Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 63: Space Dino Park (4)

Kenji Sakamata ran down the corridor, panting for breath.

Behind him, grotesque moans and wet, dragging footsteps relentlessly followed.

The security guards who once served under him were nowhere to be seen.

Their skin had turned bluish, their eyes vacant, their movements grotesquely twisted.

They were no longer human.

“Goddamn it!”

Kenji cursed and turned a corner.

He could see the end of the hallway.

An emergency exit.

But “they” appeared in front of him, blocking his way.

Just moments ago, they had been wealthy tourists laughing and chatting in the VIP lounge.

Now, they too were slowly approaching him, their empty eyes fixed on Kenji.

‘What the hell is this...’

Kenji stepped back.

Suddenly, a report he’d read not long ago flashed through his mind.

The chain of employee disappearances near the Sakamata facilities.

And the rumors about an unknown “cyber-necromancer” believed to be behind it.

The report had dismissed it as nonsense, but the horror unfolding before his eyes planted a dreadful certainty that maybe it wasn’t nonsense after all.

“GRAAAH!”

One of the zombies closest to him let out a horrific sound and lunged.

Kenji instinctively pulled the pistol from his waistband.

Of course, carrying weapons inside Dino Park was prohibited—but rules like that didn’t apply to one of Babel’s rulers.

A plasma beam pierced the zombie’s chest.

But it only staggered briefly. It didn’t fall.

Instead, it twisted its body in an even more grotesque way and rushed Kenji again.

“!!!”

Panicking, Kenji pulled the trigger repeatedly.

Red beams punched holes in the zombies’ bodies, but they didn’t stop.

As if they couldn’t feel pain at all.

The sound of his cartridge running dry deepened his despair.

The circle around him tightened.

Behind him, the zombie security guards shuffled forward with wet footsteps.

He was completely surrounded.

One last remaining guard fought desperately beside him—but it wasn’t enough.

A zombie clamped its jaws around the guard’s arm.

“AAAGH!”

With a scream, the guard’s face twisted rapidly.

“No...”

Kenji muttered, his face going pale, just as the zombies all reached toward him at once.

****

Suddenly, the restaurant descended into chaos.

Glass shattered, and people burst inside, screaming.

Their faces were soaked in terror. Their clothes were torn and soaked in blood.

“Help us!”

“Monsters! Monsters are chasing us!”

The intruders overturned tables and threw chairs, desperately trying to build a barricade.

But before their efforts could bear fruit, they appeared—skin tinged blue, eyes vacant.

Twisting their bodies grotesquely, they squeezed into the restaurant.

“Zombies!”

It was A, sitting beside Iris, who muttered the word softly.

Zombies?

Iris didn’t know exactly what that meant.

But she instinctively felt the things before her were not human—and extremely dangerous.

People inside the restaurant screamed in terror, trying to run.

But there was no escape.

The restaurant had only one entrance, and the zombies had already blocked it.

Iris, frozen in fear, squeezed her eyes shut.

Her older brother Daniel pulled her behind him, whispering with a trembling voice.

“It’s okay, Iris. I’ll protect you.”

But even Daniel’s voice was filled with fear.

Victor, Scarlet, and Aria grabbed chairs and other furniture, raising them like weapons—but with so many zombies, it was unclear how long they could hold out.

Just as everyone was sinking into despair—

A stood up.

Then, as if simply heading out for a walk, she calmly walked toward the zombies.

“A! Be careful! Those things aren’t normal!”

Victor shouted in alarm, but A didn’t look back.

One of the zombies lunged at her.

A didn’t dodge.

Instead, she lightly swung her small fist.

Thunk!

With a dull sound, the zombie’s leg exploded apart.

But it didn’t stop.

Crawling across the floor, it still came at her.

A’s brow furrowed slightly. This time, she kicked—and both its hands were severed.

“...The Guide...”

Iris muttered without thinking.

No weapons.

Everyone else was paralyzed with fear, helpless.

Only A fought back with her bare hands.

She looked like a lone lighthouse shining in the darkness.

Iris remembered the image of “the Guide” she’d heard about from the Makina cult. Wasn’t it something like this?

****

Just a moment ago, I’d been waiting for some tasty pizza in a restaurant.

And now? It felt like I was trapped in a zombie movie.

“Space zombies... in Space Jurassic Park...”

If it were turning into a movie, I would've preferred dinosaurs over zombies.

“So annoying.”

I muttered as I watched the zombies crawl toward me, even without limbs, like tenacious larvae.

There was a limit to restraining them without killing.

“A! Bio-monitor signals show these people are already dead!”

Ember’s voice rang out from far away.

Dead?

The moment I heard those words, I didn’t hesitate.

I transformed my right arm into a blade.

Blue circuit patterns lit up as the sharp blade emerged.

Ssshhk!

As the blade sliced through the air, the zombies’ bodies were cut like paper.

Heads, arms, legs, torsos—

I began chopping them to pieces without mercy.

The shredded corpses lay limp and motionless on the ground.

“This is easier.”

Satisfied by the familiar sensation of the blade swinging through flesh, I tore through the horde flooding the restaurant.

With each strike, I felt the energy within my body grow more active.

The ring in my chest spun faster, spreading blue energy throughout me.

Ever since I saw that illusion of the blue star, my abilities had only gotten stronger.

And then—something new stirred.

A shadow.

The shadow beneath my feet twitched like it was alive.

I instinctively focused my will on it.

And the shadow obeyed.

It changed form—rising like sharp spikes, or morphing into a sticky swamp that grabbed the zombies’ ankles.

I could even swing the shadow like a whip and lash the zombies down.

I gleefully butchered the zombies as I tested this new ability.

Each time the shadow-whip sliced through the air, zombies dropped like autumn leaves in the wind.

Just as I finished clearing out all the zombies in the restaurant—

“뀨AAAK!”

Suddenly, from behind me, I heard a familiar yet chilling cry.

I turned my head—and saw Agu charging straight at me, its eyes bloodshot red.

Its black belly had turned pale, and something—drool or maybe foam—was leaking from its mouth.

‘!’

Startled, I nearly slashed it on reflex—but luckily, I stopped myself in time.

Instead of the blade, I summoned my shadow and tightly bound Agu in it.

Agu struggled within the shadow, but couldn’t break free.

“뀨악. 뀨악.”

Even so, it kept baring its teeth at me, showing aggression.

Just like a zombie.

“...Agu.”

I lifted Agu—now wrapped up like a bundle—and met its gaze.

“Did you die too?”

At that moment, I saw Agu’s skin begin to turn black.

Slowly, but unmistakably.

‘That’s a relief...’

Whew.

I let out a quiet sigh inside and tossed Agu into a corner of the restaurant.

“Stay put. You’ll get better... eventually.”

And if not? Well... Agu stew, I guess.

[“Agu, are you hurt?”]

I glanced over as the Kiwi Bird and the Child cautiously approached the shadow-bound Agu, then walked toward Ember’s group.

Ember, Aria, and Scarlet were analyzing one of the shredded zombie corpses with grave expressions.

They kept their distance from the body to avoid possible infection, using AR scanners and analytical tools to study it carefully.

“Looks like some kind of cyber-zombie...”

“I’ve never seen this type before. It’s not remote-controlled through neural implants. This is... closer to a virus or nanomachine that mutates biological tissue itself.”

As Ember muttered with a furrowed brow, Scarlet pointed at the analysis data floating on a hologram screen.

“Definitely the work of a high-level cyber-necromancer.”

Aria gave the summary in a short sentence.

Ember nodded.

“And it’s definitely airborne. We need to seal off this zone immediately.”

Without delay, Ember seized control of the restaurant’s system and force-activated the emergency protocols.

Immediately, the background hum of the ventilation system cut out like white noise being switched off.

“That’ll stop further contamination from spreading...”

But a shadow fell across Ember’s face.

“Oxygen supply is cut. We don’t have much time left.”

We had to solve this before the oxygen ran out completely.

Ember quickly analyzed the data retrieved through the Dino Park’s internal systems.

“A, the origin of this incident appears to be Sector D-7. Central Control. All anomaly signals started from there.”

She pointed on the hologram map to a red dot indicating the control room.

I stood up the moment I heard her.

“Time-limited mission. I’ll go.”

Just as I was about to head off toward the control room—

“...Guide, unnie.”

Iris called out to me in a small voice.

She stepped closer and, with trembling hands, held out a single strawberry-flavored candy.

“...Good luck.”

Guide?

That was a title I’d heard before from the Makina cult. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Why would she call me that?

I wondered for a moment—but now wasn’t the time to ask.

“Thanks for the candy.”

I gently patted Iris’s head and slipped the candy into my coat pocket.

Then, without hesitation, I dashed toward Sector D-7—toward Central Control.

Behind me, I could hear Victor and the remaining survivors stacking up a barricade at the restaurant entrance.

****

Space Dino Park: Central Control Room.

Where several staff members had once been stationed, only one woman remained.

She wore a strange-looking gas mask. Beside her sat an empty, cylindrical metal cage.

Through the CCTV feed, she was watching Kenji Sakamata’s desperate escape.

On screen, Kenji screamed in despair as he was surrounded by zombies.

“Die! Die already, Sakamata!”

Her voice, distorted through the gas mask’s filter, was still laced with unmistakable hatred.

Then, a sharp intrusion alarm echoed throughout the control room.

Startled, the woman shifted her gaze to another monitor.

On-screen, a girl with white hair, a black coat, [N O V E L I G H T] and a ridiculous-looking triceratops hat was sprinting toward the control center.

“What the hell? Another one of those megacorp dogs?”

The woman muttered in irritation.

But there wasn’t even a hint of panic on her face.

Instead, a cruel smile slowly crept across her lips.

She gestured toward a massive silhouette crouching in the darkness beyond the control room.

“Your turn. Go show that arrogant brat what a real cyber-zombie looks like.”

From the shadows, the massive figure slowly rose.

Bluish flesh. Exposed bone. Hollow eye sockets leaking an eerie red glow.

It was enormous.

A Cyber-Zombie Tyrannosaurus.