Chapter 23

Once we were done, the Lee brothers headed back to the apartment, while I took ten of my underlings to the supermarket. The gangsters’ heads were still hanging at the entrance. Thanks to them, everything inside was still intact.

I grabbed all the food I could see and passed them to my underlings. In the span of a week, all the frozen food had gone bad. The watermelons felt rather warm on the outside. I wasn’t sure if they were edible but I grabbed a few anyway. Lee Jeong-Hyuk or Choi Da-Hye probably knew more about me when it came to food and meal prep. I also got some fresh water and clothes.

No one had changed for a couple of days. I picked out some clean underwear and some summer clothes, along with blankets and duvets just in case it got cold at night.

I stopped by the hardware section at the end. I gathered some tools that seemed useful. I wanted to procure some weapons for them. I wanted to make sure that they would be able to take care of themselves, even in the event of something unfortunate occurring, such as me being gone for a week. I knew they needed tools to protect themselves.

After filling the shopping basket with all the tools I thought were going to come in handy, I realized I had put in a lot more than I thought. I grew worried that we couldn’t carry everything back.

I looked at my underlings to see if any of them could spare a hand. Every single one of them had bags in their hands, and some even had bags taped to their waists as well.

‘Hmm, maybe I got a little too greedy.’

I didn’t see any other zombies around. I was considering recruiting some new underlings if there were any around that looked alright. However, most of the ones whose bodies were still intact were already under my control. There was also no reason for the passive zombies to be out here in broad daylight.

‘Okay, I need more underlings.’

The fight against the black creature had made me think of what was most important. I came to the conclusion that the most urgent issue was to recruit more underlings that could assist me. There was no guarantee that there was only one black creature out there.

I knew there had to be other zombies like me who still possessed their rational minds. Zombies with cognitive abilities. What would be the odds of them fighting for other groups of survivors?

Everything was mere speculation, and was all the more reason for me to recruit more underlings, just in case the unexpected happened.

‘I should search Haengdang-dong inside out. I need to recruit those with strong and complete bodies into my underlings as punishment for eating humans.’

Thus wrapped in my thoughts, I headed back to the apartment.

* * *

Everyone at the apartment was happier than I expected with the things I brought back. They welcomed the food, but they were happier to see the extra pairs of underwear and clothes. Filling up the grocery cart with everything I saw because I didn’t know everyones’ sizes was a stroke of genius. Lee Jeong-Uk laughed out loud when he saw the brilliant pink pair of boxers.

“Ji-Suk, Ji-Suk!”

“Yes, ahjussi?”

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

“Here’s one for you.”

Lee Jeong-Uk handed him the pink pair of boxers. The teenager blushed and mumbled something. The girl in her twenties, Kang Eun-Jeong, gave him a noogie. “You shouldn’t be complaining you know!” she said.

“What? Nuna!”

“Say thank you and wear it.”

Despite her firm voice, she had a smile across her face. Kang Ji-Suk took the pink underwear into the master bedroom, grumbling all the way. After that, Lee Jeong-Uk took a look at the things I had brought from the hardware section.

“Where’d you get this? Wait, no…”

Lee Jeong-Uk rephrased his question, shaking his head as if he knew how silly his question was.

“Did you get these from the hardware section?”

I nodded, and Lee Jeong-Uk looked at Lee Jeong-Hyuk.

“Jeong-Hyuk, can you take a look at this?”

“This?”

“You used to work as a welder.”

Lee Jeong-Hyuk replied hesitantly, “Welder? What welder? I barely learned anything in that part-time job. And that was back in my freshman or sophomore year in college.”

Lee Jeong-Uk smacked his lips and said, “You’re right. And it’ll probably be too noisy anyway.”

“Hyung, I don’t think we have to weld it. I think we can just use it the way it is.”

“Do you think you can even swing it properly? It’s pretty heavy.”

“The one you’re holding is too heavy. I’m talking about this one. Don’t you think it’ll be quite nice to put a knife at the end of this stainless steel tube?”

Lee Jeong-Uk nodded as he took a look at the stainless steel tube Lee Jeong-Hyuk passed him. Stainless steel was extremely useful, as it had a good strength-to-weight ratio, and did not rust as easily as other metals.

The Lee brothers went to work on their ideas. Meanwhile, I got up, preparing to go out. Choi Da-Hye watched me for a moment as I made my preparations, then she asked, “Are you going out?”

I picked up the drawing pad, pointing at the high school. Just then, Lee Jeong-Uk walked up to me.

“Are you nuts? You’re trying to go to that school again?”

I nodded.

My gesture was met with silence.

Lee Jeong-Uk didn’t say a word. His lips were pursed tightly, and our eyes were fixed on each others’. He finally broke the long silence by asking me another question. “Are you worried about the survivors?”

I didn’t reply. Considering how quickly the black creature had come after us, it was possible that there were survivors left within the school.

However, I wasn’t concerned about just any survivor. I was interested in the lookouts who were on guard duty that night. They had seen the black creature with their own eyes. If the black creature attacked them, there was a possibility that they could’ve transformed like me. I had to see if there were more creatures like me with my own two eyes. Frankly speaking, though, I didn’t need to explain all of this to the rest of them.

Therefore, all I did was nod calmly. Lee Joeng-Uk sighed. He knew that there was no way to dissuade me from going.

“If anything happens, just run. Don’t be overconfident.”

I nodded and headed out. Everyone in the living room bade me farewell. Amongst them was So-Yeon.

“Daddy!”

So-Yeon came running up to me. I took her into my arms and patted her. She smiled and tickled my wrist.

‘Do I look sad? Why is she tickling me?’

Quickly, though, I realized that she was writing letters on my wrist. I couldn’t exactly tell what she was writing but I assumed she wrote something positive as she was beaming so I smiled back. After that, she sidled up right next to my ear, and whispered, “...you.”

I was so surprised to hear those words from her that my eyes almost popped out. I had to question myself if I heard the right thing, even though I’d heard them crystal clear, since it was something so unexpected.

She immediately dashed to Choi Da-Hye as though embarrassed that she’d said those words. I waved at So-Yeon before heading out.

As I opened the front door, a musty smell hit me in the face, but I couldn’t stop smiling. Her warm words had melted my heart well.

- I love you.

That’s what So-Yeon had said to me.

* * *

I made my way outside, taking five underlings with me as I got to the first floor. I was planning to interrogate zombies that were similar to me. I needed to see if they were on my side or not. If they held any animosity toward humans, I was going to kill them without hesitation.

I didn’t care if my actions were unethical. I wasn’t an ethical being anymore. I made haste toward the high school with my underlings. The journey no longer felt long. I felt as though I could make the trip with my eyes closed. More importantly, I could tell that something was different about my muscles. I was pushing off the ground with much more force than usual. It didn’t feel like I was going forward. Rather, it felt as though I was pushing the world backward.

I touched my thighs, questioning my rather unfamiliar muscles. They felt too strong, and my muscles felt rock solid.

I twisted my head side to side to observe my underlings behind me. They stared back at me blankly, wondering if something had happened.

‘If I’m walking faster than usual, there’s no way they can be right behind me.’

However, my underlings were keeping up with me, perfectly calm.

‘It’s probably nothing, right?’

I didn’t think much of it, putting it off as just a feeling. We reached the wall surrounding the school, and I ordered my underlings to check out the situation over the wall while I leaned against it.

Leap, leap.

As soon as I gave them orders, the unbelievable happened. My mouth fell open. All my underlings began to jump over the wall with ease, despite it being at least two meters high. The underlings who’d had to clamber over each other to get over these same walls just a few days earlier were now performing miracles.

I watched them jump over one by one in awe, and soon, I realized that all of them had made the jump.

‘Now’s not the time for this.’

I put all my strength into my legs to make the jump after getting myself together.

Then I leaped.

Immediately, my body was in midair, and I felt a sense of weightlessness. I had a sensation of my soul trying to catch up to my body. My body kept floating higher, like a spaceship defying gravity.

‘Huh? This is really high. Too high. Stop, stop! I want to get down now.’

As I reached the peak of my leap, I could see the entire school below me. Then, some unfathomable force grabbed onto my ankles. I looked down reflexively as I felt gravity pulling me down. Gravity was persistently dragging me down to the ground.

I was scared. I was falling too fast. It felt like being on a free-fall tower ride with a broken seatbelt. The wind slapping at my ears heightened my fear.

I let out a sharp scream. I closed my eyes and prepared for impact.

I felt almost nothing as I landed.

‘What the…? How can this be?’

My body felt light as a feather. My landing had been gentle and sophisticated like a cat’s. I carefully opened my eyes, erasing the frown from my lips. My arms and legs were shaking violently. I had felt absolutely no impact, but the fear and terror had given me the chills.

Five underlings were arrayed in front of me, staring at me with the same confused expression. I brushed my hands, looking left and right to hide my embarrassment. I took my time to stretch a little, then put on a straight face and asked them, ‘When did I tell you to jump? Didn’t I order you just to check out the situation?’

As I gave them a dressing down, the underlings exchanged looks while scratching their hands. After a moment, they all jumped back over the wall. They were like trained ninjas that had taken on the appearance of zombies. When all of them had made it over the wall, I fell to the ground. It was as if I’d been waiting to be left alone to do so.

I was surprised. I was more than surprised. All I’d done was jump over the wall, but as I did so, I sensed my body grow light as a feather, while my lower body and core muscles had gotten abnormally strong. It definitely wasn’t just a feeling. I now knew that I couldn’t dismiss the feeling I’d felt on the way to the school.

My physical abilities had become abnormally enhanced, along with those of my underlings. The regular zombies on the streets were still the same. The change had happened only to me and my underlings. As I contemplated the cause of this, every avenue led to the same conclusion.

The black creature’s brain. My muscles had gone through a transformation as I ate its brain. I felt as though my muscles had condensed, somehow, becoming stronger and tougher.

‘Doesn’t that mean that my body has similar physical capabilities as the black creature?’

I swallowed as I looked at the rooftop of the school building. The school was five stories high. The black creature had jumped to the top of it with ease. If it had used all its strength, it would have easily been able to jump to a height of six or seven stories.

I wondered how high I could jump.

‘What’s the point of thinking about it? I can test it out on my own.’

I stood up, directing all my strength into my legs and getting into position to leap. My thigh muscles expanded, and my calves held firmly onto my achilles tendons, which were coiled like springs. With all my might, I held my breath and leaped toward the rooftop.

The wind rushed past my ears.

The first-, second- and third-floor windows zoomed before my eyes.

With a clank, I grabbed onto the windowsill of the fifth floor hallway.

‘I think I could’ve made it to the rooftop railing if I had put in more strength.’

My physical abilities had become abnormally enhanced, but unfortunately, I was still no match for the black creature.

Despite this, I was more than happy with what my body was capable of. My body was slowly turning into a weapon. I smirked as I looked down at the ground.

‘This is pretty high up.’

I felt nauseous. Though my physical body had been enhanced, the acrophobia I suffered from while still a human had not gone away. I made my way into the hallway, not even thinking about jumping down. Even though I was inside, my arms still trembled continuously thanks to my fear of heights. I clasped my hands together, taking deep breaths to calm my violently shaking body.