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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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After taking a short break, we ate a rough meal with the kimchi stew left over from yesterday, and then we got ready to go out.
I wanted to spend the whole day in bed while holding Eun-ji and Ha-rin, but I couldn’t do that.
I needed to level up, after all. And if there were any pretty female Awakened out there, I had to capture them and make them my slaves.
I was also going to be quite busy if I wanted to capture male Awakened, medical personnel, and skilled technicians like engineers who could handle machines in advance and make them my slaves.
Moreover, since we didn’t have enough food to last us even a month, we needed to find something to eat.
Of course, right now, leveling up was our most urgent priority.
We needed to increase our strength to the level where we’d be able to walk around the streets even after using up all our zombie repellents.
“Huh? The internet’s down…”
At that moment, Eun-ji, who was surfing the web and searching for special zombies, made a tearful face.
Then, Ha-rin showed her a few photos saved in her album and said.
“I’ve already downloaded all the information about the special zombies that have been discovered so far.”
“Oh, good job. Let’s see…”
We gathered in front of Ha-rin’s phone and checked the explicit photos of the zombies without any mosaic along with the additional explanations.
“The names of the special zombies aren’t official. They’re just names that were randomly given to them on-site.”
“Really? Let’s see… Bitch…??”
No, even if it was an unofficial name, Bitch? Was it a slutty zombie that spread its legs?
“A female-type zombie that screams when it finds a human… It’s a female-type zombie that draws a lot of aggro, so I guess that’s why it was named Bitch.”
“The naming sense is bizarre. What about the other one?”
“Ugh… This one’s a human centipede…”
“Wow… What kind of bastard is that?…”
A grotesque photo came up consisting of human torsos stuck together.
It was such a terrible sight that it seemed like my mental strength was being chipped away the moment I saw it. Even though it was a special zombie, wasn’t this a bit too much?
“Things like this are walking around?”
“They seem to have been discovered here and there. According to the description here, it’s a special zombie that’s more common than you’d think. They especially crawl out of residential areas with lots of apartments.”
“Uh… They mainly climb up the exterior walls of buildings and target survivors living in high-rise buildings… Haa… The rich people living in high-rises are all screwed.”
Such a sight of torsos stuck together must have been the result of an evolution that made it easier for them to climb. The fact that a thing like that was climbing up the exterior walls of apartments and attacking people who were quietly surviving was enough to make two horror movies.
“Huu… Even though they’re disgusting, you get more experience if you catch special zombies. We have to catch as many as we can while the spray is still in effect. If you find a special zombie, kill it no matter what.”
There was no other way, no matter how disgusting they looked. Because one special zombie gave more experience than ten normal zombies. Since the effective time of the spray was so short, we had to catch and kill any of these guys that we saw.
“Then, is everyone ready now?”
“Yes, Oppa.”
“I’m ready too, Master.”
We already checked each other’s skills.
As a Cultist, I had “Summon Tentacles” and “Slave Brand.” Since I could only use Summon Tentacles three times a day, I had to save it and not use it as much as possible, using it like a finishing move against hostile Awakened rather than normal zombies. And since Slave Brand consumed a lot of mana, it was difficult to use it recklessly.
So, if I captured an Awakened outside, I decided to use the “Suppressing Gag” that I had obtained as a reward from the last achievement, seal their power, bring them home, and make them my slave.
If the Awakened slave was male, I could use them in various ways.
‘But if a slave gets bitten and turns into a zombie… does the slave status remain?’
A question suddenly popped into my mind. I could experiment with it next time I catch a useless one.
Next was Eun-ji, the Shadow Walker. Eun-ji had the “Shadow Weaving” skill, which allowed her to create weapons out of shadows. Its mana consumption was about 2 per weapon, but these weapons had a durability of 3. It was a weapon that would break after being swung about 3 times.
Of course, that alone was enough for practicality. She could create a weapon when her hands were empty, and if her enemies didn’t know about it, it was the perfect skill for Eun-ji to ambush them. It was a skill that fit the assassin class well.
Lastly, Ha-rin, the Barbarian. Ha-rin had the “Heartbeat Tracking” skill which allowed her to hear the heartbeats of living creatures. She could identify the presence of people within a certain distance, and this was also a skill specialized for combat against humans.
‘The fact that only she could secretly identify the position of our opponent without the enemy noticing us is a great merit…’
Enemies behind walls could also be identified if they came within a “certain distance,” so it seemed like the best ability for finding humans.
The important thing was that mana was consumed during activation, and Ha-rin had never used it a lot, so she didn’t know what the “certain distance” was.
‘Well, we can figure that out as we go.’
These were our three skills. It was a skill combination that was more suitable for hunting the Awakened rather than hunting zombies. It even felt like we were human hunters.
‘At this rate, if we grow a little bit more, the three of us could raid the supermarket on our own… and the Daiso too.’
While thinking that, I picked up my baseball bat.
Eun-ji took the hammer that she had bought for self-defense, and Ha-rin took the bow she had when we first met and a spear made by wrapping a kitchen knife with tape on a clothes hanger rod.
“Everyone, put on your masks.”
“Yes! I’ll put it on, Oppa!”
“Me too.”
“Okay, good.”
To prevent zombie blood from splattering into our mouths, we put on our masks and hats just in case. Also, if our faces were revealed and our identities were discovered, it could be troublesome later.
Especially since Eun-ji and Ha-rin were quite pretty, so they could get harassed by thugs or outlaws. In a world without laws or morals, having pretty looks without power was more of a poison.
If they were hot-blooded guys, they could kidnap and imprison any women they found, and use them as sex toys. No, they were probably already doing that.
Even if it was just me, if I found a pretty woman, there was a high chance that I would capture her and use the Slave Brand skill on her. Because this was that kind of era, there would be many guys who had already abandoned their humanity and fallen into temptation. Guys who would jump at any woman, no matter what…
I wasn’t the kind of man who would accept any woman though. I had my own standards.
Beauty was basic. They also couldn’t have any troublesome illnesses such as disabilities or mental illnesses. Finally, they had to be an Awakened.
Unless they had a celebrity-level face which was the only reason for their existence, if they didn’t meet those three criteria, I didn’t have any intention of taking them in as an unnecessary addition. Even if I made them my slave, I wouldn’t treat them like Eun-ji and Ha-rin.
Because I didn’t think of these two as actual slaves, they were more like my companions.
“Today, our goal is to level up as much as possible. Let’s use our sprays and clear out all the zombies in this area for two hours.”
“Yes!”
“And when you have to kill people, don’t hesitate for no reason. It’ll be annoying if we get attacked back because you showed unnecessary mercy. When you have to kill, kill without hesitation. Especially you, Ha-rin. You know, if you had shot and killed me with your bow when you first saw me, you wouldn’t be a slave right now.”
“Yes… Master.”
I still get chills when I think about that time. If Ha-rin had been a ruthless survivor, she would have killed me right away, or shot my legs or arms to make me unable to fight, then take my bag and disappear. A shot from her bow would have made me unable to use my skill because of the pain, and there was a high chance that I would have become zombie food afterward.
Because it was still the beginning of the apocalypse, there were still many naive people around.
Right, there would be many people who still had a deep aversion to killing, and also those who still believed in the illusion of past moral codes and human rights.
How long would they be able to survive?
I wouldn’t let my guard down whether the opponent was an Awakened or not. Kill them or make them my slave. It could only be one of the two. That was how I could live and be happy for a long time. An era had come where I had to consume others to live. I was really confident that I could step on others and survive.
“Eun-ji, this is your first time going outside after the apocalypse, so I’ll give you a warning in advance. The smell of rotting corpses is more severe than you think. It’ll be a problem if you suddenly throw up. You understand what I mean, right?”
“Yes. I’ll be careful.”
“Good. Let’s go now. Spray your faces.”
Chik, chik, chik.
A 120-minute countdown from now.
We had to be efficient in these two hours.
Clunk.
We went outside. Two hours wasn’t a long time, no matter how you thought about it. We had to kill as many zombies as possible in this short time.
“Let’s go, let’s go!”
I was in the lead, Eun-ji was in the middle, and Ha-rin was at the back. We went down to the first floor in this formation.
“Uooooh!!!”
I thought I had mostly cleared out the apartment the day before when I brought Ha-rin with me, but somehow zombies had filled up the hall again and were walking around. Maybe they were the ones that came down from the upper floors.
“Die…!”
I didn’t hold back as I hit the head of a zombie walking down the hallway.
Whoong- Crack!!
When I roughly smashed their heads and smashed them to the floor, Eun-ji and Ha-rin, who were following behind, quickly finished off the zombies that had fallen down.
“Uoo…!”
Crack!
You have gained 40 coins for killing zombies.
We got about 5 coins per zombie on average. Seeing 40 coins come in all at once, it meant that all the coins from the zombies that Eun-ji and Ha-rin killed were also coming to me.
Slaves couldn’t get anything themselves. Everything became mine. The right to choose their skills was also mine. Of course, I was thinking of choosing their skills after discussing it with them.
We quickly killed the zombies in the hallway and went downstairs. We smashed all the zombies that we saw so that they could never get up again.
“This is too easy. I don’t think we have to stick together!”
When we arrived at the first floor, Eun-ji said that.
She must have gotten excited because the zombies’ heads were exploding too easily.
“Then, don’t go too far away, and kill them on your own while staying visible to each other!”
“Yes!”
“Yes, Master.”
We were invincible after spraying our repellent. The zombies couldn’t even react and just died after we hit them.
This was probably a perk that most Awakened would receive, but still, its performance was too good.
Although we could only use the repellent three times every two hours. Even with that, we could kill quite a lot of zombies.
Slave ‘Lee Eun-ji’ has leveled up by 1 level.
Select a skill for your slave.
“Yay!!! Oppa! I leveled up!”
As expected, Eun-ji leveled up first, having run around the most smashing zombie heads.
As a fan of horror thrillers, she didn’t seem afraid of zombies at all. Rather, she seemed to enjoy it, saying that the feeling was good, and I was getting scared of her.
It was like the moment she saw the blood, Eun-ji’s eyes went crazy.
Why did I feel like her instinct as a murderer, which had been hidden inside, had awakened? Was it just my imagination, or was this the true nature of the small and cute Eun-ji?
“Oh! I saw it just now too! Good! That’s it! Our Eun-ji is doing well!”
“Hehe…! Oppa! Are you going to choose a skill now?”
What was she saying? There wasn’t even enough time to kill zombies, how could we have time to choose a skill now?
“Let’s choose it when we get home later!”
“Yes, Oppa!”
In contrast to the lively Eun-ji, Ha-rin was showing the completely normal reaction of an ordinary person.
“Huu… Huu…”
Slave ‘Sung Ha-rin’ has leveled up by 1 level.
Select a skill for your slave.
Of course, she was also an Awakened and my slave, so she was also killing zombies very well. However, she was struggling mentally while looking at the scattered blood, flesh, and brain matter…
Still, Ha-rin leveled up at almost the same time as Eun-ji. I should praise Ha-rin for her efforts.
I patted Ha-rin’s back as she panted.
“Good job.”
“Thank you…”
As someone with a weak heart who hated horror movies to the extreme, her condition had worsened because she felt sick while looking at the exploded zombie heads and smashed corpses. But we couldn’t go back now. The zombie repellent spray was too precious.
“Let’s suffer a little more.”
“Yes… I’ll get used to it…”
“Yeah, our Ha-rin can do it. Cheer up.”
“Yes…!”
We had to cheer up. What else could we do?
After leaving behind those words of encouragement, I went back to smashing zombie heads and walked around.
Most of the zombies didn’t even recognize our presence as they were hit, fell, and died.
“Weak… They’re too weak… These zombie bastards are trash!”
You have leveled up to level 3.
Select a class skill.
As I was smashing the stupid zombies’ heads, I also leveled up.
Honestly, I thought that this level of difficulty was manageable.
I had this thought until I faced the one-week anniversary of the disaster.
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T/N – Not much happened, but I’m excited about the skills they could get as well as that ominous last sentence.
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Our release schedules will be changing slightly from the every 2 days release. From now on, I will unlock a chapter for this novel every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. So please keep this in mind moving forward. Thank you and I hope you keep supporting this novel!
