Episode 4
“Then we should get going before more zombies show up. Shall we?”
Kim Sunghyun naturally took the lead, and I followed behind him. Having a guide made me feel incredibly safe.
However, it didn’t take long for my relaxed expression to crumble. This was because every path he stepped onto was littered with zombie corpses. It was to the extent that the severed limbs of zombies were enough to show the path they had taken.
‘They must have been killing zombies all the way from their guild base. No, even so, isn’t the amount of carnage a bit excessive?’
It wasn’t that I doubted their ability to kill this many zombies. It was a more fundamental question. Could that many zombies, even if they were just zombies, really move in a group like that?
“No matter how many times we cut them down, they just kept regenerating. We ended up like this from having to cut them down over and over. If the zombies hadn’t retreated first, we might still be fighting.”
As if sensing my puzzled gaze, Kim Sunghyun spoke up. He had an awkward smile on his face, but his words didn’t match his expression at all.
‘So they cut them down so much that even the immortal zombies ran away.’
Well, if my limbs were cut off over and over again, and I couldn’t even land a single scratch on my opponent, even I would want to run away, even if I was a zombie.
I shuddered at the thought of the sensation of my flesh being ripped apart each time I regenerated. A sudden sense of camaraderie with the zombies washed over me.
“By the way, how did you know you had to hit their heads?”
Perhaps flustered by my reaction, Kim Sunghyun hurriedly changed the subject. It was obvious to anyone that he was trying to steer the conversation in a different direction, but it was a question that hit a nerve.
I can’t exactly say, “Because I’m a zombie,” can I?
“I fought with the zombies for quite a while. I didn’t have the strength to kill them, but my Stamina stat was too high for me to die. I may not look it, but I am a Tanker, you know? Anyway, I figured it out after a while. Only the head wounds don’t regenerate.”
“You have incredible observation skills.”
Kim Sunghyun nodded at my plausible excuse. He smiled flawlessly, and for some reason, I felt a pang of guilt.
“You figured out their weakness, and you don’t even die from getting hit that much, so why couldn’t you handle a few measly zombies?”
As if unable to stand the amicable atmosphere, Yoon Jinwoo’s jab flew in from the side. He was like an ointment that didn’t give my conscience a chance to feel guilty.
“Mr. Yoon Jinwoo!”
“What? Did I say something wrong?”
The two men started bickering.
‘I still think they switched classes.’
Kim Sunghyun seemed to exude an aura of healing just by being next to him, but I couldn’t feel a single ounce of “healing” from Yoon Jinwoo. Yet, Kim Sunghyun was the one who smashed monster heads with a greatsword, and Yoon Jinwoo was the one who cast healing spells from the sidelines. It was a terrible mismatch for both of them.
Maybe they were just used to it after spending so much time together? I watched their squabble, lost in my own thoughts.
That’s when it happened. A strange sound faintly reached my ears.
“Huh?”
The two men, with their superior senses, must have heard it too, because they stopped arguing and looked ahead cautiously.
“Groaaaan…”
The sound came again through the still air. It wasn’t loud, but this time, I could tell for sure. It was definitely the groan of a zombie.
“Let’s check the situation before moving on. We need to rescue them if there are people there. Let’s go quietly.”
Kim Sunghyun said, resting his hand on his sword. Yoon Jinwoo clicked his tongue and cast a concealment spell on us. Having just been rescued myself, I had nothing to add.
We held our breaths and headed towards the source of the sound. The groaning of the zombies grew louder as we got closer.
“Over there.”
We could see a group of dark figures in the direction Yoon Jinwoo was pointing. Kim Sunghyun’s judgment to attempt a rescue was correct.
We were still too far away to make out the exact situation, but we could tell that one person was surrounded by a horde of zombies and fighting for their life. If they got bitten, they would be done for. We hurried towards the commotion.
As we got closer, we could see the situation more clearly. But I still couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
There, surrounded by what seemed like dozens of zombies, was a man. It was a dangerous situation at a glance. But he didn’t seem fazed at all. In fact, he even had a faint smile on his face.
He casually flicked the sword in his hand once. And then, he swung it effortlessly.
It wasn’t like he used any special techniques. It was just that his movements as he swung the longsword were as fast as if he were wielding a dagger. And with that single blow, five zombies were sliced in half. In one swift motion, with no skills or anything.
‘How is that… possible?’
He clearly had the appearance of a human, but he looked even more monstrous than when his form was blurry. His power, his speed, it was all unbelievable.
Every time he moved his sword, several zombies were cut down at once. The zombies quickly regenerated and lunged at him again, but I couldn’t imagine him losing. That’s how overwhelming he was.
“Ah, it’s our guild master.”
Kim Sunghyun, who was ready to rescue whoever it was, relaxed his fighting stance after confirming the man’s identity. Yoon Jinwoo also didn’t seem to have any intention of helping with support magic or anything.
“Don’t we need to help him?”
“Does he look like he needs help?”
I received a bewildered response to my question, as if it was absurd. Certainly, even without any help, the man didn’t seem like he would lose.
“You have to hit their heads!”
I looked at Kim Sunghyun as if asking if it was really okay to just watch, but he just stood there and raised his voice.
After that, it was over in the blink of an eye. The man, with the same movements as before, now attacked only the heads. And yet, it took him less than a few minutes to finish off all the zombies.
“Shall we go now?”
Kim Sunghyun spoke again only after the man had finished off all the zombies. I followed behind him, feeling dazed.
“If you were just going to watch, you could have at least pretended to help.”
The man who had finished the battle approached us as if he knew we had been there all along.
Up close, the man was incredibly handsome, someone I had never seen before, but honestly, I couldn’t focus on that at all. It was because his black hair, his white skin, everything was covered in blood and zombie remains.
Even though they were both close-range fighters, there was a world of difference between Kim Sunghyun, who fought strategically, and the man who had just massacred the zombies. No matter how handsome he was, with all that gore splattered on him, all I could think about was running away.
However, his sharp eyes suited his appearance quite well, and I couldn’t deny that he was handsome.
“If I tried to help, you would have just yelled at me for getting in your way.”
The man just grinned at Yoon Jinwoo’s retort, as if to say he wasn’t wrong. To be honest, a blood-soaked man smiling like that was a bit… crazy.
“Why did you come all the way here? Didn’t you say you were going to clear the area around the guild?”
“We ended up here after clearing as we went. We did come quite far.”
The man glanced back the way he came, but I couldn’t see any guild building or anything in that direction.
I was dumbfounded. He was saying that they had fought their way through a horde of monsters from a place so far away that it wasn’t even visible from here?
“Well, now that the guild master is here, it’ll be easier to get back.”
“That’s true. Ah, Ms. Eunha, this is…”
Kim Sunghyun turned to me as if to introduce the guild master. But he couldn’t finish his sentence. His face, still open in the middle of speaking, was instantly painted with horror.
“Ms. Eunha, look out!”
“Huh?”
I reflexively turned around, a confused sound escaping my lips. And there it was, the zombie I thought was dead, standing right behind me. Too close to dodge.
I raised my arms defensively. But all it did was offer my arm to the zombie to bite.
“Argh!”
“Ms. Eunha!”
In an instant, the flesh of my arm was torn away. Kim Sunghyun, who had rushed towards me, quickly smashed the zombie’s head. But it was already too late.
I was bitten by a zombie. And everyone here witnessed it. The implications of this were clear.
“This is bad.”
“Ms. Eunha…”
Yoon Jinwoo clicked his tongue, and Kim Sunghyun hung his head with a guilty look on his face. I could feel the guilt, the disappointment, and the resignation in their voices. They were all convinced that I would soon turn into a zombie.
“There’s no other way.”
At that moment, the guild master, who had been silent until now, approached me. And he drew the bloodstained sword he had just sheathed. The blood-soaked man stood before me, sword in hand. His long eyelashes cast a shadow over his eyes, making his gaze seem even colder.
“Wait…!”
To think I would die by a human’s sword instead of a zombie’s bite. I had to somehow explain that I hadn’t turned into a zombie.
But he didn’t give me any time to speak. Before I could even utter a word, his sword came flying towards me.
“!”
I squeezed my eyes shut. Then, an excruciating pain washed over me. I had survived the zombies only to die by a human’s hand. What a terrible way to go.
But even after a few seconds, my head didn’t roll off, and I was still alive.
Then where was this excruciating pain coming from?
I cautiously opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was my severed arm.
The man hadn’t killed me. He had simply, without a word of warning or a moment’s hesitation, cut off the arm that had been bitten by the zombie.
“…Ms. Eunha.”
“What, what did you do?”
The next things that came into view were the faces of Kim Sunghyun and Yoon Jinwoo, a mixture of bewilderment and fear.
“I suppose an explanation is in order.”
And then, the man, his eyes gleaming as if he had found something amusing.