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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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The zombies swarming the supermarket were almost completely annihilated by Kishiria’s rampage.
Even those who survived fled in terror from the aura emitted by Kishiria, and peace momentarily returned to the area around the supermarket.
But Jang Jo-joon had collapsed while vomiting blood, and lost consciousness…
“Oppa!!! Oh no…! Oppa!!!”
Kang Ha-young and Lee Eun-ji quickly lifted the unconscious Jang Jo-joon.
Sung Ha-rin and Han Ah-ram wanted to approach him, but they were both too exhausted to move and collapsed on the spot.
Merhere was too busy killing the zombies still crawling through the collapsed rooftop entrance to care for Jang Jo-joon.
The other women were either too exhausted or unconscious. The only consolation was that the zombies had already been slaughtered, so they were relatively safe for now.
“Br-breathe… We have to… give him CPR…”
“He’s breathing, so calm down. Why are you panicking…?”
“Oh… Sorry.”
Kang Ha-young tried to calm the frantic Lee Eun-ji and slowly removed the gas mask from Jang Jo-joon’s face.
“Why was he even wearing this?”
“I-I don’t know. That woman was wearing one too…”
The tall foreigner who had appeared with Jang Jo-joon had also been wearing something similar.
Eun-ji recalled the woman’s retreating figure as she single-handedly slaughtered the zombies below.
‘She seemed like someone from the Black Market… Who was she…?’
She chuckled wryly at the appearance of another woman.
Jang Jo-joon always brought a new woman whenever she took her eyes off him.
She even wondered if she would be abandoned one day.
“Fortunately, he doesn’t seem to be seriously injured… right?”
“I think so. Perhaps it’s the aftereffect of summoning that monster.”
“Probably.”
The giant monster they were talking about was Kishiria.
A being with the upper body of an abnormally beautiful woman and the lower body of a grotesquely twisted spider.
‘The energy wave I felt when she was summoned…’
Kang Ha-young couldn’t forget that monster. The moment she saw it, she knew it was a being she could never defeat.
The overwhelming fear that rose from her very soul, and the moment when she couldn’t even move… The memory sent shivers down her spine.
‘What did Master summon…?’
That was the question everyone who had witnessed Pluto Kishiria had.
Jang Jo-joon had unleashed a fragment of the deep, dark Abyss upon the world, and that abyssal monster had annihilated the enemies targeting the supermarket in one fell swoop.
“H-hyung-nim.”
Just then, Ha Jin-seong and Ha Jin-woo approached them while limping.
They had gathered Kim Ye-won, Kang Hee-sun, and Han Ah-reum in one place and then came to check on Jang Jo-joon.
“Is Hyung-nim okay?”
“Yeah. He’s alive. You know he’s not someone who will die easily.”
“Th-that’s true…”
Ha Jin-seong had clearly realized today that without Jang Jo-joon, they were just weak survivors who could die at any moment.
They would have all died if Jang Jo-joon hadn’t arrived on time. The realization that Jang Jo-joon’s survival was directly linked to their own made them genuinely concerned for his well-being.
To Ha Jin-seong, Jang Jo-joon was a terrifying master, but he was also the only lifeline they had in this damned world.
“Please… I hope he wakes up safely. Hyung-nim…”
Although their individual goals were different, they all prayed for his safe recovery.
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The hellish night passed, and dawn finally arrived.
“Ugh… Ow…”
I woke up with a groan of pain. My muscles felt stiff, my joints creaked, and the taste of blood lingered in my mouth.
‘The price of summoning Kishiria was too high.’
A two-week cooldown until resummon, and Kishiria herself had given me a warning.
She had told me to level up more and to only summon her when there were opponents worth fighting.
‘Damn… For a familiar…’
I thought this to myself, but I couldn’t say anything to her face.
Kishiria was that overwhelming. Even with the favor of the evil gods, I felt like I could be killed if I acted carelessly around her.
‘More than that…’
I slightly turned my head at the soft sensation against my back. There was Merhere, her eyes closed.
I was nestled in Merhere’s embrace. Kang Ha-young and Lee Eun-ji were sleeping soundly while buried in my arms. Ha-rin was hugging my right arm, and Ah-ram was hugging my left.
As if trying to prevent me from escaping, they were all clinging to me as they slept.
“Sigh…”
I enjoyed the sensation in my hands while wiggling my fingers and fondling Ha-rin and Ah-ram’s thighs. Merhere then spoke to me.
“You’re awake?”
“Yeah. Just now. But aren’t you uncomfortable?”
“Uncomfortable? Not at all. But this is my first time holding someone in my arms like this.”
“Really? Aren’t you feeling suffocated?”
“It’s fine. Humans are too light.”
“Haha…”
I smiled at Mer’s warmth and looked around for the other women who weren’t here.
‘Hee-sun is meditating…’
Kang Hee-sun was sitting a little distance away, meditating in the morning sun.
I decided not to disturb Kang Hee-sun, who was deeply focused.
‘She must be increasing her Nature’s Affinity. To quickly form a contract with a spirit.’
Kang Hee-sun hadn’t been very helpful in the recent battle, and she had become anxious. She had to become stronger to be more useful to the group. Especially the deaths of the non-Awakened, whom she had become quite close to, had affected her deeply.
Just then, Han Ah-reum approached me.
“Ah-reum.”
“You’re awake. Everyone waited for you to wake up for a while and then fell asleep. That tall Unnie single-handedly wiped out all the remaining zombies inside the supermarket.”
“Wow… Really? Mer is amazing.”
“It was nothing. It was easy.”
Mer replied nonchalantly to my praise.
She hadn’t seemed to have any difficulty dealing with the evolved zombies.
The zombies were being slaughtered every time she swung her sickle. As expected of a former angel with base stats of over 50 at level 1, she was strong. Strong enough to compensate for her low level.
“What about you? Don’t you need to sleep?”
“I’m fine. I already slept a lot since I collapsed earlier.”
Han Ah-reum, with her relatively low Stamina, had collapsed from exhaustion before the battle even ended. She was voluntarily keeping watch to make up for it.
“I see… Oh, Ye-won is here too?”
“Yes! I’m glad you’re safe, Master!”
Kim Ye-won, who had been looking around with Ah-reum, also approached me while holding her bloodstained mace.
She seemed delighted that I had acknowledged her. She had a severe affection deficiency and always craved love and attention.
“Then shall we get up?”
“Hmm…”
I gently moved the sleeping women to the side and stood up.
“You’re already getting up? You can sleep more, you know.”
“It’s okay. You guys cuddle and sleep.”
“Understood, Master.”
I told Mer she could sleep more and left the pile of women. I couldn’t just keep resting after waking up.
Mer embraced the other women and closed her eyes again. Han Ah-reum and Kim Ye-won went to check the surroundings of the supermarket.
“Now then, let’s see…”
I walked around the supermarket, checking the interior as I went.
‘They trashed the place…’
The supermarket, which had become a battlefield, was heavily damaged. It wasn’t uninhabitable, but the stench of the countless dead zombies permeated the building. Looking at the traces of the battle, I could see how much Merhere had rampaged with just a sickle.
“But… how long will it take to clean all of this up…?”
I couldn’t even imagine cleaning up this mess.
Even after the fight was over, cleaning up would take forever. And by then, the next update would arrive, and the same thing would happen again.
Exhausted just by that thought, I sighed and went down to the lower floors.
I encountered the Ha brothers on the third floor checking for any remaining zombies.
“Hyung-nim!”
“Hey, Jin-seong. Who among the survivors are left? They can’t all be on the rooftop, right? Please… tell me that’s not the case.”
“Well, about that…”
Ha Jin-seong hesitantly told me about the casualties from last night.
Half of them were slaves whose names I didn’t even know.
“So, the only ones left are you guys, Hwang Soo-min, and Kang Eun-jeong? Fuck… we’re really screwed.”
“Yes… the rest are all dead.”
Most of the non-Awakened I had captured to use as laborers were dead, and several Awakened individuals with common classes, including Kim Il-woo, had also been killed.
The Ha brothers had somehow survived, but they had fractures. Kang Eun-jeong was still unconscious, and Hwang Soo-min was also injured.
“Il-woo and… Min-joon too?”
“Yes… They’re all dead, Hyung-nim.”
“Sigh… Fuck.”
I felt frustrated and angry at the thought of so many deaths. It was chilling how the zombies seemed to be specifically targeting the supermarket.
‘Eun-ji, Ha-rin, and the other harem members survived, but almost everyone else was killed by zombies. My laborers… My workers…’
The deaths of Kim Il-woo and Kim Min-joon were especially painful. They were both level 15 and could easily kill special zombies, but they had been killed by the evolved zombies.
“They both died so meaninglessly.”
Awakening had truly become the basic requirement for survival. And even if you were Awakened, it was incredibly difficult to survive unless you had a hidden class. The difficulty had increased drastically, and the thought that it would only get harder from here made me feel despair.
‘What the hell is this disaster? Zombies whose main objective is to destroy shelters… This difficulty is absurd.’
Zombies were supposed to mindlessly chase people, not specifically target bases. This seemed too much.
“Hyung-nim, what should we do now?”
I had no solution to offer to Ha Jin-seong’s worried question. I could only clutch my throbbing head and squat down.
“Well, I don’t know either. If there are other survivor camps… we could get some slaves from there… clean up the supermarket… Should we keep living in the supermarket in the first place? Sigh…”
“There are still a lot of supplies left here… And there is plenty of food… It’s a waste to abandon the supermarket, right?”
“Yeah. It’s a waste. Ah… when will we ever finish cleaning this place…”
The Ha brothers left while saying they would check the first floor.
“Oppa!”
“Oh, Eun-ji. You’re awake.”
“Yes! Everyone’s awake! Should I bring them down?”
“Uh, no. I’ll go up.”
I went up to the rooftop and was greeted by everyone. I discussed our future plans with them.
“I looked around the supermarket, and it’s a mess. Corpses everywhere… We won’t be able to clean it all up by ourselves.”
“Then… we need more slaves?”
I nodded at Eun-ji’s words.
Then, in a serious tone, I presented the conspiracy theory I had been thinking about.
“Yeah. But I’m worried about… the zombies swarming this place so abnormally… Don’t you think it’s strange?”
Kang Hee-sun replied.
“Really? I haven’t been here long enough to…”
Kang Hee-sun hadn’t been here long enough to fully grasp the situation. But Ha-rin, who had been fighting the zombies attacking the supermarket, had a different opinion.
“Hmm… It’s true… they’re definitely targeting the supermarket.”
“Yeah. I think… there’s some kind of marker on this place.”
Han Ah-ram, who had been listening quietly, asked.
“What do you mean…?”
I explained my theory, which was still just a hypothesis.
“I think some divine being, whether it’s a good god or something else, has designated this place as an attack point. It’s just a hypothesis, but I can’t understand why else would these crazy zombies swarm the place I’ve chosen as my base.”
Kang Hee-sun then asked about the gods.
“Good gods… You mentioned that before. What are good gods? Are there really gods?”
She had heard me talk about gods occasionally, but she didn’t understand what I meant.
Why was I talking about gods in this ruined world?
As I was about to answer Kang Hee-sun’s question, Kim Ye-won, who was sitting next to me while fondling my shoulder, replied.
“Gods exist… They definitely exist. But I don’t know if good gods are truly good, or if evil gods are truly evil. Anyway, gods exist. They talk to… certain unique Players… and give them quests.”
Kim Ye-won’s voice suddenly turned somber.
She had once been the sole recipient of a god’s attention, but she had been abandoned without hesitation the moment her defeat was certain, and resentment welled up within her as a result.
Kang Hee-sun nodded hesitantly at Ye-won’s somber reply and asked me again.
“Uh… So there are these gods… and they’re meddling?”
“Yeah. But it’s just a theory. I don’t know for sure. It’s just that this place seems to be attacked particularly often. I felt the same when I went to Daiso last week. Other places weren’t attacked this much. They’re specifically targeting the supermarket.”
As I was explaining my conspiracy theory, Eun-ji, who had been thinking, asked.
“But… Oppa… W1ho is this?”
“Ah, sorry. I haven’t properly introduced her yet. This is Merhere, a former angel. I brought her from the Black Market.”
I introduced Mer, who was silently wiping the blood off her sickle.
Kang Ha-young, wiping the blood from her hair, then asked.
“An angel? Where are her wings?”
“Hey, Ha-young. That’s a sensitive question.”
“Ah, sorry…”
“It’s okay. I lost them when I fell. And the halo on my head too.”
“I see…”
No one asked why she had fallen.
Merhere had implied that she didn’t want to talk about it, and everyone tactfully understood that she had her reasons.
“Let’s look for another supermarket or a habitable place nearby. If we find a good spot, we’ll move there. And if not, we’ll just capture more survivors.”
“Okay. Then let’s go out…”
“Wait, Master. Someone’s coming. One person.”
“What?”
Just as Lee Eun-ji was about to suggest going out, Sung Ha-rin sensed something.
Kang Ha-young, sniffing the air, frowned and said.
“Hmm… A strange smell… Is that even human?”
“It’s suspicious that they’re walking alone on this street.”
Everyone realized that the approaching person wasn’t ordinary.
If someone was walking alone on this crazy street filled with special zombies and named monsters, they had to be incredibly strong.
As I and the others waited nervously at the supermarket entrance, two men approached us.
‘Two…? Why two? Ha-rin clearly said one…’
As I wondered so, I shouted.
“Stop right there!”
“Oh my! Understood! Please calm down!”
One of the two men raised his hand, indicating that he had no intention of fighting.
‘Suspicious individuals. Kill or enslave.’
One of the men was large, wielding a greatsword and wearing a helmet that concealed his face. The other was an elderly gentleman in a spotless suit.
“There are still so many survivors here! We’re from the Central Association!”
“Central Association? What the hell is that?”
As I channeled my Magic, as I suspected that they might be affiliated with the good gods, the elderly gentleman in the suit replied.
“We’re an all-encompassing survivor camp, a union of alumni associations, veteran associations, and church groups! The government has already collapsed, and the only way for us to survive is to unite! Join the Central Association! We don’t ask for much! Just 500 coins per week as a tithe, and everyone can live happily together!!! Oh, and if you have any non-Awakened, their families or acquaintances can pay for them!”
The Central Association was a gathering of survivors.
And a very suspicious group at that.
I extended my hand before he could even finish speaking.
Further conversation was meaningless. I had to capture and enslave them to have a genuine conversation.
“R’lyeh.”
Tentacles shot out towards them.
“Such… insolence. Tarnishing our goodwill! Stop him!”
“Kuwoooo!!!!”
At the suited man’s command, the helmeted man with the greatsword let out a grotesque cry, sliced through the tentacles, and charged towards me and the others.
“Ha!!”
“Not so fast!!”
Han Ah-ram and Sung Ha-rin simultaneously charged forward.
Crack!
The axe and hammer sliced through the air, blocking the man’s greatsword and shattering his helmet.
“Uh… This bastard… What…”
Inside the helmet was the head of a zombie.
It even looked like a War Boy, a special zombie.
‘No wonder he was so big… But how is he controlling a War Boy?’
As I wondered this, Merhere, who had followed the two, swung her sickle, killing the War Boy, and then attacked the suited man.
“Argh!!!”
The suited man’s arm flew through the air, and he screamed.
“Argh!!! Hahahahaha!!!!”
Then his scream turned into maniacal laughter as he crushed the glasses he had been wearing.
“I offered a polite invitation, and you cut off my arm?”
A viscous killing intent and a dark red aura exploded from him, sending the approaching Merhere flying backward.
Merhere frowned and said.
“That bastard… He has a familiar scent.”
“What is it?”
I asked, and Merhere bit her lip.
“A demon… The scent of a demon…”
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T/N – Wow, the MC really can’t catch a break. From the Hero party, to the Black Market, to the Backrooms, then back to the supermarket overrun with zombies, and now it’s demons. He hasn’t even looked at the orb he got from his new evil god patron properly.
If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.
