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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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“No betrayal. No self-harm other than by my command. And no scheming against your teammates either. If you understand, answer.”
“Yes… I understand.”
Park Seong-oh had his head buried in the ground as he wore a humiliated expression.
I enjoyed the pleasure of being able to control another human as I pleased while stepping on his head.
‘This was a really fruitful outing. I got myself a weapon and a slave.’
I gained a great profit without anyone getting hurt. The results were very good except for the fact that I was a little tired.
But for some reason, the two women’s expressions as they stared blankly at the corpses weren’t good.
They were in a gloomy mood as they looked at the dead bodies.
Maybe they were thinking about various things because it was their first kill.
‘It’s understandable that they’re feeling averse…’
It hadn’t even been a week since the apocalypse had started, so it was understandable that both of them were showing such strong reactions. It would be too much to expect women who were afraid of killing even a bug before the apocalypse, to become crazy murderers overnight.
Even Ha-rin had become a slave because she hadn’t killed me due to her foolish humanitarianism.
“Both of you, are you okay?”
“Yes… I’m okay. It’s something we’d have to experience anyway…”
“Me too, I expected this much, Master.”
Both of them were trying to smile brightly, but I didn’t know how they were really feeling inside.
The only thing I could do was to comfort them since I was the one who was the most mentally strong among the three of us.
“Come here.”
“Yes…”
“Oppa…”
I hugged both of them and soothed them by stroking their backs.
Eun-ji was trembling slightly, and Ha-rin closed her eyes tightly.
“We might have to kill a lot of people in the future. But… that’s the only way we can survive. Both of you have to be strong. Okay?”
“Yes, Oppa. I’ll try.”
“I’m prepared, Master.”
Luckily, both of them had shown their determination. It seemed like some of their aversion to killing still remained, but I could see their will to not hesitate.
It was a very good resolve. We couldn’t be depressed forever.
It was important to have the mindset of being able to kill others without hesitation in order to survive.
In the face of survival, morality and ethics always came last. You had to choose to kill rather than to be killed. It was for themselves just as much as it was for me.
“Good. Then Park Seong-oh. Shall we have another in-depth conversation?”
I had roughly soothed Eun-ji and Ha-rin, so I now had to interrogate this bastard Park Seong-oh.
I had to find out how many people there were in the supermarket, how many Awakened they had, what weapons they had, and how much food they had left.
I also had to think about when to send this guy back without raising suspicion, and how I should use him.
“Park Seong-oh.”
“Kuh… Yes.”
“From now on, answer my questions truthfully.”
“Yes… I understand.”
The first question was how many guys were there in total that we had to kill or subdue.
“There are almost thirty people at the supermarket right now… and there are about ten women that they’ve captured…”
Women they had captured. As expected, those bastards had a lot of sex toys that they had captured.
That was quite tempting. I hoped that they were all in good condition.
“How many Awakened?”
“Including me, there are a total of seven.”
“Tell me everything you know.”
“Uh… First, there are four warriors… one archer, and two fighters.”
Luckily, there wasn’t anyone with a unique job like us. Since that was the case, the difficulty would be a little lower. I had already looked up information about warriors, archers, and fighters when the internet was working. All three were very basic combat jobs.
If you were to measure their rarity, they were normal even among the ordinary ones. Of course, there were many survivors who hadn’t even gotten that, but anyway, among the Awakened, they were the norm.
‘As expected, there aren’t many hidden classes.’
Thanks to my strangely high luck stat of 666, I had obtained the hidden class Cultist, and perhaps due to my influence, Eun-ji had also obtained the unique job Shadow Walker.
Ha-rin, who had a fateful encounter with me, also had the class Barbarian, which no one else had obtained.
Just looking at the classes, we were overwhelmingly superior. The problem was the strength of each individual.
A guy who was strong enough to call himself the leader among seven Awakened…
“What’s the leader’s level?”
“That… As far as I know, it was about 9.”
“9? Already?”
Experience-wise, it was hard to exceed level 5 no matter how many normal zombies you killed. To break the wall of level 5 and go up to 6 with just normal zombies, you would have to kill them all day.
“He must have leveled up with people.”
“That’s right… I know that he leveled up to 9 after killing all the guys who came to raid the supermarket. He’s completely crazy, and he kills people whenever he’s bored.”
As expected, the world had gone crazy, so crazy guys had found it easier to live. He hadn’t even killed special zombies, but he had already leveled up to level 9 from killing people. I couldn’t even imagine how many he had killed to get to that point.
“What’s his class?”
“His class is Fighter, and he calls himself a martial artist. He used to learn boxing. He was very confident that he would win no matter what in a 1-on-1 fight without a weapon… When I see him smash zombies’ heads with his punches, it doesn’t seem like he’s lying.”
That guy would be a troublesome opponent.
That meant that he was a guy who was good at fighting from the beginning, even without a class. I couldn’t even imagine how strong he had become now that he had stats and skills. And, moreover, he was already level 9.
Since a guy like that was holding a gun and holding his ground, that was why the supermarket hadn’t been captured yet. He must have killed all the people who came, and if there were any women, he must have captured them and made them their sex toys.
I was curious about how much experience I would get if I caught and killed a guy like that. Judging by what I had seen, I would get more experience from killing other Awakened, especially the ones with high levels, than from killing normal people.
‘Ah, no. I was carelessly thinking of killing him… I can’t do that.’
I couldn’t kill people recklessly.
I had to make them my slaves.
“Hehehe…”
My mouth watered. A slave who was level 9. And he was a guy who was good at fighting. How good would it be to use him.l?
‘Also, the difficulty is going to increase by a lot starting next Monday… I absolutely can’t kill him. I have to make him my slave…’
Good. I would definitely capture the level 9 leader. With the Suppressing Gag and my Summon Tentacles, I should be able to subdue him easily.
Then, how could I easily make that guy my slave?…
“Are you and your leader close?”
“Yes? Uh, I think we’re close…”
“Are you close enough to have in-depth conversations with each other?”
“We’re not that close. I’m a low-ranking member among the Awakened. And I haven’t been here that long. You can tell just by looking at how I’m walking around. I’m just a low-ranking member doing grunt work.”
“Ha. A useless bastard.”
I hit the back of Park Seong-oh’s head.
Also, did this guy not wash his hair?
I felt a sudden sense of displeasure because my hand had gotten greasy.
“Then, who does your leader usually stick with?”
“That’s… He almost never separates from his younger brother. He says that everyone else is unreliable, and the two of them are very close.”
“Huum, is that so? Then, his younger brother must be an Awakened too, right? Was he also someone who used to work out?”
“Yes. He’s also a fighter like his older brother. I heard he has a Taekwondo certificate. When I see him break zombie heads with his kicks, it doesn’t seem like he’s lying.”
“What’s that bastard’s level?”
“I heard that it was about 7.”
The brothers were both killing machines. I liked it. I was already starting to feel a little less tired at the thought of capturing both of them, making them my slaves, and using them like dogs.
“What about the levels of the other Awakened?”
“That… I don’t know the details, but I’m level 4, and the other guys with warrior jobs are probably about 3 to 5. I know that the archer is level 6. But that bastard doesn’t have a bow, so he’s useless.”
It was ridiculous that an archer didn’t have a bow.
‘Since Ha-rin has a bow, I should capture the archer too and make him my slave. Two fighters and one archer… As for the warriors, I can make them my slaves as my mana recovers… Well, since warriors are common, maybe I can just kill them if it doesn’t work out?’
Warriors were a very common class. In fact, warriors were the most common among the Awakened.
If I told the women who had been captured as sex toys to kill zombies, wouldn’t some of them awaken as warriors?
There were probably still many people who had never killed a single zombie, so rather than the number of Awakened being small, there were probably more people who merely hadn’t figured out their potential.
“How many pistols are there?”
“There are three pistols. We seized them from the dead policemen, but there was no ammunition besides what was loaded in them. And the chamber of the first one was empty while the second one had a blank, so… it only had three actual bullets. There were a total of nine real bullets, but we used up five of them. The pistol that I have only has a blank. It’s practically just for decoration and threats.”
“Huh. You really had nothing.”
“Yes…”
His pistol was just decoration. From the beginning, he had intended to threaten us with it, but I captured him with my tentacles before he could.
“Then, who has the remaining ammunition?”
“The leader has all four bullets.”
The archer who was always standing guard on the roof also had a pistol, but it was just a decoration filled with blanks.
The leader had all four bullets. It was understandable that he would be uneasy if he entrusted the bullets to someone else since he didn’t have a skill like Slave Brand.
Then, the guy who was standing on the roof that I had seen before didn’t have any bullets in his pistol. It was all a bluff.
“Hmm. What are the names of the leader and his younger brother?”
“They’re the Ha brothers, Ha Jin-seong and Ha Jin-woo.”
“The Ha brothers, huh? Where are those guys usually?”
“They’re usually on the second floor, playing poker in the electronics section.”
“I see…”
The sun was slowly setting. It would soon be dark.
“Huu… Eun-ji, Ha-rin.”
“Yes, Oppa.”
“Speak, Master.”
“Are you two very tired right now?”
“Uh…”
“You have to tell me honestly.”
“I’m still okay.”
“Me too, I’m fine. What about you, Oppa?”
“I’m okay too. Then, let’s raid the supermarket today.”
“Uh…”
“Right now?”
“That’s right. First, Eun-ji and I don’t have any problems with our vision even in the dark, and if Ha-rin uses Heartbeat Tracking, she can tell where people are.”
“We definitely have the advantage at night.”
“I’ll follow Master’s decision.”
Let’s take advantage of the darkness to defeat them. It was much more advantageous for us to move at night.
“Good. Park Seong-oh. I’ll give you an important mission.”
“Yes?”
“First, if the leader pulls out his gun during the battle, you have to be in the front and take the gun away, or get shot instead of us. Make him waste the bullets.”
“Yes…? W, wait a moment. Are you really telling me to get shot and die?!”
Park Seong-oh was dumbfounded by me ordering him to become our meat shield.
He seemed to think that he might die when I told him to subdue the leader who had a gun.
This guy still didn’t understand his situation.
“That’s why you’re a slave. If the master tells you to die, you have to go and die. Don’t talk back to your master.”
“Ugh… Yes.”
“Therefore, our dear Seong-oh has become the team’s representative ‘bullet sponge.’ Congratulations.”
Tears dripped from Park Seong-oh’s eyes at my cold words.
He had finally understood his situation.
This was what a slave was.
They couldn’t refuse their master’s orders.
They were merely puppets that moved as I told them to.
If they were pretty like Eun-ji and Ha-rin, I would keep them by my side.
If not, I would use them like this in the right place and time, and throw them away afterward.
This bastard wasn’t a valuable hidden class. If he was just the most common Awakened among the basic jobs, I wouldn’t feel sad if I used him and threw him away.
Especially since there were three more guys with warrior jobs at the supermarket.
“What about the entrances?”
“Sob… All the entrances except for the main one are blocked, and we take turns guarding them.”
“Good. Then, you go in as naturally as possible and open the back door. We’ll go in through there.”
“Sob… Yes… I understand…”
I patted Park Seong-oh, who’s tears were dripping like chicken droppings, on the shoulder and turned my head to Eun-ji and Ha-rin.
Both of them flinched as I did so. Why were they like that?
“Why? Is something wrong?”
“Ah, no, Oppa. Haha.”
“Y, you’re a cool master…”
“Hehe. You’re silly. Okay then, once Park Seong-oh goes in through the main entrance and opens the back door, we’ll also sneak in. If they don’t have guns, they’re not that special. If the leader is in a hurry and pulls out his gun, our Seong-oh will be the meat shield. Eun-ji and Ha-rin, protect me and fight well on your own.”
I still had 2 uses left on my Summon Tentacles skill for today. If I used this, it would be over no matter if the opponent had learned martial arts or whatever. So, I had to save my mana.
If I was excluded as a fighter, and Eun-ji and Ha-rin could hold out against the Ha brothers for a maximum of 15 seconds, we would definitely win. If they could just buy me time to chant, we would win.
If Ha-rin strengthened herself by using Rough Skin and Destroyer’s Punch, she would subdue one of them quickly. And if Eun-ji hid and hit the other one well with her shadow daggers, which could be imbued with Paralysis Fangs, she would definitely win.
‘After that, I’ll knock one guy out and put the Suppressing Gag on the other one to seal his power. Then, I’ll make them my slaves as my mana recovers.’
I didn’t know whether things would go as planned, but depending on how well Park Seong-oh moved, the difficulty of this operation would change a lot.
I should give Park Seong-oh some hope and increase his morale.
“Seong-oh.”
“Sob… Yes…”
“Don’t cry. Why’s a man like you crying?”
“Hhup… Yes. I’ve stopped.”
“Now, look. It’s just a matter of you dodging the bullets well, right? It’s not like I’m telling you to do the impossible.”
“Yes…?”
“Right. It’s not a big deal. You just have to dodge three bullets, right?”
“Yes…”
“You’re also a level 4 warrior, right? Use your skills and dodge them swoosh swoosh.”
“Sob….”
“It’s really not a big deal, man. Take it easy. Then you’ll live too. And I’ll be happy because my slave didn’t die. Right?”
“Yes…”
His eyes were still dead, like that of a dead fish. Had he already accepted his death?
It didn’t matter anyway.
We headed for the supermarket.
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T/N – Damn, telling the dude to catch the bullets for them, that’s cold, dude. I like it! Solid chapter overall. Excited for the next one.
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
