RUMMMMBLE!

Another thunderclap.

Another death.

"Where’s the Zombie King?"

The bastards from Sejong have a reputation for being ruthless.

And rightfully so.

“Fuck off, you son of a bitch.”

I considered torturing him, but it would’ve been a waste of time.

At night, even the smallest noise sounds loud, and even the idle chatter on the comms starts to sound ominous.

Crack.

After executing the prisoner with an axe, I turned my ear to the comms.

"Did everyone suddenly chug honey or something? Why is it so damn quiet all of a sudden?"

A risky remark.

But that remark was quickly buried by a more reasonable one.

"Cut the chatter. We're not here to mess around, are we?"

That’s how people are.

Doing everything by the rules and by the book often ends up dragging the whole organization into danger.

But ignoring the rules completely means the organization loses even the bare minimum of legitimacy.

It’s a difficult matter.

Dealing with people, managing people.

Personally, I don't think there's a right answer.

It changes every time.

It’s an irresponsible thing to say, and deserves to be ignored—yet it's the truth.

Right or wrong, only the result speaks.

And if I had to add one more thing: flexibility.

"Byeongtaek, go check the first floor. Just in case any zombies got through."

That was the voice of the sensible one on comms.

"What? Why?"

"What do you mean why? You're on watch, aren’t you?"

"You know damn well zombies avoid the rain when it pours like this, right?"

"Isn’t it the mark of a responsible adult to consider even a 1% chance? And I’m the leader. If you’ve got complaints, take it up with the chief."

With some grumbling, a man descended the stairs.

"Fucking boomer."

I could’ve taken him down and gone upstairs to «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» clean out the rest, but I chose instead to hide quietly behind the stairwell and wait for the man to leave.

“······.”

The next spot sounds better.

That sensible guy—or rather, that boomer—I'll take care of him last.

But I won’t leave without leaving something behind.

Thud!

I flung open what looked like a barricade on wheels, probably once used as the main gate.

On top of that, I used some thin wires they’d likely used for defense and my grenades to set up a booby trap.

The grenades were placed inside the barricade.

The moment someone spots it and tries to push the barricade, the safety pins will pop out.

When I finished setting it up, bad news was waiting for me.

Drip—drop—

The rain was noticeably letting up.

The downpour was easing.

Though the clouds above still roared, heavy and oppressive, preparing more thunder, the rain would soon stop.

Thirty minutes at most.

I hated wasting stamina, but I picked up the pace.

From fast-walk to light jog.

Enough speed to get me slightly winded, I headed toward the next target.

Far ahead, there was someone.

Looked like an Awakened.

RUMMMMBLE!

All things have dual aspects.

The thunder and lightning that had been my cover were no exception.

The lightning, flashing ahead of the thunder, illuminated the pitch-black ruins for a brief instant like it was broad daylight.

“Huh?”

The guard spotted me.

It lasted only a moment, but he clearly saw me.

As the darkness fell again, I ducked into a collapsed building.

"Hey! I swear I saw someone just now!"

"What’re you on about? Who the hell would be here?"

"I saw someone moving in a rush on that rooftop."

Looks like taking out everyone here alone is no longer an option.

Now that they’re alert, they'll start communicating, and they’ll naturally notice two of their teams are gone.

No need to be disappointed.

I already wiped out a huge chunk of their forces.

And they can’t find me.

I was just about to leave the city thinking that when—

BOOM!

A loud explosion rang out not far away.

No mistake.

It was where I set the booby trap.

Either the boomer or one of his teammates must’ve triggered the tripwire on the barricade.

But now that’s a problem.

“Oooooooohhhhhh······.”

“Oooooooohhhhhh······.”

Wailing echoed from all directions of the city.

A zombie chorus.

And just to make things worse, the rain was about to stop.

This could only mean one thing.

Drip. Drip.

Dark shadows rushed past me with a whoosh.

Zombies.

Zombies that had been hiding inside buildings dashed out at the sound of the explosion.

Their heads turned toward the source of the noise.

“UOOOOOOHHHH—!!!”

Like a swarm of ants, the zombies all charged toward one direction.

“Zombies! They’re coming!”

“Fuck! Who the hell triggered it?! Which bastard was it?!”

“I don’t know! Shit! They’re coming this way! They’re breaching the barrier!”

“Retreat upstairs and seal the cover!”

“Support’s on the way!”

Urgent chatter poured from the comms.

But one of the transmissions piqued my interest.

They're sending support?

Support? In the middle of this hellhole full of rampaging zombies?

Not even the boldest Hunter would consider that.

I moved against the current of the zombie swarm, looking for a good building.

Found one with stairs.

I climbed up and observed the situation.

RATATATATAT!

BANG! BANG!

Gunfire echoed from the boomer’s location. It was a fierce fight.

They even set off explosives. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

BOOM!

Must’ve been desperate.

I rechecked my guns and axe, keeping an eye on things—then sensed movement above.

On the rooftop of the building across, a group of people.

The ones who’d spotted me.

I looked to see what they were doing—and saw them strapping on vests or something similar.

And then I saw it.

A cable stretched between buildings like discarded wires.

The kind that absorbs light—so hard to spot in the dark—but once I focused, I recognized it as the type of triple-strand bridge used in training.

They were crossing the triple-strand bridge to move from one building to another.

It swayed dangerously, but the soldiers crossed it with skill.

Not just them.

More troops from other buildings began converging on the embattled outpost.

I decided to go back to the base I gave up on earlier.

Didn’t notice at first, but after hitting a couple of their bases, I was getting the hang of this.

There.

A barricade on wheels.

No lock, nothing. But zombies couldn’t open it.

They push like convenience store customers—they don’t know how to pull.

I pulled open the barricade and went inside, pistol drawn, heading up the stairs.

No one inside.

Completely evacuated.

But no need to be disappointed.

There was something I hadn’t seen in the other bases—electronics.

Surveillance equipment.

A laptop hooked up to a repurposed car battery showed four feeds from CCTV.

A decrepit shopping mall.

No doubt about it.

That’s where the Zombie King—IAmJesus—was.

But something stood at the entrance of the mall.

“······.”

Capsules.

Countless capsules lined up in front of the entrance.

Mass capsule appearances can be a kind of natural phenomenon—but this wasn’t that.

This was man-made.

I recalled the freaks I saw via drone.

Myeolcheonbogung.

Fanatics surrounding IAmJesus and trying to starve him to death.

CRACK!

I smashed the laptop and the rest of the equipment.

Just then, voices came over the comms.

"Kyung-tae! What happened to Kyung-tae?!"

"Can’t see Hyukjin either! Hyukjin! Hey, Hyukjin!"

"What the hell? Were they taken out?"

"No way. We would’ve heard something."

They were starting to realize it.

That I’d wiped out two of their teams.

But the realization came too late.

I already knew where IAmJesus was.

A building I marked earlier from high ground.

Most of the construction had been abandoned, but that building was one of the rare ones that had been fully completed.

Why they prioritized a supermarket first—you’d have to ask the contractors, but they’re probably long dead.

I sprinted across the muddy street toward the mall.

“······.”

Yeah. This is the place.

The grotesque number of capsules makes that clear.

I looked for cameras.

Not hard to find.

Follow the long cords and eventually, you spot cameras aimed at the street.

No need to break the cameras themselves.

SHUNK—

Cutting the wires with my axe is enough to disable them.

It took effort, but I found and cut the wires on all four cameras.

Just as I cut the last one—

“Ni xiaoshama?”

A voice in Chinese.

It was far off.

Someone was yelling through a speaker with an amplifier.

Then another voice followed from a distance.

“Korean friend. There’s been an intruder in the Zombie King’s zone.”

Loud enough to echo and ring out.

What a tasteless piece of shit.

Using a high-powered speaker in a zombie-infested city?

He must be pretty damn confident.

The kind of confidence that says zombie hordes don’t scare him.

Fanatics—especially the ones who inherited Chinese knowledge—tend to know more than we do.

Not to be underestimated—but no need to be afraid, either.

They’re human too.

I scanned the area again.

There it was.

A spy cam glinting in the darkness.

CRACK!

No matter how careful you are, you can’t prepare for everything.

That’s why I fear humans more than monsters.

“Leave now, Korean friend. I don’t know how you got there, but we’re coming.”

The speaker blared.

I ignored it and entered the building.

Inside, the darkness was filled with pallid light.

Zombies.

But different from the usual ones.

These zombies followed one person’s will.

Yeah. The will of my message board friend—IAmJesus.

Just as I was about to move through the zombies—

GRAB!

One of them clutched my shoulder, baring its teeth.

“······.”

Did it recognize me?

How?

A burst of logic formed in my mind.

Wild zombies see me too.

But they don’t perceive me as a living being.

Which means they don’t attack—I’m not worth killing.

But IAmJesus’s zombies are different.

They saw me.

But that’s all.

They have no will of their own.

They follow IAmJesus’s orders.

Which means they received an absolute command: let no one through.

“Grrrrrrr!”

Suddenly, the zombies bared their hostility.

THWACK!

I shoved the zombie off and drew my axe.

“······.”

My mouth tasted bitter.

The situation was bad.

No—hopeless.

To think I’d be stopped here of all places.

An unexpected crisis—but it was resolved by an even more unexpected development.

“Uuuuuuuh······.”

The zombies, who looked like they were about to tear me apart, stopped showing aggression and began to part clumsily to the sides, wearing blank, mindless expressions.

I looked around.

No visible cameras.

But for some reason, the king of these zombies had called off the attack and was opening a path to himself.

Axe in both hands, I walked between them.

Between the living and the dead, the monstrous and the human.

Walking this boundary isn’t exactly good for your mental health.

Especially when the creatures you walk among might attack you at any moment.

Even so, I walked the line of death.

Thoughts rose and fell in my mind.

If you asked me whether this was something I had to do—I’d say no.

King and IAmJesus are precious friends from the board, but they’re not more important than my life.

And yet, my gut was telling me to walk this line between life and death.

“······Hoo.”

A faint smile crossed my lips.

Yeah.

It’s something I’ve learned again and again.

I don’t want to regret it after it’s over.

It’s a vague, abstract feeling, but that crude little thought has driven me—Park Gyu, Professor, and Skeleton—into the deepest darkness.

Soon, I saw light.

Dawn.

A faint starlight leaked into a half-basement space, where a man lay on his side with his back to me.

Even just the long, unkempt hair was enough to recognize him.

I could’ve called out his real name, but between us, there’s a name far more important than what our parents gave us.

“IAmJesus.”

The man who had been lying like a corpse turned his body.

Through his disheveled hair, his glowing eyes flickered in and out of view.

Soon, he sat up.

“Skeleton?”

I nodded.

Smiling faintly, I nodded.

IAmJesus is alive.

The Zombie King is alive.

And contrary to the enemy’s intel—he’s in good shape.

Not a scratch on him.

“What happened?”

With a voice that carried the same gravity as the nickname he bore, IAmJesus let out a long sigh and said,

“King betrayed me.”

His voice had changed.

Gone was the thin, boyish tone—now it was as low and heavy as the darkness and death surrounding us.

IAmJesus pointed toward a corner of the room.

There was a box.

I inspected it.

Inside were food supplies, comic books, an old game console.

In another room, half-shrouded in darkness, dozens more boxes like that were stacked up.

It was a glimpse into how the exchange between King and IAmJesus had gone.

My imagination was soon backed up by IAmJesus’s words.

“······King came here once a week. At first, I refused. But I was low on food. I wanted snacks. Sweet stuff.”

Once a week, King had come to visit his heir in the palace of death.

Bringing “deliveries.”

They say sincerity shows in effort.

Even IAmJesus, who had shut himself away, gradually opened up to King, who found time every week to visit him despite everything.

And they made a promise.

He would inherit the throne.

But the last “delivery” King brought caused problems.

It carried a powerful virus, and IAmJesus nearly died.

He said if he hadn’t been young and healthy, he probably would’ve.

“······Now King’s subordinates are trying to kill me.”

IAmJesus muttered with his head bowed.

“King betrayed me. Just like my dad······.”

Looking at him, I said one thing.

“How long are you gonna keep acting like a damn kid?”

I could’ve said it gently.

Could’ve used kind words.

But I know this guy better than most.

IAmJesus stared at me in shock.

“Have you ever tried thinking for yourself? Tried checking the truth on your own?”

IAmJesus is a dependent person.

Even though he holds powers stronger than anyone’s, deep down, he’s still that boy who sat alone in his room, wasting time on an old game console his dad bought him.

But even he must be feeling the change now.

The face staring at me, filled with fury like a wild beast, wasn’t one I’d seen before.

It was the kind of rage only someone who truly understands their power can show.

I glared back and said,

“King is dying.”

“······.”

“King asked me to find you.”

IAmJesus’s eyes flickered with confusion.

“King... did?”

I didn’t understand.

Why was he hesitating?

He should know.

That doubt was soon answered by a voice from nearby.

“King did betray you.”

The ones shouting over the speaker earlier.

They’d arrived outside the palace.

“If not, why else would he send all these forces to this city?”

I turned my gaze to the last delivery box.

“······IAmJesus.”

I pointed to the package.

IAmJesus caught my meaning and began digging through it.

“There.”

A ROM cartridge for an old gaming system.

IAmJesus pulled it out and showed it.

“You gonna play it?”

“Not interested.”

He crushed it underfoot.

Sure enough, inside the shattered plastic was a bug.

A wiretap.

“Oho? So a sharp one finally shows up? The guy from Seoul, right?”

A voice rang out from outside.

The mercenary hired by the usurper.

“If you’ve got nothing to hide, come out and talk. Let’s see who’s right. Don’t worry—we don’t carry guns. We’re Myeolcheonbogung, personally hired by King. Maybe you’ve heard of Baogong?”

I stared at IAmJesus.

“You believe those bastards?”

No answer.

Which made sense.

His hollowed cheeks.

His bloodshot eyes—all of it said he’d barely escaped death.

When a person gets sick, it’s not just the body that breaks down.

The mind crumbles too.

“I believe in King.”

Click—

Then I’ll show you.

That our faith is something that can’t be broken.