NOVEL NEXT Chapter 25
After the battle with the Alliance Leader, I thought to myself.
It would be nice to have a ranged attacker.
Thanks to the slingshot I used from the beginning, I easily won the second round, but I couldn’t keep throwing stones forever.
It was already a problem when the shadow soldiers ambushed us without the need to go all the way to the Alliance Leader.
The Ashen King made it easy to handle, but if I were alone, it wouldn’t have been resolved in close combat.
Such a clear weakness.
So, I created something.
What, you ask?
The Ashen Child.
A doppelgänger of the Ashen King.
It’s the gray orb floating beside my head.
Since the Ashen King is also part of the Management System, I can manipulate its abilities to some extent by spending points.
A doppelgänger made by tearing off a piece of ash.
Its scale can’t compare to the main body, but even this small doppelgänger has enough strength to handle situations like when I was trapped in the classroom.
So, I never expected this.
“Huh? You’re dying? So easily?!”
Even the Painter below the Clown managed to block the Flame’s power, so I never thought this one could kill me.
I was flustered as I looked at the corpse of the Clown.
I only intended to incapacitate him to extract information, but he died so stupidly.
You might say it’s ridiculous considering I separated the upper and lower body, but I didn’t throw it like that with the intention of tearing it apart.
The Ashen Blade.
It’s not the ashes used to create a fire, but a powerful strike that launches the ashes themselves.
A technique created to extend the combat sustainability of the Ashen Child, which doesn’t have enough replenishment speed for the used ashes.
This technique allows me to recover it immediately with almost no cost, but….
Of course, it’s far weaker than using flames.
A technique for physical combat and slaughter.
Yet, the Clown died with such a technique.
And in two pieces, at that.
“Argh! My arm! Myyy arm!”
“Shut up.”
“Guff!”
I crushed the noisy mouth of the Painter to silence him and approached the corpse of the Clown.
“…?”
What is this….
“Human?”
Seeing the Clown’s corpse filled me with confusion.
A pure human corpse that didn’t feel abnormal at all.
“Indeed… he’s far more dangerous than I thought.”
Only after inspecting the corpse did I realize what had happened.
Possession.
A type of abnormal phenomenon known as possession is evaluated as extremely dangerous since it’s nearly impossible to break without killing the possessed target.
It’s a power rarely used by ghosts, but depending on the type, some can even use it in ghost stories.
‘He wasn’t originally human-based after all.’
I frowned as I grasped the situation.
“I let go of a troublesome one.”
The Painter didn’t seem to know about possession either.
He’s quite a headache.
It would have been better if I had killed him here.
‘Still, it’s fortunate that there isn’t much exposed information.’
It’s better to shake off past events quickly because holding on to them won’t bring any good.
“Woof!”
I heard a bark from a distance.
“Good boy, Mungchi. Don’t eat stuff like this.”
As I caught Mungchi, who was running excitedly towards me, he spat out what he was nibbling on.
The scraps of the broken Clown fell with a thud.
I had already known that the Clown was up to no good.
I just left it alone since there was no reason to respond.
Once a god, now a beast.
Though he has lost his power and transformed into a small puppy, his essence hasn’t changed.
Mungchi D.
An egg of a god, like the Ashen King.
An undeniable god with divinity.
Unless those of the same elite caliber of the Artist came after me, these abnormal beings wouldn’t be weak enough to be breached.
“Still, things should be quiet for a while now.”
He knows the meaning of the recent attack too, not being a fool.
I could feel the gazes that were distant start to disappear one by one.
There’s no need to catch and kill them.
The moment you remove the Artist, they’re just a bunch of misfits and they wouldn’t dare rush even without this verification.
I looked at the unconscious Painter.
“I was going to kill you since you seemed to know so little.”
Since I also let go of the Clown…
Should I take him at least?
*
Apocalypse.
This is the situation in Seoul.
Well, to be honest, Seoul is in a better situation.
Busan has already fallen apart.
The tsunami caused by the giant whale that appeared by the seaside swallowed the city whole, and at that moment, most citizens couldn’t hold on and died.
Even those who survived were soon killed by the monsters that followed, and only a few managed to escape Busan alive.
In that sense, it’s correct to say Seoul is in a better situation.
Zombies here are monsters that are at least within fighting range compared to Busan’s Moby Dick.
….
That being said, it doesn’t change the fact that this is a time when humans struggle to survive.
“Haap!”
As a woman in a wild outfit and a bob cut swung a baseball bat at a zombie’s head, an explosion went off.
It wasn’t a big explosion nor did flames fly everywhere.
While it couldn’t cause significant damage just by swirling around, the shockwave from the explosion was enough to knock nearby enemies away.
The zombies near the one with a blown-off head were scattered everywhere by the shockwave, tumbling down.
The zombies, momentarily incapacitated from rolling on the ground.
“Now!”
“Kids, grab your tools!”
“Don’t give orders!”
Men hiding in nearby buildings burst out and slammed down the heads of the zombies.
They seemed to have brought whatever weapon could be used, from baseball bats to crowbars, hammers, and shovels.
The zombies could only be harvested like crops.
-Lumi-chan is strong!
-I hit the jackpot with the gacha!
-That streamer from the neighboring town uses a steel pipe, but got attacked by zombies and didn’t leave a single trace of flesh behind.
-What a great skill, right?
-But if you use it, you can’t move; you just have to take hits.
-Lol, what the heck?
“Whoa, is there really a skill like that? That person will have a tough time.”
Well, even if it’s a skill, it’d still be way safer than ordinary folks.
The streamers.
They’re the new power class that has risen rapidly after the day of apocalypse.
Whether it’s for surpassing regular humans with their capabilities or hunting monsters, there were many titles until they all began to be called streamers.
It seems to have been defined that way because the source of their power lies in the system of broadcasting and subscriptions.
In a world where anyone can become a streamer if they wish, not everyone can earn that power.
5P for each zombie.
1P for rescuing a survivor.
Right after awakening, they weren’t very different from ordinary humans, so they need to level up, but earning points isn’t as easy as one might think.
Moreover, it’s not enough just to have points.
Subscribers.
You need subscribers equal to the points being consumed to move on to the next stage.
Of course, in the beginning, you might only need 10 or 20, so it’s not impossible to accumulate, but to be treated as a real streamer from the bronze level onward requires hundreds of subscribers, making it difficult for ordinary people.
And crucially, what divides the current power structures is the presence of skills.
The privilege of leading players that can never be caught up to by newcomers.
■ Beginner Streamer Starter Pack (1,000P) (limit of 1 per person)
└ Random Skill Lottery Ticket (E)
└ Beginner Streamer’s Weapon (E)
└ 1 Slot for Beginner Streamer’s Avatar
└ Camera with [Abnormal Entity Familiar Tool] function.
└ Power supply, electricity, and water supply for stronghold (1 year)
Remaining quantity: 100
They announced that each country was limited to selling 100 units, and a pop-up appeared in the status window.
The item can only be purchased by those who completed the [Rescue Survivor] quest and set up a safe zone at their stronghold.
The price is 1,000P, a product that even Lumi, who had advanced early on, barely managed to purchase yesterday by saving up points to level up.
Other items are useful, but the most important is the one on top.
Random Skill Lottery Ticket (E)
The moment someone sees that pop-up, they can guess that if they can’t buy that first, they will have a rough time ahead.
That’s because if you check just a bit further down the shop….
■ Random Skill Lottery Ticket (F) (10,000)
A lottery ticket for the lowest tier skill, lower than the starter pack’s skills, that costs 10,000 points.
It essentially creates an insurmountable gap.
Even the streamers being mocked by viewers right now, who have no offensive capability, would never get infected by zombies if they could survive on their own.
They could intentionally wear something noisy to lure the zombies and then let their companions ambush them for hunting.
‘I’m glad I don’t have such abilities.’
Lumi opened her status window.
■ Streamer – Lee Hae-ji
■ Broadcast Name – Lumi-chan
■ Broadcast Rank – Bronze I
■ Skill – [Shockwave E]
■ Points – 120P
[Shockwave] is the skill that Lumi drew.
Its effect is to unleash a shockwave along with an explosion at the impact point of her attack.
The range and power of the shockwave increase in proportion to the force applied to the attack.
Right now, as demonstrated in the recent battle, it’s potent enough that even two adult-sized zombies can’t resist it and are blown away.
It’s a good skill.
Thanks to the explosive power, it’s strong even in one-on-one scenarios, and every time it attacks, the shockwave is advantageous for multiple foes.
“With this, I can hold my own.”
It’s been a month since the apocalypse broke out.
Even in this brief time, it has been enough to experience the harshness of the apocalypse and encounter all sorts of human characters.
Kim Min-seong.
As soon as the incident happened, he rushed to Ewha Womans University, filming all sorts of videos claiming it was an educational moment, and unexpectedly rose to fame, ending up being the first to purchase the starter package despite not even being a broadcaster.
Although Lumi was the first to establish a stronghold near Hongdae, in the end, the largest force turned out to be Kim Min-seong’s group.
[Auto Control]
A skill that automatically detects surrounding threats and moves the body to engage in combat.
It may seem trivial, but it’s an incredibly strong skill.
The skill enhances the superhuman physical abilities of the user level of bronze or higher.
On his last broadcast, he swiftly butchered dozens of zombies alone without even receiving help from the stronghold members.
For ordinary humans living in a peaceful modern day, it’s combat prowess that would be difficult to even imitate.
It’s beyond overwhelming.
However, he stormed Ewha Womans University the moment the incident happened, so he can’t be said to have the best character.
Truly garbage.
A beast driven by lust.
Recently, what did he say when he approached me?
To a man like him, a capable woman is fitting, so he’d acknowledge my abilities as I set up the stronghold and wanted me to come in as a concubine?
In the midst of that, dismissing idols as mere failures while saying his legal wife would be a stretch was astounding.
He’s the worst in human terms, but judging by the women following him, it’s clear how they are treated.
At least because of his arrogance and pride, he gave me three days, and because of that, I managed to hunt and gain this skill, but….
“He probably won’t wait long since he’s been watching the broadcasts too.”
He’ll try to drag me in forcefully.
The three days he mentioned still have a day left, but moving now wouldn’t be strange at all.
He’s that kind of trash.
So, today I need to finish my preparations.
The reason for coming to a large supermarket somewhat far from the stronghold.
There are no established forces in this area yet.
That means there are plenty of zombies to hunt with no one targeting them.
“Silver rank requires 280 points.”
I will fill it all up today.