The Apocalypse Has Been Downloaded – Chapter 25

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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“I learned all the skills I needed…”

“Wow! You worked hard, Oppa.”

“Sigh… Now I can finally relax a bit, Master.”

“Thank you. It would have been really hard without you two.”

It wasn’t just lip service. I shuddered to think what might have happened if they hadn’t held my hands.

‘Now it’s hard to even imagine a life without Eun-ji and Ha-rin… In that case, I should hurry up and help them learn their skills too… I also need to get the achievement rewards…’

Of course, it wasn’t urgent. Before learning skills and getting achievement rewards, I needed to wash up first. I was still covered in dried, rotten blood, and it felt gross.

“Hmm… What about her?”

I approached Kang Ha-young, who was still muttering to herself blankly.

“Hey. Are you okay?”

“Huh? Ah, yes. Haha. Yes, I’m fine. I’m fine. There’s no problem. I’m fine.”

Her condition was quite serious… She didn’t look fine at all. She kept repeating the same words, and her unfocused gaze looked quite unstable.

“Hey, tell me exactly what’s wrong. Don’t just keep it to yourself.”

“Haha… I… I… I’m really… Really fine…”

Once again, she naturally canceled my command.

What was with this girl? Should I just kill her now?

Unless I gave a fairly strong command, she wouldn’t listen properly.

‘It’s also unsettling that she wasn’t this strange before…’

She seemed a bit shy and reserved, but she wasn’t a madwoman who kept awkwardly laughing or trying to drink blood. It was a little scary how deeply she was affected by her class.

It meant that if I had happened to choose such a strange class, I could have ended up in this insane state.

“Hey. Don’t be a bother and just tell it to me straight. What’s the problem?”

“Uh… Well… That’s… Blood… Blood…”

“Blood?”

Sigh… This was driving me crazy. As expected, she wanted blood…

For now, I listened patiently to what Ha-young was trying to say even though she was stuttering.

I felt like I was going to die of frustration, but I held it in until the end.

“It’s just… I keep… S, sorry. Sob… Blood. Gulp… I keep… wanting to drink blood. Eek… Ah, I shouldn’t be like this… I’m strange, right? Hahaha…. Sob… Hahaha.”

Like someone addicted to drugs, her words were incoherent. Her emotions also seemed to be all mixed up.

She was rambling on about something, but it was hard to understand anything other than that she wanted blood.

“You want to drink blood, right?”

“Ah… Gulp… Yes. Blood. Blood… Please… Just a sip…”

Her red eyes, which had been wandering around without focus, finally turned to me.

They were eyes filled with madness. Those were the eyes of someone that longed for something.

She wanted blood. And very desperately at that.

‘She’s quite pretty… but she acts like a complete lunatic…’

She blatantly canceled my casual commands.

Seeing her constantly anxious and unable to control herself, I wondered if I could really make good use of this blood-crazed woman. If I couldn’t handle her, wouldn’t it be better to just kill her now and offer her up as a sacrifice?

“Hahaha… One sip… One bite… I want to drink. Blood… Sigh… Fresh… I want to drink…”

This girl had completely lost it!

‘From the moment she awakened as a Carnage Vampire, her species had changed. It’s a very unique class. Considering her looks and uniqueness, it’s a waste to kill her here. How can I control this girl?’

Actually, the way to control her was simple.

“Do you want blood?”

“Gulp… Yes… Yes! P-please…! M, master. Please… Just one bite… No, one sip… One sip is enough… Please…!!!! Please!!! Blood!!! Blood!!!”

“Be quiet!”

“Gasp… Yes… I, I’ll be quiet. I’m good at being quiet. I can stay still.”

I just had to give her the blood that she so desperately wanted.

No matter how much I thought about it, the only way to control her seemed to be with blood.

“Open your mouth.”

I made a small cut on my palm with a ritual dagger, a drop item I got from killing special zombies.

I could easily heal minor wounds with “Surging Flesh”, so this much bleeding was fine.

Drip… drip drip…

I clenched my fist and squeezed out the blood, letting it drip into her mouth.

“Sigh… Sigh… Gulp. Gulp. Gulp… Master… Slurp… It’s sweet… So… sweet… Delicious…”

Ha-young, who had been kneeling, gradually stood up while holding my hand and licking the blood on it as the drops fell into her mouth.

Her bright red tongue crawled up my wrist as she licked the wound and indulged in the blood.

Like sucking on nectar. Greedily. Yet she moved her tongue carefully so as not to hurt me.

She drank the blood flowing from my wound for a long time, as if she were completely absorbed.

The pain from the wound and the soft sensation of Ha-young’s tongue mixed together, creating a strange ticklish and warm feeling.

“O, Oppa… Is it okay to just leave her like that?”

“I’m really uneasy, Master.”

The two people who had been quietly watching me and Ha-young from behind expressed their concerns.

I was planning to stop the bleeding soon anyway.

If I let her drink too much from the beginning, she might develop some bad habits.

“That’s enough.”

“Haa…!? Sigh… W, wait… Master. Just a little more. If I drink a little more… Really…”

“Hey. You said one sip was enough. You’re changing your words. Do you not want to drink blood anymore? You might never get to drink it again.”

“Ah, no. That’s not it. M, master… I’m sorry. Master, I’m sorry. I was wrong. Just once. Please give me one more chance. Please.”

At my words, Kang Ha-young trembled with fear, bowed her head to the floor, and begged.

She kept apologizing, saying she wouldn’t do it again, without even knowing what she was saying.

She had no pride or self-esteem at all.

It was a little funny to see her so desperately begging. It was like watching the end of a drug addict.

A perfectly normal woman had become unable to live without blood overnight.

‘Come to think of it… if I starve her for a few days in this state and make her hunt humans, wouldn’t she fight like crazy? She wouldn’t show any mercy for blood. Carnage Vampire sounds like a class that specializes in massacres.’

I could certainly induce her to an artificial frenzy by starving her of blood.

Of course, that would be after I leveled her up.

Anyway, after realizing that I could tame her with blood, my future plans were set.

“If you lie to me again and don’t listen to me, I won’t give you any more blood. No dinner. Understand?”

“Yes! I understand. I’m good at understanding! I’ll listen to you, Master. So… please… please…”

This crazy woman might be easier to handle than I thought.

I could make her do anything with blood as collateral.

“Okay, but you have to behave then.”

“Sob… Yes…! Really… I’ll really listen to you…!”

I healed the wound on my palm and gently stroked Kang Ha-young’s head.

“Is that really okay…?”

Ha-rin still looked uncomfortable.

Maybe she was sensing something from Ha-young, who was a vampire.

When I learned “Abyssal Observation” earlier and was struggling to breathe, Ha-rin was the first to notice that something was wrong with me.

Was this the barbarian’s intuition?

“Do you feel something?”

“Hmm… It’s just… Ever since she changed like that… I get goosebumps whenever I make eye contact with her. It might just be me.”

Ha-rin said she just felt an inexplicable sense of unease whenever she looked at Ha-young.

She didn’t seem sure if the sense of unease she was feeling was a reliable intuition or not.

“For now, she’s also a hidden class like us, so let’s try using her until we can’t anymore. If it really doesn’t work out… then we’ll see if we should kill her or do something else. What do you think?”

“I agree.”

“Me too… Hmm… Okay.”

Eun-ji quickly agreed since she didn’t show much resistance, and Ha-rin also eventually nodded reluctantly.

Eun-ji and Ha-rin were the only humans I could trust and rely on right now, so I intended to listen to their opinions as much as possible.

If Ha-rin had refused until the end, I might have thought differently about how to handle Kang Ha-young.

Even I thought Kang Ha-young’s condition was far from normal, so I would abandon or kill her if necessary.

‘Of course, I’d have a taste first…’

Thanks to the effect of the Slave Brand, she had to obey my commands no matter how much she resisted.

And even if I didn’t use the skill’s effect to give her a coercive command, she would take off her clothes and cling to me if I offered her my blood.

“Let’s go wash up for now. Ha-young, get up.”

“Y, yes…!”

Ha-young stood up with a somewhat dejected voice.

Her red eyes kept following my newly healed hand, which was a bit creepy.

“Ah, before we go, I should buy all the items the peddler is selling.”

I was planning to take Eun-ji, Ha-rin, and even Kang Ha-young down to wash up, but I realized I hadn’t bought all the items from the peddler yet.

‘I know the conditions for this peddler to appear, but what are the conditions for him to leave?’

The peddler was still sitting there, staring into space.

His strangely enlightened expression was funny.

“When are you leaving?”

Although he was an NPC, he had enough intelligence for me to have a normal conversation with him.

It was just that the other person didn’t respond well to conversation in general.

“Until all the items I have are all sold. Or until the day is over. I’ll be sitting here. So, young man, are you going to buy something?”

“I see… Hmm, let’s see…”

The remaining items were the ‘TS Syringe’, the ‘Salamander Summoning Tome’, and the ‘Blue Dream Mask’.

These were the 3 items left.

I had killed so many zombies that I could buy all three right away.

‘Coins are still being supplied to me in real time…’

Ha Jin-seong and the other slaves were fighting well downstairs, so coins were still flowing into my coffers, albeit in small amounts.

“I’ll buy everything.”

“Hahaha! Thank you! Thanks to you, I can go home early!”

The peddler smiled brightly and said goodbye before disappearing in a flash of light, just like when he arrived.

That refreshing smile at the end seemed to indicate that his favorability with me had increased slightly.

‘If I buy all the items, he becomes very happy… I’ll remember that.’

I should remember that the peddler likes it when his stall is sold out because he can go home early.

Maybe if his favorability increased, he would give me a quest or increase the number of items he sold.

“Hmm… But what do I do with this syringe…?”

The Salamander Summoning Tome and the sleep mask were useful items, but I didn’t know what to do with this TS Syringe.

‘Should I turn Ha Jin-seong into a woman…? No. There’s no need to turn him into a woman. Besides, Ha Jin-seong as a woman… That’s disgusting.’

I should just keep it for now.

I might find a use for it someday.

There wasn’t anyone in our group that I particularly wanted to use it on right now.

If I ever found someone I really wanted to use it on to ruin their life, I would use it then.

“How do I use the summoning tome…”

When I opened the red cover slightly, a message popped up.

“Oh…!”

Of course.

I had to ‘monopolize’ this.

“Learn.”

The fact that 10 mana couldn’t be used meant that 10 of my 245 mana would be continuously used to maintain the summoning.

So while the salamander was summoned, my maximum Magic stat would only be 235.

10 would be reserved by the salamander.

‘Fortunately, I have a lot of mana now, so it’s not a huge burden.’

I had acquired a lighter and portable burner that used mana as fuel.

“Summon Salamander.”

Whoosh…!

Red flames flickered, and it soon took the form of a small lizard.

“Wow! Oppa, what’s that?”

“It’s a salamander.”

“Master, will it be hot if I touch it?”

“Uh… I guess so? I’ll try touching it first.”

Thinking that I could heal any burns with “Surging Flesh”, I reached out to the salamander that was wiggling on the floor.

It calmly accepted my touch as if it recognized me as its master.

“It’s warm?”

“Wow! Oppa! Me too! Let me touch it too!”

“Wait a minute…”

It was clearly made of flames, but it had mass and could be held.

The strange sensation of holding fire was like stroking a bundle of shimmering silk.

“Here. Touch it gently. It might only be warm to me because I’m its master.”

“Okay! Then…”

When Eun-ji reached out to touch the salamander’s head, the salamander calmly accepted her touch.

“It’s docile.”

“Amazing… Ha-rin, you try it too.”

“Okay…”

Ha-rin hesitantly reached out, a little scared at the thought of touching fire.

“Wow… It has a smooth texture…”

“Right? Amazing. Hey, Ha-young, what about you?”

“Huh? Ah. Uh. Yes!”

Sigh. I shouldn’t have said anything.

She wasn’t even looking at the salamander, and was instead staring at my neck.

If I hadn’t used the Slave Brand on her, she probably would have tried to bite my neck already.

“Then let’s really go wash up now. And let’s check on the others downstairs too.”

Rumble.

“We should eat soon, too.”

“Yeah.”

There were plenty of side dishes in this place.

Since we had to deal with the short shelf-life items first, we were planning to grill a lot of fish and meat.

“Then let’s go down!”

We went downstairs.

The supermarket’s B1 floor was the food section.

The 1st floor was the clothing section.

The 2nd floor was the electronics, toys, and other miscellaneous goods section.

The 3rd floor and above were the parking lot.

There were quite a few cars parked in the parking lot.

But they were useless without the keys.

We tried using a few as barricades, but they were useless against large zombies like War Boys.

Ha Jin-seong and the other slaves had thoroughly searched from the 4th floor down, killing all the zombies they found.

There wasn’t a single zombie left alive.

Thanks to that, the four of us could comfortably wash up in the bathroom.

We searched the supermarket for buckets and bathing supplies, poured water on each other, and washed up.

Of course, we also got a change of clothes.

‘It’s a relief that we have the salamander… And it’s lucky that the water and electricity are still working.’

Unfortunately, there was no hot water. Only lukewarm water trickled out.

So we brought a pot, filled it with water, and heated it with the salamander.

‘The water will be fine if it rains or snows… but what about electricity? Should I find a generator? The frozen food will all spoil without electricity… Will it freeze if I just leave it outside in the snow?’

The most unsettling thing was not knowing when the electricity would go out.

If the refrigerator and other electronic devices stopped working, it would cause a lot of problems for us.

Heating would become an immediate concern.

“Haha!”

“U, unnie!”

Then, Ha-rin and Eun-ji, who were playing around with shampoo, caught my eye.

“Hehe.”

Seeing their cheerful appearance made me feel a little better.

They looked so innocent.

“Ha-young.”

“Yes, master!”

Ha-young had soaped up her body and was standing there blankly while staring at me.

She still looked a bit dazed.

“Hurry and wash up. I’ll give you blood later.”

“Ah! Yes!”

At the mention of blood, her expression regained some life.

Was she that happy to hear that I would give her blood later?

‘I don’t have to give her my blood. We have two useless non-Awakened right now. They’ll be Ha-young’s food from now on.’

Using the non-Awakened Koo Ji-hwan and Kim Do-kyung as blood bags would be perfect.

They weren’t even Awakened, so it was the least they could do.

If they didn’t like it, they could be used for my Human Sacrifice skill instead.

Wouldn’t it be much better to be a pretty vampire’s emergency food and blood bag than to die?

While I was thinking that…

“Hyung-nim! I’ve checked everything!”

Ha Jin-seong called me from outside the bathroom.

I quickly rinsed off the foam, wrapped a towel around my waist, and went out.

“Okay, good work everyone.”

Now I was planning to have the slaves clean up the rooftop.

All sorts of bugs, including flies, were starting to gather on the corpses.

If we left them like that, a plague might break out in the supermarket.

I wanted to gather them in a corner of the rooftop and burn them all, but that might attract a lot of attention to the supermarket and cause survivors to gather…

‘Hmm… Maybe it would be better to lure them to us that way?’

I was planning to go out and hunt for survivors anyway.

Whether I enslaved them or used them as sacrifices for Human Sacrifice, I needed manpower right now.

Moreover, I realized that I needed more labor to handle cleaning and other chores, so I could focus on fighting.

Last night, I had no choice but to give up on the non-Awakened, but that couldn’t be helped.

‘Yeah, it would be better to lure the nearby survivors here and capture them.’

Even if hostile people came, I could control the slaves inside the supermarket and do guerrilla warfare, making it relatively easy to deal with them.

Now that my mana had increased so much, I could use the tactic of creating slaves in real time while fighting.

Dragging them into a melee and using Human Sacrifice on the enemies also seemed like a viable method.

“First, move all the corpses in the supermarket to the rooftop and gather them in one place. Then find some oil, pour it on them, and set them on fire. Burn them all.”

Having a campfire with corpses.

It was a signal to indicate that there were survivors here, which would lure other survivors to us.

The smoke might attract zombies, but if I had enough mana, I could summon an unlimited number of tentacles, so I wasn’t too worried.

Right now, I could probably fight dozens of special zombies without much trouble.

And wouldn’t survivors react more strongly to the smoke than zombies?

“Yes, sir!”

“After that, you guys should wash up, eat, and then bring some bleach and cleaning supplies to clean up the rooftop.”

“Yes!”

After that, Ha Jin-seong and the other slaves spent 3 hours moving and burning the corpses, and then another 5 hours cleaning the rooftop.

And in the meantime, me, Eun-ji, Ha-rin, and Ha-young, who had one foot in the doorway of my slave harem, grilled and ate meat on the side.

We grilled all the meat that wasn’t spoiled yet.

We planned to grill them all in advance and share them with the other slaves.

They had worked hard cleaning the rooftop, so this was a kind of reward for them.

Meat grilled by their master.

They should be grateful and shed tears.

“Hmm. She eats meat well, too, not just blood?”

“Yes! Haha… But… I still want blood…”

Ha-young had just consumed a large amount of blood from Koo Ji-hwan and Kim Do-kyung.

Their complexions had turned quite pale, but that wasn’t my concern.

Anyway, after consuming an adequate amount of blood, Ha-young was able to have a decent conversation, and her sanity had returned to some extent.

Of course, she still had a lingering desire for blood.

I think she wouldn’t be satisfied until she had drained someone dry.

“Phew, I’m full.”

“Yawn…”

“Should we sleep for a bit?”

“Yes…!”

We set an alarm for 5 hours later, went into a tent in the hiking gear section, and decided to take a short nap.

Since we were the ones handling the actual combat, we had to rest when we had the chance.

It was too tiring to go without sleep.

I didn’t even have the energy to have sex.

If I forced myself, I might pass out in the middle of it.

“Zzz..”

Eun-ji and Ha-rin quickly fell asleep while using my arms as pillows.

Ha-young was sleeping a little further away in the fetal position.

I decided to choose the achievement rewards while savoring the warmth of Eun-ji and Ha-rin’s bodies.

I wanted to sleep right away, but I had to do what I had to do.

“Let’s see…”

Last night, I had achieved 6 achievements.

First were the achievements I got from consuming the Black Serpent’s Core and increasing my mana by 200.

In order, they were ‘Black Serpent’s Core’, ‘A Gamble with Your Life’, and ‘Mana User’.

Then there were the achievements I got after performing Human Sacrifice and encountering Kashnax.

They were ‘Encounter with the Unknown’, ‘The Unforgivable One’, and ‘Servant of Kashnax’.

‘Let’s choose the reward for the Black Serpent’s Core achievement first.’

First, the Black Serpent’s Fang…

It was an incredible item.

It could instantly kill whoever it pierced, no matter who it was.

But it had the fatal flaw of being usable only once.

‘If someone like me, who survived after consuming the Black Serpent’s Core, chose this and stabbed me… I would die instantly.’

It was indeed an amazing item when I imagined myself being on the receiving end of it, but… Let’s look at the other rewards first.

‘Tame a black serpent… Is it a summon? But what would I do with a black serpent after hatching it?’

I wasn’t sure of that.

It probably wasn’t a useful summon for everyday life like the salamander, but it could be something that would directly help me in battle.

‘A black serpent… It would suit Eun-ji, now that I think about it.’

If I raised it to adulthood, it would probably be very useful.

The problem was the last reward… Was this even a reward?

‘That’s insane. 55%… It’s basically a death sentence if you eat it.’

It would be better to use it as poison.

Even if it could increase my Magic stat by 500 points, I didn’t want it.

Only someone with nerves of steel would choose this when there was a higher than 50% chance of instant death.

‘It’s either the fang or the egg…’

I didn’t know what to choose.

It was a difficult choice that made me feel indecisive.

‘Sigh…’

My head was throbbing.

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T/N – Choose the core MC! You know you want to. What are you, a pussy?!

Ahem. He should really choose the core. With 666 luck and with so many sugar daddies watching him, I doubt it would actually kill him. Of course, if it was me, I would never choose it. What can I say, I’m a little pussy bitch boy 😅

If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.