Ch.70Dead City

At the edge of the city, beyond the concrete walls and barbed wire fences built to keep monsters out, lies a world untouched by human hands.

Old, cracked asphalt and cement, moss-covered buildings, shattered building debris and rusted vehicles.

Within these ruins that reveal the era before monsters appeared, wildlife and monsters have formed their own ecosystem.

The closed zone, land stolen by monsters.

A place that can be destroyed without consequence.

“Squeak?”

I burned to death all the insect monsters that had followed me from W City.

Then came new types of monsters, drawn by the smell of corpses.

After I tore apart one group of them, the others who had settled nearby mistook me for a weak monster and fled in droves.

Perhaps it was the human scent lingering on my body.

Afterward, monsters from the closed zone continued to appear before me.

Birds were especially common, along with weasels, wild boars, and water deer monsters.

“Peep!”

“Squeak!”

“Weoook!”

I processed all the Homicide-rank and Destruction-rank monsters as mere meals, digesting their seemingly useless abilities.

Wind blades, flexibility, superhuman strength, sonic boom, and other abilities.

After hunting down every monster that came my way, the human scent on my body was washed away by the smell of monster blood.

The smell of corpses made weaker monsters flee even without me activating my core.

And it attracted even stronger monsters.

“Grooowl!”

A Disaster-rank bear monster with the ability to create storms.

About the size of a large truck, it charged at me while creating massive whirlwinds around it.

Several rusted car wrecks flew through the air as the storm descended upon me.

Not worth my effort.

Ping—the bear monster’s head fell silently through the finely split space.

Mere Disaster-rank monsters lack both the resistance and regenerative abilities to withstand my power.

“Hrrrrr…”

While eating the bear meat, a stag monster appeared next, creating a mysterious atmosphere as it tried to trap me in a maze with telekinesis, illusions, and fog.

It seemed to be the type of monster that makes other monsters wander in hallucinations until they die of exhaustion, then devours them.

This one would surely become Despair-rank if left alone.

With my high resistance to sense-confusing abilities, I pretended to be disoriented, approached it, and tore its throat out with one bite.

It tastes better than bear meat, with less of a smell.

Once the scent of Disaster-rank monster blood began emanating from me, the number of monsters approaching me decreased dramatically.

As I trudged toward D City, I spotted a nearby stream and stopped to quench my thirst.

Splash! Fish monsters with water manipulation abilities emerged from the water, bombarding me with water bullets.

Homicide-rank monsters—perhaps because scent doesn’t travel underwater, or because I had suppressed my core’s resonance, they mistook me for rare large prey.

Zzzap! I sent an electric shock from my toes, causing all the fish to float belly-up.

As I gathered these snacks with telekinesis and continued walking, memories from when I was human flashed through my mind.

If I followed this path, there used to be a park.

A park where people with dogs would come to play, throwing frisbees and such.

“Grrrr…”

“Woof! Woof!”

When I arrived at the park, a pack of dog monsters appeared.

Most were Destruction-rank, with a Disaster-rank leader.

These pack hunters use strategies and tactics almost like humans, sometimes attacking monsters stronger than themselves.

“Wooooooo!”

“Awoooooo!”

With the leader’s howling, they coupled their telekinetic abilities—monsters of the same type resonating their powers to maximize their effect.

The stream water bubbled up violently as intense telekinetic waves overturned the surrounding ground.

Growing bored with monster hunting, I yawned and sliced off the leader’s head.

“Keeeng!”

“Kyaang! Kyaang!”

Among the fleeing dog monsters, I picked up the corpse of their leader.

A dog collar fell from its neck, hidden among its fur.

It’s a collar I recognize.

Like the bracelet on my wrist, it seems this precious item, considered part of its body, was preserved during monsterization.

After finishing the fish, I continued toward D City while tearing into the dog meat.

There are reasons why I’m walking rather than flying to D City.

One is to clean up the monsters around W City, which I’ll be leaving for a while.

The other is to deceive the insect monster leader.

As Gu Seo-ryong warned, jumping into a monster nest that’s prepared for enemies is dangerous.

So I avoid the conspicuous sky, hiding my approach until the last moment.

This increases my hunting success rate and allows me to block the parasite’s host should it try to escape.

After walking for some time, the smell of the city grew closer.

The scent of prey that attracts monsters, mixed with the smell of numerous monster corpses.

Sensing that D City wasn’t far, something both strange and familiar entered my field of vision.

Human corpses—no, skeletons.

I’ve seen many bones before, but never human bones picked so clean of flesh.

The bones, apparently gnawed by small monsters, still wore clothes that maintained their shape.

This meant they hadn’t been dead for very long.

Sensing something in the pocket, I transformed into human form and pulled out the contents.

A small notebook with a hero’s emblem and a small pen.

The front pages were stuck together with dried blood and couldn’t be opened, but from the middle, where a plastic bookmark was inserted, the pages were unaffected by blood and opened cleanly.

[Only five heroes, including myself, are still sane. I can’t believe it. D City’s only S-rank hero has already fallen to the monster cult.]

[Five heroes still maintain their sanity. That day, those of us who didn’t participate in the festival organized by the monster cult for patrol purposes didn’t receive their meals or their playful baptism ritual.]

[We noticed something was wrong too late.]

[It feels like being in an old zombie movie.]

[The difference from the movies is that the zombies are all conscious and retain all their memories from when they were alive.]

The handwriting was shaky; the notebook’s owner appeared to be a hero from D City.

Hoping to learn about D City’s situation, I continued reading.

[Thinking about it now, I believe the monsters cutting D City’s communication lines was part of their plan.]

[All electronic reports in D City have been changed to require approval from superiors before being uploaded to the archive.]

[Communication is the same; we can’t even use D City’s intranet.]

[It’s impossible to inform the outside world of the current situation.]

[After the communication lines were cut, we couldn’t get the password needed to join the restored network.]

[When I asked an infected colleague, they wondered how I didn’t know but wouldn’t tell me.]

[They’re suspicious of me.]

[I killed them. I’m safe again now.]

[I feel like I’m going crazy… I wish I really were crazy.]

[Internet access is still impossible. If I could just connect, I would request support from other cities.]

[The monster cult knows how to access the new network.]

[In the end, Hui-su left for the monster cult to find out the password.]

[Hui-su took a poison capsule, planning to commit suicide if she felt she was being brainwashed.]

[Hui-su’s life signal has gone out.]

Reading the journal, it seems D City has indeed fallen to the monsters, as I suspected.

After the pages explaining why they couldn’t request help from other cities, there was a drawing of the parasite I’ve become familiar with.

[The cult is controlling human minds through unknown means. But I don’t understand the conditions.]

[Is it an ability that can only be used when certain conditions are met?]

[We found tiny insects in human corpses.]

[Choi Ji-hyuk got infected while examining the insects… we had no choice but to eliminate him.]

[I’m sorry.]

[Through Ji-hyuk’s death, we realized the condition for brainwashing.]

[White parasites residing in human bodies.]

[We decided to call those affected by this “infected.”]

[We’ve experimented with various poisons, but it’s impossible to kill only the parasites without killing the human host.]

Drawings similar to what I’d seen several times at the laboratory.

An unknown composition table crossed out with X marks—probably poisons they tested on monsters.

After turning the page with research notes, the journal continued.

[Confirmed there’s no problem with food.]

[They haven’t reached the government’s underground food production facility.]

[Good news for me, who was worried about where parasites might be hiding.]

[Byeong-ho started bringing uninfected citizens he found to the underground facility.]

[There were citizens who sensed something was wrong, like us.]

[Currently 1,500 survivors; since we’ve secured the food production facility, we can hold out indefinitely.]

[The problem is we have no way to send a request for support.]

[Byeong-ho died while attempting to request support.]

[They’ve noticed there are still uninfected heroes.]

[We’ve decided to completely seal off the underground facility to escape them.]

[I’m leaving D City to personally request support from another city.]

[Good luck to everyone.]

The journal ended there.

The date on the last page was just a few months ago.

The hero who left D City was killed by monsters, and the request for support never reached its destination.

It was an inevitable outcome for someone who wasn’t even an S-rank hero leaving the city for the closed zone.

They must have been desperate.

There are still uninfected survivors in D City.

The place where survivors are hiding is the underground food production facility in the government building, present in every city.

Having partially changed my objective, I sank into the shadows.

Stealthily approaching D City, undetected by anything.

The city inside the walls, less than half the size of W City.

D City, which should have become a monster nest, was surprisingly peaceful.

Heroes patrolled the city with relaxed expressions, engaging in light conversation with citizens.

“Well, just recently…”

“Oh my! That must have been troublesome.”

“Hahaha, but it’s my job, so I have to do it.”

Playful expressions, small talk, everyday conversations.

The citizens showed no tension whatsoever, unusually for the monster era, and were filled with happiness.

Children played, while adults laughed and ate food they’d brought from home.

I stood quietly in the downtown area filled with peace and happiness like a warm cloud.

Just as my core began to tremble with complex emotions, bell sounds echoed throughout the downtown.

Dong, dong, dong—as the heavy vibrations spread throughout the city, people clasped their hands and bowed their heads toward the source of the sound.

Some people didn’t bow their heads, but they too stopped what they were doing and remained quiet.

In the distance, the brass bell bore a pattern of three circles overlapping in a triangle.

The same pattern drawn on the bodies of those who committed suicide before me.

The people who had been radiating gratitude and worship toward me continued what they were doing after the bell stopped ringing.

Making food, laughing, chatting, being happy.

It’s quite an unpleasant feeling.

These things that smell like humans are all no longer human, their bodies stolen by monsters.

“Ouch!”

“Oh my! You should have been more careful!”

As proof, when a child who fell off a bicycle scraped their knee, white worms wriggled in the wound.

Yet seemingly unaware of the worms, the child’s mother wrapped a handkerchief around the knee and helped them up.

Nearby, a worm jumped out of the mouth of a man coughing while smoking.

In the cut on the finger of a man making food on the street, white worms wriggled through the gaps in the bandage.

This city is already dead.