Chapter 29

Whoosh!

Jun-sang suddenly experienced a strange sensation: the air in front of him seemed to split in two. Although he had used Shoulder Charge many times before, this feeling of cleaving the air was new. Perhaps that was why. The moment the zombie’s body connected with his shoulder, Jun-sang knew this attack would have a different effect than before.

Thud!

It happened in an instant. Jun-sang seemed to charge forward and extend his shoulder, then accelerated even further like an arrow. That alone was enough to make onlookers gasp, but the moment Jun-sang’s body collided with it, the zombie’s body seemed to explode, dismembering into pieces and scattering.

“Th-that…” Lim Seo-yoon could only point at Jun-sang, muttering incomprehensible sounds, and… Jin Sea-ah, oblivious to the dust getting in her mouth, could only stand with her mouth agape, unable to utter a sound. Seo Yoo-mi, on the other hand, gripped her chef’s knife, which was so blue it shimmered from how much she had sharpened it, and gazed at Jun-sang’s back with an ecstatic expression.

If these were the reactions of the three who had battled zombies to get here, there was no need to mention the others. But Jun-sang’s action movie was just beginning.

“Open Two-Hit Combo.”

Jun-sang, having switched from the Shoulder Charge card to the Two-Hit Combo card, changed direction and delivered a low kick to the knee of a zombie heading towards him. It wasn’t hit by the hard toe of a military boot… even though it was hit by Jun-sang’s calf, the zombie’s knee buckled weakly and snapped cleanly off.

Thump!

As one leg was severed by such a brutal kick, the zombie’s body tilted to one side. And then, Jun-sang’s fist plunged down onto the now lowered head of the zombie.

Crack!

As if demonstrating a destruction technique, Jun-sang’s fist, striking vertically downwards from behind the head, past the ear, not only shattered the zombie’s temple but also drove its head into the ground as if hammering a nail. As Jun-sang knelt on one knee, another zombie, seizing the opportunity, launched itself through the air to pounce on him. People screamed involuntarily at the sudden danger after the exhilarating strike, but Jun-sang still had a card left. He had switched cards from Shoulder Charge to Two-Hit Combo but hadn’t used it yet.

“Hup!”

Jun-sang stood up and delivered a Two-Hit Combo to the zombie throwing itself at him. The first punch struck the zombie’s mouth. Instantly, the zombie’s yellow teeth shattered and flew into the air, its mouth tearing open to its ears, and then the second punch exploded. The powerful punch crushed the zombie’s bridge of the nose, pushing inwards and tearing off the upper part of its head as if cutting it cleanly away.

But even as he dispatched three zombies in an instant, the remaining zombies continued to run towards the palisade with almost blind movements. Jun-sang frowned and turned to dispatch those zombies too, but before he could, a red flaming arrow tore through the air and set a zombie’s body ablaze. That wasn’t all. Another zombie, struck in the head by an arrow that arrived silently, thrashed and fell, and the last zombie was being dismembered by the woman in the white dress, who had somehow crossed the palisade without a sound.

“Ohohoho…” Seo Yoo-mi, the woman who was playing with the twitching, dismembered zombie, cutting off its limbs one by one and sawing at its neck, was, in some ways, having an even more intense impact than Jun-sang.

“…” Jun-sang frowned for a moment at Seo Yoo-mi’s actions, then slowly turned and began to smash the heads of the zombies he had defeated, checking their contents. This was a natural action to look for seeds, but… the sight of Jun-sang silently smashing zombie heads and rummaging inside with his hands made the villagers think that he and Seo Yoo-mi were of the same kind.

In any case… he rummaged through the zombies’ heads but found nothing. Seo Yoo-mi, who had been playing with the limbless, writhing zombie, only split its head in half and checked inside when Jun-sang moved towards the palisade.

“Hmm… nothing.” Seo Yoo-mi, looking disappointed, followed Jun-sang to enter the palisade, but seeing the zombies that Jin Sea-ah and Lim Seo-yoon had defeated still lying there, she smiled and spoke to them. “Should I… check those for you?”

“…” Jin Sea-ah and Lim Seo-yoon found her excessive kindness quite burdensome, but with the villagers watching, they were too embarrassed to just smash the zombie heads and check the contents themselves like Jun-sang or Seo Yoo-mi, so they could only readily agree. With their permission, Seo Yoo-mi even hummed a tune as she split the zombies’ heads and checked their contents. However, despite Seo Yoo-mi’s efforts, nothing came out of the two zombie heads.

“I’m sorry…” Jin Sea-ah found Seo Yoo-mi, who was looking at her with tears even welling in her eyes, incredibly burdensome, but she dared not show it. “It’s, it’s okay. It happens.”

Anyway… with the quick defeat of the zombies by the four, hope began to appear on the villagers’ faces. Especially Jun-sang, who had charged out first and crushed the zombies, instilled in them a strange mix of two emotions: fear and awe. Of course… this had little effect on Jun-sang.

Jun-sang found a spot on the rooftop that offered a good view of the surroundings and sat down. Jin Sea-ah clicked her tongue at his appearance, which somehow resembled a lone, noble wolf. “Tsk… I guess he doesn’t want to play with us.”

Then, Seo Yoo-mi, who was carefully wiping her chef’s knife with a white handkerchief nearby, responded to her words. “But… he was really cool earlier.”

“…” To Jin Sea-ah, who was staring at her, wondering what eccentric thing she was going to say next, Seo Yoo-mi spoke again. “Not cutting them… but being able to smash a human body like that… isn’t that amazing?”

“Well, yes…” A zombie was, after all, a monster resurrected from a human corpse. Even though they were decayed, they were still human bodies, and it was true that Jin Sea-ah was also shocked that they could be utterly destroyed in such a manner. How much strength would it take to do something like that? It seemed Seo Yoo-mi was impressed by a different aspect, though.

After about five minutes passed, the bell tower began to ring loudly again. Hearing the sound, people, without a word, rose from their spots and looked towards the forest.

“Hmm…” Jun-sang frowned. Unlike before… he confirmed that a considerable number of zombies were surging from beyond the forest. Twenty? No… more than that. But that wasn’t all. Although he couldn’t see them, Jun-sang could sense something else steadily approaching from beyond the forest.

“Phew…” Jun-sang loosened his wrists, then leaped from the rooftop, immediately cleared the palisade, and went outside. Even the people who had been terrified by his sudden charge earlier now watched his strong back in silence, filled with a strange sense of anticipation. As Jun-sang stood firm in front of the palisade, Seo Yoo-mi, who had somehow crossed the palisade silently, smiled faintly and said to him, “Let’s… go together.”

The onlookers wanted to ask why she was blushing shyly in this situation, but no one was brave enough to ask her such a question in the midst of it all. Jun-sang glanced back at Seo Yoo-mi, then looked forward again and said, “If you’re confident you won’t die.”

Seo Yoo-mi replied with a laugh. “Ohohoho…”

Hearing Seo Yoo-mi’s laughter, Jun-sang charged forward.

“Open Shoulder Charge.”

And just like before, he equipped Shoulder Charge in his card slot and immediately shot forward like a cannonball. Again, the sensation of the air in front of him splitting was conveyed. Jun-sang confirmed that his earlier feeling wasn’t a delusion as he pulverized the zombie’s body.

“Open Two-Hit Combo.”

And then, he immediately switched cards to Two-Hit Combo, delivering a powerful hook each to the heads of two screaming zombies charging at him.

Thump! Whack!

As Jun-sang swiftly dispatched the first three, Seo Yoo-mi moved silently with ghost-like movements, cutting off the zombies’ heads. In terms of efficiency of movement, she was even more effective at dealing with the enemies than Jun-sang. However, despite the fearsome power of the two, they couldn’t stop a few zombies that passed them and charged at the palisade.

“Tsk…” Jin Sea-ah, feeling as if her leading role had been somehow stolen, clicked her tongue and unleashed magic. Beside her, Lim Seo-yoon, who had shot an arrow that precisely pierced a zombie’s head, laughed and said, “Haha… those two are amazing.”

Lim Seo-yoon marveled without much thought, but Jin Sea-ah, while watching Jun-sang and Seo Yoo-mi, couldn’t help but hide her concern. “I know. But if they go all out like that from the start, they’ll get tired quickly… what are they planning?”

At that, Lim Seo-yoon reloaded his arrow and replied, “They must have something in mind if they’re doing that. Maybe they’re aiming for a level up.”

“Ah… that’s right.” Even though no one had explicitly suggested it, the movements of these four people were quite organically coordinated. Jun-sang would first pulverize the enemies at the very front, and Seo Yoo-mi would assist him. And any remaining zombies that these two missed would be dealt with by Jin Sea-ah and Lim Seo-yoon from a distance before they reached the palisade.

But that lasted only for a moment. As the number of charging zombies gradually increased, Jun-sang had to admit that he was simply short-handed.

“Hmm…” Ultimately, Jun-sang decided to pull out a card he had intended to save for later.

“Twin-Wolves.”

In response to his quiet voice, Will-o’-the-Wisp was unequipped from the card slot, and Timber Wolf took its place. Once the card was equipped, Jun-sang opened his mouth again.

“Open Crimson Wolf, open Timber Wolf.”

Then, with a small flash of light, a red-furred wolf and a gray wolf each appeared before his eyes.

“Wow!” Seo Yoo-mi, who was assisting Jun-sang from behind, exclaimed at the sight of the two large wolves suddenly appearing on either side of Jun-sang. Jin Sea-ah and Lim Seo-yoon, who had been frantically intercepting zombies from behind, reacted similarly.

“Oh! Summons!” As Lim Seo-yoon shouted in admiration at the sight of the wolves, which instantly rushed at the zombies and bit their necks as soon as they were summoned, Jin Sea-ah also responded with a surprised expression. “Is something like that possible?”

“I-it must be possible if he summoned them, right?”

“…” But Jun-sang continued to focus on the battle, heedless of what others were saying. He grabbed the head of a zombie that launched itself at him, slammed it to the ground, and then sent its head flying with a soccer kick. Then, he used his elbow to smash the mouth of another zombie that was baring its teeth at his side, before delivering a straight punch to its crown, shattering it.

As Jun-sang cleared the enemies in front of him, he suddenly noticed something other than zombies approaching from the forest. A body larger than even the Crimson Wolf, and huge fangs protruding from its mouth. It was a zombie of a Sabretooth Tiger, which he had encountered before in the tutorial.