I Became The Necromancer In The Post-Apocalyptic Zombie World

Chapter 54

—–CROW—– 

The corpse of their companion, fallen from the second floor.

The swarming zombies.

And a man casually walking into the building, ignoring the zombies.

The women, who had been engaged in a fierce battle just moments ago, stood frozen like statues, their jaws clenched as they stared at me.

I felt like Medusa.

“By the way, why are all of you so bulky?  Are you on steroids?”

I casually asked the women I had finally encountered, by way of a greeting.

I had many questions, but…

…seeing them in person, the first thing that struck me…

…was their size.

‘Are they Hulks or something?’

Of course, they weren’t as abnormally large as that spandex-loving green monster.

Still, they possessed physiques that seemed impossible for women to achieve naturally.

Broad shoulders and muscles visible even beneath the thick clothing they wore as protection against zombies.

They looked like they were on steroids.

And there were six of them, not just one.

“Don’t you dare speak ill of the Priest’s grace, you insignificant man.”

The woman with the machete, standing in the center of the group, responded to my greeting.

Her bleached hair was styled in a braid, like the heroine of Tomb Raider.

Except her physique was more like Doomguy than Lara Croft.

‘…Priest?’

The Doomguy-like woman grimaced and pointed her machete at me, seemingly offended by my first question.

I was impressed that she could act so boldly towards me, considering I clearly held the upper hand.

━Priest.

I focused on the piece of information she had inadvertently revealed in her anger.

‘As I suspected, there are more of them.’

I had been wondering why they kidnapped Yoon Hyun-seo.

In this zombie-infested world, a young girl had no value as a laborer, nor was she old enough to bear children.

And they had left Baek Min-ah, who was more suitable for both of those purposes, to die.

There had to be a special reason.

And if they were searching in a team for that purpose…

…their group couldn’t be small.

At least the size of the soldier group back at the dormitory.

‘Even Kang Hae-seok didn’t send this many people for a search party.’

That meant their group was likely at least twice the size of the dormitory group.

At least twice as many survivors gathered somewhere.

“The five in front.”

I spoke up and pointed at the woman on the far left of the group.

“You can eat her.”

The kidnappers, tense at my words and actions, stared at me blankly, their faces full of questions.

As if asking, ‘What the hell is this guy talking about?’

Their question was answered by the five zombies that suddenly moved.

-Uh, uh, uh.

-Graaagh!

“Hieek! W-Wait, get away from me━!!”

The five zombies lunged directly at the woman I had pointed at.

The woman on the left, startled by the sudden attack, frantically swung the bat in her hand.

But her panicked movements, full of openings due to her tense state, couldn’t stop the zombies.

*Rip, rip.*

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaa━!!! It hurts!! Graaaagh!!  It hurts━!!  Sob, ugh…!! T-Team leader━!! Tea━…!!”

One zombie grabbed her arm and ripped into it with its gaping maw. The woman screamed and collapsed to the floor, unable to resist.

Tears and snot streamed down her face as she writhed in pain, reaching out to her companions.

But her colleagues simply watched, their faces pale, stunned by the bizarre scene.

“Hey, don’t kill her right away. Start with the limbs.  Yes, slowly tear off her skin. That’s how you live longer.”

I gave further instructions to the five zombies feasting on the woman, loud enough for the other women to hear.

The zombies, who had been tearing at her flesh, carefully began to gnaw at her skin with their front teeth, and the woman, who had seemed close to death, screamed again, revitalized by the new pain.

Her screams echoed through the cafe like background music.

I smiled, enjoying the pleasant music, and looked at the Doomguy woman.

Her face contorted in disgust at her companion’s screams, she spoke, representing the group.

“…What do you want?”

As I suspected, she was the leader of the kidnappers.

None of the others seemed to object to her speaking for them.  They remained silent.

“What I want?”

I scoffed and replied quietly.

“I’ve already gotten what I wanted. If there’s anything else… it’s to see you suffer and writhe in pain.”

I had already secured Yoon Hyun-seo through Ryu Da-hee.

Now, all that remained was to make these women pay for what they did to Baek Min-ah.

I wanted these boars to suffer.

I wanted them to despair, beg for their lives, and regret their actions.

And they must have realized, seeing their companion being devoured by zombies, that I had the power to do so.

But…

“Hmph, heh, us suffer and writhe in pain?”

The leader smirked, speaking confidently, as if mocking my words.

Then, she turned slightly and shouted,

“We will become the Priest’s power, even in death!  Isn’t that right?!”

“…Yes, yes!”

“We do not fear death!!”

“All according to the Priest’s will!!”

Like wolves howling, the other women, their faces previously frozen, grinned, their eyes filled with a manic glint, responding to their leader’s cry.

Even as their companion screamed in agony beside them, being devoured…

…they stared at me boldly, unfazed.

As if they truly had no fear.

‘So that’s how it is.’

I finally understood how they managed to deal with the horde of zombies below the apartment.

Even experienced combat groups would normally try to minimize casualties while achieving their objective.

But among the pile of zombie corpses, there were also the bodies of survivors, scattered as if they had been used as sacrifices.

As if they had engaged in close combat.

No ordinary survivor would sacrifice their own life for the group, even for a greater purpose.

But these kidnappers before me…

…the manic glint in their eyes explained why those survivors had thrown their lives away.

They didn’t fear death.

‘Then killing them won’t make them suffer as much as I want.’

I wanted them to suffer.

I was that angry.

They had infected Baek Min-ah and kidnapped Yoon Hyun-seo, disrupting my peaceful, pleasant life.

I wanted them to meet a fitting end.

…But their manic state was an obstacle to the ending I desired.

‘In that case…’

I grinned at the Doomguy woman staring boldly at me and replied,

“Really?  Then I’ll change my mind.”

“……What?”

Humans don’t fear death itself.

If death came peacefully and happily, no one would fear it that much.

The problem was how death arrived.

Humans fear the pain that accompanies the process of dying.

And I had just provided a sufficient example of that pain with the woman I had thrown to the zombies.

“Ugh, g-gah, help… Sob.”

The woman, who had been screaming, had now lost the strength to even make a sound.  Tears streamed from her unfocused eyes as she convulsed under the zombies’ bites.

Even if these women didn’t fear the pain of death…

…that sight was enough to imprint the concept of pain in their minds.

It would be good heat treatment.

However, heat alone wouldn’t break them.

They were enduring it with some kind of manic fervor.

But…

“I’ll spare one of you.  Just a whim of mine. I’ll let one of you live, no strings attached.”

“…….”

Even the strongest tempered glass shatters with a single drop of cold water after being heated.

Their manic eyes wavered at my words, accompanied by a grin.

Even if they didn’t fear death, humans would still avoid it if they could.

Not avoiding it when possible would be foolish.

And unfortunately for them, they weren’t that stupid.

“…O-One?”

Someone behind the leader murmured quietly.

They had accepted death as their fate, but…

…someone could live.

And if there was hope that it could be them…

“First come, first served.  Well, if no one steps up, I’ll just choose someone myself.”

Their strong bond, their shared resolve to endure the pain together…

…easily cracked.

“M-Me…!!”

One of the women in the back raised her hand hesitantly, a hopeful glint in her trembling eyes.

Her companions stared at her in shock, unable to contain their surprise at her betrayal.

“W-Wait!  Are you serious? Mi-jung, are you betraying the Priest?!”

“To be so easily swayed by a man’s words!  Shame on you!”

“Shut up! Shut up! H-He said he’ll spare one of us! I don’t care anymore! W-We have to survive to do anything, right?!”

The collapse of just one person.

No matter how strong their faith and conviction…

…having witnessed a human being torn apart like that, the collapse of just one person would lead to the downfall of the entire group.

“Wait!  Me, me!  I’ll do it!  Please spare me━!!”

“Fuck you, bitch!! P-Please choose me instead!  Please, I-I have a family!”

“Family, my ass!! Your mother was chosen for paradise a few days ago and died!!”

“S-Sir! No, Oppa! Please choose me! Please! Sob, I’ll do anything you say if you spare me!”

The women, who had just moments ago worn expressions of martyrs following a sacred mission…

…now pushed and shoved each other, begging me to spare them, their fear of death exposed after the first one succumbed to the temptation of survival.

I chuckled, amused by the sight.

“Ugh…”

But the leader, despite the cracks in her group’s resolve, remained steadfast, glaring at me.

She seemed bewildered, as if she hadn’t expected her companions to surrender so easily.

‘Should I choose her?’

I had been sincere about sparing one of them.

Of course, I meant sparing her life only in this particular situation.

I needed one alive to get information.

“Move!  You have no shame, betraying us first!!”

“What bullshit are you talking about, bitch?!  He said first come, first served, so it’s normal to raise your hand first, you pig!!”

Their emotions escalated as they fought for survival, now brandishing their weapons at each other and growling like wild animals.

Satisfied with their heightened emotions, I nodded.

“That’s enough. Eat all of them except for the one in front.”

I gave the order to the zombies, who were drooling and waiting nearby.

“W-Wait…!!”

“Please!  Just wait…!!”

“Hieek!!  Save me!! Sob, please…!! Please spare me…!!”

The women, who had glimpsed hope, now wept and fled in terror, their previous resolve gone without a trace, faced with the imminent fear of death.

But there were zombies on that side too.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa━!!!”

Soon, the cafe was filled with the screams of women being torn apart.

“Now, shall we move somewhere else? What’s your name?”

“…….”

“Well, I guess you don’t want to answer right now. It’s alright.”

The leader, her jaw clenched, her fists shaking, trembled but remained silent.

I smiled and patted her shoulder.

“I actually enjoy it more when you don’t answer.”

I would take her back to the dormitory.

I would find out where she came from, why they kidnapped Yoon Hyun-seo…

…and the size of the survivor group she belonged to.

‘This smells like a gold mine.’

There were probably many more survivors where she came from.

And survivors were resources to me.

I smiled at the scent of a sweet, golden opportunity.

。 。 。

On the terrace of a high-rise hotel…

…a woman sat in a rocking chair, enjoying the cool night air and savoring a glass of wine.

“P-Priest, excuse me.”

Another woman’s voice came from behind the woman called Priest. A gloomy-looking woman with long, black hair covering her face hesitantly approached her.

“What is it?”

The Priest rose from her rocking chair and looked at her.

The moonlight brightly illuminated the dark earth from the sky.

Bathed in the moonlight, the Priest’s appearance made the gloomy woman gulp.

She wore a pure white dress, her equally white hair fluttering around her like a garment.

Her skin was as fair as jade, and her features were breathtakingly beautiful.

The woman quickly lowered her head, intimidated by the Priest’s inhuman gaze, and spoke.

“T-Team leader Lee Seon-ji, who went to Seoul for the search, has gone silent.”

“…Team leader Lee?”

The Priest, who had been savoring her wine, frowned slightly at the report.

Team leader Lee’s search team was a special team composed of only the most physically capable of her followers.

And they had gone silent.

‘…Could Team leader Lee have been taken by zombies?’

The Priest shook her head at the thought.

She couldn’t imagine Lee Seon-ji being defeated by mere zombies.

Lee Seon-ji would have calmly escaped if she encountered a dangerous situation.

‘Or… perhaps…’

The Priest thought of another possibility and spoke to the gloomy woman who had come to report.

“Assemble another search team and send them to Seoul.”

Not to find Team leader Lee, but to find out why she had gone silent.

‘If… she was taken by other survivors…’

The Priest licked her beautiful lips, a look of lust in her eyes.

“Y-Yes…! Understood!”

The gloomy woman, staring blankly at the Priest’s face, quickly replied and hurried away.

‘Come to think of it, I heard there’s a department store they haven’t searched yet…’

The Priest, leaning against the terrace railing, took a sip of her wine, her thoughts turning to the incident in Seoul.

As she leaned against the railing, the curves of her beautiful body were subtly outlined beneath her dress.

A captivating sight that would have made the woman from moments ago drool.

The alluring Priest smiled, thinking of the resources she could obtain from Seoul, and looked up at the dark night sky.

—–CROW—–