Into the Creations 1875

## Chapter 1875 – 1875. Eternal Eden

I shook the blood off my sword and approached Yang Subin. Her face was pale with fear, and her body trembled. It was only natural that she was scared, considering a muscle monster had suddenly fallen from the sky and tried to attack her. Unlike me, who was used to dealing with monsters, she was just an ordinary doctor.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah, yes. I’m fine. Was that monster a variant too?”

“Yeah.”

“…Are there many variants? I’ve seen two today alone.”

“It’s not usually this many. Today is just the first day the D virus spread. You’ve just been unlucky to encounter two variants.”

“…Do variants also evolve by eating living things, like zombies?”

I nodded.

“The D virus is the cause of evolution.”

“Then the variants will get stronger over time.”

“That’s right. And so will humans. Evolution isn’t exclusive to zombies.”

If an Awakened is bitten by a zombie, they have a high chance of immediately becoming a variant zombie. The muscle monster was probably an Awakened with physical enhancement abilities.

“…Thank you for saving me. If it weren’t for you, I would have been eaten alive.”

“We just agreed to cooperate fully, so I can’t just let you die so easily.”

She looked at me with fresh eyes. I puffed out my chest and struck a pose. After about five minutes, eight guards came out of the building. Two of them were being carried on stretchers.

Park Haegil approached me and bowed.

“Thank you for saving Subin!”

“Yeah, sure.”

I felt nothing from Park Haegil’s polite and sincere greeting.

Yang Subin immediately checked on the patients, starting with the unconscious ones. She examined their heads closely and said there were no major issues. She wanted to do a thorough examination, but… well, there weren’t any state-of-the-art medical devices at Seongak Elementary School. She gave painkillers and splints to the guy with the double leg fracture. It didn’t seem like he needed surgery.

I took the lead and started moving. Park Haegil came up beside me.

“The movements and strength you showed when you fought that monster… are you perhaps a psychic?”

“Would you believe me if I said I was a psychic?”

“With zombies and monsters around, why wouldn’t I believe in psychics?”

“That’s right. I’m a psychic. Or, more commonly, an Awakened.”

“How can one become an Awakened?”

“You either are or you aren’t?”

I didn’t know how one became an Awakened either. The cause was also unclear. The D virus? It was one of the causes, but nothing had been definitively proven. Awakened were rare. Even now, when the D virus was actively spreading, Awakened were not easy to find. And early Awakened, those who awakened before the zombie outbreak, were even rarer.

“…Did you perhaps awaken today?”

“No. I awakened about a month ago. Do you want powers that badly?”

“I want power. It seems like we’ve entered an era where power is the most important thing.”

“If you really want to become an Awakened, try eating a zombie. Maybe you’ll evolve and awaken.”

Humans were different from zombies. No matter how many zombies a human ate, the chances of evolving were low. Evolution wasn’t something you could just do as you pleased.

The exception was Players. Especially Lords and Bionics.

Lords could forcibly awaken those loyal to them. The price was their loyalty.

Bionics could evolve humans through genetic manipulation and enhancements. The downside was that it took an incredibly long time to evolve them in the desired direction.

Of course, I had no intention of telling Park Haegil any of this. We weren’t that close, and it was too much of a hassle.

I looked at Park Haegil. He was seriously considering eating a zombie.

‘Is he the type who’s obsessed with getting stronger?’

Park Haegil’s first impression was that he was sturdy and kind. But as they say, you have to peel back the layers to see a person’s true nature. I couldn’t tell if Park Haegil was truly good or just a hypocrite.

“Since you’ve decided to work with us, let me tell you this in advance. There might be times when you have to kill people. When that time comes, kill them. Don’t hesitate.”

“…Did I seem pathetic to you? I know that when you have to kill, you have to kill. I’ve killed people in battle before.”

“I don’t know how much that experience will help, but don’t do anything stupid.”

Perhaps because we killed zombies on the way here, there were fewer zombies on the way back. Thanks to that, the return trip was easy.

‘I hope it stays easy until the end.’

The moment I finished that thought.

“Help me!!”

Someone shouted from a dark alleyway. It was a man’s voice, so I looked at the alley with a rather indifferent expression. There was a man being torn apart by three insects the size of medium-sized dogs. The man reached out towards us.

“Wh-what is that?!”

Park Haegil was shocked. He immediately pulled out the extendable baton from his belt.

“Bugs, huh.”

There was no rule that bugs couldn’t evolve. However, it was too fast for bugs to evolve after the D virus spread. They must have been evolving even before the D virus spread.

“Can you really be so relaxed? We have to save that man!”

“Save me! Please save me!! Aaaah!”

I crossed my arms. I didn’t see any need to save him. The man’s arms and legs were already red with blood, and even if we saved him, we’d have to give him first aid.

I looked at Park Haegil’s colleagues. They were frozen, hesitating. They were scared of the bugs. Even though they were special forces guards, they only had batons instead of guns. They probably didn’t want to risk their lives with just that.

“Ignore him.”

I said. The insects didn’t try to come out of the dark alley. Even after seeing us, they focused on the man they had captured. The man’s strength was fading. The bugs were trying to drag him into a manhole.

‘Did they make a nest in the sewers? The sewers aren’t that big. Maybe they dug a different hole underground.’

It was extremely unpleasant that these bug bastards were in the underground of Seoul, which I would soon control. I wanted to wipe them all out, but…

‘I don’t know the exact scale of these bugs. I could get screwed if I act alone.’

I couldn’t handle everything by myself.

It was the moment I turned my head. Park Haegil charged at the bugs. He struck the head of a bug with his baton. It hit the center of the bug’s head perfectly. The bug’s head shattered, and translucent green slime splattered on the ground.

Kieeeeeeek!

The bugs rushed at Park Haegil. Park Haegil swung his baton wildly, but he left an opening for a bug that crawled up from below. The bug bit Park Haegil’s right hand. Blood spurted out, and Park Haegil screamed.

“Haegil!”

“Boss!”

“Damn it!!”

The guards rushed in. They also had batons and started hitting the bugs.

I watched the scene with cold eyes.

“He doesn’t even listen to me.”

“I-I’m sorry. Haegil can’t just ignore injustice…”

“Looks like it.”

Park Haegil. Should I just kill him now? No. Yang Subin was right behind me. If I was going to kill him, I had to do it discreetly. Preferably by making it look like an accident.

“I wanted to treat you well, but it seems like I can’t. You understand, right?”

“Y-you’re not going to kill Haegil, are you?”

“I won’t kill him. But that’s it. I’ll give him one chance because of you. I’ll use him as a guard dog, and if he becomes useless, I’ll kick him out. I’m making a big concession. You’re not going to complain, are you?”

“I’ll talk to Haegil later. He won’t disappoint you again.”

I wasn’t disappointed. I hadn’t expected anything from the start.

The guards who belatedly rushed in killed all the bugs and rescued Park Haegil and the man who had eventually lost consciousness. Park Haegil’s right hand was mangled, and the man’s arms and legs were a mess. Especially his legs.

Yang Subin deliberately ignored the man and went to Park Haegil first to check his injuries. I liked that action more.

“I’m fine. It hurts a bit, but it’s not serious. Check on this man first.”

The guards laid the unconscious man flat on the ground. Yang Subin’s face hardened as she looked at his injuries.

“…The bleeding is too severe. He seems to be in shock. He needs a blood transfusion right now, but…”

“……”

A blood transfusion here? You couldn’t just do a blood transfusion just because you had people. You needed medical equipment. And no one knew the man’s blood type.

Yang Subin started to stop the bleeding as best she could. Her hands and clothes became covered in blood. Her face looked terrible.

“Even if we operate here, his lower body… ah.”

She sighed and stopped the bleeding. The man was dead. In the silence, a sigh was heard. It was Park Haegil. He held out his right hand to Yang Subin.

“Subin, can you treat me?”

“…I can give you first aid. I have bandages and medicine. I’ll give you painkillers too. But we need to check your wound again when we get back.”

While Park Haegil was receiving first aid, I looked at the guards. The guards who ran to save Park Haegil. Were they all like Park Haegil?

‘At least those three aren’t.’

Three of them were looking at Park Haegil with dissatisfaction. I didn’t know about the one who was unconscious, and the other two were looking at Park Haegil with concern. The one with the double leg fracture was staring blankly at the corpse.

Soon, the first aid was over, and Yang Subin stood up. She came to my side.

“Um… if you get bitten by those monster bugs, do you get infected?”

“Unless those monsters are zombies, you won’t get infected since they’re not zombies.”

“Haa. That’s a relief.”

“You might get other diseases, though.”

“Huh?”

“They’re monster bugs. How do you know if they have other viruses?”

“…Is there no way to deal with that?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’m not a doctor.”

I took them back. Maybe it was because there were so many people, but there were quite a few people in the houses asking to be saved. I saved them. They weren’t injured like the man who was attacked by the bugs, and they were all fine. Besides, they didn’t seem to have any combat ability, so they wouldn’t cause any trouble.

‘Na Chaeyoung told me to bring people. We need labor for a comfortable life.’