Ch.99. Gathering Survivors (1)

# Gyeongju City.

One of the oldest cities in South Korea, it was the capital of Silla during the Three Kingdoms period.

The city is located on the flatlands of the Hyeongsan River basin and is geographically close to the East Sea.

‘As someone born and raised in Seoul, I only know it as a famous tourist destination known for its cultural festivals.’

While Gyeongju was Yu-na’s hometown and the city where she lived, to Bahamut, who had been an ordinary young man from Seoul, Gyeongju was famous as a tourist destination full of cultural festivals.

So if he were to give his impression, it would be just that it’s a city with many cultural festivals and…

‘Wait a minute. Does that mean I committed a crime by looting Gyeongju’s cultural heritage? I heard this is a place where cultural artifacts come out whenever you dig!’

All he could think of was that internet meme: “In Gyeongju, if you dig the ground, you’ll find cultural artifacts!”

Reminded of this common internet meme, Bahamut thoughtlessly wondered if there might have been cultural artifacts at the place where he had been.

In reality, Gyeongju was indeed a city where construction schedules were often delayed or canceled because actual cultural artifacts would be discovered whenever ground was broken.

‘No, that’s not the important thing. Let’s move past such trivial nitpicking!’

In fact, Bahamut himself had excavated what appeared to be artifacts when building the temple inside the mountain.

But to dismiss that as a trivial mistake—do you have no conscience, Bahamut?

[What do you plan to do from now on?]

This conscienceless dragon, who had dismissed his cultural heritage destruction crime as trivial nitpicking, used the Scrying Mirror magic to communicate with Choi Yu-na, wanting to know her plans going forward.

While Choi Yu-na had descended from Namsan and arrived in Gyeongju city, Bahamut hadn’t heard anything about what she planned to do next.

So it was only natural for him to ask about the thoughts and future plans of Yu-na, his contractor, before entering the city.

“This voice?”

[I’m speaking with you in real-time through the Scrying Mirror magic.]

Though Yu-na was startled by the voice in her head, once she realized it was Bahamut…

“Ah. My god!”

Yu-na called Bahamut “god” without hesitation.

[G-god? No, that’s not important… First, it’s good that you’ve bravely returned to the city. But the inside of the city is very dangerous. I think it would be wiser to enter with a thorough plan rather than thoughtlessly going in.]

“Indeed. You’re right.”

Bahamut seemed uncomfortable with her religious devotion, showing signs of discomfort at being called a god, but Yu-na only perceived the majestic voice of a deity.

Unable to counter her expectant gaze, Bahamut went straight to the main point, and Yu-na carefully nodded in agreement.

As Bahamut said, the city interior wasn’t safe and was inhabited by many zombies.

Rushing in recklessly could lead to great danger.

“First, I plan to contact survivor camps or communities that might exist inside the city.”

Of course, Yu-na hadn’t come to the city without a plan.

Naturally, she had formulated a strategy in her mind, which she now shared with Bahamut.

Her plan was to first make contact with survivor communities inside the city.

[Wasn’t Gyeongju completely wiped out?]

“That’s not true. Only our survivor camp collapsed. The other survivor camps were functioning fine until I left for Namsan. Plus, there were groups that left with Awakened people under better conditions than mine.”

Contrary to Bahamut’s assumption that Gyeongju had been annihilated because Yu-na’s camp had fallen, she explained that only her camp had collapsed while others remained intact.

Moreover, before the camp fell, a group with many Awakened had successfully evacuated, so there was a high probability that Awakened groups were still surviving inside the city.

“Besides, if they’ve already been wiped out despite taking so many Awakened with them, it would just prove how useless Mr. Jo Sun-do really is. Hehe.”

Of course, this was an optimistic assumption, and there was also the possibility they hadn’t lasted even a few days before being wiped out by zombies.

Yu-na smiled coldly, saying that if the group of Awakened who abandoned the camp had been wiped out, they would be nothing but incompetent fools.

Though even she thought they wouldn’t be wiped out so quickly, her cold smile suggested she would find it truly absurd if they had been.

‘Scary! This girl is scarier than I thought!’

The foolish dragon watching Yu-na through the Scrying Mirror genuinely reconsidered whether this contract had been a good idea.

Despite his large dragon body, he was more of a coward and a fool than one might expect.

[So there are no survivors outside the camps?]

However, while Bahamut might be a romance-obsessed fool, he wasn’t completely tactless.

He deliberately avoided asking about the Awakened group Yu-na had mentioned and instead asked about other survivors.

“No. When the zombie apocalypse started, there were also people who barricaded themselves in their homes. Their supplies might be running low by now, but I think there are quite a few survivors still living independently.”

[I see. So our priority should be to gather these independently operating survivor groups.]

Yu-na explained the situation inside the city in detail, mentioning that besides the survivor camps, there were also individuals operating independently.

While some joined camps like Yu-na, others who were confident in their own strength or distrusted survivor camps barricaded themselves in their homes.

When Yu-na said there were likely more survivors than expected, Bahamut suggested that gathering these scattered survivors should be the priority.

“Why is that, my god?”

Yu-na cautiously asked Bahamut for his reasoning.

Why was it necessary to gather survivors who were operating separately?

‘She’s asking me for a reason, but I don’t really have an answer.’

From Bahamut’s perspective, he had simply suggested starting with the easier option.

There was no profound reason behind it.

‘But that expectant gaze! What if I fail to meet her expectations?’

She would surely return to that chillingly cold demeanor.

Not wanting to disappoint Yu-na’s expectations, Bahamut began racking his insufficient brain.

He needed to maintain his dignity in Yu-na’s mind and somehow persuade her in a way she would find convincing…!

[If they don’t already follow someone else, they might quickly follow us if we present good conditions. The existing survivor camps likely have established leaders and officials. Even if we visit those camps, we wouldn’t easily gain positions of power. To achieve your dream, I think it’s best to gather scattered wandering survivors and create a new force, even if it’s a bit more difficult.]

“Ohhh…! And then? After gathering the scattered survivors?”

[A-ahem.]

It seemed his brain had worked well enough, as he managed to explain in a way Yu-na could accept.

He made plausible arguments that survivors without leaders could be persuaded to follow her, and that even if she joined another survivor camp, there would be no place for her.

He said that to rebuild the order Yu-na desired, she needed power over people, so even if it was more difficult, creating her own force by gathering scattered survivors was the priority rather than joining an existing camp.

Yu-na accepted this and immediately asked about the next step in the plan. Though flustered, Bahamut continued.

[…Create a new force representing Gyeongju and use it as a foundation to build the world you desire. These people may have no power now, but once order is restored, won’t there be opportunities for their numerous skills to shine again?]

“That’s exactly right! I’ll follow your guidance, my god.”

He succeeded in giving another plausible explanation.

But it was truly a convincing reason and justification that Yu-na accepted without any doubt, aligning with her current goal of rebuilding the collapsed order.

To rebuild the collapsed order, Yu-na needed many people who would follow her ideology, and some form of power was indeed necessary.

So gathering scattered survivors in the city and using them as a foundation to create a new force in Gyeongju was not at all a bad idea from Yu-na’s perspective.

“My god. There are zombies.”

[I see them. They look… weaker than goblins.]

Having established their plan, Yu-na entered downtown Gyeongju without hesitation and spotted a group of zombies.

Upon seeing the zombie group, Yu-na instinctively hid and informed Bahamut through the Scrying Mirror about the zombies ahead.

Bahamut could observe the zombie group through the Scrying Mirror and remarked that they looked weaker than expected.

“Yes. They’re weak. Even ordinary people who haven’t Awakened can defeat them if they’re careful.”

[Then why did the survivor camps collapse? Even if there was discord between the Awakened and ordinary people, they would have cooperated when faced with a common enemy.]

Yu-na confirmed they were indeed weak.

She said that even non-Awakened could defeat them if they were careful, which prompted Bahamut to ask why the survivor camps had collapsed.

Yu-na tried to recall the nightmare she’d rather forget while also trying to explain the truth to Bahamut.

“There were variants stronger than the zombies in front of us.”

[Variants? Can I understand them as commanding entities that lead these zombies?]

“Yes. As you say. The variant zombies commanded regular zombie groups to attack survivor camps where people had gathered. At first, we could defend adequately, but as time passed, the variant zombies’ attacks grew fiercer, and Awakened who were captured by variant zombies became infected as Zombie Awakened.”

The emergence of variant zombies stronger than regular ones.

These variant zombies could even infect Awakened individuals, and these infected Zombie Awakened became weapons to destroy survivor camps.

It now made sense why some Awakened abandoned the useless ordinary people and formed their own groups to escape.

The appearance of powerful variant zombies was nothing short of a disaster for survivor camps.

[I see. Then escaping was indeed fortunate.]

“Yes. Meeting you like this must also be fate ordained by heaven.”

[……..]

Bahamut commented that escaping from Gyeongju to Namsan was fortunate, but Yu-na attributed meeting Bahamut to fate ordained by heaven.

Bahamut wanted to look away from the intense faith evident in Yu-na’s words, but thinking he should first deal with the task at hand, he looked back at Yu-na and spoke.

[Ahem. In any case, our tasks are set. Gather scattered survivors and eliminate the zombie groups inside the city. Then use the gathered survivors to rebuild the collapsed order.]

“Yes. That sounds good. Everything according to Lord Bahamut’s will.”

When Bahamut finalized Yu-na’s course of action, she indicated she would follow Bahamut’s words without any complaint.

‘Is this really okay?’

An anxious dragon and his priestess.