The Apocalypse Has Been Downloaded – Chapter 27

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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Jang Jo-joon wasn’t breathing.

“O, Oppa!!!”

Lee Eun-ji grabbed Jang Jo-joon’s shoulders and shook him, desperately hoping he would wake up.

“Oh no! Unnie! Do that. CPR!”

“Ah! J, just a moment… H, how do I do it again?”

“T, tilt his head back… Unnie, I’ll do it!”

“O, okay!”

Sung Ha-rin quickly tore open Jo-joon’s shirt, exposing his chest, and performed CPR the way she had learned in school.

She did 30 compressions and breathed into his mouth.

His lungs moved with each breath, but his heart showed no response as if a switch had been turned off.

Ha-rin even struck his chest with her fist, performing a precordial thump, but Jo-joon remained unresponsive.

“Wh, what!? W, what do I do!? O, Oppa!”

Lee Eun-ji stomped her feet and prayed desperately for Jo-joon to wake up.

She didn’t even think about getting a defibrillator that was probably somewhere in the supermarket.

They were that panicked and agitated.

‘Why does this guy keep trying to die like a sunfish whenever I take my eyes off him!’

Eun-ji thought that Jo-joon, due to his class, was always sick and on the verge of death if left alone.

Why did it seem safer for him when he was fighting zombies?

‘What do I do if Oppa dies like this? N, no. I shouldn’t even think of such things. He’ll survive. There’s no way Oppa will die. He’ll definitely wake up with an awkward smile…’

She imagined a world without Jo-joon, but she couldn’t.

She didn’t even want to imagine it.

No matter how much she thought about it, it seemed impossible to survive in this hopeless world without him.

She kept thinking that no matter how much she and Ha-rin leveled up and became stronger, they wouldn’t be as good as Jo-joon.

Moreover, she felt that it would be difficult to trust anyone else unless they were bound by a “Slave Brand”.

She felt a sense of security in her slave status.

‘I finally found someone I want to be with and live with.’

Not only that, but beyond the issue of survival, she had finally found someone to devote her love to. If he died now, it would be unbearable for her.

She already relied on Jo-joon for many things.

Just as Jo-joon found peace in them, they also leaned on him.

Eun-ji wanted to be by his side, even as a slave.

She wanted him to be by her side.

“D, damn it! Why!? I did it the way I was supposed to, so why!?”

Ha-rin did her best to revive Jo-joon, but he was still not breathing.

Jo-joon, whose breath had stopped, showed no response to the CPR, like a puppet with its strings cut.

Strangely, his body was still normal.

None of the usual post-mortem reactions occurred.

It was as if all his bodily functions, every single cell in his body, had stopped all at once as if they had been paused.

It was like he had fallen into a state of suspended animation.

If a doctor, forensic scientist, or someone with similar knowledge had been present, they would have noticed that something was strange.

But Eun-ji and Ha-rin were simply plunged into despair at the thought that Jo-joon was dead.

‘If you were going to leave us like this… why did you make us care about you, you bastard…?’

Sung Ha-rin had felt and realized many things while being with Jo-joon.

She felt good when he stroked her hair, and she had experienced the exhilarating pleasure of their intimate moments for the first time.

Also, fighting alongside him made her realize that he was a trustworthy man, someone she truly needed to survive in this ruined world.

She instinctively knew that she could survive longer if she stayed close to him.

That was why Ha-rin didn’t want to lose Jo-joon.

It was the natural attraction of a female to a strong male, and she felt a strong attraction to Jo-joon as a woman.

‘So please… just breathe…’

But no matter how desperately Ha-rin pleaded, Jo-joon didn’t respond.

His heart showed no signs of beating again.

Like someone who was completely dead.

“Huh?”

Just then, Kang Ha-young woke up while rubbing her eyes.

She frowned at the unusual atmosphere.

“What the…?”

“O, Oppa. Oppa. Sniff…”

Ha-rin held onto Jo-joon, who still wasn’t breathing, and sobbed.

Eun-ji, as if she had lost all her will to live, held onto Jo-joon’s arm and was also slumped over.

Seeing this, Kang Ha-young approached Jo-joon.

She didn’t understand this strange situation.

“Uh… Master? Huh? Why isn’t he breathing? Master? Master! Wake up! Master!”

Kang Ha-young slapped the cheeks of the motionless Jo-joon.

“Huh? What’s wrong? Huh? This isn’t right…”

When Jo-joon didn’t open his eyes no matter how much she slapped him, she gently took his hand.

She couldn’t feel a pulse.

“Huh? This isn’t right. This isn’t right! I, if Master dies, my blood… Who will give me my dinner? Uh. This isn’t right!”

Kang Ha-young, whose intelligence had significantly declined due to the influence of her “Carnage Vampire” class, saw Jang Jo-joon as merely a food provider, and she was on the verge of losing her mind at the thought of not being able to get blood anymore.

Of course, if she had been a little more rational, she could have had the positive thought of being freed from the “Slave Brand”, and being able to kill people and drink blood freely.

But she wasn’t capable of such rational thinking just yet.

“Ugh. He can’t die. Ah. Huh? Sniff sniff. A strange smell.”

Just as she was about to be consumed by madness, Kang Ha-young detected a cold and unpleasant smell coming from Jo-joon’s neck.

She looked intently at Jo-joon’s neck.

Something black was swirling in it.

As if it was artificially blocking his windpipe.

Kang Ha-young had no idea what it was.

But she felt that if she could remove that black energy and suck out the stagnant blood, she could save Jo-joon.

“Uh. That looks like poison. Yeah. I need to remove the poison. He’ll live if I remove the poison. Poison. It’s poison. I need to suck it out.”

“W, wait! You crazy bitch! What are you doing!?”

Kang Ha-young picked up Jo-joon, who was becoming increasingly cold since he stopped breathing.

Then, as she was about to bite his neck, Ha-rin urgently grabbed her shoulder to stop her.

She had been wary of Kang Ha-young from the beginning.

She had even seen her go on a blood-crazed rampage, so she thought Ha-young was simply trying to drink the blood of a dead body.

Ha-rin didn’t like the idea of Kang Ha-young drinking Jo-joon’s blood, even if he was already dead.

But she couldn’t stop Kang Ha-young’s vampirism.

The moment Ha-rin’s hand touched her shoulder, Kang Ha-young, who had a somewhat vacant look, became enraged.

“Get away! Get away from me!”

With her eyes glowing red, Ha-young shouted at Ha-rin, who was trying to stop her.

The predatory aura emanating from Kang Ha-young momentarily froze Eun-ji and Ha-rin, delaying their reaction.

Taking advantage of this, Ha-young quickly sank her long fangs into Jo-joon’s neck.

The blood-sucking began.

Ha-young sucked and then spat out the black energy that was blocking Jo-joon’s breath.

It was a mixture of poison and an unknown energy from the Black Serpent’s Twisted Core.

With each spit of the black essence onto the floor, Jo-joon’s color gradually returned.

Soon, his heart started beating again.

“H, he’s alive…? H, he’s really alive!”

“Thank goodness… Sniff… Oppa…”

Realizing that Ha-young had found some unknown method to revive him, Eun-ji and Ha-rin stopped interfering and quietly held Jo-joon’s hand, massaging it while waiting for him to wake up.

After about five minutes of sucking and spitting out the black liquid, Ha-young pulled away from Jo-joon while scraping her tongue with her finger.

“Ugh… Bitter…”

“Cough!!!”

“O, Oppa!!!”

“Master…! Sigh… He’s alive…”

Jang Jo-joon woke up, gasping for breath.

It seemed like he was destined to always have pain follow him.

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I opened my eyes.

‘Huh?’

I felt like I was floating, as if I were suspended in an infinitely vast space.

However, I felt almost no physical sensations, including my five senses, and only my consciousness remained.

‘This is crazy. I was too conceited. After all that vowing not to let my guard down, is this the result of trusting my luck too much?’

I had felt a strange sense of confidence before taking the core.

I thought I could survive and benefit again this time.

I couldn’t see anything ahead, nor could I feel anything right now.

I was just slowly fading away in an endlessly black space.

‘This isn’t hell. What is this place? Is this a punishment where my mind slowly breaks down in an empty space of nothingness? Then is this hell after all? This is driving me crazy.’

With only my mind remaining, I kept on thinking.

No, I couldn’t stop doing so.

It was because of the fear that I might literally disappear the moment I stopped thinking.

‘Something, appear! Fuck! Kashnax!’

Just as I was desperately shouting for the evil god, something approached me.

It was like a cloud of insects.

That was how it felt to me.

Gradually, my five senses slowly returned.

Especially my hearing.

Rustle!!!

The sound of insect carapaces colliding and breaking, combined with the sound of insects’ wings flapping, created a terrible and disgusting noise that degraded one’s mental strength.

If I had heard this sound while I was still alive, my eardrums would have likely burst, and my mind would have collapsed.

It was such a vicious noise, but I, who was losing my existence in a spiritual state, was able to hold on to my mind thanks to this intense external stimulus.

Before this, I had been rapidly deteriorating in a place where I could feel and see nothing.

[I see that you’re here. Finally, we get to meet face to face.]

As the insects were crushed, a sound resembling human speech was produced so that I could understand.

It sounded like it was forcibly imitating a human’s vocal cords, and it was very unpleasant to hear.

Of course, I wasn’t foolish enough to show it.

‘Wh, what…’

The moment I heard the voice, I felt a pressure similar to what I had felt from Kashnax.

This was definitely a ‘god’.

‘Wh, who… are you…?’

I naturally spoke respectfully.

At the same time, I vaguely realized where I was, and what the being that was showing interest in me was.

This was the Abyss, and the being before me was an ‘evil god’ that resided in the Abyss.

[I am ‘Indikron’, the master of the Abyss and the ‘god’ you will serve.]

The moment I recognized the being, the system window flickered and flashed before my eyes.

The screen was broken in some places, but I could still make out the words.

‘Argh…!!!’

Perhaps because I had no body, I felt no physical pain.

But I screamed mentally at the feeling of my soul being seared.

Something was engraved on what I perceived to be my forehead.

It didn’t feel as violent and forced as it did with Kashnax.

It just felt like something was being crushed, and it gave me chills.

[That Kashnax always neglects his servants, but I can’t do that. So, I called you here to warn you this time.]

‘Cough… I, is this… not because I died from taking the core…?’

I thought I had definitely died from taking the Black Serpent’s Twisted Core.

But that didn’t seem to be the case.

[Half right, half wrong. It would be more accurate to say that I made you die on purpose. The Twisted Core was a kind of smokescreen to deceive your eyes. I was worried about what I would do if you didn’t choose it.]

‘Wh, what do you mean…?’

I wanted to ask if gods also felt anxious, but I felt like now wasn’t the time to ask unnecessary questions.

[Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to explain everything in detail. Just summoning you like this has caused me to bear the backlash of causality. And they’re already trying to revive you outside, so I’ll just briefly explain what’s necessary.]

‘Uh… Okay.’

Indikron seemed to be in a hurry.

I read the atmosphere and immediately shut my mouth.

[Soon, the champions of the good gods will attack you. I don’t know their names, classes, or even if it’s just one or if there are many. I just felt a slight disturbance in causality. I summoned you here because I found it so outrageous that they were already trying to trample the sprouts. So be prepared, my servant and the favored of the Pantheon of Myriad Demons. If you die so easily after I’ve gone through all the trouble of warning you like this, you won’t be able to rest easily even in death.]

‘Wh, what?’

My spirit trembled at the god’s warning.

The unfamiliar sensation of my spirit trembling gave me chills.

‘I, I understand for now.’

[Good. You don’t have much time left. Ah, it’s already time. Go up now. Your slaves are calling for you desperately. They are truly loyal to you.]

Soon, a light enveloped me.

And I regained consciousness.

“Ugh… Bitter…”

“Cough!”

“O, Oppaaaa!”

“Master… Sigh… He’s alive…”

As soon as I opened my eyes, Eun-ji and Ha-rin hugged me as if they had been waiting for me.

Meanwhile, Ha-young was scraping her tongue with her hand as if she had eaten something inedible.

I roughly read the consecutive notifications that appeared before me while catching my breath.

I had nine rewards to receive already.

‘Damn it… So, I need to prepare for PVP with some really powerful guys…’

I wondered how powerful these guys were that a god had to summon me directly to warn me.

I felt like I would have to kill them all.

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T/N – Surprise! So it was a summon by another evil god. I’m honestly intrigued by the so-called ‘Pantheon of Myriad Demons’. That means there are many otherworldly beings the MC can make a contract with and get his powers from apart from the two evil gods that had already been introduced. I wonder what this ‘Pantheon’ is based off of? I searched for the names Indikron and Kashnax online but no mythology about them showed up.

Also, with 700+ Magic, I don’t see the MC losing against the champions of the good gods any time soon unless they vastly outnumber him, and they all jumped on him simultaneously. I mean, I don’t see anyone else risking their lives like the MC did with the cores. A 22% chance of death is already a crazy gamble, let alone 55%.

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