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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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[Soo-hyun. I’ll be late again today.]
[ㅡㅡ… Staying out every night?]
[I think I’ll be back around dawn.]
[I’ll sleep in my room,]
Huh?
Was she planning to wait for me in the rooftop room?
I chuckled and sent a reply.
[Message me if anything happens.]
[Oppa]
[Yeah?]
[Don’t get hurt.]
[I won’t. Don’t worry.]
I put my phone away and lay down.
The calligraphy academy office was quite spacious since I threw the chair down to the first floor.
There was a charger on the desk.
I plugged it in and browsed YouTube.
It was nearing the end of the second week of the apocalypse.
There were no more news updates.
No broadcasting station aired new programs.
The regular broadcasts, which were flooded with news right after the apocalypse, were now just static.
The cable channels that endlessly replayed programs were no longer working.
Only a few online communities were still alive.
And YouTube.
It wouldn’t be surprising if even those disappeared by the end of the third week.
It was a wonder that communication was still possible.
YouTube’s trending videos were dominated by content related to human beasts.
It seemed like nationality and language didn’t matter anymore. Videos from all over the world were in the recommendations and trending sections.
There was no reason for me to be watching videos uploaded from Yemen or Honduras here in Korea.
Normally, I wouldn’t even be able to find them, no matter how far I scrolled.
But they were there.
…There was only one possible explanation.
The number of YouTubers uploading videos had decreased. In Korea, and everywhere else in the world.
There were still survivors.
But they were busy just trying to survive.
Living with death constantly looming over them.
There would be very few people with the leisure to film and upload videos.
So, YouTube was currently dominated by a handful of YouTubers obsessively uploading videos.
These people uploaded videos almost every 10 minutes, or every hour, and livestreamed, letting the world know they were still alive.
…It seemed like nothing more than an expression of fear.
They were clinging to it, uploading videos obsessively, because they were terrified of dying if they didn’t.
Because it was the only thing they could do.
Most videos were like that.
Just a face, in a messy room littered with snack wrappers and dirty disposable containers.
That wasn’t what I wanted to see.
As I scrolled down, drone videos started appearing.
Oh… Manhattan?
Uploaded…
Yesterday.
I clicked on it.
And 5 seconds later, I bolted upright.
“…Crazy.”
The horde of human beasts in the Madison Square video.
The horde of human beasts in the Incheon video.
The human beasts in Incheon and Madison Square were walking.
Like drug addicts, aimlessly wandering, stumbling around as if swept along by the crowd, just following where everyone else was going.
The YouTuber who uploaded the video spoke urgently. “Look! Look what’s happening! Did you guys see that?! Those, how do I call that… thing? I don’t know, but those… animals. Grab each other, step on themselves, and, and…”
What the hell was he saying?
I couldn’t understand a word.
But I roughly understood the message he was trying to convey.
The drone he flew.
It captured a massive mountain of human beasts.
I couldn’t describe it any other way.
They were coming from all directions with incredible momentum, grabbing, trampling each other, climbing the buildings.
The ones at the bottom must have been crushed.
Like a giant swarm of bees.
Tens, hundreds of thousands of human beasts were clinging to the building, grabbing onto each other, tearing at each other’s heads as they climbed.
They were chasing one target.
A helicopter landing on the building’s rooftop.
The helicopter’s propellers spun noisily.
They were drawn to it.
The loud noise and the downdraft from the helicopter were attracting them.
That was the only explanation.
People were boarding the helicopter.
Survivors.
They were running to escape.
The human beasts were climbing the building.
I didn’t know how they were doing it.
Trampling, crushing each other, the flattened ones becoming a foundation for others to climb on.
They were climbing like a giant mountain clinging to the side of the building.
The survivors boarded.
They all boarded.
And then, the human beasts that had climbed to the rooftop started swarming.
Coming from all directions.
Someone inside the helicopter fired a gun.
A few human beasts fell.
The ones not hit in the head got back up and ran.
The helicopter slowly ascended.
Human beasts grabbed onto the helicopter’s landing skids.
Others grabbed onto them.
And a ladder of human beasts began to form.
They climbed endlessly, even clinging to the human beast ladder.
The helicopter tilted.
It hadn’t ascended high enough.
It wobbled left and right above the rooftop.
Trying to escape.
People inside the helicopter fired their guns frantically.
The human beasts, like liquid monsters, clung to the landing skids and climbed furiously.
And then, the helicopter lost its balance and tilted sideways.
It moved away from the rooftop.
But it couldn’t regain its balance.
The helicopter crashed.
Into the horde of human beasts.
A massive explosion.
The YouTuber screamed.
And the video ended.
“…”
I slowly lowered my phone.
What did I just see?
Those things… could they even do that?
Climb…
…a building?
By trampling and crushing each other?
…I felt like an idiot for being relieved that they couldn’t open doors.
It didn’t matter if they could open doors or not if they could do that.
I replayed the video.
From the beginning.
Sound…
…they were drawn to the sound.
Watching it again, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before.
Something I missed because I was too shocked by the hundreds of thousands of human beasts swarming and climbing like bees.
The surrounding buildings, large and small.
Houses in the distance.
Their windows were shattering.
And human beasts were pouring out of the broken windows and doors.
They gathered, the already massive horde growing even larger.
If sound attracted them, it meant that any loud noise wouldn’t just attract the human beasts roaming the streets, but also the ones inside buildings, drawing them all out.
“…Ha…”
…This wasn’t the time to be complacent about being able to kill a few dozen.
If that horde came to this street, if they attacked the hypermarket building like that, no one would survive.
No matter how sturdy the glass walls were, how could they withstand that?
The moment the pressure reached a critical point, the glass walls would shatter, and they would pour in like a wave.
…If I was going to use the building, I had to turn the entire building into a fortress.
Strip the cars, use everything I could, and build a safe zone.
…I needed time for that.
How many people were there on our side?
Grandma and the baby were useless.
The ones who could actually do something.
Six inline skaters, Soo-hyun, Ye-eun, So-eun, Hoon, Stinky, and the nurse.
…Twelve?
Could twelve people fortify an entire building…?
…I would also need weapons.
Damn it…
There was so much to do.
I had to find my family, but I couldn’t go like this.
If I went looking for my family and ran into a horde of human beasts, I would die.
Even if I managed to hide, I would starve to death.
…I had to get stronger.
I needed more weapons.
I had to prepare.
…But how?
“…Hoo…”
I had no idea.
I rubbed my forehead and lay down.
The others were probably collecting bodies and stripping car parts.
…Did the Cockroaches know about this?
There were about thirty or forty of them; they probably did.
I’d have to discuss this with Soo-hyun later.
For now, I’d do what I could.
I closed my eyes.
Midnight.
There were eight left in the 8th-floor comic book cafe.
I took care of them with 2 Accelerate charges and went down to the second floor.
I didn’t level up.
Damn it.
I knelt on one knee on the second-floor landing and looked down.
The director’s chair I threw was lying there.
The entrance…
…should I take care of the entrance first?
I looked up.
The first and second floors were the supermarket.
The third floor was the storage area and probably the office.
…I’d clear the office first.
I went up to the third floor and drew my sword.
Shing-
I slightly opened the door.
Grrrr… grrrr…
…They were quite far away.
I looked inside; boxes were stacked all the way to the door.
Large metal shelves lined the walls; it seemed like the storage area was right there.
Was it because the elevator was on that side?
Then the office must be straight ahead.
I went inside, listening intently.
I carefully closed the door and drew my other sword.
Shing-
Large shelves stacked with boxes.
…Hmm.
“Inhale.”
I shouted, “Aglio e olio!”
Hmm.
My subconscious must have been craving spaghetti.
“Kraaagh!”
Crash!
Along with the sound of shattering glass, growls came from all directions.
I smiled.
Come on in, you bastards.
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Thanks Xrecker!