Chapter 2147 – 2147. Eternal Eden
“Put down your guns if you don’t want to die. I’m giving you three seconds.”
Three seconds. It was a mercy they were being granted after much deliberation.
I counted down the time in my head. Looking at their frozen eyes, it didn’t seem like they would drop their guns in three seconds.
I prepared the Brain Stream’s electromagnetic barrier. If I deployed it, even if they all fired at once, the bullets wouldn’t touch me but would bounce off. I’d use that brief opening to cut them down. It was a simple yet effective plan.
“Stop! Put down your guns!!”
Lee Yebin shouted venomously. Her voice was cracked with irritation and anger. The men flinched, then lowered their guns, glancing at Lee Yebin.
“Yujin, I apologize for what just happened. I didn’t expect Park the guard to act like that.”
“Isn’t Yebin the representative of this apartment? Didn’t you secretly order that guy to mess with my woman?”
“No! I am the representative of Saetbyeol Apartment, but I don’t control everything that happens here! Even so, I can’t control a crazy person who might do anything!”
As the leader of a faction, it was an irrefutable point. Even at the Seongak Elementary School, which filtered out people, there were occasional lunatics. They were immediately thrown into the detention center, but it seemed Saetbyeol Apartment couldn’t do that.
‘Still, I can’t help but be annoyed.’
I wanted to kill them all, regardless of my purpose for being here. Wouldn’t there be parasites pretending to be human among them? A massacre was a clear answer.
‘No, no. I can’t just solve everything with a massacre.’
In reality, Choi Hyejin hadn’t been harmed. She wasn’t the type to be easily hurt. Right now, Choi Hyejin was glaring at them with a murderous expression. If I gave the word, she would swing her baseball bat and cause a ruckus.
Seeing Choi Hyejin strangely calmed me down. Looking at that hopeless woman made me think that I should get my act together.
“I accept your claim, Yebin. But I don’t think I can cooperate with you.”
“…What does that mean? Are you abandoning us and leaving?”
“I’ll leave after finishing my work. That monster inside the apartment is dangerous, so it needs to be dealt with. That’s why I came here. It’s just that we’ll act on our own. So don’t try to interfere with us.”
Lee Yebin’s eyes wavered. She bit her lip and soon shouted.
“I’m the resident of Saetbyeol Apartment! Even guests have to follow the apartment rules, and as a guest, you have to listen to me!”
“Lee Yebin, are you perhaps a parasite?”
“What? A, a parasite?!”
“Ah. Don’t misunderstand. This isn’t meant to insult you. We see the monster pretending to be human inside Saetbyeol Apartment as a parasite variant. In other words, I’m asking if you are that monster.”
“I, I! If I were a monster, why would I have called you? Don’t try to frame me with such absurd accusations!”
“Or just shut up quietly. Damn it. There’s a limit to how much I’ll tolerate.”
Unable to contain my irritation, I revealed my true nature. As I scattered my killing intent, Lee Yebin, along with the surrounding men, flinched. Lee Yebin, in particular, even hiccuped and widened her eyes.
“In one hour, I will begin individual interviews with all residents of Saetbyeol Apartment. It’s for the purpose of finding the parasites, so everyone must cooperate. Those who refuse to be interviewed will be judged as parasites and executed. Lee Yebin, bring me the list of residents of Saetbyeol Apartment. As the representative of the residents’ association, you must have a list.”
“This is an outrageous act! Do you think you’ll get away with this? I’ll report this to the police outside! What gives you the right to execute people?! You murderer…!”
“Do you want to see a murderer become a mass murderer? If you don’t comply, I’ll kill you first as an example.”
Crack.
Blue lightning sparked along the blade of the Cutlass Sword. In response, the Cutlass Sword shone silver like a cutlassfish.
I swung the sword. The apartment railing was cut. The men’s faces went blank at the sight of the illogical event. Having finished my intimidation, I glanced around once and turned away.
“Exactly one hour.”
I took Choi Hyejin, who couldn’t hide her disappointment, and went upstairs. We needed a base, and the best place was the closest to the door leading to the rooftop.
We had hoverboards, so we could fly to the sky from the balcony, but supplies were periodically dropped on the rooftop. Since I didn’t know how long we would have to stay in this Saetbyeol Apartment, I planned to take the supplies for myself.
‘The wind is cold, so setting up a tent on the roof isn’t a good idea.’
The front door of the house right next to the stairs leading to the rooftop had a red X painted on it. A sign that there were zombies inside.
Choi Hyejin and I were indifferent. Ordinary zombies were no match for us.
Other infected beings, the variants, were hard to deal with unless it was me, and the mutated ones had properties far removed from humans, so we had to be careful.
Brain Stream Electromagnetic Wave.
Just in case, I sent an electromagnetic wave through the front door to check the structure of the house and the zombies.
“Two zombies. They’re in the living room. They’re in a state of suspended animation. They’ll probably wake up when the door opens.”
“One for me, one for you. Perfect!”
Choi Hyejin grinned.
“Don’t smash their heads. We have to stay in this house for a while. Try to deal with them as cleanly as possible.”
“Okay, okay. Nag, nag.”
Crack.
I sent electricity through the electronic door lock and easily hacked it.
Beep beep beep.
The door lock was released, and the front door opened. The zombies, who had been trapped in the house and in a state of suspended animation, woke up, smelling humans. The awakened zombies rushed toward us.
Zombies were easy to deal with. Even ordinary people could handle them without much difficulty if they had equipment. Zombies were, after all, infected humans. The attacks a zombie could make were limited. They couldn’t use professional techniques like martial arts.
Thud!
I kicked the abdomen of the rushing zombie. Choi Hyejin also hit the zombie’s abdomen with her bat. The young couple, who looked like newlyweds, were knocked back and rolled on the floor. I examined the female zombie’s face and gave it a failing grade.
Crack!
I broke the zombie’s limbs. No matter how much of a zombie it was, it couldn’t move if its limbs were shattered. Next, I opened the balcony door and illegally dumped the zombies outside.
Thump!
The sound of zombies bursting echoed.
“Wow. Zombies are swarming outside?”
Choi Hyejin, leaning on the balcony, looked down and was delighted, while I looked around the living room. It was a mess, as if zombies had been running wild.
“Hey, Choi Hyejin. Clean up a bit. There’s too much dust.”
“You’re doing it too, right?”
“I have things to do.”
“Ugh, why? Why do you always make me do everything?”
Whether Choi Hyejin grumbled or not, I took out my smartphone and contacted Na Chaeyoung.
“Dr. Na, it’s me. There’s a bit of a problem here.”
I explained what had happened at Saetbyeol Apartment. Na Chaeyoung listened silently. She didn’t criticize me. Instead, she asked something else.
-Lee Yebin. Is it true that she used her ability to seduce you?
“100%. When I was alone with her, my heart suddenly started pounding. My body reacted.”
-Doesn’t your heart pound just by looking at any woman?
“My heart doesn’t pound unless it’s a true beauty. When I saw Lee Yebin in person, it was all makeup and Photoshop. You’re much prettier. You make my heart pound every day.”
“Ugh.”
Choi Hyejin gagged next to me. I gave her the middle finger as a sign to clean up, and Choi Hyejin didn’t back down and gave me the middle finger back. I vowed to shove that middle finger up her ass.
-Okay, enough with the useless talk. So, Lee Yebin is an Awakened, and she’s using her abilities to control the apartment, right?
“She doesn’t completely control it. It doesn’t seem like mind control. Looking at how there were only men around her… A queen bee being fawned over by men? That’s the feeling I get.”
Even though Lee Yebin had the support of many, she hadn’t completely taken over the apartment. The fact that the guard had acted out of line proved it.
Perhaps there was another faction in this apartment besides Lee Yebin. I had a strong feeling about it.
-If Lee Yebin is an Awakened, she probably has pheromone abilities.
“If it’s pheromones, is it different from mind control?”
-It’s similar but different. It’s closer to controlling the body. She’s using pheromones to seduce the opposite sex. The men probably follow her because they’re addicted to her pheromones.
“Can’t they resist with their minds? It shouldn’t be at a level where they can’t resist.”
-Usually, the mind tends to follow the body. If the body feels good, it feels attracted to the other person.
“Like you?”
-…I’m not.
“Anyway, the plan to form a friendly relationship with Lee Yebin has gone wrong.”
-She tried to seduce you with her abilities first, right? She crossed the line first.
Na Chaeyoung’s voice was cold. There was a reason why she didn’t get angry at me for causing trouble.
“The electricity and gas in the apartment are cut off. They’re surviving on a small generator they received from the government, but it’s only enough for the TV or radio. The chances of what’s happening inside the apartment leaking out are slim. Even if it does, if we ask Lee Yeonhee for cooperation, we can manipulate the internet public opinion and prevent our reputation from being damaged.”
-…Are you thinking of a massacre?
“There’s nothing faster and more certain than that. Of course, it’s just a thought for now. As of now, I have no intention of carrying out a massacre. If we had a parasite detector, there wouldn’t be a massacre.”
-That’s still under research.
“Can’t we use X-rays?”
-X-rays can’t detect parasites. If you don’t believe me, why don’t you try it yourself? You should be able to do it with your abilities.
“Hmm. If it could be detected by X-rays, it would have been detected by electromagnetic waves.”
There was nothing I could do right now. There was no way to find out about the parasites. The guys who entered human bodies, ate human brains, and controlled their bodies were acting on human memories. Yet, they were parasites who were eager to eat humans and evolve.
Soon, the promised time arrived.
I started the interviews with the apartment residents.
