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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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[Soo-hyun, I’m going to be late today.]
Buzz.
A reply came.
[How late? Grandma said she’s making chicken porridge for dinner.]
[I don’t know. Eight or nine? Maybe later.]
[Come back safe. I want to see you tonight.]
…I definitely had to get back then.
[How are the new mister and missus doing?]
[The mister brought a bunch of vitamins and supplements for eonni earlier. He just went out again. And the missus… she’s really quiet and seems severely depressed. I don’t know.]
[Hmm… Is the baby healthy?]
[Seems fine.]
[Okay. I’ll be back tonight.]
…Depressed, huh?
…Well, the apocalypse arrived right after she had a baby… It would be hard to be cheerful. Those old bastard thugs had broken into their house and caused chaos, and the police were useless.
Hmm…
I suddenly wondered what would have happened if I had gone to their house first. Would it have been as messed up?
…No.
It sounded like I was tooting my own horn, but I thought things would have been quite different if I had been there.
That thought made me laugh. The apocalypse had arrived, and here I was, full of myself. Damn it.
“Heh, shit.”
I chuckled softly and leaned back in the chair, half lying down.
This place was cramped. Should I take a nap…?
…Huh?
There was a charger here. Was Netflix still working? I could kill some time watching movies.
Strangely enough, Netflix was still working. There didn’t seem to be any new updates from the past few days, but I could still watch the existing content.
I munched on the dried squid from my bag and watched a few movies until the sun went down.
7:13 PM.
Ugh, I felt stiff.
Five Accelerate charges. Fully recharged.
Five charges should be enough to carve my way through and escape.
Time to go.
I left the parking attendant’s booth.
This time, I’d count them carefully.
Seven.
Seven heads to pierce, and then I’d get out.
I walked around the side of the supermarket and saw shattered glass scattered on the ground. Shards of glass had even reached outside. Not many, but there must have been more inside. Stepping on them would make a loud crunching sound. They didn’t seem to react to most sounds, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
I stepped onto the display shelf of the squid shop.
Thump.
“…Hoo…”
I drew my sword.
Shing—
…Good.
Let’s see what was inside.
I cautiously stepped out of the shop and looked towards the packing station. I could make out human shapes near there. Probably lying around somewhere. I needed to check the floor carefully.
I cautiously peered towards the supermarket entrance. One… two…
…Only four? There had been many more earlier.
…The restrooms.
That was the only place they could have gone.
Damn it. Men’s, women’s, and accessible restrooms… three of them.
…What should I do?
Sigh…
I’d have to change my plan. It would be better to lure them outside.
I sheathed my sword, went back to the squid shop, stepped onto the display shelf, and carefully walked towards the main entrance of the supermarket. There were more shards of glass the closer I got.
Six bodies lay sprawled where the doors used to be, surrounded by shattered glass, like a bomb had gone off.
I peeked over the edge of the automatic doors and whistled.
Tweet!
“Grrr?!”
The human beasts turned their heads, looking around. They started moving, hunched over.
“Grrr… Garr…”
Several of them growled softly, searching. A few more emerged from the restrooms. About ten in total.
Good.
Enough.
Time to provoke them.
…How should I provoke them?
…I didn’t know, damn it! I couldn’t think of anything!
Just do it!
I took a deep breath and ran into the space between the open automatic doors.
“Hey! Your mom’s awesome!”
What the hell was that?!
Couldn’t I have come up with something cooler?!
Their heads snapped towards me. Their eyes widened. Their faces contorted in unison!
“Grrr… Gaaagh!”
Shit!
I immediately took a large step back towards the squid shop, drawing my sword as I went.
Shing!
“Hah! Hoo!”
“Graaagh! Gyarrr!”
I heard the sound of shattering glass as they rushed towards me, and then the dark figures appeared.
Shit, Accelerate!
[Auto-cast: Accelerate]
“Graaa—aa—aa—”
The human beasts froze before me, their postures like marathon runners nearing the finish line. I lunged forward and stabbed.
Thwack!
One more!
Thwack!
The old man stumbling and falling!
Thwack!
I yanked the sword out of his graying head and was about to stab the next one when…
“—Aa—aa—agh!”
Accelerate!
[Auto-cast: Accelerate]
They froze momentarily, like a video buffering. No, not frozen.
Slowed down.
I thrust the sword with all my might.
The old woman!
Thwack!
I pulled the sword from her temple and stabbed again.
The tall man with glasses!
Thwack!
I pulled the sword from his forehead and stabbed again!
The woman with the baby carrier?!
My hand froze.
Then, Accelerate wore off.
“—Gyaa—raagh!”
Accelerate.
[Auto-cast: Accelerate]
The baby…
Its neck was torn open. Its ear was ripped off.
…Shit.
I gritted my teeth and stabbed.
Thwack! Thwack!
She was a fairly young woman. Younger than me, it seemed. She looked like she hadn’t given birth long ago.
…Seven down.
I turned and ran. Sigh, damn it, I couldn’t get used to this. This feeling… it was awful.
“—Rarrgh!”
Accelerate.
[Auto-cast: Accelerate]
Time to go back.
I ran past the squid shop, turned the corner, and entered the parking lot street. And kept running.
Crash! Thud!
I heard the sound of bodies collapsing and roars echoing behind me.
“—Gyarrr! Graaagh!”
I ignored the roars and kept running. I glanced back and saw shadowy figures in the distance. They must have been drawn by the sound of my footsteps.
Accelerate.
[Auto-cast: Accelerate]
The roars behind me grew louder. The streetlights of the residential area whizzed past. My shadow split into multiple flickering images.
I had put some distance between us—at least a hundred meters. I could still hear roars in the distance, but they couldn’t catch me.
I turned a corner. I could see the supermarket in the distance.
“Ha… ha… hoo!”
Sword in one hand, scabbard in the other, I kept running. I could hear roars in the distance, like wild dogs barking. They were far away. I had lost them.
Thump, thump, thump.
“Ha… hoo… ha… ha…”
Damn it, I had run a long way.
The first day of the supermarket raid.
Fourteen kills, fourteen levels.
But…
Damn it…
The image of the young woman with the baby in a carrier strapped to her chest kept flashing through my mind. Her shoulder had been covered in blood. She had been bitten while trying to protect her baby.
…Damn it.
…This was just awful.
“Ha… ha…”
I hadn’t felt anything when I killed those old thugs. But this… this was awful.
Would I become numb to this too, as I continued to kill?
…Damn it.
Time to go back. To the boarding house.
“Ha… ha…”
At least the night air was cool.
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Dinner was fairly pleasant. The new missus wasn’t feeling well, so she didn’t join us at the table. The five of us filled the table; there wasn’t any more room. Ye-eun and So-eun took two bowls of chicken porridge downstairs, and we ate in a cheerful atmosphere.
It helped. It definitely shifted my mood. I was needed by these women, and I, in turn, relied on them for emotional support and I couldn’t deny it. I had feelings too.
After dinner, I went back to the rooftop room and lay down. Someone knocked on the door.
Soo-hyun.
Right, I needed some comfort tonight.
I got up and opened the door, but it was the large man.
“Uh… I… s… sir…”
He seemed to have something to say.
…Ah.
I knew what it was.
“Diapers?”
The man scratched his head and smiled sheepishly.
Right. Damn it. I chuckled and said, “There are a lot of those things in the supermarket. I killed fourteen of them today. I’ll go back and kill more tomorrow. I’ll let you know when it’s safe, and then we can go together.”
Soo-hyun must have heard me as she was coming up the stairs. Both the man and Soo-hyun’s eyes widened.
“…Fourteen?”
“Fourteen?!”
Hmm…
I just shrugged. The man, hearing Soo-hyun’s voice, stepped aside in surprise.
Soo-hyun grinned and entered my room.
“Come on, you’re kidding, right? How could you kill fourteen of them by yourself? That’s impossible.”
I chuckled. “You can come with me and the mister next time and see for yourself. There are fourteen bodies piled up near the entrance.”
I gestured towards my sword.
Soo-hyun stuck her tongue out, playfully poked me in the butt, took off her shoes, and came inside.
I glanced at her butt and said to the man, “You won’t have to wait much longer. Maybe two or three days? I don’t know for sure, but around that time.”
The man looked back and forth between Soo-hyun and me and nodded. “Ah… y… yes. I understand. Then… h… have a good night… good night.”
Hmm. He looked at least fifteen years older than me, and yet he was always so formal.
“You can speak comfortably. You’re much older than me.”
The man turned around as he was going down the stairs and smiled awkwardly. “Ah… y… yes. I… I’m a bit… shy…”
I chuckled and bowed slightly. “Good night.”
And then I closed the door.
“Ha…”
Soo-hyun sat down on the bedding and giggled. “I finished what you asked for. You wanted me to attach your sword to the lifting belt, right?”
Ah, that.
I had forgotten about it.
I chuckled. “Thanks.”
And then, I took off my clothes, tossed them aside, hugged Soo-hyun, and kissed her neck.
Hmm.
She smelled so good.
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