## Chapter 80 – Zombie Parade
A deep nightmare.
I was inside a nightmare.
‘A familiar nightmare.’
Feeling my body unresponsive, my consciousness surfaced from darkness to darkness.
‘Ah, shit.’
Since coming to this world, I haven’t been able to live a single day with a clear head.
The scariest thing is that I can understand the language of this world. The language of this world sounds as familiar to me as Korean.
Even though the letters are clearly something I’m seeing for the first time, I can somehow read them like Hangul. So, I don’t feel much difficulty in speaking, hearing, or writing.
If I couldn’t communicate, it wouldn’t be a difficult guess that I wouldn’t have survived even a month after being transported to this world. Perhaps this was a kind of blessing. But…
I was so afraid of it.
That was why the question of ‘why’ never left my head.
This world is completely different from Earth. It’s a world where magic exists, and monsters live in the darkness. Even if I concede that suddenly coming to such a world is possible, one question never leaves my mind.
Why.
Why on earth can I understand the language?
It doesn’t make sense.
The fact that a language I’m seeing for the first time sounds like Korean is absolutely impossible.
Then, is suddenly coming to this world a plausible thing? Well, I think that could be possible in its own way. My home planet, Earth, also has a strange place called the Bermuda Triangle. If I think of it as something similar to that, it’s understandable.
But understanding the language was an exception.
Perhaps some kind of terrible beings are stirring inside my head, making me feel the language of this world as if it were Korean.
That felt so terrible.
If that were true, it meant they could change my mind as much as they wanted, whenever they wanted. My thoughts, my memories, maybe even my fundamental values.
I often have such nightmares.
Just like how I suddenly came to this world, I suddenly return to my home. I’m so happy and overwhelmed with joy that I throw open the front door of my house.
—There are my parents and friends.
‘Mom, Dad! I’m home, you fuckers!’
Tears welling up in my eyes from the joy, I reached out to them. My friends surrounded me and applauded, saying ‘Congratulations.’ My mother and father also smiled and reached out to me. Then, they hugged me and welcomed me.
‘#$^$%&$#^$%&$%&$%&^#$@#%$#$^#$’
—In a language I couldn’t understand.
It was the language of this world.
“Oh, shit!”
—Huff, huff!
I woke up with a start.
I thought someone was breathing roughly, but it was me.
I don’t know the Imperial calendar, but it was a familiar ceiling.
“Jesus.”
The bed was soaked with sweat. It was a terrible nightmare. My armpits and back were drenched with sweat from the fear, and my T-shirt was all wet. It was a terrible nightmare, no, a terrible smell. Ugh, my head isn’t working.
“Umm…? What’s wrong?”
“Ah, Claudia.”
Next to me, Claudia was lying naked. She rubbed her eyes and sat up. Seeing her beautiful face, my mind, which had been lost in an unrealistic feeling, returned to reality.
I just had a nightmare.
And it was a repetitive nightmare that I was chronically suffering from.
I told her, who was looking at me with worried eyes, as if it was nothing.
“I had some kind of nightmare… Shit, I can’t remember it.”
I said that, but my heart was still pounding.
It was a nightmare I had repeatedly, but every time my mom spoke in the language of this world, I had to wake up in terror. I hadn’t had it for a while, so I had forgotten about it, but it was so frustrating that it suddenly popped up like this.
Is it because the atmosphere is so unsettling these days?
“Here.”
Claudia stared at my face for a while, then spread her arms. It was a gesture to hug me. I collapsed into her arms. I buried my face in her chest. She patted my back.
“Do you have something on your mind?”
“No, not at all.”
“Aah, don’t talk against my chest! It tickles!”
“Teeeeheehee!”
“Kyaa!”
I was hit on the back by Claudia and came to my senses. I stretched and got up. I washed up simply and put on my clothes. I’m a little busy. I needed to go out early.
“Katt, again today?”
“Yeah. This is what you call an opportunity.”
That’s right. This was an opportunity.
The city was in the middle of a festival.
It happened when training at the Swordsman’s Guild was entering its fourth week.
Undeads swarmed into the city in large numbers.
Zombies, skeletons, ghouls, mummies, wights… All kinds of undead that don’t sound pleasant just by hearing their names appeared from somewhere and attacked the city. So, an emergency was declared. Adventurers and soldiers fought against the undead.
Of course, it wasn’t a difficult task. The undead themselves weren’t very strong monsters. Up to that point, it would have been just a happening, but due to what happened afterward, this [Undead Mass Attack Incident] turned into a pleasant festival.
“Gotta collect Dalants.”
With the mass outbreak of the undead, all kinds of religious organizations flocked to the city.
Those who initially came for the purpose of subjugation and purification also began to form a huge alliance, temporarily setting aside their religious differences, as the number of undead began to increase beyond imagination.
Having formed an alliance, they knocked down the undead like falling leaves with their united faith.
It was a very holy and sacred massacre. The work was going so smoothly that the undead seemed to be subjugated soon. Just as they were about to fall into mannerism, the undead swarmed in again, and one of the combat priests suggested that it would be better to take this mass purification as an opportunity to dedicate the purified souls to God. According to that idea, religious people put their heads together.
‘What should we do? Can we ascend with this opportunity? Maybe we can bring paradise down to earth. Not just paradise, but avatars of gods or incarnations might appear depending on the purification index. It’s a good thing. It’s a great opportunity. Then shouldn’t we enjoy it? Let’s get everyone involved, even people who don’t believe in religion, and make a big deal out of it!’
That’s what they decided.
And that’s how the festival opened.
Now in the city, if you bring the head of an undead to the church, they will exchange it for 1 Dalant. All the followers of the church were making food or religious goods and useful items and selling them to receive the Dalants.
So, the atmosphere itself became a bit more tense. It was a bizarre atmosphere, where you just go outside the castle gate, kill some wandering undead by ambushing them, cut off their heads, take them to the church, get Dalants, and enjoy the festival with them, which could be said to be anti-humanitarian.
What kind of ridiculous, violent Halloween festival is this? But that was the sensibility of this world. Everyone was enjoying it, so it was right for us to enjoy it too. No one seemed to think this festival was crazy. I was the only normal one as usual.
Anyway, I was also lending a hand to the heat of this festival that started last week. I had already collected Dalants and bought and drank a bottle of intermediate-level holy water.
But seeing that I had another terrible nightmare, it seemed that the holy water had no effect at all. Those bitches, really. Let’s aim for blessed accessories or weapons this time.
“Hee, you’re working hard?”
“No, I’m really fucking upset. I should have gotten that [Holy Blessed Silver-Plated Shoulder Guard] instead of the holy water, I was really crazy. It’s a limited-time event item, so there’s no stock left now.”
“Hehehe, an irresistible impulse? You suddenly drank the holy water while saying something like that, but it doesn’t seem to have worked very well? So what are you aiming for this time?”
“I don’t know. There are so many things I want right now.”
Literally all the religious organizations around were participating as sponsors of the festival.
The Bronze Holy Angel Society, which worships Verde, the god of the scales, and the Salvation Heaven Society, which worships Seltoga, the god of light. And even the Cheondo Society and the Jinheun Cult. In addition, some minor religions came with their bundles.
Accordingly, unique items with completely different religious colors were put up as prizes in large quantities. You can easily get groundbreaking items such as knuckles forged with holy water, blessed axes, and undead extermination maces just by collecting Dalants.
Of course, the city couldn’t help but be on fire with the festival atmosphere. It was an opportunity to farm equipment. I was also so eager to raise my score quickly that my hands were itching.
“I like that silver bracelet.”
“Then let’s go catch some zombies quickly.”
So, I went outside with Claudia to collect Dalants today as well.
Claudia seemed to like the shiny accessories with religious patterns engraved on them. She worships Hel-Kan, but our gods don’t care about such trivial things. She was also enjoying this religious festival.
Even if you don’t believe in Christianity, you still enjoy Christmas. It was a similar principle.
“Oh, isn’t that Barbarian?”
When I went outside, I ran into Copson. He greeted me with a bright expression, shaking the smoked chicken leg he was holding.
“Co, Copson, you…”
He was wearing a T-shirt with the embroidery [I LOVE Bronze Holy Angel Society!] and had a poster of the Salvation Heaven Society’s signboard nun tucked under his arm, and he was holding a large smoked chicken leg and munching on it.
This guy looks very happy.
“This guy is really enjoying the festival.”
“Hehehe, opportunities like this are rare. Even when I had a harvest festival in my hometown, it wasn’t this fun. The chicken leg is really delicious. The Cheondo Society followers are really good at cooking.”
“Didn’t you use up all the Dalants you collected? No, more than that, aren’t you going hunting today?”
I had been partying with Copson and cutting down zombies. I was going to find him today and do it together, but… looking at the atmosphere, it seems like he’s planning to play today.
“I’m going to enjoy today. More than that, look at this T-shirt. It’s an item I got for a whopping 15 Dalants. The nun who gave it to me even embroidered it herself. She was a very beautiful woman… When I asked for the T-shirt, she was very happy and shook my hand and prayed for me.”
He boasted about his unique T-shirt with an incomprehensible tension. It was just a white T-shirt with embroidery, but it seemed very extravagant that it cost 15 Dalants.
It was estimated that about 10 Dalants of that was the price for the emotional labor of the nun who shook hands with Copson.
“There’s no other way to explain this other than that she has feelings for me.”
Looking at the way he was talking, it seemed like he was just bewitched by the nun and bought something useless, but I didn’t want to pour cold water on his rosy future (delusion), so I decided not to argue. He continuously showed gestures of shaking his hair throughout the conversation for some reason. It was a relief that he didn’t lower his voice.
Well, it’s a festival. It’s good if he’s having fun.
Festivals are meant to be enjoyed.
“You crazy bastard. More than that, your poster looks crazy too.”
“Ah, you mean the Salvation Heaven Society poster? It was 5 Dalants, but the nun drawn on it was so beautiful. I had no choice but to buy it.”
He had the qualities of an otaku. I know a little bit, but that poster is useless. You buy a lot of them at first, but later you have nowhere to hang them, and above all, the usefulness itself… No, let’s skip this.
“I’m going to look around the church stalls and play today. I personally wish you Barbarian would enjoy it with me, but… it seems like you’re going hunting?”
“Yeah. I’m going to work hard and get a piece of armor or something.”
“Work hard, then I’ll be on my way.”
With that, Copson took a bite of the smoked chicken leg and disappeared. Unlike outside the castle gate where the undead were rampant, the city was more lively than ever before.
Priests and nuns were singing hymns everywhere, advertising their stalls. They seemed to have picked only the ones who looked good, so they all looked decent. It’s no wonder that stupid guys like Copson get caught.
“Um, then Katt? Shall we go out just the two of us today?”
“Shall we? It would be nice to have a date just the two of us sometimes.”
“Even though there are zombies everywhere.”
Anyway, I was about to go outside the castle gate.
I’m going to collect enough heads to fill the sack today too. It was better to aim for skeletons rather than zombies or mummies as targets. Since they all give one Dalant per head anyway, it’s better to go for the lighter ones. And the skeletons don’t smell as much.
“Huh?”
When I arrived at the castle gate, I saw a short, red-haired nun with a familiar feeling.
She was Elise, wearing light armor over her nun’s habit and carrying a large backpack. She also found me and approached me.
“You’re Katt, aren’t you? Nice to meet you.”
“Oh… you too? Did you arrive today?”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s a little late, but we’ve also decided to lend a hand in this trial.”
It seemed that the Light Holy Cross Society was also participating in the festival.
The scariest guys have appeared.
