## Chapter 82 – Zombie Parade
The forest was gloomy, overflowing with death.
“Shi-tang.”
Not some poetic expression, but, no cap, it was fucking gloomy. No, it wasn’t just gloomy. It was something beyond that.
Rotten entrails, clearly belonging to zombies, were swirling around in every direction. Due to the aftermath of a festival that had lasted for nearly a week, the forest had become filled with the zombies’ decaying guts.
If it were just entrails, that would be manageable. There were also plenty of rotting corpses performing talent shows without their heads. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant sight for anyone to see.
—Weeeeee!
Corpse flies were buzzing around happily, which was the most basic thing, and when it came to black maggots climbing trees and devouring chunks of rotten flesh hanging from the branches, there was nothing but despair.
But, contrary to that atmosphere, the group’s tension was sky-high.
The main reason was that Eliza, who was usually the epitome of stoicism, had flushed cheeks and was palpitating. She wasn’t fazed by this nightmarish, almost murderous, dreamlike atmosphere, and she was showing off her tastes to her heart’s content.
“Still, it’s not good to leave corpses unattended. With so many, we won’t even be able to clean them up…”
Seeing the zombies’ corpses returned to death, she seemed deeply moved.
I suddenly felt uneasy. If Eliza suddenly went crazy and started spouting nonsense about cleaning up these corpses together, I was planning to just smack her in the back of the head and run away.
“Later, we can join forces with other churches and hold a mass cremation.”
“That sounds good.”
Fortunately, there were no signs of that happening. Perhaps it was because the numbers were too overwhelming.
“The smell isn’t very pleasant.”
Claudie’s sense of smell was better than a human’s, so she was wearing her neck gaiter like a mask. I didn’t particularly like the smell of rot either.
But even so, the thought of easily obtaining good equipment by returning these weak undead to death made me excited. I couldn’t help but hum.
Well, I was already used to corpses.
Dead people are dead people, and living people are living people.
“Katt, we need to go deeper. There are only corpses around here.”
“You’re right. Mr. Undead has completely dried up.”
The undead near the city had long since become just dead.
Corpses were piled up, but there were no more moving ones. Even though it was a natural sight, I felt an unknown sense of unease.
We went deeper, searching for living undead. The deeper we went, the fewer corpses there were, and the less rotten the smell seemed to be.
This is why middle-aged men and women go hiking every weekend. If you breathe in the good air of the mountains and recharge your energy, you can work hard again next week. The affairs that occur there were a kind of bonus.
—Ororong.
—Orororong.
“They’ve appeared.”
As we explored the forest, we found zombies. They were walking around aimlessly, emitting bizarre sounds from their rotten throats.
It was like a terrible scream that pulled up burning souls from the bottom of hell.
In other words, it was a mental attack in itself. If my magic resistance was just a little lower, I would have been grabbing my head and rolling on the floor.
—Orororong.
The zombies of this world were monsters, living proof of a miracle, resurrected corpses brought back to life by some kind of magic or soul-like thing causing an unknown reaction.
Of course, their will was weak, and they felt no desires other than hunger. In fact, they felt more like puppets than resurrected beings. I don’t know exactly, but as soon as they were resurrected, they dragged their rotten bodies around the world, trying to satisfy their hunger.
Due to the influence of magic, they no longer rotted, nor did they starve to death. They just wandered around until someone killed them again. They walked endlessly on stiff, rotten legs.
These guys must have walked here from somewhere too. Judging from their tattered clothes, they didn’t seem to be from this area. Perhaps a necromancer lured them towards the city to achieve some kind of goal.
As someone who was once human, it was necessary to end their long journey.
—Orororong.
“Saint, we must purify them.”
Eliza turned to me and said. The corners of her mouth were slightly raised, as if she couldn’t contain her joy. Her hand, holding the morning star, trembled. Eliza was also a master of the Vibrator-Hand.
She seemed to regard this hellish place as some kind of dreamlike amusement park.
“Of course.”
I drew my sword. Claudie also drew a curved blade. There were a total of ten zombies. They were so slow that I could easily handle them alone if I was careful.
I just couldn’t get bitten. Actually, it didn’t matter much if I got bitten. The zombies’ weak bite force couldn’t even pierce my heavenly armor. I just had to be careful of my face. But if I got bitten on the face, there was no answer.
A person bitten by a zombie would suffer from a fever, and when their immunity ran out, they would die and become a zombie.
A high-ranking priest’s cure could treat it, but it was so expensive that you were likely to go bankrupt the moment you were bitten. I heard rumors that some foolish adventurers had already suffered that fate.
“In the name of the God of Order!”
Eliza suddenly roared and rushed out like an excited water buffalo. She slammed her raised morning star straight into the zombie’s chest.
—Thwack!
—Ororong!
The zombie let out a bizarre death cry, and its upper and lower body were separated. Holy shit, that was amazing power. Its upper body was torn off in a single blow. The lower body also seemed flustered by the unexpected situation, and struggled to stand up even though it had lost its torso.
“What are you doing, torso!”
I kicked the lower body hard. The half-rotten, lightweight thing flew all the way to a tree and crashed into it. The lower body finally fell silent.
“Siljang Sword Technique!”
I cleanly slashed the zombie next to me with a disciplined strike.
My swordsmanship skills had noticeably improved over the past month of training. The streamlined movements resulted in a slash that literally cut the zombie in half. The zombie collapsed powerlessly.
It was as easy as cutting a moving bundle of straw.
“Eliza! Claudie! You know you can’t injure their heads!”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Of course I know… It’s a little disappointing, though.”
Eliza was someone who found the meaning of life in smashing enemies’ heads. Let’s just ignore her disappointment.
“So the smell doesn’t get on the sword…”
—Swoosh!
Claudie swung her sword, and three heads fell off in one blow. The zombies didn’t even realize their heads had fallen off, and danced a grotesque dance similar to a point dance for a while before collapsing.
“Hmm, clean.”
There wasn’t a speck of dust on her curved blade. In contrast, my sword was already stained with blackish fluid. Unable to bear the sight of my sword being further contaminated, I put it away and decided to face them with my specialty, taekwondo.
—Orororong!
“Hwanma Kick!”
I immediately kicked the zombie that was reaching out its arm and running towards me with a Hwanma Kick (幻魔脚).
“Spin Kick!”
And as a follow-up, I finished it off with a Spin Kick (旋風脚). The guy’s spine was broken by the force of my tremendous spinning kick, and he crashed to the ground. I said that, but in reality, I just gave him a couple of soccer kicks.
In the first place, it wasn’t a taekwondo technique at all.
I just lied.
“It’s over.”
While I was making a fuss, the situation ended. Eliza had gone wild, dashing around and smashing all the zombies. I had two, Claudie had three, and Eliza had an amazing score of five.
“Katt, should I cut off the heads?”
“No, stay still. I’ll do it.”
I stopped Claudie, who was trying to collect the heads of the fallen zombies.
I needed to cut off the heads of the dead zombies and put them in the sack I was carrying on my back. These were all dollars.
I cut off all the heads as if I were slicing meat on a cutting board. I didn’t want to make Claudie do such a rough job, and Eliza had nothing but a morning star as a weapon, so it was right for me to do it.
The sack quickly became full as I handed over all the cut-off heads. Even though they were shrunken heads that had rotted, putting in ten of them made it feel quite heavy. This is why it was better to catch skeletons. They didn’t smell as bad.
“It would be best to just leave the corpses alone. I’d like to clean them up, but there are too many. If we clean them up every time we encounter them, it would be a waste of time. Let’s do it all at once later and focus on purifying the undead for now.”
Eliza explained the plan for the future as fluently as someone who had been possessed. Drawn to her, who seemed eager to jump out at any moment, we entered the depths of the forest.
Eliza fearlessly led the way. She was an expert in undead extermination, and she succeeded in identifying places where enemies were likely to gather just by discovering a few traces.
“I’ve found them.”
—Gegegegak.
This time, we found a squad of skeletons gathered together. Honestly, I could go alone and smash them all with taekwondo.
“The skeletons here are, how should I put it, too weak.”
Claudie muttered as she watched the skeletons roaming around.
“The desert ruin skeletons are difficult to deal with because they are fully armed.”
“Ruin skeletons?”
“Yeah, they’re guards who protect the buried treasures of the royal family. Their bones are strong, their movements are fast, and they move around in groups like an army, so they’re not easy to deal with. They’re usually called [Guardian Skulls].”
Treasures of the royal family, it feels like Egypt.
“That’s a pretty brutal name. Can I win if I fight them?”
“Hmm, in a one-on-one? What makes them scary is that they form a formation. It might be a little difficult if two or three of them gather.”
“Am I too weak…”
“Huh? No, no, it’s okay. You’re a strong man. In fact, willpower is more important than skill. A person with willpower can become strong no matter what. That’s why Katt you…”
My eyes met Claudie’s. Hearing such embarrassing words suddenly made my face flush. Her lips were close…
“You seem to be getting along very well. Then it would be against etiquette to interfere. I will take responsibility for purifying those undead!”
With that, Eliza rushed out again like an angry bull.
“In the name of the God of Order!”
—Thwack!
—Crack!
Eliza, who charged like a general with her morning star raised, literally went into the middle of the skeletons and started rampaging. Countless bone fragments flew every time the iron ball drew a half-circle trajectory.
Mere skeletons were helpless against that monstrous saint.
Thus, the skeletons’ skulls were also turned into material items and placed in my sack.
In that way, we searched the mountains and found the undead. Zombies, skeletons, and even mummies… I almost lost my mind at the feast of all kinds of undead.
“Fuck!”
And then, something happened.
—Wheeeeeeeee!
“Fuck, it’s a ghost!”
This time, a Ghost appeared. I panicked and ran behind Claudie, wrapping my arms around her waist and hiding my body. I, Kim Geuntae, have always been extremely afraid of ghosts.
“H-Huh?! My lower back is sensitive… Ugh!”
“It’s so scary, what should I do!”
I spewed out fear as if I was having a seizure. Then the ghost began to circle around us. It was one of the most desperate moments in Kim Katt’s life! It was the first time I had seen a ghost in person since I was in the army!
“Calm down, Saint. That is just a trivial being.”
Then Eliza spoke, showing the boldness typical of religious people. That’s right. Eliza was a nun. She would be able to easily smash that kind of ghost. I looked at her with eyes as if I were looking at an angel.
“I will give you a buff.”
—By the glorious power of God, may evil be driven out…
“Holy Enchant.”
Then suddenly, a holy light began to emanate from my sword.
“Oh, oh…! This power!”
“With that, you will be able to cut down those heterogeneous beings that are not affected by physical force.”
The light was brilliant.
I nervously pointed my sword at the ghost. With such a buff as Holy Enchant, courage seemed to surge naturally. The fear I had felt just a moment ago had disappeared as if washed away. I looked at Eliza.
“Try it.”
“Okay!”
—Wheeeeeeeee!
I confronted the ghost. It seemed to shrink back at the sight of the shining blade.
I swung my sword at the ghost without hesitation.
“Bankai (卍解)!”
