Chapter 24: Zombie Uproar

The thought of living with Yoo-ha filled me with excitement.

Even though she had rejected my confession, my heart still raced when I thought of her.

But at the same time, my mind was filled with complicated thoughts.

I recalled the secret dungeons of the first sect I knew from the game.

The tomb deep in the valley, the three-way cave behind the waterfall, the ancient armory…

Of the dozens of unique reward-giving dungeons, I had only cleared one.

If I left like this, I might not be able to return and clear them again.

However, all the dungeons boasted considerable difficulty.

Only the Spirit Beast Rat Cave, which I cleared first, was relatively easy.

Even there, Nan-Cheong and I struggled quite a bit, and if I went to a more dangerous dungeon alone with Nan-Cheong…

Probably one of us would return as a corpse.

Or maybe we would be annihilated, not even corpses returning.

Safety or adventure?

My 고민 didn’t last long.

The answer was surprisingly simple.

“Nan-Cheong!”

As soon as I shouted, Nan-Cheong opened the door and came in.

She was as neat as ever.

“Yes, Young Master.”

“Gather all the Gwiyeongdang graduates from our faction!”

If quality wasn’t enough, we could push through with quantity.

“I heard you called, Young Master.”

Thirteen girls knelt before me.

All were wearing the black combat uniforms of the Cheonsalgok.

Not long ago, there were more… some had lost their lives in the battle with the Blood Demon Sect, and others had been crippled and had to retire from the battlefield.

Still, it was better than Hwang-Wol’s group.

It was a bitter consolation.

Less than half of Hwang-Wol’s faction had survived.

“I got a treasure map.

So I’m going to explore the treasure with you guys.”

The children’s expressions subtly changed at my words.

It was natural.

I would have been the same.

A treasure map that suddenly appeared from who knows where.

I would be lucky if they didn’t think it was a child’s prank.

My status was higher than theirs, so no one openly expressed doubt, but they were clearly flustered.

Then Nan-Cheong stepped forward.

“Last time, when the Young Master said he got a treasure map, there really was treasure.”

When Nan-Cheong, the strongest in the faction, vouched for it, the children’s attitude changed noticeably.

I knew it.

Nan-Cheong was the real leader of these kids.

In comparison, I was only being treated well because of my innate abilities and status.

But that didn’t matter.

After all, they would move according to my will.

That was enough.

These kids might have strange misunderstandings.

Maybe they would suspect me of being a spy from an enemy force.

It was suspicious no matter who looked at it.

But there was no choice.

I had to leave this place in seven weeks.

If I didn’t find it now, I couldn’t guarantee when I would return.

What if we lost the war against the lust demons… what if Cheonsalgok collapsed?

A chill ran down my spine.

Then everything would be in vain.

This wasn’t just a treasure hunt.

It was a race against time.

I clenched my fist tightly.

Seven weeks.

That was the time I had been given.

The children followed the Young Master’s decision with half-doubt and half-anticipation.

And I commanded them.

It was funny.

The way I was using the Young Master’s prestige to talk big in front of these kids.

It was truly borrowing power to intimidate.

The children suddenly became disciplined at the words that the Young Master had summoned them.

The kids who used to gossip about me behind my back lowered their heads in front of the Young Master.

I could feel their sidelong glances as if they were trying to keep me in check, but they couldn’t properly meet my eyes.

I knew they envied me.

They probably saw me as their biggest competitor.

But they didn’t know that the real competitor was someone else.

Teacher No. 12… she was the real competitor.

Anyway, the Young Master had brought an interesting map again this time.

I stared blankly at the map in my hand.

The Young Master had glossed over it, saying he had bought it from a mysterious old man, but this was clearly drawn by him.

Every brushstroke was identical to the Young Master’s handwriting.

But how did he know even these places?

To draw such a detailed map of the hidden places of Cheongseong Mountain.

Could it be… was the Young Master a survivor of the Cheongseong Sect?

I gasped at the sudden thought.

If so, everything made sense.

I thought that was the most plausible conclusion.

If so, the Young Master was an enemy of Cheonsalgok.

Of course, I wasn’t going to tell this fact to others.

It was clearly disloyal to Cheonsalgok, but I didn’t particularly have any loyalty to it anyway.

Rather, the boy in front of me was more precious.

I would protect the Young Master’s secret.

I spread the map on the floor and started explaining.

As I pointed to the first ruin, the children’s eyes focused on it all at once.

“There are a total of seven ruins we will attack.

Today, we will attack this place.

What we get here will be the basis for attacking the remaining ruins.”

In the game, it was a ruin that could only be challenged after passing the early stages, but this was reality.

If we used the enemy’s characteristics well, the attack would be much easier.

“What is in this ruin?”

“There will be Jiangshi.”

The children’s expressions hardened at those words.

The weight of the word Jiangshi was heavy.

“Jiangshi, do you mean those hopping corpses we know?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“If that’s the case, it’s too reckless.

In the first place, only the most skilled can properly deal with Jiangshi.”

The other children nodded in succession.

“It’s hard to even make a scratch with swords, and it’s useless to attack vital points…”

“Especially the martial arts of Cheonsalgok are the worst for dealing with Jiangshi.”

That was right.

The main feature of Cheonsalgok’s martial arts was to attack the opponent’s vital points.

As far as I knew, almost all the martial arts here were like that.

Aiming for fatal vital points such as the heart, brain, and neck to finish them off in one fell swoop, that was the basic philosophy of the martial arts used by assassins.

But that didn’t work for Jiangshi.

Because they weren’t even alive in the first place.

But I had a secret plan to deal with the Jiangshi.

So-bok, one of the Gwiyeongdang graduates belonging to Head Monk Guhyeong’s faction, was a nimble-footed child.

Of course, only a few of her close friends knew that she was nimble-footed.

‘Nimble-footed So-bok would be suitable.’

So, at the moment that Jun-ho said those words, So-bok felt her cheeks redden.

He had been carefully observing her gait, so he must have been watching her like this at other times as well?

‘Maybe Young Master Jun-ho is interested in me too. Hehe.’

Of course, she didn’t know that it was because of the stat window rather than being particularly interested.

Although her talent was ordinary among the graduates, and her stats were below average, she surprisingly had a useful trait.

[Swift Feet]

And thanks to that trait, she was chosen as the right person to lure the Jiangshi.

Jun-ho said that this was clearly dangerous, so he would increase her share a little more.

But So-bok didn’t completely trust Jun-ho’s words yet.

“Pfft.”

A treasure map.

A treasure map with Jiangshi coming out of it was too childish, wasn’t it?

When I found and manipulated the mechanical device somewhere in the tomb, I thought it might be real, but that was just a very slim possibility.

So… when she saw a Jiangshi for the first time, she…

“Ugh!”

Screamed out loud.

The Jiangshi’s face was more terrifying than she had imagined.

White cheekbones protruded between the rotting flesh, and the jaw area was half-rotted, exposing the lower jawbone.

The nose had already rotted away, leaving only a black hole in the center of the face.

Black pus flowed out of that hole.

The teeth visible between the rotting lips were strangely white and sharp.

They glistened like freshly sharpened blades.

The most terrifying thing was the eyes.

The pupils, which had turned a hazy white color, showed no signs of life, but they were staring at So-bok.

On the border between the dead and the living, it seemed to harbor a desire for the living.

The living are bound to fear the dead.

If it were another girl, she might have collapsed on the spot, but So-bok soon regained her composure.

She had been trained to be an assassin of Cheonsalgok since she was a child.

She had controlled her mind like this when she committed her first murder and when she handled a corpse for the first time.

‘This is just another corpse.’

She unfolded the red cloth she was holding in her hand.

It was a silk cloth that Jun-ho had given her.

At first, she wondered why he was giving her such an expensive cloth, but now she understood.

“Come here.”

So-bok slightly shook the red cloth.

The Jiangshi’s hazy eyes slowly turned to the red cloth.

As if a snake were mesmerized by the sound of a flute, the Jiangshi’s gaze was fixed on the red cloth.

Hop! Hop!

The sound of the Jiangshi’s footsteps echoed in the tomb.

The Jiangshi, whose joints were stiff and unable to walk properly, could only hop like a rabbit.

The sight of it hopping between tombstones was ridiculous, but its speed was definitely not something to laugh at.

Hop! Hop! Hop!

The sound of its footsteps became faster and faster.

It was so fast that an ordinary person would have already been caught.

The Jiangshi sometimes knocked down tombstones as it chased after her fiercely.

But it was no match for So-bok.

She, who had the best footwork in this class of Gwiyeongdang, maintained a constant distance from the Jiangshi and sometimes got a little closer to keep the Jiangshi’s attention.

And so, the Jiangshi reached its destination.

“Hyaap!”

So-bok slowed down.

The trap that had been dug was right in front of her.

It was a trap that was too obvious under the moonlight.

Branches were loosely covering the pit, and the traces of digging were clear.

It looked as if someone was shouting, ‘There’s a trap here.’

So-bok lightly twisted her body to avoid the trap.

It was a very natural movement.

Hop! Hop!

But the Jiangshi was different.

The Jiangshi, filled with the single thought of chasing So-bok, didn’t care about traps or anything else.

It chased after the red cloth held by So-bok and rushed straight in.