, Hwa-ryeon, and Lee Yeonhee gathered together and blinked after hearing my explanation.

Hwa-ryeon spoke first.

“...Can't you just regress?”

“Regression through the book only works within the same day. I was infected a week ago, so I can't regress far enough.”

“What about borrowing Lee Yeonhee's power?”

“I... don't think I'm strong enough yet to cure the zombie virus.”

“You can regenerate an entire severed leg, but you can't cure a virus?”

“...Probably not. The zombie virus isn't an ordinary disease. It's a Mystery. It would be difficult. But even so... I'll try.”

Determination filled Lee Yeonhee's eyes.

She looked at me firmly and nodded.

“I'll definitely find a way.”