Mutation

At first glance, zombies might seem like simple creatures.

They gather where there’s noise and try to attack and eat anything that moves.

However, thinking carefully, you realize that’s not entirely true.

While they do react to sounds, they ignore natural sounds like wind or rain, but respond sensitively to artificial sounds made by humans like footsteps or voices.

They bite and tear at moving humans and animals but don’t touch things like wind-blown flags or cars.

They tear off and eat flesh, but stop eating when their prey turns into one of them.

Whether by instinct or some form of intelligence, zombies could at least distinguish between allies and enemies, what was edible and what wasn’t.

Kuoh!

The zombies’ heads turned simultaneously at the cry from somewhere.

There was a strange being there.

Its eyes looked in random directions, its body trembled constantly unable to stay still for even a moment, and its steps were so unsteady it seemed about to fall at any time.

Like a malfunctioning robot.

After briefly staring at the intruder, the zombies realized it was one of them and turned their heads back to where they were looking before.

Kuooooo!

The sound came louder than before.

The zombies twisted their faces at the sound that not only didn’t end after one time but kept continuing.

When the sound showed no signs of stopping no matter how much time passed, the zombies began approaching the intruder.

Rather than having any particular purpose, they just approached because it kept making noise.

The intruder stopped walking and raised its arm toward the approaching zombies.

Something long and black was held in that hand.

And sparks flashed from its tip.

Bang!

Clang!

With an ear-splitting explosion, a car window that had been separated shattered.

The intruder’s arm moved slightly right and sparks flashed again.

This time, with a dull thudding sound, a zombie near the car collapsed to the ground spraying blood from its chest.

Keeek!

The fallen zombie got up with an enraged howl and the surrounding zombies responded with howls of their own.

They don’t attack their own kind.

Yet this one attacked them.

So is this one of them?

The intruder’s next action drove home the answer to their question.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A series of explosions.

Though none of their companions fell like before, the fact that these were attacks aimed at them was crystal clear.

Kieeek!

The zombies charged at the intruder all at once without anyone leading, and continuous explosions erupted from the gun in the intruder’s hand.

Even with a perfect marksman, zombies couldn’t be handled in terrain like this.

Much less with a puppet moving so awkwardly.

Though a few zombies fell from blind bullets, the remaining zombies successfully approached the intruder.

Kuoh! Kuooh!

The intruder kept letting out howls while their companions tore at its body.

Taking this as provocation, the zombies tore into the intruder even more ferociously.

If zombies could communicate, they would have paid attention to those recent howls.

However, zombies only knew how to express simple emotions like rage in their cries, and that determined their fate.

Ting!

The intruder moved its three remaining fingers to take out a round object from its chest pocket and pulled the pin.

Then with an explosion incomparable to the gunshots, all the zombies covering the intruder collapsed at once.

Bang! Kaboom! Ratatata!

The commotion wasn’t just happening here.

Grenades exploded in the distance, cars in parking lots exploded, and gunshots kept ringing from building rooftops.

As if in response, enraged howls echoed throughout the city as zombies began gathering toward the sources of sound.

And the moment the zombie distribution became unbalanced, Yuseong who had been hiding in a nearby building dashed out and began sprinting toward downtown.

‘…Well, the technique itself isn’t bad.’

The knowledge shared by the unknown being, presumably an Outer God, was as profound as the Infinite Origin Force, if not more so in some ways.

A technique to freely control a living being’s body, thoughts, emotions and will by stimulating their brain.

Despite having such an absurd effect, it consumed very little magic power.

It was so minimal that it was even lower than Choi Gangsik’s natural magic power recovery rate as an ordinary human.

If there was one regrettable point, it was that thanks to, or because of, Choi Gangsik, the link with the unknown being was broken midway and he couldn’t receive the complete information.

He could only control the body, and even that wasn’t perfect, causing unnatural movements like the zombies just now.

‘What’s more chilling is that this was already degraded to match my level.’

Though just speculation, the perfect, undegraded knowledge probably wouldn’t even need to plant thorn-like mediums inside living beings to send signals.

‘Just emitting a special wavelength would make all living beings who perceived it move according to the wavelength owner’s will without even realizing it.’

“Haah…”

A sigh escaped unconsciously.

A sigh mixing relief at not becoming the unknown being’s puppet with regret at missing out on an incredible technique right before his eyes.

Keeek!

Bang!

The zombie that jumped out from between cars collapsed spewing blood from between its eyes before taking even a few steps.

Hitting a moving target, especially while running rather than walking, was nearly impossible.

But Yuseong did it.

He slowed perceived time with Asura Perception Way, aimed as accurately as possible with marksmanship, then controlled the recoil with strength exceeding normal humans.

Not by chance but deliberately.

Which meant it could be repeated multiple times.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Each time the submachine gun spat fire, charging zombies collapsed.

After smoothly changing magazines, Yuseong put the gun barrel against the head of a zombie that had reached right in front of him and pulled the trigger.

Though the puppets were working hard drawing aggro, since the city was so vast, the number of remaining zombies was still considerable.

Even though he avoided engagement when possible, he was already showing the bottom of his second magazine.

But Yuseong didn’t slow down, instead running faster.

Though more numerous than drones, guns and ammunition had limits too.

Even if it meant pushing himself somewhat, he needed to move as far as possible while the puppets held out.

‘I need to get past at least the first point.’

There were three major obstacles on the route to where Choi Gangsik’s father was presumed to be.

First was the commercial district with shopping malls and department stores.

Second was the area dense with large apartment complexes.

Last was the office district filled with buildings.

And among these, what Yuseong worried about most was the first zone, the commercial district.

The other two places had many spots to avoid zombies inside buildings, but the commercial district lacked such places.

‘This is probably where most zombies are gathered.’

Yuseong squeezed out what little magic power he had to use Flash Step as well, and soon approached near the first destination.

-Wait, wait, wait! Why aren’t you slowing down?!

‘Going through in one go.’

-What?

The streets were so packed with zombies their shoulders nearly touched.

To Choi Gangsik, charging at full speed into such a place seemed like suicide.

Keeek!

-Aaahhh!

As a zombie’s face approached right in front, Choi Gangsik screamed.

But Yuseong just smirked and launched his body into the air.

Pack!

A zombie a head taller than normal people.

Surprisingly, Yuseong was standing on top of the zombie’s head.

Choi Gangsik’s strength was 31 points.

Though only 1% of the strength from Tyrant’s arms, Choi Gangsik still had three times the strength of Earth’s normal humans.

Add the 50 points from Enhancement Procedure skill’s effect and it becomes 8 times total.

‘Just because strength increased 8 times doesn’t mean jump power increases 8 times, but it’s enough to easily jump over one person.’

Using the zombie’s head as a foothold, Yuseong launched himself up again and reached the signboard of the building right next to him.

After mockingly sneering at the zombies who became like dogs chasing chickens, Yuseong began crossing the street using the signboard as a foothold.

‘With high strength, you can move in various ways that defy common sense.’

In Yuseong’s view, this applied not just to Earth’s martial artists and knight-type Contractors, but many physical-type ability users in other worlds too – despite having transcendent power, they strangely failed to utilize it properly.

It made him sigh seeing them fight bound by common sense from when they were normal even though they had strength to cut through monster hide impervious to bullets and bend special alloys.

“Good thing this is a commercial district.”

Signs packed so tightly they reminded him of Korean streets.

Not good aesthetically, but extremely efficient as footholds.

Swoosh!

He crossed distances that seemed unreachable with Choi Gangsik’s jumping power by using thorny vines.

Though it seemed he could pass through the commercial district without difficulty at this rate, Yuseong who remembered his mistake from the first day never let his guard down.

Thanks to that, Yuseong was able to avoid danger.

Shaaak!

A faint sound of breaking air mixed with the zombies’ howls.

Recognizing something was flying in, Yuseong reflexively slowed his speed.

Bang!

The foothold he was planning to step on next exploded.

No, more precisely, it shattered after being hit by something flying in.

Grrrrrr!

Finding the one who threw the stone was simple.

It revealed its own position by letting out a howl that overwhelmed other zombies.

A zombie with an ordinary body except for one grotesquely developed right arm.

The zombie with an arm as big as an adult male hit and broke the wall of a nearby building, then lifted the debris.

“What the hell?!”

Though he expected there would be special zombies, he never dreamed one that could throw things would appear.

He could handle zombies that simply had increased specs like greater strength or speed without much difficulty, but zombies with special abilities like this were very troublesome.

A zombie that had completely overcome the biggest weakness of zombies – being unable to attack without approaching.

Baaaang!

“Kuk!”

The massive concrete debris was more like bombardment than throwing.

Yuseong who barely succeeded in dodging by activating Asura Perception Way aimed his submachine gun at the mutant and pulled the trigger.

Though his shots accurately targeted the head, not a single bullet hit its mark.

‘Did it block them?’

Surprisingly, the mutant had raised its thick arm to cover its face.

The defense power to block bullets was impressive, but what was more surprising was that it recognized the gun as a threat and protected its vital point.

Whether it retained knowledge from when it was human or had seen guns after becoming a zombie, either way the fact it had intelligence remained unchanged.

‘Need to put as much distance as possible before it attacks again.’

The moment Yuseong launched himself again leaving the mutant behind, his eyes trembled faintly.

“Two of them?”

A bit further away was another mutant with a deformed arm, though not as big as the first one’s.

Seeing the mutant taking a throwing pose while looking this way, Yuseong who was suspended in the air gritted his teeth.

However, what he expected didn’t happen.

Bang!

With a faint gunshot, blood spurted from the mutant’s head.