Chapter 1883 – 1883. Eternal Eden
The woman trapped in the spiderweb cocoon was a natural beauty. Clear skin and distinct features. She wore no makeup, yet her appearance seemed to declare that she was beautiful in her very being.
She wore a baseball jacket with an eagle design and a baseball cap. Her old black T-shirt was worn, but her chest was like a huge mountain, definitely an F cup. Her waist was slender.
There was a hole in her full chest area. It seemed she had been killed by the monster spider piercing her heart. Her hips were large and firm, and she wore denim hot pants, exposing her thighs and calves. This made me feel a little strange.
‘Hot pants? In a situation where zombies are roaming around?’
It was a hot summer where you would sweat even if you stood still. But outside, zombies were roaming. It had become a world where even a slight bite from a zombie would turn you into one.
People covered their bodies as much as possible. They reduced exposure and wore thick clothes. It wasn’t uncommon to see people wrapping wooden planks around their bodies. If you went online, there were widespread methods for making thick clothes that were safe from zombie bites. There were even methods to protect the body by layering paper. It was better to die from heat than to be bitten by a zombie.
‘There’s a bite mark on her right calf. Was she bitten by a zombie too?’
Being bitten by a zombie didn’t immediately turn you into one. The time it took for brain death varied depending on the person’s condition. If you were in good shape, you could last more than 12 hours. If your condition was severe, you could turn into a zombie in just one minute.
My eyes fell on her sneakers. Orange sneakers. I didn’t know much about sneakers, but I had an eye for quality.
‘Those are expensive.’
They looked like sneakers that would cost at least 700,000 won.
I scanned her body up and down, then sighed in pity. Her pale skin had no life. If you got close, there was a smell of decay. Perhaps because she was in the spiderweb cocoon, there were no small bugs like maggots, which was a relief.
‘I can’t just leave a beauty like this here. I should bury her in a sunny spot.’
Let’s make a grave behind the school. Since a few security team members had died, making a grave would help secure some public sentiment.
‘Heh, my plan is brilliant.’
I wrapped the beauty’s body with nearby spiderwebs, making it look like there was nothing but spiderwebs inside.
‘If I take a corpse openly, there will be strange rumors. That I’m defiling a dead body. That I’m a necro… necro… necromancer who gets excited by corpses.’
I carefully wrapped her body in spiderwebs and carried it on my back. It was heavy. The way back was going to be a bit tiring.
‘I should also take the combat drones. I think two of them were completely destroyed.’
I could picture Na Chae-young sighing when she saw the combat drones. She definitely would. I’d bet on it.
I also gave the remaining spiderwebs to the security team. It was an instruction to take them.
“Queen spider’s webs. Can we take them too?”
“Take them if you want. There’s plenty.”
I answered Gu Tae-hee’s question casually. She was asking knowing the answer anyway. Gu Tae-hee’s subordinates were already taking them. Gu Tae-hee even started taking the relatively intact corpse of the monster spider.
“Why the spider corpse? Are you going to make soup with it?”
“…I’m planning to hand it over to the government.”
Gu Tae-hee’s expression wasn’t good. It must be because of the side effects of the Bister II she took. On the other hand, I was fine thanks to my recovery.
“Did you say that Bionics, who made Bister II, is with the government?”
“Yes.”
“Since our business is done, we can part ways here.”
I winked at Park Hae-gil. Park Hae-gil gathered the security team members. They took the combat drones, the queen spider’s webs, and the security team members’ corpses and moved.
‘Of course, I have to take the cutlass too.’
• • •
I rode my bicycle back to Seongak Elementary School. I was able to arrive before sunset.
The atmosphere at Seongak Elementary School was heavy. It was because a riot had occurred a few hours ago. Naturally, they were watching my every move.
‘I like it.’
It would be quiet for a while. I could use the riot as an excuse to force them to do various things.
“Rest as you see fit. Oh, don’t skip your shifts. You know there was a riot, right? If you guys rest, another riot might break out. Then, not only will I be screwed, but you guys will be screwed too.”
I was about to head to the main building, leaving the security team, who were tense at the mention of the riot, when Park Hae-gil called me.
“Yujin, what about the fallen?”
“Make a grave behind the school. If their families want cremation, do that.”
“Aren’t you going to give compensation to their families?”
Why should I give them that kind of thing? I was about to frown, but I stopped. The security team. They were the guys I had officially promised privileges to. If even these guys started a riot, it would be a headache.
“I’ll give them money and necessities. Write a separate report about this.”
“…Yujin. This is a personal question, but what are you going to do with the evolution serum?”
It seemed he had overheard some of the conversation with Gu Tae-hee. Since I had said it openly, I didn’t think much of it.
“I don’t know. It’s valuable, so I should keep it for now.”
“…I heard there’s a 50% chance of dying.”
“Do you want to be injected with the evolution serum?”
“Yes. I don’t mind if you experiment on me. I will cooperate as much as possible.”
I looked at Park Hae-gil. He wasn’t just saying it. Park Hae-gil had already made up his mind. Honestly, I was quite tempted. Even though there was a 50% chance, I could easily get rid of the annoying Park Hae-gil. And even if he succeeded in evolving, I was curious about how he would evolve. If it seemed dangerous, I could just kill him then.
But I couldn’t just give it to him.
“Train the security team to be useful. They were disappointing earlier. You saw Gu Tae-hee’s subordinates, right? Make them useful enough so they don’t scream, even if they’re not as good as them. Then, I’ll give you the evolution serum as compensation.”
“Understood. We need a training ground. Can we use the empty lot in the back?”
“Do as you please.”
Leaving the motivated Park Hae-gil behind, I finally headed to the main building. It wasn’t too late to beat up the rebels locked up in the annex detention room later.
I put down my luggage and took a shower first. I washed away the stickiness with a cool stream of water and went to Na Chae-young.
Na Chae-young, seeing the broken combat drones, sighed as expected. It wasn’t something I couldn’t understand. She had a lot of work to do right now. Weapon development, combat AI research and updates, and base reinforcement. She had a mountain of things to do.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t help. I didn’t know anything about this kind of work.
“Is this the queen spider’s web? You brought a lot.”
“The more, the better.”
Na Chae-young admired the spiderweb. She touched and examined the spiderweb. Even when she pulled it roughly, the spiderweb didn’t tear.
“It’s soft. But it’s not weak. It’s tougher than any fiber I know.”
“It was easily cut with a piece of glass though?”
“That’s because you’re weird.”
Na Chae-young said with a hint of certainty. She took out a utility knife from her desk drawer and tried to cut the spiderweb. The spiderweb didn’t cut. I quietly watched her. Thinking about what the problem was, I noticed several things.
“You didn’t put enough force into your hand. And it’s better to tilt your wrist a little more. If it were me, I would cut the upper part, not there.”
“…I can’t believe your trait is ‘dunce’.”
Na Chae-young said as if she was tired of me.
I was surprised too. That I, who had no talent, could say this much. But on the other hand, I understood. How many times had I wielded a sword in reality and in fictional worlds? If you counted the years, it would be decades. I had experienced life-threatening battles that others couldn’t easily experience without risk. All of that was accumulated within me.
It was when I was feeling a new sense of emotion. Na Chae-young took out scissors and was cutting the spiderweb. And then she discovered the woman’s corpse that was tightly wrapped.
“……”
Na Chae-young froze. Her deeply sunken eyes turned to me.
“…Now you’re even thinking of defiling corpses? Your pervertedness was a trait that went beyond common sense, but…”
“Don’t misunderstand. I brought her here to bury her in a sunny spot. Why would I defile a corpse when you’re here? I can defile you!”
“Okay, be quiet. The longer you talk, the more pathetic you look. Just move the corpse aside. It’s hard for me to do it with my strength.”
As she said, I moved the corpse aside.
How should I bury this woman? If I just bury her, bugs might eat her. I should put her in a coffin. A steel coffin? Or a stone coffin?
‘If I use a steel coffin, Na Chae-young will probably complain that I’m wasting resources in unnecessary places…’
I stared at her dead body.
She was a beauty on par with Na Chae-young. It was absolutely rare to see a beauty of this level.
‘What a waste.’
The D virus didn’t discriminate between handsome men and beautiful women. There must be many beauties who have become zombies. And because they were beautiful, they would have many hardships. It would be nice if I could save and possess all the beauties, but it was physically impossible.
‘Even if I bury her in a coffin, should I touch her chest once?’
I touched her full chest. It was hard. And cold. I thought of a living breast. The warmth of body temperature, the softness where your fingers would sink in, and the elasticity that maintained its shape.
‘I should touch Na Chae-young’s chest.’
It was the moment I was about to take my hand off the corpse’s chest. Suddenly, my stamina drained away. So much so that I, who was standing, lost my balance and staggered without realizing it.
“……!”
Startled, I squeezed the chest I was holding. It was soft. And I could feel a beating heart. I looked at the corpse in surprise. The pale face began to regain its color.
‘Did my recovery ability activate…?!’
I had never tried to use recovery on others. No, I hadn’t even thought about it. I thought recovery was like a passive skill. But what if it wasn’t just a passive skill?
‘I can use recovery on others too? But this woman is dead.’
No, I had died and come back to life before, hadn’t I?
Recovery (回復).
Returning to the previous state.
Before entering this world, the recovery was said to be the highest level of awakening ability in the game app. That was true. There was no way it wasn’t the highest level ability to make a stopped heart beat again.
“Haha. To realize this only now… No, I guess it’s a good thing I realized it now.”
It was a perfect upgrade to complete recovery. The problem was that it was so exhausting that my legs were shaking after using it once. It seemed like I should skip training and rest for the day.
‘Now I’ll revive all the dead beauties and make them mine!’
Thump-thump… Thump…
The corpse’s heart, which had been beating strongly, weakened again and stopped.
“What the fuck?”
