Return of the Apocalypse Knight

Chapter 30: Commercial District (1)

When I realized that the dimension I had followed the Demon King to was the Earth of my previous life, I was overjoyed and saddened.

I was happy to see the Earth of my previous life, which I thought I would never see again,

I was saddened that it had been taken over by the Demon King.

I knew that there were no priests, holy water, or mana to stop the Demon King in my previous life.

Of course, mana seemed to be slowly being generated, but as expected, the religions of Earth could not produce holy water.

In the end, the land of my previous life was falling to the Demon King.

Even though the world was falling apart because of the Demon King, my joy was not completely gone.

There was still the hope that I might see people I knew from my previous life.

In truth, my joy was very much a snobbish one, despite my hopes, for even though this land was failing, my presence here meant that I was so close to my life’s goal.

To save up enough money to buy a manor, fill it with artifacts, and live out my days in comfort.

If this land were still intact, I would have been torn between deserting and staying here to build a manor, but since this world is also doomed, I have no choice.

This world and the world beyond the gate had different lifestyles, different cultures, and different currencies, but they also had the same thing.

It was the value of precious metals.

Precious metals like gold, silver, and gems were prized on both Earth and the Otherworld.

No, precious metals were more valuable on the Otherworld than on Earth.

Unlike gold and silver, which were actually useful on Earth, gemstones were only used as luxury items, but on Ea, even those gems were actually useful.

Wizards’ wands, nobles’ accessories, knights’ swords, shields, and armor, gems were being used as mana batteries for artifacts and magical items.

Add to that the lack of technology to dig out the minerals, and the price of precious metals is higher than in this world.

So, I thought I’d rob a gold and silver vault today.

“My pockets are full, my sword is well oiled, I’m well rested and in good shape.”

As I muttered to myself as I made my way down the apartment, Hoffman asked.

“You seem to be in a good mood today.”

I nodded at his comment.

“You’re definitely well-rested, and you feel light.”

I agreed with Hoffman, even though my good mood had more to do with the gold than my physical condition.

Today, there were a total of 10 people going to the commercial district, including us.

Leading by example, the chief and two of his men, then Lee Joon-ho, the man we saved yesterday, five residents of the apartment building, and finally me.

It wasn’t a lot, but considering the total number of people, it was as many as we could muster.

The reason there were so many is because I’m going with them.

They don’t know how long we’ll be around, so they’ll have to make the most of our time while we can.

The distracted chief and his men are no different in that regard.

Of course, I was the only one who came forward, but since they only saw my skills, it would have been no different even if all the party members had come forward.

I left the party behind and went alone for a number of reasons.

Hoffman was tired from climbing the walls of the apartment last night to spy on the top floor, and there was work to be done in the apartment today.

It was hard to take Zahina with me into what might be a trap.

We’d only just met, and there was the matter of my own prejudice against elves.

I didn’t have enough trust in her to take her around places that might be traps.

Besides, Zahina was too pretty to hang out with guys like the village chief.

All rested up, all cleaned up, and all eyes on her.

I knew what would happen if I moved with her.

No, to tell the truth, it was all an excuse.

I left them in the apartment because I needed to move without them knowing.

If there had been no space expansion pockets, I might have gone with them. However, there was no reason to go with them since I had plenty of room in my pockets.

“This is awful, we have to go up here again.”

After descending the stairs to the ground floor, they looked up at the apartment with weary faces.

As we had felt yesterday, walking up over 30 stories on foot was not an easy task.

We were fine with our mana, but Lee Joon-ho, who was guiding us, was gasping for breath by the time we reached the ground.

Moreover, today we had to carry our luggage up.

Of course, for that to happen, I had to succeed in breaking into the commercial area, but there was no need to come down if I thought I would fail.

Maybe that’s why, except for the village chief and me, everyone was carrying a big bag on their back.

I thought to myself, “Everyone else is a porter.”

Everyone else was carrying iron pipes or spears converted from kitchen knives, but it was the village chief and I who could really fight the undead.

In fact, I had the most luggage, but I didn’t bother to tell them about the space expansion pouch.

With that, the makeshift raid team exited the apartment complex and headed west two blocks from the complex to the commercial area.

The area had the straight streets of a new city built to a city plan.

Wide sidewalks, ample bike lanes and beautifully planted street trees.

It used to be a nice new town, but now it looked more than a little desolate.

Abandoned cars littered the streets, blood spilled on the sidewalks and driveways. Things people had spilled as they fled.

With all the dead bodies lying around, it was like a scene from a zombie movie I’ve seen in my previous life.

We ran across the middle of it.

“Shields! Block!”

“Fall back!”

“Stab!”

I didn’t swing my sword until we reached the commercial area. No, I didn’t need to swing my sword.

There weren’t many undead charging at us, but the team that had moved with me was better at dealing than I expected.

After the village chief’s younger brothers, holding shields, blocked the zombies that were running towards them, other people holding spears and iron pipes stabbed the zombies’ limbs and necks, blocking their movements.

Then, the chief delivered the final blow.

He swung his iron pipe, which was more like a club, to finish off the flailing zombies.

It was a typical way to hunt the undead, with a combination of mana-wielders and normal people.

In our world, it was a common and mundane method of hunting, but in this world, where the undead had only recently appeared, it was a new and good tactic worthy of applause.

Add to that the fact that he wields a glowing iron pipe to take down zombies, and it’s easy to see why he took over the apartment with ease.

In between fights, he and the others stole glances at me as I followed behind, but I just kept walking, expressionless.

I must have walked for half an hour when I saw cars blocking the side street.

Cars were clogging the two-lane road that ran alongside the boulevard, between the residential complexes.

Unlike the abandoned cars I’d seen before, these were buses and trucks that had been placed to form a proper wall.

They were all high-clearance vehicles.

The cars weren’t stacked on top of each other, but there was a wall of cars that the average person would have a hard time getting over.

-Grrrrrr! Aaaah!

I could hear the zombie screams from behind the wall.

“Behind this wall of cars is a shopping street.”

As I stared blankly at the wall of cars, the chief said to me,

I guessed so, but the wall of cars blocking the street was unexpected.

“Are they keeping zombies inside?”

They laughed bitterly at my question.

“No, no. This wall of cars is a sign that people tried to make this shopping district a safe zone.”

The captain explained how it happened.

That day, many people turned into zombies.

Instead of going home, some of the people in the commercial area tried to make the commercial area, including the shopping center, a safe zone.

Probably because of zombie movies and novels that use shopping centers as a base.

Originally, people were only going to use shopping centers as safe zones, just like in the movies.

However, there were so many people left, and the other stores on the street seemed so useful, that they decided to band together and turn the entire street into a safe zone.

“In fact, their plan seemed to work, because they were safe within the walls of their car until the zombie horde came from the north.”

The people in the apartment nodded in agreement.

“I was so jealous when I saw it at home.”

“If there weren’t zombies on the road, my family would have gone there.”

But their envy was short-lived.

While the walls of the car were able to keep out ordinary zombies, they were no match for the hordes of zombies and skeletons that the demon army brought with them.

The zombie horde climbed over the car wall and infected the entire shopping district.

“The zombie horde swept through the streets as if it came from the north, and disappeared to the south, but it left behind a large number of zombies in this shopping district. It seemed like the zombies inside couldn’t follow because of the wall of cars.”

Lee Joon-ho’s description explains how the mall street became a zombie field.

On the other side of the world, I’ve never seen a zombie field on this scale, but I’ve seen smaller swarms of the undead left behind.

It was a poorly constructed zombie field.

In the end, all I had to do was get rid of the undead.

After the explanation, I rolled to my feet and climbed onto the bus.

-Crawl. Grrrr.

In front of the bus, the shopping street was full of zombies.

Beautifully dressed women, students in uniforms, and children running around.

If it weren’t for the dead, it would be like a holiday with people in the streets.

As I stood on the bus and looked at the dead, I frowned.

There were strange things mixed in with the holiday-looking streets.

While I was frowning, looking at the commercial area, my comrade-in-arms climbed onto the bus.

He stood beside me and opened his mouth.

“There were so many zombies gathered here, they spilled outside. So even if we keep killing them, there are still zombies around the apartment.”

Apparently, they weren’t just farming in the mall area.

He wanted to clear the mall area to stabilize the area around his apartment.

He then explained why he hadn’t been able to clear the area before.

“No matter how many zombies there are, if they were just ordinary zombies, I would have been able to do something about it, but there are other things in here besides zombies.”

I raised my hand and looked where he pointed, and there was the reason I frowned.

Skeletons were roaming the streets.

It seems zombies weren’t the only thing the Demon Army had left behind.